Category Archives: UBC – ETEC 531 Curriculum Issues

MOODLE: YouTube & Youth Culture (ETEC 531)

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YouTube & Youth Culture

As part of a Moodle module “The YouTube Effect”

In this lesson you will explore the inter-relationships between

YouTube and youth culture

Definitions:

Youth:

·      young person: a young person (especially a young man or boy)

·      young: young people collectively;

·      the time of life between childhood and maturity

·      early maturity;

·      the state of being young or immature or inexperienced

·      an early period of development;

·      the freshness and vitality characteristic of a young person

(wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)


Culture:

·      a particular society at a particular time and place;

·      the tastes in art and manners that are favored by a social group

·      acculturation: all the knowledge and values shared by a society

(wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)


Youth culture:

·      youth-directed media and popular culture

·      youth-as-trouble

·      youth-as-fun

·      youth-as-future

·      youth-as-confusing tribe

Youth culture is most usefully defined as a field of artifacts, identities and practices which are circulated by youth as about and for youth.

(Driscoll, C. & Gregg, M. (2008). Broadcast yourself: moral panic, youth culture and internet studies. Pre-print of published chapter appearing in Usha Rodrigues (ed), Youth and Media in the Asia-Pacific Region,Cambridge Scholars Press, Cambridge)

Engage

Related pre-test question: Is YouTube its own culture?

Watch this Power Point Presentation

 Mobile Youth Tribes

The Mobile Youth Culture of Tribes

Understanding youth culture is not easy. This presentation defines tribes are core to youth culture. With Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, for example, young people’s values are no longer based on where they live (geography), but how they live (lifestyle).

Explore

Related pre-test question: What role does YouTube play in defining youth culture?

YouTube tribes & communities

Scroll through this YouTube video to see the numbers.

YT Identity Survey Results

Have a look at this YouTube video to explore the meaning of community.

What Defines a Community

Positive youth roles

Positive Youth Roles

Dangerous zones: the beginning of this video shows you what is on the web about eating disorders (note that to see pro-anorexia videos, one needs to sign in)

The Truth about Online Anorexia

Explain

Think:

a. Do you agree with the analogy that defines youth culture as a variety of tribes / communities?

[…] “generational consciousness” finds its most acute expression in subcultures. Subcultures exist at the cultural fringe and are typically anti-establishment and confrontational. Subcultures are frequently portrayed as dangerous by the mainstream media and are typically associated and confused with delinquency.

The majority of Western youth will never invest themselves in a subculture proper. They will, nonetheless, invest themselves in a youth identity that sets itself apart from the identities of the older generation. Such non-subcultural identities are typically modified, less confrontational, versions of subcultural identities.

Divested of their extreme stylistic alterity and transformed into a consumable object by fashion, music and other cultural industries, subcultural styles are frequently appropriated by, and thereby integrated into, dominant culture. (http://iyp.oxfam.org/documents/Chapter%2011%20Global%20Youth%20Culture%20&%20Youth%20Identity.pdf)

b. If you were to choose a community to join in YouTube, which one would it be?


Discuss:

Related pre-test question: Is Youtube a mainstream American culture, or does it have distinct entities?

The internet age threatens to condense the entire world’s culture into a single YouTube video:

In it [this single YouTube video] a personification of Youth Culture dances to 50 Cent while sipping a giant, corn-syrupy Starbucks latte. It’s world unity, sure, but from Helsinki to London to Paris, many fear that the oncoming juggernaut of the new internet age may pave over local difference. (http://www.utne.com/2008-01-08/Politics/Euro-Youth-Culture-in-Crisis-YouTube-and-Hip-Hop-to-the-Rescue.aspx)

a. Do you think that YouTube is generating conformity, rather that tribal differences?

b. Can both of these realities co-exist (tribes & conformity)? How?

Extend

Read

Related pre-test question: Does the Youtube community have rituals they practice? If so what purpose do these rituals fulfill?

