If you haven’t already noticed, the world around us is constantly changing, and the continuous advances in communication and media brings curiosity to how things we will be living 20 years from now.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Creating My Multi-Genre project: Organize your Time and Become a Better Student
Coming up with an idea for my multi-genre was a difficult task in the beginning, but as a future educator I began to think of an issue that myself, along with many other students, tend to struggle with. I thought of an issue that I could address and create a solution for, and that issue was organization. My students tend to have a problem with organization, which includes time organization and the organization of school documents.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Too Cold for Comfort ( Short Essay Extra Credit Blog)
“Cold Comfort” is a very interesting article, written by Atul Gawande, that explores the curious behavior of a friend we all know too well, the common cold. After years of investigation, scientist have established different beliefs as to how we catch colds, but no one knows exactly how it is transferred, and the 100% effective way of treating it. The article explores a number of experiments, scattered over different time periods, that test the many notions that society believes are the reason behind catching the common cold. The article also explains how the common cold affects the body and ways we have tried to cure it.
“The Twouble with Twitter” YouTube video analysis
Social Networking sites such as Myspace.com and Facebook.com have grown over the years to become culture phenomenon. People from all over the world with different backgrounds and ages, have joined these sites in-order to connect or re-connect with friends, family, co-workers and associates. Lately however, a new social networking site called Twitter.com has begun to take over and become extremely popular. The site allows you to share what you are thinking or doing at any time of the day ,in a small box called a “status bar”. Many people seem to really enjoy sharing their lives on this website; others think it is a waste of time. Youtube.com provides a very entertaining animated video that informs the viewer what Twitter is, and why so many people enjoy being part of it. My analysis of the video points out important scenes that highlight important factors of the communication aspect of Twitter, and how it is changing it.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
“A Vision of Students Today:” Youtube analysis
Youtube.com is a website consisting of thousands of up-loadable videos. Some of these videos showcase music, people discussing different topics and some are meant to be humorous showcasing hilarious events and situations. Among these videos, however, lies an informative video titled, “A Vision of Students Today, “which brings attention to the many issues and problems college student’s face during their career. The video is plain; however, it possesses a unique quality in its cinematography. The quick movement of the camera shows a college classroom full of students, who hold up different messages that uncover the weaknesses of the Americas college institutions. The video contains different themes and messages that speak a sad truth; however, the information given provokes a call to action in college institutions, and remains to be an important video for any college student or professor to watch.
In the beginning of the video, the camera shows an empty classroom, and then moves at a quick speed to focus on a series of questions written in different areas of the room, such as
“If these walls could talk, what would they say?” and “if students learn what they do, what are they learning here?” The underlying theme of this video is the future, and the future of our college students preparing to go into the real world. The camera quickly jumps from student to student who hold up signs saying such things as, “my average class size is 115, 18% of my teachers know my name. I complete 49% of my assigned readings and 26% are relevant to life. I buy hundred dollar textbooks that I never open.” A number of other students hold up similar messages that pose the question, are these institutions really preparing students for the future? Or are they just taking their money?
The video speaks manly to college professors and administrators. College students already know these issues, but many instructors and administrators seem to forget how much pressure is put on students. We have no idea of what the future holds, but one thing for certain is that our future leaders feel unprepared and that things need to change.
In the beginning of the video, the camera shows an empty classroom, and then moves at a quick speed to focus on a series of questions written in different areas of the room, such as
“If these walls could talk, what would they say?” and “if students learn what they do, what are they learning here?” The underlying theme of this video is the future, and the future of our college students preparing to go into the real world. The camera quickly jumps from student to student who hold up signs saying such things as, “my average class size is 115, 18% of my teachers know my name. I complete 49% of my assigned readings and 26% are relevant to life. I buy hundred dollar textbooks that I never open.” A number of other students hold up similar messages that pose the question, are these institutions really preparing students for the future? Or are they just taking their money?
The video speaks manly to college professors and administrators. College students already know these issues, but many instructors and administrators seem to forget how much pressure is put on students. We have no idea of what the future holds, but one thing for certain is that our future leaders feel unprepared and that things need to change.
Language and How It Changes in New Media
As human beings, the usage of language remains to be our major form of communication. There are different varieties of language, even within our own English language, but through this communication we are able to express our feelings, thoughts, and ideas. As time changes and technology advances, our culture advances as well, including the way we communicate.
