Philosophy of Education

Philosophy of Education

Education exists so that one generation may pass on the cumulative body of current knowledge to the next generation.  This is done by providing students access to knowledge.  That is it.  It’s not about grades, it’s not about achievement test scores, it’s not even about equipping young people to “keep up” with other young people in the ostensible competition of life.  It’s just about passing on all there is to know to the next generation, who, by the way, may do with it what they please.  It comes with no particular responsibilities.  They may choose to continue the tradition of adding to the body of knowledge and then passing that on to the next generation, or they may not.  The pattern is not inevitable.  It is just the way that much of the world has chosen to behave since the Renaissance.  In Medieval Europe, for example, society did not use this pattern, and generation after generation lead a sort of static lifestyle for several centuries.  Families did pass on provincial knowledge of everything from moral values to agricultural procedures, but there was little emphasis (or means) to tap into a greater body of work, then add to it with research, invention, and so on.  Once that emphasis became a cultural value, the Renaissance began, as did a pattern of education that continues to this day. 

The primary way that knowledge is passed on is through documentation- books, scrolls, inscriptions, maps, etc.  With each new invention the size and connectivity of documentation grows.  Libraries and public forums were among the first of these inventions.  Recently, electronic data bases, and the internet have greatly multiplied the amount of documentation, and the potential for connectivity among those who want to study it.  To a young student, the amount of documentation can be overwhelming.  This is where teachers come in.  The contemporary educator is not a keeper of information, and certainly not the source of the cumulative body of knowledge who must pass it on through oral tradition like an ancient sage philosopher.  The teacher is simply a guide to accessing the knowledge that exists.  Teachers exist to provide young students with the basic tools of access (which are reading, writing, and math) and to provide intermediate students with a variety of entry points into knowledge (history, science, advanced math, art, literature).  It is entirely possible to learn without the presence of a teacher, however, as guides, teachers facilitate education by demonstrating the processes of learning (questioning, research, experimentation).  In this way, teachers provide a living key or legend to an infinite map.  This means that teachers should not teach simply through transmission (lecture and presentation).  Teachers are not audio text books.  They are not documentaries of their content area.  They are more.  Teachers themselves are learners and contributors to the collection knowledge and information.  It is through guidance and example that teachers perform their most important tasks.

Teachers and students now find themselves in a culture where this approach to education is more important than ever.  The cumulative body of knowledge and the connectivity of its documentation are growing at an unprecedented rate.  Access, too, has become much easier.  While this is all very good for the potential of education, it brings with it new challenges.  The first is that the media that give access to information are not silent.  Each has the potential to share messages, and students are at risk of being influenced by the loudest and most ubiquitous of these.  Unless teachers model the processes of critical thinking, examining “the motive of the creator relative to one’s own experience” (Semali, 2001) we risk allowing students to become “passive citizens” (Semali, 2001) who live to play out these dominant messages.  Teachers must then provide a model and challenge students to think critically in all encounters with information.   Another major challenge is that students and teachers must work together to keep up with the methods by which information is shared.  If teachers are going to model the act of contribution, they must be up to date on technologies that enable it, and in many cases the students must go with them.  Yet, very rarely do students walk into a classroom where the teacher knows everything there is to know about current technology and media.  Teachers sometimes must model by learning it themselves.  This is not something that every teacher is comfortable with, but it is the most effective way to “pass the torch.”  It is also the only way to help students avoid becoming people whose media usage is “characterized by consumption rather than production, such as watching movies on the PC or the television, playing computer games, listening to music, and reading magazines” (Avila & Pandya, 2013).  Students now live in a “participatory culture” (Avila & Pandaya, 2013) and if teachers want to continue the tradition of providing access to knowledge, education must reflect that.

References

Ávila, J. (2013). Critical digital literacies as social praxis: Intersections and challenges. New York: Peter Lang.

Semali, L. (2001, November). Defining new literacies in curricular practice. Reading Online, 5(4). Retrieved from http://www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/semali1/index.html.

Five Resources

Miss Representation Remember “Killing Us Softly” with Jean Kilbourne.  Well this is the website for a very up to date documentary that tackles those some dominant media message videos.  I have seen this documentary, and Kilbourne along with many others are in it.  It’s on Netflix now, and this webpage has a link to the school curriculum.

Reading Online Here I love the sections on “Teaching Hip Hop Culture” and “Teaching Popular Film.”

My Zeitgeist 2013 Here is a great PBS Lesson plan which basically forces students to explore media and evaluate the world by describing current beliefs.

Family Guy and Censorship It boggles my mind that someone took the time to put this together, but I might actually use it.  I can’t stand Family Guy but so many of my teenagers love it.  If it can be used to help address questions of censorship, then maybe that is a good thing.  This lesson is only for older students, so if I am assigned a younger age-group sometime soon, this website has an “Elvis and Censorship” lesson plan.

