Teaching critical thinking

One of the main concerns of teachers is to teach students critical thinking. To do so, teachers should create and monitor media projects in the classroom. One of these projects could be to have students create a news channel and deliver the news to the rest of the classroom. In this project, students would be responsible for gathering information, deciding what to film and what topics to discard and finally filming this as if it were a news channel. I think that having students make a media project would develop their critical thinking and allow them to rethink about the role of media in our society. In this project, students would have to analyse the information and decide critically what to film and what to dismiss.

In our society, media controls what we see and hear. When we turn on the news, the content that we see has been viewed and revised. There are many topics and information that are not aired because they are “not suitable” or “unimportant” or because of any other reason. A good example of this would be the real story of 2 reporters that refused to lie to the public, after unravelling a story that would have endangered an important corporation. I have written about this story before, so I will not go into more details, but I will give you the link once more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0AL4yml3bw.

After this project, the teacher could show this short video and ask the students what they think of this false representation in order to start a class discussion. Moreover, the teacher could also have the students research more on this subject and reproduce the story that the reporters in the video were not able to show the public. By having the students analyse and produce a news channel, they would have to think critically about every story as well as how to present it to their classmates.

Advantages vs. Disadvantages

I have previously written about how technology can be used as an asset in the classroom. Using internet, powerpoint or any technology related device can help teachers deliver their lessons and keep the students engaged. However, we all know that there are many disadvantages that teachers should be aware of. For example, I think that a major issue in today’s society is cyberbullying. Many teenagers are victim of this negative use of internet. Therefore, I think that if teachers are using media devices in their classroom and showing students how to use them, they should also make sure that students understand the negative and undesirable outcomes. By making students aware of such consequences, teachers could reduce cyberbullying and thus create a better social and learning environment. Moreover, another important problem related to media and school would be cyber predators. I know that a teacher may not be the best person to address this, but I also think that students should be warned and told what to do if they are in a problematic situation. I think that a specific person in school should be appointed to address these problems, such as a counsellor. I think that it is important to promote both the positive as well as the negative use of media devices and their outcomes, since some students are not aware of the consequences of their acts on internet, for example. Technology is very helpful in the classroom, but the majority of the students also have access to it outside of school. Therefore, they should be made aware of the negative consequences that can happen.

Powerpoint

Powerpoints are used more and more often in classrooms since they can be used in more than one way. This application is very popular since is basic functions are quite easy to figure out. However, for those who have some extra time or knowledge with powerpoints, many more features can be used and applied in a presentation. A few weeks ago, we had to choose a subject and create a presentation. We had to integrate certain features that are not needed in basic presentations. However, since we didn’t have a lab class on powerpoints, we had to figure out how to integrate them by ourselves. I thought that I was going to have a lot of trouble since I usually don’t put many features in my presentations. However, it was easier than I had first thought since I only had to explore in the features that I did not know about and try some out. For those that I could not find, such as embedding videos, I searched on YouTube and found the information that I needed pretty quickly. Therefore, I was a bit disappointed that we did not spend a lot of time on powerpoint presentations during the lab. However I think that having to do this on my own forced me to discover new features that I would not have been aware of otherwise. Overall, powerpoint presentations are full of features that are not used very often. In my opinion, discovering these features on my own allowed me to discover other ones as well. Moreover, I will be able to use the ones that I discovered on future presentations since I learn by doing thus I will remember the features that I discovered better.

technology in the classroom

I think that technology should be used in classrooms, as it is constantly evolving in our day to day lives. However, should teachers also rely on technology when assigning homework? This question came up to me, as I was having a conversation with one of my friends. Her little brother, who is in grade 6, has had a couple of classes based on technology use and uses computers as well as media in his classes. One of his teacher even assigned homework through internet, on a website dedicated for classroom use. However, he does not have a fast internet connection and his homework that should take only about 20 to 30 minutes takes more than an hour. Therefore, should teachers rely so much on computers and internet, as to assign homework through them? Some families do not even own a computer, how are children supposed to do their assignment when they are not computer literate? I know that nowadays, people see media and internet as very present in their live, but this is not the case for many other families. By assigning homework this way, teachers are giving an unfair advantage to some students and putting others behind in their work. I think that technology is present and important to have in a classroom, however we should not presume that every student has the same ability and ease with it. Therefore, I think that teachers should use media in the classroom, but should not assume that every child has access to internet, or any other technology device used in the classroom. I know that technology is more and more important in today’s society and must therefore be taught and used in the classroom, where it is available to every child. However, assigning homework by internet is not fair to every child. Teachers should keep this in mind and keep the use of media devices where it is available to every student.