Is YouTube’s allure raising risk-taking in youth culture? Burlington accident a reminder of sometimes tragic consequences when extreme stunts go wrong

By Meredith MacLeod, Metroland West Media Group News (http://www.burlingtonpost.com/news/article/261371)


Gainor says tragic incidents should reinforce to parents that they have to monitor every site, every message, every video their child watches.

a. What do you think of the last statement? Why?


Navigate through these sites

Related pre-test question: How does Youtube build a sense of community?

http://www.journalofaestheticsandprotest.org/6/another/youthtube.html

·      YOU-TUBE-SIZED: 10 Radical Things About YouTube

http://www.youthmediareporter.org/2007/01/an_internet_video_revolution.html

·      YouTube offers a new, paradoxical model for youth media activism; it is used as a resource for organizing and civic action, but viewed as a profit driver by its corporate owners. Ultimately, YouTube offers youth a powerful tool in planting the seeds of social change outside and within a corporate domain.

http://www.theseminal.com/2007/07/23/the-youtube-debates-misrepresented-american-youth/

·      Instead of seeing the youth as the smart, dedicated, and serious people that we are, CNN equated youthfulness with childishness.


Watch this rap video about youth and the media

Related pre-test question: Have sites like YouYube helped or hurt youth culture?

Evaluate

Related pre-test question: Has video sites like youtube been a positive or negative influence to society at large?

Music, Media & Today’s Youth

A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in [various] contexts as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slogan)

·      Will your slogan give a positive outlook on YouTube? (democratization of information; freedom of expression; etc.)

·      Will your slogan play on the dangers of YouTube? (stalkers; false authenticity; hidden corporate interests; etc.)

Examples:

·      “The Power to Be Your Best.” (Apple Computers Advertising Slogan)

·      “Let your fingers do the walking.” (Yellow Pages Advertising Slogan)

·      “It’s the real thing.” (Coca-Cola Advertising Slogan)

·      “Just do it.” (Nike)


To design your slogan, reflect on these final (post-test) questions:

·      What impact has YouTube had on culture?

·      Will YouTube replace television?

·      Are the videos on YouTube an accurate reflection of society/culture?

·      What effect does Youtube have on culture and society?

·      What are the various identities of the YouTube community members?

 

Full Module on Moodle (password required): http://m1.cust.educ.ubc.ca/CUSTmoodle/course/view.php?id=25

What are the implications of technosecularism? (ETEC 531)

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What are the implications of technosecularism?

Secularism:

… is the assertion that governmental practices or institutions should exist separately from religion and/or religious beliefs.

In Western cultures (even in debates where religious input would be most helpful such as human cloning or fetal research) religion is in retreat as part of civil discourse while science has captured the field.
The triumph of the secular in our culture is largely the result of the triumph of empirical science.
The spiritual self:

“Knowing, being and doing are inextricable. Who we are, and how we understand ourselves in terms of our relationship with Other and the context in which we find ourselves embedded affects how we act.” (Feng, 2005)

So, on the one hand, we want to look at technology objectively. On the other hand, we are “subjects” inevitably filtering our “objectivity” through various cultural, social and economical lenses (just to name a few).

Technology may be separated from religions, if we look at religions as institutions. However, when it comes down to the more general concept of “spirituality”, encompassing many religious belief systems, it is far more difficult to set technology apart.
My place in the universe / vs / the place of my computer go hand in hand. For me, after all, my computer doesn’t exist if I don’t exit.

Existentialism & responsibility:

Existentialism, as I see it, is a philosophy based on responsibility. Human beings are responsible for their actions and decisions (even if they may not be responsible for being there in the first place).

If we look at technology through the eyes of “responsibility”, the question becomes:
• how can we use technology responsibly?
• Does that not imply that we also need to use technology compassionately? (compassion for the “robot” as much as for the “human”)

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secularism
http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/articles.aspx?article=738
Last edited on: July 14, 2009 2:42 PM

Compassion and responsibility

Responsibility refers to “consequences”
On the net, at this time, what is the ratio of discussion re: responsibility compared to, say, discussions on Paris Hilton? I bet you that Paris wins…
That’s where I get less “enthralled” with technology… I think that it gives people a chance to communicate freely…

Communicate what?

The question is: what are we talking about and why?

This does not necessarily come from “freedom” of expression… it often comes through “programming” from television and the same media we use to communicate.
The message first:

So, is technological change only superficial, when we look at it from a communication point of view?
Perhaps the role of the teacher is to constantly bring students back to the main issue: what do you have to say?

How might technoanimism alter our views on technology and spirituality?

Animism:

• The term is derived from the Latin word anima meaning breath or soul.
• In anthropology it’s used to classify religious belief systems in which both animate and inanimate objects have souls or spirits.
• More generally, it is a world view that spiritual life permeates all things

Many researchers have indicated and innate human propensity – and even willingness – to attribute non-human objects with human-like characteristics and intelligence, even when we know fully well the objects are not human.

As the internet gains ground, and ideas of cyberspace arise, we see the collective unconscious asserting itself with a technological parallel world alongside the physical…

We are beginning to see cyberspace as a fantasy-laden realm separate to the physical, and we are filling it with all the symbolism that traces itself throughout our spiritual history.

“We have never been modern”, Latour.
References:
http://seniorproject.eu/resources/PETER_LUTZ.pdf
http://beyondtheblog.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/techno-animism/
Last edited on: July 14, 2009 2:26 PM

How different is collective prayer from collective intelligence on the Internet?

Maybe one of the differences is that praying, even collectively, creates a “silence” in one’s own… what shall I call it… heart, soul?

Whereas, collective intelligence creates “noise”… and the brain (mind) has more to do with it than the heart…
Hence this whole “secular vs spiritual” discussion…

DIGITAL FILM: Exploring Cultural Issues & Communication Studies (ETEC 531)

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Exploring Cultural Issues & Communication Studies through Digital Film Production

The themes developed in this presentation have been inspired by questions from: ETEC 531 – Module 1

  1. What is communication studies?
  2. What is cultural studies?
  3. What would a digital film production high school course, including communication and cultural studies, look like if I were to design one?
This digital film asks: 
  1. How can digital film production focus on communication rather than technology?
  2. How can digital film communication include cultural studies?

Please right click and choose “open in new tab”.

Film: Exploring communication & culture through digital film production 

DIGITAL FILM: Exploring media studies through digital film communication (ETEC 531)

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Exploring Media Studies through Digital Film Communication

  • Digital film communication offers an effective way of analyzing the artificial reality presented by the media.
  • Through media studies, students learn to appreciate the spin involved when publishing media content by experiencing the technological process involved in movie making.

Video (on YouTube):

(Please right click to “open in new tab”)

 Film:Exploring media studies through digital film communication

DIGITAL FILM: Am I an Artist? (ETEC 531)

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Am I an Artist?

Here is a short 2 minute film about this theme.

In short:

  • My students create messages that are clear, that deal with social issues and that they can share with their peers to contribute to society.
  • In some ways, what they do is artistic: they use lighting, sound and original concepts.
  • Questioning society is an important part of being an artist.
  • We use creative ways to convey our messages.

Have fun!:  

Am I an Artist?

Of: Third nature; knowledge as a commodity; free of computers? (ETEC 531)

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Of: Third nature; knowledge as a commodity; free of computers?

What implications might follow when we speak of technology as Third Nature?

First, let’s define “third nature”.

First nature:

as used in farming landscape

Second nature:

city landscape

Third nature:

information landscape

Implications:

Possible negative aspect:

·         We lost contact with our physical environment

·         Cultural pollution, loss of community

Possible positive aspect:

·         The same technology that separated us from the environment may actually reconnect us with it due to the power of the media.

·         Gain of a different kind of community (cyberspace)

·         Creation of new types of culture (world cyberspace cultures?)



What reasons might Lyotard have for bringing up the crisis of legitimation of knowledge?

When knowledge becomes a commodity, it loses some of its value. Also, productivity and “performativity” (Lyotard) are not compatible with a world inhabited by humans. Human beings need art, leisure, silliness, fun… which brings along creativity, innovation, fresh ideas.

