Video Games in the Classroom

The entire time I was reading this I kept thinking about all the computer games I would play in my spare time, usually Saturday mornings. The two that kept coming to mind was the Carmen Sandiago computer game and one other that I cannot remember the title for the life of me. I remember the game took you into a large house of some sort and there was a guy trying to destroy the town below and it was the gamer's job to find their way into the secret laboratory and stop him. For me, the learning video games did not necessarily teach me new information but it did hone skills that I had already learned. They were there to entertain rather than to teach. This was the main difference from the article. Doyal uses video games to get a grasp on the student's attention, keep it, then teach.

"All this goes back to the debate over what constitutes '21st-century skills.' How do schools manage to teach new media without letting go of old media? Is it possible to teach game design and still find time for 'The Catcher in the Rye'?" This is the question that all high school teachers need to ask themselves before fully engaging all games or canon curriculum. I feel like video games are great as supplemental material, and a good way introduce a new idea.

The Children of Chabannes Review

Personal Issues: This film was incredible. I have always been very interested in the World War II period, and combining that with an untold story of a school that helps Jewish refugee children in France is a great way to grab a future teacher's attention. So much about this film hit home for me. What I really appreciated is that one of the co-directer's father and uncle are children of Chabannes. This film meant so much to her and it was very evident throughout the film. Not only does the film relfect on the fact that the small town in France opted to save over 400 jewish children. The film describes the everyday life of these children and teachers, and shows the fact that during this tragic and very dangerous time for the children that still enjoyed to laugh and simply be children. A main moment in the film is when a jewish teacher stands up for the school and what she believes and gets dismissed from the school by order of the French government. But this same teacher gives the school a tip off when the Germans come knocking on the school's doors with three buses ready to take the children to their assigned internment or death camps.

Technique: As the film was mostly interviews of historians, or adults who were children that survived during the war. There were so many great quotes and stories in this film, but my favorite was from a teacher who was speaking of the man who created the school: Felix Chevrier explaing why he chose to save these childrens' lives. "They are jewish. But before they are jewish they are children." There was no special effects, just simply interviews and the camera focusing on certain people speaking in pictures. I really liked the music they used when discribing the city of Chabannes. It seemed very country, and simple which is very similar to how the town his described. The films major strength is the story itself. Knowing that this story full focuses around children who had different stories and still learned to cooperate with each other.

Acting:The principle roles were not actual roles. They were simply interviews of people telling their stories of their past. Because most of the interviews were of survivors who were at Chabannes during its prime throughout the war their roles were very crucial and creditable.

Plot:This film is both very original and compelling. "A tale of courage, resilience and love set during WWII, The Children of Chabannes tells the story of how the people of Chabannes, a tiny village in unoccupied France, chose action over indifference and saved the lives of 400 Jewish refugee children. Filmmaker Lisa Gossels returns to Chabannes with her father and uncle, two of the 400 children who were saved. Through intimate interviews with her father and the other "children" of Chabannes, the filmmakers recreate the joys and fears of daily life in that village. We see how this oasis of hope is shattered in August of 1942, when the war reaches the doorsteps of the chateau where the children lived. Through accounts by the extraordinary teachers who taught and loved these children, this lyrical and moving film shows the remarkable efforts made by the citizens of Chabannes, who risked their lives and livelihoods to protect these children, simply because they felt it was the right thing to do." (http://www.childrenofchabannes.org/)

Themes: Clearly the main theme through the film is the saving of Jewish people, and how a small town in "unoccupied" France stands against Nazi Germany. But another theme laced throughout the movie is the fact the it is possible for humans to be so different and live together peacefully. Many of the children came from various places of the world all being taught by the same teacher and they ended up at the same place to be saved. Another hidden message in the film that makes a great stamp at the end of the film is how much one person can change the lives of others. Felix Chevrier chose to save these children, therefore he saved the lives of 400 children, many who went on to become very successful after the war. Also the teacher who was dismissed from the school by order of the French government, helped saved the children by tipping off the school with information of the next Nazi raid that was going to come to Chabannes.

Genre: This film has won multiple award as a historical documentry and as a Jewish film. I feel that many documentries are created the same way this was made: a narrator, interviews of those who were involved, historians and pictures that the camera focuses in and out on while listening to the plot. Although I am not sure of films it resembles, but Felix Chevrier's bravery of being a non-jewish man going against German beliefs is very similar to Oskar Schindler in the movie Schindler's List.

Represenation: The main focus of this film is to show the differences of decision people make throughout this dangerous time of war. I fully believe that the film was not created to show people is a dark or encouraging light on purpose but it tells facts.  

Ideology: Obviously the cultural beliefs is saving Jewish children from the Nazi death camps. This was confirmed and accomplished by telling their stories about their experiences before, during and after their time at Chabannes.

Film Festival Adventures

I traveled up to Cleveland on see the film The Children of Chabannes on Sunday afternoon. First of all, I still haven't decided if I was technology unintelligent that day or the site was down but the first time I tried to order my ticket online it wouldn't work. So over break I kept fighting with their website and losing... but in the end I ended up with a ticket. Then going there I used the address on the website with led myself and another girl, Sarah, into a bad part of Cleveland. But yet again, we made it to the Tower City Center. I was very impressed of how smooth the process was of getting my ticket from will call. Note to the World: ALWAYS BRING YOUR CONFORMATION NUMBER! When I went to will call, they didn't have my ticket but since I had my conformation number they gave me no trouble in giving my ticket. Then we proceeded to get in line and waited for the volunteers to take our entire group to the theatre. It was very crowded and seemed very busy. Being used to Kent campus where most people know where they are going, it was a little stressful for me to see everyone running around trying to make sure everything runs smoothly. Overall, I was very impressed with the expreience even with the minor kinks.

The Runways

As spring break is only a week, and between work, catching up on school work, and hanging out with friends I don't have time to read as often as I'd like. But I am a big movie person. (Netflix saves my brain sometimes.) But this is my most recent watch. The Runaways, starring Kirsten Stewart and Dakota Fanning, are teenage girls in an all girl rock band in the 1970's. Because this movie is based off of Joan Jett's storyline of becoming famous, the ending is pretty depressing. But surprisingly, Kirsten Stewart is not awkward in this movie. Personally, I think she did pretty well in playing the determined Joan Jett. As we have watching Dakota Fanning grow up on the silver screen since the age of 6, she is all grown up now in this movie taking on the role of Cherie Currie, the band's 15 year old lead singer forced into the lifestyle of rock and roll: including sex and drugs in full force. Although I tried to not think about the lighting, shots, or technical aspects of this movie based on our readings from the text, it is becoming more and more noticeable with each chapter.

Using Facebook and YouTube in the classroom

In a previous blog post I mentioned how I would like to use twchnology in the classroom, but I wanted to take the opportunity to expand on my thinking. I discussed how my friend used Facebook in a lesson plan she used in student teaching. It was actually a really cool concept. She did a project in the mythology class she was student teaching in where the student created a Facebook page for their assigned greek god. This is used as a formal assessment of the entire chapter of the students learning about the gods. To show their critical thinking, and still giving the students a chance to be a bit more creative a part of their assignment was to associate their god to popular mediaes of today. For example: a student who had the godges of love connect the movie that that god would like is romantic movies and love songs.

I really like this idea so I began to think a little further of how to expand this away from Facebook seeming how most schools have that site blocked from their server. I began thinking about how people begin to show themselves and their personalities online as said in the article "I'm so digitally close to you!" but yet still not using social networking sites. So I thought about YouTube. People show their likes and dislikes through videos they post and other sites that they subscribe to. This way if a student needs to present their Facebook or YouTube site from their god it will be easier for them to immediately show their proof of their critical thinking with videos then just likes on other Facebook pages.

You're Leaving A Digital Trail

When thinking about collective intelligence there are many positive and negatives to the idea.

"Propelled by new technologies and the Internet’s steady incursion into every nook and cranny of life, collective intelligence offers powerful capabilities, from improving the efficiency of advertising to giving community groups new ways to organize." The first thing I thought about when I read this was the following clip. Although this is not exactly what the article had in mind, it is a decent representation of the idea that with collective intelligence advertising companies can focus solely on those more likely to buy.

 

When it comes to privacy I do agree with the statement that we give up privacy settings of ourselves once we go on the internet. Between Facebook, blogs, e-mails and instant messaging it is very easy for a person to get any information they need. 

As I continued reading I was blown away by all that Google and Sense can do: tracking flu trends, finding when financial employees go to work... the amount of detail is astounding. Technology feeds off of details, therefore we as a civilization are surviving off of details as well.  This article makes me begin thinking about Little Brother. As the young adult novel was based of this same idea, I can't help but think that privacy paranoia may come back to haunt us. The government is already taking heat for privacy setting with taps and bugs, but will a "Big Brother" sense fully emerge with collect intelligence. I wonder if people will be more lenient because this type of intelligence could work towards their benefit such as finding main areas that the flu symptoms are appearing, or easy filter systems to finding information that a person wants.

i heart novels (and those who inspire them)

There are a few things in the beginning of this article that amaze me. First of all I have always want to write something of this magnitude but most of the time inspiration hits when I first wake up or just when I'm about to fall asleep and I can never get myself to get up and write something down. But writing 10,000 words a day is simply amazing to me. Getting inspired like that, then running with inspiration must be an amazing feeling.

"The cell-phone novel, or keitai shosetsu, is the first literary genre to emerge from the cellular age. For a new form, it is remarkably robust. Maho i-Land, which is the largest cell-phone-novel site, carries more than a million titles, most of them by amateurs writing under screen handles, and all available for free." Honestly this is evolution is no surprise to me. As technology progresses to become more and more advanced, newer creations are being distributed with a greater purpose than just the ease of personal matters and organization. Cell phones, iPad, and smartphones are progressing to become so much more than what they were used for even 3 years ago. The fact someone can write an entire novel from a cell phone screams how much technology has advanced. On a personal matter, I'm not much an author but anytime I think of a song lyric or when I hear a quote or saying I quickly reach for my phone and type it in my notes.

I really liked the point that was stated that women authors tend to write autobiographically. Translating that to works and female authors I have focused on I fully believe that this is true all over the world, and not just in Japan. J.K. Rowling, the famous author to the Harry Potter series uses many of her past experiences and spins them into the famous wizard series. A great example would be that Harry is an orphan, and parts of the novels focus on his search for me information and details about his parents. Could this be from the fact that she had a newborn when she began writing the series? Did Rowling begin wondering what would life be like for her child if it was left with evil relatives and wondering what their mother was like? Authors fully feel for their characters, and there is no question that when female authors write from personal experiences they feel much more.

"The words are combinations of characters drawn from three sources—hiragana, a syllabary thought to have been developed for upper-class women, some twelve hundred years ago; katakana, a syllabary used mostly for words of foreign origin; and kanji, Chinese characters whose mastery is the measure of literary accomplishment." How the Japanese write is so interesting: right to left, top to bottom. But the fact that there is a different style of writing based on education reminds me of how the United States speak. Yes, our written language is based on educational standpoint as well, but it is easier for a person to distinguish their intelligence by speaking. I feel that there is stronger notice of female cell-phone authors in Japan because females distinguishing themselves with writing and educational sources is brand new.

"Printed, the books announce themselves as untraditional, with horizontal lines that read left to right, as on the phone. “The industry saw that there was a new readership,” one publishing executive said. “What happens when these girls get older? Will they ever grow up and start reading literature that is vertical? No one knows."  Well, I'm glad this is becoming a world phenomenon not just in the United States. With the Kindle and other technologies printed books are becoming more uncommon. Even as college assignments, most of our reading material is online. And the same questions still remain for the United States. Will our children who grew up on technology learn proper grammar and spelling. Elementary schools have even now stopped teaching cursive. Will this continue to writing print rather than learning how to type on the computer?

Great Films Text.... Great Ideas

Now that the text has covered all my favorite parts of film making I have so many examples and ideas I want to share. So I am just going to go straight into the text, pull out quotes and explain my thinking with what I like and don't like with examples from my favorite movies.

"In reality, we're watching a succession of still photographs. When the film is shot at higher speeds, say 240 frames per second,the projected result is seen as slow motion."(pg 27)

From the film Fight Club, this is Tyler Durden explaining process that movie theaters must use to films on projectors. But in this clip you can see how the film is many, many different frames put together in an order to suggest motion when played. I really like this quote simply because it proves that there is a lot more to editing that people may realize. This also is taking high in consideration when doing animation. When a cartoonist is drawing for a animated movie depending on how fast or slow he wants to object to move the they must think about where and how to draw said object.

"The elements with a shot--the action, dialogue camera movements, choice of lenses, and so forth___ are known collectively as mise-en-scene. Mis-en-scene refers to what happens on the set (literally, what is put into the scene), in contrast to the editing that happens after shooting." (pg 28) As we talked about shots in class, I wanted to take this time and show how different shots effect the movie's intensity when the shot is being shown. Keeping up with my Taylor addiction, this video has many of the aspects of film making that is discussed in this film. There was a variety of camera shots and movement: high-angled down, close-up, long-shots, and even an over the shoulder for a split second if you pay very close attention.  There was also some different scenes that handled lighting. I really enjoyed the lighting that showed Taylor and guy's silhouette against the window. But also take in consideration that they also did a night scene which require different camera lenses and lighting as well.

Special effects are showing up more and more in films today. As technology improves so do our movies scientific realities. From Pirates of the Caribbean, this image shows how special effects for the captain of the Black Pearl slowly turns into a skeleton in the moonlight. Now this is only a small idea of how are special effects can take the world of film. Directors have gone as far as creating entire backdrops and scenes,digitally adding in characters.

Great Films Text.... Words Without Words

I really enjoy the fact that this author is going into great detail about every aspect of film making. Now, as a watch films, or television I am paying attention to so much more than the plot, or soundtrack. As chapter 2 discusses the idea of using music, signs and signifers as a mean of communication to the audience, many films began to pop into my brain, but the Pixar film Wall-E I thought would be a great example.

"In the United States, during the days of silent movies, viewers were at first confused by flashbacks, crosscutting, and reaction shots, techniques understood by even the youngest filmgoers today." (pg 16)

First of all, I love Wall-E! If you have never watched this movie, you need to go out and get it AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! But back to the text, there is very limited dialog going on in this clip yet the audience completely understand Wall-E's feelings. As Pixar uses human body language and expression they make this machine become a main character. The audience can see his fear of the vacuum as he reacts in a similar fashion that a human would. The shakes/ quivering is a major human reaction to fear. At the end of the clip the audience can also portray Wall-E's guilt of making a mess with the vacuum has he slumps down and tries to swipe the floor clean looking for witnesses.


"The sounds may include music, sound effects, or speech. Filmmakers arrange these sounds systematically. The arrangement is meaningful to us because we understand the system." (pg17)

Now clearly sounds effects is crucial to this movie because it is a computer animated film. Without sounds, it would literally be a silent film. Within the actual film, music is built in the film to fill a lot of space because there is so little speech. But the speech that is included in this film is so crucial! From this clip above, the audience can tell Wall-E's interest in the vacuum and his fear for the cockroach pal after we gets sucked into the vacuum. Many times it is not actual words that Wall-E says but it is his demeanor of his body (machine) language or the noises he makes.

"I'm So Totally, Digitally Close to You" Clive Thompson

SSSssooooooooo much of this article was scary true! The best way for me to talk about this really in depth discussion is to point out quotes.

"Browsing Facebook was like constantly poking your head into someone's head into someone's room to see how she was doing." (para 2) This is so impeccably true. Before Facebook's popularity skyrocketed it was fairly difficult to find more about someone unless you had access to their page.

"He [Zuckerberg] developed something he called News Feed, a built-in service that would actively broadcast changes in a user's page to every one of his or her friends." (para 3) I remember this so clearly. Back to my senior year of high school my best friend John was trying to get me to get a Facebook account and he said "Syd... it's Myspace creeping made easy!!!!" However, now it is fairly simple to block or prohibit certain News Feeds post with the help of security settings, or simply choosing not to put it up. This leads to my next quote.

"The first was to add a privacy setting feature to News Feed, letting users decide what kind of information went out. But the second decision was to leave News Feed otherwise intact. He suspected that once people tried it and got over their shock, they'd like it. "(para 6) He was totally right. Today, people fully expect the consequence of putting a change to their Facebook page.

As the next section was continuing to Twitter, I am a little less knowledgeable. I hate Twitter. I have posted one Twitter post in my life, and I just don't see the point in it at all. But I was impressed by an interview that the author had with a 39-year old man that decided to get an account. The more he looked at updates he began to see more and more of a pattern in his friend's everyday lives. "This is the paradox of ambient awareness. Each little update-- each individual bit of social information-- is insignificant on its own, even supremely mundane. But taken together, over time, the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends' and family members' live, like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting." (para 15)

"Many maintained that their circle of true intimates, their very close friends and family, had not become bigger. Constant online contact has made those tides immeasurably richer, but it hadn't actually increased the number of them; deep relationships are still predicted on face time, and there are only so many hours in the day for that." (para 28) I'm not sure how I feel about this quote. I completely agree with the fact that deep relationships will still have face time. I talk to my best friend who lived 4 hours away from me when Kent State is in session, and it is guaranteed that when I come home we go out to eat, hang out or some type of get together. The part that I have the most problems with is that fact that I lean on the side that online relationships can increase with online activity. When my mom signed up for a Facebook account the first thing she did was found her old friend from high school she hasn't spoken to in years.