Media Smarts This website contains a variety of resources that address the same topics we studied in this class.

Digital Story Rought Draft- "America in a Word"

Reading and Discussion #14

A quote from the reading:

"The ability to render one's world as changeable and oneself as an agent able to direct that change is integrally linked to acts of self-representation through writing, as Freire taught us long ago, and through other semiotic systems."

This quote adds to the credibility of digital storytelling.  It equates the process with the power of the written word and puts one in mind of the origins of storytelling itself.  It also shows why more people need to tell stories.  In the past, most publicly circulated stories were created by those who had the money or influence to publish them.  So only society's most powerful could self-represent.  The dominant message was skewed in their favor. Now with digital technology, anyone can self-represent. If enough people do this skillfully, the so-called dominant message will become less dominant, giving balance to public narratives.  (Imagine if history could have been written with many more personal stories... Imagine if every American slave had had an equal chance to tell his tale along side of his oppressor... How might we have come to view U.S. history?)

Discussion questions:

1. How does digital storytelling support academic literacies?

Digital storytelling challenges students to view their lives an their worlds in the form of a meaningful narrative. It is not unlike what we do when we write. We remember, we research, and we synthesize it all into something that makes sense to us, and to our audience.

2. Now that you have created your own digital story, do you think that using images, words and music to create a message is simplistic compared to traditional alphabetic print based argumentation?

Not at all. As a theatre teacher and a storyteller myself, I was never in danger of finding the use of images, words, and music simplistic.  The great thing about factual images is that they can say things, important things, that you may not have intended to say. Family images often illustrate time period, and representations of relationships and personality that the composers of the script overlook.  Look at a documentary by the award-winning director Ken Burns.  All he does is provide narration and music to some carefully chosen historical still imagery.  And it's amazing.

3. After creating your own digital story, do you see how digital storytelling can help develop a stronger sense of agency in their own lives? Do you think this might have a positive impact on students academic lives? How? Why?

I do.  This can give students a strong sense of purpose when representing oneself and life story to a critical audience.  Often students fail to feel that sense of purpose about writing because they believe it will be read by an audience of one teacher.  Digital story telling has no limit to the size of the audience.

Reading and Discussion #13

Quote from Chapter 7, “Beyond Technology Skills”:

“There is both subtle and overt pressure to focus on teaching technologies as tools, without incorporating an understanding of their uses within the participatory culture, and without integrating technology instruction fully into the pre-service curriculum in ways that result in critical analysis of content or alignment with pedagogy” (Avila & Pandaya, 2013).

This quote sums up how old ideas about technology are perpetuated in the classroom still.  I feel that this was my attitude up until recently.  Those of us who remember what life was like before the internet and the culture it has shaped, are sometimes tempted to lean toward the perspective that technology is superfluous.  However, I can now see how communication technologies have shaped the culture, and vice versa.  It’s hard to imagine 21^st century American culture without cellphones, internet, etc.  So it is no longer an option to consider technology a tool that we can train students in, as if it’s something they can take or leave.  I would liken the entire thing to how the automobile shaped the country.  This first generation to see cars thought they were a danger and a nuisance, and many campaigned to have them banned within city limits of many towns.  Within a generation or two, cars were a huge part of daily life, and they began to reshaped neighborhoods and cities, and greatly affect the commerce between them.  Who can imagine our lives without them now?  They are a part of all we do, and we must give a little time each day to recognize the ethical concerns of using them safely and wisely.  In a lot of ways, this is what the advent of the internet has done to the developed world in the past 20 years.  This really calls for a realignment of attitudes toward technology to match those expressed in this chapter.

Chapter 7 Discussion Questions:

 1. Why do the authors of this chapter chose to use the term "critical digital literacies" rather than just "digital literacies"?

The authors use this term to step away from the “variety of concepts” already represented by the term “digital literacies” and to express a more specific definition that includes “sociocultural perspectives that acknowledge the generative interplay between literacy and the contexts in which literacy occurs” (Avila & Pandaya, 2013).

2. How well did our own teacher education program prepare you to use technology in your teaching practices? Was it more tools based or literacy based?

I received my BA in Education in 2007, and at that time I think many of the classes I taken held the view of technology as tools.  However, since I began taking graduate classes in 2011, I feel that many of the courses have been literacy based.  Perhaps the program has changed over the past five or six years to include a literacy based approach.

3. What should teachers be thinking about when they engage in critical thinking as it relates to technology use in school?

Teachers should be thinking not that students are “digital natives” but “natives of consumer culture.”  We have never known a time without a dominant message that says, “you can fix anything with a purchase.”  We are used to being marketed to, and influenced by feelings of inadequacy.  That said, teachers should also be thinking, “I should introduce students to ways to question this take-for-granted reality.”

4. On page 149, it is stated that students have certain rights with respect to "critical digital literacies." Do students in your teaching context have these rights? Give an example or non-example of at least one of these rights.