I agree with Lyotard when he equates technological development with:

Sophistication

Imagination

and

inventiveness

 

Is it possible (or not) to break free of the totalizing effect of computer-controlled environments?

“I’ve been colonized” (Rheingold, Culture and technology, p. 202)

I think that his statement sums it up very accurately. We live with computers, whether we like it or not. Either we learn to use them, preferably creatively and peacefully, or we are out.

This machine driven world implies isolation, generalization and it also means a creation of smaller communities, with their own political discourses (the “petit récit).

Cyberdemocracy has become visible in the horizon with the rise of the Internet. Various discussion groups can be decentralized and are less easy to control for big governments.

CMCs (computer mediated communities) have become a reality. They are bound to generate many new ideas… will they be able to gel and change social barriers that create the disparities of our world?

Nation & State in Conflict (ETEC 531)

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How might the role of a nation conflict with that of the state?

The state:

is in essence the operations needed to control the socialization of a people.

A nation:

is comprised of peoples; traditions and ways of life (Culture & Technology, Murphie & Potts, p.181).

Conflict:

The network state, like the European Union tends to use processes and information gathering that is essentially global. The scope of operations is international (economy, politics, etc.).

To respond to this globalization shift, cultural identities are formed, such as environmental groups. By definition, these entities are interested in local issues.

What implications might there be if the nation-state is in decline?

In Canada, at least for time, there was much talk about Québec’s sovereignty (a word put forward by the leader of the Parti Québecois). The notion supposedly involved the idea that culture would be preserved. The French language would be protected and global enculturation would be kept at bay.

As we know, the separatist movement lost its wings and the province of Québec is now fully endorsing globalization.

This means that the government is now adopting a less selective approach to strategic decision making, allowing for more flexibility in commercial dealings.

However, it also means that the nation (people) is become more fragmented, less cohesive, and more fundamentally pluralistic. Some advantages: tolerance and diversity. Some disadvantages: loss of traditions and identity.

Cyborgs, body, info & technology (ETEC 531)

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Cyborgs, body, info & technology

Some of the information I found fascinating:

  • A women invented computer programming!
  • The redefinition of gender with technological innovations
  • Self-organizing machines

When I think of AL (artificial Life) and of networked systems that cooperate in order to evolve, it makes me nervous. I know that we already live with these systems, but I must admit that I am ignorant of many of their more simple applications. Or, if I know that I use such systems every day, I have become accustomed to them.

Human being are very adaptable. To what extend will we adapt to our technological developments?

Should it not be the technology that adapts to humans though?

I guess this brings us back to the utopia / dystopia problem.

Can we trust our own creations? Will nanobots invade us or cure our ills? Shall we just believe in the will of “God”… the ultimate “system organizer”?

Science fiction & ethical problems (ETEC 531)

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How does sci-fi contribute to highlighting ethical problems related to the implementation of new technologies?

What I find particularly interesting was the influence of sci-fi on the values that we attribute to science and technology.

Frankly, I had not really questioned the “dystopia” that is most often transmitted in SF films. Due to the proliferation of nuclear technology and other types of weaponry that is bound to eventually cause mass destruction, the idea of technology turning against humans seems very plausible (unfortunately).

On the other hand, I would rather believe in the “Star Trek” utopia of poverty having been overcome; equal opportunity hierarchy and faithful androids. But, this version of SF seems less likely to happen.

I am now reading a book called: Wake, from a Canadian writer. It is about the Internet developing a consciousness. At this point, it is neither a utopia, nor a dystopia… In terms of simulacra (Baudrillard), I think that the story  pertains to the third category: simulation. It explores hyperreality… but it does not aim for full control… yet.

How do you see SF in relation to the problems that we face in our world?

Neural pathways and the autopoiesis of life (ETEC 531)

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Neural pathways and the autopoiesis of life

  • Connectionist model:
    • implies that machines might eventually attain consciousness if the networks can learn autopoietically (the unit of cognition is no longer located in self but within the larger context in which the self is located).
  • However, human design the machines and have an influence on their content and structure.

