As a society, we have learned to respect education and the environment in which we learn. Schools are notorious for their disciplinary action against the non-conformists or the “bad apples.” From a teacher, discipline can range from a verbal reprimand to a dreadful detention. The punishment of people who disobey the social norm, to respect others (especially their teacher), is important to maintaining a positive learning environment for students who wish to learn; and the teacher is at the forefront of enforcing the norm.
As we leave adolescence, and make the decision to attend an institute of higher learning, such as
“Be courteous and respectful of [their] peers.
Absolutely no profane or blatantly atagonistic posts will be tolerated.
Disrespectful posts will result in a loss of credit towards the assignments at
the discretion of the instructor. Post only constructive criticism and
commentary in your comments and other posts.”
With these words, our Professor has outlined the law of the classroom—to respect others.
According to Thomas Hobbes our Professor is a Leviathan, a “mortal god, to which we owe under the immortal God; our peace and defense.” Since I feel somewhat uncomfortable referring to my Professor as a god, I think I will stick with MacKinnon’s definition of online Leviathan: “one to which most people willingly give up freedoms in order to preserve the value and energy of the medium itself.” I guess it could be argued that we do not willingly give up our freedom, only under threat of punishment (i.e. deduction in grade) do we heed the word of our Leviathan. On the other hand, one always has the freedom to drop the class, if one does not appreciate the infringement one’s liberty. Although, I personally have not felt the wrath of the Leviathan I know that he is monitoring me and my grade dangles helplessly in his grasp.
Our professor, the Leviathan, is needed the most to monitor episodes of group polarization. “Extremism” is prominent online; where people would typically argue the middle ground, they tend to take their beliefs or arguments to the extreme online. In an online education environment, this could cause heated debate. At this point, the presence of the Leviathan keeps the debate at moderate levels. Instead of immature “flame wars,” the Leviathan maintains the expectations of an educational environment by enforcing “constructive criticism” as the tool to convey one’s point.
4 comments:
Interesting post! Indeed, the phenomenon from the assignment was inherent in the medium used to convey the assignment. I was a bit confused about one of the things in your post, however...
The idea of mediation and censorship can be translated into a Psychology of Social Computing class taught by J.P. Pollak.
Perhaps I misinterpreted your statement, but the professor is Dr. Jeff Hancock - JP is a TA (although he is the one whose email address is included in the "Blog Instructions" document you cited).
I agree with you in thinking as the COMM 245 teaching staff, the moderators of this blog, as Leviathans. It would be interesting, however, to see if such strict punishments needed to be imposed; Wallace suggests that Leviathans emerge due to "human willingness to conform and our eagerness to preserve a productive online group environment" (70). Even if we were not so openly warned against negativity, I think that the community would begin to moderate itself, since our class is a group that would not (I hope) tolerate reproachable behavior.
This is a very interesting point! Though, as Nina pointed out, our Professor is actually Jeff Hancock and our TA is JP, the notion of the Leviathan existing within this very space is entirely valid. What is funny is that this thought had never occurred to me – though I distinctly remember learning the rules of the Blog in class, I felt as if, by the time I logged on to write, the rules of the game were innate and I didn’t have to think twice before writing. In a way, I took the Leviathan and internalized its morals. I think this is something all users of the net (and socially aware people) do.
No matter what space we are in, we abide by the behaviors we sense are correct. Sometimes we have to learn/read them only once, and at other times, not at all. It is in these cases where “monkey see, monkey do” – we conform to what others do so as to avoid social rejection or reprimand. Although, like you said, you have not yet found yourself in trouble with the Leviathan, you sense its presence, and thus behave accordingly without much effort.
I agree with your point about the elementary schools and how the teacher is the leviathan and that the "bad apples" or trouble makers are the people who find themselves in trouble for not conforming to the norm. What about the students who also go outside the norm and succeed at it. Maybe by surprising the teacher with something that they do not expect and they dredit them for "thinking outside the box." I also agree with Laura's point about how she just assumed what was expected and began writing because she is mature enough or comfortable enough in that position that she can write something appropriate. I did like your connection with the teacher of younger students though. Well done.
Sorry you guys, when I was originally creating the post I was trying to decide between the TA or the Professor, as a Leviathan. I must have left the wrong name when I re-wrote the post.
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