Challenge 20/20

Challenge 20/20

Image 

"Challenge 20/20 is an Internet-based program that pairs classes at any grade level (K-12) from schools in the U.S. with their counterpart classes in schools in other countries; together, the teams (of two or three schools) find local solutions to one of 20 global problems."

This is all about Flattening Classroom, a way to work collaboratively with someone in a different part in the world, but with the same interests, so we can share ideas, interests, lessons. We have been learning about Flattening classrooms and lowering our walls and Challenge 20/20 is the way to make it possible, by subscribing to this Association a teacher can be connected with the word and so their students.

What is great about this Internet Based Program is that it is based on 20 global problem, such a deforestation, water scarcity,natural disaster prevention, illegal drugs and other topic that are not exclusive to a City neither to a Country. Those problems are global problem, they transcend frontiers and would be great to work collaboratively across our borders. 

This channel is a great tool for teachers who are willing to lower their walls as they are offering this world wide spread problems that can be  addressed by any teacher at any Country. The topic I am more interested in, is the "water deficit" as I teach Environmental Laws in our Country and how they have helped or interrupted the manage of our natural resources. Wouldn´t it be great to know how other Countries manage their resources and if they have similar laws than us?

I would love to share statistics about water in Mexico City, like the amount of water used per person a year, the cost of it, how may people have access to it, from where the water comes, if water is polluted or not... By sharing those "numbers", students can compare and contrast the same problem in their own cities and come with collaborative solutions.

By the beginning of the next scholl year I will sign up to to this program once I know the scheduling of my topics and I will be delighted to work with a teacher from abroad.

Assignment 8

One Lap Top for Child

One Lap Top For Child

Image created using pixl

Creating a image to promote a product:  

Why did you decide to use these photos or clips?

Talking with my group, and after brainstorming several ideas such as promoting a hand cream or a board game, we decide to create something related to what we are learning: flattening classrooms. An important part of it is having education for everyone. This can be done having technology or open content for all schools, so this picture talks about both aspects: bringing technology to a rural place and having access to good content. 

Who is your target audience?

People interested in education. The idea would be to publish this image in college or Highschool magazines so people would be interested in donating to this purpose.

What is your ad's message?

To engage people and promote them to donate for buying computer to rural places.

How do your visuals enhance the message's impact?

Having a rural school with computers on it I guess cause an impact as it is not common to see those pictures, so creating this pictures for sure will enhance the message to donate to the less fortunate.

Assignment 7

Creative abilities and rewards

The Puzzle of Motivation

“Autonomy, mastery, purpose, this are the building blocks of the way of doing things”. This is the most important part of Dan Pink’s Ted Talk on The Puzzle of Motivation. The whole presentation is about how rewards have not worked in the real word as they have killed creativity.

         The presenter remarks and gives several examples of companies that have been successful even when they do not offer rewards to they workers, but instead, they allow them to have autonomy and precisely in moments of “freedom”, big ideas have arise.

         Thinking about education, I can clearly translate these rewards mentioned by Dan Pink into the grades offered by teachers as a reward when students achieve certain goal.  (Or even when points are taken away when they do not achieve some goals).

         Teachers must work in focusing more in students achieving a goal and learning, rather than focusing on a grade, that might narrow their creativity indeed!  Grades do exist, and we need to constantly evaluate, but grading must be a constant process or thermometer thought-out a project but not a goal.

         We must engage them in well-developed projects that include clear instructions and most important, with a clear purpose. As we have been studying recently (PBL), it is very important for students to succeed in connecting their learning to real life.

         An important goal, as teachers, should be to promote creative abilities in our students though projects that really engage them, where that can make meaningful connections to their realities; that should be the reward, to the grade itself.

Image created using Lucidchart.com

Here is an interesting article that expands the discussion about creativity and traditional education.
PA3a

Project Based Learning vs. Just Doing Projects

Project Based Learning vs. Just doing Projects

In the tutorial What is PBL? by New Tech Network, the differences between Project Based Learning (PBL) and just doing Projects are clearly explained. PBL is a way to integrate projects into the learning process and not to leave them as a separate part at the end of a Unit.  PBL make students be the owners of their own learning process with the guide and support of their teacher, it focuses in content but also in skills. While doing PBLs students are engaged in their own learning, they have a clear rubric, clear boundaries, and are exposed to resources so they can wisely choose what they need in order to achieve their goal. PBL is a more holistic way of teaching and learning focused in the integration of projects into students reality. It is opposed to the traditional “just doing projects”, where students may not find a connections with their own lives, they do not internalize it, in PBL they do!       
A good example of a school that successfully works with PBL, is shown in this video.                               PA2b                                                               

An Introduction to Project Based Learning

Introduction to PBL

 I knew from a previous masters class that a Project Based Learning (PBL) is a way of teaching where students learn from “authentic” activities, meaning real word activities that they can export to their day-to-day reality. The video gave a very clear example of a PBL and many important steps of PBL were shown, such as: -teacher gave very clear indications and expectations to students before they started working, -it is hands on and student directed, -students learned through out the process, -they work in teams and they learn from their own experiences and –they need to share their knowledge and have a real audience. Every school year I try to include more and more PBL into my classroom. At the beginning I though it was more related to science, arts, math, and not for Social Studies, but I have done a couple of PBL this year (The Aztecs Peregrination” and the “Prehispanic Sites”) and I hink they were successful and the most enriching part was to see how motivated the students get and how they “appropriate” it. Also doing a PBL I learned that the whole unit it taught with a PBL and not and isolated project at the end of the unit. I know about some other PBL experiences at the MS like the volume project in science for the eight graders and the Chocolate exhibition for SSL students.

Infographics

Infographic

Creating a Infographic

Creating an infographic was difficult and time consuming, but... worthy! This time it was an experiment and it took a while for us to manage new tools. If we work as a team I am confident that we can create an archive full of awesome material including visuals, videos, graphs, and sure, infographs that can serve for our students. As a teacher I am always looking for new materials to share with my students, challenging readings, photos, videos... it would be great that part of that material can be created by me and by my colleagues  but again, working alone is hard, it is difficult to find the time to do so but working collaboratively as we did this time we can have rich and value PLNs!



Information taken from:

http://www.uis.unesco.org/

stats.uis.unesco.org/...document.aspx

Magazine Cover

Dogs Illustrated Magazine

Who is the publisher?

The publisher of Dogs Illustrated Magazine is PAPA (Pet Association Promoting Adoption) a non profit association that promotes the adoption of dogs instead of buying them. It is a International Association widely spread in the United States and recently in México.

Who is the intended audience; what do you (author) hope the audience will do?

The publisher intends to promote the well care of dogs by kids and reinforce parents to encourage their kids to be responsible for their pets.

What is appealing in the cover?

Two kids taking care of a puppy. They are having fun and showing care and love for a puppy.

How are headlines, colors, and font styles and sizes used?

The fonts and colors are attractive to children but it is not intended to look "childish" as it is intended to be attractive for kids and also for parents. 

What are two adjectives that could describe how you look on the cover?

Caring, tenderness and responsibility

What are you trying to communicate? 

The love of kids for pets, specially dogs and how they can be responsible for taking care of them. It tries to promote the adoption of pets by showing a tender image of two kids taking care of its newly arrive adopted pet to home.

Stereotype, Bias and Representation

Am I able to find representation, bias and stereotypes simple by looking into a magazine?

Just by browsing a typical teenager magazine, TeenVogue, it was relatively easy to find pictures with representations and stereotype.

The first one that I found was a picture of two girls jumping into the water, just by the smile of their faces, the posture of their body and the background I can asume it is a representation of freedom or happiness. In reality it is a picture if two young ladies jumping, but I could say the representation mentioned is clear, if not evident.

Picture taken form Vogueteen, April, 2012, p. 10

Looking for stereotypes is kind of easy if we are talking about teenagers. As a Middle School teacher I know this age is full of stereotypes,  like being young means being happy or that you are pretty if you are skinny. The picture that I found that represent a stereotype for me is a picture of three teenagers going to a party and being fully happy,like if going to a party is happiness it self. There are perfectly dress  makeup... and happy. That is the way teenagers are represented in commercial, magazines, pictures...

Picture taken from Vogueteen, April 2012, p. 71

Finding a picture of bias was not that easy for me. I looked over a Sports magazine, Sports Illustrated, and even though I barely know something about Football, I saw a picture where they represent a team as a winner, the other team looks small and insignificant near the other. They are presenting the "New York Nets" clearly as winners for the next season. Every newspaper, magazine have a clear tendency, but in this picture they really represent "their team" as the best one. It can be considered as byas as they do present just one side, they present their tendency as the correct one.

Taken from Sports Illustrated, September 2011, p. 41-42

Definitions:

Bias.- Particular inclination or tendency. In favor of it/opposed to it without having full knowledge of it.
Representation.- Give or serve as, picture, sign, symbol or example of.

Stereotype.- Fixed phrase, idea, belief used and represented without charge.

Oxford ESL Dictionary

Ser críticos ante los medios

SER CRÍTICOS ANTE LOS MEDIOS

Pregunta esencial :

¿Cómo podemos ser críticos ante los mensajes que los medios pretenden transmitir?

Objetivos :

Lograr que los alumnos desarrollen una actitud crítica ante lo que los medios les presentan

Duración:

Dos sesiones de “advocacy” de 30 minutos cada una.

Materiales necesarios:

Proyector y dispositivos electrónicos de los alumnos

Procedimiento :

En la primera sesión (30 mn)

1.- Abrir la clase con la presentación de varias imágenes y videos, buscando provocar el análisis de éstas.

2. Exponer a los alumnos la pregunta de la lección:  ¿Cómo podemos ser críticos ante los mensajes que los medios pretenden transmitir?

3.- Escuchar lluvia de ideas por parte de los alumnos, si la tecnología lo permite, escuchar las opiniones de los alumnos a través de Todaysmeet

En la segunda sesión (30 mn)

4.- Previamente, el maestro tendrá preparado carteles con los diferentes conceptos de los códigos de tecnología los cuales no se enseñará al alumno hasta que se concluya el paso 6.
Ver imagen adjunto sobre los códigos de tecnología.

5. Se presentarán a los alumnos 6 imágenes específicas: dos anuncios de revistas, dos comerciales y dos cortos de película.

6.- Los alumnos escribirán en post its características de lo que perciben en los mensajes.

7.- Se presentarán los carteles con los conceptos de los códigos de tecnología y se les pedirán a los alumnos que clasifiquen sus post its de acuerdo a los conceptos.


8. Una vez reunidos los post its clasificados pegados en los carteles correspondientes, se les explicará cada concepto, buscando que entiendan qué es un código y cuál es el impacto de éstos  a través de los diferentes medios.

Evaluación:

Los alumnos escribirán una reflexión sobre la importancia de ser críticos ante los medios de
comunicación.

ANEXOS:

TV Ads


http://venturebeat.com/2012/06/11/nascar-twitter-tv-commercial/

http://www.examiner.com/article/local-presidential-tv-ad-spending-soars



Movie title sequences

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-walking-dead-unofficial/

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/walle/

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/gattaca/


Anuncios en revistas









Reflexión de grupo:

Como grupo observamos y analizamos varias imágenes, dos de ellas de revistas, dos de anuncios de televisión y dos de entradas de películas.

En las revistas las imágenes y textos sugieren un diálogo entre el lector y el producto. Buscan crear un vínculo directo entre producto y consumidor. Se exhiben los objetos para expresar un fin práctico de ellos, integrando un mensaje textual y la imagen. En cuanto a los colores, es notorio el uso de los contrastes, en particular blancos y negros. En ambas imágenes se busca crear en el receptor una respuesta ante la imagen: orden ante el caos y diversión ante el aburrimiento.

En cuanto a las entradas de las películas, llama la atención como detrás de las simples letras se transmite todo un mensaje que posteriormente estará implícito en la película. En el caso de la película “Gattaca”, se ven las letras que aparecen y desaparecen como si se estuvieran escondiendo, eso es justamente el tema de la película, es decir, una persona “de segunda categoría” que se esconde tras una falsa personalidad. La música, la velocidad de las letras y su paulatino esconderse transmiten misterio y manipulan al público.

Después de analizar los anuncios de televisión podemos concluir que los mensajes sugieren diversos puntos de vista manipulando así la información que arrojan. Pudimos percibir que los mensajes están dirigidos a cierto público y con un propósito específico, sin embargo no siempre se llega a este. En las imágenes que analizamos se puede percibir claramente la intención por las que se presentan.

Reflexión personal:

Como profesora de alumnos de secundaria, mi responsabilidad va más allá de enseñar historia de México. Tengo la enorme responsabilidad de dar herramientas a mis alumnos para desarrollarse satisfactoriamente dentro y fuera de la escuela. Los profesores somos un eslabón en su desarrollo personal y eso va má allá de enseñar contenidos. Así como ellos deben ser críticos con la información académica, deben aprender a ser críticos con las imágenes que los bombardean día a día. ¡Qué mejor que enseñarles como ser críticos!. Un plan de lección como este que se puede aplicar en un grupo pequeño como el de "advocacy" nos permite poner nuestro pequeño grano de arena.