I feel convicted to provide these rights.  Recently, I have worked to secure all but one:  “The right to explore or experiment with one’s own digital space” (Avila & Pandaya, 2013) has been difficult to secure at public school.  This is a right that no teacher can safeguard without the permission of parents and of the county and state school boards.  Unfortunately, most of the technology that can help students to do this is blocked out of fear that such exploration and experimentation will bring harm to children or lawsuits to school systems.

Reference

Ávila, J. (2013). Critical digital literacies as social praxis: Intersections and challenges. New York: Peter Lang.

Digital Storyboard

Point of View: The story will be told from my point of view as a 36 year old, looking back on a experience that happened when I was 8 or 9.  I can see how the experience “awakened” several things that became a big part of my interests and personality over the years.

Dramatic Question: “When I was nine-years old, my grandfather taught me a secret word.  A magic word.”

Emotional Content. I would call the predominant emotion in this “awakening.”  You can’t “find yourself” at the age of nine, but if you look back you might see the beginning of who you came to be.  Another emotion in the story is “connection.”  On this trip with my father and grandfather to see my grandfather’s homeland, and to see the funeral of his mother, I felt like I was in the inner sanctum of family history and lore.  The “secret word” in the story is part of a ridiculous country folktale… a complicated nursery rhyme… But for me, I had felt like he had given me the access to a hidden treasure.

Voice: I will narrate this story.  I don’t think anyone else could, given the personal nature of the story.  Chances are I will read from a prewritten script, but I should have no problem making my own words sound fresh at the time of recording.

 Soundtrack: I may use stock music from the Youtube library, or I may use some bebop jazz.  Already, I am leaning toward “Moanin” by Charles Mingus.  Why not country (since we are driving from WV to AR)?  Some American country music may fit the setting, by I consider jazz the most American of American art forms, and “bop” was the music of the beat generation travelers whose writings have helped me frame these memories in my mind.

Economy: I will keep the script as short as possible.  Although I have a lot to say, I will try to let the pictures and music tell the story.

Pacing: I think pacing is the second biggest element in the performance of any story.  Plot is first.

Reading and Discussion #12

RESPONSE TO CHAPTER SIX:

1. How did the Ask Anansi game support critical literacies?

By making students “indigenous anthropologists” (Avila & Pandaya, 2013) students were challenged to look at their community South Los Angeles (“South Central”) as both insiders and outsiders.  Students were challenged to ask questions about their community and select important issues facing their environment.  This helped provide some input into the creation of the game, and determined the themes the game would cause them to investigate.  This asking questions and evaluating one’s own culture and community supports critical literacies. 

2. How did the Ask Anansi game support academic literacies?

Three things in the game supported academic literacies: First the log the students kept while figuring out the solutions to the clues caused them to keep a record of the deductive reasoning they were doing.  Second, the role play itself caused them to engage in real conversations with people in their school and community which helps “civic development” (Avila & Pandaya, 2013) by turning concepts in to actions.  Third, the frame narrative of the game was that the students had to somehow satisfy Anansi’s “insatiable need” for a “good story” (Avila & Pandaya, 2013), and this potentially helped students to view the project as a narrative. 

3. How did the Ask Anansi game support digital literacies?

Students used mobile phones, and iPods to communicate with the teacher, decipher clues, and log solving the clues.  Students also used the internet to do research when necessary to help make it through the various challenges of the game.  As the author points out, the way technology helped students use participate in the use of media without “overly relying on complicated digital tools” (Avila & Pandaya, 2013).  This integrated use of technology supported digital literacies.

4. What is meant by the term "reading the word and reading the world and writing the world"? Give an example from the chapter.

In the activity, students took what they read, and were made to apply it to the world by asking questions and evaluating their community as a group.  As “the class began enacting critical digital literacies practices in both online and physical environments” they were challenged to “build their own meaning and critique of the inequities within their lives” (Avila & Pandaya, 2013).  This activity then empowered the students to become active, rather than passive, citizens… thus equipping people who will write the world.

A QUOTE I LIKE FROM THE TEXT:

“Though students regularly engaged in mobile throughout this project… it was never the central pedagogical spotlight of this work.  Ultimately, the research that the students and I conducted yielded critical practice that decentered learning from the traditional classroom; it located engagement in the spaces that students explored critically and instilled literacies instruction within experiential community knowledge”  (Avila & Pandaya, 2013).

This passage provides an example of how digital media finds itself naturally integrated into a unit that causes students to learn about the world, and issues affecting their community.  The mobile phones and iPods were only a way to empower and enrich the experience. They were not the experience itself.  In this context, the use of technology seemed to serve as a model for the ideological perspective of literacy. 

References

Ávila, J. (2013). Critical digital literacies as social praxis: Intersections and challenges. New York: Peter Lang.