"For them, [people in their 20s] participation isn't optional. If you don't dive in, other people will define who you are. So you constantly stream your pictures, your thoughts, your relationship status and what you are doing--right now!-- if only to ensure the virtual version of you is accurate..." (para 39) Parts of this section really frustrates me. Being published in 2008 this may have been true then, but now if you don't put up a lot of pictures, or statuses, or whatever else Facebook comes up with I don't feel defenseless against the virtual world. Now if I disappeared from Facebook all together my friends and family would be a tad concerned, but the fact that my activity is rather quiet does not define who I am.

Trash TV

Just thought these were worth people to see; no thought necessary.

DEXTER!!!!

So I have moved on from LOST to Dexter. Again, I am totally addicted. It is about a man who is a serial killer, but he only kills people who police cannot put away. He is the prime candidate for the most awkward man on earth. He cannot feel emotions very well, which makes killing so addictive to him. An even cooler twist is that he works for the Miami police department as their forensics investigator. Blood is his life. This is such an awesome concept. My favorite character in this series is Dexter's sister Deb. She is so outspoken, and devoted to her job. I love everything about her character. Beware: the following opening will make you hungry!

Extra Credit Assignment

Two major topics I would like to use multi-modal technology are when thinking about poetry and mythology. Clearly in my multi-genre biography music is a major passion of mine, and it is clearly becoming a major too to bridge the gap between student and teachers. Taking a set of song lyrics and having the students begin to think critically about the words is a good starter to poetry criticism. They can begin to learn literary terms by using songs/poetry they already know. Furthermore students can then bridge into more challenging writings once getting the foundations of poetry in a way that they can enjoy. When it comes to mythology, personally, I was never truly interested in it. A girl who is student teaching now is forced to student teach a mythology class, who too shares my indifference in the topic. Together she and I were brainstorming projects she could do for her class as a chapter assessment. We thought of Greek Gods Facebook. It was a huge hit! She said the students really enjoyed creating the personality of a god that they had just learned about. This is something I now hope I get to do when I become a teacher.

There is no question that we have witnessed the birth of the technology era. Where society takes it will pivot how we, as teachers, will continue to teach. I think that bridging the gap between teachers to student in a technological standpoint is a wonderful thing. But as the economy the way it is today, technology can also be a great hindrance on the American education system. While some schools stand today with “Million Dollar Rooms” (Mason High School, Mason Ohio) others are still begging for updated computers.

What I have learned the most from the multi-genre autobiography project is that everyone’s past creates who they are today. Their past creates a huge influence on how we learn, teach, and interact with others. I feel that this was a nice way for students for get to know each other, and also for teachers to think about why do they like the teaching strategies they use.

Great Films Text.... TITANIC!!!!!!

In beginning of the text, the author talks about the art of storytelling. First is discusses the idea of the narrator. "...narratology to emphasize the shared features of storytelling, no matter what the medium may be: a speech, a written text,a movie, or a dance" (pg 4). In the movie Titanic, the story is narrated in two parts. Old Rose tells the story of her voyage on Titanic, which is most of the film, but also the movie tells the story of excavators searching for the "Heart of the Ocean." This begins to go into the next section of the chapter. "Our understanding of character also depends on another element of narrative: point of view. A novel or short story can be related from varying perspectives, ranging from omniscient to restricted,objected to subjective, and authoritative to unreliable" (pg 5). Obviously, the point of view in Titanic is Rose, but there are moments where Rose is not in the story and you see a point of view from Jack. For example, how we won his ticket before meeting Rose.

"To verbal language, film adds the languages of color, movement, music and natural and artificial sounds." This is why I love Titanic so much! I love the colors of Titanic. As the ship is sailing, the audience sees many warm colors, such as golds, deep browns and reds. The throughout and after the sinking the screen shots are filled with blues and black, very cool colors.

Warm Colors!

Cool Colors!