Book covers

 "The first impression matters"

After watching the video by Chip Kidd and then trying to choose and analyze three book covers from the book cover archive  I realized how important is the image you get from a book just by its cover. Either if you read a book by recommendation, as a task or by pleasure, the first impression of it comes by the way it is presented.- its cover. It is the impression you will keep of the book while you are reading it and after it. 

As said by Chip Kidd, book covers matters the author, the publisher and the reader. So it has an impact in the way it is sold, the way it is read and the way it represents the authors vision of it.

The first book I chose is the biography of Mandela. For me this cover talks of a serious book, where they show Mandela just as he is. He does not need any logos, phrases, flags... to represent him, he is just Mandela. I would say by this cover that it is not a book of a polical party or tendency, but it is the book of a man who promote freedom. The colors of the flag of South African are presented just tiny in a corner of the cover. For me it reinforces that it is a book of a international man, a Nobel Priced man. 

Truth, hard work

The second cover that called my attention "About a Mountain" and what resonated to me is that there is no mountain in the cover but the words in a descendant line. As Chip Kidd says in his video, words and images together can talk to much about something , so here we can see only words so  "mountain" without the picture of it, can refer the reader to a "huge amount" of something, to  a pile. For me the simply ausence of the picture refers to some "mystery" and maybe even to a  novel involving lawyers, police men...

Legal conflict?

  

Mystery, suspense 

A mystery novel, suspense, highly hidden secrets.... that is what I would expect to read in this third book that I chose. Just by the blurry presence of the man in the cover and it small proportion with the letter and the size of the cover itself I can feel it is a book of mystery, suspense and even sadness. 
I would love to read or know the authors thoughts about their books. Does the covers really represent what they want to transmit to the reader? 
I can perceive the making of a book cover as a huge responsibility from the publisher and author to the audience. I can compare it to the movie making of a book, it needs to respect the content of the book and at the same time it needs to be attractive, balanced...


http://bookcoverarchive.com/book/mandela

http://bookcoverarchive.com/book/about_a_mountain

http://bookcoverarchive.com/book/presence_stories

New and Traditional Media

New and Traditional Media

Based on UNESCO, Media Information Literacy, 2011

There is no doubt that new technologies and the constant and immediate access to electronic devices and to internet, have made traditional and new technology to go in the same path. Recently is almost as common as to have access to a newspaper that to an electronic one. I would say that the main difference between traditional media and new media is the prompt access to it and also its “democratization” meaning that anyone with a mobile device can have access to the information, and most of all, almost anyone can publish, so it ii is no longer privilege of a few.

El Reforma Online.
Picture taken from an IPhone

That is the democratization of the media, that anyone can post or publish “news”  without having to go through an editorial process which is most of the time very expensive and selective. But “going back to basis” it the fact of credibility. Newspapers and magazines have a broad process before publishing and that is exactly what makes them more reliable. In Mexico for example, you know what kind of information you can find in “El Reforma” or in “La Jornada”, you know the angle or tendency of each newspaper, and despite the tendency people tend to trust that what they publish is based on real facts or based on real data. Today, we can see blogs and tweets that are changing the way news are spread. You get to know the information before it it is "officially" published in the news.

New technologies and its immediate access by readers, it has had a huge impact in to education as we have studied in the Master courses. Students have all the information in the palm of their hands, so their students can question the teacher immediately. Years past, the teacher was “the owner of the information” and it was difficult to validate what he was saying. The teacher as a speaker lies in the past. What is important? Not the content it self, but the way we can teach the students on how to interpret, analyze and study the information. It is very important now a day when we are in a “open content” (Universal Access) tendency that allows democratization to be more focused in teaching thinking skills in teaching how to interpret the information. We have the huge responsibility  of teaching our students in when and what to trust, which sources of information are reliable, to read in between the lines, to recognize an author’s point of view.

Is traditional media really outdated?
Photo courtesy of definitionabc.com

Yes, new technologies have made information more accessible, but that is not all teachers need. Technology is a fantastic tool that can put all the world`s information in the palm of our hand and our student's hands, but the role of the teacher remains the same.- to teach thinking skills, to help them be better readers, to be good at researching and to be better prepared to face their future, no matter if the information comes from digital sources or traditional ones. We need to question and to teach students to be inquisitive in the source of information, the author and the content.