{"id":226,"date":"2018-06-03T18:31:27","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T01:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/?p=226"},"modified":"2018-10-05T09:31:39","modified_gmt":"2018-10-05T16:31:39","slug":"unit-4-activity-1-impacts-of-digital-learning-on-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/unit-4-activity-1-impacts-of-digital-learning-on-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"Impacts of Digital Learning on Racism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\">The following blog post is the result of dialogue and collaboration <em>by Beata Kozma, Theresa McLeod-Treadwell, and Dorothy Sidhu<\/em>, students of the Master of Arts in Learning and Technology through Royal Roads University.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-229 alignnone lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1080px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1080\/660;font-size: 1rem;line-height: 1.66\" data-src=\"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/102\/2018\/06\/rasicm-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1080\" height=\"660\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/102\/2018\/06\/rasicm-1.png 1080w, https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/102\/2018\/06\/rasicm-1-300x183.png 300w, https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/102\/2018\/06\/rasicm-1-768x469.png 768w, https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/102\/2018\/06\/rasicm-1-1024x626.png 1024w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 8pt\">image via PictureQuotes.com<\/span><\/p>\n<p>LRNT521 <em>Unit 4 Activity 1<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-size: 16pt\"><strong>Impacts of Digital Learning on Racism<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Racism is nothing than the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics particular to that specific race, distinguishing those races as inferior or superior to others. Racism is a form of stereotyping.<\/p>\n<p>In the mid-1990&#8217;s, the internet was lauded for its potential to usher in a color-blind society. As the medium proliferated, scholars argued it could eliminate racial cues from communication and lead to a more egalitarian electronic global village, where there would be no race, gender or infirmities (Ess, 2001; Negroponte, 1995) (as cited in Tynes et al., 2014, p. 2)<\/p>\n<p>The internet and different digital environments offered a new platform where people can express themselves and experience racism. Online racism is like offline racism, just on a different platform, with wider and way larger audience (Tynes et al., 2014).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt\"><strong>List of Impacts<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\"><strong>Negative<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Self Doubt<\/strong> \/ <strong>Lack of Participation and Engagement<\/strong>&#8211; \u00a0Being unsure about how other people would view their racial identity often creates doubt about posting. Fearing negative experiences online because of a person&#8217;s racial identity has shown to decrease participation and engagement in online spaces (Chan, J., 2017).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Exclusion, Victimization, Denigration and Cyber-bullying<\/strong> \u00a0&#8211; The emergence of the digital era has had unintended consequences for race, civil rights, and hate speech. \u00a0The myth that race does not exist on the Internet or that cyberspace represents some sort of carefree realm of \u201ccolorblindness,\u201d is untrue (Tynes et al., 2014).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bias and Favoritism<\/strong> &#8211; In a 2018 Stanford study it is suggested that there was favoritism and tendency for white female students to significantly respond to posts by white women than were other students.\u00a0 In the same study it suggested that instructors responded to 7 percent of comments posted by students. \u00a0But for white male students, the response rate was 12 percent. \u00a0<span style=\"font-size: 1rem;line-height: 1.66\">&#8220;\u2026 results show compelling experimental evidence that instructor discrimination exists in discussion forums of online classrooms,&#8221; says the paper. &#8220;Simply attaching a name that connotes a specific race and gender to a discussion forum post changes the likelihood that an instructor will respond to that post.&#8221; (Baker, Dee, Evans, &amp; John, 2018)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Explosion of Hate Sites<\/strong> &#8211; The digital environment has enabled space for the creation of websites dedicated to racial epithets, stereotyping and implicitly racist statements, racist jokes, symbols of hate, such as the Confederate flag, threats of physical harm or death and graphic representations\/actual images of dead black bodies. \u00a0(Tynes, B. M., 2015).\u00a0 White supremacy has emerged online with overt hate websites that target individuals or groups and showcase racist propaganda<\/li>\n<li><strong>Stress, Depression, Withdrawn and Anxiety<\/strong> &#8211; In studies, online racial discrimination has been correlated with mental health issues such as depressive states and anxiety. \u00a0<span style=\"font-size: 1rem;line-height: 1.66\">A recent study done by Northwestern University shows that \u201cresearchers found that the physiological response to race-based stressors\u2014be it perceived racial prejudice, or the drive to outperform negative stereotypes\u2014leads the body to pump out more stress hormones in adolescents from traditionally marginalized groups.\u201d (Levy, Heissel, Richeson, &amp; Adam, 2016). The results of the present study demonstrated associations between race-related victimization online and depressive symptoms, anxiety, and externalizing behavior (Brody et al. 2006; Coker et al. 2009; Greene Way, &amp; Pahl, 2006; Huynh &amp; Fuligni 2010; Pachter et al. 2010; Sellers, Caldwell, Schmeelk-Cone, &amp; Zimmerman, 2003). (as cited in Tynes et al., 2014, p. 10)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>In between<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Heightened Presence of Race and Racial Discourse<\/strong> &#8211; Online spaces has created opportunities for an increase in public discussion around racial issues. Numerous hateful sites were created against race, color, and immigration (based on color and faith).\u00a0<span style=\"font-size: 1rem;line-height: 1.66\">The numbers of extremist and hate sites rose exponentially from 6,000 to 10,000 from 2006 to 2009 and to 15,000 by 2011 (Simon Wiesenthal Center, 2012). (as cited in Tynes et al., 2014, p. 3)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Locus of Visibility<\/strong> (i.e. #blacklivesmatter) &#8211; Twitter has become a community for racial discourse in example, #blacklivesmatter has opened up a virtual space for individuals to gather and explore &amp; learn about black identity (Sharma, 2013)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Consciously Aware of Biases and Impact<\/strong> &#8211; Educators, teachers, facilitators, instructional designers etc. are mindful with the choices they make when designing\u00a0learning, keeping top of mind inclusion and diversity. For example using images of all ethnicity and not stereotyping based on perceived persona\u2019; purposeful in non-biasing &#8211; Similarly, <a href=\"http:\/\/nameorg.org\/learn\/photos\/Bersh_2009_Deconstructing_whiteness.pdf\">Carime Bersh (2011)<\/a> explores White prospective teachers\u2019 understandings of their own cultural identities. This study posits that White teachers must understand their own cultural identity, privilege, and the ways they are inscribed and often perpetuate institutional bias if they are to \u201cdeconstruct, reconstruct, and recreate\u201d their own multicultural practice \u00a0(Chen, Nimmo, &amp; Fraser, 2009)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Globalization <\/strong>&#8211; The world is shrinking, cross cultural marriages, immigration increasing, we see diversity and are part of diversity within our communities of education. \u00a0Though there is an increase in openness and promotion to have students from different parts of the world attend a university online, there are positive outcomes of inclusiveness, diverse thinking and heterogeneous groups, however there are also thoughts and it&#8217;s impact on educational access, inequality and exclusion suggested some university and government officials see the rise of worldwide academic competition as a threat, going so far as to limit student mobility or thwart cross-border university expansion. But Wildavsky argues that this scholarly marketplace is creating a new global meritocracy, one in which the spread of knowledge benefits everyone&#8211;both educationally and economically (Alberts, 2010)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Positive<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Racial Self Expression through Creation of Social Media Content<\/strong>\u00a0 &#8211; People of Color are not without any agency in expressing racial identity online, however. The emergence of a prominent Asian American presence on YouTube (Balance, 2012) and the cultural force of \u201cBlack Twitter\u201d (Florini, 2014) have demonstrated the ability of communities of Color to carve out spaces within the social media landscape. Studies have found creating social media content (e.g., status updates, blog posts, photos, videos) can be a means of racial self-expression for college students of Color (Correa &amp; Jeong, 2011), and these explicit assertions of racial identity can also signal racial group belonging and solidarity (Grasmuck et al., 2009). Such findings suggest racial identity may figure centrally in the social media experiences of students of Color. (as cited in Chan, 2017)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Activism through Social Media<\/strong> &#8211; Responding to a racially hostile campus environment, Black students staged a series of protests demanding the university address the racist systems and structures contributing to an oppressive campus climate. The student activists leveraged social media as part of their organizing strategy, effectively utilizing the hashtag #ConcernedStudent1950 to raise national awareness of their efforts (Fang, 2016). In doing so, they inspired students of Color on other campuses to call attention to the racism at their own institutions through social media campaigns and other acts of activism (Hartocollis &amp; Bidgood, 2015). (as cited in Chan, 2017).\u00a0<span style=\"font-size: 1rem;line-height: 1.66\">Movies, TV and web series &#8211; Netflix, streaming online &#8211; e.g. Detroit, Queen Sugar, Empire, Atlanta, Hidden Figures, Lee Daniels\u2019 The Butler\u2026 Loving<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Virtual Safe-Space are created through hashtags<\/strong> &#8211; Research has shown that such hashtags are important for building communities for these groups. For instance, the &#8220;hashtag feminism&#8221; and &#8220;Black Twitter&#8221; communities have utilized hashtags as a virtual safe-space for expressing feminist and racial identities, respectively, connecting users with shared identities and demonstrating the ongoing discussions of the issues they face. Hashtags about these groups can evolve into or function as part of online movements, such as in the case of #WhyIStayed and #BlackLivesMatter \u00a0(Liu, Ford, Parnin, &amp; Dabbish, 2017)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Racial