Best Practice? Share Knowledge with others

In my first few years of teaching, I would down-play Professional Development opportunities, whining about the obligation of my time and energy. I changed my mind when I attended my first international conference. The level of professionalism at national or international events is like night and day difference from your local, district or regional PD event. 

Since that time, I have attended professional development courses or conferences in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston, Baltimore, Atlanta, Philadelphia, plus Florida, Texas, Connecticut. I try to get to something major every year or two. While nothing is looming for 2012 yet, I’m looking forward to Los Angeles in 2013. 

As a presenter, I have found  it is invigorating and enlightening to rub shoulders with top-notch authors, first-rate researchers or leading proponents in the field I enjoy best.  

Allow me, if you will, dear teaching colleagues, to give you some heart-felt advice and career wisdom. 

If you are a new teacher, in your first five years of teaching, get yourself to a national conference in your field. It will renew your belief in what you are doing.  

If you are mid career, five years to twenty years of teaching, buddy up with a friend and get to a national or international conference in your field. Then share your wisdom with your school and school district.  

If you are towards the end of your career, say twenty years or more, you have so much to give….you should consider presenting your wisdom at a national conference. Or write that book, where the need is not being met in your field. While you have made a difference in your classroom, when you retire, your wisdom is lost to teachers.  

I have frequently presented at a small media ed conference at U. Conn. One year I took my good friend, a long-service teacher, who had never attended a major conference. He talked about that conference with passion and enthusiasm for the next five years.

We sometimes hear teachers say that when they have left teaching, they felt like they were taking their hand out of a bucket of water…in other words, there was no real change in the environment with them or without them. What a shame and so untrue.  

See you at the next conference.

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The goal of this class was to help you become more “media literate.”

What is meant by “media literate?”

How have you become so?

What have you learned about the media this year?

LL, female, age 17

Learning how media works; watching ads days after day. Seeing all the product placements, knowing the characters such as the Green Giant, or Rocky and Bullwinkle, or Pillsbury Doughboy are selling us things we might not ordinarily need. Singing theme songs to TV shows. Looking at Logos and being part of the revolution on how ads are becoming more and more a part of our lives.

With all the ads there comes some issues, such as how ads exploit women, make us feel we need to look and act in a certain way. Or how men are supposed to be strong, heroic and tough. To live in this world we need to become media literate. By being media literate we are able to understand how the ads work or how they effect us. Such as product placement promoting the brand Coke, or when we see a movie star drinking it, we feel we should too.

We learned about the rule of thirds. We learned that everything on Tv is laid out so perfectly. That TV always wraps up issues in the third act, which is not life.

We learned about ads, for instance, that Kool ad with the female in the car, leaving her driver friend who is pumping gas, for another man because he smokes the right kind of cigarette. We learned how ads use different colours to grab your attention, but the messages can be contradictory. Cigarettes use the colour green but green is supposed to be a signal of healthiness, and nature. By being media literate we are able to not buy into what the ads are trying to sell us. Not everything we see on TV is trying to trick us, we do have some important messages on TV. PSA’s don’t sell us things they sell us values, for instance.

I believe I have become more media literate. I’m noting more and more how much ads affect us or that we see 3, 000 ads per day. I learned about colours, and that red is the best colour for passion, and spontaneous purchases. We created PSA’s that we came up with, that were teens talking to teens.

Media studies also matured my thinking about TV and really gave me another viewpoint of how I should look at things.

There is a lot to learn about media and I believe this class has helped me understand more things than I ever thought about. Maybe now when I see the House Hippo [A popular Canadian PSA from Concerned Children’s Advertisers] I’ll find more meaning in it instead of trying to buy one. 

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TM, male, age 17

I have learned a lot in this class this term. I learned about TV, radio, advertisements, Internet and music. The course has really to me to think more critically and I believe now I am more media literate. What I mean is I am now able to understand the media.

Whenever I am watching TV I notice the rule of thirds, it is kind of annoying because it distracts me from enjoying the show. I have also noticed how many edits there are in a music video. I was running on the treadmill and had to turn the TV off because the quick edits were hurting my eyes. I have also noticed how some companies try and sell sex. I would normally think this must work but now I know it is just a way of selling their product.

I have also learned about the CRTC. The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission. This controls what us as Canadians see and hear through the media. I think all young people should know that Canadian radio stations must play a certain percentage of Canadian music. I believe this is important because it helps us keep our identity as Canadians.