Reading and Discussion #11

Reading Discussion

This quote from the reading stood out to me: “…Much of their media usage is characterized by consumption rather than production, such as watching movies on the PC or the television, playing computer games, listening to music, and reading magazines” (Avila & Pandya, 2013).

In this discussion about the “myth of the digitally innovative teenager,” Avila and Pandya (2013) begin by explaining that many of the today’s youth do not create media products of their own after school, but engage in activities similar to those of the previous generation.  At first, this struck me as possibly a good thing.  An advocate of the outdoors and “old fashioned” social interaction sometimes my feelings toward digital culture is negative.  I thought, “Wait a minute.  Kids are not going home and blogging or maintaining a Tumblr account?  That’s great.  Maybe our online lives have grown too cumbersome.  Maybe it’s time to take our digital involvement and walk it back a little.”  But when I came across quote above, I suddenly remembered that young people, digitally inclined or not, now live in a world where power comes from understanding how to work and produce online.  Watch a video on Bitcoin for just another example of how being digitally innovative can make this happen.  So if we decide to join our young people in returning to more of a consumer than a producer, we may just be taking away their ability to be empowered in a global culture that growing in this digital direction.

Response Questions

1. What is the difference between an "essentialist" "traditionalist" or "autonomous" "perspective of technology and literacy and a New Literacy Studies or "ideological" perspective on technology and literacy? Which perspective do you adhere to? Why?

The "essentialist" perspective seems to have little to do with the teacher learner, and everything to do with how the technology itself can improve teaching and learning. In this perspective, Powerpoint and Prezi might be looked at as ways to facilitate (or "boost") traditional lectures. Those with this perspective choose to view new technology as a either positive or negative supplement to old ways.

The "autonomous" perspective focuses on the person and sees literacy as something a teacher or student has as a skill. This probably assumes that once a person has some level of critical thinking skills she can apply it throughout several areas of life.

The "ideological" perspective sees literacies as a factor in an ideology, and that those literacies are part of a web social and cultural factors.

As for myself, I seem to be stuck in the autonomous perspective right now. I have moved well beyond the traditional views of media technology, and have been teaching from the view that literacy is something a person has or can attain and use as a skill. The ideological model is too new to me, and I have to learn more before I can understand how that really can be true. (It may be true, but I am pleading temporary ignorance.)

2. Give three concrete examples of how the teacher in the chapter supported "new literacy" or "critical digital literacies" practices with blogging.

First, Anne the teacher, did not just use media to supplement a traditional method. She actually connected blogging to all of her Print & Photo class activities. This took media literacy out of the traditional realm, and made it a part of class, school, and community culture. Because of this, the measure of student literacy became more complex than whether they could apply certain thinking skills.

Second, Anne made students take personal ownership for the excellence in the photo blog. No student wanted to be the one to publish substandard work. This counts as a social and cultural context for media production. The class contained a teacher-inspired (deadline driven) value for quality work. Therefore, literacy was a part of this web of conditions.

Third, Anne allowed students to develop a digital publishing culture of their own. Students viewed on another's work (photos, etc.) and were able to share criticism and motivation. This may not be something the teacher did exactly, but her style of leadership permitted it.

Reference

Ávila, J. (2013). Critical digital literacies as social praxis: Intersections and challenges. New York: Peter Lang.

Digital Story Brainstorming

Three Generations On the Road

Without “spilling the beans” on my upcoming digital story, I can tell you that I was inspired by prompt number one “Describe a positive childhood experience…”  At some point in my childhood, I don’t remember when (fourth grade perhaps), I traveled with my father and my grandfather from West Virginia to Arkansas to attend the funeral of my great-grandmother Alice Brown.  I couldn’t have imagined it then, but this trip was so important in two ways.  First, it gave me my first tangible connection to an older generation… one that was born in the 19^th Century, had children in the 1920s, raised them through the Great Depression and sent them to WWII.  I got to see their land, and feel their values.  Secondly, it began a Kerouacian fascination with driving across the United States (and other places in North America).  The hotels, the diners, the waitresses, the alligator farms, the lakes, the trains, towns, the roads, and the people became a part of my life.  Without a doubt this left in me the taste of American-style wandering, and an interest in the associated literature.  I can say without exaggeration that this spiraled into a deep connection to the Beat Generation, which ultimately inspired me to become and English teacher.

This digital story will not be as easy as it sounds.  Already, I am researching our road trip route, and I need to do some interviews with family members to see how old I was, what car we drove, and a few other details I can’t quite remember.  Also, I need to get into my mother’s photo album collection and scan a multitude of images.  It should be a nice drive down formative memory lane.  

Reading and Discussion #10

Response to Chapter 4 in "Critical Digital Literacies as Social Praxis" by Avila & Pandaya

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

Where in the past, critical thinking required a reader’s response to literature, the response was seldom published.  Now with social media, all readers can respond and have their comments posted next to news articles, blog entries, photos, videos, etc.  Reading has always been interactive, but now it is doubly so because all readers can make their ideas known and respond not only to the reading but to each other.

