iMovie Reviews

Justinn:
First of all, I loved your topic. I think it was super interesting to pair a cultural trend with technology. I had never really considered the advances that the internet might have on one particular topic, in this case hip-hop music. Your Drake example summed it up perfectly -- I didn't know that much about him other than the fact he was on the Canadian TV show Degrassi, but it's awesome that he was able to market himself through online music sites.
As for the technical aspects of your piece, you used a lot of images and transitions which helped to keep relevant to your audio. The audio, at times, was hard to hear. However, your pacing and voice were very good and helped to move the piece along.
Good job, and again, I really liked your topic!

Jillian:
You did a really cool presentation on Couch Surfing - a network and phenomenon I never heard about. I think it's cool that you put your faith into something that could be considered dangerous, like hitchhiking, but positively tied it into a network of fellow surfers which made you feel apart of something. You also make a great point about what it takes to be a couch surfer - fluent in English and technology.
I liked how to added audio from the TechTalk, and someone else's voice using testimonials, as apart of your project. It made your audio more sophisticated.
I really enjoyed learning about this website and your experiences, good job!

Hi Genevieve!
You are my random blog pic. I was really interested from the start about ThriceColdCash and how this whole interaction between him and your boyfriend play out. You make a great point about how social gaming can be - the gaming world is quite stereotypical! I also really like the interview part of the piece, although the levels are little low, but it mixes up the movie well. You're right to bring up the concern about a stranger in the online world - the internet allows for a lot of anonymity!!
Good job on your project, it was a really cool topic!

iMovie Project

Here is my iMovie Project - hopefully everything is uploaded properly and you can see it.

Below is my final version of my script, however, a paragraph was omitted in final stages because it took the movie to 6 minutes...I figured shorter was better for viewing purposes.

When I was growing up in the ninety’s, I thought it was punishment that the only televisions shows I was allowed to watch were educational. My parents would try to tell me that learning was fun but I was so mad that I wasn’t allowed to watch Power Rangers like my other pre-school friends were allowed to. On the Saturday morning network shows, I would see ads for educational products such as ‘Hooked on Phonics’. Now, we see brands like the Leap Frog toys that use an interactive pen to zoom across the pages of a children’s book and help the little sound out the words as they read along. There is different product called Leapster , children’s version of a Kindle, a personal console that you can load with books and games to take on the go. Also, the Baby Einstein brand of DVDs and CDs teach themes from colors to animals…supposed to be incorporated to a baby’s lifestyle before he or she can even talk. This makes me question if all of these technological influences at a very young age help to make learning more enjoyable, accessible, or engaging. It all seems too good to be true to pop in a video and raise a child’s IQ!

It seems more than ever, society engages youth with technology. According to a study from the University of Michigan, children ages 2-5 spend 32 hours a week in front of a television [1] and the media is making use of that demographic. For example, there has been forty years of the Public Television show Sesame Street, who in their mission statement say they are determined to “inform, inspire, and educate,” [2]. Pairing this mission statement with new technologies, we see the furry little monsters teaching their audience about computers, email, and one character using the Elmocam to connect with others.

 These young viewers are growing up in a society where they don’t have to learn how to double click, it’s inherent to them. Programs more extensive than paint and word processing become a breeze. Their skills are influenced by computers in the home from a very young age. In one study by a local news team, a group of three year olds were given an iPhone, a smart phone with a touch screen, to play with a virtual bubble wrap application. Within seconds, the kids had figured out that pressing the circles on the screen warranted a large POP! and pressing a lot of them made a very satisfying sound. They knew exactly how to control their actions to create a reaction.

This generation is made up of the “mobile kids” and raised very closely in tie with the wireless world. They expect “instant access” to anything they might be interested in, learning they can search the Internet from a smart phone or see their favorite character or hear their favorite song while on the go.  They crave power to control, and expect to be able to have anything at their imagination within reach at any moment. Along with control, these children are able to use the smart phones as learning tools through educational games. Parents can access sites like childrenslibrary.org to call up to the screen free digitized childrens books from any location. Also, about 60% of the 25 Top Selling Education Applications from the iTunes App store targets toddlers and preschoolers, proving that this demographic of consumers is very popular and accessible [3] .

