Email, Texting and IM

I recently finished a paper on how formal academic writing is changing due to increased use of email, texting and IM. I'm posting it here so that all those who participated in my research have a chance to see the final results. To access it please go to my wiki and look for ITSF 4190 Term Project.

Media Project

Final Media Project on Identity:

Multimodal Dance

Tonight I took a break from the crazy amount of end of the semester work and went to see a performance by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. There aren't enough adjectives to describe it. But I'm biased because I love dance and I've been around it my whole life. Tonight, though, was the world premiere of "Uptown" choreographed by one of the company members. This performance was something I've never seen in dance before...and this might be because I don't generally go to modern dance performances. Dance is usually set to music, but tonight, they incorporated images, audio recordings of W.E.B. Du Bois and Zora Neale Hurston, poetry by Langston Hughes, and narration by one of the dancers. It was all beautifully choreographed to present the history of the Harlem Renaissance as a multimodal feast for the senses.

This is crazy!

Are we really a step away from having computers as a part of our physique?

Cell Phones as Teaching Tools

I came across this article today as I turned my computer on. It's something I've been interested in trying to incorporate into my teaching as a tool but I'm not sure how my principal would feel about it since we have a quasi-strict "no cell phones in class" rule. I can definitely see the positive and negative aspects to using cell phones to teach, but the author also make a good point about the technology today and who has access. I wonder if school district firewalls are a consideration for any of this as well.

New Words

One day last year my friends and I were sitting around talking about the new verbs we seemed to be using all of a sudden, "friend" being the most common. (as in "so-and-so friended me on facebook") It go me thinking about how new words are made and who makes them. The first time I heard "fantabulous" on TV recently I was a little surprised thinking, "Wait, that's my word! I made that one up! How did they know about that?" Or did I hear it from somewhere else? Maybe I made it up, maybe I didn't. It is logical to think thought that out of the millions of people in the world (and the U.S. in particular), someone else would come up with the same shortcuts and/or morphings of the language that I and my friends do. This article in USA Today online gives the "word of the year" according to the New Oxford Dictionary. And it started me thinking again, who makes language? The people or the media?

Moviemaker Practice

My practice movie from November 14, 2009.

Remixes

I was reading the article about remixes this afternoon and immediately thought of this video that my friend sent me today. The possibilities are endless.

Total Eclipse of the Heart

And I'm not sure...but I think my friend Sarah's art also counts as remixing a popular toy with a sinister purpose: www.sarahhaney.com

Moviemaker Experiment

This is my very rudimentary experiment in moviemaker to see if I can upload a big file to the blog before I try to work on our final project.

My experiment

Continuation of Hair talk

I had the opportunity to go to the Dominican Republic over the weekend to see "family" and friends. While there, I happened to film my friend's 3 year old daughter doing her hair (her mother was feeding her baby sister). Over the two days I was in my community near the Haitian border, girls kept asking me if I knew how to do their hair so they wouldn't have to wait for their moms to help. Sadly, it's one of those things that I never learned how to do even though I've watched it many times. It's a fascinating thing to watch someone do a little girl's hair. It made me think about our conversation about hair and the "Girl Like Me" video. Coincidentally, on my flight home, in the Delta magazine there was an interview with Chris Rock about his movie, Good Hair. How can something so routine spark such a big debate?

Students as Collaborators

After reading Leif Gustavson's piece about working with youth, it made me think about how I use technology in my own classroom. While I've tried to broaden my own and my students' knowledge and use of technology in Spanish class, I also limit it because I'm afraid of the possibilities of what could happen. The majority of students will start with an idea, run with it and produce something creative, but there is a small percentage that will push the dividing line of appropriateness in school. It is for this reason that I use my wiki as a website to share class information. I'm afraid that if I open it up to student users, they will abuse that privilege and add things that are inappropriate or demeaning to others. I don't do this out of an irrational fear, for I have had this experience in the past. Every year we do an interdisciplinary project and each year it involves students using technology to post information about themselves. And every year I have 3-4 students behaving inappropriately. But, I see how well we all are able to communicate our thoughts about the movies, for example, and I want to believe that high school students can do the same. I guess it just means that I need to take a risk, trust, and have a policy in place for those who test the limits.

