CHS e-portfolio requirements

CHS e-portfolio requirements (June 2011)

  • Reflection on teaching, including indicators of professional reading
  • Evidence of student feedback with teacher reflection
  • Reflection on engagement with parents
  • Reflection on professional development over the last two years
  • Samples of students’ work with teacher reflection
  • Reflection on other roles in the school community
  • Role as teacher leader
  • Equipment management (purchase; repairs; maintenance) & Technological  expertise:
  • Cross curricular activities (helping teachers & their students make films for their classes):
  • Extra duties:
  • Benefits for CHS
  • Technological innovation

Moodle Lesson: YouTube and youth culture (ETEC 531)

In this Moodle 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?

E-learning Design for Indigenous Communities (ETEC 521)

E-learning Design for Indigenous Communities:

Towards a Pedagogy of On-line Education for Aboriginal Cultures

5000 words (text only: including neither references nor tables)

Chantal Drolet

For: ETEC 521 (Michael Marker), University of British Columbia, 2009

 Introduction

Is web-based instructional design tailored for the needs of powerful ethnic groups? Is it conceivable to devise an e-learning model with the potential of accommodating multiple cultures? If technology supported educational environments can embrace cultural diversity, what are the best online practices for aboriginal learners?

            The problem resides in the divestment of communal learning traditions. Contemporary academic research stipulates that dominant cultures are responsible for producing instructional design models that de-contextualize the learning experience (Collis, 1999, as cited in McLoughlin & Oliver, 1999). Moreover, studies show that the creation of web-based education is influenced by the designers’ theories of knowledge and objectives.

Part 1

Concepts and Assumptions 

            This research project explores the ways in which on-line delivery of instruction can include various communicating and information processing preferences. The paper bases its approach on Lave & Wenger’s 1991 conceptual framework (as cited in McLoughlin & Oliver, 1999) concerning communities of practice and examines the possible development of an e-learning design model including: structures, processes, tasks, activities and educational outcomes tailored to the needs of indigenous societies.

To read the entire paper, please click on: cdrolet ETEC521 major paper

Nanook of the North (ETEC 521)

Nanook of the North

Archaic:

Of course this video was made a while ago and it represents the perception that the “white man” had of the “Eskimos”: wild people dressed in furs and looking a bit disheveled.

Dramatized:

As we know, some parts were “dramatized”, as when Nanook “tastes the vinyl disk”. I loved the beginning of the movie with all these people and the dog coming out of this seemingly very small canoe! Was that staged too?

Educational ambivalence:

Frankly, this is very much what I remember watching when I was in elementary school. “Primitive” cultures were presented to us as a heritage to be protected. The members of these cultural traditions were portrayed as innocent; naïve; unaware and uninterested in modernity.

  • Nanook trades his valuable furs for a few knives and necessities… What a bargain for the traders!
  • It shows indigenous people as a collective. They are always in a group.  Individuality seems not to exist (denied?)
  • The members of the family are seen in nature; struggling against the elements; even the comment about how Nanook killed the bears with his own hands suggests a battle with the environment.

So, basically, the Inuit are seen as one with their environment; “uncivilized”; probably illiterate (at least in regards to the traders’ languages).

Entertainment vs. information:

On the one hand the movie is a fiction and should be entertaining. On the other hand, the impressions that we keep propagate the stereotypes of the “noble savage”.

It is not a bad image but it can be disconcerting when non-natives, who see aboriginals this way, have to reconcile today’s issues with that representation. It’s almost as though, when a native person treats the environment (or animals) badly, we are disappointed… even if in fact non-native are much more responsible than First Nations for the destruction of the planet.

This YouTube video called “Dr. Daniel Wildcat – Mother Earth speech” presents a very different vision of what a native person looks like, sounds like and believes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkPtyDr8PNA&feature=related (4 min.)

“Wholism”: Analysis of two videos (ETEC 521)

In the first video, with Alannah Young (First Nations counsellor)

What caught my interest:

  • Communities define elders.
  • Through ceremonies: build relationships.

 “Wholism” was linked with

  • balance of male and female
  • giving value to locals

Amy Parent (Masters student in Educational Studies)

Her research focused on Aboriginal youth their relationship to traditional knowledge in urban settings.

  • Indigenous knowledge important in their lives
    • Wholism meant something to them
  • Indigenous knowledge a process for native youths
    • Indigenous knowledge can be expressed in different ways
    • No youth talked about technology / hip hop
  • Need for place based education; getting out of the city
  • Youth want to know about their languages

LOVE THIS:
Real Youth:

  • film / taught how to make claymation videos
  • Film competition
    • Won awards

Of course I am the Digital Film Communication Curriculum Leader at my school and I really do believe that digital film can be an incredible means of expression for young people.

