One More Class Left!

Hi everyone,

I hope all of you had a peaceful and restful break!

Tomorrow, we'll be finishing up the group projects and doing course evaluations! We really want to know what you think of this DeCAL!

So far the projects have been great, and we're looking forward to see the other ones left! I hope everyone has been comfortable about scheduling the group presentations, and thanks for your understanding!

See you tomorrow,
Carlton

Final Projects

Hey guys,

Just a reminder that final projects will start next week. In addition to any research you have done, please include personal experiences, opinions and commentary on the various topics you are presenting. Be ready to present this Monday 11/19, and let us know if you need tech help/advice concerning your projects (i.e. powerpoint, running videos off your computer or on the class projector, etc).

We look forward to seeing what you have prepared!

Laura

Guest Speaker: Richard Sterling

Here's a brief bio:

Richard Sterling is the executive director of the National Writing Project. Formerly he was a faculty member at Lehman College, where he was also director and founder of the Institute for Literacy Studies, a research unit of CUNY. He also directed and founded the New York City Writing Project and the New York City Mathematics Project. In 1992 he received a grant from the DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund to develop a national project of teacher research groups in 12 cities across the U.S. As national director of this Urban Sites Network, he worked with teachers and faculty from all regions of the country to develop a body of practitioner-based research documenting educational practice. Richard Sterling is working to extend the work of the Urban Sites project to both rural and urban settings and to develop ways to close the gap between university researchers in education and practitioners in the field. His publication highlights include co-authoring ”The National Writing Project: Scaling up and Scaling Down,’ in Expanding the Reach of Reform: Perspectives from Leaders in the Scale-Up of Educational Reform (RAND, 2004). He is currently working on projects for new teachers under a grant from the Stone Foundation and on issues of adolescent literacy under a grant from the Carnegie Corporation. Since 2003, Mr. Sterling has chaired the advisory group to the College Board's National Commission on Writing in America's Families, Schools, and Colleges.

See you on Monday,
Carlton

Music Homework

Hi everyone,

I hope everything is going well and that you enjoyed the topic of movies and TV. I thought it was interesting to see how our notions and values of love, family, gender roles, violence and moral relativism can be shaped through this medium as well as desensitized with much exposure to visual media.

Next week is a double feature. We'll spend the first half covering Music. So for homework, look at any top list of most popular music (BillBoard, ITunes, etc.). Pick any song in the top 5 and look up the lyrics. Bring a copy of the lyrics as well as a paragraph analysis on what values the lyrics convey.

After we cover Music, we'll have time to work on group projects, so bring any material or ideas you've gathered!

Have a good week,
Carlton

Movies and TV Homework

Hey guys,

We apologize for the delay in posting homework. Next week we will be discussing the effects of movies and television. To prepare, please write one page explaining how a particular movie or television show portrays college life and how accurate (or inaccurate) this portrayal is based on your own college experiences. If you have extra room, you can also discuss to what extent these shows/movies are affected by actual college life, and to what extent actual college life is influenced by these shows/movies. Have fun with this assignment, and see you next week!

Laura

Video Game Week

Hello Golden Bears,

As you may have heard, next class will cover the issue of video games and its effects on minds. Next week's homework will take the form of an interview. As usual, it need only be one page double-spaced.

As we saw in the video clip in class today, one of the marketing researches conducted interviews with people he considered to belong to cults. What he found was that many of these people, regardless of what cult they belonged to, gave similar reasons for their membership.

Although video game players are not necessarily cult members (although your assignment may argue otherwise), interview someone you know who plays a lot of video games for your assignment. The purpose of the interview is to uncover why someone will be as committed to playing video games as they are. Although I do not have any set questions you must ask, some suggested questions can be

• What is it about video games that is so satisfying to the player?
• What motivations do video game players have for playing games for long hours?
• Have they ever missed important events or commitments to play video games?

Also, pay close attention to the kind of language used by the video game player's responses. Is there any sort of value system that his/her language reflects (ie., as we saw in the video clip in class, much of the cult members' language had to do with inclusion and being part of a greater community. One interviewee even said, "It is all about being part of the Tribe.")

Once again, have fun and be creative with the questions. Try to get at the heart of what motivates avid video game players.

Yours,

David

Advertising Homework

Hi everyone,

We hope you all had a fun time today doing "media-free activities." That "surround sound stereo speakers" was pretty amazing, huh?

