Friday, January 4, 2008
Journal 8
Media Smarts: From Consumers to Critics and Creators
By Ken Ellis
This artical is about how the average student spends 6 hours plugged into some type of media each day. Yet only spends an average of 50 minutes doing homework. Still most teachers believe that the written word is the only way to communicate in todays world. Electronic media is what is influencing todays digital generation. Teachers need to get on the wagon.
Alliance for a Media Literate America (AMLA) is an organization that helps spread the word of media literacy as an essential life skill. Media literacy can mean everything from the basics of graphic design to critical analysis of advertising images and news broadcasts. It can mean differnt things to different people.
Another group helping out is the Media EducationFoundation. They are offering fifty videos and free educational materials that foster critical examinations of mainstream media and advertising.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, students work as interns at local radio stations. Youth Radio conducts an after-school programs for students. Students learn rodio-broadcasting skills, DJing, journalism, and web production.
Just Think offers programs and curriculum packages for the classroom. For example, "Flipping the Script: Critical Thinking in a Hip-Hop World" is designed to help teachers teach media-literacy concepts and production skills around the theme of hip-hop culture. The AMLA and Just Think are getting together on a three-year research project to study the efficacy of teaching media literacy in the classroom.
Nellie Greogian, the study director says, "interviews of participating teachers strongly indicate that the program has resulted in increased interest and engagement of students in core curriculum subjects as well as improved overall academic performance."
George Lucas Educational Foundation chairman, George Lucas things we should change English class to Communications class. Teach both grammatical rules and English grammer along with graphic arts and film.
Until then, teachers will continue teaching English for an hour a day and students will continue playing with their own meida devices for six hours a day.
I thought this artical was very interesting. I couldn't believe how many hours the average kid plays computer games or just on the internet. I think it would be great to teach a communications class over the regular old English class. I mean if you think about it, why do we learn English? So we have a better way to communicate with people. A better way to get our point across so people understand us. Well that is what communications is. If we can teach students more than one way of communicating to get their point across, then we have done our job.
Question 1)
What are other forms of communication besides writting?
In the artical, they talked about the radio. That is another form of media we can us to spread the word. Movies are another way to communicate what we are trying to say.
Question 2)
How can teachers bring media into the classroom
Clearly students are already using 6 hours of some sort of media today. Ask them! Get involved in what your students are intrested in. Yes, students love to play video games. Go online and find an education video game that they can play when they get home. Keep their minds working all the time.
By Ken Ellis
This artical is about how the average student spends 6 hours plugged into some type of media each day. Yet only spends an average of 50 minutes doing homework. Still most teachers believe that the written word is the only way to communicate in todays world. Electronic media is what is influencing todays digital generation. Teachers need to get on the wagon.
Alliance for a Media Literate America (AMLA) is an organization that helps spread the word of media literacy as an essential life skill. Media literacy can mean everything from the basics of graphic design to critical analysis of advertising images and news broadcasts. It can mean differnt things to different people.
Another group helping out is the Media EducationFoundation. They are offering fifty videos and free educational materials that foster critical examinations of mainstream media and advertising.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, students work as interns at local radio stations. Youth Radio conducts an after-school programs for students. Students learn rodio-broadcasting skills, DJing, journalism, and web production.
Just Think offers programs and curriculum packages for the classroom. For example, "Flipping the Script: Critical Thinking in a Hip-Hop World" is designed to help teachers teach media-literacy concepts and production skills around the theme of hip-hop culture. The AMLA and Just Think are getting together on a three-year research project to study the efficacy of teaching media literacy in the classroom.
Nellie Greogian, the study director says, "interviews of participating teachers strongly indicate that the program has resulted in increased interest and engagement of students in core curriculum subjects as well as improved overall academic performance."
George Lucas Educational Foundation chairman, George Lucas things we should change English class to Communications class. Teach both grammatical rules and English grammer along with graphic arts and film.
