Week (10) Post

“I would like you to interview an adolescent about their technology and social media use as well as their thoughts regarding some of the topics you have read about in this module. Post an entry to your blog highlighting the interview, what you learned, what surprised you, etc.”

The assignment called for interviewing an adolescent but I choose to interview both my daughter and son because I wanted to get both their answers.  Even though they are the same age, I can tell there is a difference on how they think and react to certain situations.  For the purposes of the post I will post the answer from both and label them (son) and (daughter) respectively.

1. What is technology?
(son): Computers
(daughter): Computers and the Internet

2. Why do you think technology is important?

(son): Because people use it for work
(daughter): Because we need to use it for work and school
3. Who uses technology and where is technology used?
(son): Everybody and it’s used for work
(daughter):  Everybody with a computer and it’s used for work and school

4. When you’re researching a project for school.  Is it better to use your school book or to use the internet?

(son): Internet
(daughter): Internet
5. Why did you choose your answer for question # 4?
(son): Because it’s easy to find on the internet
(daughter): Sometimes is hard to find what you’re looking for in books; but I can search for the answer on Google
6. How much time do you spend using technology?
(son): I don’t know but I play my video games a lot
(daughter): a lot of time
7. When making a decision in regards to pop culture how much of an influence does social media have?
(son): It tells me what is cool now
(daughter): I know what type of clothes people are wearing and what music to listen too
8. Of the information you get off the internet and social media; how much of it do you think is true?
(son): Some of it; I know people post fake stuff sometimes
(daughter): I know everything you read on the internet is not true
9. How do you verify that information?
(son): I don’t know
(daughter): I don’t know
10.  What kind of technology do you believe will be available in the next 20 years?
(son): They will make a video game you can play just using your eyes
(daughter): We will have computers in our bodies

These are raw answers but I was did do my part by giving further information on some of their answers like:

# 1: I expanded that technology can be anything that advances or assists in the improvement of something and not just computers or the internet.

# 3: Technology is used by everyone and reminded them it’s not just computer or the Internet.

# 9:  I talked to them about the different internet domain extensions and paying attention to the source of the information. 

Week (9) Post

“Thinking about your personal experiences as well as the readings and video clips, pick a topic or issue from the readings that struck you as interesting, important, confusing, etc. and reflect on it in by responding to the following prompts:  What is / are the tools and techniques being put into practice? What is / are the key issue(s) outlined in or underlying the text (think in terms of Green’s model: operational, cultural and critical)? Whose responsibility is it to teach critical medial literacy?  What are your feelings and opinions on the reading?”

From the book “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21^st Century” by Henry Jenkins topic title “What Should We Teach? Rethinking Literacy” struck me as interesting; because it re-validates the importance of keeping traditional literacy practices and using them as the foundation of new media literacies.  “Before students can engage with the new participatory culture, they must be able to read and write” (Jenkins, 2010, p. 19).   

Traditional literacy practices are still being taught within educational institutions but researchers such as Rebecca Black and Henry Jenkins recognized that new media platforms can provide opportunities of improvement when developing literacy core competencies.  “For example, through blogs or live journals, for young people to receive feedback on their writing and to gain experience in communicating with a larger public, experiences that might once have been restricted to student journalists” (Jenkins, 2010, p. 19).   This suggests that the traditional literacy skills are part of the process when developing new media literacy.  In addition to traditional literacy skill, students need to develop skills on how to navigate around the internet, use search engines, identify legitimate sources, and understand the material they are researching. 

In using Green’s 3D model the Operational is continuing to use traditional literacy core competencies.  The Cultural would be the adaptation of new literacy theories that are developed which uses common languages and skills. The Critical is the acceptance of new literacy theories by educational institutions and academia. Teaching these new media skills responsibilities still fall on the shoulders of our educational institutions.  According to (Jenkins, 2010), “we must integrate these new knowledge cultures into our school, not only through group work but also long-distance collaborations across different learning communities” (p.21).  This suggests that the framework of teaching autonomous must include collaborating methods in order to benefit from the advantages afforded by new media. 

In conclusion, Henry Jenkins argued some valid points that in order to create and teach new media literacies we must not forget about the framework of traditional common competences.  “Changes in the media environment are altering our understanding of literacy and requiring new habit of mind, new ways of processing culture and interacting with the world around us” (Jenkins, 2010, p. 21).  This suggests that with new media students will also require to learn additional skills such as displaying technical abilities and teamwork.  

Reference:

Jenkins, H. (2010). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED536086.pdf

Week (8) Post

“After you have completed the activity, enter a blog post reflecting on your process, what you learned from this activity, and any connections you have made to the readings.”

WoW!  I believed I watched the advertisement video I choosed about 100 times.  Okay, 100 might be over exaggerating the times watched - but I did review it many times as I was going over the deconstructing an alcohol advertisement steps.  In each step there were particulars that where brought to my attention that if I was to deconstruct on my own – I probably would not have thought about it.

  

Within step 1 – make observations.  The focus observation for me was the bullet about taking note of the lighting.  This observation had me researching into different types of lights used during filming. 

Within step 2 – determine the purpose of the AD. I know all advertisements have a targeted audience but the bullets about demographics were interesting to me.  I found myself reviewing the ad looking for the different types of races and ethnicity in ad. 

Within step 3 – determine the assumptions the ad makes & the message it sends.  With all products the ad is selling their product but the bullet about gender and sexuality had me looking to see if LBGT community was being depicted in the advertisement.  

Within step 4 – consider the possible consequences of these messages.  This was interesting because just like the old saying “too much of anything” is not good for you.  This goes for alcohol and I’m sure we all know this but in my advertisement ad it portrait an environment where alcohol if drank responsibly can be enjoyable.   

In conclusion, this was an awesome project!  Before I started,  I assumed this would be pretty simple to deconstruct an ad but once I starting reviewing the ad based on the deconstructing guidelines, I started looking at the assignment differently because it opened by mind up to the particulars I wasn’t thinking about.    Over the past couple of days I’ve found myself deconstructing TV commercials/ads!

Reference:

Alcohol AD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkZWfWKZZtk