The Tech Edvocate

Top Menu

  • Advertisement
  • Apps
  • Home Page
  • Home Page Five (No Sidebar)
  • Home Page Four
  • Home Page Three
  • Home Page Two
  • Home Tech2
  • Icons [No Sidebar]
  • Left Sidbear Page
  • Lynch Educational Consulting
  • My Account
  • My Speaking Page
  • Newsletter Sign Up Confirmation
  • Newsletter Unsubscription
  • Our Brands
  • Page Example
  • Privacy Policy
  • Protected Content
  • Register
  • Request a Product Review
  • Shop
  • Shortcodes Examples
  • Signup
  • Start Here
    • Governance
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Terms and Conditions
  • The Edvocate
  • The Tech Edvocate Product Guide
  • Topics
  • Write For Us
  • Advertise

Main Menu

  • Start Here
    • Our Brands
    • Governance
      • Lynch Educational Consulting
      • Dr. Lynch’s Personal Website
      • Careers
    • Write For Us
    • The Tech Edvocate Product Guide
    • Contact Us
    • Books
    • Edupedia
    • Post a Job
    • The Edvocate Podcast
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
  • Topics
    • Assistive Technology
    • Child Development Tech
    • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech
    • EdTech Futures
    • EdTech News
    • EdTech Policy & Reform
    • EdTech Startups & Businesses
    • Higher Education EdTech
    • Online Learning & eLearning
    • Parent & Family Tech
    • Personalized Learning
    • Product Reviews
  • Advertise
  • Tech Edvocate Awards
  • The Edvocate
  • Pedagogue
  • School Ratings

logo

The Tech Edvocate

  • Start Here
    • Our Brands
    • Governance
      • Lynch Educational Consulting
      • Dr. Lynch’s Personal Website
        • My Speaking Page
      • Careers
    • Write For Us
    • The Tech Edvocate Product Guide
    • Contact Us
    • Books
    • Edupedia
    • Post a Job
    • The Edvocate Podcast
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
  • Topics
    • Assistive Technology
    • Child Development Tech
    • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech
    • EdTech Futures
    • EdTech News
    • EdTech Policy & Reform
    • EdTech Startups & Businesses
    • Higher Education EdTech
    • Online Learning & eLearning
    • Parent & Family Tech
    • Personalized Learning
    • Product Reviews
  • Advertise
  • Tech Edvocate Awards
  • The Edvocate
  • Pedagogue
  • School Ratings
  • How AI Helps Student Outcomes

  • Choosing A Reading Program: Everything You Need to Know

  • Reading Intervention Strategies That Work

  • Calculating Reading Comprehension Scores: Everything You Need to Know

  • How Big Data Is Changing Education Forever

  • Teacher’s Aides Deserve Our Appreciation

  • The Cycle Of Learning To Read: Everything You Need to Know

  • Summer Reading For Your Kids: Everything You Need to Know

  • Analyzing the Research on Autism Spectrum Disorder

  • Kids’ Reading Comprehension Is Worse On Screen

EdTech NewsHigher Education EdTech
Home›EdTech News›As learning moves online, trigger warnings must too

As learning moves online, trigger warnings must too

By Matthew Lynch
September 21, 2016
1
Spread the love

This article was written by Dana Ruggiero

When I was a first-year student at university, our class of 300 students watched Jodie Foster get gang raped in the film The Accused. Our professor, an experienced teacher, told us before the movie that: “anyone not comfortable with scenes of violence against women could leave and complete an alternate assignment”. Nobody left.

Now, 15 years later I am a senior lecturer in a university and we are still having debates about these kind of trigger warnings that lecturers give their students before reading or watching graphic material. Since then, the pace of higher education has not changed but the way that we impart information has; from online learning to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and “gamification” – where students play a game as they learn, we are living in a world where as Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan put it “the medium is the message”.

The nature of university study is changing, with one in four students in the US taking at least one online class during 2012, and numbers climbing. Traditional undergraduate university students in lecture halls are now just one part of a market that includes working adults and others drawn in by the flexibility of online learning. However, with this flexibility comes ambiguity, and the lack of face-to-face communication can increase misconceptions about the purpose of covering graphic or explicit material.

The grassroots movement of students asking for trigger warnings started as a simple request from a literature major at the University of California, Santa Barbara: give students a heads-up before covering graphic material that could cause flashbacks of trauma. Like wildfire, the trigger warning issue has caught public attention around the world setting off debates between students, staff, and faculty from the internet to the ivory tower. For students and faculty that interact completely online, when the ivory tower is the internet, the trigger warning can look completely different.