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

From what I understand, this is an approach to interacting with the world through digital means.  Students, who are bound to become global citizens through use of worldwide social media, have to think beyond local values and interpretations of their work and communication and learn to consider how what they produce may be received by a variety of cultures.  This means educators need to equip students to think about the views and ethics of English speaking people around the world (or of whatever language they happen to be posting in).  The thing about this, is that we don’t always know the standards of other cultures and they do not know ours… so sometimes we will all learn the hard way.

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

I’m sorry.  I missed this in the unit somehow.

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?

To me, this means that we can’t just use technology to produce traditional products and say that students are equipped for life in the 21^st century.  The technology has actually CHANGED the demands on students, and therefore the standards for what we teach them.  Digital technologies need to be integrated, and real communication with the outside world needs to be guided (as opposed to prohibited). 

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

Many of the story examples we watched came from the South Pacific, but as a viewer I felt myself connecting to the ideas.  Although each product had a local flavor, I felt like the ethical standards they portrayed, mattered to a wide variety of audiences.  The “Are We Making Guam Ugly?” video was pretty universal. This shows that digital stories can adhere to cosmopolitan practices without abandoning their own unique attributes. 

6.  In a blog posting, copy and paste a quote from the text that have moved you in some way (i.e. surprised, confused, disagree, strongly agree) and in about 100-150 words state why you have selected the quote. Then find an article, video, podcast, blog posting, image related to what you have read and link to it or embed it in your Blog. Describe the resources and a brief explanation of how it is connected to the reading.

“Finally, we would not have learned about the youths’ sophisticated and layered meanings, nor their complex designing and concept-building processes, without a ‘listening’ orientation toward the youth (Shultz, 2003) itself a cosmopolitan practice (Avila & Pandaya, 2013).” 

The above quote moves me to remember that modeling cosmopolitan practices is a big part of teaching the attitudes students will need to take to creating products like digital stories.  It is not enough to tell them to be curious, be sensitive, do your research, and remember that anyone can see your work on the internet.  We have to do it ourselves by taking a ‘listening’ orientation.  This goes back to abandoning the old idea as the teacher as the keepers of knowledge, and transitioning to models of cosmopolitan behavior.  Since the Greek roots for “cosmopolitan” mean “at home in the world,” we must show students how to be at home in the world through digital media.

For more on this, I suggest people check out the following blog: “5 Insightful TED Talks on Social Media.”  I had seen the majority of these even before discovering this blog, but this is very nice collection.  It is a good resource to show students the importance of using social media well, and for having a cosmopolitan mindset when doing so.

References

Ávila, J. (2013). Critical digital literacies as social praxis: Intersections and challenges. New York: Peter Lang.

The Digital Story Telling Tutorial (Week 10 Activities)

The Digital Story Telling Tutorial

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?

In the first example you hear two or three different children’s voices.  They appear to be students who have taken a field trip to a local salt mine and were now describing the steps of salt production in pictures and narration.

I believe story in the second example was created by the teacher to offer a video tour to his community, to parents of students, and (possibly) to the organizations who had given grants for a fish hatchery project.  The audience seems to be adults because most of the information was not narrated vocally, and many grade school children could not read the scrolling text quickly enough.  The point of view is from the head 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?

The dramatic question in the first video is “Are we making Guam ugly?”  Here the question is only resolved when the video ask viewers to do their part to keep it beautiful.  I’d like to add the emotional appeal of the question may be heightened for the target audience.  I’m guessing it’s a song known in Guam (and may be about the beauty of Guam).

The dramatic question in the second story seems to be, “Where did our communities fishing trade come from?”  The question is resolved in the legend (as so many questions are).

Element #3: See if you can identify the emotional paradigms behind these stories.

The first example keeps us hooked by the suspense of wondering if the girl will harm herself.  We have to keep watching to see if she will.  Even though no character development has taken place, and we have no real reason to care about this character, the archetype of a depressed teen and our fear that this will happen to someone we do know, keeps us hooked.  Interestingly, this video was not telling us to help as much as it was telling depressed teens to let people help them.

The emotional content in the second video comes from the subject’s story that she had lost her grandparents before she cared enough to learn about their history and customs.  We stay hooked because we begin thinking that we should take action now learn from our aging loved ones.

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

A voice of a narrator who was personally involved in the story adds authenticity to the information, and increases the dramatic effect because first-person narrators emphasize important elements when the tell the story.  In these examples, the voices personalize the story.

Element #5: What impact does the music have on the emotional content or purpose of the story?

Music drives emotion.  People have always known this, and the popularity of arts like opera, melodrama, musicals, television, and film prove that it still works.  Music can even push emotion where acting, narration, or story are lacking.  Even poorly constructed moments in a film or television show can be “saved” by the right choice of background music.  On the other side of that coin, it takes A LOT of talent and creativity to create an effective digital product that contains no music.  I couldn’t do it.

