Digital Story Challenges

One of the biggest challenges I faced with this digital story project was the digital side of it. I have never had much experience with making movies nor working with Windows Movie Maker. I had to learn the ropes in using this program, as well as how to make it all look nice. I was challenged in getting down the timing of the pictures and when to put them to match up with the narration, but after a while I was able to get it all down. Another challenge I faced was actually trying to come up with a topic. I wanted to pick one that had meaning to me and that I could easily research and enjoy working with. This immediately knocked out any current events, as I hate politics as well as "mainstream" stories like the War on Terror, Abortion, and thing like that; I prefer to stay away from them. All in all at the end of the project I was very satisfied with my work and felt accomplished.

The Value of Digital Stories

I'm just going to jumpt right into this one. I definitely feel that digital stories have a big meaning inside the classroom and in academics, but I feel that their value is exponentially greater outside of the classroom. Whenever we are in class and the professor says, "Now let's watch a video explaining this." everyone gets excited for one reason or another. Some look forward to it because they don't have to listen to the professor rant anymore, and others use it as a nap time. I personally enjoy videos in class because it livens and changes things up from the norm. Anyway, I feel that digital stories have a great value in the classroom. They are a great way to teach people a valuable lesson in a different form other than lecturing or taking notes. It is also a way for the creator of the story to teach about the subject while also including their emotions and thoughts on thr subject. It gives them a way to express their feelings on the subject. Many valuable lessons can be learned from digital stories, along with some fun topics being shared. Not all digital stories are meant for educational purposes, which is why I feel that digital stories have a greater value outside of the classroom. In my own opinion (not stating fact), I feel that movies are digital stories, especially documentaries. Movies are essentially the writer, director and producer telling a story to the audience in a little bit of an exaggerated form. Even so, there are some excellent educational movies out there. One of my all time favorite movies, 12 Angry Men, is a prime example. This has come to be known as one of the greatest films ever made, and it is very educational. It gives the viewers and inside look on the duties of a jury, but it also teaches the audience a very valuable lesson in tenacity and sticking to your views. All in all, I feel that digital stories are valuable both inside and outside of the classroom and should be harnessed more for their value.

So, What Have We Learned?

Throughout the past two weeks and all of the readings we have done, I have come to a realization of what kind of writer I am. I have come to the conclusion that I am an honest writer with some flaws, but these flaws simply include the daily struggles that every other student writer possesses. Most of these flaws can be pinpointed to my technique, or the somewhat lack thereof. Throughout all of high school I never really had a set process or technique that I utilized when writing, but I never felt that my writings really suffered from it. People always blame the flaws of their writing on their high school teachings, and I am no different. It's not necessarily my high school's fault, as I did essentially set myself up for failure by not choosing a class that could better my writing skills. However, I am pleased with the education I received and have no regrets.
When considering the whole idea of cheating, I feel that I have no worries in that category either. I always make sure to leep my eyes on my own paper, and feel that I should only receive credit for the work that I myself do, so why bother cheating. In the perspective of plagiarism being a form of cheating, I feel I do equally as well, or atleast I try to. If at any time I have plagiarized, it has been because I have not known that citation was needed or required. I never intend to steal someone elses work and using it as my own as I simply feel that this is not fair or right. I would never want someone to do that with my work, so why do it with theirs?
All in all, I feel that I have learned alot about myself as a writer over the past few weeks and have built a sort of confidence in myself and my writings that I never had before.

Fact or Fiction: Cheating and Not Caring About Work

In one of the readings we had to do this week, the author explains how he went to a college library and saw multitudes of students "working" on research papers. He observed most groups socializing and occasionally focusing on the work, simply by copying down a paragraph from a textbook. I quite honestly found this a little disturbing. Not only that these students were outright plagiarizing and not giving two craps about the assignment, but also that this author now has the perception that all students take part in this. I personally feel that this is quite unfortunate, because this is far from the truth. I know personally that I have never experienced this first-hand, and I am willing to bet that a lot of other students here at JMU haven't either. This may be true for some high school students who just want to get out of high school already, but that is it. Most students feel compelled to get the assignment accomplished in the best way it can be and do their own work.
In the other reading, the author explains students' views on cheating in school. Most students feel that cheating is wrong and don't participate. Majority of these students also felt that they had never cheated in their lives. Had they? It all depends on what your personal view on what cheating specifically is. Some students will view cheating as simply copying someone's answers on a test or quiz. However, some people view it as a much broader term. When you do your homework with a friend, is that cheating? When you get outside information to use on an essay and don't cite it, is that cheating? This has become a very controversial topic in recent years and will continue to be in latter generations. I personally feel that cheating has only become more common in my generation, whether students realize they are doing it or not. I think that the author got some very important information in her writing and takes a very interesting side on the topic.

Does Speaking Help?

Does reading a paper aloud to peers help you out? I certianly believe so, but I never would have thought so before today. In all honesty, I had never read one of my papers aloud before unless it was a speech or presentation. I found this to be extremely helpful and will probably end up doing this for most of my papers from here on out. It helps me to not only review what I have written, but also to hear what the paper may sound like when others are reading it. I must admit that when writing a paper for school I usually tend to not proof read it or read over it before handing it in. It's just a routine of mine as whenever I am finished with an assignment I like to just be done with it for good. If I am writing a piece that requires drafts, I will write the draft and save it. The hatred that I had for writing in high school only fueled me to not check my papers and just and them in as written and un-checked. It will be hard to break this trend, but I feel once I do it will be beneficial as I will be able to catch mistakes in the paper that spell check would not be able to identify otherwise.

Finding Sources

Source #1: Clopfer, Eric, Scot Osterweil, Jennifer Groff, and Jason Haas. "Using the Technology of Today, in the Classroom Today: The Instructional Power of Digital Games, Social Networking, Simulations and How Teachers Can Leverage Them." Mit.edu. 2009. Web. 2 Feb. 2012. http://education.mit.edu/papers/GamesSimsSocNets_EdArcade.pdf.

In this article, these four authors make the case that social networking is helping mold how students communicate and is better preparing them for the real world and how people truly communicate in the business world. They go on to say that although students can still learn a valuable lesson without these new technologies, it is better to get them used to the way that the outside world approaches socializing. They also go on to explain how multiple middle and high school teachers have used digital games to help educate their kids. These instructors explain their stories and how these games have made it easier and more fun for the kids to learn the specific subject at hand.

I believe this source is a great one and I plan on using it in my paper. It gives excellent data as well as feedback from instructors who have used it first-hand on their students and find that it works. I also believe that it is a reliable source, being that it comes from the Massachusetts Institution of Technology, which is a very reputable source.

Source #2: "Effects of Technology on Classrooms and Students." U.S. Department of Education. Web. 02 Feb. 2012. http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/EdReformStudies/EdTech/effectsstudents.html.

In this article, the author explains how technology in its entirety is helping out students in the classroom. As opposed to being subjected to the usual lecture that the instructor gives to the student, it is helping the student interact and make it a more hands-on learning experience for the student. The article held a survey of teachers who used technology in their classrooms and it was almost a unanimous agreement that it helped the students to solve more complex assignments. The article also goes on to state how technology increases the peer-to-peer interaction, as students are looking at their classmates' work and commenting on it and giving advice.

I found this article to be even more helpful than the first, as it gives more reason to why technology in general is good for a classroom setting. It goes in depth explanation of how it specifically helps the students out in specific areas on learning and how instructors can utilize it. It is also from a very reputable source, as it comes from the United States Department of Education.

tehcnology doesnt effect my writing, rite?

Clive Thompson wrote an article describing how he felt that the "New Literacy" that was up and coming in this generation was not as detrimental as many think it is. Most people believe that in this generation, my generation, technology is taking over how we write and communicate with each other. One John Sutherland describes our writing as, "bleak, bald, sad shorthand." I could not disagree more with Sutherland's accusations.

I know that these accusations are false. I am a teenager/young adult who grew up in the age of technology and instant messaging. I never once used “txt” language in a formal writing for school. Once I moved past the 6th grade, I never even used “txt” language to begin with. Not on instant messaging, not on Facebook, or anything like that. I feel that it looks extremely sloppy and lazy, as well as it shows that you have no patience to write out a full word. If you are too lazy to write out the word “you” and instead resort to “u”, you need some serious motivation because that is only two extra letters you need to type. I believe that technology may have only made us smarter in the sense that we are now exposed to more writing and rhetoric than ever before. We have a spell-check in Word which helps us remember how to correctly spell words, we have all of these online articles being published by professionals who know what they are doing so we are exposed to how they write, which is always correct. It is simply a stage of life that most kids go through around 5th-6th-7th grade. They get lazy and think they are cool when they type “how r u” or “nmjc” instead of “hey how’s it going?” or “I’m good man, how about you?” Once they move on from that stage, usually by high school, they realize how stupid it looks and how immature they sounded. I would know, because I was one of those kids.

