Archive for September, 2008

Blogs in the classroom

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

Here at the LAMP, we love when we learn about ways that teachers are integrating multimedia into their classrooms.  We’re strong believers in teachers, students (and parents) exploring the unlimited possibilities presented with new media and media education, so it was with great pleasure that saw a post in the New York Times’ Lesson Plans blog by an Alaskan schoolteacher, Doug Noon.  Mr. Noon is a middle school teacher, and for the last three years his students have been sharing their writings on a blog called Tell the Raven.  The posts are about a wide range of topics–sometimes students write about something that happened in class one day (like dissecting a moose heart) or something a little more personal (like their cat).    The blog also has its own wiki, photo gallery, and sections with bookmarks to different subjects being covered in class.

As Mr. Noon notes in his post on the New York Times blog, Tell the Raven is still a work in progress.  He hoped that the blog would help connect his students with other schools in Alaska, but so far that hasn’t happened–although they have been connecting with students in Australia.  I admire that the students are encouraged to write and share their thoughts, and that they have an adult mentor like Mr. Noon to review their posts and help them consider how they want to present themselves to their classmates and to the world.  The students get to learn about everything the Web has to offer, and have a guide to show them how to have a positive experience online.  For Mr. Noon, he gets to learn more about what his students are doing and what interests them in class, and of course parents get learn more about their children.  Everybody wins.

If you’re a teacher using multimedia in the classroom, tell us about it and share your ideas!

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The LAMPPost wordle cloud

Friday, September 26th, 2008

Finally was able to make our own Wordle. I took our rss feed and created this interesting tag cloud of our most commonly used terms. This is what we got.

I think it’s pretty cool because it grabs my imagination. (I have to confess that it has the word “media” so prominently in the middle is somewhat validating)

Would love to hear what you guys think!

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Workshop: Put Yourself on the Web

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

Location: TBD in Brooklyn, hosted by Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment

Dates: December 1st, 8th and 15th

Times: 3:00-6:00pm

Ages: 6th-8th grade

Cost: FREE!

Explore the many ways you can present yourself on the Internet through social networking websites and blogs.  Learn what to include (and what not to include) in an online profile, and how to build your own blog!

To register, call us at 718-789-8170 or send us an email.

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Residency with P.S. 107

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

Location: P.S. 107, Brooklyn

Times: Mornings

Dates: Tuesdays and Thursdays from September 16 through October 30

Ages: 3rd grade

This fall, the LAMP is in residency with P.S. 107, exploring news and reporting with third graders.  In the workshops held twice a week for six weeks, students will explore the news and how it is made, exploring what makes news, where it comes from, how it is made, how it changes in print and digital formats, the use of text and pictures to tell a story, and more.  Students will also work hands-on in creating their own news stories, conducting interviews, writing and researching stories, while also creating and editing photography and video footage.

If you are interested in having the LAMP at your school, we would love to speak with you.  We can design curricula tailored to your needs and interests. Please call us at 718-789-8170 or send us an email.

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Workshop: Family Video

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

Location: TBD in Brooklyn, hosted by Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment

Dates: October 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th; November 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th

Time: 3-6pm

Ages: Families of all ages

Cost: FREE!

The whole family comes together to make a video memory book! Shoot and edit a video of parents and children interviewing each other, sharing favorite memories and stories while creating a lasting record to be enjoyed now and forever.

Skills learned include:

  • Group collaboration
  • Exploring representations of family in commercial media
  • Using visuals, words and sound to create a family narrative
  • Video editing

To register, call us at 718-789-8170 or send us an email.

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Workshop: Video Poem

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

Location: Prospect Park YMCA, Brooklyn (357 9th Street)

Dates: November 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th (possible addition: Dec. 3)

Time: 4:00-5:30pm

Ages: 8-10 years

Cost: FREE!

Explore how different editing techniques are used for sounds and images when you make a video poem! Use your original artwork and writing to learn how different elements come together to make a piece of multimedia art.

Skills learned include:

  • Group collaboration
  • Exploring poetry using visuals, words and sounds
  • Videocamera use
  • Video editing

To register, call us at 718-789-8170 or send us an email.

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Workshop: Documentary and Non-fiction Video

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

Location: Prospect Park YMCA (357 9th Street, Brooklyn)

Dates: October 1st, 8th and 22nd

Time: 4:00-5:30pm

Ages: 8-10 years

Cost: FREE!

Using a subject of your choice, write and shoot your own documentary video! Explore the different ways that documentaries can be used, along with basic editing techniques.

Skills learned include:

  • Group collaboration
  • Critically exploring the languages of visual documentary
  • Directing with a videocamera
  • Interviewing techniques
  • Structuring a point of view using words, visuals and sounds
  • Video editing

To register, call us at 718-789-8170 or send us an email.

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Adventures in Product Placement: Part I

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

With the various advances made in new media over the past few years, media consumers are now able to bypass a key part of what makes media possible: advertisements.  We can skip through ads on Tivo or just rent the DVD.  A study by Sharpe Partners found that  of 865 active online video viewers (“Super Sharers”), 75% of them are finding a way around ads. All of this might be convenient for us, but it’s not so great for the people who create the media we watch.  When people stop watching commercials, not only does the airtime become less valuable and effective, but media producers have to work harder to make ends meet.  Spot ads on television have been falling in 2008, and are not expected to improve for 2009.

As a result, the time-honored practice of product placement is on the rise.  In an ideal world for advertisers, product placement is done so seamlessly that viewers don’t even realize that someone is trying to sell them something.  To even the playing field, films and television shows are required by the FCC to state that a sponsor has paid for their product to be used.  Usually this is done at the very end of a show or movie, after the credits. Now, the FCC wants to further regulate media and make product placement more explicit by expanding the visibility of sponsorship notices.

As much as I might not like being persuaded to buy something when all I’m trying to do is relax with a story, I do recognize product placement as a necessary evil.  On the one hand, a product placement alert might help people better understand media, and I’m all for that.  On the other hand, it could spin way out of control, as the technique becomes more refined, and I also think that such close policing doesn’t really solve any problems.  I’d rather actively learn about product placement, and really understand it, rather than be passively told when it’s happening (by a government agency, no less).
Like banning athletes from social networking, this seems like a coverup for the real issue.  The buying of stuff and the selling of stuff is fundamental to any economy, and we all need to have an understanding of the many complex meanings behind media messages.  However, this can be done without sucking the enjoyment out of media, and it can be done in a way that makes people more independent thinkers.  If the FCC is truly concerned with educating and informing the American people about media, they might start with, well–media education.

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The democratization of media

Sunday, September 21st, 2008

Our take on media literacy is that the more people become media literate – understanding media, critiquing media, creating media – the more engaged they become in their environment and the more active they become in their communities. Media literacy opens up the democratic process to more and more people by giving them the ability to critically think about the messages the media delivers and provides them with a voice to participate in the dialogue of how their society should operate. Taking the power to send messages to the masses out of the hands of the few corporate conglomerates who monopolize it and spreading it amongst those who are now media literate will bring new viewpoints and an increased heterogeneity.

On our YouTube channel, we subscribe to another organization’s channel by the name of Common Craft (leelefever). They are an organization that makes videos that breakdown seemingly complex matters – social media sites, twitter, rss feeds, zombies – in fun and approachable videos. In a way, they are expanding the audiences for the different tools and ideas, bringing more and more people into a dialogue that has usually been reserved for those with time and relevant experience to stay informed. The good folks over at Common Craft have actually posted a very timely video entitled “Electing a US President in Plain English”

It does an excellent job of streamlining a very complex and sadly misunderstood elective system, and what with all the talk from both candidates about making this election about you, the voter, and changing a complex system in Washington D.C., you’d think that they would find this video and the larger issue of media literacy quite in-line with their campaigns’ goals. Well, we at the LAMP are patiently waiting.

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Special and exclusive invitation

Friday, September 19th, 2008

You are cordially invited to celebrate OneWebDay this weekend in NYC.

*The goal of OneWebDay is to focus attention on a key internet value (this year, online participation in democracy), focus attention on local internet concerns (connectivity, censorship, individual skills), and create a global constituency that cares about protecting and defending the internet.  So, think of OneWebDay as an environmental movement for the Internet ecosystem. It’s a platform for people to educate and activate others about issues that are important for the Internet’s future.

We celebrate OneWebDay every September 22nd in locations all over the world.  This year, in New York City, festivities kick off on Saturday the 20th and culminate in the main event on Monday the 22nd.

**9/20 – 2-4pm – Educational Workshops* *

*
*Eight workshops to help you make the most of the web.  Located at NYU’s Courant Institute at 251 Mercer St., corner of W. 4th St.*

**How Wikipedia Works:* Mike Verilli will cover the basics of how and why Wikipedia <http://www.wikipedia.org/> is so successful, and how you can edit an article.

*The Open Video Project: *The purpose of the Open Video Project is to collect and make available a repository of digitized video content for the digital video, multimedia retrieval, digital library, and other research communities. Dean Jansen will walk you through the theory and practice behind this user-powered project.

*Creative Commons Licenses: *Fred Benenson will walk you through the Creative Commons <http://www.creativecommons.org/> licensing scheme and teach you how to share your work and protect it at the same time.
*

**Media Literacy — Breaking Ads with Digital Media – The LAMP: *We’re way past the age of only receiving one-way, top-down, corporate media messages. Today digital media and the Internet allow us talk back, interrogate, and re-create corporate-produced persuasive messages. In this session you’ll see commercials broken down to their persuasive essence, then re-created to reveal the truths left out. How are digital media and the web used to do it? Why would we want to do it? Is it legal? Find out here.**

*Citizen Journalism: *Mike Meyers of NowPublic.com will teach you how to get started as a citizen journalist.

*An Introduction to the Grassroots.org Web Builder: *Representatives from Grassroots.org <http://www.grassroots.org/> will show you how to build an effective web presence for your nonprofit in a single afternoon.

*SEO and Google Grants: *Kevin Lee will cover how and why search engine marketing is a critical tool for non-profits including some tips for both organic SEO best practices and how to maximize the return from your Google grant, as well as how to apply for a Google grant if you don’t have one.

*Understanding CRM for nonprofits and activists: *Develop an understanding of how/why online databases and organizing tools are game changers when it comes to lobbying, fundraising and communications. Presented by Charles Lenchner of Democracy in Action <http://www.democracyinaction.org/>.

**9/20 – 7-9pm – Tech Demos – The Latest Tools for Online Participation in Democracy**

Grassroots Web <http://web.meetup.com/27> and OneWebDay have teamed up to provide our own version of the New York Tech Meetup. We’ll be hosting 6 demos, all in tune with this year’s theme of online participation in
democracy. Here they are:

 - Speechology <http://www.speechology.org/>
- MixedInk <http://www.mixedink.com/>
- WorkInTown <http://workintown.com/wordpress/>
- Open Congress <http://www.opencongress.org/>
- Democracy in Action <http://www.democracyinaction.org/>
- Independence Year <http://iyear.us/>

The demos will be held in Room 101 at NYU’s Courant Institute, 251 Mercer St. at the corner of West 4th St. Please RSVP at http://web.meetup.com/27/calendar/8642107/

The demos will also be webcast at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/OWD
**9/20 – 9pm-midnight – Party!**

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