When making a simple animation; a public service announcement or a short narrative, students take charge of their learning. That’s why they did not want to leave at the end… it was “their” film… they took ownership. That’s powerful!

The reason why young Aboriginals did not talk of the technology, in my opinion, is that they were talking of substance, not tools. In education, technology should be a means to communicate. Not a goal in itself. That being said, we all know that it affects the message…

 amyparent

 

 


 

 

 Amy Parent

“Visual Media and the Primitivist Perplex” (ETEC 521)

A pact with the “devil”

In Pins’ article entitled “Visual Meida and the Primitivist Perplex”, a dilemma is explained in the form of stories.

The filmmaker recounts his experiences with various tribes as he endeavored to produce documentaries about their lives; their political desires and their need to preserve their traditions.

What I find interesting about the article is this whole dichotomy or contradiction between having to deal with the “Western world”, while also wanting to protect customs historically kept hidden from outsiders.

The “devil” or “Faustian” expression may not mean solely “Western culture” in this paper, but rather the dangers of revealing ancestral secrets coupled with the use of modern technology. The ladder implies a certain “dependence” on “civilized cultures”.

This type of dependence, if managed properly, can play in the advantage of Aboriginal cultures. However, there may also be a tendency to “assimilate” the members of the tribe to new ideas or “tint” the ancient knowledge with foreign concepts.

References:

Prins, Harald E.L., “Visual Media and the Primitivist Perplex: Colonial Fantasies, Indigenous Imagination, and Advocacy in North America,” in Media Worlds: Anthropology on a New Terrain, eds. Faye D. Ginsburg, Lila Abu-Lughod, and Brian Larkin, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002, 58- 74

DIGITAL FILM: Technology & Spanish (ETEC 532)

PART 1:

The Challenges & Opportunities Involved in Optimizing Foreign Language Acquisition

with a Holistic Approach to Technology:

In our connected world, it has become indispensable for students to comprehend and represent knowledge in a multitude of formats.

Consequently, new educational approaches using digitally based literacy tools such as:

• Audio
• video
and various
• digital systems…are increasingly required.

Part 2:

The Use of Digital Film Communication as part of a Multiliteracies Curriculum Designed to Learn Spanish

a)  Producing a film in a Spanish class, for example, offers the conditions necessary to augment the effectiveness of linguistic acquisition:a) Excellent input in the form of authentic materials;

b) Plenty of practice through oral communication;

c) Varied types of feedback;
and

d) Personalized content pertaining to the student’s learning style and interests
(Zhao, 2005)

The intent of this production is to demonstrate that using digital film production to learn a foreign language can be an effective part of a comprehensive technological program for language educators. 

Please right click and choose “open in new tab”

FILM: Digital Film & Spanish

MOODLE: YouTube & Youth Culture (ETEC 531)

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

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

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)

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?

How can imovie be used to produce curriculum stories? (ETEC 532)

How Can imovie be Used to Produce Curriculum Stories?

In the video created with elementary students mentored by a video artist, learning is experiential. First and foremost, the learning experience seeks to develop knowledge in a specific context, which in this case is the environment. The theme is related to a clear problem, littering, and focuses on a goal: a change in attitude. The role of the story, therefore, is to provide a narrative that will create an emotional impact, allowing the information to be accepted and processed by the audience. The objective is to enable the video producers (in this case the elementary students) to communicate a message that will entice the viewers (and themselves) to actively alter their behavior and adopt the solution suggested by the film.

The choice of project

The production is called: “The Trash that Came from the Can“. This title is chosen with care, using words that children can easily visualize, pronounce and remember. The Trash Monster appeals to kid’s imagination. The mood of the film is light, even though the message is serious. This approach allows students to open their minds to complex ideas behind a seemingly simple and entertaining adventure.

In this type of project, the learning environment involves the use of technology (cameras, tapes, tripods, microphones, editing systems) and a collaborative and constructivist approach. The role of the teacher or mentor is to facilitate the collective discovery and the construction of knowledge. The process usually entails the pre-production (scripting), production (filming) and post-production (editing) phases. During these stages, students are encouraged to take ownership of their learning by searching information about the problem at hand. They select a genre that best suits their interest. Whether they choose to create a comedy, a thriller or a drama, students benefit from participating “in discussions if they are to be successful”, (Palloff & Pratt, 1999).