            Along with the engagement with technology are the effects that multi-media stimulation might have on youth. Pediatricians say that children under the age of two shouldn’t spend any time in front of the TV because cognitive development can be stunted. Research also says that the more TV kids watch, the more likely they are to be overweight. So where is the balance? There are some applications which require a child to take mom and dad’s iPhone outside to look for squirrels and leaves in the park, but as kids grow up being used to engaging on the computer, will they leave less time for fresh air? According to a 2007 study from the New England Journal of Medicine, the number of overweight children in ages 6 to 19 has tripled since the 1970s [4]. Our technology today requires children to sit there to engage. There may be some mental stimulation occurring, but the constant involvement with technology may be hindering children to smell the fresh air.

            New technology for kids of any age is awesome. It’s pretty amazing that there are new things coming out every single day, but my concern is balance. As the new generation is born with a smart phone in their hands, are the parents going to be able to censor their children and create an appropriate amount of stimulation in front of a screen as well as off? Soon enough we will be able to set up our waterproof computers on the beach, but hopefully there will be enough time to break away from the screen and enjoy the scenery as well.

---

[1] http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/tv.htm

[2] http://www.pbs.org/producers/mission.html

[3] iPhone for 3 Year Old - Swidley

[4] Overweight – Blake

5 Designing an I-net for kids -- Sutter

archive.org

Also, to be added in the near future, is a complete list of my sources.

-Kate

iMovie Test Project

In class, we had to make a slideshow to music (with a small video cameo!) and upload it to our blogs. Shout out to my mom!

Enjoy!

Photoshop for Democracy Piece

Lessig, chapter 4: RW, Revived

I thought Lessig's chapter 'Remix' was really interesting. I caught my attention from the first sentence about his friend being an English major (like me!) and starting to question why quotes need to be cited and who is getting upset when material isn't cited. He uses a perfect term which I only had associated with mash-ups and DJ': the Remix. Lessig questions the idea that quotations in papers, studded with information from outside sources, is another form of remix. In that sense, there is a very creative connotation to how one can write. But is it original? I think the evolution of an idea, or as we've learned in English 200, the transformation of an argument with quotes as your support, is a form of creativity. You must come up with the idea and prove it through quotes you are inspired by. Artists may be criticized for using styles other than their own, but it's usually other tools which make art outstanding.

One of the amazing facts Lessig talks about in the section about text is the fact that there are around 100 million blogs world wide. That is an incredible number! There are so many forms of connection and communication. Humans love to talk about themselves, hence the blogs which are diary like. Then there are connections to be made about interests, how-to's, hobbies and the like. Then there are fact/updates from companies...so many resources that allow creative (or sometimes just work) out put able to been seen world wide.

The next section brought up one of my favorite contemporary 'artists,' GirlTalk. (Ok Tangent! I really wanted to mention my favorite remix Bounce That and then saw one of the related video's is GirlTalk's remix 'Shut the Club Down' music video...which is remixes of all of the samples in his song. Pretty Cool/Crazy/I wonder how many people are upset about this now.) Lessig states that GirlTalk remixes, "...between 200 and 250 samples from 167 artists in a single CD. This is not simply copying. Sounds are being used like paint on a palette. But all the paint as been scratched off of other paintings," (70). This is an incredible fact - he is using an hours worth of material from 167 other people. When you think of it like that painting, as paint scratched off other paintings, it seems so miniscule that it's pretty cool that a lot of 'flecks of paint' are able to be put together to create something new. I would be honored to be an artist who is sampled by other artists. I guess it comes back to citing - is it up for Girl Talk to give props to whoever he 'borrowed' or sampled from? Should he be posting a track list with all of the songs and artists he has used in his CD? Or is it enough that he isn't receiving any money for his albums and just celebrated as a DJ when he is paid for gigs like Spring Concert 2009?

