CI 5150 Week 8 - Edible Popular Culture;The Food Network

PART ONE - READING RESPONSE

In their essay titled "Popular Culture and the Dark Side of Food," Walker and White (2008) propose the argument that the human constant of food is yet another popular culture artifact both reflective of, as well as shaped by, dominant American (or arguably global) cultural ideologies:

"Food is a window into culture; it allows us to experience and sample cultures different from our own without leaving our homes; it serves as a means of transporting, transforming, and maintaining cultures. According to many, food is culture. Catherine Manton refers to to food as everyone's first language... Food is necessary for all cultures to survive; to live, people must eat... Food, consumerism, media, and the power of big business have a complicated and multifaceted relationship in American culture; separating them is difficult" (131).

Nowhere is food's multifaceted relationship to popular American / global culture and the media more explicit than on the Food Network, a cable television network where round the clock programming is devoted to a single topic; food! On the surface, the Food Network arguably works to challenge American (and arguably global) society's current obsession with figure, image, weight, and dysfunctional eating patterns, instead broadcasting the more subversive message that it is "O.K." for Americans and viewers to eat and enjoy food (Walker and White, 2008, 132). However, close, critical analysis of the Food Network's programming, particularly male vs. female on-air chef personalities, may reveal a much less than subversive message; the thin body is still the ideal body. In other words, upon close, critical examination, the Food Network arguably continues to further deleterious ideological paradigms equating individual power and control, especially for females, with body size, favoring of course thinness (e.g., the thinner you are, the more power and control over that power you have) (Walker and White, 2008, 134).

Although Walker and White (2008) do not explicitly say so in their text, I argue that linguistic discrepancies / double standards between how men and women are perceived depending on their body figure / image helps lay bare various underlying ideologies. Therefore, this discrepancy can be illustrated via the common language we use to refer to men and women of various sizes. For example, a man on the "overweight" end of the spectrum is usually referred to via language with MORE affectionate, gentle, and overall positive connotations such as "husky," "strong," "cuddly," and so on. Conversely, a man on the "underweight" end of the spectrum is usually referred to via language with MORE negative connotations such as "scrawny," "weak," "gangly," and so on. In other words, the very language we use constructs the ideal male figure / image as leaning toward the larger end of the weight spectrum, as male weight is connotatively associated with great personal control, power / will power, care of oneself, as well as great authority, credibility, expertise, and so on.

However, the exact opposite appears to be the case for women. For example, a woman on the "overweight" end of the spectrum is usually referred to via language with MORE negative connotations such as "chubby," "fat," "thick," and so on. Conversely, a woman on the "underweight" end of the spectrum is usually referred to via language with MORE affectionate, gentle, and overall positive connotations such as the department store favorite "petite," as well as "thin," "small," "little," and so on. In other words, in contrast to men, the very language we use constructs the ideal female / image as leaning toward the smaller end of the weight spectrum, as female weight is connotatively associated with poor personal control, power / will power, care of oneself, as well as poor authority, credibility, expertise, and so on.

For a television network devoted to nothing but food, talking about food, eating, talking about eating food, enjoying, and talking about enjoying food (you get the gist), the Food Network doesn't appear to be doing much to break down, challenge, and otherwise subvert dominant ideological constructions of the ideal male vs. female figure / image. Instead, the Food Network appears to reinforce and perpetuate dominant, pervasive ideological paradigms as the on-air chef personalities further construct the aforementioned dominant gender discrepancy / double standard. In other words, the male chefs tend to be large, masculine figures, and the female chefs tend to be thin, feminine looking figures.


For example, meet Italian chef Mario Bitali who is featured in Food Network programs such as the explosively popular Iron Chef and Meet Mario Bitali.

Although not "obese," Mario is no doubt a portly man. In combination with this particular pose, Mario's size conveys the connotative associations of power, authority, expertise, and credibility over his trade; cooking.

However, Mario still appears soft in a certain way, almost "jolly."










Similar examples include Chef chef Paul Prudhomme as well as the likewise wildly popular Emeril Lavigne. BAM!

Overall, the portly figures / images of these on-air chef personalities reinforce the message to viewers that men like to eat, and they should eat and enjoy their food as it will make them bigger, stronger, more masculine, and so on.







In contrast, various on-air female Food Network chefs appear to send a different, and much less subversive message to viewers.


For example, meet Italian Chef Giada de Laurentiis. In contrast to her portly and "overweight" male culinary peers, Giada is arguably the definition of the ideal female figure / image; she is thin / petite, white, and otherwise absolutely beautiful. In fact, I know many individuals that watch Giada's show just for her shocking beauty. In fact, they probably have absolutely NO idea that the show is about an otherwise boring and uninteresting subject to them; cooking!

In contrast to our male chefs' portly sizes connoting a sense of authority, power, control, expertise, credibility, and so on over their culinary trade, Giada's thin size similarly connotes her identity as an expert chef; the standard is completely reversed. In other words, if Giada was the same size and / or had the same body figure / image as Mario, Pual, and Emeril, would viewers "buy" her as a competent chef in complete control over her culinary trade?

As a result of her four, count 'em FOUR, shows on the Food Network (Most Popular Recipes, All About Giada, Everyday Italian, and Giada at Home), Giada's image has further transformed / been transformed into a pseudo porn vixen to perhaps further convince viewers that yes, she is in control of and an expert with the food she cooks. See for yourself!



Now readers, I have some news for you that I am sure will not come as a surprise... If you eat to not only survive, but truly enjoy the types of delicious Italian food that Giada cooks across her 4 shows, you WILL NOT have the figure / image of Giada, no matter how hard you try. Similarly, eating these types of food WILL NOT be the way to model stardom.

Again I ask you - if Giada did not have this type of ideal feminine figure, would viewers invest her with the same amount of authority, power, control, expertise, credibility, and so on over her culinary trade? Furthermore, would viewers be as interested in seeing (or perhaps more intense, requiring) a similar chef-to-model transformation with our friends Mario, Paul, or Emeril in a magazine such as Playgirl?









