Blog #2 Multimedia Montage Project

 

Communities that I will join include NJASL (NJ Association of school Librarians), LM_NET, Thinkfinity groups: Online Tools for Educators, Using Multimedia for Communication and Education and Partnership for 21st Century Skills.  I chose NJASL because this group is only for NJ Media Specialists and there will be examples of using podcasts and various technology specifically in the Media Center.  I can also pose questions on the listserv and get immediate feedback regarding my topics.   LM_NET is also a group of my peers, but it is worldwide, so it helps set the foundation for preparing my students for a global economy. 

 

There were so many Thinkfinity groups to choose from, that I had a hard time making my decision.  I picked 3 groups, because I felt they all would be helpful in showing me how to master the necessary skills.Online Tools for Educators, Using Multimedia for Communication and Education and Partnership for 21st Century Skills discusses specifically how to utilize tools in the classroom setting.  Although I'm excited to learn how to use these tools, I don't know how I want to utilize them or even the best way to utilize them.  As discussed in Learning Environments: 21st Century Skills by Partnership for 21st Century Skills "21st century students must be supported in mastering both content and skills" (p. 2).  With a mix of groups that cover my content area as well as the technology and various levels of education, I am covering all my bases.  If I have any questions, one of these groups should be able to steer me in the right direction.


The 21st Century Skills Education and Competitiveness: A Resource and Policy Guide, students need to communicate and collaborate (p. 12).  In order for me to help them get to this point, I need to be able to see what exactly they need to be able to do.  Listservs, professional groups are a great place to exchange ideas and learn about new technologies.  In Skill and Strategies for E-learning a Participatory Culture, Walker et. al. state that building academic community: peer support and peer groups is very important to the learning process (p. 222).  The same is true for me.  I need to be exposed to different uses of this technology in a classroom setting in order to best figure out how to utilize it in my Media Center.

Blog #1 Media Critique

I decided to look at a the Vintage Palm Olive commercial.  I use that dish soap sometimes so I wanted to see how their marketing strategies have evolved.

Analysis: The purpose of the commercial was to advertise bath soap not dish soap.  The mom is young, beautiful and the commercial makes it seem as though the soap is the reason she is this way.  The daughter says that she wants to use the soap so that she can be beautiful just like her mom.  The commercial goes back and forth between reality and fantasy.  Pixies appear singing that the little girl wants Palmolive soap for her beauty bath.

Audience: While I was watching this, I had a flashback to watching the Donna Reed Show or the Dick Van Dyke Show when I was younger.  The intended audience is white, young middle-class women and their daughters.  The commercial is in black and white during this time period most of the marketing focused on young white suburban mothers because they were stay-at-home moms and the primary people to go shopping for their families.  The commercial makes it seem as though this beauty bath will make the mom and the daughter lovely, relaxed and have proper cleansing.


The information is conveyed through the eyes of a child in reality and in a fantasy world.  In the beginning of the commercial, the child is watching her mom in reality.   The mom is in a fancy nightgown grooming herself then she tells her daughter that she can take a beauty bath with Palmolive.  Towards the middle of the commercial, the child start seeing the pixies singing.  She then points them out to her mom then they start singing about how Palmolive is the soap you always want to use for a beauty bath.  Once the voice over of a man starts to tell you how great the soap is, you see the child washing up in the tub.  The voice cuts out and then the pixies start singing again.

Representation:The representation is closely linked to the audience of the commercial.  The bathroom is a nice, middle class bathroom for that time period.  The mom has a fancy nightgown on.  The bathroom is clean.  During this time period, they were the main shoppers for the families.  This commercial appeals to both the children and the moms.  The jingle is catchy as well so if the moms don't remember the beauty bath then children will sing the jingle to remind them.  No other socioeconomic group, age group or race is being appealed to besides middle class, young white females. 

Design: During this time period jingles were especially prevalent in advertising.  The commercial was in black and white.  The setting was in the bathroom during bath time and it cuts in when the girl and her mom are having a conversation.  In this conversation the audience hears that the girl wants to have a beauty bath like her mom.  The mom allows her too.  When the voice over comes in and it is perfect timing.  You want to hear why this soap is so great and the voice over does just that.  Then the jingle comes on again.  In the commercial you see the soap in its package and outside of its package.  There is no way you can miss it at the supermarket because you have seen it from every angle.  This ad appeals to your emotions.  The touching scene with the mom and daughter.  There is clearly love between them.  The daughter wants to be like the mom by using the same product.  Not only that, you are informed about the soap.  It is large, has proper cleansing, refreshes you and relaxes you.  Again, the jingle is catchy and simple.  "You want Palmolive soap for your beauty bath"!  The pixies around the soap are also adorable and happy.

Realizations

When I first came into the world of Education, I was told that you teach how you were taught not how you were taught to teach.  I always wondered how true that was.  I didn't have an education background so I had never been taught to teach.  I went to graduate school to get my Masters in Library and Information Sciences and I didn't even get my School Media Certification until a couple of years later when I actually made the switch to the School Library.  That said reading the 21st Century Skills Education and Competitiveness: A Resource and Policy Guide really helped me put things in perspective.  At times, I have been guilty of wanting to teach how I was taught.  I went to Catholic school and the nuns lectured and we listened.  We didn't do too much group work, no differentiation and we listened.  Even towards the end of my stint in grad school and during my certification program at RU, I had lots of group work.  I think because I rarely did group work when I was younger, I didn't enjoy it when I was older.  Now, our children have no choice but to learn to collaborate, be innovative and step outside of the box as far as problem solving.  If we continue to teach the same old way, then they will not be prepared for the challenges ahead.

Also, when I was younger I knew many people who didn't go to college and were relatively successful.  This document points out that now a College education will be the minimum requirement.  Having a clearer understanding of what the expectations are for future and why things need to change made me view all the reforms in education differently.  In the article, Skills and Strategies for E-learning a Participatory Culture, by Walker et al, the issue of trying to keep up with the technology and figure out how to best fit it into the educational sector poses a real issue.  It isn't as simple as just teaching the teachers how to utilize the technology.  After that you need access to the technology as well as time to teach the students how to utilize it and how to best implement it into the classroom.  I like that one of the questions in the sample blog challenges us to think about how can we utilize this technology in our classrooms.  Overall, moving forward I realize that the undertaking of implementing the technology, finding one I like that isn't block by my school's filter and one that does what I need might be challenging, but I know that it has to be done.  The kids now are being prepared for completely different jobs than we were.

One site that I love to use is Padlet.com.  I think it used to be called Wallwisher.com but the name has changed.  I will include some links to how I have used it in various settings and with different grade levels.  I want to do some more research because I'm not sure if this would be considered a blog or wiki.
Spine Poetry
Website Evaluation
Bird Poetry
Book Recommendations
I love this site because it is easy to use, I can control the content and it isn't blocked by any of the school districts that I have worked for.