Overall, I have learned a lot of new things that will stick with me. If I do not pick a career in media studies I still believe this course is helpful. Media has a great influence on our lives and you need to be media literate. I would suggest this class to others because it helps you to think critically and it helps you to understand the media.

by Mike Gange

Media/Impact: an Introduction to Mass Media (8)
By Shirley Biagi
Thompson Publishers, 396 pages, 2007

Shirley Biagi’s book on media education is one of the most appealing of all the text books I have reviewed on this blog. Biagi is prof at California State University, Sacremento.  

I like the strengths of her book: lots of colours, lots of pertinent examples of the mass media that students should find interesting. Although I have been a teacher of media studies for nearly 20 years, I too learned a few things from reading Biagi’s book.  

It is actually ideal for a semester type course. It contains 16 chapters, allowing a 17 week semester to include an intro and a concluding exam, and cover much of the content, which ranges from books, newspapers, magazines, to radio, TV, advertising and ethics. 

But what the book is lacking is depth. Because it does cover so many items in the media menu, it misses out on some key observations. Barely a mention is made of Sesame Street, the ground breaking TV show that changed school entrance expectations for kindergarten children. While the section on magazines hits on a large number of publications, it makes no mention of Playboy, which altered the publishing landscape and changed the legal definition of pornography. There is barely a mention too of Oprah Winfrey, who changed television with her tender-hearted and often-tear-inducing programming. 

Clearly, one cannot learn to swim in a gym. And Biagi is missing out on possibilities that would teach students to become more media literate, if they were to take her content and accomplish activities that could synthesize their learning. 

My rating: a good book, but no where near great.

By Mike Gange 

When I was 16 or 17, my mother used to make these magic cookie squares.

They were rich, delicious, sweet and seemed to appear out of no where, especially during exam times or at Christmas. The Christmas-time version always had those red or green sweetened cherries added. The edges near the baking pan would always get a bit harder but, to me, that was just taken for granted as part of the taste. When they were cooled, my mother would take them out of the pan, cut them into neat squares or diamonds, place them on a dinner plate covered with a clean Tea Towel and put them on the counter. I just helped myself. There were no portion controls if mom had already gone to bed. 

I’ve made these magic cookie squares many times for my kids. While I do tend to make them at exam times and holidays, I also make them about once a month, except in July and August when I rarely cook in the oven. In our house, I let the kids help themselves, cutting their own portion out of the pan. It is not unusual for my 17 year-old football-playing son to eat the whole 13 inch pan over a couple of days, usually sometime in the late evening when I am not there to see them disappear. 

When I make these magic cookie squares, my kids won’t eat the edges. When I come downstairs in the morning, the whole panful might be gone, except for the ½ inch ring of harder cookie squares around the outside edge of the pan.

Here’s the recipe:

• 1/2 cup butter or Becel margarine, melted
• 1 1/2 cups Honey Maid graham cracker crumbs
• 1 (14 ounce) can EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 2 cups Hershey’s semisweet chocolate morsels
• ½ cup Hershey’s butterscotch morsels
• 1 1/3 cups Baker’s Angel flaked coconut
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• At Christmas add the extra layer of bottled cherries before the Baker’s Angel flaked coconut.

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F (325 degrees for glass dish). Coat 13×9-inch baking pan with no-stick cooking spray.
2. Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter. Press into bottom of prepared pan. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumb mixture. Layer evenly with chocolate chips, coconut and nuts. Press down firmly with a fork.
3. Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool. Cut into bars or diamonds. Store covered at room temperature. 

Did you notice how easy it is to include product placement? Almost everything in the recipe has a Brand name attached to it. We get so used to putting Brand names into our communications, that we just overlook product placement. It’s the same thing in our media consumption. Product placement, done successfully, will blend into the story as if it should have always been there.

And by the way, magic cookie square is a recipe owned by Eagle Brand, which is owned by Borden’s. Borden’s also owns Cracker Jacks, Elmer’s Glue and X-Acto knives. And apparently, Borden’s is owned by Smuckers.

AND NO, Borden’s did not pay me for the product mention.

 In my media studies course, I ended the year with a short unit on the Internet. I called on Melanie Thompson from a local company, Radian6, to come over and tell us some details about her work in social media. 

Radian6 is a Fredericton company that monitors media, especially on-line media, looking for comments from viewers, customers, observers and others who might have something to say about the clients of radian6. Let’s say you had an unpleasant experience with Pepsi, and wrote about it in your blog. If Pepsi is a client of radian6, they would get a report on the comments being made on your blog. 

