Getting to the half way mark (already!) it's only proper to ponder about the possible improvement a person can attain through media education. I myself have been empowered.
1. After studying media for eight weeks in Contemporary Media Issues, what have I learned?
Being familiar with the power tools from past classes, Mass Media & Society as well as Electronic Media Writing, the new reading materials were definitely the most effective at enlightenment. I've reinforced my ability to critically analyze media texts and understand where our technology comes from (the radio as a product of social traditions, for example).
2. What is the most important thing I have learned about myself as a critical reader, a writer, and a thinker in class so far?
Tapping Nicholas Carr, the way I've adapted to absorbing information has changed my ability to soak up a lot of dense material without focusing and possibly straining, but with the power tools' guidance it has become easier to pin point and contemplate deeper meanings.
3. What's one thing I would do differently if I were to repeat this first semester?
I would do my media meditations in a more timely fashion (still time to change that, eh?) and apply the power tools that aren't as commonly used. It's a lot easier to pick out the Humor persuasion being used, but sometimes recognizing, say, Cardstacking, can be more difficult. The greatest value and knowledgeable gain must come from utilization of every power tool as much as possible. Working towards that is what I would and am changing.
4. What's one thing I would like Dr. W to do differently if the first semester were to repeat itself?
There wasn't a lot of blogging discussion in class. That's a big change from the last two classes (MM&S, EMW). I would've liked more attention to our blogging assignments, but that seems to be on the way this class. Perhaps its the method, which seems to be: Read a text and blog about it in sections. Then, talk about it in a week, a few weeks, however long. I definitely like the idea of reading these texts independently and blogging about them to show that we've read them and are thinking about what was read, but the absence of any immediate discussion in class keeps that independence at a high. That's fine with me, but I would prefer discussion as I'm reading the texts.
5. Here are my thoughts on the usefulness of our various in class materials.
Power Tools: They remain an invaluable set of tools that I use consistently in class and even outside of class in my own considerations and analyses. They've given me easier routes to contemplative thought and raise questions that can spark up a conversation, be it an inner debate or a friendly discussion.
Quizzes: The key to reinforcing the usage of the power tools, the quizzes give opportunities to apply our media educated minds to a variety of texts and confirm that we are thinking about media in the same way as our peers. Deeping meanings can be actively considering through applying the power tools to our various media texts during the quizzes.
Here's one of the most eccentric videos we applied the tools to:
Course Blog: An awesome way to keep up with the expectations and is also a great visual additions, rather than staring at a week-by-week syllabus schedule.
Personal Blog: Always a joy. The customization is so much fun and so often absent from the every day homework assignment. It is neat to have a cache of all the work done each semester. Looking at all of it at the end of the semester is enriching and exciting. I re-read my EMW blog and it was an enjoyable read. It allowed me to really read my own writing in a similar way I would read another's writing. The assignments from the start were inherently foggy, so it wasn't as though I was dreadfully familiar with what was written.
Films: I never know what to expect, but they are always one, some, or all of these: Entertaining, relevant, and enlightening. Real Bad Arabs, for example, was relevant and enlighteneing. Entertainment didn't seem to be the goal of that documentary, so there's no questioning its absence of entertaining bits.
Books: FEED was a great pick. It was an enjoyable novel on its own, but it also related so heavily to the themes being taught in class. The jargon was great and the ideas conveyed were powerful and relevant to what was going on. It had the ideas of a text book but the enjoyability of a novel.
Postman: My favorite. It was very enlightening and really got me thinking about media as a whole and how information is portrayed to me, as an American. It provided ample opportunities for disagreement but also provided ample segments of insightful and satisfying material that changed how critical of the news, and television as a whole, I am.
Media & Society: 'lot o' good information in that book. Almost the textbook version of FEED, it touched on so much about media. The most informative bits to me were about the considerations of the different aspects of life technology effects. Learning about, and coming up with key concepts for, the social forces that have driven technological usage was one of the most engaging assignments of the year.
The Google Dumb/Smart Articles: Cascio and Carr raised great ideas about Google and the nature of the interent. While I don't agree with the severity of the situation (I can read three paragraphs on a blog no problem, I don't know how much that other guy in Carr's article was on the internet, but come on) I felt that the ideas were greatly powerful and mightily thought provoking. When I'm on the internet now I try to notice how much I retain and how much I don't. That's made me retain more and more.
So far I'm more than satisfied with the class and am impressed by the lack of over lap, even though I've taken two classes that seem very similar. Bravo, Dr. W!
Useful midterm reflections, Ted.
ReplyDeletePoor lad - to have to suffer through a 3rd class with me.
Indeed, while there is some overlap, in terms of the "power tools" as foundation, I hope you are appreciating that each class has a different focus and intent.
Feed the fish!
Dr. W