As Walker and White (2008) state, "The role of the media cannot be overlooked or underestimated in the creation of the ideal female body. Popular television glorifies this as sexy, successful, and happy" (134). And as I've worked to explore throughout this blog entry, even a media network concerned with cooking, eating, and enjoying food is not "immune" to the perpetuation of dominant, gender-based ideological paradigms. And if you ask me, this is an EXTREMELY wasted opportunity! Via the incorporation of female chefs more representative of their actual audiences, the Food Network COULD HAVE dealt a potentially effective and subversive blow to the dominant ideological paradigms that the ideal male figure / image is the husky man, and the ideal female figure / image is the thin woman.






And don't get me wrong, the Food Network does in fact include some of these more subversive on-air chef examples. Take Paula Deen who is featured in five, count 'em FIVE, Food Network programs (Most Popular Recipes, All About Paula, Paula's Best Dishes, Paula's Home Cooking, and Paula's Party). In contrast to the thin and model-esque Giada, Paula is a much more "average" looking woman more reflective of her actual television audience. Also, Paula is actually seen eating and enjoying her food vs. sensually playing around in it! In contrast to Giada, this potentially sends the more subversive message to average female viewers that it is in fact "OK" to not only cook, but actually eat and enjoy food! Oh, and just another tid-bit of information... Although Puala may not be considered as youthful, beautiful, and so on to many audiences, she is still wildly, and I'm talking WILDLY successful as an on-air chef personaility, earning millions upon millions of dollars throughout her career, as well as branching out in other media outlets including print.





Given the media and popular culture's ability to not only reflect, but actively shape the ideologies, assumptions, values, world views, and so on that we internalize as a global people, I argue that REAL global change can be made via critical analysis and revision of the messages media and popular culture sources output. In the specific case of the Food Network, perhaps including more on-air chef personalities not only EATING and ENJOYING the food that they make, but actually representative of the viewers that they are cooking for in figure and image, would at least be a start in shifting our ideological paradigms for the better, and literally healthier. But, I'm betting that the magazine that Giada modeled for sold a lot, and I mean A LOT of copies. However, we have to ask ourselves a central question- What is more important? Making short term profits? Or creating a society where people's success and perceived levels of power, control, expertise, credibility, are not defined by their body figure / image?

Unfortunately, although I imagine that you and I don't have trouble arriving at an answer to this question, our response will ALWAYS be at a conflict with corporate profit interests. Until this conflict changes, many men and woman will spend hours cooking a meal, but later feel too guilty to eat and enjoy it. And might I had, food is just a metaphor here. The overall implications this discussion of food has to our global society are much worse. But, that's another blog entry!

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PART TWO - ASSIGNMENT

Although this isn't my original idea, it's a great one, and I hope you find it beneficial!

In Professor Rick Beach's CI 5475 Digital Writing class, we recently discussed the use of mobile, digital note taking tools that allow students to take detailed, mult-modal field notes. Although this list is by no means comprehensive, some of the digital note taking technologies we discussed and actually used in class (more on that in a minute) included cell phones to take and transmit digital textual notes, digital photographs, audio samples, and videos; digital cameras to take photographs and videos; digital audio recorders to record of course audio; GPS devices to record the exact position of note taking, and so on.

In order to then practice using these digital note taking tools, Professor Beach then gave us the following ethnography-esque assignment that deals with this week's chapter on food and popular culture. In short, I definitely plan on using this assignment with my students, and I hope you find it interesting and useful.

FAST FOOD ETHNOGRAPHY

Step 1: Explore with your students in whatever way is appropriate to your unique learning context the role(s) that fast food chains play in American culture. Again, although you can tackle the task however you wish, I recommend the following point of access:

-Explore with students the idea that many individuals argue that American fast food chains promote a sort of irrelevant "anti-culture." In other words, given the ubiquitous saturation of fast food in not only American, but global markets, many individuals argue that fast food is in a sense "culture-less."

-Question this assumption with your students, and pose the following essential questions.

• Are fast food chains truly "culture-less," or do different fast food chains contain and reinforce certain ideologies, values, assumptions, world views, and so on of their own?
  

Step 2: Then, and this is the fun part, group students into small groups, provide them with various digital note taking tools, and have them actually visit various fast food chains and take field notes in the form of textual, audio, and video observations in order to engage this essential question and explore the cultures, and / or lack there of, of popular fast food chains.

In Professor Beach's class, the class was split up into groups of ~4-5 students, and further divided up among the various fast food chains of the Dinkytown area including McDonalds, Pot Belly, Subway, Burrito Loco, Qdoba, Bruegger's Bagels, and so on to complete this assignment. Our field notes consisted of photographs of the locations, audio / video interviews with staff and patrons, GPS based maps and diagrams, textual notes, and so on. Really, very creative and interesting stuff!

Step 3: Once students visit their locations and gather their digital notes, they could then create wiki entries in which they explore the location they visited through the lens of the above essential question. Then, students could present these findings in groups, or whatever else you come up with as a class.

For a more detailed example of what this overall project and final product might "look like," visit the "Depicting Dinkytown" wiki which we created following our completion of this assignment in CI 5475. I hope you found this activity interesting and useful!

http://depictingdinkytown.pbworks.com/FrontPage

IMAGES USED

http://archives.starbulletin.com/98/01/28/features/art.gif

http://dirtyharrysplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/prudhomme.jpg

http://www.ecorazzi.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/emeril.jpg

http://static.open.salon.com/files/giada-de-laurentiis1239729856.jpg

http://www.foodnetworkfans.com/forum/attachments/giada-de-laurentiis/6d1185240182-giada-photos-esquire-giada-delaurentiis-1-0807.jpg

http://michaelscomments.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/giada-delaurentiis-3-08073.jpg

http://www.delish.com/cm/delish/images/8M/GHK0508WEpaula003-lg.jpg

CI 5475 Week 8 - iMovie Experiment

A very roughly edited iMovie experiment of my two dogs, Ginger and Annie, play fighting. NOTE: No dogs were injured during the filming of this video!

CI 5150 Week 7 – Why Popular Culture in the Classroom?

PART ONE - RATIONALE

Dear Parents and Legal Guardians,

Despite our personal feelings toward the fashions, music, movies, video games, television, internet, mobile technologies, literature, and celebrities that our children consume (or as we may argue are consumed by), most of the education that truly matters to our students is taking place in the popular culture vs. academic sphere (Walker and White, 2008, p. 1). In fact, the authors of Tooning In: Essays on Popular Culture and Education propose that the argument can be made that “popular culture has become the most influential education institution for our children in our society” (Walker and White, 2008, p. 4).

