Digital Case Study
Ah, one of the many fun Toss assignments. 
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Update: Worksheets
I now have a worksheet tab with all the WONDERFUL worksheets I am creating for my classes… Take what you need, but cite your sources . Feed back on these would be awesome. 
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Storytelling is the keyword for the way I want to teach my future classes. Structuring a class’s unit plans around the ways in which stories are told means flexibility: sometimes units will be thematically based, other times they will be issue based, and still there will be times when units could be genre based. Structuring a class in this way allows students to make connections about the ways in which stories are told, and help them pick out reoccurring plots and archetypes.
I decided long ago that a fun and exciting unit to teach would be on the genre of horror, as it is a rich genre when times is taken to engage the text. There is plenty of good literature in the horror genre that is already taught in school: The works Edger Allen Poe, The Lottery, The Birds, The Turn of The Screw, (some examples bleed over into science fiction, which would make for a nice discussion) The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and The Island of Dr. Moreau, Frankenstein are a few of the more popular ones.
The video I created in intended to be an introduction to horror as a genre, hopefully putting everyone in the class on the same page with some of the more important vocabulary and conventions: mood and intention, horror versus terror, the four typical conflict types and most frequently seen subgenres. With the introduction of these elements and vocabulary out of the way, as the teacher, I can spend more time discussing cultural context around the works the class is studying, which with horror, is a major factor in interrupting a piece.
I would like to continue to make these introductory videos for different genres, themes and issues I might teach, specifically I would like to make videos for dystopian literature, naturalism (referenced in the horror video) and one for transcendentalism.
I was really surprised by the amount of work involved in making the video. I think the research and the scrip writing took up a great deal of time, and sadly I had to cut almost a page out of my original scrip for time issues. It was the powerpoint, however, that took the most time. Looking back, I would like to have added more pictures into the powerpoint to keep it from being so text heavy, but I think considering the purpose of the video, it needs to be text heavy to communicate all the information clearly. Working with Audacity was not a fun task; in fact, I gave up on the program because the new versions add in a voice tag when exporting to mp3 format. I did find out later that if you open your voice file in the sound recorder for windows, you can chop off that voice tag. The most frustrating part of the video process was making the individual slides match up with cues in the recording – needless to say, I found some interesting ways to make my sound and video timing match up. This project, while fun and rewarding, has likely involved more hours than any other project I have done in college – this video is at least twenty house worth of work.
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Ten Things CHARACTER ANALYSIS CREATIVE WRITING ASSIGNMENT WORKSHEET
- This activity is intended for students grades ninth through twelfth, although I feel like it might be best for freshmen and sophomore students. On the surface it is a creative writing activity meant to help students get to know characters they might be writing about, but embedded within that is a personal goal setting activities (step 1 of the activity). This activity may also be used to help students gain an understanding of a character from a work that they are already reading; you might ask, “How would so-and-so from Bombingham answer these questions?” and let the students fill in the answers. Because of the three activities the “Character Analysis Sheet” could be used for, I think the clip and activity are very versatile.
I choose this clip first because of the versatility I saw in the questions and the uses of the answers, but I feel like the video clip would be great in the classroom as the rawness and simple language would be thought provoking and easy for anyone to understand. There are many “Character Analysis” sheets on the Internet intended for helping students get to know their own characters, but I thought using a song like this might help them internalize the questions and remember them. Also, I hoped with the song’s positive message and the tendency for adolescents to be music sensitive, students might enjoy the activity rather than just going though the motions of it – not to mention, the song is only two minutes long so it won’t take up too much class time.
While I don’t feel like there is anything in the song that might be offensive, there is always a risk when bringing in contemporary material. Also, there is a chance that some students might not respond to the music if they feel it is dated, but I think that might be unlikely. If the video is ever taken down from the Internet, I have the album, so at least the class will be able to hear the song, which is the most important part.
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Imagine an advertisement in your favorite magazine. You come across it as you are flipping through the articles on muscle building, or bird houses, or flowerbeds, or Dior bags, or parenting, or whatever it is you read about. The advertisement is generally nonstriking… typical even. The advertisement is for a new truck and contains nothing outside the ordinary: big truck, desert or mountain scene for the background and lots of fine print at the bottom. However, there is one word that stands out, and it is really the most noticeable feature of the ad: the word STUD. Just like that, in all caps… maybe even BOLD: STUD. Maybe you just keep going; well, likely you just keep going and think nothing about what you saw. But, that image, and the word, pose many questions: What is the role of vehicles in our lives? Are they for transportation or for status? Are they connected to masculinity or femininity? Penis size? If the background was a city scene would the company still be advertising a truck? Would they still use the word STUD? And in all caps? Most importantly, what are the consequences of adverting like this?
That’s a lot of questions, and I don’t all the answers. What I do know is this: Marshall McLuhan said “All advertising advertises advertising.” And that is true. All advertising is just an advertisement for an idea; this is an economy of ideas – bought and sold. And our truck advertisement… well, it is just selling the idea of masculinity, or “studliness” perhaps. The message is clear: buy this truck and you will be a stud. In fact, by presenting the truck with the word stud, the truck becomes analogous with the word/idea of “studliness” – if the truck is achievable, so is the idea.
If you take this advertisement, along with McLuhan’s quote, and apply it to the ideas Neil Postman expressed in his essay “The Word Weavers/ The World Makers,” it becomes clear that truck in the advertisement is physically an “a definition.” Sure, that sounds funny, but what Postman means by “a definition” and not “the definition” is that definitions are fluid, changeable and numerous. In the instance of the advertisement, the truck is a definition for masculinity, for “studliness.” Postman argues that the definitions we accept as our own shape our would view, as definitions exist only to help us put the world into understandable packages. If we follow Postmen, it means that by buying to the idea that the truck really is a physical manifestation, a physical definition, of masculinity, then if we want to be masculine we must posses the truck. This is a scary though… it points to how we become manipulated by advertisements and how our would views become skewed.
Before you decided to buy, think: am I buying the object or the idea.
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The Social Web
“[All] roads now point to a Web where very little is done in isolation and all things are collaborative and social in nature,” says Will Richardson in his chapter “The Social Web.” And I say I must agree. When I look Wikipedia and other wiki sites the collaborative nature of these sites is the first thing that comes to mind… I see millions of little bees working all over the world, creating, compiling, posting and editing information. While it is true that all this information isn’t one hundred percent correct, as I have discussed on my blog in the past, more than less it is correct – cited, compiled and edited by people who care about the information and its accuracy. The social aspect of the Web helps lend to the collaborative aspect. 
In my last post I mentioned some of the problems and possibilities that social networking sites can create. Richardson concerns himself with all the possibilities, and the way he speaks, they are almost endless; his favorite site appears to be Twitter. He likes the brevity of the posts and the question/answer discussion that can take place on the site. He notes as I noted the opportunity for sharing information that these sites can provide, but Richardson takes things one step further and asks answers the question it didn’t even occur to me to ask: what do we do with all the information once we get it, and how do we keep up with all the links and sites?
Richardson offers up two sites that not only solve the problem of what to do with all these links, but provides the user with even more opportunity to share information: these kinds of sites are social bookmarking sites. They allow you to find other sites, collecting, organizing and sharing the information you find. Based on what you need to do sites like Diigo or Delicious might be the way to go. As I am currently working on a Wiki entry on Walt Whitman’s place in pop culture with four other people, sites like Diigo and Delicious would make sharing our research easier, as we could tag our colleagues into a site so they could retrieve the information we found.
Social bookmarking pages really seem to help connect the dots in the social web. Sites dedicated almost solely to social networking, like FaceBook or Twitter, allow the use to connect with other people who share a common interest; sites like WikiSpaces allow uses with a comment interest to collaborate and work in an on line forum; social bookmarking link these two endeavors, allowing users to organize the information they have gathered and share it with others in a meaningful and organized way.
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The Classroom Network
Social networking site are a fun way to well… social network. And almost everyone is on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr or any number of other sites for the intention of… well, any number of things – whatever that intention may be, it matter. If fact, more than just the intention matters; as educators we must be very careful of the online persona we are creating.
Back in September, 2009, Ashley Payne, a Georgia teacher was asked to step down because of photos posted of her on FaceBook. These were not puckered-face, extreme-angle, underwear photos, so lovingly referred to as MySpace photos; they were photos of her and some friends, touring Europe, and in a few pictures she was seen holding a glass of wine or beer. Payne’s FaceBook page was set to private, and she did not allow students or strangers to become her friends. So, what’s the big deal? I don’t have the answer to that, but I know that Payne is not the first educator to loose her job over something posted on the Internet. The Washington Post notes that Georgia is not alone, Florida and Tennessee have also removed teachers due to content posted on the wed; but this type of action is not localized to the south, Colorado and Massachusetts have also fired teachers for similar actions. Steven Murmur was fired for posting a video of himself painting a canvas with his buttocks on YouTube. Granted he was an art teacher, but still what does this say about his online persona? What does the online persona say about the real person? Again, I don’t know, but I know the school system is more concerned with how the real person is making the school look.
So what is fair? Being fired for photos taken on another continent of several teachers having wine? Likely that isn’t fair, especially as Payne was the only teacher asked to resign. But I’m sure most of us can agree painting a canvas with your buttock on YouTube says something about you, something which might tarnish the school’s reputation. Regardless of what is right or wrong, teachers have to be aware of what they put out there and how it will be perceived, and how it could be used against them. If we are going to use these sites, we need our intentions to be consistent with the message we send. This means, above all, professionalism. Again, regardless of right or wrong, professionalism is important; equally important is making sure your idea of professionalism matches that of the school system in charge.
All that being said, social networking sites can provide an awesome opportunity for teachers as colleagues and collaborators. The ability to share new information at such a high speed is amazing! Not only that, but the shear number of people that you can share it with is astounding! I have friends on my FaceBook page, not from all over the world, but from several different countries, and while it is nice to know what my friend Fred from high school had for breakfast, I am more interested in what my friend in New Zealand read in his literature Journal, or what new story NPR is breaking. I would even be willing to take this a step further and say that assignments could be created around social networking sites. I saw a book at the bookstore in the humor section that was nothing more than famous literary characters FaceBook-ing each other. This is something students might really respond and relate to. So yes, with the right group of students I would happily use these technologies in my class (especially WikiSpaces). I feel I should note, none of the characters were posting videos of themselves painting with their buttocks.
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“Both Cory Doctorow’s novel, Little Brother, and Suzanne Collin’s novel, The Hunger Games, deal with issues of surveillance, constructed media events and powerlessness at the hands of the government. All three issues are related, in part, by technology. I wanted to convey the presence of technology from both books in this picture; therefore I think it is important to note my process for creating the picture. To begin with, I did a web search on each novel, as Marcus might have done on the x-net in Little Brother. I copy and pasted the text from popular sites about the novels into the “word cloud” generator on wordle.com. I then used took a screenshot of the newly created word cloud. I did several of these word clouds, changing the color to try and fit the mood or make it look like a circuit board to fit the theme. I eventually decided on this one. I also want to note that I decided not to cut out the any part of the screenshot, which was my original intention. Upon looking at the screenshot, I felt that the presence of task bar and other buttons only added to the presence of technology in the picture.
For the main image, I choose a peace sign. I did this for two reasons: one, I feel peace is the ultimate goal for both Katniss and Marcus, and two, it is ironic. In both novels some government agency or force acts under the guise of creating or maintaining peace and order, but really they create the exact opposite – chaos. I choose the bottom third of the peace sign because Little Brother and The Hunger Games are different in their governmental representations of control; for Little Brother the agency is the Department of Homeland Security, or the DHS. The DHS in the novel does nothing to create homeland security, in fact, it creates homeland insecurity; just as the terrorists invade San Fransisco, taking security away from American residents, the DHS invades Marcus’s home and turns his technology against him. For Katniss in The Hunger Games, the government agency is The Capitol. The Capitol also acts under the pretense of peace. The Hunger Games exists as a reminder of who is in power – however, more bloody, it not unlike the actions of the DHS in Little Brother. Supposedly, the Hunger Games keep people “in line” and following the rules. When the rules are broken in either novel, power or voice (which is a power of its own) is taken away.