Arising questions:

Could a collective intelligence  emerge through networking?

  • How does this new “collective intelligence” diverge from the self-organizing principles held by Maturana and Varela?
  • Is the collective “intelligence” related to the “collective unconscious”?

I love languages and seem to pick them up easily.

When I travel, I often start using works and expressions that I don’t seem to have learned formally before. One could say that my brain just unconsciously grasped this vocabulary while hearing conversations.

But it seems to be more than that. I have often explained this phenomenon by saying that I was connecting to the collective unconscious.

When I was in West Africa, I learned the language of the Mossi people (Mooré: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mossi) that way.

Interestingly, it only happens when I am physically present in the country. I don’t experience this online, for example.

  • Have you ever had such experiences?
  • Do you think that computers could connect to this “collective unconscious” through the Internet, for example?

Technology & consciousness (ETEC 531)

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Key themes and terminologies

Technology changes thought and thought changes technology

  • Chess-playing computer, asserting that technology can be more intelligent than humans;
  • Theories emphasizing the importance of emotions when defining conscientiousness;
  • The essence of technology defined as not “technological”, but rather a way of “reveiling” (Heidegger);
  • Wondering whether thinking happens inside or outside?

Pondering about the effects of on the way we:

  • relax (tv, videos, DVDs…);
  • travel (planes, cars, etc.);
  • experience relationships (sex: contraception, etc.).

Presenting a relationship between thought and technology:

  • the pen, the word processor influence what we think, what we write…
  • Critiques argue that our language is being computerized (Heim, 1993).

Culture and Technology (ETEC 531)

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Culture and Technology

  1. Key themes and terminologies

This chapter’s essential theme is that technology changes thought and thought changes technology.

 

Some highlights:

 

·         Chess-playing computer, asserting that technology can be more intelligent than humans;

 

·         Theories emphasizing the importance of emotions when defining conscientiousness;

 

·         The essence of technology defined as not “technological”, but rather a way of “reveiling” (Heidegger);

 

·         Wondering whether thinking happens inside or outside?

 

·         Pondering about the effects of on the way we:

o   relax (tv, videos, DVDs…);

o   travel (planes, cars, etc.);

o   experience relationships (sex: contraception, etc.).

 

·         Presenting a relationship between thought and technology:

o   the pen, the word processor influence what we think, what we write…

o   Critiques argue that our language is being computerized (Heim, 1993).

 

2.      Neural pathways and the autopoiesis of life

 

·         Connectionist model: implies that machines might eventually attain consciousness if the networks can learn autopoietically (the unit of cognition is no longer located in self but within the larger context in which the self is located).

 

·         However, human design the machines and have an influence on their content and structure.

 

3.      Arising questions:

Could a collective intelligence  emerge through networking?

·         How does this new “collective intelligence” diverge from the self-organizing principles held by Maturana and Varela?

 

·         Is the collective “intelligence” related to the “collective unconscious”?

I love languages and seem to pick them up easily.

When I travel, I often start using works and expressions that I don’t seem to have learned formally before. One could say that my brain just unconsciously grasped this vocabulary while hearing conversations.

But it seems to be more than that. I have often explained this phenomenon by saying that I was connecting to the collective unconscious.

When I was in West Africa, I learned the language of the Mossi people (Mooré: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mossi) that way.

Interestingly, it only happens when I am physically present in the country. I don’t experience this online, for example.

·         Have you ever had such experiences?

 

·         Do you think that computers could connect to this “collective unconscious” through the Internet, for example?

Digital Media and Intellectual Property (ETEC 531)

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Digital Media and Intellectual Property

Brief history of copyrights and copyright law

The world’s first copyright law was the Statute of Anne, enacted in England in 1710. This Act introduced for the first time the concept of the author of a work being the owner of its copyright, and laid out fixed terms of protection.

In 1886, however, the Berne Convention was introduced to provide mutual recognition of copyright between nation states, and to promote the development of international standards for copyright protection. … Convention now covers almost all major countries. The Berne Convention remains in force to this day, and continues to provide the basis for international copyright law.