Until then, teachers will continue teaching English for an hour a day and students will continue playing with their own meida devices for six hours a day.
I thought this artical was very interesting. I couldn't believe how many hours the average kid plays computer games or just on the internet. I think it would be great to teach a communications class over the regular old English class. I mean if you think about it, why do we learn English? So we have a better way to communicate with people. A better way to get our point across so people understand us. Well that is what communications is. If we can teach students more than one way of communicating to get their point across, then we have done our job.
Question 1)
What are other forms of communication besides writting?
In the artical, they talked about the radio. That is another form of media we can us to spread the word. Movies are another way to communicate what we are trying to say.
Question 2)
How can teachers bring media into the classroom
Clearly students are already using 6 hours of some sort of media today. Ask them! Get involved in what your students are intrested in. Yes, students love to play video games. Go online and find an education video game that they can play when they get home. Keep their minds working all the time.
Journal 7 : Instant Messaging
Instant Messaging
I picked instant messaging to write about. As I went though classroom 2.0, I noticed they didn't have much to say about it. So I checked out a few other sites to see what they had to say about it.
First off, for any of you who don't know what instant messaging is, let me give you the definition. Instant messaging is a form of real-time communication. It is done over the Internet in text form.
It's a mix of talking on the phone and sending an email. Like I said before, it is real-time, so you know the person is right there, seeing what you are writing at the exact same time. Unlike email, you never know when the person wrote it or when the person you are sending it to, will read it.
There are many applications of instant messengers. A few of the popular ones are: AIM, Yahoo Messenger, G-chat, and MSN messenger.
My favorite is G-Chat because I use gmail. I don't have another program open to use it. Also, G-Chat has collaborated with AIM, so if you already have AIM, you can just add it to your G-Chat, so you only have one program running.
They have made programs that are like that also. You can put all your instant messaging applications into one program, so you don't have to have 5 running at the same time. This comes in handy when you have friends who are apart of AIM and Yahoo and G-Chat. Not everyone is always going to be under the same application.
I think instant messaging could be very handy with your students. Depending how much you are on the computer. With me for example, I'm always playing on the computer when I get home from work. If my students need help, instead of sending me an email and then waiting for me to reply, I can be right there helping them in real-time. I also think it will help my students communicate with each other better. They don't have much time during the day to talk to each other. Instead of talking on the phone at night to just one person. They could be talking to a few of their classmates at the same time.
There are downfalls to this. There could be a lot of cheating going on. But if you as a teacher a prepared to go the extra mile and figure ways out to avoid that, instant messaging could be great for the class room.
I picked instant messaging to write about. As I went though classroom 2.0, I noticed they didn't have much to say about it. So I checked out a few other sites to see what they had to say about it.
First off, for any of you who don't know what instant messaging is, let me give you the definition. Instant messaging is a form of real-time communication. It is done over the Internet in text form.
It's a mix of talking on the phone and sending an email. Like I said before, it is real-time, so you know the person is right there, seeing what you are writing at the exact same time. Unlike email, you never know when the person wrote it or when the person you are sending it to, will read it.
There are many applications of instant messengers. A few of the popular ones are: AIM, Yahoo Messenger, G-chat, and MSN messenger.
My favorite is G-Chat because I use gmail. I don't have another program open to use it. Also, G-Chat has collaborated with AIM, so if you already have AIM, you can just add it to your G-Chat, so you only have one program running.
They have made programs that are like that also. You can put all your instant messaging applications into one program, so you don't have to have 5 running at the same time. This comes in handy when you have friends who are apart of AIM and Yahoo and G-Chat. Not everyone is always going to be under the same application.
I think instant messaging could be very handy with your students. Depending how much you are on the computer. With me for example, I'm always playing on the computer when I get home from work. If my students need help, instead of sending me an email and then waiting for me to reply, I can be right there helping them in real-time. I also think it will help my students communicate with each other better. They don't have much time during the day to talk to each other. Instead of talking on the phone at night to just one person. They could be talking to a few of their classmates at the same time.
There are downfalls to this. There could be a lot of cheating going on. But if you as a teacher a prepared to go the extra mile and figure ways out to avoid that, instant messaging could be great for the class room.
Journal 6: Software Review
Inspiration/ Imovie Software Review
Inspiration is a great program. When playing with this program I kept finding more and more fun things to do with it. As a soon to be teacher, I think Inspiration will be a great tool for me and my students to get to know. Overall the program was pretty easy to use. I only messed around with for a short time, but in that time, I got a ton of ideas for projects that I could use in my high school classes. Not only did I think it was pretty simple to learn, but I also think my students will have an easy time learning the program. You have lots of options on what you would like to do and what you can do.
I plan on teaching history when I start teaching. They had a whole section on history and government. It won't be any problem coming up with fun projects for the students to interact with.
Via Atomic Learning is amazing! First of all, I love doing everything on the computer. If someone can put a video together and post it and show me how to work a program, it's like my dream come true. I found it very easy to use. I also liked that the subject lines told you exactly what you needed to know. It's not like I had to watch a ton of video clips to finally get what I needed. I think this is a great tool and everyone should be able to use it. I guess they are slowing starting to do that on Youtube.com. I hope it doesn't stop there!
Imovie
Imovie is awesome. First I have to say that I love the Mac now. They couldn't make it any easier if they wanted to. I believe because of that, Imovie is just the same. It's so easy to use and play with. I had a great time cutting the pieces and putting them together. I think Imovies would be just as easy for my students to use. Now, I do have high school students, so I believe almost anything with technology is going to be easy for them. But the mac has made Imovie so simple, I think kids all the way down to 4th grade would have no problem playing with it.
This would be fun to use in class as a school project. Kids love making movies. If they could act something out and put it on film, what better way to get them involved. I plan on teaching history. Instead of the students just writing up a biography, what if they make a movie about someone they admire from history? That way, not only will that student learn about the person, but every kid can watch the movie and learn a little something as well.
Imovie software is great. I hope the school that I get to teach in will have this software.
Inspiration is a great program. When playing with this program I kept finding more and more fun things to do with it. As a soon to be teacher, I think Inspiration will be a great tool for me and my students to get to know. Overall the program was pretty easy to use. I only messed around with for a short time, but in that time, I got a ton of ideas for projects that I could use in my high school classes. Not only did I think it was pretty simple to learn, but I also think my students will have an easy time learning the program. You have lots of options on what you would like to do and what you can do.
I plan on teaching history when I start teaching. They had a whole section on history and government. It won't be any problem coming up with fun projects for the students to interact with.
Via Atomic Learning is amazing! First of all, I love doing everything on the computer. If someone can put a video together and post it and show me how to work a program, it's like my dream come true. I found it very easy to use. I also liked that the subject lines told you exactly what you needed to know. It's not like I had to watch a ton of video clips to finally get what I needed. I think this is a great tool and everyone should be able to use it. I guess they are slowing starting to do that on Youtube.com. I hope it doesn't stop there!
Imovie
Imovie is awesome. First I have to say that I love the Mac now. They couldn't make it any easier if they wanted to. I believe because of that, Imovie is just the same. It's so easy to use and play with. I had a great time cutting the pieces and putting them together. I think Imovies would be just as easy for my students to use. Now, I do have high school students, so I believe almost anything with technology is going to be easy for them. But the mac has made Imovie so simple, I think kids all the way down to 4th grade would have no problem playing with it.
This would be fun to use in class as a school project. Kids love making movies. If they could act something out and put it on film, what better way to get them involved. I plan on teaching history. Instead of the students just writing up a biography, what if they make a movie about someone they admire from history? That way, not only will that student learn about the person, but every kid can watch the movie and learn a little something as well.
Imovie software is great. I hope the school that I get to teach in will have this software.
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