Last posting

Since the class is now over, I wanted to post one last time to thank everyone who worked on this unit. I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the blogs that were completed. I have e-mailed blog marks and comments to those I had valid e-mail addresses for. Please contact me if you haven't received anything, or speak with Mrs. McConkey, she has a record of these marks as well.

It was a real pleasure getting to know ALL of you. Good luck with the rest of the year!

Here's one of my new favourite YouTube clips ... check out the rest of this guy's stuff if you like it.

Tuesday's Assigment

For those of you who did not accompany us today, use this time to work on your blog; if you have not yet posted anything, please do this now. To remind you: all blogs are due on Monday, October 22 and should include three separate postings. You are also required to comment on blog postings from three of your classmates. Class presentations of your blog will take place on Monday, October 22 and Tuesday, October 23. Please ensure that before this time, your blog postings are polished and free of spelling and grammatical errors.

Today, before you begin work on your own blog, I would like you to comment on one student blogs - the list is just there to your right. Your comment should address the topic that is raised and be constructive and courteous. You can also ask a question about the posting if you wish. I will be checking that this has been completed.

Debates about file sharing will take place on Thursday. You can use this time as well to work on your arguments. This video on copyright (using Disney characters) was put together by a law professor and is a humorous, yet informative, review of copyright principles. Check it out for some good background information:

Again, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Send an email to msmclaugh@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

Additional resources for your debate

In addition to the website listed in the previous post (http://www.mredkj.com/other/sharing.html), here are some other resources.

Editorial cartoons regarding downloading: http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/MusicSwappers/main.asp

Lars Ulrich of Metallica's argument against file sharing to the U.S. Senate : http://www.metallica.com/index.asp?item=514

Jack Black's stance on piracy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LkWKvMCzqA

Michael Moore's opinion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVYhwKu7J5E

Recent article about Radiohead and other U.K. bands giving music away for free: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/09/nradiohead108.xml

Thursday's Assignment

Visit the following site and choose TWO of the arguments listed; one pro file-sharing and one against. Choose an argument on each side that links to an external article, and print these two articles out for discussion in class.
http://www.mredkj.com/other/sharing.html

Friday's Assignment

Hi everyone. Mrs. McConkey and I are at To Kill A Mockingbird this afternoon with the 2D English class, so you've got some more time to work on your blogs. To recap, you will be responsible for at least three blog entries on your blog and for leaving comments on at at least three other blogs in the class (this one counts too!). The due date is Monday, October 22 and you will be presenting your blog to the rest of the class on that day or the next.

You were given an article to read today about Time's Person of the Year and asked to write a response that included some predictions about the Internet of the future. If you haven't yet posted on your blog yet, why not start with this topic? The YouTube clip on Web 2.0 that I showed the first day of class is a good tie-in, as well as the Prometeus clip you viewed in class that Hayley S. brought to my attention. Both can be found at the bottom of this page.

If I do not yet have the URL for your blog, please send me an email or leave a comment in response to this post with the address. Over there on the right side of the page are links to student blogs that have already been started. Have a look. Also check out my other suggestions. This list will be growing, send your picks as well.

The following notes are for specific students, but feel free to click too. Keep up the great work, have an excellent long weekend and we'll see you on Tuesday.

Chad, I thought you might want to start by having a look at the Beastie Boys' blog and website. They released a documentary last year called "Awesome! I...Shot That!" that pulled together footage from 50 fans who were given video cameras at the same show. They've also become very involved in political activism. If it's activism you're interested in, check out the Independent Media Center site too. And the Wikipedia page on Tupac has lots of information and links to follow.

Sam and Nina, have you seen this new Dove ad yet?

What is a Blog?

Wikipedia defines a blog as: "a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles, most often in reverse chronological order." Blogging is the posting of journal-like pages to a website. While these pages can contain photos or media, they are primarily focused on the easy ability to post written thoughts to a website. The postings are organized chronologically. Typically, a blog post can be commented on by others, allowing for a dialogue on a the topic of the post. Teachers and educators have used blogs to allow for what is commonly called "peer review," meaning that students can post writings or assignments to the web, and other students can respond or encourage through the comment feature.In a broader and more educational system, blogs are about communicating. You observe your experience, reflect on it, and then write about it. Other people read your reflections, respond from their perspectives by commenting or writing their own blog article. You read their perspectives, often learn something through their eyes, and write some more.

- Blogging is about reading and writing.
- Literacy is about reading and writing.
- Blogging is about literacy.

ASSIGNMENT
You will create a blog on some aspect of the media. For the duration of the unit (until October 23) your blog will replace your media log entries. You will be asked to contribute three or four entries centred around a theme of your choice (i.e. evaluating your favourite television show, band or website; writing reviews of video games; or exploring how social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace operate). Your blog can also be a commentary on anything we’ve discussed in class. If you’re having trouble, each week I’ll provide some topics or websites you can visit to get the ball rolling, which you'll be able to find here.

Homework: For Monday, October 1, please prepare a informal paragraph describing a possible theme or topic for your blog. I will return these with feedback and suggestions the following day.

Today's Assignment

Hi everyone! Nice to see you here. Today we'll be continuing work on evaluating websites, and I thought it would be easier to provide the instructions and information on this page. The assignment is just like the one you began completing yesterday, except this time all you'll need to do is click on the following links to open the windows you need.

• The on-line evaluation sheet can be found here (just click on the hightlighted word). This is called a hypertext link.


• The website you will be evaluating is here (clicking this will open it in yet another window).

Take your time viewing the site. Keep the points discussed in class yesterday in mind. (these are the ones that are on the "Criteria for Evaluating Websites" handout).

Do not forget to put your name at the top of the NetCheck form. When you are finished completing all the questions, click the "Show Me My NetCheck Page" button at the bottom. Review your answers before printing the page out.

Two days in.

The first day was the hottest September 25th on record here in Stratford, and if it wasn't it should have been. Closing the blinds to watch the movie meant that the air in the room was stifling, but despite this, the movie was worth watching if only for the historical perspective. It was called "The Roots of the Revolution: Understanding the Internet", and would have been completely mind-blowing in 1994, when it was produced. Viewing it from a distance of 12 years shows just how much things have changed. Those huge hard drives! Text-only newsgroups! Young women with no makeup and frumpy dresses being described as young and hip! And everyone so idealistic, full of awe and wonder at what this new "internet" might achieve. World peace, one even went so far as to say. Yeah, we're definitely at the interweb teen stage by now.

A little history is always useful. I'm reminded of all those past-and-future quotes, like George Orwell's "He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future." We watched the Web 2.0 clip I posted down there at the end of the last entry. Then (since it was on and it was hot and it was close to the end of the last class of the day), I showed a couple of my favourite YouTube clips as well ... David Elsewhere, who landed a job as one of those ipod commercial dancers because this video of him got noticed on YouTube; and Lisa Nova doing Lindsay Lohan. Now she's on MAD TV and gets paid per click for her YouTube sketches. Who exactly is the mass media again?

Today my lesson was 'don't try to accomplish anything in the computer lab for the first time when there are only 30 minutes left in class'. We'll try the evaluating websites activity again tomorrow, when I'll post the excellent site we'll be examining. It's a goodie.

I also got a couple of great emails from students. A large thanks to Hayley for her YouTube suggestions. I've got Lucy's very cool map of the internet on an overhead too, I keep neglecting to put it up. Saving it for a good time, maybe. If by any strange chance you're a student reading this, click "comment" down there and leave a note!

Getting started.

Next week I begin a unit on the internet with the Grade 11 English Media Studies class at Stratford Central Secondary School (taught by the talented Mrs. McConkey). This is my first student teaching placement, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to teach, work with and learn from these students. But where to start? Many of the ideas buzzing around in my head are eluding capture just yet. I want students to be able to understand the web's history, its impact in the present and where it might be taking us. I want them to be able to analyse many different websites and understand the ways in which different websites construct meaning. In particular, I want to take a good critical look at Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and other on-line communities that have a large teen audience.

As a class, I think that beyond analysing and discussing the internet, we should make a mark on it ourselves. A good place to start is this blog. Every day, a different student will be asked to contribute, writing a summary of what we've been up to in class that includes their own reaction to and opinions about what we've discussed. Every now and then, I'll publish links to what we've been viewing or other sites I think are worth seeing. Hopefully the students will contribute their favourites as well.

To begin, here's this gem:





And another one wondering about what media may be like in the not-too-distant future. Can you tell where the science fiction begins?: