When thinking about place, it's interesting to think about what 'place' people are talking about. There is the physical realm in which we can use our senses to experience the world around us. The internet is also a sense of 'place' that we can be in two places at once: I can be in my office on a hot summer day and be chatting and talking/experiencing things in rainy Ireland with a friend. The introduction of technology has completely changed that sense of place. Where do I belong? Which community do I belong to?
Place for me is where I am at the moment. Is my mind there fully or is it someplace else? If I'm at school, that is my 'place' for the moment. If I'm at my apartment, that is my place. If I'm at my parents, that is my place and I'm there. I am defined by the place I am at the moment.
I was ashamed to call myself an American when I was in eastern Europe last summer. The name 'American' isn't something that is welcomed all that much anymore. The sense that our place of residence has tainted us in the eyes of the world because of certain people.
It's also interesting to think of place in different times of your life. What was it like when you were a child? What did you consider your place? What about a teen? An adult? Everything changes with each passing of time and life as it continues on. Change is inevitable, but we tend to think of the places where we grew up as unchanging and then when we see them again, they have changed. Imagine when you were in elementary school, the ceilings were so high and the seats and the toilets were all the right size for you. Now you walk into an elementary school and you are amazed that the ceilings are so low and that everything seems so tiny . . . not anything like you remember it.
One interesting way you could get students involved and also get to know your students a bit more is to think about what is their place . . . or have them think of what place means to them? How about giving them a still camera and having them go out and take pictures of what they think is their place. What will you get back? Will you get the standard house with a yard and family? Or will you get a street with a little house on the end? Will you get a picture of job site? How about the school? It would be interesting to figure out exactly what the students think about place. Also, ask them to write a bit about the pictures they take and how this place has shaped them into what they think/feel today. You could ask them to bring in an object that reminds them of a certain place. Many will bring in happy objects or things that make them think of the happy things, but what about the sad things that shape us? Is that something you could ask the students to bring in or photograph and write about?
So many questions and different ideals when it comes to place that it is hard to even think about. What does that do for you when you think of a place in time or space . . . is it reality or some magical land that you go to to get away from everything that is only for you and in your head.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Reading Response: Literacy in Multimedia America
While reading this, I tended to agree with almost everything that the author had to say. The classroom practices of inquiry and teaching the students how to look for information to answer the questions that they've raised; the safe classroom environment that students can learn to listen to others and express their own voices and reflect on their own experiences, is something that I have been passionate about if I get into a classroom. I think that in today's classroom it is so pressured for the 'perfect' student and that they should all be 'book-smart' and that gets in the way of being 'worldly-smart' . . . which I believe is more important. By being media literate, it will take us farther in life because it is something that we can use on a daily basis because we are bombarded with so much media and by being literate in what they are trying to say/do, it has the "potential to change the way we think, feel, and react to the world around us" (pg 87).
All Media Messages Are Constructions
I agree with that wholeheartedly. Things are so tweaked before any of the public actually get to see them, that we don't know if what we're looking at is reality or some constructed reality that those producing the show/news want us to see. "Depiction does not embody truth"( pg 91) is the whole premise of what media is today. We all interpret things differently depending on our social status and what our past experiences have been, so we need to teach students what to look for and how to interpret what they see intelligently.
Media Messages Are Representations of Social Reality
Social reality, according to the text, "refers to the perceptions about the contemporary world that are shared by individuals–their picture of the world around them" (pg 94). This is not completely accurate and I don't believe that it ever has been. We construct our realities and it is important to let our students know that. The questions posed in the text are really helpful guidelines that I would take into a classroom setting . . . perhaps even have them as something to accompany an assignment.
Audiences as Well as Individuals Negotiate Meaning
This is a double edged sword at times. When you are sitting in a classroom and they ask you to state your opinion after many others have already done that, students tend to change their opinion or statements to fit what everyone else has said; or they'll say what it really meant or was saying to them because they had a different experience in the past that has led them to see things a certain way. Each individual will pull something different out of any media. For example, if I hold up a picture of a rose, many people will see just the rose. Perhaps one will see that it is a yellow rose. Maybe something will think back to that yellow rose they saw at a funeral or hanging for a tree. Each will bring something different to that one media.
Practical use of everything media literacy has to offer each and every day with each form of media that is out there will make our students–and us–see the world in a different light. Everyone brings something different to the table and instead of saying "you're right" and "you're wrong" we need to allow our students the freedom and the safety to express what they see and how they are feeling.
All Media Messages Are Constructions
I agree with that wholeheartedly. Things are so tweaked before any of the public actually get to see them, that we don't know if what we're looking at is reality or some constructed reality that those producing the show/news want us to see. "Depiction does not embody truth"( pg 91) is the whole premise of what media is today. We all interpret things differently depending on our social status and what our past experiences have been, so we need to teach students what to look for and how to interpret what they see intelligently.
