Brainstorm Final Project

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

Brainstorming

• "Bullshit and the Art of Crap Detection"

I think this is a "to-the-point" point and very valid in creating a responsible digital citizen.  This will be a point that I expound on.  

Reel Works: Reading and Discussion #2

• 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.

This is from my own writing and I still find it true.  Students have a voice, we need to show them how to express it.  

• 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. 

Authentic learning goes beyond the textbook to show students why they are learning a subject.  Without context many students lose their way and begin to wonder why they are sitting in the classroom.  This is something I work hard to avoid.  

Brainstorming

Reading and Discussion #3: Navigating Popular Culture

• However, Moore reassures the educator that they don't necessarily have to have a grasp on current pop culture to be able to utilize it to help students identify credible sources. He does warn teachers that celebrating or criticizing students in regards to their choices in pop culture does not lend to a constructive learning environment…

Moore brought reassurances into some of my fears with today's pop culture.  I know I am not the cool teacher with all the updates on current pop culture but that doesn't mean I should lack compassion.

Reflecting on our Love/Hate Relationship with Media

• The biggest idea I saw in the digital media board is that it promotes creativity. It helps us create unique material for personal and professional reasons.

I think this quote from my reflection basically sums up my revelations as to how multimodal media increases and promotes creativity.

Deconstruction of a Magazine

During deconstruction of a magazine, I learned how to critically analyze content in a magazine from the color, boldness of lettering, agenda behind the magazine, targeted audience, techniques to hold and attract attention, who is benefiting from the message, subtext, etc… All of this will help me guide my children and my students to viewing media from a critical point.

Weekly Reading #7 ~ The Power of Representation

Brainstorming

• It is the information age. Our students are inundated with media everywhere they go. It has become a dominant force in our culture. Making sure our students are media literate will arm them with the tools they need to be responsible citizens that are knowledgable on a variety of topics that could positively and negatively affect their lives.

This reflection from my reading follows the same logic of making sure our students can think beyond what is being put in front of them and gain a better perspective.  Common Core curriculum promises to follow these guidelines.

• I agree that students across America should have the opportunity to receive the same high quality education.

This seems to be a side note but Common Core offers to bring everyone to the same level.  I do believe that all students deserve the right to the same education.  I'm not sure Common Core has all the answers but I understand the logic.

• I am having trouble with the creative aspect in Common Core... but at the same time I believe all students should have the same high quality education… but at the same time - am I not capable of picking the right things for our students to learn that will make them high level, critical thinkers who can decode situations and scaffold their knowledge? See my issues?

My thoughts on Common Core are still the same - I feel we will sacrifice creativity (highly needed in the global market) and the time I need to create critical thinking skills.

Weekly Reading #8 ~Composing with Media Across the Curriculum

• "Some of the best project-based learning assignments using media and technology give students a combination of structure and freedom, where they can develop communication skills and exercise their creativity but have some constraints that omit and shape their work" (Hobbs, 2011 pg. 86)

This quote goes back to utilizing multimodal text to bring out creativity as well as the thought process in an assignment.  Multimodal text gives students the tools they need to go beyond paper writing skills to express themselves in several literacy modes.

• It goes on to mention that teachers are having a hard time distinguishing between imitation and self-expression.

I think it is par for the course to expect students to react in various ways if we want them to use self-expression.  I think we need to be ready to read, see, and hear things we don't find "acceptable."  But this give us an additional learning experience to teach students what is acceptable for social media and our society and what is not.

Weekly Reading #9 ~ Protection and Empowerment

Brainstorming

• "It was challenging for Mrs. Jenkins not to betray her shock at the very serious sense of engagement and connectedness her seventh grade students were revealing" (Hobbs, 2011 pg. 108).

I think this proved the point that if you make learning authentic and students can connect to it, then the lesson will be more engaging.  

Media Deconstruction

In this particular reading we were looking at T.V. ads and the motives behind them.  We pointed out true motives combined with metonymy and metaphor to make the ad more visual.  We pointed out prospectives used to sell a product such as cultural stereotyping to make the buyer laugh.  We also pointed out unrealistic situations to make the product more attractive.  Decoding ads to sell a product is one more important step in making our students media savvy.  

Weekly Reading #10 ~ Life Online

• "A middle-school student in Costa Mesa, California, created an online group on Myspace with the title, "I Hate Classmate's Name." There was an expletive, an anti-Semitic reference, and a post that read, "Who here wants to take a shotgun and blast her in the head over a thousand times?" (Hobbs, 2011 pg. 125)

Part of making a lesson authentic is exploring all avenues.  I think one topic that is always important to talk about is Human Rights and the boundaries of those Rights.  Tackling media and literacy will lead to where self-expression and slander cross those lines and are no longer protected under Freedom of Speech and Expression.

• "...The Internet is not a separate place a person can go to from the real world. The Internet is the real world. Only faster" (Hobbs, 2011 page 139).

The only way our students are going to understand that the Internet is bigger than their family, classroom, network of friends, and even their community is to teach them just how big the Internet is.  Students need to understand the global ramifications of publishing on the World Wide Web.

• "Teens may have thoughtful and often sophisticated reasoning processes that reflect their decision making about what's OK and what's not. Dialog about these issues builds critical thinking skills and gives teens a chance to reflect upon and articulate their values" (Hobbs, 2011 page 136).

I like this quote in particular because I do think teens have thoughts on issues that should be taken seriously.  I think we also have the power to focus these thoughts into productive reasoning.

Weekly Reading #11 ~ Teaching with Current Events

Brainstorming

• Hobbs pointed out that News is a responsibility.

News has the fantastic ability to deliver information to people quickly and remotely.  Often the ability is used, misused, and abused.  But I think it is one more avenue we can bring our students to if we teach them the responsibility that it holds.  I believe if we are teaching them to post responsibly young, we may be able to produce News Journalist that want to do the same.  And of course, it also boils down to…

• If we focus on news today, beyond celebrity news, we help our students decipher more relevant news.

Weekly Reading #12 ~ Infusing Digital and Media Literacy Across the Curriculum

From least to greatest the five that are most closely related to my goals and motives for integrating digital and media literacy in my classroom are:

1.  To improve students' writing and communication skills by enabling them to use a wide range of message forms, symbol systems, and technologies.
2.  To develop students' skills in using digital technology tools.
3.  To promote creativity and self-expression.
4.  To help students use their own voices for advocacy and social change.
5.  To strengthen discrimination skills in distinguishing between high-quality and low quality messages.

**The above 5 motives derive from all the reflections I made above in previous posts across my blog over the last semester.  I am sure I could add more.  But what I have learned is that multimodal tools provide our students with a creative outlet to express themselves and their thoughts.  Within this context we can take their self-expression and bring it to a point that is productive and logically based.  We have that ability as their educators and within this context we should use it.