Literacy<\/strong> &#8211; People need the skills to be critical of what they read, being producers of media, rather than consumers. \u00a0<span style=\"font-size: 1rem;line-height: 1.66\">Being racially literate means having the tools with which to converse about race, deconstruct and challenge instances of racism, and interact and work with others to address inequities in relation to race. (Nakagawa &amp; Arzubiaga, 2014, p. 3) Behaviors and attitudes such as keeping the conversations alive; open dialogue, expressing opinions, sharing, being vulnerable and transparent; having a voice, being curious u<\/span><em style=\"font-size: 1rem;line-height: 1.66\">se example from the SD 74 <\/em><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;line-height: 1.66\">(Bennett, 2018)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Virtual Reality (VR)<\/strong>\u00a0&#8211; Can help to overcome implicit biases, according to a paper recently published in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cell.com\/trends\/cognitive-sciences\/abstract\/S1364-6613(14)00234-4\">Trends in Cognitive Sciences<\/a>. Researchers used VR to help people slip into the skin of an avatar and temporarily take on a new identity, cultivating cross-racial empathy along the way (Maister, Slater, Sanchez-Vives, &amp; Tsakiris, 2015)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Dorothy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\">My perspectives around racism and those discerning truths, unconscious and conscious biases are systematic and hard-wired from my very \u2018westernized\u2019 upbringing. \u00a0Being first generation Canadian, my South Asian parents wanted to \u2018integrate me\u2019 in order to provide, what they seen as a better life.\u00a0 They went out of their way, with only good intentions of what they seen and thought at that time, to make certain I fit in. \u00a0Throughout two decades, I identified myself as \u2018Canadian\u2019 and shied away from other ethnic references.\u00a0 \u2018I\u2019m Canadian\u2019, resulted from my upbringing, my environment, and what was learned from early childhood.\u00a0 For example, having a Caucasian name after the character from Wizard of Oz, to having a white nanny, to only be spoken to and speaking in English and never learning Hindi, to wearing westernized clothing and eating westernized foods, having my hair short, being integrated in a community of predominantly Caucasian people and attending Sunday school. \u00a0As my brothers migrated to Canada several years later, followed by many aunts, uncles and cousins \u2026 I felt most racism from my own, as they ridiculed and made fun of me, made references of \u2018being a coconut\u2019 and an embarrassment of not knowing where I came from.\u00a0 This topic has provided deeper connections, with further self-awareness in the space of education and relatedness to similar negative and positive impacts I&#8217;ve personally encountered.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Theresa<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\">As I worked with my team to discover what impacts the digital learning environment has had on racism, I had to first look at my experience of racism as a white girl growing up in Detroit, and it might not be what you\u2019d expect. Growing up in Detroit allowed me to witness systemic oppression in a way that, I believe, is unique from the experience of those whom the system is endeavoring to oppress. \u00a0I grew up in a predominantly black area that was deeply impoverished, rife with crime, drugs and human trafficking.\u00a0 It was commonplace to hear and or witness people being shot and killed over disputes.\u00a0 There were drug dealings on veritably every corner and I could not walk to school without being solicited by someone wanting to lure me into the sex trade.\u00a0 However, my experience was incredibly benign compared to the experiences that I witnessed of my African American female contemporaries. \u00a0\u00a0My experience was frightening at worst however, as a white girl; somehow I was able to walk past these conditions without getting pulled into any of these experiences.\u00a0 The same cannot be said for the African American girls in my neighborhood.\u00a0\u00a0 Looking back I think that I was subconsciously aware that the media covered the disappearance of white females exponentially more than African American females.\u00a0 Systemically, as a white girl, my disappearance was much more likely to hit the papers than an African American girl\u2019s disappearance, thus putting pressure on the police to investigate. \u00a0This media bias, I believe, played a part in affording me the ability to avoid these situations where others, namely African American females maybe could not.\u00a0\u00a0 Growing up in Detroit placed a splinter in my brain, a rage against unjust exercise of power and authority that that system not only allowed but encouraged through its unwillingness to create equity; its unwillingness to equally protect its inhabitants regardless of race.