William & Kate on Storybird

Critical Literacy is "the ability to read texts in an active, reflective manner in order to understand power, inequality and injustice in human relationships." (Coffey, 2011)

Lecture 7 - Who is Geordie Guy?

Well the following cut and paste from his blog tells you about his passions and beliefs which are articulate and strong. In my opinion that is good as I like engaging with people who do not sit on the fence even if it means they are not on my side of the fence.

I think his role is similar to that of a traditional newspaper columnist who likes to stir it up a bit. I wonder however if his reach is as effective of a columnist in the one of the respected broadsheet newspapers such as The Australian or the New York Times or the Times of India. I say this because there appears to be very few comments to his posts on his blog But then how did we reply to those newspaper columnists? This is all very speculative and reminds me of the conundrum of the chicken and the egg.

"My name is Geordie Guy.

I’m a datacentre technology expert professionally for a large technology vendor but everything on this site is my opinion alone. I’m passionate about online rights and am an avid technology users’ advocate. I feel that as our world, and particularly Australia, becomes more connected we find that the people who make decisions around how our lives connect online don’t always make good or right decisions. I follow those decisions, who makes them, where and why, and my work in this area to get the right decisions made is at least a main theme on this site if not the main theme. I’m not currently a member of an advocacy or lobby group, but I have worked with Electronic Frontiers Australia and have a deep respect for organisations like SAGE-AU and Digital Tasmania and compare notes with people like Mark Newton and Irene Graham.

I can be emailed here, you can follow me on Twitter at @GeordieGuy, you can skype me at roflceratops or MSN me at geordie_guy@southcom.com.au

This site runs on WordPress 3.0.3. Tite theme is built on the theme “Scratch”, the barest possible functioning theme, and built up by myself. The site layout was designed by me and almost implemented by me, but I needed the CSS wizardry of Ross Nye in order to actually make it work."

More Interestingly is his open letter which he posted on the blog Somebody Think Of The Children is a blog about censorship and moral panic in Australia, with a focus on Internet censorship. It is edited by Michael Meloni. http://www.somebodythinkofthechildren.com/an-open-letter-to-australian-women-online/

Most of the comments of course supported his stance thus it behoves us as educators to guide and educate young internet users to be critical about what they view and read. To evaluate what they view and read. If this is achieved then reflective users of the internet should be able to keep themselves safe and sensitive to moral issues. Clearly censorship is a bit like fighting a guerrilla war and the freedom fighters always win!

I believe a broad minded education which encourages questioning and critical reflection will allow little room for bigotry, misconceptions and should produce a more tolerant and cohesive community.

The Saga resumes...

Venus keeps her promise.

While Menelaus was away in Crete, Paris took Helen back to Troy. Some stories say Helen went willingly, seduced by Paris's charms. Others claim that Paris kidnapped her and took her by force.

When Menelaus returned home and discovered Helen gone, he called on the leaders of Greece, who had sworn to support him if necessary. The Greeks organized a great expedition and set sail for Troy.