Open for discussion

I often give a guest lecture in education classes on videogames and learning. This includes an online section where students are asked to review games like Super Columbine Massacre RPG, Decisions that Matter, Choice Texas and Darfur is Dying among others. This leads to an online discussion about what players learn when they play these games.

Prior to students participating in this activity I post an announcement that gets emailed to all of them simply stating that: “We are exploring different types of games freely available on the internet. Some of these games are on topics that you may find hard to deal with. Please post a response in the ‘Ask the Instructor’ if you would like to talk about the assignment.”

By posting an announcement on the system there is a degree of certainty that all the students will at least receive the message; whether they read it or not cannot be controlled. The closed discussion forum where students can ask the instructor a question or set up a video chat gives the students the opportunity to voice concerns. In the five years I have been giving this lecture, both in the US and the UK, not one student out of thousands has posted in the “Ask the Instructor” section. In fact, this assignment which comes with the email announcement tends to have more participation then the assignments that do not come with email trigger warnings.

Tonia Dousay, an educational technology professor at the University of Wyoming, teaches classes on message design where she uses in-line trigger messages where the video is embedded, such as this one about how to fly a jet which uses an analogy of a woman playing golf.

A classic clip from the War Department.

Dousay says:

When I show How to Fly the P-47, the warning is usually along the lines of: ‘Please consider the context of this video when it was produced. Who was the intended audience? What’s their ethnicity? What’s their age? What’s their socioeconomic status?’ Thus, the warning is embedded in the question. In my weekly video overview for the week this video appears, I re-emphasize with my voice that students should consider the context when viewing the video and challenge students to explain how they might reach the same audience today without using the same tactic.

Gamified modules and MOOCs, where students can earn badges for completing tasks, in online learning offer another challenge for faculty. In such modules the way forward is to complete the task and a new task is then released. In one gamified module in Introduction to Child Psychology students are asked to watch a programme called Secret of the Wild Child about a 13-year-old child who had been chained to a potty for much of her life. The programme has its own trigger warning embedded on the webpage.

But this can cause problems. If a student has concerns about the content of this programme in a class that may have thousands of participants and only one instructor, the wait time may be considerable and the student will be stuck at that point until the concern can be addressed.

Caution on entering virtual worlds

Augmented and virtual reality experiences are growing within higher education as well. Researchers at the University of Houston’s Graduate School of Social Work have built a hyper-realistic world to recreate situations that trigger cravings for drugs like heroin. With technology advancing to the point of immersive sensory experiences (this experience has a scent machine and treadmill) trigger warnings become even more applicable for the virtual world.

Some in the media have compared trigger warnings to the equivalent of content warnings on CDs and movies – but we this kind of media is different to set in class. Students are expected to interact with the content and synthesise it into their own work. Students no longer receive their education directly from a person standing in the front of a lectern and the learning experience may now take place virtually or across augmented realities.

This means we need to question the way in which we prepare our students to tackle the material that is presented. Faculty should take proactive steps to address potentially triggering material that they set students to watch or read online, prior to a meltdown occurring.

The Conversation

Dana Ruggiero, Senior Lecturer in Learning Technology, Bath Spa University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

TagsEdtechedtechchatelearningSTEAMSTEM
Previous Article

MOOCs: learning about online learning, one click ...

Next Article

Rules and regulation could strangle online learning

Matthew Lynch

Related articles More from author

  • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech

    Digital Literacy is the Most Important Lifelong Learning Tool

    December 30, 2017
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech

    10 Apps to Help Students With Their Science Homework

    June 17, 2017
    By Matthew Lynch
  • EdTech & InnovationHigher Education

    Why Professors Shouldn’t Ban Smartphones

    June 20, 2017
    By Matthew Lynch
  • EdTech Futures

    Learning vs. Testing: Can Tech Bridge the Gap?

    June 27, 2016
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech

    Tech in Teaching: Is Your Classroom Succeeding?

    June 24, 2016
    By Matthew Lynch
  • EdTech & InnovationEquity

    Districts Need To Set Up Wi-Fi for Students in Public Housing

    September 27, 2017
    By Matthew Lynch

1 comment

  1. slope 16 May, 2018 at 22:42 Reply

    The article you have shared here is very awesome. I really like and appreciate your work. The points you have mentioned in this article are useful. I must try to follow these points and also share others.

