Reel Works: Reading and Discussion #2

Social Issues

The Lie Called Freedom

First I have to start out by stating that I watched several Reel Works videos from the website and I am astounded by the insight of the teenagers who created the films.  The sheer depth and breadth of films such as ACES - The Lie Called Freedom, or Mott Hall Bridges Academy - Brownesville is… is not something I think many adults would believe was created by teenage minds.  I think often we forget they have a voice on important issues such as illegal immigration or gang violence but after watching the videos - it is pretty obvious that they do.  I think projects like Reel Works creates an outlet that allows teenagers to develop their thoughts in a creative way.  A way that allows them to not only voice there thoughts but put energy into their ideas in a way that they can stand back and be proud of their work.  It is obvious after watching a few videos that the creators of the films put some thought into them.  

Goals for Girls Experience Reel Works & Intrepid

Real-World Applications

Reel Works has also figured out how to take video making from the classroom into "real world" applications as is such in the HBO 8 week course in documentary making and the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) camp for girls, which mixes STEM based careers with videography.  As with any learning experience "learning by doing" is considered one of the most effective ways to teach in the 21st century.  Authentic learning has become the preferred way for students to learn and teachers have noticed a propensity towards student motivation in learning when given a real-world problem.  Reel Works is targeting authentic learning by having students look at social issues in their own culture.  The best part is that Reel Works has students questioning what they see.  This was very evident in the Mott Hall Bridges Academy video - Brownesville is…  where students question the senseless teenage violence in their own neighborhood.  A neighborhood where they have grown to love the $1 pizza, socializing of diverse people, and cheap books for a sale along the road (Lombardi, 2007).

An additional component I really like that adds to the Authentic Learning process is that Reel Works prompts students to do work as a collaborative effort.  They rely on each other's experience and input to create a unique video regarding social issues in today's world.  This is an awesome way for teenagers to express themselves, work together, and integrate technology at the same time.  

Increasing Media & Technology Awareness

Of course, one of the largest benefits to digital storytelling is the fact that there is enough open resource software available to create high quality videos with basic knowledge.  It is a stepping stone to technology immersion but the software is very intuitive for beginners.  This allows the user to be creative and express themselves without the stress of overly complicated equipment.  Educause feels that the downside of digital storytelling is that students are forced to think outside of the box to create an original work.  I feel this is the essence or beauty of digital storytelling.  The student may feel they are outside their comfort zone but I think the final product is something the student can be proud of and the more they do step out of their comfort zone, the more they will feel comfort in a challenge.  Especially a technology rich challenge.     

Citations

DeCarolis, J. (2014). Reel works in schools. Retrieved from http://reelworks.org/programs/school-programming/

Educause. (2007, Jan). 7things you should know about.. digital storytelling. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7021.pdf

Lombardi, M. M. (2007, May). Authentic learning for the 21st century: An overview. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3009.pdf

Digital Storytelling and Reel Works

The Eyes of the Deceived

The Eyes of the Deceived

1.  What do you like about the digital story?

The Eyes of the Deceived was an amazingly, raw, emotional story.  We can read what happens in countries like Syria all day long but to see it… To see a bombing while children are being interviewed.  To see children covered in dust from a bomb.  To see children howling in pain after finding their mother dead.  To see a father howling pain after finding 4 children dead.  I cannot imagine living in a world where life seems disposable and temporary but there are people who live this life every moment of the day.  To see the little girl who cried and tried to find justification in what they did knowing that they did nothing but where bombed and lost their home.  I'm just at a loss.  

2.  What did you learn from the digital story?

I learned through visual imagery the message of a child who worries about her family trapped in a war torn country.  A teenager should not have this stress.  The only time I come close to this stress/fear is when my family in Oklahoma have horrendous tornados and I have to wait for hours to hear from them. 