Jenkin's 'Photoshop for Democracy'

How is Jenkins using the phrase "Photoshop for Democracy"? Find, post, and discuss an example as it relates to the reading


In this chapter, Jenkins uses "Photoshop for Democracy" as a way to further political statements (and other social statements, I suppose) through the use of upcoming technologies. He says that an idea needs to be furthered through "broad circulation" -- much like an advertisement (207). Some of those same principles are used for that circulation, using images that are " vivid, memorable, and evocative," (207). Such as the political statement featuring President Bush and 'The Apprentance' star Donald Trump, the two were mashed together through video editing to create a statement about 'firing' the President. The idea that the video went viral means that links were forwarded through email, posted on blogs, and featured on news sites. This resulted in more and more viewers reposting and forwarding that message, and also led to more followers for the cause. One interesting aspect about this video is that creator, LoPorto, was desperate for the NBC Corporation to sue them over copyrighted material so that the video would become even more public and possibly global. 


This chapter also talks about being effective with these statements, using public images (such as Donald Trump's executive duties) as media convergence and collective intelligence. These pieces of media already have a certain impact on consumers, so political activists are using those general ideas through media to make others think about their idea in a certain way. 


He talks about Photoshop, in particular, as a tool to create nice quality graphics at a low cost, and allows the public to "manipulate and recirculate powerful images to make a political statement" (221). This is a fairly accessible way for society to create a mixture of pop-culture and political opinion. To me, it seems like the home-version of a political cartoon. You can pair any celebrity snafu with a mistake by the Leader of the Free-World, and it can become popular and discusses around the watercooler. I feel like the people who create this type of art will be younger, more in touch with technology and the program, but the ones circulating would be anyone who is able to press 'FWD' on their emails.

Technology Autobiography

After wrestling with Audacity for a few different sessions, I have a version of my Technology Autobiography that I am excited to share. Through this writing, recording, and editing process, I think I have turned into an official Mac girl -- I had a really hard time on my laptop trying to figure out Audacity, and the most efficient way to edit my piece. I ended up recording it about 3 times, taking bits and pieces of the best versions, and mashing up the phrases as best as I could. I am proud to have figured out the levels and filtering out some of the background noise! However, I think my speaking voice was the most unnatural it could have sounded...I guess I'm not used to hearing myself talk!

I think it will be pretty nerve-wracking hearing my voice over the speaker system of the MacLab...but I do like the piece that I've ended up with. I'm very excited to see what other people come up with and if they choose to use music. Anyway, this is for sure an example of a Technological process, from start to finish!

Enjoy!
--Kate's Technological Biography

Playing with ZoomRecorder

Our File!

Response to Jenkins

Jenkins: Introduction.

Convergence, as discussed in this introduction, is about many forms of media overlapping one another and entering each others forms. We think of 'media' these days as almost anything able to give us information and this spans across both print and electric. Characteristics of Convergence include "circulation of media content" and why someone chooses to spread that media, and less of the technology behind the circulation.

I suppose one way convergence is submersed in our lives is the way we use our phones. Technology has made it so that, the iPhone for example, has everything you need to make something on it (from a text document, mp3 file, or movie) and it can automatically get spread at your command (through email, networking sites, YouTube). We now have the power to be connected at our fingertips and able to spread media, our own opinions, in a flash.

Just something I found...

This is a cute segment I heard while scanning the radio this weekend - I guess it was on WHMP. It's called Typography and author Tom Pappalardo did something much like we will be working on in the next few weeks - but his is all about the snobbery of 'typeface'. I thought it was cute and I can appreciate the work that goes in to making a segment like this, so I thought I would share.

Also, he tweeted me back when I asked about the segment being posted online. So that's pretty cool too. :)

Check it out!