Regardless of the connotations we associate with particular contemporary popular culture artifacts (e.g., "slutty" fashions, "raunchy" music, "violent" video games, and so on), such a claim is hard to dismiss. Consider the most anecdotal and circumstantial pieces of evidence - our students are practically human billboards advertising for brands such as Hollister, Abercrombie and Fitch, and American Eagle; our students spend hours of their days, not to mention billions of their / our dollars per year, consuming popular music, movies, and video games; our students spend hours of their days consuming video and audio content from television and the internet; our students send and receive thousands of text messages per month to network with their friends; and so on and so forth. In fact, I am sure that you can include some examples of your own that I’ve missed.

When these anecdotal / circumstantial pieces of evidence are paired with empirical research as collected and interpreted by associations such as the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the argument that popular culture has become the most influential education institution for our children is even harder to ignore. For example, in 2004, the Pew Project found that 45% of teens possessed cell phones. In early 2008, this original figure was found to nearly double to 71%, and no doubt continues to rise (Lenhart, 2009). And if it is indeed true that the mobile device will become the primary internet connection tool by the year 2020 (only 10 years away, mind you), our students will continue to consume, or perhaps be consumed by, popular culture at an increasingly exponential rate regardless of time and place (Rainie, 2008).

Given the pervasiveness of popular culture, as well as the power which it holds to educate our children and contribute to the shaping of their ideologies, assumptions, values, and overall world views, Walker and White (2008) pose the following question: “Does popular culture have a role in the education process of our young?” (1). Although the anecdotal and empirical evidence supports the initial claim that yes, popular culture does play a role in educating our young (and a potentially enormous role at that), critical examination of contemporary popular culture artifacts in the classroom remains virtually absent in contemporary schools. In other words, the artifacts and texts that arguably shape and “teach” the ideologies, assumptions, values, and overall world views that our students will later possess remain left out of the formal / traditional education process.

Given this disconnect between what is truly “teaching” our students, and what is actually being “taught” in the day-to-day realities of the formal / traditional classrooms across our nation, it is our social responsibility to critically engage popular culture artifacts in the classroom. If we expect our students to become global citizens capable of not only consuming the resources of their realities, but critically questioning and effecting some sort of global change if they do not like what they see and / or the direction these resources position them as a global people, it is our responsibility to integrate critical analysis of popular culture into the formal / traditional classroom (see attached assignments for what such integration might "look like" in the classroom). If we continue to neglect critical examination of popular culture artifacts, their power will quite literally remain unchecked vs. under the control of our students and future global citizens.

In closing, it's no doubt that popular culture is an extremely powerful force in our students' lives. If we do not teach our students to be critical consumers of popular culture, we potentially run the risk of our worst fears coming true - popular culture consuming our children.

Sincerely,

Rick Lee Filipkowski

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PART TWO - ATTACHED ASSIGNMENT(S)

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ASSIGNMENT #1 - POP CULTURE CONSUMPTION LOG

Unlike certain teachers, parents, and additional contemporary popular culture "others" who may perceive pop culture as something "foreign," "uncomfortable," and so on, our students are generally the exact opposite, perceiving pop culture as a completely "natural," "comfortable," and so on component of their everyday lives. One argument for this differing perceptual orientation between many teachers, parents, and students may be a sort of saturation factor; in other words, various repeated popular culture stimuli across mediums habituate students to said stimuli, thus reducing their levels of conscious, critical perception. For example, the video game violence that strikes certain parents and teachers as relatively horrific, deleterious, and promoting of "undesired" sets of ideologies, assumptions, values, world views, and so on (e.g., killing prostitutes for their money in the popular Grand Theft Auto series) is often perceived as otherwise "normal" stimuli to many students. As such, where certain teachers and parents experience a sort of hyper conscious critical orientation toward what their students are consuming (often favoring the type of negative connotations as described above), students tend not to process these otherwise "normal" experiences with the same, or arguably any, level of conscious, critical awareness. With that said, the following VIEWING LOG assignment might be an interesting way to dehabituate students to these experiences, and force them to confront the popular culture that they are consuming with a more critically conscious vs. passive orientation.

NOTE: This activity is not necessarily intended to transition to a discussion / prescription of value judgments regarding various popular culture artifacts (e.g., video game violence is "destroying" our culture and teaching our students to "hate," text messaging is "destroying" the English language, and so on). Instead, this activity is intended to be more DESCRIPTIVE vs. PRESCRIPTIVE in nature, working instead to reveal not only the amount of time students consume popular culture artifacts, but the types, themes, ideologies, assumptions, values, world views, and so on students possibly perceive these artifacts to either reinforce or challenge.

Also, if sent home with the accompanying letter, parents and legal guardians could feel absolutely free and / or be likewise encouraged to take part in this activity as well in order to become part of the conversation themselves!

TO BE COMPLETED AS Homework:

Step 1:

-Provide whatever conceptual framework(s) regarding popular culture YOU deem appropriate for YOUR specific learning context.

NOTE: Because certain popular culture artifacts are highly visual, it might be important to cover how film and camera techniques are used to construct meaning. Although this is by no means a requirement for this activity, Rick Beach (2007) does a wonderful job of quickly breaking down how film and camera techniques convey visual meaning in chapter 3 of his text Teachingmedialiteracy.com: A Web-Linked Guide to Resources and Activities. Also, check out the visual literacy module created by Laura Boercker, writing instructor at North Harris Montgomery Community College.

Step 2:

-Select a time frame to run the viewing log activity that you again deem appropriate for your specific learning context.

-However, while designing this activity, I have about 1 to 2 weeks in mind.

Step 3 (now this is the EXTREMELY customizable part):

-Throughout the amount of time that you select, have students keep a viewing log recording various information regarding the popular culture artifacts that they consume. To keep this log as DESCRIPTIVE vs. PRESCRIPTIVE as possible in nature, I recommend considering the following type of categories:

-Time / date

-Duration of time

-Approximate quantity (more for mediums such as text messaging / IMing)

-Summary

(For artifacts such as television and movies, perhaps a sort of description of plot / episode summary of major events, what characters specifically wore, said, did, film / camera techniques, and so on. For artifacts such texts and IMing, perhaps a short of summary of main ideas of conversation exchanges. For artifacts such as fashions, perhaps a description of the style, colors, and so on.)

AGAIN, THIS IS HIGHLY CUSTOMIZABLE TO YOUR INDIVIDUAL LEARNING CONTEXT.

Then, TO BE COMPLETED AS A CLASS:

Step 1:

-Either in small or large group, have your students share their viewing logs. During this time, students could explore starter questions such as:

-What did you find surprising?

-What didn't you find surprising?

-How does your consumption of popular culture compare to others?

-And so on.

Step 2:

-Create a "master" log for the class, but with additional, customizable categories such as ideologies, assumptions, values, world view, and so on.

Step 3:

-Using the DESCRIPTIVE viewing logs that students have created and / or you begin to build as a class, begin to isolate and critically analyze various artifact trends. For example, if several students used Grand Theft Auto as an example, begin to critically analyze this artifact by exploring questions such as:

-What ideologies does this artifact support / challenge? How does it do so / how can you tell?

-What assumptions does this artifact support / challenge? How does it do so / how can you tell?

-What values does this artifact support / challenge? How does it do so / how can you tell?

-What sort of world views do this artifact support / challenge? How does it do so / how can you tell?

-And so on.

Overall, I believe that this assignment successfully positions students to...

1.) become conscious, critical vs. passive consumers of popular culture.
2.) practice and use a sort of "common" critical language.
3.) base conclusions on EVIDENCE vs. OPINION!

I feel that the direction that this sort of assignment positions students in how they critically consume popular culture is relatively limitless, restricted only by your creativity. Also, this assignment positions students to take on a much more independent role in critically viewing popular culture, such as self-selecting and analyzing print advertisements.

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ASSIGNMENT # 2 - STUDYING POPULAR CULTURE "CELEBRITY"

Although I created the following assignment for Professor Swiss's CI 5472 media class over the summer of 09, I feel as though it is very adaptable to critical analysis of popular culture. You could further adapt this assignment to your specific learning context to explore the following questions:

-What is / what defines a "celebrity"?

-How am I influenced by what celebrities do / say / act / advocate?

-To what extent is my perception of reality (ideologies, assumptions, values, world views, and so on) shaped by what celebrities have done / said / acted / advocated?

As stated above, it may be helpful to cover chapter 3 of Beach's (2007) discussion on the uses of film and camera techniques to convey visual meaning prior to this sort of activity. As similar to the previous assignment description, film and camera techniques will be useful for you and your students to cover as these techniques can be used as further evidence on which to base critical analysis (trust me, they are not difficult to understand, and are very fun to explore). And again, for an additional, quick resource on learning film and camera techniques, check out the visual literacy module created by Laura Boercker.

For an in class activity, you could split students up into groups of 6, distributing ONE picture to each group (or, you could have each group self-select an image to explore). Then, you could have students critically dissect and analyze the advertisements based on 1.) evidence including camera shots, lenses, lighting, special effects, and anything else from the film techniques chapters you'd like! and 2.) the specific effect(s) each being utilized to create.

Then, you could pose questions such as:

-What kinds of ideologies, assumptions, values, world views, and so on is your advertisement supporting? How are specific evidence / film techniques being utilized to support this?

For example, the first ad with Anjolina Jolie may be supporting the ideal and assumption that the definition of beauty is white, slim, and so on. The evidence / film techniques may support this by showing a close up of her flawless, beautiful white face. Also, you could argue that she is being digitally enhanced to look even MORE beautiful; more beautiful then she probably actually is.

-What kinds of ideologies, assumptions, motives, and values is your advertisement challenging? How are specific evidence / film techniques being utilized to support this?

For example, the 3rd and 4th ads of Queen Latifah may challenge the dominant ideology and assumption that the definition of beauty is being white, slim, and so on. The film techniques may challenge this dominant ideology / assumption by showing a close up of her face, which is rather heavy-set, yet still beautiful, in comparison to Angelina's. Also, Queen Latifah is of course an African American, and the close up of her face works to accentuate and beautify her physical features that are unfortunately often associated as "inferior" to white individuals'; her hair, nose, and lips.

For homework, students self-select an advertisement utilizing a celebrity and do a similar analysis, identifying AND analyzing...

-What evidence / film techniques are present.

-How they contribute to the overall effect(s) of the ad.

-AND how they work to support or challenge dominant ideologies, assumptions, values, world views, and so on.

CI 5475 Week 7 - Richard Jones and the Pedagogical Holy Grail

During our online role-play, I decided to create and inhabit the persona of “Dr. Richard Jones” (clearly a parody of 1980s pop culture icon Indiana Jones), an ex archeologist and adventurer turned English teacher IN SUPPORT of the argument that Web2.0 / Google IS making us “stupid.” Although I’m still not entirely sure where my initial idea to model Richard Jones’s (MY) persona after Indiana Jones’s came from, my best educated guess is that this particular character afforded me a way to creatively articulate my purpose - arguing that the Web2.0 / Google tools that teachers AND students drool over are strikingly similar to the beautiful, but DEADLY, golden booby trap Indy encounters in his search for the Holy Grail!

To continue to build Richard Jones’s persona and further creatively articulate my purpose, I embedded an image of Indiana Jones in stereotypical college professor attire. I then designed the bellow back story which extends via parody the ridiculous challenges and booby traps that Jones encountered throughout his adventures to yet another quest; the search for THE pedagogical Holy Grail. But, like the individual Jones witnessed suffer a horrible fate via the deception of the beautiful golden grail, Jones argues that Web2.0 / Google are one in the same in the educational context; glamorous trinkets that are DEADLY to our capacity to learn! As such, Jones reminds the reader not to forget about the not so glamorous, but tried and true, instructional methods.

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Occupation: Former Archeologist, Current English Teacher.