3.  What surprised you about the digital story?

I think the whole video shocked me.  As I said earlier, we all know there are places in the world that never stops to rest.  Bombing, killing, more bombing, more bloodshed is the agenda of the day.  Mere words do not bring home the thought of a baby crying in pain.  The raw emotion of the video shocked me.  My worry?  The children I saw in the video - are they still alive?

4.  What social problem was the digital story addressing?

War was the topic of the social problem.  In specific - the government opened fire on its citizens.

5.  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?

I think in this case, the teenage girl needed to voice to the world what is happening to her family in her home country.  I think she needed her message to include the fact that the innocent are being killed senselessly.  The Internet gave her the power to voice her concerns.  To date 42 people have watched the video since its release in the FALL of 2013.  That doesn't seem like enough right now but it is 42 more people that are aware than before.  

6. Do (or how do) these digital stories provide evidence of that these young people are engaged in analysis of their own culture?

All 5 stories that I watched whether the topic was war, feminism (2 videos) , religion, or skin disorders the teens were eager to tell their stories.  In the story regarding the skin disorder, the girl sought out others just like her to learn more about herself and create a bond with people who suffer the same social ills.  

In The Eyes of the Deceived, the girl was seeking out answers.  She included video from children that she could not visit but gave her insight as to what they were fighting.  She also knew that those same children may not live to the next day.  Her video was very informational from the standpoint of a civilian caught in a civil war.

What I also found interesting is her comparison of the culture she was living in (America) with its vacation destination and snowball fights and the culture she left (Syria) with its constant bombing and displaced children.  It was interesting to see her take on the difference between the two cultures because her visuals posted the happiness of one country vs. the sorrow of another. 

7. Do (or how do) these digital stories support a healthy respect for multiculturalism and diversity?

The stories allow the viewer to see the story tellers life through the eyes of the story teller.  The story is very personal and the ability to use visuals such as pictures and videos allows for a bigger impact.  All 5 videos that I watched gave me a perspective from a different country, race, and gender.  

WV Educators!

FIRST robotics and NASA IV&V ERC would like to invite you to attend a WV Jr. FLL Training.

 

What is Jr. FLL?

Jr. FIRST LEGO League is a robotics program for students Kindergarten to 3^rd grade, which is designed to capture young children’s curiosity and excitement surrounding science and technology -- and teach them valuable teamwork and life skills while doing something awesome!  The challenge features a real-world scientific concept to be explored through research, teamwork, construction, and imagination. 

  

Who is Invited?

This training is designed for coaches only and will prepare new coaches for the Jr. FLL experience. The training will include an overview of Jr. FLL, what to expect during the season, how to run a team, and training with LEGO robotics.

All are welcome to attend.  Furthermore you may be eligible* for additional assistance through a hardship grant that would provide a loaned robotics base kit and/or paid registration fee under the condition that you attend a Jr. FLL expo in West Virginia.   

Please indicate which event is preferred:

-September 26, 2014, 4PM-8PM located at the NASA IV&V ERC in Fairmont, WV

-September 27, 2014, 12PM-4PM located at the Berkeley Co. Library in Martinsburg, WV

-October 3, 2014, 4PM-8PM locate at the NASA SEMAA Lab in Beckley, WV

What’s the Catch?

You will be expected to meet with your team regularly and attend 1 or 2 qualifying tournament (Nov. 15 or 22 depending on location).  You are also invited to the  the FLL state championship event on Dec. 6 at Fairmont State University.  The qualifying events and state championship are free of charge to Jr. FLL teams.  Your students will love the experience of a FIRST event and will be able to see FLL events compete as well. 

How do we Apply?

Fill out the Registration Form .  Make sure to fill out all sections of the form including the Hardship Grant.  You will be contacted by September 12 to let you know if you are accepted.

(If the link doesn’t work copy/paste the URL below into your browser window).