The claims that Thompson is making are quite accurate in my opinion. Thompson argues that technology is helping kids these days to write better and more often. In earlier generations, you would never see people writing other than for school or if it was their profession. Nowadays, you see people writing in blogs such as these, or just for recreation. They write for an audience which can play a very pivotal part in their writings. One thing I know for sure is that Mr. Sutherland could not be more wrong on this one.

Rhetorical Situation and All of it's Friends

The ASPCA is the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Have they convinced you to donate yet? Every time one of these commercials comes on the TV, I can't help but feel awful for these poor animals. They have been left behind and beaten by their ownersm but ASPCA is giving them a home.

The audience of this ad can really be anyone, but mainly people that love animals, specifically dog lovers. The ASPCA is targeting these people with just a small portion of the dog's face, but thats all they need. The sad eyes that appear to be slightly beaten will get all the repsonse they need from these people. The purpose is quite obvious, which is to get people to donate to this organization in order to provide a home for these animals. The exigence here is the cruelty that animals suffer from their owners. These people abuse, beat and may not even feed their pet cats and dogs, leaving them to die. The ASPCA does an excellent job of supporting these animals, as they have over 1 million members that are apart of their foundation.

There are three main components of selling an ad to the audience. Pathos, Logos and Ethos. Pathos is the component that appeals to the audience's emotions, be it anger, joy, sympathy, and so on. In this ad we can clearly see that they do a good job of appealing to our emotions. People who have even the slightest liking towards dogs will be affected by this ad. The infamous "puppy eyes" tug at our hearts and really get us feeling sympathetic. For those not affected by this, the text will get the rest of us. "Her life is in your hands." Could you feel worse about seeing this and not doing anything about it. Most of us will probably see this ad and move on with life feeling bad, but man, having the feeling that the poor dog's life is in your hands? That's some heavy stuff. The next component, Logos, is the reasoning, or logic, behind the piece. This ad once again does an excellent job ob portraying logic. It makes complete sense to donate to this organziation, and that these animals need our help. Clearly this dog has been beaten and mistreated, so it makes sense to help them out. In some of their other ads, the ASPCA shows a malnourished cat, or a cowering dog in a cage. It's quite logical to donate to this foundation and help the animals out. The third and final component is Ethos, which is the credibility of the writer or in this case, the foundation. With the ASPCA logo there on the bottom, it only encourages you to check out their website and convince you of their legitimacy. As mentioned before, they do have over 1 million members of their foundation, so it would seem that it is a credible and legitimate foundation. They mean business and take it very seriously.

Am I trying to sell you on the ASPCA and to donate? Absolutely not, but it is for a good cause. I myself have not donated to the ASPCA but I completely understand and respect everything they stand for. I hope this has helped you to further understand how companies advertise themselves and the meaning of rhetorical situation, Ethos, Pathos and Logos.

Thanks for reading!

My Writing Process...If That's What You Would Call It

I have always felt that my writings could be better in some way. I have never developed a true writing process, but I don't think it’s time that I did. 95% of the time when I need to write something, whether it be a paper, response, or even a blog like this, I don’t sit down and plan what I will write. If I am writing a five page essay for an exam, I will then take the time to sit down and generate one, but other than I rarely make one. I usually feel it is best to just sit down at the computer and write freely what comes to my mind about the subject at hand. However, this does not mean that I am a one-and-done guy; I like to break the work up and pace myself. 

               After I have finished with all of the writing, I will then go back and re-read what I have written and then be done with it. I prefer not to use so much time on planning what I could be writing when I could actually be writing and letting my mind run. I feel that I write best when I am letting it all flow from my head at the moment, instead of basing it off of some notes I had written down. I feel that if I did that, I would be limiting myself and my brain in what I could create, as opposed to simply writing whatever I think of and then checking it over afterwards. I think this process works out for me pretty well most of the time, as long as I have a decent knowledge of the topic I am writing on. If the subject is one I am not too familiar with, I will research it, take some notes, and then let my mind do the rest. One of the biggest problems I have with writing in general is not having a true sense of how to properly write a well-constructed paper. I never took a legitimate English class in high school, so I never had the training of writing a “three-point paper” or anything like that. I feel that for not having taken any legitimate classes that I am a pretty good writer, but there is always something to improve on.