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?

Yes!  I completely agree with the instructions in this element.  So often beginning storytellers forget to ‘tell the most with the least.’  In the first example, the pictures tell us how crowded the girl’s life is, and where she goes when she needs some privacy.  None of that needed to be explained in the narration.  Also the story moved quickly because of the pace of the slide transitions.

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

An urgent voice or an enthusiastic voice create a fast pace.  In the earthquake video the pace is urgent because of the content.  A relaxed pace would be inappropriate for this topic.  Hopefully, most storytellers will know intuitively to sync their voices to content, imagery, and music (but we have all seen local ads or amateur videos where that is not the case).

The Gift of Nonviolence by Leroy Moore

Analysis of "The Gift of Nonviolence"

Point of View: The narrator is an eloquent elderly gentleman recounting the day he first resisted against his abusive father.  Moore was sixteen at the time, and now, several decades later, he looks back in wisdom at the nonviolent means by which he put an end to a childhood of abuse.  Moore’s voice is calm, collected, warm, and insightful.  His words are few, but extremely well chosen.  At the end of the story we see that Moore’s point of view is that of a seasoned nonviolence advocate who has participated in nonviolence training in protest of nuclear weapon production.

Dramatic Question: The implied dramatic question is “Can nonviolent protests be effective against abuse and war?”  According to the patient sounding narrator the answer seems to be “yes.”  First he explains his nonviolent resistance against his father, who abused him through childhood with different weapons, including a rubber garden hose.  He then cites nuclear war as the epitome of violence, and alludes to the use of nonviolent tactics to help protest a weapons plant.

Emotional Content:  I related to the title of the story, because “nonviolence” can be an intriguing emotional word.  The narrator’s powerful opening statement was that he had put a stop to his father’s beating him with garden hose, on the last night of his junior year.  This kept me involved in the story, because I wanted to see how he’d stopped the abuse.  The narrator, however, continues beyond this incident to show how nonviolence was a part of things he’d accomplished later in life.  Very powerful.

Reading and Discussion Week #9

“The traditional hierarchy of adults as teachers and children as students also did not exist in the digital-storytelling learning environment because today’s youth are ‘digital natives’ who bring their own areas of expertise with new-media practices to the activity” (Avilia, 2013).

That young people are “digital natives” gives media literacy a special edge for  empowering youth at this point in history.  Children are digital natives while adults are not, but this will not always be true.  In a few decades all people in the developed world will be digital natives.  So for now the fact that young people have grown up with technology means that educators can use this to help students who are not a part of the dominant culture gain some ground against oppression.  In the future, when more people are digital natives, the difference will be between those who live where technology is accessible and those who do not.  This is why those charity programs that strive to give laptops and internet access to underprivileged youth or two students in developing countries seem to be a good thing.  Putting technology, training, and access to things like digital storytelling can empower people who couldn’t otherwise empower themselves (with money).

The TED Talk video that I have linked here, features a speech by Nicholas Negroponte who had the idea to bring computers to schools in developing nations.  He wanted to address education by “leveraging the children” (Negroponte, 2007).  According to him, children in developing nations catch on to technology just as quickly as children in the U.S.  Such programs seem to “teach a man to fish” by empowering students.

References

Ávila, J. (2013). Critical digital literacies as social praxis: Intersections and challenges. New York: Peter Lang.

Negroponte, N. (2007, Jun). "One laptop per child, two years on". Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/nicholas_negroponte_on_one_laptop_per_child_two_years_on.html

A Response to Reel Works Digital Story "The Color of Love"

"The Color of Love" by Zakiyya Bowels

1.What do you like about the digital story?

I like that the young person who made this film chose a classic documentary Q & A format to explore the question, “Is interracial marriage accepted in American culture?”  She explored the history of the question, going back into the civil rights movement and examining a famous case (Virginia vs. Loving) in which a married couple was asked to leave the state of Virginia for 25 years because one partner was black and the other white.  She also talked to present-day married couples about discrimination they had faced.  Her digital story seemed informed by the structure of some recent documentary films.

2.What did you learn from the digital story?

I learned that as recently as 2009, a Justice of the Peace from Louisiana named Keith Bardwell made the news because he refused to marry two people on the grounds of skin color alone.  This news story was apparently what started Zakiyya Bowels’s journey to explore this question.

3.What surprised you about the digital story?

It surprised me that no one she interviewed (which must be post 2009) seemed aware that there is no scientific biological basis to race, and that race is only a social construct… mostly an American one.  The questions that were asked and answered presupposed that race truly exists, when in fact it does not.  Everyone in Zakiyya’s world, even her teacher, believed in the American dominant message that race is real.