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1oPhyO2P8IqF1pQvsQsmyr48xFVuLyme5WICKO4cSnFY/viewform?c=0&w=1

Direct all questions to:

FIRST Senior Mentor Jaime Ford at 304-367-8379 or jford@usfirst.org

FIRST AmeriCorp VISTA Michael Lyden at 304-367-8299 or mlyden@usfirst.org

Reading and Discussion #1 ~ Students as responsible and literate "digital citizens"

Evidence Chart

Here is the link to my Evidence Chart for the article Toward Critical Media Literacy: Core concepts, debates, organizations, and policy by Kellner & Share.  This is an interesting read.  The writer points out several facts about multicultural misconceptions and stereotypes embedded in media images and texts and how educators need to take a proactive step towards helping students point out and analyze these messages on a higher level critical thinking level.

"Bullshit and the Art of Crap Detection"

In 1969 to be exact--educational philosopher Neil Postman delivered a speech at the National Convention for the Teachers of English frankly titled “Bullshit and the Art of Crap-Detection.” In his speech, Postman stressed the need for teachers to engage students in thinking critically about the bombardment of corporate advertisements and political plugs they faced on a daily basis, underlining the reality that virtually “all human communications have deeply embedded and profound hidden agendas,” particularly messages heavy with commercial and political ideology, which are “saturated with bullshit.” Postman told educators, “As I see it, the best things schools can do for kids is to help them learn how to distinguish useful talk from bullshit. I will ask only that you agree that every day in almost every way people are exposed to more bullshit than is healthy for them to endure, and that if we can help them to recognize this fact, they might turn away from it and toward language that might do them some earthly good.”

1.  To what extent do you agree with Neil Postman?

I think Neil Postman's statement is brilliant and to the point.  Our students are continuously bombarded from several angles whether it is in social media, online forums, TV or radio advertisements, Yahoo! News, or gaming sites.  Communication is not only key in our communities, culture, business atmosphere, etc… but it is also human nature.  Communication allows us to connect with the world around us.  This being said, being able to interpret and analyze the information that is coming at us, which for the most part has some sort of technology base in today's society, is key to being a responsible digital citizen.  We need to be able to set free students into the real-world who can read past the "crap" in the media and communicate on a educated level.

2.  Neil Postman delivered this speech in 1969. How do you think he might feel about "the art of crap-detection" now given recent advancements in digital technologies?

I think he would feel the same exact way.  The art of hidden messages has only been honed in on with advancements in technology.  The fact that anyone has access to creating media texts and images easily means that our students are even more so being exposed, since there world consists of constant technological chatter.

Cameron Russell:  Looks Aren't Everything

1.  What did the video make you think about or feel? 

I'm about to get really super personal on this one.  This video made me cry and it is a battle not many would understand because it seems selfish - maybe.  The deck in my favor was genetics that comes with a high metabolism.  It is genetics that allow me to monopolize on weight to suit media images.  It is genetics that has had me called everything from "frog legs" to "Olive Oyl" all my life.  It is also genetics that because of media images has had me hearing from a young age on:

• "Wait till you hit teenage hood.  The hormones will make you fat!"  
• "Wait till you have a baby.  You'll never get rid of that baby weight!"
• "Wait till you hit 30.  The body really goes downhill from there!"
• "Wait till you hit 40.  There is no going back.  You will get fat.!"

So here I am almost 38 years old, 117 lbs, and full of body self-awareness and shame.  I check my weight every day and I adjust what I eat to maintain an exact weight.  Sometimes I feel as if I get carried away and that scares me.  I see pictures of myself and think "My god what is wrong with you?"  But at the same time all I hear is the criticism in my head the moment I allow myself to gain 5 lbs and it is ridiculous.  I think what is worse is that I don't feel like I can complain or that I have the right to complain; that I have a voice in this fight.  That if I verbally said it people would look at me as if to say, "Why are you complaining.  You got lucky."  This is not an unfounded fear.  The current reply on YouTube under this TED Talks video is by a woman who states, "I don't understand how she can complain about her life…"  And why would anyone?  No one knows the tug-o-war battle anyone plays in their own mind and body.  The woman who made the comment under the video also missed the point of the whole video.  If you look at the comments most people did.  

