Reflection Digital Media Project

For my digital media project, I created a video clip on the background information surrounding Great Expectations, a novel by Charles Dickens published during the Victorian Era. This video is used to accompany my unit plan for my Engl3391 Teaching Literature to Adolescents class. The purpose of the digital movie is to get students interested in Great Expectations and at the same time learn background information about the Victorian period that will be useful to them when we study the novel.

The process first began with the script, and then 195 slides were created for every different image that will be seen in the movie. At the same time, I also recorded my script. This was the second most tedious part, as I played back recordings, after finding them not usable, I had to restart the paragraph all over again. There were at least 20 takes per paragraph, for a total of 8 paragraphs. On the other hand, I can say that I can remember the script in my sleep after recording its contents. The next step would be making the movie.

As I have never used Windows Movie Maker before, I first tried to import the PowerPoint presentation onto the screen. To my dismay, it didn’t work. Eventually, I changed to another movie editing software, called Sony Vegas Pro. Before placing all the slides in, I had to use PicPick, a software that allows me to cut certain portions of the screen and use it as an image. After doing that about 198 times, since I had to redo some of them, the graphics were ready. The second paragraph gave me a hard time, as it took me a million years to get the “Background Information of Publication” heading to match the voice. As I progressed through making each split second of the movie, I learned that with headings, I have to listen to syllables, and mark down the times when they are enunciated and end. The timeline, of course, had to be adjusted to really tiny segments. As mentioned before, showing the typed-out letters on the heading was the part that gave me the most gynormous headache ever. Compared to this, the monotonousness brought on by the recording process seemed like nothing at all. On a positive note, this was a learning experience.

From start to finish, the movie took a tremendous amount of time and energy, but when it was done, I was so proud of myself, as I’ve realized that each millisecond on a digital movie took contains much sweat and labor. I will come to appreciate all the hard work done by the professionals who make digital movies, especially this one. The wonderful part is that this movie was created with my unit plan in mind, meaning that I can use this to engage student learning and to introduce them to the canon.

“Her Story, Your Story;” Video Clip as Text

Behind-the-Scenes Rationale

Teaching context:

This assignment is to help students grasp the concept of different elements that make up a story. As indicated in the worksheet, this will help them better understand the text since they have messages to convey to the audience when drafting their stories. The standards require them to know what various elements of a story are, and by completing this assignment, they are applying this to their daily experiences, making this meaningful to them. This assignment involves the writing process, and also applies to the text they are reading, Hole in My Life. To help students understand elements of a story, I may bring up the common television shows students watch. This is, overall, a fairly simple assignment to carry out.

I chose this commercial because it tells a great story in less than five minutes. It is very to the point. Also, since “elements of a story” is a part of the standards, this commercial is a great embodiment of it. This commercial is very touching, and I think students will enjoy the story. In tweeking the setting of the story will let students get creative with the writing assignment.

Standards:

ELA9RL2 The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of theme in literary works from various genres and provides evidence from the works to support understanding. The student

a. Applies knowledge of the concept that the theme or meaning of a selection represents a universal view or comment on life or society and provides support from the text for the identified theme.

c. Applies knowledge of the concept that a text can contain more than one theme.

ELA9RL4 The student employs a variety of writing genres to demonstrate a comprehensive grasp of significant ideas in selected literary works. The student composes essays, narratives, poems, or technical documents. The student

a. Demonstrates understanding of significant themes in specific literary works.

b. Supports important ideas and viewpoints through accurate and detailed references or allusions to the text.

Memes: an Introduction and its role in Education (Postman 4)

What is a meme?

A meme is any idea or concept that begins with a person, event, or situation, and then evolves as the idea is passed from a person to another. Most of the time, pending on the medium with which the meme is transferred, the concept is altered but the fundamentals of the meme stay the same. The survival of a meme also depends on its consistently evolving; this is how memes survive. The consistent changing of a meme, or its survival, depends on how it relates to a person’s background, beliefs, worldview, culture, and etc. Thus, memes reflect our conception of the world around us, as well as how we reflect on the world around us. While the philosophers of ancient China, Greece, and Rome used metaphors to reflect on the world in which they lived by means of abstract language (Metaphors), in present day, with the help of technology, memes spread like wildfire as our understandings of pop culture, beliefs and other references are made clear with the evolvement of each meme.

First of all, the concept of a meme is completely new to me. It is a fairly interesting subject, as every meme that has actually spread and evolved have stood the test of time and therefore has shown their worthiness of being remembered and passed on. In a respect, this makes memes similar to classic novels that have survived up till present day. Of course, there will eventually be a time when a meme wears off, whereas a classic novel will always be a classic novel. Also similar to a classic is a meme’s characteristic of reflecting on society’s values, as shown by the Dog Poop Girl meme that began in Korea. This meme is characteristic of scarlet lettering, as it starts with a disgraceful action done by someone and is looked down on by everyone else in that society. In cases such as these, the person who started the meme is also the one whom the audience direct their responses to; eventually, the person gets ostracized by society in which he/she lives and has to apologize, as in the case of the Dog Poop Girl.

Exploration with Numa Numa

The meme which I explored, as selected from Postman, is the Numa Numa Dance. This was started by Gary Brolsma in 2004, a 19 year old who recorded himself singing the song “Drogostea din Tei” by O-zone, a Romanian singing group. This video featured Brolsma singing along to the song with a catchy tune and waving his arms energetically as he follows the beat. It was first posted on the internet, and before he knew it, a number of people downloaded the video and took their own spin on it. Gary Brolsma’s performance appeared on South Park, American Idol cartoons; there is even a Spongebob Squarepants remix about the Numa Numa dance and song. Despite all those variations of the same meme, not many know what the lyrics actually mean, because the song is not in English. A translated version of the video shows that the song lyrics reveals a message that is cheerful and sad at the same time-a girl decides to leave a guy, who is getting over it by singing this song to cheer up.

Reception?

Gary appeared to be at first embarrassed about getting attention from starting the meme, but later made a site dedicated to this video. He made news on agencies such as CNN and NBC. However, not everyone liked the publicity Gray was receiving, including himself. First of, for those who have watched the video can see that Gary is overweight. And, after searching the video on Youtube, I’ve found people commenting on Gary’s obesity; comments such as, “this shows fat people can dance without having a heart attack.” To me, this is a very insensitive comment, even though I am (frankly) underweight. What’s wrong with being overweight? As long as you enjoy life and think you are healthy, that’s all you need. Brolsma probably saw many comments about his video, both good and bad, which led to his feeling embarrassed. Someone also posted on the Numa Numa site that his singing appeared gay during the video. Once again, another insensitive comment unless the author of the statement is gay.

Personally, I like the video, and I think Gary Brolsma can dance better than a lot of people. This video is what being in America is all about: being yourself; in your element; but allowing yourself to be under the scrutiny of everyone who sees your video? What happens to privacy? Is there a way for authors to approve or disapprove comments submitted by people who view the videos? People who are skinny like me also have their own problems, and to me, an insult like the comment about Brolsma being fat in the video is as much as an insult to him as is to me. This also raises question as to the openness of memes, and how fast ideas and comments in the read/write web circulate. The video maker is the one who creates a message that is open for all to comment, thus creating a conversation open to all, but some people are just so rude and insensitive that they think they are very hilarious. Of course, there will be people who will laugh with the jokes that could offend, but there are also those who would feel offended. By looking at the variations of memes and how they spread, as well as people’s reactions to them, is a great way to open students’ eyes to think critically about information which they receive over the internet, no matter who created it. As a matter of fact, it is because a person first created an idea, it is open to scrutiny in the public eye everywhere on the web.