One of the biggest changes implemented by the adoption of the Berne Convention was to extend copyright protection to unpublished works… 

… The Intellectual Property Rights Office (also known as the IP Rights Office and the IPRO) was created in an effort to create a central international point of deposit for unpublished works from around the world, via its Copyright Registration Service.

Ref: http://www.iprightsoffice.org/copyright_history/

What is Linux and what are its implications for education? 

Linux and open source software are receiving increased interest within the education sector as an alternative to Microsoft Windows Vista. …A migration in the education industry fueled by upgrade costs and licensing fears would expose students to Linux.

Advantages of Linux for Use in Schools

·         zero cost

·         no licensing fees

·         do not impose any complex license management requirements on their users

·         Students can be provided with legal copies of Linux and other open source software for use at home at no cost

·         Linux allows older and less expensive hardware to be used than is possible with Microsoft Windows

·         enables it to perform very well even on older computers

·         Administration and maintenance costs can be reduced to very low levels

·         Linux can help prepare students for the real world in which there is a diversity of operating systems

Disadvantages:

·         The lack of both Linux skills and general computer skills among educators

·         Strong pressure from vested interests to keep using proprietary software

·         Learning UNIX commands makes it more difficult to learn Linux

·         Instructions are hard to find (printed manual…)

·         Configuration of devices is usually more difficult

·         Does not have the abundance of commercial software (word processing; internet browsers; games)…

Ref: http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/60357

Ref: http://www.bellevuelinux.org/linux_educ.html

Ref: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/1564607/Disadvantages-of-Linus

 My own topic: Canada’s fair use law

On topic that I find very relevant for what we do in my film classes is “fair use”. My students often make films criticizing the media… and it is sometimes challenging to explain the images that we see (anorexic models, etc.) without being able to actually show them.

Of course, I encourage them to be original, and we don’t want to depend on the literal transmission of media content. However, there are times when the presentation of what we critique would be very helpful to clarify the message.

I have never really identified a clause in Canada’s fair use law that specifically gives us the right to use media images. There is mention of “for educational purposes”, but despite this fact, many student film festivals don’t accept such use.

 Ref: Michael Geist

http://www.slideshare.net/mgeist/the-case-for-fair-use-in-canada  

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1637/125/

Postmodern art & postmodern technology (ETEC 531)

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If there is postmodern art is there postmodern technology?

One characteristic of postmodern art is its conflation of high and low culture through the use of industrial materials and pop culture imagery.

Manet (the painter) violated traditional art’s view that reality and representation, design and representation, abstraction and reality, mutual exclude each other. He incorporated “paradox”.

One definition is that postmodernism rejects modernism’s grand narratives of artistic direction, eradicating the boundaries between high and low forms of art, and disrupting genre’s conventions with collision, collage, and fragmentation.

Example

Second life:

It allows the users to create their own “grand narrative”.

Perhaps the paradox is that “players” are entrenched in a technological paradigm that they do not necessarily perceive nor fully comprehend. They are “free to choose” which character they want to be. On the other hand, Second Life is part of a system, a web of technological processes that shape people’s choices.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodern_art#Defining_postmodern_art

Technological innovations (ETEC 531)

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The implications of technological innovations for particular forms of artistic and cultural practice and of culture and creativity in general

Filmmaking

Think of Charlie Chaplin and the “reel”; the huge size of the camera; cutting (literally with a blade) and using a piece of tape to link back to images on the pellicle…

Now, visualize a small digital camera; the editing system is accessible and students can use it easily. DVDs make it simple to reproduce the films. YouTube is a powerful distribution tool.

These types of technological changes have created new artistic limitations and new opportunities. 

Restrictions:

Copyrights must be protected, for example; Internet predators are real and limit the users’ freedom of expression.

Possibilities:

On the other hand, the ability to contact people all over the world is staggering. The power of distribution is flabbergasting. One of the films that my students published on YouTube (with everyone’s permission, of course) was hit almost ONE MILLION times!!! Incredible!