Identifying oneself through Multimedia

When reading the discussion post for this week I was interested to read more about this topic. When growing up, going to school involved paper, pencil, and overhead projectors. However, nowadays there is such an advantage with the advancements that have been made with technology but also the incorporation of it in the classroom. When students are given the option to select a modality they would like to express their learning through, I find that it not only allows them to implement a different method of expressing his/her learning, but it also provides the educator with an insight into that student’s identity and how media has had an influence in their lives.

In the article Film as Identity Exploration: A Multimodal Analysis of Youth-Produced Films (Halverson, 2010) this provided me with plenty of insight as to why it would be important for me, as well as any educator, to implement multimedia into their classrooms. It is imperative for a student to be given a way to express him/herself to the world in order to understand who he/she is as a person. Most times in school settings students are routinely stuck with the continuous forms of learning and unable to go beyond that. Halverson (2010) states that the “primary mechanism we have for constructing identity is through the stories we tell […] we construct narratives as a way to understand ourselves and our experiences in the world” (p. 2354-2355). Giving the students the ability to explain a story, whether it be to summarize something they read or have a multimedia production about an event in his/her life, have an equal influence on that particular student’s life. From my personal experiences in graduate school when I was given the opportunity to complete multimedia projects these were the ones I enjoyed the most. I was able to use various mediums and I was able to create it in a way

that expressed who I was and how I learned best. Every individual/student is different between their personalities, but also in the way he/she learns, therefore as a teacher, it is important not to stick to a “one size fits all” philosophy in your classroom. It has been proven that through “the process of telling, adapting, and performing narratives of personal experience that adolescents engage in positive identity development” (p.2356). Overall, it is imperative as educators to make sure that we are giving our students plenty of opportunities to utilize the technology in the classroom and develop different multimedia literacies in order to have them overcome the participation gap as well as to have a way of expressing his/her own identity.

References

• Halverson, E. R. (2010). Film as identity exploration: A multimodal analysis of youth-produced films. Teachers College Record, 112(9), 2352-2378.

Copyright

After critiquing the two copyright resources I visited for this blog post this week I have come to the conclusion that copyright can be a very blurred concept. I believe this because I don’t think everyone is properly educated on what is/isn’t against copyright laws. Within my time here at Rutgers I have been educated heavily on plagiarizing whether it be for someone else’s work or properly citing text from an author. However, I have not heard once about copyright until this blog post. In my first year of the graduate school I was assigned various projects where I had to create multimedia projects. For one of my projects the document was removed from YouTube because it stated that it dishonored one of the copyright laws. I was astonished when this happened because I was not aware of what I did wrong and thought that because I cited the audio that I used in my project it was okay. Since copyright laws are not regularly addressed I find that people tend to think of them in less of a mandated order. It is important when being an educator to address these concerns to your students so they are well advanced and clearly understand what is, and what is not, against copyright laws. In today’s educational world technology has become such an essential piece in children’s education that it is imperative for them to be educated on these topics. When students and educators are educated on these different laws it will not only make their workload easier but also may cause less frustration later on. The first resource I viewed was, "YouTube Copyright Basics" by YouTube Help, the following excerpt is my critique on this resource.

With this resource I really enjoyed how the concepts of copyright and everything there is to learn about the topic were explained simply for viewers to be able to understand at all age levels. However, I did not like the characters that were used and the way they communicated amongst one another. I think that the way the actors/delivers of information presented the material made it seem like the video was meant for a much younger age level. However, the way the information was presented and thoroughly explained made me like watching this video and be able to effectively learn about the different concepts regarding copyright. A nice feature of this video was the humor that was implemented to address different conflicts that are involved when copyrighting. I think this was helpful for keeping the interest of all the viewers of the video to be able to know the different precautions when using other user’s videos on YouTube. Overall I found this video to be very informative on copyright and all the issues users and producers run into while utilizing videos from across the YouTube platform.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp1Jn4Q0j6E&list=PLvzOwE5lWqhTbOCIFp_OxsN6nC-l20kMT&index=3

The next resource I viewed was, "The Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use" by Education World, the following excerpt is my critique on this resource.

I really enjoyed viewing this text-based resource because it implements a way to be able to educate your students and yourself of the important concepts of copyright. Although copyright made be a challenging concept to understand when it is delivered through a unit it can be helpful for not only students but also teachers as well. I like that it incorporates different instances that might have occurred and then educates the viewer on these topics. One of the topics states, “Have you ever…” this is a very quick and useful way to notice if you have performed any of these acts before and then be able to learn whether or not this may violate the copyright laws. This website does a great job of walking through all the common mistakes and then helping you to understand whether or not this is a flaw and going over the basics for copyright. However, something that I did not like about this informational resource was how text-heavy it is and the lack of multimedia aids for further explanations. I think for different users the use of multimedia within this resource could be very essential. Overall, I found this resource to be a very good place to go and navigate various information regarding copyright, however, I think it is targeted towards a higher age level since it contains a lot of text. 

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr280.shtml

References

Starr, L., & Education World. (2010, March 25). The Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use. Retrieved March 17, 2017, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr280.shtml

YouTubeHelp. (2013, July 01). Retrieved March 17, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp1Jn4Q0j6E&list=PLvzOwE5lWqhTbOCIFp_OxsN6nC-l20kMT&index=3

Update #1

Hi Everyone!!!!
        I am attaching the links to my screencasts that walk you through my update for my Multimedia Montage Project. I talk about what I have completed and what I still have left to complete in the following screencast: https://www.screencast.com/t/fWDWUymfefTm...Additionally, I go on to talk about the involvement in the communities I joined and surveys I administered and how they have supported my project I also talk about the specific feedback I would desire from you while viewing my website in the following screencast: https://www.screencast.com/t/LOStQdGJ. The link to be able to view my website is as follows: https://paigesenatore6309.wixsite.com/googleeducationpd. I hope you enjoy and I am looking forward to reading your feedback!

ROUGH ESTIMATES:

February 16^th-February 23^rd: Await survey responses

February 24^th- March 3^rd: Construct the layout of the website based on the different Google products for education that will be discussed. Create different tabs for each product. Develop the forums.

March 4^th- March 18^th: Create screencasts answering/walking teachers through the different products and how to set up accounts/classrooms (In progress)

March 19^th- April 2^nd: Utilize the Google Plus communities and other forums to collect and integrate everyday questions into my website. Maybe even access Google products for education frequently asked questions or help pages for added topics to add to website.

April 3^rd- April 6^th: Play around with making last minute touches to website and implementing different design features we learned about earlier in the course. Prepare for submission for peer reviews.

April 7^th: Submit project for peer reviews

April 8^th-April 17^th: Consider peer feedback and continue to edit my website for professional development

April 18^th- April 20^th: Review and have others look over my website to provide any last minute suggestions or remarks. Prepare for final submission of product

April 21^st: Submit Final Project!!!!!!!!!!