Leave a reply Cancel reply

Search

Login & Registration

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Newsletter

Signup for The Tech Edvocate Newsletter and have the latest in EdTech news and opinion delivered to your email address!

  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • How AI Helps Student Outcomes

    By Matthew Lynch
    February 5, 2023
  • Choosing A Reading Program: Everything You Need to Know

    By Matthew Lynch
    February 5, 2023
  • Reading Intervention Strategies That Work

    By Matthew Lynch
    February 4, 2023
  • Calculating Reading Comprehension Scores: Everything You Need to Know

    By Matthew Lynch
    February 4, 2023
  • How Big Data Is Changing Education Forever

    By Matthew Lynch
    February 4, 2023
  • 7 Ways Technology Is Impacting Modern Education

    By Matthew Lynch
    March 4, 2017
  • 20 Top Virtual Reality Apps that are Changing Education

    By Matthew Lynch
    March 11, 2017
  • Why Mobile Technology Enhances Instruction

    By Matthew Lynch
    December 14, 2016
  • 7 Roles for Artificial Intelligence in Education

    By Matthew Lynch
    May 5, 2018
  • Digital Literacy is the Most Important Lifelong Learning Tool

    By Matthew Lynch
    December 30, 2017
  • Where to Find Dyslexia Support for Adults - Case Training Services | Registered Charity #1051587
    on
    August 2, 2022

    11 Must-Have Apps and Tools for Dyslexic Students

    […] recorders Electronic flashcards ...
  • What Types Of Posts Can You Make In Google Classroom? - The Tech Edvocate - Gossip ...
    on
    July 31, 2022

    How to Integrate Google Classroom with the Power of YouTube

    […] of your posts. ...
  • Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Google Classroom - The Tech Edvocate - Gossip Buz
    on
    July 31, 2022

    Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Google Classroom

    […] Answers to Frequently ...
  • 10 Important YouTube Channels For Teachers - Kiiky Wealth
    on
    July 29, 2022

    10 Incredibly Useful YouTube Channels for Teachers

    […] Thetechedvocate.org – 10 Incredibly ...
  • Teaching Learners Digital Content Curation Skills - Fab Lab Connect
    on
    June 30, 2022

    Teaching Learners Digital Content Creation Skills

    […] Read More… […]

EdTech Policy & Reform

  • Curriculum & InstructionEdTech Policy & ReformEducation Leadership

    Why We Should Leave Behind the Cookie-cutter Education

    Spread the loveChange appears to be the only “constant” factor in the educational field. However, what happens when a more significant shift becomes necessary? To provide students with the best ...
  • Adaptive LearningCurriculum & InstructionDigital & Mobile TechnologyDigital Age TeachersEarly Childhood & K-12 EdTechEdTech & InnovationEdTech Policy & ReformInstructional Technology

    Exploring New Ideas: Student-Driven Remote Learning

    Spread the loveRemote learning is taking its toll on our students. They miss the social side of school. Not seeing their classmates or teachers is leading to nervousness, anxiety, and ...
  • Digital & Mobile TechnologyEdTech & InnovationEdTech Policy & Reform

    Implementing Education Technology by Pursuing Technology Education

    Spread the loveTechnology is used for many great things in our world. It’s a powerful tool when used correctly. As such, this powerful tool can be used to transform learning.  ...
  • EdTech Policy & Reform

    How Much Bias Is Okay in Your School?

    Spread the loveThe algorithm has proven itself to be a handy tool when it comes to solving education problems. It’s also not without bias.  You may be wondering how some ...
  • EdTech Policy & ReformFeaturedFresh

    Edtech Should Complement Good Pedagogy, Not Attempt to Replace It

    Spread the loveThe newest generation of edtech is downright amazing; it’s no wonder that various education stakeholders might be a little excited about its potential to transform education. However, edtech ...

