Reflective tag: This essay dives into the issue of employers asking employees for passwords and usernames to online accounts as well as the process of profiling.  For this essay, each paragraph is discussed based off the source.  It helped me get my thoughts together, especially for the research essay.

Hyperlink: exploritory essay

Online Privacy against Employers

            In today’s world, so much information can be found online through networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. As the amount of users for social media has expanded, employers are using these websites to background check and examine their current and future employees. These employers have taken two different ways of checking on their employees. They have either profiled them online or asked the employee for their usernames and passwords in order to gather insight on their accounts. I am approaching this stage of life where I will be soon attending interviews for jobs and internships. This idea of profiling and asking for my personal information has raised concern about my perception of privacy creating the question, are either of these methods of social media background checks truly an invasion of privacy?

Paula McDonald and Paul Thompson go in depth regarding this issue of profiling in their article “Social Media(tion) and Reshaping of Public/Private Boundaries in Employment Relations”. Paula McDonald is a professor at QUT Business School (McDonald). The authors define profiling as, “Profiling involves the gathering of information by employers on employees via online search engines or individual social media sites in order to select an appropriate job applicant” (McDonald 71). In other words, employers are using online sites to gather information about a future employee before an interview. This practice is not surprising. A study conducted by Microsoft Corporation found that “four out of five” organizations have used this method for background checks in the U.S. (McDonald 71). According McDonald and Thompson, some courts are not questioning privacy because the information the employer is gathering has been posted publicly; however, the courts are more worried about what a particular post says about the establishment the employee works for (McDonald 71-72). Meaning, if the employee uses social media to talk negatively about the business they are working at or an employer at the business.

This article gives good insight in the practice of profiling and researching potential employees. After reading this article, I understand the concept of profiling. This method is similar to a background check that the police are able to do with the difference being the ability to conduct a more personal search. Profiling allows business to examine the future employee in regards to their hobbies, interest, and their behavior on social media. I do not believe this method is a violation of privacy because the information they find is public. If employees do not want this occurring, then it is their responsibility to be concerned about what they post publicly. Businesses have a right to gather information that is open to the public to view. This idea of profiling should not be considered a violation of privacy as people should expect and anticipate this behavior from future employers.

A survey was conducted by Dr. Michael Curran, a professor at Strayer University who received his doctorate in “Science Information Systems and Communications”, in order to look into college students knowledge and opinion regarding this issue of employments profiling in his article “College Students and HR Professionals: confliction views on information available on Facebook” (Puko). Curran conducted his study by asking several questions about what students have available publically on Facebook, their knowledge of profiling, and their opinion on profiling. The results showed that the students believe that their profiles are “somewhat accurate” when asked if their “Facebook posting reflect your actual status” (Curran 448). Meaning, that what students post on social media is mostly true about themselves. Also the information available is usually about relationship statue, sexual orientation, and hobbies rather than their drug use, economic statue, or religions affiliation (Curran 447). The information that these business would collect is not a lot about the person personally but more about simple hobbies. The results also found that 75% of the students are okay with profiling and 60% knew that this was a habit for employers (Curran 446, 450).

This survey relates back to similar ideas discussed in McDonald and Thompson’s article regarding profiling. The survey, however, shows the perception from college students. I think that this survey gives good insight on profiling. It proves that college students who have been raised in this digital age do not find a problem with profiling. It also answers my question regarding privacy relating to profiling. These college students and I, find that profiling is not an invasion of privacy. We understand it as employers gathering information that we have allowed to be public. Instead, we expect businesses and employers to use our social media accounts as a background reference.

“Employee Internet Privacy: A Proposed Act that Balances Legitimate Employer Rights and Employee Privacy” written by Susan Park, J.D., focuses on the idea of employers asking for usernames and passwords from their potential employee. Susan Park is an Assistant Professor at Boise State University who works with legal studies in businesses (Park 779). Park uses her knowledge of law to argue in her article for the laws that are instated already in some states and the importance of a federal law. She also goes in depth to discuss the difference between varies laws.

Park opens her argument up with describes three different incidents occurring in three different states where future employees were asked to disclose their personal information to their social media accounts (Park 779). For example, Robert Collins was asked for his usernames and passwords from his supervisors while being interviewed at Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to determine if he was ability to return to work at the Correctional Services after a leave of absence (Park 779). Not only does this sound wrong to me, it also sounded wrong to the Maryland General Assembly. The Maryland General Assembly passed a law to prohibit this behavior by employers soon after an incident occurred and sixteen states followed up with similar legislation (Park 782). The laws that are in place all have different variations regarding the same issue. The laws already establish discuss what sites the employer cannot gain access to, whom this law applies to, and “prohibited acts” ; however, these could be different in each state (Park 788). For example, Illinois statue protects only “social networking website” while other states such as New Mexico protect “online personal accounts” (Park 789). The fact that laws are in place and legislations are currently in process in Congress, shows the importance of this issue. Currently there are two legislations that are passing through Congress, the Password Protection Act and the Social Networking Online Protection Act (7 Park 83).