Grassroots Movements

I was on the 9News website checking out the news in Colorado for the day and I came across a story about a single mom who decided to start a journey to find people who work to serve their communities in creative ways. It's an interesting idea and made me think of our discussion this week about what we can do once we see something (the movie about Nepalese trafficking) that moves us. 50 in 52 Journey. Dafna Michaelson's journey also reminds me of my favorite Sunday night radio program etown which is also Colorado-based but recognizes caring community members through the e-chievement award. Listening to these stories remind me that there are a lot of ordinary people out there in the world doing extraordinary things, even if it's just a normal day to them.

The subject of life pre and post-9/11 has come up a couple of different times in class now and I always find myself curious to hear what people have to say about their experiences. I have a gap in my American cultural life of this period of time when people became patriotic because it was what made you fit in. I was living outside of the U.S. in the Dominican Republic as a Peace Corps Volunteer and I remember clearly wondering how I was going to be able to relate to my students when I came home to teach the following year, without having had the same experience. I never imagined that it would be something that would come up in graduate school eight years later.

We talked about race as a signifier tonight without considering what other people of the world see when we travel outside the U.S. I was the only American living in my small community, but not the only light-skinned person. However, in the DR, if you look white and like you come from elsewhere, you are called "americana/o". Just like all Asian-looking people are called "china/o" and dark-skinned people are called "negra/o", "morena/o" or "haitiana/o". For Dominicans, race, rather skin color, is a way to identify people so you know who you are talking about.

My point in saying this is that on Sept. 11, 2001, as I was walking back to my friend's house from the bus station (after cancelling my travel for the day), I heard a "psssst, americana!" coming from the corner store I was passing. Because I was the only American in town, the man that owned the store wanted my help drafting a letter to President Bush explaining how he was ready to stand up and defend my country. Regardless of my opinion on the matter or my political leaning, I can't help but marvel at how (at least in this case) race and/or nationality was creating a positive reaction to a horrible event, while in the U.S. race and/or nationality was creating a negative reaction. I know that was not the reaction of all Dominicans, but I do still wonder how many expats/embassy employees/volunteers around the world had similar experiences.

Vermont Video

Playing with Animoto...definitely see that this could be way more fun than Moviemaker.

Time's Top 50 Websites of 2009

I came across this article today and found some fun sites that I had never heard of before: 50 Best Websites 2009 My personal new favorites are Visuwords, Know Your Meme, Kiva and Boing Boing. Sometimes though, I feel like my mind is on sensory overload. There is so much out there how can we possibly absorb it all, make it useful and continue to lead a peaceful and productive life?

Something to Consider

This video made me re-think a couple of things as I considered the use of ipods and cell phones in the classroom. Who says texting has to be the enemy of the 21st century teacher? How can we use it more effectively? How can I use it in a Spanish class and still keep kids speaking Spanish?

Pay Attention Video

Last night I went to see Rodrigo y Gabriela (www.rodgab.com) in concert. I managed to snag a spot on the third floor which I personally feel has the best view since it's amazing to watch their hands fly. As I looked down at the crowd below I couldn't help but think about how different concerts are now compared to ten years ago. I saw a sign that said "No flash photography" and thought about how once upon a time we had to wear the camera around our necks to get it in. Now it's not necessary since you can't find a phone that doesn't have one. I experimented with my Blackberry and was able to take and upload pictures as well as (poorly) record video all without anyone asking me to stop. Is this legal? Are there copyright issues? When reading about multimodalities and the multitude of examples given to motivate students and teach them media literacy skills...what are the implications for copyright laws?

Venezuela, Chavez and Education

I came across this article today about Hugo Chavez issuing a new educational law mandating that politics be taught in schools. It struck me as interesting to compare it to the fallout of President Obama's national speech to schoolchildren last week. There seem to me to be some similarities in the way that the message was delivered and also in the way that citizens received it. Hopefully, though, the differences outweigh the similarities...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/america_latina/2009/09/090916_venezuela_clases_amab.shtml

(Sorry, I tried looking for it in English but couldn't find anything related.)

Quick Post

Get This - Survey Results - GlowDay.com

The $150 Space Camera: MIT Students Beat NASA On Beer-Money Budget

The $150 Space Camera: MIT Students Beat NASA On Beer-Money Budget

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Oh what dreams may come!

The Machine is Us/ing Us

We didn't get to talk about this video in class tonight...yet it really made me consider the ways in which communication has changed throughout the last 15 years. While I was studying for my undergrad degree, email was a novelty sweeping through college campuses. Now, I'm trying to embrace technology and change my thinking about what literacy means. Which brings my thoughts back to the video...we seem to be in a constant state of creating new gadgets and applications to do more and share even more. We are connected all the time. Is this how we are the machine? Or is it how the machine is using us?