Issue Position: Pro - Web2.0 Technologies and Google ARE making us stupid

Since I've started my quest for the educator's Holy Grail as an English teacher at Simley High School in 1989, I have experienced my fair share of pedagogical booby traps along the way. As my students and I have risked life and limb dodging boulders, snake-filled pits of despair, and Nazis, yes, Nazis, I have yet to discover THE pedagogy that leads us to the object of our desires; Knowledge.

And as if it were magic, many of my fellow educators hail Web2.0 tools and Google as a sort of pedagogical Philosopher's Stone capable of instantly transporting teachers and learners out of the darkness of Stupidity, and into the light of Knowledge. Feh! In my experience, I have learned never, and I repeat NEVER, drink from the golden cup!

I feel as though Web2.0 tools and Google are just that - a fanciful solution that looks too good to be true, and probably is! As educators and students succumb to the surface level beauty of this golden trinket, they are neglecting to consider and incorporate pedagogies that are not quite as pretty, but have withstood the test of time. And believe me when I tell you that this is a grave, grave mistake! Don't believe me? See for yourself!



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To support Jones’s arguments, I primarily relied on the article from the Atlantic which primarily favored the pro side of the issue; that Web2.0 / Google IS making us stupid. Within this article, I anchored on to what I perceived as author Nick Carr’s primary thesis (that Web2.0 / Google is “chipping away” at our capacity to maintain a state of deep, focused concentration while reading), citing excerpts from Carr’s text as Jones’s main evidence. From there, I continued to search for additional sources supporting Carr’s primary thesis that Web2.0 / Google are DESTROYING our ability to concentrate (e.g., some short articles on text messaging), gradually nuancing and extending Jones’s original argument from Web2.0 / Google just influencing concentration capacity in reading, to writing, speaking, and overall human communication. Overall, I feel as though this evidence and argumentative strategy were relatively effective / successful as I witnessed a number of the other role-players support, as well as further nuance Jones’s original discussion thread. For example, in response to Jones’s questioning the intentions of the Google Corporations, Kyle Krowten (who was an original rival of Jones, I might add) contributes yet another dimension to Jones’s argument; information security:

“Old teacher dude may have a point here. According to a blog I follow (at the beacon of deep-thought news, USA Today), google can track you all over the web. They even search your gmails. Would you want someone listening to your phone calls, and then calling you to try to sell you stuff you were just talking about? No way, dude!”

Although I found the online role-play extremely engaging and informative, it was not without its struggles. For example, when I checked the Ning on the night BEFORE our group chat, there where at MOST 1 dozen posts. Then, the forum literally EXPLODED on the day of the chat. I’m talking well over 100 posts here. Although it was super motivating to see everybody commenting on jumping in, I literally had absolutely NO idea where to start during my next visit to the Ning. But, I argue that I had more power over the discussion as I was one of the first posters to the discussion way ahead of time on Sunday night, 2 days before the group chat. As such, I at least feel as though I much more concretely staked my place in the discussion, and it was much, much easier for me to later return to my thread following the absolute EXPLOSION of posts. In short, I feel as though the folks that might not have had the chance to get an early start with the activity might not have been able to exert the same power over the discussion as it was more difficult to navigate the increasingly cluttered environment (both in terms of the sheer number of posts, as well as the myriad of ideas flying every which way!)

As opposed to what I noticed some students discussing in the group chat, I am not entirely for or against the issue orientation that I took in this online role-play. Although I am absolutely intrigued by the instructional implications that Web2.0 / Google afford, I am also highly skeptical of them. In other words, there is a certain part of me that 1.) is a loyalist to print and print-based literacies, 2.) thinks that students should learn Shakespeare JUST BECAUSE IT’S SHAKESPEARE, 3.) thinks that text messaging is ruing the English language, and so on. As such, I used this activity as a chance to pursue this skepticism toward Web2.0 / Google – a skepticism I that I am rarely encouraged to exercise / explore as many of the classes I have taken focus on and hail the positive vs. potentially negative educational implications of Web2.0 / Google! Although I wouldn’t necessarily say my core beliefs following this activity have changed, I do feel as though I can now utilize Web2.0 / Google technologies with a healthy degree of skepticism, and not necessarily hail them as pedagogical Holy Grails.

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FUTURE TEACHING IMPLICATIONS

In my future teaching practice, I anticipate the online role-play to be an extremely useful activity when paired with texts that contain characters that exert TREMENDOUS power over their textual worlds, but are given very little character development themselves. For example, when considering Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the members of Tom Robinson’s jury are extremely underdeveloped characters (the reader learns next to nothing about them other than that they were selected for the jury), but they hold EXTREME power of Tom Robinson's fate. In an online role-play activity, I believe that it would be extremely beneficial for students to take one of these otherwise underdeveloped characters and develop them into something greater. For example, students could give these characters basic biographical information, as well as information more pertinent to essential unit questions such as: In light of the testimony of Atticus Finch, WHY / HOW did the jury find Tom Robinson Guilty?

Also, I feel as though the online role-play would be an extremely useful means to engage students with general "hot button" issues and debate, while teaching them argumentative and collaborative skills in the process. For example, students could select a micro or macro issue that they genuinely care about (e.g., should "Senior Skip Day" be a punishable offense? Should the U.S. government switch to universal health care?), and then select / be assigned diverse roles to explore and / or debate this issue. Overall, I feel as though the online role-play encourages much more universal student engagement, as well as authentic responses, as students who would otherwise perceive a similar face-to-face activity as threatening could remain relatively anonymous throughout the online role-play.

Thoughts?

IMAGES USED

http://www.principalspage.com/theblog/wp-content/uploads//2008/03/indiana-jones.jpg

CI 5150 Week 6 - Student-Created Avatars and the Critical Response Protocol (CRP).

Because I was previously exposed to this week’s articles in Professor Swiss’s CI 5475 over this past summer, I have already completed a critical / philosophical / personal-esque response to using virtual pedagogical agents. If you’re interested, please visit the June 09 response at the bellow link:

http://rickleefilipkowski.blogspot.com/2009/06/ci-5472-post-82.html

For this week's assignment, I’d like to go more in the direction of formulating a tentative assignment which utilizes virtual avatars that students can create via FREE web tools such as Gizmoz and Voki. More specifically, this blog post will explore how student-created avatars can be utilized in conjunction with the Critical Response Protocol (CRP) to minimize common engagement and participation barriers (e.g., students' fear of public disclosure due to negative personal perceptions of confidence, ability, safety, and so on), thereby increasing overall student participation, as well as increasing the overall honesty and authenticity of students' responses.