Melanie did an excellent job of talking to two different but related classes. She addressed the Grade 12 Journalism students, urging them to write more and network more. She applauded their efforts on social media for their comments and written work. She had read their work on the website, http://theblackkat2011.wordpress.com/   She liked the fact that the website had readers around the world. She said she was impressed with the authenticity of what the students were writing.  

In the next class, a Grade 12 Media Studies class, she talked about the power of the media. She showed the video “United Breaks Guitars”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo then questioned the students on how they thought this might impact on United Airlines, and how United might have handled things a little better. Her presentation was a rousing success, as she encouraged the students to realize the footprint they leave on-line could have long lasting consequences. She pointed out that although the world is moving faster than ever, there is still a right way to deal with clients and associates.  

Melanie’s presentations were not about being sneaky or secretive. In fact, she was all about ethical treatment and fairness. One of her underlying themes was about the power of the individual to make a difference in a hard-charging world.

It’s a message more kids should hear.

Usually, I devour a book, plowing through four hundred or more pages in a few days, a week, tops. But this one, a mere 244 pages, I savored, drinking in words, ideas, inspiration and wisdom. In fact, I have been reading this book, off-and-on, for a few months. 

The general premise is that in a world full of cogs, we need to find a place to be unique.  We need to recognize how we can be different, and share that as a work of art. It’s in the sharing of ideas and insight that we can build a network of similar individuals. 

In my tiny Canadian province there are 31 high schools. One of my friends in Toronto remarked that there are more high schools in one single school district in Toronto than in our entire province. And indeed, we are a small population. In an area the size of Ireland, we have the population of Winnipeg, Manitoba.  

Not every high school in New Brunswick offers a course in media studies, but I have tried to search out those teachers who do, and make some connections. I’ve shared ideas and resources with my provincial media studies colleagues via email links, at least 3 times each week since September. Occasionally, I hear back from some of these colleagues, but I have not heard at all from those few who are the closest to me, geographically. Someone who teaches down the hall never comments on the gifts of resources she gets. Someone across town never says a word.

 “And what do you do when your art doesn’t work?” writes Seth Godin. “What happens when the conversation doesn’t happen, the product doesn’t sell, the consumer is not delighted…and people aren’t moved?”  

The solution, Godin writes, is to “make more art. It’s the only choice, isn’t it? Give more gifts. Learn from what you do, and then do more.”

The alternative, he writes, is to give up and become an old-school cog. 

It is hard to be an inspiration. I am discouraged I have not stirred up more passion, more ideas, more sharing.

 Am I stopping my networking and sharing?

NO. 

Welcome to 2012. Welcome to the year of the Dragon. According to Chinese mythology, the Dragon is the sign of power, inspiration, passion.   

It could not have come at a better time.

I don’t know a teacher who likes this time of year, facing the task of having to assign a mark to a student, for the efforts in class.

Some kids absolutely get what they deserve. These would be the kids who have done very little work, haven’t shown any enthusiasm for anything I have done in the past two months, and have skipped class on every opportunity. No, they will get their failing mark, and no hard feelings.  

What I don’t like is the case where I have to decide if the student passes or fails. I want to do everything I can to see a student pass, but sometimes the numbers just don’t add up, and nothing I can do is going to change that.

It is a necessary part of the teaching job. I just don’t like it very much.

By Mike Gange

In the 1980’s, when I was a poor-and-all-but-broke grad student, I spent 50 bucks on tickets to see Huey Lewis and the News in concert.  Unfortunately, I never made it to the concert.

I loved Huey Lewis and The News from the first time I heard them. They were different, they were hip, they had great guitar solos and that saxophone break that reinforced the whole sound. And front man Huey Lewis had this aura about him, as well as that incredible voice. I think I first saw them on a music video. As soon as I could scrape together 7 dollars, I went out and bought their cassette tape.

Amongst my friends, there was always a rumor that there was more than just a similarity between the band’s song, “I Want a New Drug” and the Ghostbusters theme “Who Ya Gonna Call?” Speculation had it that the music for the 1984 hit movie theme was actually the same song as the one that helped popularize The News. I was never able to substantiate the rumor until the days of the Internet. Trying to decide if the rumor was true, however, allowed for many interesting hours of intense listening and lengthy discussions.

Eventually time passed, and Huey Lewis and The News faded, both from the radio play lists and my own taste. When I started to exchange my cassette collection for CD’s, Huey Lewis and The News never made it to the list of must-have replacements.  

