Online Computer Game Helps People with Autism

As I was looking at my daily source of news, CNN.com, the other day I came across an article titled, "iReport: 'Naughty Auties' Battle Autism with Virtual Interaction."  After reading the article I made a connection to our diverse literature class since we have already gone over the topic of autism.  In the iReport written by Nicole Saidi, it discusses how the virtual online world called Second Life can provide a place for people with Autism to practice their social interactions.  The article interviews David Savill a 22 year old from England who has Asperger's syndrome.  David shares how he has created a name for his character in the virtual world he created in Second Life along with some of his experiences with the site. Saidi states, "The graphical representations of real people create a "comfort zone" that can coax users out of their shells and get them communicating with others, he said."  Savill also states that the fact people are at their personal computer in their own room and own house provided a comfort level that in part allows for the social interactions being made within the virtual world to be ok.  The article also discusses how the vritual world can also be joined by family members of people with autism.  This way it can also be a learning experience for them as well.  Saidi makes sure to point out though that there has not been scientific research done to prove that a virtual world like Naughty Auties helps treat autism.  Researcher Simon Bignell plans on looking at the effect the virtual world can have on people with Autism.  

You can find the article at: http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/28/sl.autism.irpt/?iref=mpstoryvie.  I also found another related article titled, "Virtual World Teaches Real World Skills" which can be found at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7012645/.

Personal Philosophy

Since they beginning of my classes at MSU in the College of Education, I feel like the issue of diversity has been an integral part of discussion and course work.  The topic has interested me each time it has been a part of courses like 301, 348, and 401.  When I heard about TE 448 focusing on diversity in children and adolescent literature I thought it would be a great class to further my knowledge about diversity and it would provide me with new knowledge about literature that is appropriate and good to use in my classroom in the future.

In relation to why I am taking the class, this class directly relates to some of my professional goals.  I would like my classroom to be a safe and comfortable place for all students, no matter what background, culture, ethnicity, or religion they identify with.  In order for this safe and comfortable environment to occur each student should be able to see themselves within literature in the classroom.  Also they should not see negative stereotypes of themselves in literature within the class.  The latter part of my goal may be impossible though, since as we have seen in class with the books we have read, stereotypes can be found in almost anything we read... so it will also be a goal of mine to always critically discuss and read books and focus on making sure stereotypes are not enforced to the students.

With my personal goal of students feeling safe and comfortable within the classroom also comes the role of diversity within all aspects of class, especially literacy teaching and learning.  Since literacy is a main aspect of all other subjects like math, science, and social studies it is extremely important to have diverse literature and diverse thoughts throughout all academic subjects. Specific issues within diversity like being an insider or outsider and stereotyping will be important to consider when teaching diverse literacy.  In order for the literature to be credible the author needs to have a significant amount of experience and research into the minority culture being written about.  I also think that issues of diversity that come up in class with teaching and learning about diverse literature can be great on the spot teaching moments.  If students disagree or share their different points of view about an idea or event because of their culture, this can be a great opportunity to discuss diversity and how people can have different opinions.  These different opinions need to be respected and attempted to be understood. This can teach students and ourselves valuable lessons about how to interact with others who have differing opinions on issues throughout life.

My personal philosophy about multicultural education includes my professional goals relating to diverse literature.  I think that multicultural education is extremely important so all students feel like they are in a safe environment mentally, physically and emotionally.  If students all respect each other then this type of environment can be achieved. Diverse literature needs to be present within the classroom.  Not only does it need to be present, but it also needs to be read, thought about and discussed critically.  I would like students within my classroom to share with each other how they create a diverse classroom.  Each student is different therefore they each bring something to the classroom's diversity.  If students have literature at home about their culture or religion or ethnicity or anything that might make them different from others I would encourage them to bring this into the class to share and for others to read.

It is very exciting to think that I will soon be able to apply my philosophy about diverse literature and multicultural education to the classroom.  I am interested to see what type of classroom I will be teaching, how obvious diversity will be within the class.  I know that there is diversity in each situation and each class, but some students may not see diversity if all the students are middle class and white, opposed to a class of students with many different races or cultures.  It also interests me to see how much children either accept the ideas of diversity I will present or how much they do not have interest in it.  I hope that all my students see how important it is too look at diversity, especially within literature.  It is a concern though that the students will not be interested or will not understand the ideas of diversity I would like to teach.  I am also concerned that I will use literature or something will happen in my class that offends a student because of their culture.  I know that if something like this happens I should revisit the situation and use it as a learning experience in order to tell the students how something was offensive or inappropriate and what we can do as a class so the situation does not reoccur.  Even with my worries I am still looking forward to incorporating diverse literature into my class so my students have a wonderful opportunity to be well rounded successful adults while enjoying reading and writing about different cultures and ideas.