I remember being really young, 4th grade, and sitting in the waiting room waiting for my mom to exit from her Weight Watchers meeting and being bombarded by women who said, "Just wait!  It will be your turn next.  Enjoy your youth because one day you will be fat too."  I look back and think about how jaded they were, how much hate dripped from the word "fat," and how cruel it was to say words like that to a 9 year old and all I can think about is the media and where it originates.  Cameron did an excellent job of showing pictures of herself in real-life and bouncing it off of images taken that day that has been photoshopped and edited to make her look older and sexually appealing.  

As a confident and strong woman in science - I would love to say that I was able to rise past society and overcome my insecurities (my dirty little secret of constant weight checking when no one looks) but I can't.  I think it boils down to the constant bombardment of cruel comments and media images at a young age when my brain had not matured to deal with it all.  I can say with no doubt in my mind that the cruelty came from individuals who were not capable of interpreting media images, texts, and warped values themselves.  I can say without a doubt that the 1980s was a horrible time in history for media literacy.  Emergency of technology and media information was quick but the skills to interpret the information was just not there.

With that being said.  I do know where my insecurities lie and where they were born.  I hate talking about weight.  I hate it when people bring it up.  I can't verbalize it.  I just won't discuss it.  I know that THIS is what media images do to people and I fell victim to it.   I also can't stop what I hear play over and over again in my mind (the coping skills are not there) but I can control how I mentor my children and my students.   And that is to make sure that what plays in mind, doesn't play in their mind like a broken record.  I want to teach them how to look past the "crap" and see the bias in the media.  I want them to know what is real and what isn't and be able to speak to their community from an educated standpoint.  I want them to see the beauty of people within their community and embrace their culture, ethnicity, gender, and difference.  

2.  How does it support Neil Postman's concerns about "crap-detection."

Cameron is the epitome of media influences.  She is a beautiful woman, naturally.  There is nothing wrong with that.  But for whatever reason, her natural image is not good enough for the media.  Her image has to be distorted, slimmed, aged (in either direction) before it is released.  For those who do not know that the image is not a real person, their interpretation can damage either their own self esteem or they use this uniformed knowledge to damage the self esteem of others.   

REFLECTION

Media literacy in-and-out of school is CRITICAL because as I pointed out in my very personal story (to make my point) self-esteem is wrapped up in what we read, experience, and the feedback we receive from others.  I think Kellner & Share said it best in their journal article Toward critical media literacy, "The process of empowerment is a major aspect of transformative education and it can take many forms, from building self-esteem to creating alternative media that voice opposition to social problems" (Kellner & Share, 2005).  In her TED Talks video Cameron was able to point out  the perfect image of what a woman should look like by media standards.  At the same time pointed out that those images weren't her and she accompanied this point by showing the audience what she looked like in real-life with her friends, in her sports, and with her family.

Neil Postman had a very similar point of view to Keller & Share as well when they stated, "individuals are often not aware that they are being educated and constructed by media culture, as its pedagogy is frequently invisible and unconscious" (Keller & Share 2005).  Cameron's attempt to show us the unconscious message by media was powerful.  However, as intelligent as we hope we are when it comes to media literacy, there were so many comments on the bottom of the YouTube video that referred to her as "complaining."  These comments missed the point she was trying to make.  She knows she is part of the problem in media images.  What she is trying to point out is that message everyone is receiving is not real.  It is completely concocted by the media but it is delivering a very real and negative message at the same time when it comes to body image and how we see ourselves.  I am not immune to this message.  That is why it is so VERY important to teach our children to analyze social media and see through the "crap" to where the messages really are.

