Week 10

Activity 1

Element #1: Take a look at the two examples and see if you can identify the purpose behind each story. What is the point of view in each? Whose voice do you hear?

First I watched the example, Making Salt. It was made to show this activity by a child that helps with the process and I could tell from the voice. The second example I watched was fish tank. It was a science project to create a fish farm off of sustainable resources. The voice is that of a teacher that helped with the project and the point of view is that of an adult in charge of the project.

Element #2: See if you can find a dramatic question in the examples for this section. Is the question resolved in each movie or are you left without a resolution?

I watched the example, Are We Making Guam Ugly?, for a dramatic question. The question is resolved by the movie because it showed children piling up trash. Since Guam is overpopulated I can see that trash would be a problem on the island.

Element #3: See if you can identify the emotional paradigms behind these stories.The emotional paradigms behind these stories are based upon a call to action to fix a problem that is addressed. This is especially true for the story on teen depression. It flashes a bunch of scenes where teens are emotional. They are either really sad or angry. The call to action is to help a teen in need or get help through hotlines.

Element #4: What impact that the voice plays on the overall effect of the story.

Voice plays an important role in personalizing a story to its author. It can add weight to the story being told.

Element #5: What impact does the music have on the emotional content or purpose of the story?The impact that music has on the emotional content of the story is that it can drive home the emotional situation of the story. It can also show off some local music that was wrote in dealing with a problem.

Element #6: Look at the examples in this section and consider the decisions the authors made about length of clips, types of transitions and sequence of events. Are you able (as a viewer) to fill in the missing pieces? Give an example?

A good example of filling in the missing pieces is in the Fish tank video. Most of the video was just a collection of photos, so I had to picture the actions that were taken in this story with my imagination.

Element #7: How does the narrator use their voice to pace the story? Give a specific example.

The narrator in Fish Tank also did a good job of pacing the story. He explained new parts of the project as the photos were added into the video.

Activity 2

I picked this digital story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOSrdXRBQiM&list=UUKLPPDaG0bCj1Yqy6PlcouQ

Choose your favorite digital story and embed it in your blog and answer the following questions:

Point of View. What is the point of view in each? Whose voice do you hear?

The voice in this digital story is that of the author. She reads her story to photos.

Dramatic Question. What is the dramatic question? 

She explains how she wanted to be a cat owner but not for 1 cat over 15 years. So she explains how she became a cat foster owner for a local humane society.

Emotional Content. What is the emotional content of the story? How or why do you relate to it?

The emotional content is that the author wanted a pet but not from adoption to the end of the pet's life. The solution to be a cat foster owner makes the experience of pet ownership different for her, with smaller ups and downs rather than a long experience with a single pet.

Week 10 Reading and Discussion

1. How has social media changed reading and writing processes in the digital age?

Social media has changed reading and writing processes in the digital age because people that participate in on different social media sites leave feedback after reading something. Thus there are more people editing and reviewing work than before.

2. Explain "cosmopolitan practice" in relation to digital literacy and it means for learning in school.

The "cosmopolitan practice" that the authors define is that there is a growing understanding between cultures and languages of how to interact digitally. The school experience becomes more universal when classrooms across traditional boundaries can interact with each other.

3. How did the cosmopolitan conversation video challenge support critical media literacy?

The cosmopolitan conversation video challenge supports critical media literacy because students had to make judgments on the videos of two different cultures.

4. How does this quote from the text, "In this digital age, traditional content creation such as book reports, unit projects and essays, cannot be merely digitized and regulated to the end of the unit as capstone demonstrations of content mastery," make you think about how digital technologies should be used to support learning in school?

I believe that digital technologies should be used to support learning in school because nearly all office work in the digital age is produced on PCs. Therefore, I think that working with system that the student will ultimately be using in their professional career is good practice.

5. How do the digital stories you watch this week support the concept of cosmopolitanism?

The digital stories I watched this week support the concept of cosmopolitanism because I was able to relate in many ways to the stories that I watched. People have many common experiences and reactions to them.

6.  In a blog posting, copy and paste a quote from the text that have moved you in some way with a link.

I agree with the authors thoughts on cosmopolitan digital experiences: "With colleagues and participants from India, South Africa, Norway, Great Britain and Australia, as well as U.S. sites in California and New Jersey, they described how youthful exchanges on this network are mediated through  a developing cosmopolitan ethic - a growing common understanding of how to effectively interact and exchange meanings and artifacts across linguistic, worldview and geographic boundaries." (Avila, 64) The standards of digital behavior become drawn along the lines of the participants on a social media platform. Each entry builds upon the same assumptions that the prior work on the platform defines either formally or informally. I did an internet search and found this website about this subject: http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2011/cosmopolitan-digital-experience/ It builds upon the idea of  cosmopolitan digital experiences for the media at large.



Reference:

Avila, JuliAnna, Pandya, Jessica Zacher.(2013)Critical Digital Literacies as Social Praxis. Peter Lang
     Publishing: New York, New York.

Week 9: Digital Storytelling and Reel Works

The digital storytelling that I related most to was:  http://www.reelworks.org/rw/watch/identity/#ripple

1.What do you like about the digital story?

I like that this digital story focused on civil rights. It is a subject that is still relevant in today's world because we have the first black president in office and many in the country are still against him based purely along racial lines. Racial profiling is still the norm in too many places. I served in the military with people of all kinds of different backgrounds and made friends without any worry of their background.

2.What did you learn from the digital story?

How much the election of President Obama has effected the civil rights movement. I believe that even more will be accomplished after his successful presidency and he is able to enact more change from outside of the Oval Office.

3.What surprised you about the digital story?

I was surprised by how many of the interviewees thought that they wouldn't see a black president in their lifetime. I personally believed that he was a candidate that couldn't lose after the troubled last few years of the Bush administration.

4.How did the digital story provide an example of how digital storytelling can build self esteem, help young people voice an opposition to social problems,  or create an alternative to stereotypes of adolescents typically portrayed in mainstream media?

This digital story allowed its teen age author to tackle a very polarizing subject and provide another look at it through the different people that were interviewed. I believe that there cannot be too many calls for diversity because the subject is still lost in too many.

Week 9 Discussion

A quote that I found powerful was: "Digital storytelling has the potential to provide youth with opportunities for new sense-making of who they are, using digital stories that incorporate images, text, and sound." (Avila & Pandya, 42-3) I believe that the authors remarks ring true and I agree with them. The diversity of the modern classroom is nearly limitless with students having differences in ethnicity, socioeconomic status, learning abilities and even languages. Yet I believe that this diversity can be an aid in teaching the tolerance that is needed as an adult to students as they age. Digital storytelling can be another avenue that technology can aid in the diversification of our society because it allows for students to tell of themselves to others.

I found a good digital storytelling website at: http://www.inms.umn.edu/elements/

The author of this site breaks down all the components of  digital storytelling and it would be a good reference for a teacher that is looking to add  digital storytelling to their curriculum.

Reference:

Avila, JuliAnna, Pandya, Jessica Zacher. Critical Digital Literacies as Social Praxis. Peter Lang
     Publishing: New York, New York. 2013.

Week #8 PSA

I had trouble getting my original to load so I used tech that I knew would work with Photostory 3. I wrote the scripted pictures with Paint and took the photos that transition between the quotes from internet stock pictures.

I used serious music to add to the quotes that I used from the class. The quotes speak on the troubles that students and teachers have with the lack of training. The persuasive technique was added at the end with a call for action to support the teaching of critical media literacy to change the tone of the PSA to something different.

Week #7 PSA ideas

Name: Call for action

Title of PSA: Media training call

Intended Audience: Parents

Describe your Hook: I would show facts for teens needing Critical Media Literary.

Week #7 Reading and Discussion

Identify three ideas you will use to inform your PSA of the need to teach critical media literacy in school.

Three ideas that I will use to inform in my PSA of the need to teach critical media literacy in school based upon the reading are: that the facts behind the goals of media are universal regardless of the way it is taught, that even though it is a new field it has great potential because media can be used to teach it, and students need to be challenged to use the skills after they learn them. The fact behind the goal of the media can be deciphered with the journalism questions - Who,What,When,Where and How. Who is advertising is critical in understanding if the message is for consumers or not, and will define the rest of the questions. Instructors ability to cite media readily in understanding it will help the field grow just as fast as new media is produced. Lastly, a student that doesn't use these skills and gain experience with them will be lacking when they need the skills.

Summarize what you learned about enacting critical pedagogy in your own classroom and detail what like about critical pedagogy and what concerns you.

I reviewed: http://ecommons.aku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1079&context=pakistan_ied_pdck

This article presented ways in which instructors could use "street theatre" to teach social studies topics. I really like the idea of acting before a audience to teach as a group as a break from the traditional setting of one person lecturing the information. 

I like that critical pedagogy is focused on questioning the source of information. It is critical for the historical process of using the primary source works of the people that lived through the events. Popular history often wants to judge the decisions of others with the information available many years later. Yet to understand the decisions that are made at the time, a student has to suspend this information and see what they knew, when and their response. The only concern I have is that instructors often want their students to have the same solution and can influence the results the students get along the lines of their choosing. 

Week #6 Reading and Discussion

1.What instructional moves (i.e. group formation, topic selection, scaffolding the process, assessment) did the teacher use that you might replicate in your own teaching practices that involve critical media literacy?

I would use the "write down a question" about the class as part of the introduction to the course. This fills in the time for when the instructor needs to introduce themselves to the class and allows for the students to have some say in this introduction to the course and the instructor.
2. What do you think about the student created PSA? Did it seem creative? Do you think it could serve as a legitimate assessment of writing ability? Do you think the topic would be appropriate for school? What if the students chose a pro-choice stance? 
I believe that the group learned some good group work skills in doing the PSA. I think that the instructor should not have let the students take such a politically dividing subject for the PSA. While it sparked their creatively and writing ability, the chance of offending someone that is a hardliner on either side of the abortion argument are too great. The you have parents wanting conferences and the time and effort spend teaching the kids has to be retaught to the parents.
3. Do you share the researcher's concerns that the student created PSA reproduced dominant or mainstream media representations of girls and social class? Why or Why not? 
I don't share his concern because everyone has their decision to be part of the norm representations of girls and social class. While I respect and try to understand the decisions that other people make, I am often at odds with their logic.
4. What concerns do you have about engaging students in critical media literacy? 

Counter-labeling is my primary concern. It is one thing to disagree with the media. However, in embracing the counter to poor stereotype decisions, it is not right to push this opposing view. Using the media show only another view to correct bad decisions in the media is just as wrong as the media pushing out the original. I prefer a neutral production that can show both sides of the coin and I figure which one I would support.

5.  What topics might you use for a PSA that would  that would help you meet your curriculum goals and content standards?

I would like the do a PSA on how the media produces some of the fantasy stuff it does. I believe that too much of the public are not able to suspend their disbelieve and realize that they are watching something that is pretend or fiction at the time of watching it. Personally, I have seen the making of too many movies and read too many books to get really scared or upset over fiction.
6. How would you implement the construction of a PSA in your own classroom to include aspects of critical media literacy?

I would follow the example that is presented in the book and add elements that I have learned in my experiences. I would provide an example of properly dividing up labor. If this isn't done, there isn't a good road map of how to do the work. The chance of the team having a member flake out on their tasks are reduced and personal accountability remain for the teacher to assess.