While being introduced to the CRP last spring while working with a group of TC middle school students, I initially found the simple question and response process to afford a very accessible method for students and teachers to explore and COLLABORATIVELY build meaning out of any given text including textual, visual, and even audio texts. In a nut shell, the basic process is as follows, and is of course adaptable to your unique class context:

1.) Present students with an entire text, and / or fragments of a particular text as pictured bellow.

2.) Give students a few moments to view the text, free-write about it, and / or whatever you think they need to do to begin to process what they experience.

3.) Critically analyze the text and collaboratively construct meaning via responding verbally to the following CRP question set.

NOTE: Although there is no fixed order and discussion format (e.g., small group, large group, individual, and so on) that these questions MUST be answered in, the order and format with which students proceed can influence the trajectory of your conversation, as well as the final meaning(s) that are constructed. Basically, progress through the CRP via the order and format your individual teaching and learning context requires.

-What do you notice?

-What does it remind you of?

-How do you feel?

-What questions does it raise?

-Speculate

As students ideally provide honest and authentic responses to this series of questions, students COLLABORATIVELY derive meaning from the text in question from the ground up; the constructivist approach to teaching and learning at its finest.

For more detailed information on the CRP, please visit the following 2 page CRP overview:

http://opd.mpls.k12.mn.us/sites/daf1e7b3-5a92-4df1-9b5c-67189b22643f/uploads/103007-CRITICAL_RESPONSE.pdf

However, because of the personal disclosure inherent to some of the CRP questions, in particular the questions requiring students to access any given text via verbalizing emotional and experiential associations, certain students may not feel entirely comfortable, confident, and / or safe enough to publicly voice honest and authentic responses. And I have to admit, although I'm a relatively outgoing person, I initially perceived responding to the CRP's emotional and experiential questions in front of my middle school audience to be a rather uncomfortable and embarrassing experience. In short, certain students are likely to perceive the CRP as too daunting, risky, humiliating, painful, and so on to effectively engage with.

But what if reluctant students who do not feel comfortable, confident, and / or safe sharing personal emotional and / or experiential associations with the text in question had the capability to distance themselves from their responses? What if students could control the degree to which they are identified with their responses? What if reluctant students where given the power to engage in the CRP's method of collaborative meaning making, but participate with varying degrees of anonymity?

In short, I argue that student-created avatars encourage universal, honest, and authentic participation in CRP activities as common barriers to participation and engagement can be mediated via students' ability to control the degree to which they choose to identify with their CRP responses . In my opinion, this "identity management" capability holds important implications as students are...

-forced to slow down and think through their cognitions as they build aspects of their avatar.

-required to articulate their thinking through writing and speaking. In other words, students can choose to record with their own voice what their avatar will say, or use the software's text-to-speech functionality.

-required to focus their thinking to a 1 minute audio response, or 200 character text-to-speech response.

-and perhaps MOST important, able to CONTROL and "fine tune" the degree to which they are IDENTIFIED or ALIENATED with their response as they manipulate physical, verbal, and non-verbal features of their avatar.

Overall, I see this capability as affording TREMENDOUS instructional implications. For example, students could create their individual CRP avatar responses, send them off to the instructor for further processing (e.g., screen for appropriateness), and later view them as an entire class to continue the process of collaborative meaning making. Whereas such public disclosure of emotional and experiential associations with a text might otherwise be perceived as absolutely HORRIFIC in the eyes of certain students, those experiencing such fears have the unique option to distance themselves from their response via the avatar they create. In other words, depending on how they construct their avatar, the remainder of the class may be absolutely clueless as to which response is associated with which student.

For this week's assignment, I did my best to model what I believe such a process might "look" like. Also, I did my best to further articulate my overall process and rationale via video annotations.

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TASK: After viewing your assigned image(s), create an avatar response to one question found in the CRP. In your response, you must develop a tentative title for your image, as well as explain your reasoning behind the title you create. Have fun!



















FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Although theoretically sound, this sort of teaching and learning activity is clearly not without its challenges.

Similar to pretty much every piece of technology we have discussed so far throughout my graduate education, there is the issue of access, both in the school as well as at home, that has the potential to create problems when considering such a technology-based assignment. For example, many, many schools either block access to the necessary avatar creation tools via filters, lack the necessary computers to process these sites, and / or otherwise have policies and assumptions in place that consider this type of activity as "fun and games" or "screwing around" vs. serious academic work. Combine these in-school issues with the potential lack of resources and negative assumptions toward "playing" on the computer at home, and we have some MAJOR problems to deal with before seamlessly integrating student-created virtual avatars in the classroom.

Also, this sort of activity has the potential to compromise the learning of certain interpersonal communication skills. Although I empathize with students that deal with issues regarding how they perceive their confidence, self-worth, and so on as learners and human beings, they WILL face future societal marginalization if coping strategies are not acquired. Although I don't doubt that this sort of activity affords otherwise reluctant students a voice, I fear as though these students may lack future necessary interpersonal communication skills if they are COMPLETELY insulated from risk. After all, a great deal of our life-long learning and education comes from taking risks!

Like anything else, our world and education system are dynamic, and it is impossible to completely anticipate the implications of our teaching strategies until we take similar risks as instructors and try them! However, I feel as though the activity and rationale that I have created have merit, and I encourage everyone to take the risk and try it out. And don't forget to let me know how it goes!

IMAGES USED

Permission granted from photographer Megan Petock

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65504858@N00/2210505878/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65504858@N00/2210508158/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65504858@N00/2209720369/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65504858@N00/2209718859/in/photostream/

CI 5475 Week 6 – Wiki Wiki Wiki; MC Filipkowski or Teaching Tool?

There are two major reasons why wikis make me smile…

Reason #1: When you quickly repeat the word (e.g., “Wiki Wiki Wiki”) it sounds like the noise generated when DJs “scratch” records. Really, I’m not crazy, check it out:



Alright, maybe it’s just me.