I honestly believe Kellar & Share best summed it up with these two sentences:

"A major challenge in developing critical media literacy, however, results from the fact that it is not a pedagogy in the traditional sense, with firmly established principles, a canon of texts, and tried-and-true teaching procedures. It requires a democratic pedagogy which involves teachers sharing power with students as they join together in the process of unveiling myths and challenging hegemony" (Keller & Share, 2005).

Our students are going to interpret what they see in the media whether we help them or not.  In fact, they will be more knowledgeable as what is out there and what is not before we are.  They are completely emerged as true "digital citizens."  I think the best way to help them is have them show us what they are being drenched in and then together mentor them to interpret what they see in a responsible and educated fashion.  

Citation

Kellner, D., & Share, J. (2005). Toward critical media literacy: Core concepts, debates, organizations, and policy. Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 26(3), 369-386. Retrieved from http://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/essays/2005_Kellner-Share_TowardsCriticalMediaLiteracy.pdf

TED Talks. (Videographer) (n.d.). Cameron russell: Looks aren't everything. believe me, i'm a model. [Web]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM4Xe6Dlp0Y

Week 1 ~ Introduction for EDUC 6810

Who am I?

Hello my name is Jaime and I live a few minutes from Farmington, WV in a little area called Katy Village.  I have been in this area with my husband and two kids for 11 years.  Aaron and I just celebrated 13 years of parenthood yesterday as our oldest made the leap into teenage hood.  Seems unreal.  

My daughter is getting ready to turn 12 in about a month and that fact is just about as head spinning.  Michaela's favorite song by Owl City has a quote I love, "I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly…" but as time moves on, it seems to speed up.


What I Do...
I am the Coordinator and Education Specialist for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) based student programs at NASA's IV&V Educator Resource Center (ERC).  I teach 6 workshops for secondary students, which include Aviation, Robotics, Rocketry, Planetary Geology, EM Spectrum, and Living & Working in Space.  I also help spearhead outreach in the state of WV.

I recently took on a second role as the very first FIRST Senior Mentor for FIRST Robotics in the state of WV.  FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) covers grades K-12th, which is excellent because it engages all school aged kids at an age appropriate level in STEM based challenges.  For more information check out FIRST Robotics.  This site will give you an idea of Mission Goals, our nation-wide efforts to engage kids in STEM, and the various age level competitions.  

What I Expect to Learn

The moment I think I am completely ready to make sure my students (as well as myself and my kids) are responsible digital citizens, I learn something new.  I will graduate with my M.Ed. in Digital Media and New Literacies this December.  This journey has been amazing.  I feel that I've come a long way and my knowledge base is only expanding.  Each class in this concentration brings me more resources to utilize in my informal setting and brings me much closer to being the mentor I need to be within a technology setting such as FIRST robotics and NASA. 

Animoto

I picked a couple of pictures to represent some of what I do at the ERC and for FIRST.  

Life at the ERC

EDUC 6810 Homepage Q's & A's

• Why is teaching media literacy important?

Multimodal images are all around us and in most cases deliver some sort of message. As mentors in the classroom, it is the job of an educator to starting helping our students develop literacy skills to interpret the images they see in their day to day life. Being literate in multimodal texts and images will enable our students to make educated decisions regarding media information.

• What do you want to learn about teaching media literacy? 

I want to learn about various free and available resources to share within the classroom to help increase media awareness.

• What concerns do you have about teaching media literacy?

My own tech readiness is always on my mind. Which is why I like trying out various tools like animoto, makebeliefcomix, digital storytelling, etc….

• When are assignments due in this course?

Assignments are released on Sunday and then due by the following Sunday at midnight unless otherwise stated.

• What are the rules for late assignments? 

Contact the professor within 24 hours to receive partial credit. If there is no contact within 24 hours then 0 points will be rewarded.

• What is the best way to contact me?

Through personal gmail or by cell phone.

• Should you work ahead?

No; assignment evolve according to classroom progress.