Media Messages Are Representations of Social Reality
Social reality, according to the text, "refers to the perceptions about the contemporary world that are shared by individuals–their picture of the world around them" (pg 94). This is not completely accurate and I don't believe that it ever has been. We construct our realities and it is important to let our students know that. The questions posed in the text are really helpful guidelines that I would take into a classroom setting . . . perhaps even have them as something to accompany an assignment.
- Who is speaking for whom in this text?
- What sense do these representations make of the world we live in? What are the texts representing to us and how?
- What are typical representations of groups in society?
- What does this example represent to me?
- What does it mean to others?
Audiences as Well as Individuals Negotiate Meaning
This is a double edged sword at times. When you are sitting in a classroom and they ask you to state your opinion after many others have already done that, students tend to change their opinion or statements to fit what everyone else has said; or they'll say what it really meant or was saying to them because they had a different experience in the past that has led them to see things a certain way. Each individual will pull something different out of any media. For example, if I hold up a picture of a rose, many people will see just the rose. Perhaps one will see that it is a yellow rose. Maybe something will think back to that yellow rose they saw at a funeral or hanging for a tree. Each will bring something different to that one media.
Practical use of everything media literacy has to offer each and every day with each form of media that is out there will make our students–and us–see the world in a different light. Everyone brings something different to the table and instead of saying "you're right" and "you're wrong" we need to allow our students the freedom and the safety to express what they see and how they are feeling.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Reading Response: Ideology and Consciousness
For the article's sake it was long, but it was relatively easy to read. To see the differences they made between ideology and consciousness was interesting. I do believe that as teachers we need to be careful what and how we say things to our students. At preteen and even the teenage era, the mind is still impressionable. For many years in public schools the students are spoon-fed all their information.
"Appearances are extremely important in a mass-mediated world" is important to get across to our students. They are bombarded with images–both good and bad–whenever they open their eyes. Everything from tee-shirts to billboards to music and television, they need to understand the ideas that the media is trying to express and what the attitudes and opinions are of the people who made the media, as well as their own attitudes and opinions.
"A mass medium is not just a 'vessel' which carries ideas from one place to another, but is itself a subjective, interpretative, ideological form". I do agree that the "medium is the message" however, it doesn't always work. If you put a beer ad or logo on a tee-shirt, that doesn't necessarily mean that the person enjoys that beer . . . perhaps they just like the logo. Personally, I don't drink beer, but I like the Guinness logo. I have a few key chains and tee-shirts that have the logo on it. Yes, I am getting their business out there every time I wear that shirt or someone looks at my keys, but that doesn't mean I condone what beer and alcohol does to people.
Near the end of the article it talks about the role that culture plays into media becoming a part of everyday life. I think that society should also be included in that. We are so worried about what the next person is going to wear, or what the fashion trend for the next season is going to be. We have become obsessed with our outward appearance needs to be because of what the magazines are saying; obsessed with what we need to eat or listen to because of what the 'celebs' are doing.
I agree that we are saturated–perhaps even over saturated–with media, but as teachers we need to provide the opportunities for our students to look at today's media and decipher exactly what it is that those media want you to think. We need to provide a safe environment that the students are able to say what that media means to them and what they think it is saying. We need to give teens the guidelines and the tools so they can decipher what that media is trying to tell them and how best to avoid the traps that media has set up.
"Appearances are extremely important in a mass-mediated world" is important to get across to our students. They are bombarded with images–both good and bad–whenever they open their eyes. Everything from tee-shirts to billboards to music and television, they need to understand the ideas that the media is trying to express and what the attitudes and opinions are of the people who made the media, as well as their own attitudes and opinions.
"A mass medium is not just a 'vessel' which carries ideas from one place to another, but is itself a subjective, interpretative, ideological form". I do agree that the "medium is the message" however, it doesn't always work. If you put a beer ad or logo on a tee-shirt, that doesn't necessarily mean that the person enjoys that beer . . . perhaps they just like the logo. Personally, I don't drink beer, but I like the Guinness logo. I have a few key chains and tee-shirts that have the logo on it. Yes, I am getting their business out there every time I wear that shirt or someone looks at my keys, but that doesn't mean I condone what beer and alcohol does to people.
Near the end of the article it talks about the role that culture plays into media becoming a part of everyday life. I think that society should also be included in that. We are so worried about what the next person is going to wear, or what the fashion trend for the next season is going to be. We have become obsessed with our outward appearance needs to be because of what the magazines are saying; obsessed with what we need to eat or listen to because of what the 'celebs' are doing.
I agree that we are saturated–perhaps even over saturated–with media, but as teachers we need to provide the opportunities for our students to look at today's media and decipher exactly what it is that those media want you to think. We need to provide a safe environment that the students are able to say what that media means to them and what they think it is saying. We need to give teens the guidelines and the tools so they can decipher what that media is trying to tell them and how best to avoid the traps that media has set up.
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