Snagfilms is a website that lets you search hundreds of documentaries, select the few you think are important, put them in a virtual theater, and export your virtual theater to any blog, social network, or website. This is all a free service because Snagfilms is committed to getting audiences for compelling documentaries that might not be widely viewed otherwise.
In addition to being a great tool for filmmakers/producers, I think the virtual theater is a fantastic tool for a class. As a teacher, you can select documentaries on related course topics and post them for your students to watch and reflect on throughout the term. I also think you can have students select documentaries and create their own virtual theaters. They can do this in groups or individually and then comment on each of the selections. Personally, I am really excited that this website was brought to my attention and plan to include it one way or another in the course I’m teaching this summer (My 3rd point project is to update this summer writing course to include technology). I need to play around more with the site and see how it actually works before I can decide how to fit it into my course.
Check out their 'about page' and little video: http://www.snagfilms.com/films/about
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Barton's Literacy- chap 13 and 14
• I really enjoyed the chapter on adult literacy. Having taught adults English as a Second Language, I can relate to a lot of what was discussed in this chapter. Often there was a struggle to find resources that taught basic skills but weren’t directed for children. As an instructor in my early 20s teaching students more than twice my age, I was very conscious of finding exercises that were focused on the right skill level but wouldn’t be insulting to the adult students. This was a challenge, but led to some great exercises and some really fascinating discussions. “Adult education can be marginalized, or can be a vibrant area of education in its own right” (188).
• Also, having the experience teaching English to individuals who were not literate in their first language presented unique situations. Because of my experience with these students, I was already aware that people with low literacy “hold down jobs, have families, participate in society, pursue hobbies and, crucially, do not see themselves as dependent or needing assistance” (197). I was very happy with the way Baron addressed the issue of low literacy without being demeaning. I think he is completely accurate when he states that in an attempt to raise awareness, literacy campaigns have “creating a public image which stigmatizes people with difficulties” (198).
• “It depends on the social situation, on the value of the language to the speakers, on the motivations for learning to read and write, on the other languages in the area, and on many other things” (201). Motivation is the key to teaching and learning any subject. For me, the discussion of the economic impact of literacy as well as the control of language and power relationships was new and I wish Barton went into more detail. I think these could be hugely motivating factors if these relationships and power factors were more openly discussed and shared with students. Along these lines, it was interesting to know that while many individuals don’t feel “fully literate,” they also “do not see themselves as dependent or needing assistance” (193, 197). Perhaps if discussions of literacy stressed the ties between literacy and economic/power relations, as wells as literacy’s role in enable adults and children “to learn how to learn,” there would be more personal motivation to improve literacy on the students end (212). I always begin a new writing course with a discussion of how the basic skills they learn in the class will impact the students’ future lives, i.e. resume writing, cover letters, business emails, web-copy, etc.
• Finally, the section on moribund languages made me feel so sad. It was like watching a special on endangered and disappearing animals—- you don’t want it to continue, but you feel helpless to stop it. In fact, helping to preserve it may cause more damage. I was sad not only for the lost of language diversity, but also the loss of culture and perspective. “Preserving a language for a museum-like archive is one step, but the language and the culture it embodies may still become extinct” (203). =(
• Also, having the experience teaching English to individuals who were not literate in their first language presented unique situations. Because of my experience with these students, I was already aware that people with low literacy “hold down jobs, have families, participate in society, pursue hobbies and, crucially, do not see themselves as dependent or needing assistance” (197). I was very happy with the way Baron addressed the issue of low literacy without being demeaning. I think he is completely accurate when he states that in an attempt to raise awareness, literacy campaigns have “creating a public image which stigmatizes people with difficulties” (198).
• “It depends on the social situation, on the value of the language to the speakers, on the motivations for learning to read and write, on the other languages in the area, and on many other things” (201). Motivation is the key to teaching and learning any subject. For me, the discussion of the economic impact of literacy as well as the control of language and power relationships was new and I wish Barton went into more detail. I think these could be hugely motivating factors if these relationships and power factors were more openly discussed and shared with students. Along these lines, it was interesting to know that while many individuals don’t feel “fully literate,” they also “do not see themselves as dependent or needing assistance” (193, 197). Perhaps if discussions of literacy stressed the ties between literacy and economic/power relations, as wells as literacy’s role in enable adults and children “to learn how to learn,” there would be more personal motivation to improve literacy on the students end (212). I always begin a new writing course with a discussion of how the basic skills they learn in the class will impact the students’ future lives, i.e. resume writing, cover letters, business emails, web-copy, etc.
• Finally, the section on moribund languages made me feel so sad. It was like watching a special on endangered and disappearing animals—- you don’t want it to continue, but you feel helpless to stop it. In fact, helping to preserve it may cause more damage. I was sad not only for the lost of language diversity, but also the loss of culture and perspective. “Preserving a language for a museum-like archive is one step, but the language and the culture it embodies may still become extinct” (203). =(
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Facebook and Sexual Health
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene created a Facebook page to encourage safer sexual practices. I believe the Facebook page was launched just before Valentine's day this year. According to this NY Times article, this is the most ambitious use of social networking technology that city health officials have used to reach the teenage community. (There is also a MySpace environment for teenagers to discuss mental health and substance abuse issues). I haven't been to the Facebook page yet, so I can't say if it's done well or not... but I thought it was an interesting idea to target teens for an educational purpose and wanted to see what other people in class thought....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/nyregion/12econdom.html?_r=1&ref=health
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/nyregion/12econdom.html?_r=1&ref=health
Monday, February 9, 2009
Language and the Internet- chap 1, 2, 3
• “…that a notion of Netspeak has begun to evolve which is rapidly becoming a part of popular linguistic consciousness, and evoking strong language attitudes” (Crystal, 24). I happen to have one of those strong language attitudes regarding the capital “I” in internet. Having worked for two tech companies as a Marketing Writer, I have struggled with arguing for the lower case option. I use Wired Style as my main reference in support of the lower case "i". http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/08/64596 (published in 2004!). I thought it was strange that Crystal devotes a large part of chapter 3 to discussing “Wired Style [as] an experiment in nonlinear networked editing” (Crystal, 69) and makes a sweeping statement that “…but we do write ‘Internet’ and ‘Net’ (Crystal, 3). Ugh!
• My response as an educator to these chapters was peeked in the discussion of the seven broad internet using situations. While I think the list is somewhat outdated (2006), I appreciate the attempt to chunk usage into definable and recognizable categories: “E-mail, Chatgroups (2 types), Virtual worlds, WWW [this is a huge one, isn’t it], Instant messaging, and Blogging, (Crytsal 11 – 15). Defining these categories is moving closer to fulfilling “the need for greater predictability, reliability, and familiarity is something which affects all Internet situations, and also the language which is found there” (Crystal, 18). I think students exposure to these different types of writing, reading, and authoring should be structured. In my experience at a public high school in Boston, students were mainly exposed to authoring centered around 5 paragraph essays for standardized tests. As an ESL teacher, I was conflicted when lessons on postcard writing were structured, but email, blogging, and social networking are left to students to negotiate on their own.
• “Will all users of the Internet present themselves, through their messages, contributions, and pages, with the same kind of graphic orthographic, grammatical, lexical, and discourse features?” (Crystal, 10). I think there is a problem in the logic of this question because traditional print writing does not offer identical practice of these features (especially across genre). I think two issues to address the sameness of these features should be awareness of author (Crystal, 20) and formality. I think, emails with typos are absolutely judge in formal settings (at work) but not in informal (to friends). Although in formal settings, I personally forgive the capitalization errors if I know an email is written from a Blackberry (or some other thumb writing device). I think this should be included in Crystal's quote about the ‘save a keystroke’ principle influencing the tendency to use lower case everywhere. (Crystal, 90). Back to the main point of this bullet, the formality of this blog is much lower than what I would write if I was submitting a paper. Students should have practice mastering when to use different levels of formality and when audience concerns impacts what they write.
• “They are realizing that their established knowledge, which has enabled them to survive and succeed in spoken and written linguistic encounters hitherto, is no longer enough to guarantee survival and success on the Internet” (Crystal, 66). This is absolutely a factor in terms of adult education. In my first corporate experience I was asked to go to all the US offices to train executives on how to write effective electronic copy mainly because they realized they had to correspond intelligently via email and there was no time for a secretary to edit. This fact is making professional writers more and more valuable as members of the corporate world.
• On a fun note, emoticons (Crystal, 39) were invented at CMU (haha): http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/beyond/2007/summer/happy-25th-emoticon.shtml
• I personally enjoyed footnote 23 on page 94. The text was ““Hay! Odz r he went 2 Radio Hack 4 a nu crys 4 hiz rainbow box!” and footnote 23 was “I don’t understand it either (Crystal, 94).
• My response as an educator to these chapters was peeked in the discussion of the seven broad internet using situations. While I think the list is somewhat outdated (2006), I appreciate the attempt to chunk usage into definable and recognizable categories: “E-mail, Chatgroups (2 types), Virtual worlds, WWW [this is a huge one, isn’t it], Instant messaging, and Blogging, (Crytsal 11 – 15). Defining these categories is moving closer to fulfilling “the need for greater predictability, reliability, and familiarity is something which affects all Internet situations, and also the language which is found there” (Crystal, 18). I think students exposure to these different types of writing, reading, and authoring should be structured. In my experience at a public high school in Boston, students were mainly exposed to authoring centered around 5 paragraph essays for standardized tests. As an ESL teacher, I was conflicted when lessons on postcard writing were structured, but email, blogging, and social networking are left to students to negotiate on their own.
