Similar to the DeJaynes and Curmi-Hall article/research report, I too was apart of a double consciousness and multimodal counterstories like project when I was in high school. In my freshman year social studies course, we had to create a war film on the Vietnam war. I chose to make my film an anti-war film because still to this day, I do not understand why the U.S got involved, but I digress, I interviewed my grandfather before his passing in Spring of 2017 and based the film on his thoughts. He never saw action in Vietnam, but he was there as a radio analyst and saw the condition of the men first hand. I used the song "Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater Revival for it is an anti-war song making fun of politicians and more wealthy people who started the U.S's involvement and made the middle and lower class citizens fight their war. So, with that project, I connected more with my grandfather and most of my peers did not know about my anti-war statement. I posted it on YouTube and it got taken down because of a copyright claim.
I used social media to promote social action a few times. I posted about charity events before such as food drives and programs people can donate old clothes and toys such as St. Vincent de Paul. As a way to connect with others, I use this app called Letterboxd which assume many of you have heard of before, but for those who don't know, it is an app where you can watch, rate, and write about the movies you watched. It's sort of like Twitter/X but for movies and some TV mini series. It promotes a sense of community and togetherness I enjoy, and it creates a sense of belonging when you watch a weirdly obscure movie that none of your friends on the app have seen, so you can check other reviews and see other people like yourself. Letterboxd is an affinity space because the app wants you to take away something from the movie you just watched. As an example, lets say you did not understand the movie, you can check other reviews and comments on the movie to see if anyone else is in the same boat as you, and you can find someone with a better understanding of the movie.
To comment on the readings this week, it was brought up by Haddix and Sealey-Ruiz's 2012 text how students used their phones for creating and producing their art/projects. Giving students the creative liberty they need to compose something they truly want to compose is great. From DeJaynes and Curmi-Hall's text, look at the students from the participatory culture research team and the level of creativity they accomplished. Most likely those students were allowed to use their phones and if urban schools are given the same liberties, good things will come. A line that I believe ties this up well is "Our goals should be to encourage youth to develop the skills, knowledge, ethical frameworks, and self-confidence needed to be full participants in contemporary culture," (Jenkins, 2006, p. 8). With technology at our fingertips now more than ever, we, as teachers and future teachers, need to create frameworks for students to feel comfortable online and to use these online tools to learn and grow as individuals. My only concern is Tik Tok will never die down from its current craze, and students' attention spans will lessen every year, until it gets to a point where the transparency gap is nonexistent. Meaning students will not be able to tell what is real versus fake online and media literacy and identity is gone.
https://letterboxd.com/
I picked letterboxd, because if you like movies and want a place that is safe for you to share your opinions join! It's free unless you really want to pay for the pro or patron subscriptions.
I was going to find a video on the state of Tik Tok and how it is slowly deteriorating our brains, but I think most of us already know this information.
Hi Eli,
ReplyDeleteGreat first blog post! I found it very interesting that you had that project in high school. That is such a special project, and it reminds me of why we remember these assignments so well. They gave us choice and creativity, which helped us learn more. The only assignments I recall from school are the ones we got to go outside the box for, and use different medias.
I have not heard of Letterbox before your post, that is a super cool concept. Such a great way to discuss movies online.
I loved the quote you used from the readings. I feel like that really sums up what this is all about. And how we have to teach students skills they will use after schooling.
Hey, Eli! Your project involving the song creates a new way of looking at materials. I think having a song represent a certain time period and angle is in itself a great example of multi-modal learning. I wonder if we can relate music back to literature if it would reach previously dis-engaged students. Being an avid music fan myself, I could see myself engaging in materials that relate the two together. Maybe implementing a "character/idea playlist" which use songs to represent and explain certain concepts would be an interesting idea. Your point about attention spans is crucially concerning. People make jokes all the time on the internet about having to watch those videos where the screen is split between the actual video and someone cleaning or something to actually focus on a task...but I'm not so sure if it's a joke anymore. Attention spans are decreasing! With that being said, great post!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Eli, for sharing your experiences both with video production and also community building online through Letterboxd. I started an Letterbox account but am still trying to figure out how to best use it. Perhaps I need to start posting some reviews ;)
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