So homework for next week:

1. Project prospectus (one per group)

2. Advertising homework: find a print or online advertisement with a male or female on it (no write-up).


That's it, and have a good week!
Carlton

Week 4: Fun Day!

Yes, the day has finally come. The day you've all been waiting for--Fun Day! We're going to start off with a delicious potluck as well as some games (media-free) so we can have some fun and get to know the class better. The other half will be a period of brain-storming and group formations for the final project.

For details regarding the final project, check out the course syllabus.

Look out for an e-mail reminder regarding food for the potluck!

Have a great week,
Carlton

Barbie Article

Hey guys,

Here is a link to the article I was telling you about during class last week. The author discusses the fears her mother had about her playing with Barbie, and the concerns the author has about similar influences on her daughter. The link also has information about the audio clip we listened to in class.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5595146
(Scroll to the bottom to find the Barbie article).

See you tomorrow as we discuss New Media!
Laura

Recap and New Media Homework

Hello Folks,

It's me, David, on here tonight updating our blog. After talking with Laura and Carlton tonight, we all agreed how much we enjoyed having all of you in our DeCal and hearing your different perspectives. It should be an enjoyable and thought-provoking semester!

Anyway, here are the homework questions due next class, which will cover New Media:

1.) Discuss how a particular form of New Media (Facebook/Myspace, email, AIM, iPod, etc.,) shapes your identity online. How is this online "identity" the same or different from your identity in the real world? And only if you want to get a little deeper, you can ask how the medium itself already has certain limitations and expectations built in? (Ex., Myspace Top 8 friends = you can only choose eight close friends as your favorite, etc.)

2.) Has New Media had a positive or negative effect on your friendships/relationships? Give some examples.

As always, the papers only have to be one page double-spaced. Try to have fun with it and see if there are some new and creative ideas you can explore about New Media for next class discussion.

Take care and all the best,

David

Children and Media Homework

Hi,

We hope you had a fun experience this past Monday! Our next class will be on Children and Media!

For homework, please write one page double-spaced reflection on these two questions:

1. Describe your interactions with media as a child.
2. Would you characterize these interactions as positive or negative?

Also, please read this article before the start of next week's class:

That's it! Have a great week!

Week 1: Introduction and Ice-Breakers

Hi everyone!

Class begins today (9/10) at 5pm in 170 Barrows! We'll have a time of introduction, an overview of the class, and getting to know one another. Hope to see you all there!

Interesting Article by Chuck Colson

Are Images Making Us Illiterate?

July 19, 2007

Are Americans gradually becoming illiterate? It’s not because we never learned to read, but because we’re relying more and more on images instead of words.

A debate about this recently broke out on THE POINT -- BreakPoint’s blog site. One of the BreakPoint staff wrote about the frustrations of test-driving a new car: “There were many buttons and knobs with pictures on them instead of words,” she wrote. “What did they do? One of them had a picture with a big “X” painted over it, as if someone had made a mistake and crossed it out.”

Response from our blog readers was fierce.

“You’ve hit on one of my biggest pet peeves,” one blogger wrote. “I experienced the exact same thing with a rental [car] recently with the most perplexing image. [It] looked like a tire on fire. Why would anyone want to push that button?”

Another blogger noted that 300 years ago, “Businesses created signs [with] an image that would tell people what their business was, such as a shoe,” because most people were illiterate. Today, he says, “because we are relying more and more on images, we are becoming illiterate.”

It’s the same story with cell phones and TV remotes -- which is probably who so many of us have difficulty using them. If you order furniture from Ikea, the assembly instructions include no words at all: Just a series of pictures of how to put furniture together. It’s like trying to read hieroglyphs. At McDonalds restaurants, illiteracy is assumed: the cash registers contain little pictures of burgers and fries. The reason, in part, is that more and more immigrants do not speak English.

This increasing reliance on images over words can lead, not only to colossal frustration, but to spiritual illiteracy. As the late Neil Postman wrote in his book, AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH, the medium of communication actually helps shape the way people think. The printed word requires sustained attention, logical analysis, and an active imagination. But television and video games, with their fast-moving images, encourage a short attention span, disjointed thinking, and purely emotional responses.

It’s something to think about when we’re attempted to gorge on television or video games—and a reason to fight back against our culture’s insistence that virtually everything can be reduced to an image. Give your family a good lesson: read a book together.

Welcome to the Media Decal!

Welcome to our new blog! Fall 2007 is just about to start! More details about how to enroll in this DeCAL class! Check back for updates.