This issue, I believe, does violate privacy because the employer cannot force a future employee to show their personal information that they have reserved for their friends and family. Employees have the right to use the privacy settings that are available and should not be forced to disclose the information that they have reserved as private. Hearing that laws are in place answers the question of the importance of privacy on the Web. It also shows invasion of privacy these employers have tried to implement in their interview process. The issue, however, is inconsistence among the states. Congress needs to continue reviewing the legislation currently being circulated so that a national law is established.

After reading these articles, I can answer my question. Profiling is not an advantage of privacy because they are only able to collect a certain amount of information. On the other hand, asking for the passwords and usernames are an invasion of privacy because otherwise that information is not public. You can compare it to an employer asking to look through your phone. It is your personal, private information that you choose who sees it similar to Facebook and other social media. It is important that laws are being put into place; however, there needs to be a federal law so that it is consistent across the nation. Overall, there needs to be limitations on employers access to social media especially as its popularity and use continues to grow.

Reflective Tag: This essay focuses arguing one side.  I learned a lot of this during APLANG in high school and this paper was a good refresher to what I learned.  It also helped in my later essays in particular my research essay.

Hyperlink:essay #2

Technology out of the Classroom

            Born in 1997, technology was not the only tool for the development of a newborn, toddler, or students in elementary school. Once in high school, everything had transitioned to being done on the computer, Internet, or SmartBoards. At Norfolk Collegiate School in Norfolk, VA, the school installed SmartBoards into every classroom and each student was required to buy an iPad. In a short time technology took over the course of learning and our lives. There are both positives and negatives to this evolution. Technology is great in helping people gain access to resources and help make aspects of our lives easier; however, it is harmful to education and should be left out of the classroom because technology can be distracting and cause students to cut corners.

In today’s society, we are able to access all the resources we need quickly with a push of a button. The Internet helps us do so because everything has been posted either on a website, database, or on an online news source. For students, this makes writing papers and doing research easier. They do not even have to leave their room or couch. Instead of spending all their time in a library searching through books, students can use keywords on databases to find exactly what they are looking for. Technology also has made our lives easier. For example, cell phones have made it easier for people to communicate. There are no more pay phones on the side of the road and no waiting around to see when your friends and family will arrive. Technology has also changed simple tasks such as washing clothes. People are able to throw clothes into a machine in order to do the work instead of washing the clothes by hand. The simple task of parking a car has become easier with the new technology of rear-view camera and park assistance. It is the little things people take advantages of because of our constant development of new technology. As it develops, access to resources and the way of life will continue to change.

Technology has been implemented into schools around the county in order to better learning. This, however, is not necessarily true. Students have resulted to doing every assignment using their iPads or computers such as taking notes and doing projects. Research has found that hand writing your notes is the best procedure because it helps reinforce what is being taught, “research shows that taking notes by hand is better than taking notes on a laptop for remembering conceptual information over the long term” (“Take Notes from Hand”). When taking notes on the computer, there is a possibility of getting distracted with social media or computer games (“Take Notes from Hand”). If a student is distracted with other things on the computer there is a chance that the information being taught, is not being comprehended. Students may believe that they can multi-task and still do well. This is not true according to MIT professor and director of MIT’s Initiative on Technology and Self, Sherry Turkle, who states, “…when you multitask, everything gets done a little worse…” (“Digital Demands” 427). Instead, the student could be taking notes with not understand what is being written down because of their attempt to multitask. Especially now that teachers are often teaching using technology, students are most likely going to just write what is on the screen and not listen to the additional lecture. The traditions way of taking notes may not be students’ favorite thing because it involves penmanship, but it is the most affect way of learning new information. Taking notes and performing other tasks on the computer is another way of taking a short cut by not learning the information, just typing it.

Growing up with technology in the classroom changes a student’s critical thinking. So often students and teachers rely on PowerPoint for all of their projects and lessons (“Digital Demands” 427). Although this is a good technique, there are other ways of teaching and giving presentations such as lectures, posters, or worksheets. Even in college, teachers rely on PowerPoint to give their lesson rather than using these other teaching techniques. It is as if students us PowerPoint to make the presentation easier and to skip corners, Sherry Turkle states “…using technology to skip and to cut corners and to not have to do some of these very hard things” (“Digital Demands” 426). Students are less likely to pay attention to the teacher speaking because they are more focused on what is up on the screen. Turkle argues that students lack creating a structured argument, “…because they need to be taught how to make a sustained, complicated argument on a hard, cultural, historical, psychological point” (“Digital Demands” 428). This is because of the use of technology during all process of creating an argument. For example, when writing a paper students often do not try and write their thoughts using a outline or notes method to organize. They begin typing their paper on a computer and can easily get distracted with all the resources available online. Using the same techniques constantly such as the PowerPoint represents a short cut for teaching and will not have students paying 100% attention.

There are, however, people that support technology in classrooms and believe that it is important in the development of young children. Even before children go to school, so much is now available on an iPhone. Children often beg to play their interactive learning games on their parent’s phone. The use of technology continues into elementary school. At Norfolk Collegiate School, the elementary teachers use the SmartBoards to help engage students in subjects such as math. The “magic” of the SmartBoards draws the children into the lesson because of their little understanding of technology. There are many fun and interesting apps available for elementary students. People may support technology in the high school to teach subjects using videos and notes. Others may believe that typing the notes will help with organization because of penmanship; however, this is cutting corners because less is being remembered. Although people may support technology in the elementary schools, it should not go any further. Upper level learning needs more structure with fewer distractions. There are some useful uses for technology in the lower education levels, needs to remain out of class that involve intense studies and concentration.

Although some may support of the idea of technology in the classroom, research shows that it is not necessarily the best. The laptops can distract students from the lesson and it can cause them to take short cuts. Technology may not be good for the classroom but it is extremely useful for everyday life. As the technology develops everyday, the way of life will continue to change. People’s opinions on this matter will continue to change and develop as technology itself changes.

Reflective Tag:  This essay goes into the growth that I have had in writing in ERH specifically.  I also go discuss my expectation and goals for ERH 102 in Mrs. Smiths class.

Download Link: Reflective Essay

Getting Better

            Starting in Kindergarten, people begin to start writing by learning the alphabet. From there, five paragraph essays and book reviews are introduced by the fifth grade. Learning to write continues into Middle School and High School where students are taught research papers, history papers, and other forms such as persuasive essays. Each year involves more writing and continuously help with developing students as writers. For me this road was never easy, but as I have practiced I have seen a great improvement. ERH 101 was not what I expected; however, I learned valuable lessons to help improve my writing such as improvement to my writing process that I believe will be important in the next level of writing.

This past summer I took ERH 101 with Maj. Iddings at Virginia Military Institute’s Summer Transition Program. The class was very different to what I expected. I expected to write persuasive essays and synthesis essays using multiple sorces. My expectation was that I would take a class similar to AP Language and Compositions taught in high school. Instead, we talked and augured about writing and different writing skills. We also talked about discourse communities, which is a community or group of people that have a similar goal or motive. We read articles that the authors wrote regarding literacy, the best process for writing essays, and discourse communities that the writing assignments were regarding writing the assigned papers. At the beginning I struggled with understanding the topics that we wrote about and on how I should answer it. The brainstorming process was a struggle and therefor made beginning to write the paper difficult. My meetings with Maj. Iddings helped with how to better my essays after the initial draft. I learned that reading the essay out loud will help with the grammar errors that I faced. Also, I learned to better organize my papers to help lay out my argument in a more logic way. The class did not meet my prediction, but I believe that it was a class that helped better my writing.

From this summer, I believe my best improvement was my writing process. In ERH 101 we read different articles about the best writing process. The authors would debate between if just writing before editing was better than editing as you write. While in high school, I would take my time as I wrote. After each sentence I would re-read it to make sure it was error free. I wanted every sentence to be perfect before moving on. I believed that if I did it right the first time, the editing process would be easier. On the last essay, I decided to use the articles to help better my writing process. Instead of following my pervious process, I decided to free wrote everything I could about the topic and then decided to go back to edit it. In the end, I received my highest grade on a paper. I believe this process was a better process for me in order to help begin my essays. I also learned to continue writing in an environment that I am comfortable in. At the beginning of the class, I would try and write in the library, which was unlike the environment I was use to writing papers in. For the last essay I decided to result back to the environment I knew that was best for me. This included lying on my bed with Taylor Swift Pandora on, relaxed. This semester I would like to use this process of writing from the beginning while also being comfortable in my environment.

Prior to reading the syllabus for ERH 102 I thought that it would be similar to ERH 101 regarding similar writing prompts. Now after reading the syllabus, I feel that the class will involve more research and have a more of a persuasive sense. I hope to use the new process of writing that I had develop in the other class in order to do well in this class. In this class I hope to better in developing my introductions and conclusions, as well as my transitions between paragraphs. I expect that my writing will get better this semester from more practice. People always say, “Practice makes perfect”. Although my writing will not be perfect, I do believe that with the more I write it will get better. In the future, I will be required to write regarding papers on math methods or on my projects. ERH 102 will help with those later papers by working on transitions, organization and developing a well-rounded argument.

Writing has never been my strong suit; however, each year I see an improvement in my writing. I have high hopes for this next class. The lessons I learned last semester I believe with carry on as I continue to learn new lessons to better my writing ability. My expectation for this class is high and I believe that I can be successful in this class with my hard work ethic and determination.