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Beata <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\">I grew up in Eastern Europe back in the socialist era. Due to homogeneous population we did not see open racism (I am not addressing here the gender inequality, or the socialist era\u2019s anti religion mindset). I am white and was raised in a then considered \u2018privileged\u2019 family, as my dad was a doctor, and my mom is a teacher. Their profession and dedication to the local people \u2018qualified\u2019 them as the nobility of the village where I lived as a child. I had absolutely no knowledge of what it would be like to grow up being \u201cdifferent,\u201d in any capacity<em> (other than being the kid of a teacher kind of caused a seclusion from other kids, since I was inadvertently considered as a \u2018spy\u2019:-))<\/em>. The luck of birth determines so much of our lives and those of us with opportunity also have responsibility. Not experiencing racism in my childhood, and not being the subject of it, makes me privileged, and I am sure subconsciously I am guilty of discrimination. Xenophobic populism was introduced to Hungarian minds deeply and openly since the current opportunistic right-wing government took office; they are openly discriminating against race, skin color, faith, and origin. An ugly mix of old prejudices re-inflamed by the current war on terror, giving racism a wide new platform in the name of security. This mindset results stories like what happened this week in Budapest, when members of an Egyptian movie shooting cast were insulted and called names because they wore hijabs (<a href=\"http:\/\/cairoscene.com\/Buzz\/egyptian-actresses-harassed-hungary\">Read more on this<\/a> by Awad, 2018).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\"><strong>Reference<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\">Alberts, H. R. (2010). The Globalization Of Higher Education. Retrieved June 3, 2018, from https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/2010\/07\/28\/global-international-universities-colleges-leadership-education-ben-wildavsky.html#475024227d95<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\">Baker, R., Dee, T., Evans, B., &amp; John, J. (2018). Bias in Online Classes: Evidence from a Field Experiment. Retrieved from http:\/\/cepa.stanford.edu\/wp18-03<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\">Bennett, P. W. (2018). Anti-Racism Education: What\u2019s the Best Approach to Combating Racism in Schools? | Educhatter. Retrieved May 31, 2018, from https:\/\/educhatter.wordpress.com\/2018\/03\/23\/anti-racism-education-whats-the-best-approach-to-combating-racism-in-schools\/<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\">Chan, J. (2017). Racial Identity in Online Spaces: Social Media\u2019s Impact on Students of Color. <em>Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice<\/em>, <em>54<\/em>(2), 163\u2013174. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/19496591.2017.1284672<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\">Chen, D. W., Nimmo, J., &amp; Fraser, H. (2009). Becoming a Culturally Responsive Early Childhood Educator: A Tool to Support Reflection by Teachers Embarking on the Anti-Bias Journey. <em>Multicultural Perspectives<\/em>, <em>11<\/em>(2), 101\u2013106. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/15210960903028784<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\">Levy, D. J., Heissel, J. A., Richeson, J. A., &amp; Adam, E. K. (2016). Psychological and biological responses to race-based social stress as pathways to disparities in educational outcomes. <em>American Psychologist<\/em>, <em>71<\/em>(6), 455\u2013473. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1037\/a0040322<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\">Liu, F., Ford, D., Parnin, C., &amp; Dabbish, L. (2017). Selfies as Social Movements. <em>Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction<\/em>, <em>1<\/em>(CSCW), 1\u201321. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/3134707<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\">Maister, L., Slater, M., Sanchez-Vives, M. V., &amp; Tsakiris, M. (2015). Changing bodies changes minds: owning another body affects social cognition. <em>Trends in Cognitive Sciences<\/em>, <em>19<\/em>(1), 6\u201312. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.tics.2014.11.001<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\">Nakagawa, K., &amp; Arzubiaga, A. E. (2014). The Use of Social Media in Teaching Race. <em>Adult Learning<\/em>, <em>25<\/em>(3), 103\u2013110. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/1045159514534190<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\">Sharma, S. (2013). Black Twitter? Racial Hashtags, Networks and Contagion. <em>New Formations<\/em>, <em>78<\/em>(78), 46\u201364. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3898\/NewF.78.02.2013<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\">Tynes, B. M. (2015). Online racial discrimination: A growing problem for adolescents. <em>Psychological Science Agenda<\/em>, <em>December<\/em>. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.apa.org\/science\/about\/psa\/2015\/12\/online-racial-discrimination.aspx<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt\">Tynes, B. M., Rose, C. A., Hiss, S., Uma\u00f1a-Taylor, A. J., Mitchell, K., &amp; Williams, D. (2014). Virtual Environments, Online Racial Discrimination, and Adjustment among a Diverse, School-Based Sample of Adolescents. <em>International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations<\/em>, <em>6<\/em>(3), 16. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4018\/ijgcms.2014070101<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The following blog post is the result of dialogue and collaboration by Beata Kozma, Theresa McLeod-Treadwell, and Dorothy Sidhu, students of the Master of Arts in Learning and Technology through Royal Roads University. image via PictureQuotes.com LRNT521 Unit 4 Activity 1 Impacts of Digital Learning on Racism Racism is nothing than the belief that all &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/unit-4-activity-1-impacts-of-digital-learning-on-racism\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Impacts of Digital Learning on Racism&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt521"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":343,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions\/343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0060\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}