• “Will all users of the Internet present themselves, through their messages, contributions, and pages, with the same kind of graphic orthographic, grammatical, lexical, and discourse features?” (Crystal, 10). I think there is a problem in the logic of this question because traditional print writing does not offer identical practice of these features (especially across genre). I think two issues to address the sameness of these features should be awareness of author (Crystal, 20) and formality. I think, emails with typos are absolutely judge in formal settings (at work) but not in informal (to friends). Although in formal settings, I personally forgive the capitalization errors if I know an email is written from a Blackberry (or some other thumb writing device). I think this should be included in Crystal's quote about the ‘save a keystroke’ principle influencing the tendency to use lower case everywhere. (Crystal, 90). Back to the main point of this bullet, the formality of this blog is much lower than what I would write if I was submitting a paper. Students should have practice mastering when to use different levels of formality and when audience concerns impacts what they write.
• “They are realizing that their established knowledge, which has enabled them to survive and succeed in spoken and written linguistic encounters hitherto, is no longer enough to guarantee survival and success on the Internet” (Crystal, 66). This is absolutely a factor in terms of adult education. In my first corporate experience I was asked to go to all the US offices to train executives on how to write effective electronic copy mainly because they realized they had to correspond intelligently via email and there was no time for a secretary to edit. This fact is making professional writers more and more valuable as members of the corporate world.
• On a fun note, emoticons (Crystal, 39) were invented at CMU (haha): http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/beyond/2007/summer/happy-25th-emoticon.shtml
• I personally enjoyed footnote 23 on page 94. The text was ““Hay! Odz r he went 2 Radio Hack 4 a nu crys 4 hiz rainbow box!” and footnote 23 was “I don’t understand it either (Crystal, 94).
Monday, February 2, 2009
Always On: chap 2
• “Is communication intended for a single person (one-to-one) or for a larger audience (one-to-many)" (pg 14). I think more and more communication is, or should be thought of as, created for a larger audience. Even E-mail and txt messages, traditionally one-to-ones, have the potential to be saved, stored, and shared in ways the author possibly did not intend. For adults— especially adults that did not grow up in this age of increasingly public communications —it has become habit to censor and save. Because it is so easy to self-publish and also easy to unknowingly create a digital history of one-to-one communications, I think skills for effective communication have become more and more important earlier.
• AIM and Skype (pg 18 and 21). I really enjoyed how this chapter went through a list of different communication technologies. The two that stand out in my personal experience are AIM and Skype. Using AIM daily in college to keep in touch with high school friends had a huge impact on improving my spelling. I am a horrible speller by nature, and in high school avoided writing on the board because my spelling embarrassed me. While spell check let me write papers, anytime I wrote unedited it was a nightmare. Essentially, using AIM to talk to my friends was writing on the blackboard everyday, but without the stress. My spelling improved. Moving on to Skype… I’ve used Skype to speak with my boyfriend in Scotland for the last two years (he is in the states now). Without the ability to talk, type, and see each other via Skype, I don’t think our relationship would have worked. This raises an interesting question about how communication technologies change the way we relate on personal levels, for example dating.
• I could be wrong, but I think this is an example of a MUD: http://www.homestarrunner.com/disk4of12.html (Peasant Quest). If I am wrong, at least it’s a fun, old-timey game! This one will be bring you back.
• Finally, I can’t think of Second Life without thinking of this scene from The Office: http://www.hulu.com/watch/15619/the-office-dwights-second-life. On a more serious note, I’m interested in what people think about paying real money for virtual land (pg 23) or other game bonuses. I had friends finance trips to Europe by selling items in MMORPG in college.
• AIM and Skype (pg 18 and 21). I really enjoyed how this chapter went through a list of different communication technologies. The two that stand out in my personal experience are AIM and Skype. Using AIM daily in college to keep in touch with high school friends had a huge impact on improving my spelling. I am a horrible speller by nature, and in high school avoided writing on the board because my spelling embarrassed me. While spell check let me write papers, anytime I wrote unedited it was a nightmare. Essentially, using AIM to talk to my friends was writing on the blackboard everyday, but without the stress. My spelling improved. Moving on to Skype… I’ve used Skype to speak with my boyfriend in Scotland for the last two years (he is in the states now). Without the ability to talk, type, and see each other via Skype, I don’t think our relationship would have worked. This raises an interesting question about how communication technologies change the way we relate on personal levels, for example dating.
• I could be wrong, but I think this is an example of a MUD: http://www.homestarrunner.com/disk4of12.html (Peasant Quest). If I am wrong, at least it’s a fun, old-timey game! This one will be bring you back.
• Finally, I can’t think of Second Life without thinking of this scene from The Office: http://www.hulu.com/watch/15619/the-office-dwights-second-life. On a more serious note, I’m interested in what people think about paying real money for virtual land (pg 23) or other game bonuses. I had friends finance trips to Europe by selling items in MMORPG in college.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)