The End of Education Metaphors Postman9

Metaphors

When thinking about metaphors, it is important to note how we use language and words to give a name to an object or concept, as this is a significant human ability. For example, the word “rabbit” refers to a furry animal with split lip, long ears, and short legs that jump around and eat grass. However, if a person does not use the English language, it is difficult for a foreigner to make the association. In every culture, every people always have used words to describe or name anything that we are exposed to or come into contact with. A good example is vegetables. The Western culture has a different variety of vegetables than Eastern culture, meaning that there are no Western names or words for some vegetables from the East. Similarly, in Chinese culture, the sun is described as red, while it is described as golden in Western countries such as the United States. Metaphorically, a full moon is described as “a silver plate” in Chinese culture. These are metaphors that reflect various worldviews held by different world civilizations.

In a manner, thinking about language as “world-maker” is a good way to scaffold students’ conceptualization of language and how words are used. As discussed in class and the readings, like our senseless naming of objects and concepts we encounter in our lives, metaphors are abstract ways of thinking in describing the reality we see in our world. Metaphors are a good way for us to reflect on and depict our worldviews, a tool that the ancient Greek philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato used in describing their own which survived and are understood by generations after them.

“America is (not) the world’s policeman”

As the title indicates, there is a metaphor that uses “policeman” to describe America, or American foreign policy. America is known throughout history to spread its ideology of “democracy.” It seems that the US has set democracy as a standard and has been measuring other countries’ policies with that of the US. In other words, democracy is the law, so to speak. Or it so appears to Americans. This is why Americans have shunned away from anything that slightly disagrees with their ideology of democracy, and tries to change their government by “partnering” with them. For example, during the Vietnam War and Korean War, America made the effort to help the countries in the name of democracy. Of course, America had ulterior motives in helping those Asian countries, as it is always the case with foreign policies. Today, the people of South Korea still strive for democracy; obviously, US efforts hadn’t worked as effectively as it thought it should. So can we say America is a successful policeman as evidenced by the historical record? I don’t think so.

It is also because of self-determination that America has wanted to spread democracy; it is because of this self determination and ethnocentricity of the Americans that the Native Americans have lost much of their culture, land, and organization, although the Native Americans do not occupy foreign countries overseas. To say America is the world’s policeman is an understatement; as crazy as it may sound, I think America had actually wanted to dominate the world, when looking at its history of foreign policy.

In a similar light, we can also say that, if a person loyal to a country that disagrees with democracy sees the metaphor “America is the world’s policeman,” he/she would agree, but would resent the metaphor because of the parts of American history with Asia that Americans do not learn in the US. At a time in history, America and other Western countries really feared China to become a world power because the country was very prosperous. All the Western countries decided to blockade trade with China in the 1950’s (see page 101). Only the Soviet Union traded with China. So can we say it never existed? Many in China who have lived during that time remember it well, and students in China study it too. This is my effort to make the piece of history known. So we can say that America’s goal of spreading democracy is very hypocritical and biased. However, in this day and age where states are linked to each other by interdependence, mutual acceptance is mandatory for policies such as reducing effects of climate change and nuclear weapon containment to be implemented.

Also, the audience of the metaphor is as important as its speaker. If a politician uttered the words that make up this metaphor, we could see the political indoctrination of the remark. And if the audience is unreceptive of democracy, the intended effect also will backfire and insult some people in the audience.

In conclusion, the metaphor “America is the world’s policeman” could offend some audiences, pending on which ideology they identify with. A metaphor can sometimes bring back a part of history that should only be left in the past for one party, but revived for the other, as instanced in the coalition of blockade acted upon by the Westerners in times of famine. However, no matter what memories those metaphors evoke in us, words, language, and metaphors are mechanisms we human beings use to describe our world; without any of these, we would lose our characteristics and purpose as true human beings.