Smartboards

Today we discovered how to use a smartboard. I had seen one already but never had an explicit tutorial on one. We saw how to interact with it and how we can use it with students in classes. We discovered how to navigate internet, write on it, and various other applications that come with it.
The board is pretty big but luckily, we can adjust the height and thus make it more accurate, as we saw in class. We can also put it in computer mode, video mode or in another mode which basically allows you to plug in your laptop. It is a mixture of a white board/computer/television.I think that students are going to be more interested in a classroom where a smartboard is available since they will be able to interact with it. Getting students to move and work on the smartboard will increase their motivation and engage them. I have found a short video of a smartboard used in a classroom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t0oZP7tJjA

This new technology equipment fully engages the student and takes learning to a whole new level.Smartboards are fairly recent and thus they are not available in the everyday public classrooms. However, I think that with time, it will make its way into many more classrooms.

Exploring Media Project: Social Representation

BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.


"Beauty" images
In today's society, true beauty has lost all its meaning and has been replaced by a fake ideal promoted by media. To be socially accepted and considered beautiful in our society, women have physically mutilated themselves through anorexia, bulimia, and many other health related problems. This unhealthy portrayal of "beauty" imposed new standards that women believe that they have to follow in order to be considered beautiful. The media promotes these views of beauty through ads, news and TV shows to name a few.
For example, if you look at various shows such as Grey's Anatomy, House MD or Bones, which are popular American TV shows, most actresses are tall, slim and viewed by others as beautiful. Our society is imposing new beauty standards through media which has a direct impact on our everyday life. Whenever we use a form of media, we are constantly reminded of these fake standards and what we should do to follow them. Internet promotes this fake beauty through the many pop ups that pollute our screen while we browse internet sites. Television is not better than internet, as it promotes it through TV shows, ads, etc.
One TV show that struck me more than any other show was “America’s Next Top Model” where young women basically compete against each other to win the ultimate top model prize. All of these women are thin and preoccupied about their image and about their weight because, ultimately, the prettiest, thinnest and most top model-like will get the prize. They are taught how to conceal their “fat” and imperfections in order to have the “best” picture. Here is an example of this show and what it promotes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLK2Z2hUJzs

2 moments that stroked me most are:
- 1min. 04sec until 1min. 10sec.
- 2min. 11sec. until 2min. 29sec.

There are many more examples in this TV show. Unfortunately, many models suffer from anorexia or bulimia. As a result, they are extremely thin and suffer from health problems. As you can see in the pictures that I have posted, many models and celebrities are so thin that we can see their bones. In my opinion, skinny is not beautiful.
Moreover, beauty standards and expectations have even reached the image of children. In the last Olympics, in Beijing, a cute little girl sang the Chinese national song. The only drawback is that that cute little girl was lip singing. The real little girl that sang was not pretty enough to represent china so they decided to take a cuter one. Our fake beauty standards pushed some people to conceal the true identity of the singer because she did not fit them. In my opinion, this is inconceivable.
Fortunately, many women are proud of their body, no matter the social representations and standards that are imposed on them. The Dove picture represents women who are happy with the way that they look; this picture is free of photoshop and any other social expectations.
They are beautiful.

Being careful with news in the media

Since this class is all about media, I thought that I'd share this short video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0AL4yml3bw

It basically warns people about false media representations/news. It is the story of 2 reporters who were fired because they refused to lie to the public. The report that they had done endangered an important corporation. This company did not want to truth to come out and be told to the public.
I think that this would be an excellent video to show to students and begin a class discussion with it afterwards. It would also encourage them to think critically about media and about the news that we are fed everyday. They would also be encouraged to reflect on what is true in the media and what they can do to find out the truth.