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 story was a prime example of how young people can voice opposition.  The news caused the young filmmaker to ask a serious question.  She explored the history and the present-day opinion on her question.  They she expressed her opinion that there is no “color of love.”  She created a personal alternative to the stereotypes attached to “race” and marriage in the United States.  Her film really reminded me that mainstream media must still support that MYTH that race is real and that blacks are fundamentally different in some way.  The good news for Zakiyya is that science is on her side; there is no biological basis for race.  If more people can become informed about the past couple of decades of genetics, they might realize that its true there is no “color of love” and that debates about the ethics of “interracial” marriage are actually moot.

Media Lit PSA for Teachers

I created this PSA to reach out to teachers and help them consider why it is worth investing the time into incorporating elements of Media Literacy into the classroom.  For me, the most powerful statistics are from our text and from this Huff Post article which show that people spend MUCH more time with other media than they do with literature or any other book.  This tells me that if teachers are going to model critical thinking for their students, we can’t ignore internet, television, etc.  The facts  and quotes I used in the video were taken directly from our course text, and from Semali’s article because, after doing my research for the PSA, I felt that those were the most powerful and well stated.

I designed this PSA using a comic motif.  Comics and cartoons are something that reaches all ages.  With the current generation of adults, comics movies (The Dark Night Rises, Iron Man 3) and animated television (Family Guy, South Park, American Dad) are among the most popular forms of entertainment.  This is the generation that grew up on The Simpsons, so I knew that a funny comic book format would grab some attention.  I hand drew the images, uploaded them as images to Powerpoint, and put the whole thing together with music from a “chip tunes” band called Anamanaguchi.  I then saved the presentation as Windows Media Video.  Enjoy.

Reading and Discussion #7

Three ideas from the afterword:

After reading Margaret Hagood’s afterword in “Critical Digital Literacies as Social Praxis,” I plan to use three ideas in my PSA.  First, I will use the fact that in 2009 students spent 10:45 hours using media but only 38 minutes in print media (Hagood, 221).  This helps support the claim in my PSA that media (as opposed to literature) is the message students are already reading.  Secondly, since my PSA is geared toward teachers, I plan to use the idea that it’s up to teachers to bring this kind of instruction to the classroom.  Pedagogues can be encouraged to create standards, administrators can be encouraged to allow the instruction, but it’s the teachers who have to figure out what to do.  Finally, my PSA will humorously depict a teacher who helps set her students free by guiding them.  This is a reflection of the idea of the changing role of the educator spoken of by Hagood in the afterword.

Summary of what I learned from Critical Pedagogy and the Teaching of Reading for Social Action by Fernando Naiditch:

This article used the philosophy of Paulo Feire to create a focus on reading that I found quite moving.  Naiditch discusses Feire’s belief that in teaching literacy students must be made subjects, not objects, of their own learning, and Naiditch cites reading as a major part of this.  If students can be taught to look for meaning and assign meaning on their own, without having to find the meanings the teacher assigns to literature, they can be empowered to learn for themselves.  Naiditch goes on to list several practical skills and strategies that teachers can use to turn the process of reading into something empowering.

References

Ávila, J. (2013). Critical digital literacies as social praxis: Intersections and challenges. New York: Peter Lang.

Naiditch, F. (n.d.). Critical questions in education. Retrieved from http://education.missouristate.edu/assets/ele/Naidtichfinal.pdf

(Donut) Holes in the Logic

Original Ad

Counter Ad

Persuasion Technique

I am not one who complains about the evils of fast food chains, especially not those that specialize in serving desserts.  Dairy Queen, Krispy Kreme, and Dunkin Donuts know what they are, and we know what they are.  They serve treats.  Any mildly informed individual should know that the products they sell are not meant to be healthy foods, and that many of their signature items are high calorie, empty calorie desserts.  No warning labels are required, and, in general, they are not trying to deceive the public.

This is why I am surprised by the pure chutzpah behind a slogan like “America Runs On Dunkin.”  Runs?  There are many valid interpretations of the word “runs,” but the graphic that accompanies the slogan seems to take them all away.  The little man running seems to imply “runs” in the most basic sense of the word: physically moving quickly, like a sprinter or a marathoner.  It is as if Dunkin is claiming to be a necessary part of our culture’s active, fast-paced lifestyle, like fuel to an engine.  What’s wrong with this?  Well, the problem is that the slogan attempts to take Dunkin out of the world of treats and goodies, and into the realm of providing energy (like a basic food group).

I would liken this tactic to “The Big Lie” persuasive technique.  If it’s true that people are more suspicious of small dessert related lies like “No trans fat” and “All-natural ingredients”, then maybe it stands to reason that a big (implied) lie like “Donuts give you sustained energy” expressed with total confidence can make people feel like a daily stop at Dunkin Donuts is a good thing.

Research

Just in case anyone still wants to give Dunkin’s advertisers the benefit of the doubt, consider visiting the company’s homepage: 

“Our menu offers great tasting products that will get you going and keep you running throughout your busy day. Made to order just the way you like” (Dunkin, 2013). 