Each new generation is different, and over the last 100 years each generation has witnessed a new form of communication. From early on we witnessed the newspaper develop into the radio, to television, to finally the internet. As we moved onto these different mediums, our language evolved. Radio personality’s talked and pronounced their speech in a more serious and precise way back in the 1940’s and 50’s; however, with the introduction of television, and the variety of shows and personality’s over the years, they began talking with a more relaxed and neutral tone.
Language in media changes to accommodate a steady changing culture. Presently we are now an impatient culture; we are a culture that is always on the go, and wants everything fast, easy, and at its best quality. With the introduction of the internet, instant messaging, and e-mails, a new form of written communication has developed. This new form has revised the English language into a form consisting of a variety of acronyms to express longer messages. Today’s internet generation uses acronyms such as, “OMG” to shorten the phrase “oh my God,” and “lmbo” to shorten the phrase “laughing my butt off.” These are just a few of the many acronyms used in text messing, e-mails, and instant messaging. These acronyms started out as just ways to shorten messages, but they are now starting to be used in everyday speech. This new way of communicating is starting to show up everywhere, and it’s beginning to be used so much that many often forget to write out the actual word when writing something serious, such as a school essay.
Some people may see this new change in language as a way of being lazy, and believe that children will not learn to spell accurately by communicating this way; however, this new development in linguistics promotes a new and fascinating way to communicate, and should be viewed as harmless, as long as we teach this generation that their is a correct time to use this type of language, and a time not to use it.
As time progresses, we can only look forward to the future and think of the many possible directions media will take our language next. With each new change we can only hope that it is for the better.
Each new generation is different, and over the last 100 years each generation has witnessed a new form of communication. From early on we witnessed the newspaper develop into the radio, to television, to finally the internet. As we moved onto these different mediums, our language evolved. Radio personality’s talked and pronounced their speech in a more serious and precise way back in the 1940’s and 50’s; however, with the introduction of television, and the variety of shows and personality’s over the years, they began talking with a more relaxed and neutral tone.
Language in media changes to accommodate a steady changing culture. Presently we are now an impatient culture; we are a culture that is always on the go, and wants everything fast, easy, and at its best quality. With the introduction of the internet, instant messaging, and e-mails, a new form of written communication has developed. This new form has revised the English language into a form consisting of a variety of acronyms to express longer messages. Today’s internet generation uses acronyms such as, “OMG” to shorten the phrase “oh my God,” and “lmbo” to shorten the phrase “laughing my butt off.” These are just a few of the many acronyms used in text messing, e-mails, and instant messaging. These acronyms started out as just ways to shorten messages, but they are now starting to be used in everyday speech. This new way of communicating is starting to show up everywhere, and it’s beginning to be used so much that many often forget to write out the actual word when writing something serious, such as a school essay.
Some people may see this new change in language as a way of being lazy, and believe that children will not learn to spell accurately by communicating this way; however, this new development in linguistics promotes a new and fascinating way to communicate, and should be viewed as harmless, as long as we teach this generation that their is a correct time to use this type of language, and a time not to use it.
As time progresses, we can only look forward to the future and think of the many possible directions media will take our language next. With each new change we can only hope that it is for the better.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Nontraditional students on the rise
(Photo of Deborah Harris on the left and Jacklyn Robinson on the right discussing their future plans of educating the youth. In this Picture taken by me at St. Matthew A.M.E. church 12/13/09)
DETROIT--The economy and the needs of the community inspire two woman, and people all over the country to take their career and life to a new plateau, by retuning back to college.
Fifty-two year old Deborah Harris and 48-year-old Jaclyn Robinson, both mothers with close to 30 years of work experience in their current careers, have recently made the decision to return back to the long nights of essay writing, text-book reading, and note taking. Everything current traditional students are trying to get away from.
Both women however said that they are in need for a change, and with the society constantly changing; they want to reinvent themselves and pursue a profession that will help improve the lives of individuals in their environment.
“I felt that there was a need for more people to help in education due to the cities poor reading statistics. I prayed about it and in my search to find a different career path, I realized that it was now my mission to help improve their academic skills,” Harris said.
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