Technology through Time

This picture is coming from a March 2008 posting in Reuters As students working on UAD 2008 ,they are entering the last part of the curriculum, which asks for them to consider creating individual pictures to tell a whole story. Thus the idea that a picture tells a thousand words.   "The symbols are reinforced by the strong composition. The woman and her child appear all the more vulnerable as the only elements of humanity and colour against the advancing wall of shields and boots.Such a potent image leaves very little room for any doubt. In such circumstances do we need to know the details of the dispute to have any doubts that what we are witnessing is wrong?"

I am sure many of you have been following the presidential debates, which is what has lead me on this wild goose chase today. I began to ask 1 too many questions! I watched the debates online through ABC or MSNBC, whichever I can connect to quicker. Which also means that I do not often see any type of commercials (except for the one in the beginning that I usually miss because the volume is off, and I am setting up the "viewing area.") However, just 1 day after the recent Presidential Debate that was Town Hall style, I received an email from  wecansolveit.org  that made a plee for support asking ABC to play their recent ad,  "Repower America" . So of course I began to wonder, if this ad was not played, what was played. I discovered an article on  New york Times TV Decoder Blog  discussing Chevron's 150 second new ad for  Human Energ y that was played on ABC. On CBS they played an Exxon Ad. Nielsen Wire  stated that 63.2 Million people tuned in to these

Recently I was given the wonderful opportunity to attend a New Mexico Media Literacy Catalyst Training Session with Andrea Quijada . She introduced me to the concept of really viewing media through lenses. In other words, when we view media, we have a particular lens that we view it through that is based on our preconceived ideas formulated through experience in our environment. When we are asked to change this lens, than we are able to view the media from another lens. A great example she posed was to take a simple print ad with a woman in the ad and change the ad to have a man or vice versa. In the example she provided, we viewed a print ad of a young girl holding a Hamburger Helper glove and asked how we would feel or what we would think if instead of the little girl we saw a little boy. For me, this forced me to verbally and visually consider the conception of men and women and why I had those pre-concepts. This was only supplemented when I recently read Stephen Down

One of the most interesting things about our Tagline, Our Reality (created by Marcia Howell) is that it is universal in it's being. In other words, Our Reality really refers to the concept of learning and sharing in the reality of our youth. Looking to have them explain to us, adults, how life looks from their view or angle.  What's more, it asks Youth to consider what is reality and who defines reality. But what is most important about this is the need for teachers to include this "reality" in the classroom learning space. At moments, we must consider how much learning goes on outside of our classroom walls. Learning that is not included in the classroom because it does not fit into the curriculum or will not be tested on.  More specifically, I will refer to Bud the Teacher's Blog and his most recent posting about a student who blogs and twitters about her college course at NYU. One of the most intereting aspects of this article is that Bud raises

As we proceed into our new year for training about media literacy and media creation, we begin to rebuild our collaborations and sharing of resources. This resource was jsut shared from one of our collaborators: http://www.vimeo.com/ Vimeo  is  a place to upload your videos, share your videos and make friends. Unlike YouTube, vimeo appears to carry a great deal of artisitc videos. Furthermore, they have defined a community that is positive, encouraging and supportive for film makers.   Thanks  Roxy Menadleook, for sharing the resource! 

A lot of what "Our Reality" does is to encourage others to think and be aware of their surroundings, what is happening and why. Our surroundings are swamped with media, and this requires us to really engage in the thinking aspect in order to truly understand the media and our role as par-takers/users of media. Thus when Marcia pointed out this great article, I knew we needed to share it in the blog because it raises a great question about being responsible and what that means in terms of media and producing media. And as synchronicity strikes again, it fits right inline with a 2007 movie called "Charlie Bartlett" in which a youth does whatever he can to gain popularity as it is his sole goal in life as a teen. But an adult is quick to point out that "some things in life are more important than just populairty. Like, what you do with it." This is exactly what the Responsibility Project by Mutual Liberty pointed out. "We thought, if one

Wierdomatic Blog posted an entry about some very old ads. These are worth thinking about. ;) Here are some of my favorites: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1212/953439566_c39fe65e51.jpg?v=0  

Hongkiat's blog  just posted a great article with 70 creative advertisements. (Warning, there is partial nudity and reference to condoms.) But these ads are great for evaluating in terms of media deconstruction. Here is my favorite:   FedEx  Kinkos -  Office Products  now at fedexkinkos.com The Naval Museum of Alberta Nothing can replace a tree. FedEx Australia Post  - If you really want to touch someone, send them a letter. Australia Post  - Personalized your post

Business Week put out this  article  on Sept 6 about Twitter and companies using it as another advertising venue. This once again comes back to the concept of media literacy and tracking, understanding and learning how technology is affecting how we think and do. We need now more than ever to grasp these concepts of evaluating media. We need to critically think about how our personal information on the web is being used to create marketing campaigns. 

New York times recently published an article about how some libraries are including video games in the library contending that this will/ can encourage kids to pick up a book and read. Furthermore the article states: "S purred by arguments that video games also may teach a kind of digital literacy that is becoming as important as proficiency in print, libraries are hosting gaming tournaments, while schools are exploring how to incorporate video games in the classroom. In New York, the John D. and Catherine T.  MacArthur Foundation  is supporting efforts to create a proposed public school that will use principles of game design like instant feedback and graphic imagery to promote learning." Howvever there are a few that contend that kids will rely on the visual literacy skills rather than the written words to get through the games. History has shown my husband and I, though, that our son was spurred on to read beyond the basic SFA program in school through

Best Ads on TV website publishes a weekly podcast (as welll as on their website), the best ads from around the world. BE AWARE, however, there is some explicit material, so watch before you show your students!!! They have categories for best print, tv and interactive. here is a sampling below: Best  print  of the week Kayaking Jumbo : Choking Ogilvy & Mather Indonesia Standard Bank : Convict TBWA Tequila\ Johannesburg Pepsi : Lifeguard CLM BBDO, Paris Museum : Cup Cossette West, Vancouver Primus : War Lew´Lara\TBWA, São Paulo IGN.com : Boxer George Patterson Y&R, Sydney

Having just discovered this, I am feeling a bit behind on the times. Introducing a wonderful tool for media review and collaboration: Voice Thread. Here is a sample of a voicethread discussing storyboarding. 

It caught my eye, yesterday when I was reading some articles on CNN. But when it was mentioned again to me by my husband, I had to ask, ok, what is up with this? He pointed out that we were not the only ones asking the questions, who would invest in a mortgage right now, after looking at a dancing girl banner ad. The undulating bodies always disappoints me as I think about another ad being sold with sex. Yet, it grabbed my attention, which is exactly what an ad wants to do. Further investigation turned up a  blog article by  Workbench, "Dancing Mortgage People Ate My Brain. " Apparently, this has been an ongoing trend and very affective.  New York times  tracked down the ad creator.  It seems that the company that uses these ads have made because " the credit agency Experian bought the eight-year-old company for $400 million in 2005."  Furthermore, Brad Stone from the  New York times article  stated, "Mr. Coffin said that the company closely tracks the