This statement appears near the access point for nutrition information, and is located near food-guide chart, even though sweets is not a necessary food group.  This statement is meant to support their ad campaign’s implication that Dunkin Donuts provide sustained energy.

Near the nutrition charts, the company claims:

“Dunkin' Donuts is committed to offering great-tasting food and beverages that meet many different dietary needs. Here you'll find the nutritional information you need to make the right choices for your lifestyle. Explore the menu or search our nutrition catalog to customize the beverage or food that is right for you. And be sure to check out our DDSMART® menu of delicious better-for-you choices that keep you eating smart when you're on the go” (Dunkin, 2013).

Yes, caffeine, fat, and sugar are fun to consume.  I quite like them, and they do give you a quick “buzz.”  However, no doctor or nutritionist or public school health teacher would support the idea that donuts and coffee will “keep you running” throughout the day.

It seems clear to me that Dunkin’s advertisers were attempting to help the company rise above the current media frenzy to blame restaurants and grocery stores for the “obesity epidemic.”

The Counter Ad

For my counter ad, I chose to alter the original in much the same way as the examples counter ads I observed on the Media Literacy Project website.  I also chose not to refute “The Big Lie” directly but to illustrate the consequences of falling for the original ad.  

Reference

Dunkin donuts. (2013, Sep). Retrieved from https://www.dunkindonuts.com/content/dunkindonuts/en/menu/nutrition/nutrition_catalog.html?nutrition_catalog_hidden=0&nutrition_catalog_needType=All&nutrition_catalog_selPage=1&nutrition_catalog_perPage=100

Media Messages and Critical Pedagogy #2

Target- Consumer Culture is Fun!

Whose message is this? Who created or paid for it? Why?

This message was created by Target.  They created to keep their brand image fresh in the minds of the public. 

Who is the “target audience”? What is their age, ethnicity, class, profession, interests, etc.? What

words, images or sounds suggest this?

The “target audience” is the Target audience, who is young adult to middle-aged, middle class American consumers.  The image of the woman herself suggests this.  I do not believe the potential Target shopper is limited to a specific ethnicity, but it is limited to a certain socioeconomic class.  The store is actually cost-prohibitive to lower class consumers, but not exclusive enough for upper class consumers.

What is the “text” of the message? (What we actually see and/or hear: written or spoken words,

photos, drawings, logos, design, music, sounds, etc.)

Other than on the cart itself there are no words in the ad, but we do see many Target logos.  Target has made this logo ubiquitous enough that it does what every big company hopes a logo will do: be instantly recognizable to the mainstream public.  With this logo, Target has achieved brand recognition similar to that of the Nike “swoosh.”  We also see the ubiquitous Target red all over the image.   We also see an ecstatic woman (in her mid-twenties to early thirties in age) who appears to be leaping with joy.

What is the “subtext” of the message? (What do you think is the hidden or unstated meaning?)

The subtext here is that Target understands the “joy” of shopping.  Some people really like to go to the mall or the department store, participate in sales, be a part of the hype of Black Friday, and experience the sights, sounds, and “thrill” of shopping.  I believe this ad is trying to say that Target understands that feeling and is ready to deliver the positive shopping experience.

What kind of lifestyle is presented?

The lifestyle of the American consumer is presented.  In this lifestyle a weekly trip to a department store is normal, and keeping up with mainstream fashion (in both clothing and housewares) is encouraged.

What values are expressed?

Shopping is fun, consumption is an acceptable lifestyle, and Target wants its customers to be happy.

What “tools of persuasion” are used?

Although the woman in the ad is beautiful, she is representative of the everyday American consumer.  So I think, a plain folks, approach is being used.  

What positive messages are presented? What negative messages are presented?

This image is strong in its simplicity.  It is positive and leaves little room for negative interpretations.

What groups of people does this message empower? What groups does it disempower? How does

this serve the media maker's interests?

This message empowers those who enjoy consumer culture and have the money to buy new things.  It may disempower those who do not regularly participate in consumer culture.  This serves the media makers interests by attracting middle class consumers, and discouraging everyone else.

What part of the story is not being told? How and where could you get more information about the

untold stories?

The main part of the story not being told is that many American consumers lead a debt-driven lifestyle, and that consumer culture puts so much unnecessary trash into the environment.  I recommend websites like www.storyofstuff.com to find out more of that story, but any research on the effects of consumer culture can help tell the tale.  Many articles have been written.

What are the taken for granted realities?

The taken for granted realities is that everyone needs to buy consumer goods once in a while.

What power relations are exposed as a result of your deconstruction?

The power exposed here is that Target can attract a certain socio-economic class of people to shop at its location, just by creating a “happy” image.   Target can also encourage consumer culture without receiving a lot of negative feedback from the public.