Media in the Classroom

How would I use media in the classroom? Who knows ... I honestly have no real answer for this question. I am not up-to-date on what books have been made into movies, what movies were inspired by books, and what is appropriate to use in a classroom. I feel as if I should have a way better answer for this question (especially after taking this class), but there is so much out there that I don't know where to start.

I know that I really want to incorporate media into my classroom. And I know that I want to do it in a very specific and engaging way. When I was a student, movies in the classroom often meant nap time. I want to find a way to use movies without putting my students to sleep. One way to do this is to use clips of a movie. If I only show five or ten minutes of a movie, students have little time to get bored. This will also force me to make sure that the clip I want to show is valuable to the class. If students want to see the entire movie they can rent it or stay after school to watch it.

Besides movies, I want to bring in music and other forms of media into my classroom. Music is such a vital part of everyday life, no matter who you are. It is almost impossible to go through a day without hearing music. Whether it is on the radio, mp3/CD player, on T.V., or in a store, music plays a part in life. I would like to explore music with my students. How does it influence them? What parts of music do they pay attention to? Is it related to reading or understanding a text?

Documentary

If I were to make a documentary about anything in the world, it would be about the lives of reality T.V. stars after they are no longer on T.V. (Let us write this topic off to the rash of reality T.V. that I have watched as of late. I am normally not reality T.V. fan, but once and a while it is fun to indulge myself.)

Once, when I lived in Boston, I was waiting for the T and I saw a cast member from MTV's Road Rules. My friend who I was with immediately recognized this person. Once it was noted that we (we meaning all of us waiting for the T) and small commotion was created. The Road Rules star was quickly encircled and buried with questions. What was it like to be on the show? How did it feel to watch yourself on T.V? Did they portray you accurately? What are you doing now?

These are all questions that MTV and other networks try to answer. They want their viewers to feel well informed about the shows that they are choosing to watch. They also want their viewers to feel good about the television choices that they are making. However, I do not feel as if we can trust what a company has to say about their own show.

I want to make a documentary about how being on T.V. really affects a "real" person. Are they able to find work afterwards? Does it affect their personal life? Their romantic life? How are things different from before? Is post production/stardom what they thought it would be? For how long do you get recognized? Were you fairly portrayed on T.V.?

A movie about me

I was poking around my hard drive and found a movie that I made for a class this past summer. I find it pretty entertaining, so I thought I would share.

Rainbow Church of Love

For class we were assigned to make a fake commercial. This is what my blog partner and I came up with.

News Broadcast

Chris, my blog partner, and I have been working together this week. Not only did we create a really cool fake advertisement (see Rainbow Church of Love), but we also needed to analyze a local news broadcast. To see the breakdown, minute by minute, of channel 5 news, please see Chris' post. To read my analysis, continue on my friend ...

I, like Chris, do not make it a habit of watching the local T.V. news. I get most of my information from a paper copy of the StarTribune in the morning, NPR throughout the day, and a smattering of news based websites (nytimes.com and startribune.com). Its not that I don't like the local news, its just that I have better things to do with my time.

The biggest downfall to televised news is that I am forced to learn about certain news storied in a certain order. Reading the news paper, or going on-line allows me to pick and choose the news stories that I am interested. I can also chose how in-depth I want to dive into each story. We live in such a fast paced world that I just can't justify wasting time with the local news.

Analyzing An Advertisement - I Admire Alliteration

Humor is something that works well in advertising ... at least it does for me. If an ad makes me laugh, there is a much better chance that I will remember it. Because I think that humor plays such an important role in effective advertising I have chosen a few humorous ads to analyze.

Scratch and win - The first ad that I found when I Googled "funny advertisement," was the Verizon Yellow Pages with the headline "Scratch and win." It took me a second to get what the headline was referring to (I was looking at a tiny version of the image), but once I got it I couldn't help but to laugh. This ad was a unique take a on an old phrase. It puts together two images that I am familiar with in an unfamiliar way.

This ad was posted in a subway station in New York City. Most people who saw the ad were probably passing quickly through the subway station. For an ad to be effective in this environment it needs to be big, easy to understand, and eye catching. "Scratch and win" meets these three categories, but goes above and beyond this. So often the same ad is posted over and over in subway stations. Repetition is what helps the ad stick in the consumer's mind. This ad uses humor to accomplish this feat. A commuter walking by this add will read it and laugh. Because they are laughing and engaging with ad they will be more likely to remember it later in the day. Humor helps make this ad effective.

BMW vs Audi - The second ad that I want to look at is for BMW. Upon first look, this ad appears to be for Audi. It mentions Audi in the first line of text leading the reader to assume the car is an Audi. After a more thorough reading of the ad, the consumer learns that the ad is really for BMW. BMW is poking fun at Audi for winning a lesser award than the one presented to BMW. The ad is effective because BMW is putting themselves above Audi. They are clearly telling the consumer that, "Audi is good, but BMW is better."

This ad makes me laugh for different reasons then the "Scratch and win" advertisement. This is funny for the same reason that many comics are funny, poking fun at someone is funny. Human nature draws us towards items that will lift us above others. We all want to be the best. BMW is making fun of Audi (in a humorous way) proving that they are better, and people will buy BMWs to prove that they are better than Audi owners.

Screaming Child - The last commercial that I want to look at is a T.V. commercial from France. I recommend watching this commercial before reading the rest of my post. At the beginning, it is unclear what this commercial is advertising. It was my desire to find out what the commercial was advertising that kept me watching until the very end. Throughout the commercial the tension between the child and the man continued to grow. You could see the man's discomfort building as the child continues to scream. The climax of this commercial comes at the end when the consumer learns that it is selling condoms.

This commercial is aimed towards the sexually active single male. In a humorous way it is letting guys know that they better use a condom or they are going to end up like the guy in the movie, thus ending their single male life that they have come to love so much.

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I am a little behind in my blogging. As of late, I feel like I hardly have time to breath. This post, which will be about Mockumentaries, will soon be posted.

UPDATE: It has been decided that Chris and I are going to do our final project on Mockumentaries. Therefore, I am going to defer this post to my final project. There will be a video posted later (on this very blog) and a website will be created. Links to the website can be found in a post closer to our final presentation. Get excited for it. It is going to be great!