Reason #2: I have actually ridden on THE wiki’s namesake; the Wiki Wiki Shuttle at Honolulu International Airport that quickly and frequently caries passengers between the main concourse and various gates (“Wiki Wiki Shuttle,” Wikipedia).


I decided to design my wiki (http://ci5475digitalwriting.pbworks.com/) as a place to…

1.) Keep a cumulative record of the technologies I learn and use throughout the course of the class.

Because my primary reason for taking this course was to learn and practice using technologies in my current and future teaching practices, it is important for me to organize the many, many, specific tools I am being introduced to (as well as often re-introduced to through educational vs. leisurely purposes!), in ONE universally accessible place. Although I similarly organize all of these technologies via my personal laptop, I find it EXTREMELY useful to have access to these technologies via the wiki which is NOT bound by time, space, and the myriad of other constraints to which my personal computer is bound. In other words, where I could possibly forgot, damage, or otherwise lack a working laptop for whatever reason, the wiki affords 24 hour access to whatever I choose to publish provided there is a working internet connection.

With this purpose in mind, I have devoted a sidebar category to “Major Technologies Learned / Used.” When clicked on, this category takes the viewer to yet another page that breaks down EACH major technology covered in the class thus far (e.g., blogs, RSS feeds, digital note taking, digital mapping, vlogs, social bookmarking, social networking, visual rhetoric, wikis, and more to come!). Each of these categories then link to subsequent pages where the viewer can find external links to the specific web-based technologies learned throughout the class. For example, the “Blogs” category links to yet another page with a collection of external links to popular blog hosting sites including Blogger, WordPress, LiveJournal, and additional free hosting sites that I have discovered and explored on my own.


2.) Brainstorm and actually complete my final project for the course.

In addition to giving me a universally accessible place to brainstorm final project ideas, the wiki environment also affords me the ability to “map out,” build, and revise my final project before publishing a final draft to the internet.

With this purpose in mind, I have devoted a sidebar category to “Final Project Ideas,” which then further breaks down into 2 pages devoted to brainstorming and exploring the use of Facebook and Ning as affording critical character analysis and perspective taking respectively. After thinking through these ideas and tentatively settling on the Facebook option (see wiki page for more specific details), I have constructed yet another page as a sort of “template” with which I can begin to design and revise my final project. While designing this “template,” it was my purpose to reproduce the elements of a standard Facebook page as closely as possible to act as temporary holding stations until the revised material can be transferred to an actual, live Facebook page. In other words, Facebook-specific subcategories including basic information, personal information, contact information, education and work, groups, photos, and video have been reproduced in the wiki environment to store material until it is ready for transfer to actual, live Facebook pages.

3.) Store and organize my assigned blog posts and response.

In addition to storing my completed work on my personal computer, I have found it EXTREMELY useful to store material in a remote, universally accessible environment. After all, you never know when technical difficulties are going to render your personal machine useless!

With this purpose in mind, I have devoted sidebar categories to “Blog Posts” and “Blog Comments” where I am storing, you guessed it, my cumulative blog responses, as well as my comments to my “blog buddy.”

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In terms of wiki-based collaborative writing activities, I really like Richardson's idea of having students contribute chapters and content to a class and/or group wiki-book. In fact, I have had a very positive personal experience with such an activity...

For the 08 / 09 English Ed. cohort’s writing methods course occurring last Spring semester, our instructor assigned a total of 4 texts on teaching writing for the class to read. However, due to student teaching taking up the second half of Spring semester, our class was under an 8 week time constraint to learn and process all of this material! In order to distribute the work load, communicate the most useful content, and meet our overall learning goals in such a tight period of time, our instructor designed the following collaborative writing project:

-Because there were 4 books total, the instructor split us up into 4 groups; 1 group per text.

*Mechanically Inclined – Jeff Anderson
*Papers Papers Papers! – Carol Jago
*After the END: Teaching and Learning Creative Revision – Barry Lane
*Boy Writers: Reclaiming Their Voices – Ralph Fletcher

Then, each group was responsible for…

-Critically reading and becoming “experts” with their text.

-Creating a wiki chapter containing important information across each text to share with the rest of the class. Although there was a large amount of creative freedom each group was encouraged to utilize while designing their wiki chapters, our instructor recommended the use of the following categories:

*Bibliographic Information
*Short Summary
*Powerful Quotes
*Video and Images
*Book Review
*Useful Links

-Presenting their wiki chapters to the class.

The actual wiki-chapters our class created are still live at the bellow link. Check them out to get a more detailed look at the collaborative process I’m describing!

http://ci5461teachingwriting2009.pbworks.com/Book-Study-Group-Wiki-Chapters

By the end of our short 8 weeks, I perceived this assignment to be VERY useful in giving the entire class a relatively detailed overview of what was covered in each text, as well as providing where to look if additional information was later desired. And the best part is that these chapters are still live to view if I ever want / need to return to them during my teaching!

In short, I feel as though this type of collaborative writing activity would be a GREAT way to engage students, make them mini “experts” on the material, and cover a MUCH wider variety of material in a shorter time frame. And students don’t have to use textbooks either. This same sort of work could be done with novels in reading workshop groups. For example, using / modifying the above categories (e.g., bibliographic summary, short summary, powerful quotes, videos and images, book review, useful links), students could break off into groups, read a variety of books, and share their finding with the rest of the class view a wiki-book. Really, whatever students are reading is far game for this sort of collaborative writing activity!

Also, I'd like to quickly discuss the Skype plugin that I encountered while playing around with my wiki. Basically, if you don't already use Skype, you owe it to yourself to check it out. Once you download, install, and register for a FREE username with Skype, you are ready to make calls to ANY OTHER Skype user, from ANYWHERE on the face of the planet, for FREE. Also, for a VERY small fee (I think I pay 23$ / year), you can purchase a telephone number to be associated with your Skype username that can be used to call make UNLIMITED calls to any land line or mobile number. In fact, the service is so cheap and works so well that I have discontinued my traditional telephone service, instead purchasing a Skype phone that sits on my kitchen counter, makes the same calls with the same quality, but for a FRACTION of the price.

Aside from Skype just being awesome, PBWorks allows you to embed a Skype "Call Me" button on a wiki page. Just think of the teaching and learning implications here. Because the basic service is free (e.g., making Skype-to-Skype calls), you could create a class Skype account, embed it on the wiki, and have your students "call in" to the wiki to leave audio feedback, pose questions, and so on. Or, if you don't mind parting with 25$ / year, you can have an actual telephone # associated with this class Skype account that students could call into if they don't have access to a machine with Skype installed at home.

Or, students could create their own personal basic Skype accounts, and teachers and students could leave audio feedback back and forth on each others accounts!

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COLLABORATIVE WRITING CHALLENGES

Similar to pretty much every piece of technology we have discussed so far throughout this course, there is the issue of access, both in the school as well as at home, that has the potential to create problems when considering collaborative writing activities. For example, many, many schools either block access to wiki sites via filters, lack the necessary computers to access these sites, and/or otherwise have policies and assumptions in place that fear vs. favor collaborative writing. Combine these in school issues with the potential lack of resources and negative assumptions toward "playing on the computer" at home, and teachers have some problems to address before they can seamlessly incorporate wiki-books in our classes.

Also, in our current education system, many teachers have yet to adopt the idea that texts no longer function as discrete objects with discrete authors (Beach et. al., 98). Instead, many teachers STILL teach writing via the paradigm that writing acts are DISCRETE and highly INDIVIDUALIZED, neglecting to consider the larger social, cultural, and so on networks responsible for the creation and transmission of ideas. As such, asking students to not only look to each other for help, but to absolutely DEPEND on each others' contributions to the writing act may initially feel like a very awkward and subversive task.

IMAGES USED


http://www.online.uillinois.edu/oakley/presentations/WikiBus1.jpg

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/technology/skype.jpg

CI 5475 Week 6.1 - Sprint Mobile Hot Spot "MiFi" Technology

The bellow Mobile Hot Spot "MiFi" technology designed by Sprint has FASCINATING implications for the sort of networked / connected / distributed thinking that we have been reading and talking about in our class. For example, with this personalized Mobile Hot Spot technology, teams of people can set up, quite literally wherever they want to, and work together to combine and synthesize their unique individual expertise and skill sets to complete tasks. For example, on a single portable network node which has the capability to merge up to 5 wireless devices with the larger internet, engineers, graphic designers, PR specialists, and so on could collaborate to develop, market, and release a new product. In an educational setting, reading specialists, special ed. specialists, curriculum design specialists, and so on could all connect to and share material across one network node, REGARDLESS of place, to design and revise curriculum. In short, many, many mobile possibilities here!



Also, bellow is an example of AT&T's EXTREMELY pathos-oriented strategy to market the possibilities of networked / connected / distributed thinking. Enjoy!

CI 5475 Week 5 - A Visual Journey From Castle Elementary School to the UofM TC.

MY USE OF VISUAL RHETORIC

FLICKR SLIDESHOW



VOICETHREAD



Throughout this series of images spanning across the campuses of Castle Elementary School and the University of Minnesota TC, it was my attempt to express to the viewer my overall development in both the physical (e.g., height, body, maturity...) and non-physical (e.g., intellectual, mental, psychological, emotional...) domains.

To accomplish this purpose, I started by visiting the neighborhood elementary school where I was a former student in Mrs. Tonn's 5th grade class nearly 16 years ago. To establish a clear sense of physical development, I decided to utilize a sort of visual contrastive technique, sharply contrasting my current height / size / weight as a 25 year old male with the surrounding furnishings scaled to the sizes of the school's smaller, younger students. Although this contrast expresses a sense of growth via what the viewer can explicitly see (e.g., the appearance of my current self contrasted with my past surroundings), this contrast also expresses a sense of growth as the viewer is encouraged to visualize what is not necessarily present on the page; my physical appearance as an actual elementary student in the SAME setting 16 years ago. This overall contrast is then possibly further emphasized in the viewer's mind's eye as a constructed image of a short, small elementary student is contrasted with the image of the 25 year old man visible on the page.

Establishing a clear sense of abstract, non-physical growth was a bit more difficult. However, I decided to rely on the same visual contrastive technique to do so. As an initial point of reference, I captured images expressing what I believe to be overt, almost manufactured, senses of simplicity, routine, and structure inherent to the life of an elementary school student (e.g., the overt displays of children's literature, rules, and school policies). I then contrast this initial point of reference by using images captured of the UofM's TC campus expressing what I believe to be an overt sense of "bigness," as well as more covert senses of drastically diminished structure, rules, guidance, and so on. As the viewer experiences these contrasts across the two campuses, the implied meanings are that I no longer have overt rules and expectations "laid out" for me; instead, it is now MY responsibility to successfully navigate my world and figure them out on my own.

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STUDENTS' USE OF VISUAL RHETORIC

Although I feel as though our Flickr activity due for today is a great way to have students explore visual rhetoric by CREATING a piece of their own, I feel as though some initial scaffolding may be necessary before students will be able to take on such a creative project. Before I continue, what does everyone else thing about this? Would jumping right to this type of project be unwise? Or do you think students could "handle" it right away?

To start, I personally would bring in textual, visual, and or video texts including product / service advertisements, book / magazine covers, movie posters / trailers, and so on to begin identifying elements of visual rhetoric, analyzing them, and exploring HOW they are used to express certain intended meanings and purposes. After students have had some practice with deconstructing texts OTHERS have created, they could then begin to CREATE texts themselves, ranging across all the aforementioned, and more, multi-modal texts.

Students could then write an accompanying reflective piece identifying and analyzing...

1.)Their intended meaning(s) / purpose(s).

2.) HOW their use of images helps achieve these intended meaning(s) / purpose(s).

As far as specific CREATIVE activities, I think it would be very interesting to have students respond to a unit's essential question(s) via images. For example, if your unit's essential question is something like "Which is stronger, love or hate?" students could respond by collecting Flickr images, other online images, or their own images to provide some sort of tentative argument. For example, in the context of this particular question, students could find old images of their grandparent's wedding day, people doing altruistic things, and so on to represent love, and / or images of war, discrimination, and so on to represent hate. Students could then either reflect on these images individually or compile them into a slide show, later reflecting specifically on HOW the image(s) use specific elements of visual rhetoric to respond to the unit's essential question.