By exposing students to the various components of media production, they come to realize the influential power of this type of communication technology. In the film analyzed in this paper, the students chose to dramatize the story by having the Trash Monster take control of the school. This dramatic storytelling device allowed them to present a scenario in which they, as the actors of the story, changed their attitudes and cleaned up their environment. The indicators of learning are apparent in the way that students took responsibility for acting in the film as well as preparing the props. The dismantling of the monster at the end also gave the children a tactile experience directly linked with the concept of taking the problem apart and finding a resolution.

Technology & learning: advantages and limitations

As long as the technological tools are used to facilitate learning rather than for their own sakes, the technology enhances learning. However, in circumstances where teachers are not familiar with the tools it becomes more complicated to focus on the content. These limitations often create frustrations from the part of the instructor as well as the students. Therefore, this type of project necessitates a great deal of planning and some support from educational institutions for the professional development of teachers. According to So & Kim (2009), who observed teachers using technology, the biggest problems comprise:

a. generating authentic and ill-structured problems for a chosen content topic,

b. finding and integrating ICT tools and resources relevant for the target students and learning activities, and

c. designing tasks with a balance between teacher guidance and student independence.

They continue by offering suggestions to better link the content, pedagogical, and technological knowledge such as: providing teachers with integrated modules as well as models of project-based technology. Bransford, Brown & Cocking (2002), report the need for a continuous synchronized effort ranging from “pre-service education to early teaching to opportunities for lifelong development as professionals” (p. 205).

Conclusion

The technology played an obvious role in this vignette, since the story and the message depended on the use of cameras, angles, lighting and sound. The technological tools also allowed students to experience learning actively, by acting and participating in the various phases of the production. Provided that technology does not overshadow the educational objectives, the motivational benefits of such projects are inherent to the dynamic process of discovering a solution and communicating it to others effectively.

PDF File (right click to “open in new tab”):

etec-532-vignette-2-final

References

Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L. & Cocking, R. R. (2002). How people learn: Brain, mind,

experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Retrieved June 11, 2009 from: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=6160

Palloff and Pratt. (1999). Building learning communities in cyberspace, chapters 1-2.

So, H. & Kim, B. (2009). Learning about problem based learning: Student teachers

integrating technology, pedagogy and content knowledge. Australasian Journal of

Educational Technology, 25(1), 101-116. Retrieved June 11, 2009 from:  http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet25/so.pdf

Literature review: Using Digital Film Production to Learn Spanish (ETEC 532)

 Optimizing Foreign Language Acquisition with a Holistic Approach to Technology: Using Digital Film Production to Learn Spanish

Introduction

Nowadays, educators have at their disposition numerous technological tools with the capability of significantly improving foreign language acquisition. However, these possibilities cannot be brought to fruition unless the conceptualization, design, development, and deployment of technologies in support of second language learning are reconsidered.

Furthermore it has become indispensable for students to comprehend and represent knowledge in a multitude of formats. Consequently, new educational approaches using digitally based tools such as audio, video, and various digital systems, are increasingly required.

Purpose and Assumptions

This literature review will explore the challenges inherent to the integration of educational technology in foreign language acquisition environments. Particularly, it will present the ways in which digital communication technologies can be used as facilitators of linguistic proficiency.

Cognitive approach. One assumption is that presenting and analyzing various tools and approaches will clarify what technology and how technology can provide quality input, opportunities for communication, meaningful feedback, and individualized content to enhance motivation.

Socio-cognitive approach. Another basic assumption is that by using a participatory approach, students immerse themselves in various cultures while producing digital documents attesting their language skills. 

Statement of the problem

What and how can technology be used to optimize foreign language acquisition environments, especially with the use of digital film production in the Spanish classroom?  

The intent is to demonstrate that, within the assortment of technologies available to language educators, using digital film production to learn a foreign language is a practical and theoretically sound manner to use technological tools strategically. The holistic process, encompassing the use of authentic cultural artifacts; film equipment; editing software; the Internet (just to name a few technological devices) provides an opportunity to create a long-lasting awareness of the Hispanic world as well as a way to optimize the learning of its dominant language.  

Full paper (PDF file) attached here (right click to “open in new tab”)

cdrolet-etec-532-lit-review-article-annotation-critique-finalx 

Media Literacy and Education (ETEC 510)

Globalization / Networked Society, media
Media Literacy and Education
Recommendations / How we can educate

Edit of an Existing Design Wiki Entry
Edited by: Chantal Drolet, January 2009The format of this Word document: Please note that this document is a duplicate of the edit created in the wiki mentioned above. I kept the Arial font, forgone the indentations and used a subtitle format emulating the Wikipedia conventions. The APA style has been respected for quotations and references.

Rationale

With my entry, I chose to offer an example under the heading of “Recommendations / How we can educate”. There is a need to add to the information presented based on the escalating use of digital films on the web, as well as the increasing availability of this type of technology in schools. Digital film literacy can play a valuable role in the nurturing of global awareness and engaged citizenry.

The deconstruction, or analysis, necessary to produce student-made public service announcements and documentaries on racism, environmental issues or religious diversity can have a strong influence on young people’s values and conduct (Kline, Steward, Murphy, 2006).

Learning the techniques employed to create meaning in moviemaking empowers students with the capabilities of reconstructing similar products. The difference is that this time, they control the content and the depiction of the characters.

Kline, S., Stewart, K., & Murphy, D. (2006). Media literacy in the risk society: toward a risk reduction strategy. Canadian Journal of Education, 29(1): 131-153. Retrieved October 8, 2008 from: http://www.csse.ca/CJE/Articles/FullText/CJE29-1/CJE29-1.pdf#page=11

The Validity of Digital Film Communication Literacy

One of the best ways to create awareness concerning the pervasive influence of the media on behaviors and attitudes is to engage students in the production of their own media projects. Digital film making, for example, is an alternative form of media literacy well suited to develop youth’s critical analysis of the mass media.

For instance, one of the important aspects of film making is selecting a theme, researching it and devising an original angle to promote the chosen concept. In order to create a public service announcement on a social issue students must spend a great deal of time finding data and statistics about this issue.

Once a clear mental picture is created around this topic, young cinematographers must use the grammar of film making to invent an innovative and enticing way of communicating their message. Like any professional advertisement campaign, the endeavor is to hook the members of the audience; or in other words, to convey a powerful message and influence the public’s behavior.

A major difference between digital film communication and commercial media, however, is that the educational aspect of film making centers its attention on social contribution, rather than consumption. Furthermore, the intent behind the creation of media shared among adolescents is to promote citizenship and awareness (Greenhow, 2008), not to concoct artificial needs in order to increase financial gains.

This is not to say that mainstream media only produce rubbish messages, detrimental to the public. On the contrary, if chosen with discernment, valuable information can be disseminated among citizens by a number of legitimate agents such as journalists, editors, documentary makers and bloggers. The key issues reside in a clear understanding of the iteration involved in the process of media production (Stables, 1997) as well as the critical assessment needed to decide which documents to access or avoid; believe or distrust. These are the intellectual outcomes of a digital film communication program.

As mentioned earlier on this page, a number of ethnographic studies have recognized that youth is often represented with a negative bias in conventional media. For example, “girls [may be presented] as fashion obsessed and impressionable” and “teen mothers as […] welfare bums”, to give only a few examples (Kelly, 2006). Moreover, no one will refute the fact that women’s and men’s bodies, young and old, are ruthlessly exploited by advertising firms to sell innumerable products; from cars to cigarettes. Magazines, television commercials, and even newspapers disseminate these kinds of images and contribute to the distortion of young people’s self-identity, while also cultivating a passive attitude.

Students involved in digital film communication become more aware of the stratagems that promotional media utilize to influence their self-image, their choices, and by extension, their lives. Equipped with such powerful incentives to act, adolescents easily become enthralled with technological tools enabling them to take action. The creative and critical processes involved when using communication technology can be highly motivating. Analyzing the media and creating their own scripts and stories also provides them with effective strategies to respond to commoditization of youth image in commercial broadcasting (T. Riecken, Conibear, Michel, Lyall, Scott, Tanaka, Stewart, J. Riecken, & Strong-Wilson, 2006).

Film making using digital technologies generates a language of transcendence, which facilitates the articulation of a discourse surpassing the limits set by the mass media’s ordinary hubbub. Digital film communication allows students to develop healthy self-representations, responsible voices (Riecken et al., 2006) and to promote active social contributions among their peers. From this point of view, media literacy and the grammar of film making offer powerful means of combating apathy (Bell, 2005) toward some of the manipulative effects of mainstream communication channels.

Finally, the hands-on experience of movie making brings about an appreciation for the spin involved when publishing media content. It also cultivates a point of reference from which to analyze the validity of information distributed by conventional communication agencies.

Example of Student film

The following link is a TeacherTube public service announcement created by Middle School students. Contrary to the usual negative treatment that “at risk” students receive from conventional media, this production portrays them in a positive light.
http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=d36b602d3380b92c2476  

Description:

“At Risk” Students is a Public Service announcement that is trying to inspire students to succeed despite the odds. This video was the 2007 Jere Baxter Middle School entry for the Panasonic Kid Witness News (KWN) program in the Public Service Announcement (PSA) Category. This video was awarded the KWN New Vision Award for PSA, the Technical Award for Writing, the Online Voting Award for Best Video, and the KWN New Vision Video of the Year-Best in the United States. Of the 14 awards given this video won four of them.

Jere Baxter is an inner-city school located in Nashville, Tennessee. The group was sponsored by Mr. Sam Frey. For winning the KWN awards, Mr. Frey was able to take three students on an all-expense-paid trip to New York/ New Jersey for the awards show sponsored by Panasonic. Then for winning Video of the Year for this video, Mr. Frey was asked to take three different students along with his wife on an all-expense-paid to Japan, sponsored by Panasonic and Japan Airlines. This video was also entered into the Tennessee eTales contest and won one of the awards given to teachers.

== References for “The Validity of Digital Film Literacy” ==

Greenhow, C. (2008). Connecting informal and formal learning experiences in the age of participatory media: Commentary on Bull et al. (2008). Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 8(3), 187-194. Retrieved November 8, 2008 from: http://www.citejournal.org/articles/v8i3editorial1.pdf

Kelly, D. M. (2006). Frame work: helping youth counter their misrepresentations in media. Canadian Journal of Education, 29(1): 27-48. Retrieved October 8, 2008 from: http://www.csse.ca/CJE/Articles/FullText/CJE29-1/CJE29-1.pdf#page=11

Riecken, T., Conibear, F., Michel, C., Lyall, J., Scott, T., Tanaka, M., Stewart, S., Riecken, J., & Strong-Wilson, T. (2006). Resistance through re-presenting culture: aboriginal students filmmakers and participatory action research project on health and wellness. Canadian Journal of Education, 29(1): 265-286. Retrieved October 8, 2008 from: http://www.csse.ca/CJE/Articles/FullText/CJE29-1/CJE29-1.pdf#page=11

Stables, K. (1997). Critical issues to consider when introducing technology education in the curriculum of young learners. Journal of Technology Education, vol. 8, No. 2. Retrieved October 8, 2008, from: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v8n2/pdf/stables.pdf

== See Also ==

Poyntz, S. R. (2006). Independent media, youth agency and the promise of media education. Canadian Journal of Education, 29(1): 154-175. Retrieved October 8, 2008 from: http://www.csse.ca/CJE/Articles/FullText/CJE29-1/CJE29-1.pdf#page=11

Welsch, M., personal blog, A vision of students today (& what teachers must do – brave new classroom 2.0), October 21, 2008. Retrieved from: http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/10/a-vision-of-students-today-what-teachers-must-do/

TeacherTube: http://www.teachertube.com/

Politics and Political Economy of Educational Technology (ETEC 511)

Politics and Political Economy of Educational Technology

VIDEO: Charlie Rose – Susan Hockfield, the president of M.I.T. (4 min.)

Interviewee:
Susan Hockfield: MIT President
Biography: http://web.mit.edu/hockfield/biography.html

SUMMARY OF VIDEO: MIT President

What happens when a country’s political agenda downplays international competition in the field of technology and education?

  • is higher education what will bring about technological innovation?
  • the problem is sociological as well as political
  • technological innovation more rooted in culture and sociology than education
  • technical innovation can come from the basements and rec rooms of middle America (or wherever).
  • Technological innovations arises out of social causes and needs as well as academic research and capitalist endeavors
  • Importance of innovations:
    • will be given to the innovations which meet societal needs
    • Bill Gates never graduated and his innovations met needs and, it could be argued, created greater social needs
    • the basement meets the university
  • research investment in higher education is important.
  • Business/entrepreneurs/institutions/gov’t will (at least those that can) invest more (being slightly risk averse) in research that has promise for a host of reasons, including reputation and even credentials
  • When there is only room for growth (like in Asia), it is easy to identify the successes that have been occurring. Conversely, the United States is struggling with not only maintaining the high standards that have been set post-World War II, but they are dealing with a more competitive global environment.
  •   perhaps education is being turned into a product or experience in the United States, more a phase/system that one goes through, versus a serious investment by an individual into developing their skills/abilities in a specialty area.
  •   American companies have historically had the means to pay to get the best and the brightest, and the marketing know-how to sell the product to their own citizens, and the rest of the world. I think the challenge for the United States in the future is going to be how to compete on a more level playing field with other countries that have done quite well with globalization, and continue to strengthen as time goes on.
  • “the knowledge/education has to come from somewhere and not everything is available on the internet”.