In the remaining two spaces of the peace sign, I used a photo I took of a security camera and one I took of television showing Fox News Network. The television represents constructed media events. The constructed media events in The Hunger Games are obvious – the entirety of the hunger games is shaped and manipulate for effect: think of Katniss’s stylists, the ways the tributes have to gain sponsors, the interviews, and how the gamemakers alter events to add drama. In Little Brother the events that are constructed are muddier: the Alternate Reality Game that Marcus and his friends play is a harmless constructed media event that plays elect to participate in, but it points to a bigger more sinister construction; for example, the concert in the park is a constructed media even, meant to empower the attendants, and just as it is constructed, so is the raid on the concert constructed by the DHS. The VAMPMOB is another constructed media event in Little Brother. The last space is dedicated to the security camera; both novels deal with the issue of surveillance. For Katniss, she must always be fearful of how she will be read by the hidden cameras and microphones, because of this, surveillance alters her behavior. The same can be said for Marcus. The DHS has bugged his computer, spied on him, followed and tracked him… he knows he is being watched my them. As a result, Marcus feels helpless as technology is used against him, and shameful for no other reason than he is being watched for no reason.
I kept Marshal McLuhan in mind as I worked on this project. I wanted the medium to be part of the message, as the message of both books was about this medium – technology. I think of a McLuhan quote: “All advertising advertises advertising.” While neither novel is really about advertising, the quote shows the loop a medium, and, I think, points to the construction of media events.”
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Teaching Patriotism
I wish I could find the text book from my college Logic class, as I’m sure there is a term for what I’m about to explain; if you know it, please share. While I’m reading a chapter from Postman’s book, The End of Education, entitled “The American Experiment,” I’m finding myself in agreement with almost all of Postman’s premises, but not his argument. Postman feels that one concern educators, and those who create curriculum, leave out is “acquiring and/or deepening a love of one’s country.” My first reaction was simply to roll my eyes and keep reading, but then stopped and considered the implications of teaching patriotism. I posed the question to my friends along side some of the other points Postman not:
“Hey guys, do you think it is an educator’s place to develop the self-esteem of students, broaden their understanding of people of different cultural heritages and make them develop an appreciation for the arts?”
The answers I got to this first question were mixed, but mostly yeses. So, I posed the second part of my question, which is, of course, Postman’s argument:
“Do you think we should teach patriotism?”
I knew my friends were cynical, but this surprised me; from one friend I got, “Please, the last thing we need is for public schools to start teaching jingoism.” A second answer followed: “Schools are already run by the state, i.e. government, so the fact that they don’t teach patriotism is good. It means we’re still not a fascist country.” I nodded my head and went back to reading the essay. On page 131 Postman notes that throughout the country “there is a certain uneasiness about where patriotism might lead.” I know Postman believes there is a certain fear of teaching patriotism, but I feel, and maybe this be partly due to where I’m from, the exact opposite. At my high school patriotism was taught. I was in my sophomore year of high school when 911 occurred, and later one of the teachers that I was very close to lost a son in Iraq; in my high school, currents of patriotism ran high, and I would argue, to the point of unfounded, unquestioning, blind faith. And this is where I start to agree with Postman.
Students should not be blind. They should be involved in the argument. Arguments are important for students to understand and participate in; they need the skills to be able to sniff out false premises. We should have students look at documents, historical and current, examine the questions of our forefathers and see if the arguments they made still hold. And sure, why not a little rote memorization of the First Amendment, in fact, Hell Yes! Make the students know the entire Bill of Rights. I even like the ideas he has for testing students on them; although, I do think it is a bit extreme to make a student rewrite the First Amendment and give a rational for any changes they made, in order to graduate – but to argue that point here would just be quibbling… Save for The Scarlet Letter (the bane of my literary existence), I appreciate the texts he believes every teacher should read; but I’m sad to add that two of those (Democracy in America and Democracy and Education) have been left out of both my education classes and philosophy classes – so it looks like I have some reading to do before I get to the classroom. I could continue to list the things I agree with, but it all boils down to this: I believe, as Postman does, at American students need to be involved in the Great American Conversation! Yes, but I think there is more involved in that conversation…
I want to restate a point I made in the last paragraph: I feel teachers are afraid not to teach patriotism. It seems that there is a “if-you’re-not-with-us-you’re-against-us” attitude present in a lot of media and individuals concerning the War on Terror. That being said, patriotism is a little vague of a term, but it is closest we have. To me, patriotism consists not only of the men and women who created this country, wrote its first laws and fought for its independence, but also everything that happened after that. We have to ask our students if prohibition laws were really “okay.” If they were not, what does that say about our government? Does that make bootleggers in any way “true patriots” as they fought against laws they felt were wrong. We need to ask our students if the Constitution should ever be allowed to limit freedom. We must teach students that the true patriots are the ones who question, the ones who act and subsequently the ones who make changes. But, that is dangerous for educators to do. I think of the teacher from Cory Doctorow’s young adult novel Little Brother. She was removed from her position for talking about Abbie Hoffman (in my eyes a true patriot, even naming his son america – with a little “a”) and the Yippies. I know that Postman calls for participation in the conversation, most importantly from the youth, but he leaves out any youthful voice in his list of “must reads.” The only work included that comes close to a youthful voice is that of Martin Luther King, Jr. This is not the way to reach young people; they need to hear voices as passionate as their own, questions as upsetting as what they know and be safe when their answers diverge from the predicted.
Maybe I shouldn’t profess this, but I am more understanding of Ani DeFrano’s patriotism; in her poem “Grand Canyon” she says: “I love my country/ By which I mean/ I am indebted joyfully/ To all the people throughout its history who have fought the government to make right.” This poem professes the wonderment of free speech and thanks the “foremothers” feminism. This is the kind of patriotism that should be taught, the kind of patriotism that remembers just how much of America is built on disobedience.
NOTE: Postman makes a good point about technology being part of the Great American Conversation, but it comes in too late. While it is good, and again, I agree with him on this part, the argument is too small and no where near as compelling as the rest of the essay. I wish he had devoted more time to this section of the essay, as I think a better case can be made that understanding and participating in what happens with technology is patriot. Also, I was so happy that he used McLuhan in the essay, as I feel the medium is the message, and that means I feel this essay was more about teaching patriotism than anything else.
Ani DeFranco’s “Grand Canyon”
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Final Project Proposal
I intend to create a video about the genre of horror in literature, focusing on how to identify horror as a genre, what is and isn’t in the genre and explore some very general sub-genres of horror. To help identify types of horror I intend to use clips from popular fiction and film, as well commonly seen/known archetypes. I see this video as an introduction to a unit on horror for any ELA Classroom. Some of the more works I might use this video to introduce would include, The Lottery, Frankenstein, The Island of Dr. Moreau, almost anything by Edgar Allen Poe or H.P. Lovecraft (namely Shadow Over Innsmouth). If the video is a success, I would like to make more videos to introduce genre, possibly a sci-fi video focusing on Dystopian novels. I will be sure to include that genre is not stable and can overlap.
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Recent Entries
- Digital Case Study
- Update: Worksheets
- Individual Media Project Reflection: HORROR
- “Ten Things” Character Analysis Assignment
- Studliness: Postman, McLuhan and a Moment of Marketed Masculinity
- The Social Web
- The Classroom Network
- Assignment: Response to Little Brother and The Hunger Games
- Teaching Patriotism
- Final Project Proposal
- The Hunger Games
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