EdTech Startups & Businesses

  • EdTech Startups & Businesses

    Trends That Will Help Your EdTech Startup Succeed

    Spread the loveIf you want to thrive in the destiny of learning and self, shorten, tailor, and gamify. The bulk of EdTech businesses believes that digitizing conventional learning methods and ...
  • EdTech Startups & Businesses

    How to Sell Your Edtech Product

    Spread the loveDevelop a profile of the perfect consumer, target clients that meet that description, and plan on a long sales cycle. Selling to schools takes a different sales process ...
  • EdTech Startups & Businesses

    Edtech Companies Can Learn What Not to Do From Delta Airlines

    Spread the loveIt seems that edtech companies still have a lot to learn about their business models and practices. With that being said, there is a lot they can learn ...
  • Digital LeadershipEdTech Startups & BusinessesProduct Reviews

    Product Review of Collegix

    Spread the love This is a comprehensive ERP solution for colleges and universities that provides modular, totally integrated learners services, finance, HR, and advancement. Collegix provides online and offline workarounds ...
  • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTechEdTech Startups & BusinessesProduct Reviews

    Product Review of Discovery Education

    Spread the love Discovery Education is a big player in EdTech. The company has established itself as the leading provider of digital curriculum resources, digital content, and professional development for ...

Digital Equity

  • Digital Equity

    How to Create an Equitable Digital Culture in K–12

    Spread the loveDigital equity is vital in our schools. After all, it can help close the achievement gap. However, there is one prevalent problem concerning digital equity. That is the problem ...
  • Digital & Mobile TechnologyDigital EquityDigital Literacy

    Teaching Learners Digital Content Creation Skills

    Spread the loveContent curation is nothing new and has always been a coveted skill. It has been this way for hundreds of years — think of art galleries, museums, or ...
  • Digital & Mobile TechnologyDigital EquityEdTech & Innovation

    Promoting Online Access With Hotspots, Laptops, and Planning

    Spread the loveWhen becoming a leader in the field of education, it is important to consider equity. Some students may not have access to devices or the internet from their ...
  • Digital EquityDigital Leadership

    How Can You Assess the Tech Needs of Your Students Outside of School?

    Spread the loveToday, I received an email from the middle school principal in Los Angeles. She explained to me that the school that she ran was in one of the ...
  • Digital Equity

    It Is Time for the Edtech Industry to Stop Denying Its Equity and Race Problem

    Spread the loveThe EdTech industry is dominated by white employees, white leaders, and white entrepreneurs. If you doubt this statement, just attend an Edtech conference. Admittedly, educators and others don’t ...

EdTech Futures

  • EdTech Futures

    The IT Investments Securing the Future of Higher Education

    Spread the loveThe future of higher education still seems uncertain after the massive disruptions of the last two years. Universities and colleges are struggling with budget difficulties amid cybersecurity threats. ...
  • Adaptive LearningAssistive TechnologyEdTech FuturesInstructional TechnologyTeachers

    Will AI Replace Teachers?

    Spread the loveThrough the years, robots have taken over many jobs. First, they replaced horses and wagons and horses and plows, then they started to replace people. A few examples ...
  • EdTech FuturesHigher EducationHigher Education EdTechUncategorized

    The Future of Higher Education Must Avoid Returning to the Past

    Spread the loveColleges and universities can make higher education safer, smarter, and more accessible through automation and collaboration technologies – if they commit to it. Author: John Hulen, Director of ...
  • EdTech FuturesOnline Learning & eLearning

    IT Trends To Watch As Higher Education Moves Into a New Decade

    Spread the loveEdtech couldn’t have hoped for a better launch into the new decade than the push the industry received from COVID-19. Even the most tech-resistant institutions and individuals have ...
  • EdTech Futures

    4 Emerging EdTech Trends in 2022

    Spread the loveCovid-19 has not only changed education as we know it, but it has forced education technology (EdTech) to up its game. EdTech has been crucial since the start of this ...

About Us

Since technology is not going anywhere and does more good than harm, adapting is the best course of action. That is where The Tech Edvocate comes in. We plan to cover the PreK-12 and Higher Education EdTech sectors and provide our readers with the latest news and opinion on the subject. From time to time, I will invite other voices to weigh in on important issues in EdTech. We hope to provide a well-rounded, multi-faceted look at the past, present, the future of EdTech in the US and internationally.

We started this journey back in June 2016, and we plan to continue it for many more years to come. I hope that you will join us in this discussion of the past, present and future of EdTech and lend your own insight to the issues that are discussed.

Newsletter

Signup for The Tech Edvocate Newsletter and have the latest in EdTech news and opinion delivered to your email address!

Contact Us

The Tech Edvocate
5322 Markel Road, Suite 104
Richmond, VA 23230
(601) 630-5238
[email protected]

Follow us

Copyright © 2023 Matthew Lynch. All rights reserved.