Comm 2 Student Blogs
Posted on September 3, 2008
This semester’s Comm 2 (media literacy) students have a challenge ahead of them. Become active in their media consumption and discuss it in a way they may not be used to. These students will be keeping an online journal of their media experiences, writing an entry per week for 15 weeks. They’ll also be writing comments in their classmates’ blogs. Here are this semester’s blogs.
Brian - http://andiamo415.wordpress.com
Marie - http://mariec25.wordpress.com
Sean - http://sthanley.wordpress.com
Krista: http://kristajean86.wordpress.com
Joshua: http://joshuaesfandi.wordpress.com
More will be added as they become available.
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Comm 10 Student Blogs
Posted on September 3, 2008
Fall is here, and with another semester comes another group of students eager to learn about media’s impact on their lives. Here are the blogs from my Communications 10 class at Santa Monica College. Students are required to make a total of 10 posts throughout the semester, and respond to their classmates’ blogs at least 10 times.
Jessica: http://fcritic.wordpress.com
Maira: http://mzdurango.wordpress.com
Yonhi: http://yonioutloud.wordpress.com
Susan: http://live2bfirece.wordpress.com
Skye: http://skyehansen.wordpress.com
Chase: http://chaselicious.wordpress.com
Cyndi: http://cynisbliss.wordpress.com
Savannah: http://spgood.wordpress.com
Elsa: http://elsa1811.wordpress.com
Jaclyn: http://paralinguistics.wordpress.com
Satsuki: http://satsukiandcomm10.wordpress.com
Nicolli: http://nicolli.wordpress.com
Young Hwa: http://younghwa.wordpress.com
Ashlie: http://ashliepickle.wordpress.com
Catie: http://catie234.wordpress.com
Maidah: http://maidah0890.wordpress.com
Walter: http://bigwalt15.wordpress.com
Cindy: http://cgcomm10.wordpress.com
Kelsey: http://323kelsey.wordpress.com
Nino: http://ninitbi.wordpress.com
Daniela: http://danielaltobelli.wordpress.com
Dean: http://deancollins90.wordpress.com
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Scary or Attractive?
Posted on August 19, 2008
After seeing the latest Joe’s Jeans poster at every shopping center in the Los Angeles area, I’ve decided to start a new survey feature called “Scary or Attractive”. Ok, not really, but I think if I did then this poster would make people really think about their response.
See, you would think that advertisers want to present images of attractive people in their ads, especially when promoting fashion. But every time I see this poster, I don’t feel like looking at it to admire the attractive woman. Instead, I feel like hiding behind a bush, afraid that the woman in the ad will jump out and try to attack me.
To me, this ad is scary.
The woman looks emaciated and disheveled… she looks like she hasn’t had much food in the last couple of years, and I’m thinking that she was raised by wolves or maybe mountain lions. She doesn’t look friendly, inviting, alluring, or attractive. Maybe she’s not supposed to be. Maybe she’s meant to be there so people can start discussions on their blogs about how unattractive the ad is.
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Freedom in America… who is still oppressed?
Posted on August 6, 2008
I recently interviewed a former student who happens to be visually impaired. In the video below, he discusses the meaning of freedom in America, and what freedom means to him. He discusses various forms of oppression over our history, and relates it to his own disability.
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A PC by any other name…
Posted on August 5, 2008
In my last post, I discussed ways in which I plan to convert my college classrooms into digital classrooms, eliminating nearly all need for paper for assignments, projects, and tests. I had mentioned needing a new laptop to help me carry out this task. So now I’m going to start thinking about what laptop I would like to buy.
I could look at a laptop by feature - how much RAM, how fast the processor, how big the screen, etc. - but instead, I need to look at something more basic first: the brand. You see, the laptop’s brand says a lot more about the laptop than the actual functionality, and it says a lot more about me as well.
When I presented at the CUE conference this past March, I walked around with my old Compaq laptop, circa 2005. It was ok, but it was heavy, clunky, and just not fitting with the image of someone who presents himself as tech savvy and revolutionary. I saw my friends walking around with shiny new Sony Vaios and Dell Inspirons, and I felt jealous. But there was one type of computer that really made me jealous.
A Mac.
Everyone I saw walking around with a Mac laptop gave off the “I’m cool, hip, relevent, and revolutionary in my thinking” vibe. Forget the fact that the laptop has a smaller screen, less memory, and a slower processor than a similarly priced Windows laptop… this thing exuded cool.
So when I began shopping for a laptop, I asked myself about the features I’m looking for. And instead of answering “large screen, long battery life, lots of memory, and under $1,000″, I answered “a white case and an Apple logo”.
Obviously, this strategy has some flaws.
Not only would I not be getting everything I need with a Mac laptop, it would cost me more than a Windows laptop. But then I imagined myself at CUE 2009, hopefully presenting some cool, hip, useful, and revolutionary, and being ridiculed for not having that logo on my laptop case. I wake up in a cold sweat at night just thinking about it.
You see, Macs have somehow become the defacto cool device to have. You’re buying into the image as much as you’re buying into the functionality. I’m not buying into easy to use, great for graphics and video, or works well… those days are long gone… any modern computer can do anything you want it to do… it’s all about what you’re used to. I actually use both Mac and Windows at home, but it seems that Macs are the chosen systems for more and more hip educators.
I want to be a hip educator.
I want to be ahead of the curve. I want to be seen as a trailblazing rebel. I want people to see my laptop and say “that guy is changing the world.” But maybe I could really be this person by not buying into the lifestyle that Apple is selling me. That would really be trailblazing, ahead of the curve, and world changing.
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