Blog #6- Podcasting in the School Library Media Center

I personally have never heard a podcast before. I know what they are and how to find them, but I never actually took the time to download one. I remember that when I was looking at them (through itunes), I noticed that all of them are free. This was a new concept to me, seeing as everything in today's world costs money. However, podcasts are almost like a free subscription to an online magazine. After reading both these articles, I would say I'm definitely more interested in the podcast. Besides the fact that it's free, it's also very informative. You can find podcasts on current events, poetry readings, author interviews, and virtual tours. It's easy to access, locate, download and listen as well. All you need is an internet connection, and you can really find anything that interests you. The world of technology today is so incredibly advanced, "anyone with a microphone and access to the web can create a podcast" (Lamb and Johnson 3). This astonishes me, in the sense that really anyone can create their own technological world, if you will. Look at youtube phenomenon's, where people just post videos of themselves and they actually get so popular, that those people become famous. Anyone can do anything in this day and age; you just need the motivation.

Podcasts seem like a news source of the future. They're free, easy to work with, and accessible anywhere with an internet connection. Now when the question arrises about if Fort Lewis needs one, I say, why not? We're already coming to a point where we as students use e-mails rather than letters, and blogs rather than papers. The educational world is vastly changing, because we as humans are vastly changing; we tend to learn the best with the newest advancements in education. Therefore, I agree that podcasts could really benefit the students. We all know that students are prone to being on the internet many hours a day. Why not then make the education available online where it'll be looked at, rather than a newspaper source downtown that kids would never take the time to go get? The structure of a podcast is similar to a radio show because some podcasts are radio shows. They have people to interview and topics to discuss. it's virtually the same thing, only a podcast is downloaded and not put on through the radio, but the computer instead.

How to Pitch a Script

The first thing I learned is that a pitch is not a performance. "It's a conversation to discover if there's a match between what the listener is looking for and what you have to offer" (http://www.scriptologist.com/Magazine/Tips/Pitch/pitch.html). When discussing your pitch, make sure you describe the genre in which your story will be and some background information about the story. When describing your pitch, you want to use articulate language. Make sure that you sound like you know what you're talking about, because the people you're pitching to will appreciate if you just get down to business and already have in mind what message you're trying to get across without wasting too much of their time. Also, before anything meeting has happened, re read your script. Make sure you have everything in there you want, and everything out that you don't because there could be changes you want to make.

In things to avoid, don't oversell your pitch. If you're discussing it too heavily or have too much information, it could possibly over flood your points and have the producers not even want to consider it. For example, don't discuss every scene word for word with every character and action that happens. Instead, discuss important scenes with primarily your main characters. Another thing you want to avoid is disagreeing with the people you're pitching your script to. Even if you disagree with their ideas, take it with constructive criticism, rather than arguing, which'll probably get and your script no where. Instead, use those ideas and possibly retransform your script into something you and the producers agree upon.

Blog #5- Mars Is Heaven

After reading "Mars Is Heaven," it made me think. I really enjoyed this short story. It was engaging, interesting and had an incredible amount of twists and turns. Every time you had an idea about what was happening in the story, it took it a completely different direction. In addition, the ending kind of left me hanging, still wanting to continue to read. If this were to have been a radio show, I would have just cut it up into segments. After one session, leave the audience hooked in and wanting to know what happens. I think every time there was about to be a new twist, end the show there for that day, just so your audience will tune in to find out what happens. As I said, I really enjoyed this story; I wouldn't really make any changes. I don't feel the need to change something that is well written and engaging. I would keep the actors, scenes and brilliant details alive such as, "Showers of petal snow sifted down when the wind touched the apple tree, and the blossom smell drifted upon the air" (Bradbury 324). Reading very exquisite sentences like this over a radio show would be awesome in giving a full graphic picture for your audience. I think this story would do well as a radio show because it's catchy, so it would pull people in, it has twists, to keep people listening, and it's well written which people very much enjoy. In addition, back when this story was written, people were all about radio shows, and even one came out about aliens which people tuned into every time it was on.

If your were to switch the genre of this story (or any story really), it would completely change the entire storyline. For example, if "Mars Is Heaven" was a romantic genre, first off, none of them would have died (assuming so). The captain would have most likely awoken in the morning, had some delicious mom-cooked waffles, gone to see the woman he lusts for, and fallen in love with some trials and tribulations first. Switching a genre completely changes everything. I think before any film or book is created, the genre is already known. That author/director/writer already has a direction in which he/she wants the story to go, and that starts with knowing the purpose of the movie, how the characters will act and why. However, what was interesting is there seemed to be a switch in genre in this movie. At first it seemed very happy and upbeat in the process of discovering new land. Then it turned evil towards the end, which was a complete surprise. All in all, the story was done well, however, with a change in genre, the text is going to be interpreted, if not literally different.

McLuhan the medium is the Massage

The book "Medium in the Massage" by Marshall McLuhan is by far one of the most interesting and visually stunning books i've ever read. You could almost call it a picture book, however the pictures are intense and i'm sure have symbolic meaning behind them. The first thing that stood out to me was on one of the first pages it says, "You. Have you ever contemplated suicide?" (McLuhan 12) Right away, with that quote, I was drawn into this book; I wanted to know what followed such a dramatic opening line. Each page has a different topic. "You", is followed by "Your Family", then "Your Neighborhood", "Your Education", "Your Job" and "Your Government", all of which describe those certain aspects of all of our lives. Then followed by "The Others", which says, "We have become irrevocably involved with, and responsible for, each other" (McLuhan 24). That was interesting because it's true; we all have connections as humans and should have a responsibility for one another. This book is an easy read but is rather hard to really grasp. It discusses technology and our roles within current technology but in a seemingly dark manor. I like the quote he says, "The wheel...is an extension of the foot", "The book...is an extension of the eye" (McLuhan 31). This book really makes you think about your life and the way you live it, with the current technology available.

In the last couple months, I've noticed that recently, a lot of movies have been released that are apocalyptic based (Legion, 2012, The Book of Eli, The Road). All of these movies somehow in one way or another, reflect the advancements in technology and humankind, thus leading to the downfall of our civilization. Now, whether that is myth or not is yet to be seen, however, this book, Medium in the Massage, really reminds me of these examples. This book puts a serious, dark note on the advancements of technology and how far we've come to this day using them.

Blog #4-Disrupting Intellectual Property

After reading about Intellectual Property and Wikis, I had some new insight to the conversation. One thing I realized while reading this piece was that wikis are assembled through a team. Even though everyone has their own ideas and thoughts put in, people still have to work together in collaborating those ideas in order to make that wiki really functional and visually stunning. This reading connected me with our wiki projects now, in the fact that we're working together. If we had to do individual wikis, yes it would be possible, but not nearly as good. Ideas from others, using each other as peer revisers, editors and idea thinkers really expands the amount of quality work we can put into our wiki project. I also made the connection that with growing technology, copyrighting is intended to be enforced ten fold because it's probably harder to regulate online. However, now with Limewire Kazaa, and other downloading sites, stealing music from the internet is now as easy as clicking a button. The connection there is that we're learning what is legal and what isn't (in terms of copyright infringement) through this wiki project, yet here we are using technology (similar technology) that we can use to very quickly and easily illegally download music.

The authors claim, "They must also accept that the wiki document or entry does not belong to them individually, which in many ways goes against how students are trained via tests, grades, and papers to view their work" (Vie and deWinter 114). After reading this quote, I learned the realization of that truth; this is not fully your work. You will either rise well as a group or fall together; but regardless of time and effort put in, it's harder to tell your individual work progress with a wiki. In addition, I learned that some teachers really try to avoid using wikis because of the potential problems it may have, (such as people deleting information, kids not putting in the effort they would otherwise, and it's unlike old teaching styles that have been around for centuries).

I believe that these authors possibly struggled when collaborating with one another while writing this piece. It's hard to tell, but I would assume they did considering the main focus of this piece seems to be the complexities when collaborating with others. In addition, everyone seems to be very opinionated when it comes to wikis. Therefore, I feel that writing this work could have been difficult; are these people advocates for wikis or not? While we do see insights and arguments in both favors, it's hard to truly form an opinion about a wiki because of that fact. However, regardless, I still feel I learned more about wikis and the processes to complete them, which overall is a good thing for me as a student to know.

White Balance

When referring to white balance, we're talking about the use of it on a camera. White balance is used in different lighting areas that allows for the shot to look a certain "color" depending on how you adjust the balance. The white balance changes the tint or hue of the image your photographing. You could change the setting anywhere from getting a blue "cooler" tint to an orange "brighter" tint. Basically, the white balance is used to capture an image that would look the exact same as something you see through your own two eyes. In addition, the white balance can and should be used in different places. You could have a setting for white balance when inside with fluorescent lights, outside, during daytime or night time, or if it's cloudy or sunny to achieve the best picture possible.

In addition to manually changing the settings on the white balance, you can also set your digital camera's to automatic mode. Auto mode automatically changes the white balance for you, depending on the lighting in the room, so you don't have to. If auto mode is set, you can practically take the camera wherever you would like and the camera adjusts itself so you can have the best image quality possible. Recently, since the birth of the automatic white balance, it has become widely used for it's simplicity and quickness. All in all, the white balance is an important element in the use of a camera, because it makes the shot you're trying to take much more realistic, and much more visually stunning to the naked eye.

Blog #3-Cathlena Martin and Lisa Dusenberry Wiki

Prior to reading this piece by Cathlena Martin and Lisa Dusenberry, I was somewhat familiar with wiki's already. However, prior to this course, I had never heard of one. Though, I was showed the video "Wikis in Plain English," as to which I learned the basic features of a wiki page. I learned from that youtube video that there are primarily two buttons: Edit and Save. A wiki is a webpage that can be edited at the click of a button. You simply push the edit button, type anything anywhere you would like, click save, and that easily, you added to a wiki page. From this article, I learned some new things such as, "Although there are many benefits to the wiki, I see one drawback: No one's thoughts and entries stay untouched by others" (Cathlena Martin and Lisa Dusenberry 209). I never really considered that fact. One can post something on a wiki, but that information can be seen or messed with very easily. For example, they say, "A whole essay could be deleted with the click of a button" (Cathlena Martin and Lisa Dusenberry 209). From that new information, I recognized the fact that your privacy, (or time and effort), can very quickly be re arranged, or deleted entirely, leading me to ask, "How beneficial are wiki pages really?" However, these flaws could be fixed entirely if the web browser administrators review what is posted on their wiki sites. Therefore, if unacceptable or hateful intolerant posts are put up, that person could be kicked off the server and their posts could be deleted.
According to Martin and Dusenberry, an advantage would be the fact that it's quick, easy and engaging for students. They claim, "By giving students the means to edit class pages, they are granted more agency in the development of class assignments and can actively contribute in a manner so that other students can view class work and progression" (Cathlena Martin and Lisa Dusenberry 205). However, a disadvantage, as explained earlier could be that anyone can post anything, and anyone can view wiki posts even if those posts are meant to be confidential or private. All in all, wiki pages seem to be a very beneficial idea for students in collaborating with one another, and while there are set backs (which there are for everything), they can be fixed, just as easily as they can be created.

Tannen Fighting for Our Lives

Deborah Tannen's chapter, "Fighting for Our Lives," is a very engaging and interesting view on our culture as a whole. She discusses how we as a culture use debate, attack, and criticism as a means of being the victor of an argument. She claims, "When you're having an argument with someone, your goal is not to listen and understand. Instead, you use every tactic you can think of-including distorting what your opponent just said-in order to win the argument" (Tannen 5). Reflecting upon life in an honest manor, we argue daily; some could claim that it's almost human nature. When reflecting upon silly arguments with friends or family, (at least I personally), attempt to approach the argument with force and harsh delivery, not only to win, but to put down the other person's idea(s). Why do I do this? Is it culture based or from growing up in the family environment I did? I'm not the only one who does this either. In terms of media surveillance, lets look at the show "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia." "It's Always Sunny" is based upon a group of friends who exhibit extreme dishonestly, disloyalty, selfishness and lack of respect for one another. In every episode, this group of "friends" creates ridiculous ideas and schemes which always leads to each one exploiting one another, conspiring against each other and doing whatever necessary to boost one over the other, regardless of consequence. Now, had this show been real life based, it would be plain disgusting to see what people do for personal gain. However, this show is one of the funniest shows on television. Why? Why do people enjoy other's downfalls? Is our culture defined upon doing all necessary to be the "best" even if that means physically or emotionally destroying someone else? This ties into Tannen's chapter in the sense that we as a culture don't attempt to win arguments through, "exploring, exposing, delving, analyzing, understanding, moving, connecting, integrating, illuminating" (Tannen 24). Instead, we win arguments by mocking, attacking, and distorting to emotionally destroy your opponent. Let's attempt to change the ways we argue and communicate with one another.

Blog #2-Takayoshi

From what I understand, it appears that Takayoshi and Selfe’s main argument is the notion that we're coming to a time where we're seeing a transfer from old style writing, (using just text) to "multimodal texts—texts that incorporate words, images, video, and sound" (Takayoshi and Selfe 3). Also, these multimodal ways of communication happen through computers, networking through computers, DVDs, etc. I think these two authors believe that with our future changing, especially with leaps in technology, this multimodal way of communication is becoming vastly dominant over regular text on page. I do agree with these two authors because I am the youth. I know what makes sense to me and what is easy for me to learn as a student. With the changing technology out there, blogging/internet networking and multimodal ways of communication, especially within the classroom are incredibly easy, more fun and quick paced. Daley's piece touches on how we as a community are in constant touch with our technology. We stare at screens multiple hours throughout the day. I think Takayoshi and Selfe are recognizing the fact that students will continue to use technology as much as possible regardless. Therefore, with that mind-set, why not allow schooling to be done through those channels? If kids will continue to be on their computers all day, let them do certain things involving their schooling on the computer and kill two birds with one stone? As far as Walker and Nardi are concerned, both texts discuss the values of blogging and the importance they have on individuals as well as businesses. I can relate that to our class completely, because we've created our own blogs which are special to each of us as individuals.

test for

Lebron James!

Storyboarding

Storyboarding is the process of creating small square illustrations or picture sequences (about the size of thumbnails), and lining them up next to one another in plans to create a show or motion picture. Storyboarding is practically like a comic strip that you would see in a magazine. Directors as well as others involved in the creation of the film use these storyboards to "map" out the scenes, in order to be able to view them in a "play-by-play", juxtapose sort of way. Storyboards can be created from hand drawn art, or digitally produced from computers. In addition, the storyboard sequences are meant to be shown through the eyes of the camera. The storyboards are very helpful in the first stages of creating film, in terms of being able to identify possible problem areas, or areas that just need more work put in. Finally, storyboards are crucial to the film, because they create the basis in which the scenes are to be filmed and in what order.

Media Surveillance

I see the media as a major part of our world today. Media influences our culture on a day to day basis in terms of the food we buy, the clothes we wear, the opinions we create and possibly even the way we strive to be. Media comes in many forms, such as television (which consists of entertainment, sports, news, acting shows and others), radio, newspapers, books and the internet. In today's world, you can't look around you without some form of media that's shaped your or someone else's life. What kind of shirt are you wearing? What's the brand name? Did you buy that shirt because of the brand? Finally the media is a fashion statement. For example, lets look at Shaun White (who is sponsored by Burton). Although many people may dislike like Mr. White, he gets a lot of television attention. When Shaun rides and wears Burton gear, people notice that, which results in more products being bought from Burton. Everyone is a consumer.

Blog #1-Daley

Albert Einstein once stated that, "It's clear that our technology has far surpassed our humanity." Now, whether that's true or not is up to every individual to decide, but Elizabeth Daley has a certain perspective on this issue. Since the invention of the internet, the cell phone, the iphone/ipod, facebook, myspace and more, kids have become more attached to these devices. Daley has noticed these trends and what seems to be her main argument is that kids are constantly sitting behind a screen, (whether that be computer or television). In addition, her main argument is also the fact that literacy is changing; no longer is plain text on paper the only form of literacy. We now have computers, media, images, pictures and sounds as forms of literacy. Daley quotes, "In short, our shared experiences as human beings are more often than not derived from the images and sounds that exist on screens." I very much agree with Daley because first of all, I'm living proof; I get home from school, work or just being out, and you know what the first thing I do is? Grab my computer, sit in front of the television, interact with facebook and text my friends. I just counted, and that's three screens at the same time... I find myself asking, "Why am I so obsessed with these devices?" or "Why can't I just be with the people I'm with and lay off on the texting?" I also wonder, "What did my parents, and their parents, and their parents do for fun?" In addition, since I've been writing this blog, I've heard at least three people's cell phones go off and vibrate. Can we no longer wait one hour without texting? Should we get waterproof cell phones so we can take them in the shower with us too? Oh wait, we now have waterproof phones... Thank god. I believe this article directly affects us, not only as kids in general, but in this class as well. Now that we're acknowledging that technology will continue to advance, we're at least attempting to create technology that betters humanity. We can now post things on youtube, blogs and other sites that lets our voices be heard. I think it's a good direction (hopefully) in which we're traveling and I'm glad Daley has presented these issues, so we can see where to go from here.

What students have transformed into.