Privacy?! Another thought re: the Dark Side of the Net

Brother Lawrence, who visited campus on Monday to talk about Facebook, sent me this message.

Subject: When the Ex Blogs, the Dirtiest Laundry Is Aired - New York Times
"Thought you might want to share this with your class. You can tell them I sent it to you on facebook!"

It gives another example of the Dark Side of the Net... the opportunity to share EVERYTHING you want with hundreds of thousands of people... It is another example that makes me wonder what is happening to our notions of "public" and "private." Post comments here and we can talk more in class.

100+ Virtual Worlds!!

One of the eLearning mailing lists I subscribe to is George Sieman's eLearning News and Resources (ENR) (subscribe bere). This week's posting focuses on "Visualization, Journalism, Virtual Worlds, and Video." The segment on Virtual Worlds is reporting from an April 3-4 Conference in New York City which includes over 100 links for current and underdevelopment virtual world sites. The majority target teens and younger users. A quick glance of the list indicates that a large number of the sites are commercially oriented or sponsored (i.e. Disney's Bunnytown and BarbieGirls). NASA's underdevelopment Education World is one of the few exceptions.

As we are exploring "Online Religion," that is religious and spiritual expressions that exist only online, it is important to critique the context within which they operate and how they are influenced by their virtual neighbors. I'd be curiouys to hear what impact you think such circumstances create?

Last Class

As a way to bring closure to the class, please create a post that
1) identifies any key insights or new learnings you have gleaned from this class and
2) describes how you will integrate what you have seen and/or heard into your praxis (theology and practice).