My students weigh in on DOPA
For my question of the week, I'm shifting students to think.com. (See my post on how I'm using think this summer.)
My question of the week is a debate question:
Discussing DOPA
The underlying theme of all thirty one students who have voted against DOPA in our class debate is education. They overwhelmingly feel that students should be educated not restricted.
Ignorance is more of the problem than predators.
What Congressmen and women must not forget is that many of these students will be voting in the next few years. I have a feeling that students will pay attention to the lawmakers who are involved in this legislation. In fact, I've seen many posts on myspace accusing DOPA of "shutting myspace down."
I hope educators will take time to weigh in during the summer months and will not tune out completely.
My question of the week is a debate question:
Discussing DOPA
During our last few days of school, we are going to discuss legislation that has currently been introduced in congress called the Deleting Online Predators Act. It is your final assignment to look at this act and state your opinion on DOPA. Support your position with at least three facts.
Here are some of the more meaningful posts:
Here are some of the more meaningful posts:
Madison L
I do not support DOPA.Using the internet is a priveledge. The government shouldn't ban certain things like myspace, blogging, and wikispaces. Doing this will hinder America in advancing technologically. The government should worry about teaching people safe ways to use the internet, not blocking certain things. Stupidity is to blame, not predators.
banks w
I do not support DOPA.Blogging, myspace, and all the new technology's are not the problem. Just because the predators are out there does not mean that we should get rid of blogging and all the other things. If people just use their common sense and only trust the people they know then we won't have a problem.
Rachel H
I do not support DOPA.Using the internet is not harmful if you use it in the right ways. Scanning the internet for young innocent girls or logging in to people's accounts, are ways the internet is used harmfully. In contrast, the Internet offers many other aspects in life. It enhances technology and can also allow parents to monitor their kids better than at the mall. The government needs to realize that they are catching predators better by the internet than by on the streets.Brandon Johnson J
I do not support DOPA.Using the internet is a privaledge. The Government needs to find ways to stop the predators and ask schools to teach their kids how to use the internet because a lot of kids do not know how. Stopping sites like Bloglines, Wikispaces, and myspace will hurt the advancement of new technology. So Congress needs to think about these things to try to fix the problem not to take away a need.Grace Ann B
I do not support DOPA.Although DOPA may have started out as a good idea, it is not practical. Myspace and facebook are just a few of the things they want to get rid of but they only have a few bad people on them. They can't just get rid of the whole thing because of a few bad apples. They can't just stop everybody from using the blog pages; instead, they should just monitor it more closely.Brittany B
I do not support DOPA.I don't support this because by passing this law the government in interfering with my rights. There are predators everywhere. So why should the governement be allowed to shut down a website or many websites? If they are going to shut down websites, they should also shut down skating rinks and arcades where kids also frequently go.Kyli L
I do not support DOPA.I do not support DOPA, because kids need to be intelligent enough to not give out personal information. Not everyone on the Internet is a predator. I don't know if the congressmen and congresswomen really know enough to justify passing this legislation.Ivy S
I do not support DOPA.I do not support DOPA. If the people who use Websites like Myspace were more careful and did not put personal information like their address and schedule on their pages, then it would not be as easy for predators to find them. Also, taking these Websites out of libraries does not do much good because they can get on them once they get home. If people did not do stupid things like agreeing to meet someone they don't even know, this would not be such a big problem.
Ignorance is more of the problem than predators.
What Congressmen and women must not forget is that many of these students will be voting in the next few years. I have a feeling that students will pay attention to the lawmakers who are involved in this legislation. In fact, I've seen many posts on myspace accusing DOPA of "shutting myspace down."
I hope educators will take time to weigh in during the summer months and will not tune out completely.
Tags:
