Final Journal/Blog Post

I can best sum up my experience in New Media New Literacies as compelling.  In the beginning of the course, I had a lot of time to devote to this course because I had much more time available at school.  However, as the course progressed, I saw myself devoting fewer hours to this course until I was only doing what was required.  I didn't have the time to read everyone's post and respond, and there was a lot of really thought provoking material in our discussion posts as well as the blog entries.

I hope that I will have access to all of our course material for a while because I would truthfully like to be able to read through the posts while I am on Christmas break.

We did a lot of great work throughout this course, and I couldn't be happier with the outcome and the knowledge that I have gained in such a short time.  This course has given me a new perspective when thinking about online communities and language.  I guess I could be characterized as an old geezer when it comes to technology and what can be done with it.  I learned a lot through my interview with an adolescent student.  This course has given me a lot of insight through using this blog and posting projects to YouTube.

I really enjoyed the "Literacy Debate - Online, R U Really Reading" paper.  My one regret with this course is that I didn't have enough time to really sink my teeth into the material or the work, but if I could have a mulligan, I would try to devote two or three days a week to this course in order to fully appreciate the comments and posts from others.

Adolescent Interview about Social Media/Network

I interviewed a sixteen-year old Junior in high school  about his use of social media and networks.  My questions are in bold.  His answers are in italics.

1.  Do you consider yourself a technologically advanced person compared to your peers?

• Yes, very much so.  I use technology and understand how to use it much more than my classmates.

2.  What social networks do you use?

• I don't use that many.  I stick to mainly Facebook.  I do use Snapchat, but I don't receive messages very often.

3.  What is you purpose in using these networks?

• I use these networks to get attention and to make others laugh.

4.  Do you know what cyber buyllying is?

• Yes, we had a unit on it in health class.  We were required to do a project, presentation, and everything.

5.  Have you experienced it on some level?

• I have never experienced it personally, but my friend and I were joking around on Facebook (swearing back and forth at one another), and it got misconstrued by our friends who thought that we were having a serious fight.

6.  How much time do you spend on social media/networks each day?

• I would say only fifteen minutes per week because I log into Facebook just to check who is online to chat to.  If there is no one online that I want to talk to, I log right off.

7.  Do you like using technology in school?

• I love it.  I use the school's laptops every day.

8.  Does it help you or distract you when used in school?

• For me, it helps me to focus, especially if the teacher allows me to listen to music while working on an assignment.  When I'm listening to music, it drowns out every time another student has to ask a question.

9.  What device do you use the most?

• I use my Android cellphone the most.

10.  Can you think of any other ways that we could use social media/networks in school?

• I think it would be awesome if teachers had a Facebook page for each class that they teach.  They could accept their students and then post the homework and students could send messages or post with questions and the teacher could respond.  I think that would be awesome.  
• Using apps would also be fun in class.  Snapchat would be cool.

I found this interview to be pretty informative, and I'm currently looking into ways to use apps in my instruction.  What a cool idea.  Well, it could be.  I was surprised at the amount of time this student spends on social media.  He only spends fifteen minutes per week.  I spend more time than that! I thought this generation was constantly connected to their phones and accounts!  

Deconstructing an Alcohol Advertisement

I chose an older advertisement to deconstruct this week.  My ad is an old Budweiser ad from what I'm guessing is the 1960s.

For myself, I think that this ad successful at promoting their product.  I think that some could find this ad as sexist or offensive, but for me personally, I believe that that would be too much of a reach.  You can be the judge.  Here is the link to the advertisement: http://www.kegworks.com/images/blogpost/vintageBeerAds/ad3.jpg


There are two people shown in this ad.  There is a woman and a man.  I believe they are husband and wife.  The man is sitting down with a hammer in his hand; he looks as though he is repairing the telephone, or maybe he just finished smashing it to smithereens.  His wife is leaning over top of him pouring him a glass of Budweiser.  The faces of the two individuals are somewhat hard to read, especially the husband.  It looks as though he is relieved to take a break from his work in order to enjoy a beer. 

I feel as though this ad is targeted towards a mature crowd, an audience that drinks responsibly and maybe has a family.  This ad is pretty conservative in nature.  

I believe that this ad is socially responsible. It doesn’t promote ideas or activity that could be harmful to its potential customers or consumers. This ad isn't trying to promote a harmful product to a younger crowd that could potentially make a bad decision with the product.

Prejudice in Social Media

When I was watching the clip from Raquel Recuero: Digital Youth, Social Movements, and Democracy in Brazil.  Something struck me about the idea of prejudice existing in social media.  In my other online course, Introduction to Critical Pedagogy, we have discussing the idea of "the other."  Within this discussion we have talked about the idea of racism and race.  