Response to Podcasting and Screencasting

The Teachers’ Podcast is a great resource for teachers, as it fuses technology with teaching tips in every podcasting. Each podcast is made by Dr. Kathy King and Mark Gura, and lasts for about thirty minutes. The Podcasts discuss topics that pertain to ways technology can be used effectively in the classroom; topics include: how social media can be used in the classroom, how teachers can effectively give virtual presentations in class, how ebooks can be used in the classroom, and etc. The educators mention in episode 53 that e-learning reaches more audience than the traditional method. Of course, information such as these is similar to what we have learned in class. One thing is that podcasts on this site are very lengthy, therefore making them a bit difficult to follow. However, they do provide useful information. What I like about it is that it’s very simple to navigate, since all the podcast episodes are at the left.

After searching some more, I also found a site on Wikia education that lists strategies which teachers can use in the classroom with podcasting. In the classroom, teachers can record the lecture or assignments for the class and post it on the class website/blog. When students do interviews for certain assignments, it would be a great idea for them to record them as podcasts to share with the online community. Also, teachers can tell students to record their oral reports and post them on the class website, then after students have listened to the ones made by classmates they can respond to them.

As mentioned by Richardson, teachers can also make podcasts for parents. Of course, those making podcasts are not limited to teachers and students only, but also school administrations as well. Chapter 8 also talks about video publishing, screencasting, and web TV and their uses in the classroom. I think that strategies pertaining to podcasts can also apply to these mediums of the read/write web.

Podcasts provided by the teacher (Dr. Dail) that interested me were Grammar Girl (Quick and Dirty Tips) and the CNN podcasts. The two have different characteristics to like about each, so I’ll start with Grammar Girl. Her podcasts are very organized, and she seems very credible because of the way she speaks and also because of a book she had written. Also, she does demystify myths and answers what the audience wants to know. Most of all, I like the conciseness of her podcasts, and they are also very informative. One thing I realize is that Grammar Girl seems really prepared when podcasting, meaning that she must has a written script. The CNN podcasts are amazing as well; I’ve heard so much about it and have just now begun to see how time-saving it really is compared to watching it on cable. Now I can listen to the news and work at the same time. How convenient is that! I also searched Fox5News Podcasting, and it seems this news agency has one as well.

Also, podcasts and other online mediums for sharing ideas and information, have given a great advantage to the reader. I can rewind something and play it again if I missed something or if I thought it was really important, something students aren’t allowed to do in class. So then overall, podcasts, screencasts (emerges video with sound explanation), web TV, and video publishing can all add a creative and engaging dimension to the classroom.

Richardson: The Social Web in the Classroom

Twitter:

A method that I have thought about for using Twitter in the classroom is for teachers to organize information for students and the class by creating a tweeter page and tell students to follow it for posting assignments and projects. A safer way to do this would be in youthtwitter.com so that the safety issues are addressed and standards met. As a person who has not tweeted in her life, yet, I think Twitter is a good tool for students to learn; its 140 character limitation is a great way to teach students to write concisely and to express themselves to effectively get their points across. For the English classroom, students can even be assigned to follow authors’ pages. The only problem I have with Richardson’s idea of connecting Twitter and cell phone together is: what happens to students who do not have internet access on their cell phones?

Social Bookmarking

As much as I am embarrassed to say, I have never heard of this until now. although I have seen the “delicious” icons at the bottoms of some articles before, I had no idea how it worked. Richardson’s explanation is really opening my mind. I think Diigo and Delicious could be a great tool for students doing projects, especially research projects to organize their thoughts. Most of the time when I do research, I bookmark the pages on my toolbar anyway. However, tagging words relevant to a source is a great idea to organize research projects. When students do this, they learn organization, and possibly how to organize a paper based on the tagging system. The implications this has on curriculum development is great. It goes along with the idea of how the online community interacts with one another, that teachers can get together and share resources and ideas for one common purpose. In this respect, social bookmarking is similar to the English Companion Ning we have visited.

Mabry

It seems the Mabry Middle School website is made by professionals, for both professionals and students. I think it’s kind of like the Teacher Companion Ning site, except it’s within a school setting and the goals of the community viewing/creating the site are different from that of whom created the English Companion site. Another difference is that there are videos embedded in this site that I do not see in the other, although it would probably be possible to post it on there. By comparison, this is a good way to show how flexible social networking really is. Creators can be anybody ranging from adults to students, and goals could be anything as long as there are others who share common goals as you do.

Delicious and applications:

The tool looks very easy to install. Just drag and it appears on your tool bar. My next step will be using this to do my projects for other classes, and this one too, of course. And think, what implications does this have on my future students? They will want to do the same.

Social Networking in Education

When it comes to social networking, all I can think of is Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace. However, more exist, and apparently, online social networks are becoming a bigger part of the generation before us each and every day. Normally, most students check their social networking accounts such as Facebook more often than their student email or school homepage. Evidently, it is a crucial part of our students’ lives, and by adapting it into education, students will feel more engaged with what is taught to them; more than anything, social networking opens the door to doing homework collectively, while students are still doing their own work. Or are they? Will they?

Creative Activities

Some ways for teachers to interactively integrate social networking into students’ learning include giving them the option of creating a social networking page for the authors or characters from the story and the option of creating a page based on a novel. Assignments such as these, obviously, are more innovative than the old fashioned powerpoint presentation or poster boards I was assigned in my time. Students are bound to find them more interesting, and since they are engaged in online social network on a daily basis, by bringing it to the characters/novels, students would feel feel closer to the characters in the story and connect more with the novels. Also, by creating a page based on a novel or its characters, students grasp the main events and themes of the novel in a creative manner. This shows students’ understanding of the plot, and also shows their synthesis of the events that are going on. They could make comments on the page as if the novel or the character is on their fan or friend list.

What to Watch out for

Now the negative impact and how it is shown. The primary fear of and the primary concern about implementing mainstream social networking into schools is online predators.

However, the risk of encountering predators is relatively slim on social networking sites, 27-29%. Casting the predator issue aside, inappropriate comments are always at bay when online social networking is involved, no matter how heavily they are monitored. This could be an important issue to discuss with students before they start.

If teachers were to use social networking sites to engage students, how will the contents be monitored? I’ve heard of a high school coach who promotes his team on facebook and updates events, but at the same time, he has come down to his students’ level by befriending them. This is when we weigh out the pros and cons of using online social network.

The concept of groupthink is similar to online cliques that share similar ideas. This is what we want students to avoid as we allow them to explore and use social networking for education purposes. We may have to tell them: it’s perfectly fine to disagree, but there are boundaries which they cannot cross.

What Does it Mean for Teachers?

The Ning site we talked about in class provides a vast amount of resources that are very useful for teachers, especially new and student teachers. Teachers can share their ideas and help each other out on the English Companion Ning. It has many pages that could be navigated easily and appears organized, which is a great tool even for the less tech savvy like me. This site helps struggling teachers to gain some new insights in how to improve their students’ learning experience. In many instances, it provides a medium for teachers to share ideas for many education related concepts. Of course, in this realm, everyone is a professional, and is expected to present themselves in a professional manner. For professionals, online social networking bridges the gap that geographically separates us and allows us to help each other by making the boundary invisible, allowing us to come together and improving the experiences of students.

I definitely feel like the Ning site is something I will use as a resource for now and in the future. Also, the use of online social networking could be kept at a moderation. Students are supposed to have their fun, but not always. I believe that if technology is integrated too much into their lives, they will think it as school work all over again. It will lose its purpose. However, I will definitely integrate some creative activities (writing, images, social network pages, ect) into my future teachings.

The World of the Hunger Games

Upon completing The Hunger Games, I thought this novel raises many questions regarding society and what it is doing to us. It reflects the notion that society places certain ideologies into our thoughts and we unknowingly accept them because that’s the way it is. The novel raises many issues great for discussion. One of the things that stood out to me as I began reading the novel was the role Katniss plays in her family; she’s been the one who has been bringing home the bread for four years, since her father’s death when she was eleven. Her family, I believe, belongs to the lower class; going hungry at days when there’s not enough food to eat. Katniss the girl becomes the hunter who brings home the bacon; she is in a way masculinated in the story. The novel also raises questions regarding individuality and the dependent nature of humans. Alliances are formed and broken during the Game because everyone knows that they are going to kill each other in the end with only one person standing. I wonder what would happen if the alliances were never broken? Would that mean a rebellion against the government? And what if the contestants defied the rules of the game? It would only symbolize rebellion of the masses against its government. At the same time, the theme of trust is prevalent throughout the story as well as Katniss doubts Peeta many times at his gestures of kindness. In a way, the social class from which Katniss comes diminishes her confidence as a young girl in her society. Most of the time, she wouldn’t believe the compliments paid to her by those who came from a different social class, including those that came from Peeta.

In the classroom, the above questions and issues, doubtlessly many more, will be brought up during discussion. This novel raises similar questions as Great Expectations as well as sharing some similar themes, which is why it made the list as one of the two YA novels I’ve chosen to help teach the canon in a way that is less intimidating to students which will also develop their thinking skills at the same time.

Digital Project: Great Expectations

Topic:

For my independent digital project, I plan to provide interesting background information on Great Expectations which may include the social, political, cultural, and possibly literary (contemporaries of the author, criticisms), that tells of what is going on at the time the book was written, and when the events in the book took place. I might cut really short clips from the Great Expectations movie and paste it into the presentation to make it funny/interesting, that is, if I can figure out how to do it, and if it is at all possible.

Format:

Since the novel is typically taught in a ninth grade classroom, I want to make it extra engaging by putting it in the form of a digital movie using Movie Maker with sound added to the images, similar to many video examples shown in class. The ideal would be to merge the very short Great Expectations video clips with the powerpoint slides that will combine to form the digital movie. This presentation, I believe, will help my students understand the text better as they read, as well as give them a background so they know what ideologies to look for when reading the book. I hope this approach in teaching the novel will engage the students into the work.

What is the American Experiment?

The first thought that comes to mind as I read the chapter was: this author views education as a political act, which reiterates Appleman’s statement in the beginning of the book Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents that anything we do at a job is a political act; being an educator is one of those. I don’t think students need to love their country, but rather need to know what it means to be a citizen of US in an American school. However, students need to question the knowledge they are learning, because it is by doing thus that they take part in becoming a well-rounded American citizen. Sure, there are “values” which students have to accept, but not allowing them to question why or how we got those values is as ignorant as education is apolitical. Compelled to question what they learn, students learn more about history, interesting history; that they could view it from different angles. Providing students with an opportunity to seek out different arguments about various subject matters such as values and ideologies then becomes the story of the great “American Experiment”.

Technology is a great tool to help students seek such information. We must know that America is a place for freedom of expression, and the internet permits access to much information in the form which students are familiar with—information from the media. Although many writers have debated over whether technology is beneficial to humanity, it could enrich the learning experience of the students of today, just as the industrial revolution saved the lives of the poor. Technology may open doors to various aspects of education we would never think of; it could connect two different countries and cultures together within the context of the classroom; someday it could do much more than that. I believe that the more technology advances, the more possibility we have with educating students creatively. Also, it will be their benefit to make known to them the advantages and disadvantages of using media.

The way that the author laid out the arguments in this excerpt made me think that much politics are embedded in classics such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, and etc. So what does politics mean exactly? What are values? How are they formed? When do we know certain concepts are acceptable and which ideologies are not? How do we know? In these contexts, the texts raise many fundamental questions worthy of debate. At the same time, students should have a say in debating what should be taught in the curriculum; at least, it should address or bring out relevant questions they may have. In my future classroom, I plan to raise questions that make students think than ask them to guess what the answer is on my mind.