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?