But recently, I found a Huey Lewis and The News ‘Greatest Hits’ CD. It was in the delete bin, and was so ridiculously inexpensive, I had to fork out for it. And Huey Lewis and The News never sounded so good! There were the old fav’s, such as “The Power of Love” from the movie ‘Back to the Future.’ And there was “Cruising” a charming duet with Gwyneth Paltrow, which I don’t recall ever hearing. Listening to the band today is a 1980s time-trip, to be sure, but The News does not sound OLD.

As for the details of how I missed the concert? It was to be an open-air show, held in a football stadium. It got rained out, and although it was rescheduled for a later date, I had to catch an airplane the next day that brought me to a new job and a successful career. I don’t regret all those things, but I still wish I had seen Huey Lewis and The News in person. This CD reminds me what I missed.

Great things to hear on CBC Radio.

Ethernet Ethics 

by Mike Gange 

Interesting and invigorating are the words I would use to describe my time spent writing this blog. Interesting because I get clarity of my own ideas. Invigorating for the connections I make through readers, such as you.

 My cluster map add-on shows I have had readers from every continent, and most countries in the world. We certainly are able to flatten the world with the World Wide Web. Hockey games that I broadcast are heard by Canadian soldiers in war zones, by some of my cousins now living in California, by prospective hockey players who are hoping to play for the top-ranked UNB Varsity Reds (the team I web-cast), and by parents four time zones away, who cannot possibly come to every game their sons play in this league on the eastern coast of Canada.  The blogs and web-connections are a way of extending the reach of the writers and creators so that audience members can tune in, enjoy the experience and wisdom of the bloggers and rely on their judgment about that part of the world. Sort of like a review of a book or movie that influences and shapes a reader’s perception.   

But a disturbing trend in blogging is now visible in the blogosphere. Lots of bloggers are taking money just to endorse a product. The authenticity of voice in time and space is getting trampled by commercialization. Yes, I would like to get some money from the 20 thousand regular readers for what I write. But I am not doing this for the money. I think something is lost when something is gained.  

For more on this issue, I urge you to listen to the CBC Sunday Edition story on Mommy Blogging. It’s well done, and worth presenting to your classes, if you are teaching. It’s an interesting presentation on ethics, without getting into finger pointing and tongues wagging. Here is the link. It’s called The Mommy Bloggers.   Yes, indeed, we live in interesting times.

http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/

“The Phone Stack. It’s a game where table mates who are out grabbing a bite to eat stack their cellular devices on the table in plain sight, face down. Sounds like the ultimate in dining/phone etiquette. In reality, it’s one of the coolest (or stupidest*) pieces of socially engineered live gaming I have ever heard of.

The rules are simple, as the meal progresses, you will all inevitably hear phone notifications going off. Texts, calls, Tweets, Facebook Notifications. But you’re not allowed to check your device.

If you’re an addict, the noises will drive you crazy. You’ll want to reach for your phone. You’ll be asking many internal questions, some may materialize into mumbled inquisitions under your breath. Who called? Was it my mom? Is she okay? What if Jessica Tweeted at me? Or if Monica tagged me in her new Facebook album?

You’ll spend all dinner almost-reaching for your phone. What’s holding you back from picking up your machine and checking it?

The punchline that is: first person who touches their phone, picks up the tab for the entire table.

In this day and age, when it comes to dining out, or pretty much doing anything in general, our cell phones play a big part. When it comes to sitting around a breakfast, lunch or dinner, we pay equal amounts of attention to our smart phones than we do to our table company.

And if your date was as awkward as mine was last night, you might have spent  your entire evening texting your friend back home about how little action you’re getting when you drop her, and then Tweeting to the rest of the world some sly, vague  20-character line about you’ll surely be “Getting it in, tonight.”

The reality is, even with the most comfortable of company and the most lively of conversation, our dinners are bound to be interrupted by our joint addiction to the digital.

Did so-and-so text me back? Wait, who @mentioned me on Twitter?

Our eyes are constantly darting between our glowing screens and the people around us. But could Phone Stacking be the temporary, fleeting savior to such #FirstWorldProblems as simple as not using your cell phone during dinner?

I’m not sure what type of affect Phone Stacking could have on the future of dining, but if you plan to abide by the laws of Phone Stacking, I only have one question to ask you…

Is that text message worth the cost of everyone else’s dinner?