reflection week seven

Though controversial on several levels, I thought that this week's discussion went well.
Many people did not approve of our discussing "creepy ian," a boy that they did not know and thus were reluctant to marginalize. Out of those who had met him, it seemed, at least to me, that we did not mind categorizing him as "creepy" and separating him from our ian (larry! haha) so that others could be aware of the distinction. Yet was the categorization of "creepy" a difference or more of a stereotype (by the definitions given in my previous blog this week)? Even after the stories and meeting him, I still think that "creepy" is a stereotype. There is no (proven) biological/physical difference between people who are "creepy" and those who aren't; although certain personality characteristics are common threads through each of these characterizations, I belive that personalities are interpreted differently by everyone. Many may consider "creepy ian" to be creepy and thus justify stereotyping him as such but, since it is not something that all can agree upon, it is not a "real difference."

Another topic that I would like to address is that of aim conversations during world politics class. It seems that some do not like that others partake in this act; I, however, (as should be clear by my posting a conversation from this weeks class) think that they are a great way for more people to participate and get their ideas heard throughout the class. With so many opinionated people in our class, it is sometimes difficult to get our ideas heard; by conversing about them on aim as we have a discussion, people who get the opprotunity to speak can bring up points made in the aim conversation. I defintely would like to further the idea of one big class chat (which is what I was going for this past week - if you have aim & are on in class, let me know & i'll add you to the chat next time); after tuesday's class, some of us stayed and spoke with ptj about having one class in which the conversation is recorded as everyone also participates in an aim chat - but in 3 distinct groups - so that we can track how ideas move through chats & the class discussion. I think that if we have technology that can make expression easier, then we should take advantage of it; this experiment would allow us to do so even more than normal.