One of the questions asked from the Recuero clip was, "How do you see this kind of prejudice expression within [social media] content in your research?"  One of the women from the clip responded very truthfully when she said that the idea of prejudice is a real issue online.  It's something that needs to be addressed and fixed.  She then added, "I don't think that social media is creating prejudice, but it is showing it."  

A perfect example of this kind of bigotry can be spotted on any YouTube video in the comments section.  I have wholeheartedly believed that the idea of prejudice has become much too prevalent in our society and is something that is now being seen in the digital world at a seemingly worse rate.

Participatory Culture

While I was reading Jenkins' article, one of the things that both surprised and saddened me was the section that he wrote bout students working with school papers.

I had completely forgotten about this medium of expression; it's been so absent for so long that I forgot about the potential progress and cohesion with a community that can take place.

Jenkins writes that students used to write for school papers under the tutelage and close supervision of several faculty members. The idea was that these students would learn what it was like to be a journalist while enjoying the safety net of writing for a school with little outside influence.

This is not the case with participatory cultures.  In another article that we read, a young girl spoke about how she enjoys reading fictional short stories that are written and submitted to an online website.  As Jenkins says, "In a world in which the line between consumers and producers is blurring, young people are finding themselves in situations that no one would have anticipated a decade or two ago" (Jenkins 16).

The idea that kids are left on their own in this manner is what saddens me.  They seem to no longer have the encouragement and guidance that was previously offered by a staff member.  I'm not saying that students haven't asked their teachers to help edit a short story that was submitted online (I've done this several times), but the process seems to be less involved than it once was.

 

"Literacy Debate - Online, R U Really Reading?"

After reading Motoko Rich's article, I have several conflicting opinions; bear with me.

First of all, I'd like to answer the questions:

1. What counts as literacy?
1. I believe that any information that can be read should be considered literacy.
2. I also believe that literacy could be defined as being competent and confident in a particular discipline (i.e. computer literate).
2. How does literacy change in response to the new media landscape?
1. I think that literacy is and should be constantly changing.  As an educator, I believe that anyone or anything that stays stagnant or unmoving becomes obsolete.    The article by Rich proves that point.  Literacy today is not what it was twenty years ago, 6 months ago, or yesterday.  It's ever-changing, and because of that fact, the level of our students' literacy is also changing.
3. What value should we ascribe to the new forms of communication that continue to emerge and evolve online?
1. I think that we should ascribe high value to the new forms of communication that are emerging online; these are the resources that our students are reading.  As Rich says in his article, "it is unrealistic to expect all children to read 'To Kill a Mockingbird'...for fun."  Instead, kids today are reading the material that they see on websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, and fanfiction,net.  I'm not saying that the material that is found on these sites is as credible or as well-written as some of the timeless classics that great novelists have created, but if this is what our kids are reading, we need to find an effective way to use it.

It's mentioned in the article that some teenagers are spending an average of six hours a day in front of a computer.  This further proves that this new technology is only gaining credibility in the eyes of our students. I like the idea that, on a computer, students are constantly engaged with text. We just need to make that text something worthwhile.  I disagree that working online doesn't provide intellectual or personal development; this M.Ed. program is proof that the previous statement is false.  It all depends on what the kids are doing online.

I really like this quote from the article: "Reading opens doors to places you'll never get to visit in your lifetime" (Rich 2008).

My approach to literacy

"The distinctive contribution of the approach to literacy as social practice lies in the ways in which it involves careful and sensitive attention to what people do with texts, how they make sense of them and use them to further their own purposes in their own learning lives" (Gillen and Barton, 2010, p. 9). 

• Please discuss what you do with various texts, how you make sense of them and how you use them to further your own learning.

First of all, it all depends on what kind of text I am reading.  Like Courtney said, I have different methods for different types of text.  For example, if I'm reading a text book for class and responding, I'll take notes in my notebook with either a bulleted list or an outline.

If I'm responding to blog post from one of my classmates, I use a much shorter process: I simply read the post and internalize their main points.  Once I have done that I can usually form an opinion about what he or she has said in the post. 

If I'm reading a novel that I'm going to have my juniors pick apart, I will read and highlight thought provoking sections.  I am notorious for filling the margins of my texts with discussion questions and connections to other mediums of media (I'm a hardcore relational educator). 

If I can, I always try to connect with whatever text I read personally.  It has a much longer lasting effect on me that way and is easier to retain.  

As for the quote by Gillen and Barton, I think it's important to note that everyone experiences text differently (Louise Rosenblatt would concur).  It only seems fair that everyone would respond differently as well.