Class Assignment

Viral Video Film School

• Students will analyze the content of this video to determine what this cat is reacting to. Students will take a creative approach to describe what this cat? How do you get their attention and make this interesting?
• clear instructions to students about what they are supposed to do, with possible references to other (hypothetical) work they’ve done or texts they’ve encountered. Is this an individual, pair, or group assignment? If the latter two options, what roles will students have?
• possible benchmarks/timelines they must meet for credit
• resources that will be helpful
• an explanation of what their final product should look like or entail
• an explanation of how they’ll be evaluated

Memes!

A meme is an internet phenomena. It is the spread of ideas usually joke on the internet that appeal to those who understand the meme or the humor behind it. One example of a meme is the facebook trend that was popular a few months ago. Many girls were circulating an email that stated,

“Something fun is going on. Write the color of your bra in your status. Just the color, nothing else. And send this on to ONLY women no men. It will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it takes before the men wonder why the women have a color in their status…..LOL!”

I know that as a guy, I did not understand why all these girls were saying names of colors in their status updates. Eventually the email was leaked to a favorite website of mine that explained everything to me www.urlesque.com.

There are many memes out there, some are used as a form of awarness as this bra color one was but some are used as tools for promotion of a product. There are stories of people from internet viral videos making others after they were offered to make more that featured their product. I once was contacted by a producer to see if a video I had shot while on spring break could be used on his television show.

This goes to show how powerful things posted on the internet can be. There is no telling where your meme will end up.

Podcasts in the Classroom

Podcasts are digital files that consist of audio or video. these podcasts are usually released periodically just like television shows on iTunes. These podcasts are usually informative in some way and usually formatted much like a talk show. I myself subscribe to several podcasts. some are humerous and I listen to simply for pleasure. Others I listen to to gain information on things I would like to learn more about.

I had a professor last semester that actually recorded his own podcasts that were actually assignments that we had to listen to. I felt like this was a very effective way to reach students better and help them gain a better understanding of the information being presented in class.

Although many people own ipods and already use iTunes, I do feel that this practice might be a little discriminatory to some students if they are not familiar with iTunes.

Ultimately though I think podcasts will continue to gain popularity and will become a huge part of academic curriculum.

Del.icio.us

When I used wikipedia to get a brief overview of what social bookmarking is I thought “Great! I will never use this!” The more I explored the website though, the more ideas came to me about how this can be useful. As a media studies major this site would make it easy to share different websites that may contain work samples with potential employers and peers. As far as a social aspect goes, this site would allow me to share all of my interesting or fun websites with my friends without having to link to them individually.

Google as so many results when you search for a term and so many of the sites are not useful. This site allows me to search other people’s bookmarks that are similar to me. The more bookmarks that I add the more useful the site is. insted of storing your favorite sites in your  computer delicious makes it possible to view your sites on a separarte computer which makes it easy and fun to use.

Social Networking

There are many reasons for and against a teacher using facebook or myspace page to connect with students.

One positive thing that can come from having a social networking page as a teacher is that it allows teachers to have an easier way to contact their students. I know that as a student I am on facebook much more than I am on Vista. It’s hard to bring myself to log in to vista when half of the time its either down or just plain confusing. I cant chat with someone that can help me at the click of a button like I can on facebook nor is there really an updated list of people that are online. As a teacher with a facebook page. I can easily post links, share notes, and stay in touch with my class easier. This can lead to problems though.

Using some social networking sites may not allow me to control the content that is posted to my wall or certain pictures I may never want my students to see. Having a social network page would require a lot of upkeep and serious damage control. Also I may find out information about my students that I may not want to know. I wouldnt want to find pictures of one my students drinking underage and then having a bias or possibly having to take disciplinary action causing none of my students to want to utilize this tool.

I believe that social networking sites can be a huge advantage for teachers and students if used properly and in the right setting. In some cases I believe using facebook, for example, is very appropriate. For college students facebook makes it easy for students to write to their teacher and classmates. I believe that the less mature the students are, the more problems you will encounter.

Student gets 5-day suspension for facebook slam at teacher

Digital Media Project

For the digital media project, I am going to put together a video about my little sister that my family adopted from China. I will use pictures and video to show and document our trip to China to pick her up. Katherine has had such a big impact on my life in so many ways I would like to put together a project about my family’s journey. I’d like to show the audience my little sister and maybe a little about what its like to adopt a child from another country.

Wikipedia and Credibility

Today in class we looked at websites that presented the user with fake information, however some had very believable aspects to them. I looked at a website called The Onion. The Onion is a website that posts fake news stories online for people to read. The website’s purpose is to be comical, and it is after you realize how ridiculous the information is. A few things that made the site so believable is how well it is put together. I’m guessing this is due to the popularity of the site. It has a large budget to work with so the creators are able to doctor photos very well this is another reason it seems believable.

We also looked at Wikipedia as a source of information and it’s credibility. The reason some question the information there is that anyone can edit a wikipedia page. No one can really know how reliable the information is other than the creator. Wikipedia is very popular because it contains a lot of information on just about every topic you can imagine. Many students start projects or research papers by looking their topic up on wikipedia. Wikipedia is like an encyclopedia everyone can add information to.

I understand why teachers have problems with students using wikipedia as a main source of information but I believe that if student learn to use Wikipedia responsibly and use critical thinking to evaluate to information Wikipedia can be a very good place to start research and find some very useful information. When using Encyclopedia Britannia and Wikipedia to search for the same topics it appeared the Wikipedia had much more information.

According to Crovitz and Smoot’s article, Seven Things About Technology, is “not…a source of truth but…a springboard for inquiry“. Students should use Wikipedia as a place to start rather than a place to get all of their information.

Flying Spaghetti Monster

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 allows people to post their own content on the internet. Not only is it possible to post your own content but websites make it very easy to do you. Web 2.0 has had an effect on more than just the internet though. there are products like flipcams that are specifically made for people who want to post their own content to youtube or other sites. As a communication major web 2.0 has opened many oppertunities for me. Many PR reps use twitter to help promote positive things that companies are doing. Also, it is now possible for anyone to become a reporter. If one has a smartphone they can film something interesting with it and then post it to their blog with their thoughts. Web 2.0 has really revolutionized how people get their news and information. If it wasn’t for web 2.0, I wouldn’t  be able to share this post with the entire world. Literally.

Pants on the ground?

Survey Monkey

In class we used a website called Survey Monkey. This site allows users to build surveys and send them to their friends, post them on social networking sites, and post them to the survey monkey website for others to take. The site collects the responses and then allows users to view them as well as stats from the people that have taken your survey. A teacher might use this information to better understand what their students have learned in previous classes so they can build lesson plans around that information. As a Media Studies major this tool would be useful to gague audience’s opinions of ideas and opinions of different media. It would help me better understand demographics and what appeals to an audience.