FOOT: Cleveland Film Festival Experience: Crime After Crime

I went with Katie May and her mom yesterday to see the film Crime After Crime, and we all loved it! The movie is a documentary following the crime and retrial of Debbie. She was a battered woman accused of arranging her abusive boyfriend's murder for insurance money. WE learn throughout the movie that her case can be reviewed due to a new law in California regarding the reopening of possible victims of abuse. Debbie's case is reopened by a couple of volunteer lawyers in the hopes that her charges are dropped to voluntary manslaughter and she can be released having served the full term of 6 years for that charge. The film is a very emotional film with many instances of disappointment, sadness, anger and happiness.
This is not a film to be taken lightly.

There is no more showings of this film at the film festival; however, after the film we were able to talk with the director/producer who stated that it would be shown on the Oprah network in the near future. I highly suggest watching this film.

Overall this experience was wonderful with only a little trouble getting our pre-ordered tickets it was well worth the money and the drive. By the way... students get a discount if you buy your tickets there. It's nothing much, $10 instead of $12, but every little bit counts.

I believe this would have been a great film to discuss in the classroom. It would bring up great conversation and many important topics on society today. There was very little that would need to be edited for younger viewers and the film addresses many issues that some students may be going through. More about this in my next post regarding the film.

FOOT: You're Leaving a Digital Trail

This article truly freaked me out. I had actually just signed up for a study, much like the one they were discussing, before I had read this article. Privacy just doesn't seem as important to people today, especially if there is something in it for participating, like free food or money. But how far should we go in order to get free things and how open is too open? This article pairs well with I'm So Digitally Close To You, another article I have read. Both point out some of the great things, such as eliminating distance, and bad things, such as no privacy, about technology. Even with Dr. Pentland's opinion in the article assumptions are made about privacy and public rights that cannot be defended. Dr. Pentland says, "The idea revolves around three principles: that you have a right to possess your own data, that you control the data that is collected about you, and that you can destroy, remove or redeploy your data as you wish"(3). None of this is fully true about anything you put on the web, especially if someone else put's information about you on the web that you don't know about. You can't control what someone else posts or creates, usually you can't take it down without serious problems and sometimes legal help and finally others know things about you and can post this data so it's not yours. If all these things are true why do we continue to use things like Facebook and Twitter, because we need to feel connected. If privacy is the cost for that then so be it for many people.

This article made me think a lot about using the more technological stuff in the classroom. Using it could prove to be wonderful and could refresh many subjects students see as dry, but how do teachers protect students online and is the risk worth it? I believe the risk is worth it, but all precautionary measures must be taken. Passwords and private areas online for lessons are not enough. We need to make sure students lives at home and at school are completely separate. I admittedly don't know how to be completely safe, but will do everything in my power to protect my students. On the other hand, getting to paranoid about this issue could turn people away from using.(Oh look another line teachers have to straddle to be effective.) I guess knowing the risks may have to be enough for some for now until something better is developed. For now privacy is only an idea.

FOOT: IPads, Cellphones and Videogames

Okay so I have to group these articles together because they all seem to share the idea that learning and reading is no longer, or should no longer be, efficient without the new technologies. I know that in this class we are learning about how to include much of the media talked about in these articles in our classroom, but it can't be everything. Sometimes holding the book your reading or the ability to analyze writing is the best part. There are too many people that I KNOW who can't honestly read or find meaning in what they do read, and most of these people are in college or already graduated! I am not saying don't incorporate these things into classrooms just watch how much. It is very obvious that media, other than books take up most of almost everyone's time. By teaching students these important skills with tangible literature we give them a tool for living safely and smartly. Many times the things we watch or play, maybe even read, simply pass time and are not often thought about outside of "I got that done." But if we make it interesting show proof to why things are important students will pick up on it. You have to be more creative than the media that surrounds everyone's life.
Publish or Parish
This article frightened me a great deal. I love books both in digital and hard copy forms. I don't want either to disappear. I think the main problem with the idea that bookstores and publishers are soon to be obsolete is in the consumers, maybe in the fact the consumers haven't been taught the value of such works. Few people really stop to think about what the piece is to the author or how much time and effort went into writing it. We are simply greedy consumers always wanting more of the best stories. If we can teach people the value of a book is the same of things such as films and movies the bookstores may not be closing. The biggest problem is the misunderstand of the worth of a book. The one point I agree with in this article, "To thrive,[Jobs believes], publishers have to reimagine the book as multimedia entertainment." This is what has to be done in classrooms too, but not to replace books, we want to accompany books. We need to rethink how to use the book in different ways not become stuck on utilizing only one form. We can handle it.

I Heart Novels
This article honestly and simply appalled me. I understand the convenience behind writing on your phone on the go, but isn't that just rushing things? When I think of good literature I think of how much work was put into making them great. (Kinda like how Carol Jago, in her book Classics in the Classroom, shows that Poe simply didn't write poetry on the fly.) Good writing takes work, and typing something offhand on your phone isn't the type of work I see making good literature. If you do write a novel this way there has to be editing and some writing done off the phone to make it good. Phones just don't make good writing utensils. Take a look at what texting has done to language in speach and writing! I can't talk to many of my friends without hearing "Oh my God!" or "BTW." What ever happened to full words? And in my opinion this is changing the way we view things such as the value of books or even an education. The question from students is always, "Why can't they just talk like me?" My question to students is, "Why can't you talk like them?" The answer I have seen most in my short period of experience is, "It's too much work. I'm not smart enough." We have to encourage students to see value in what they do and who they are and I don't think writing on the fly will help them see what potential they really have on its own.
Video Games in the Classroom
Ah, a refreshing idea but will student really get out of it what we want them too? I believe every experience is a learning experience, even if the experience is playing a video game, but making the classroom "resemble a typical American living room or a child’s bedroom or even a child’s pocket, circa 2010" may be taking it a bit far. Don't get me wrong I love video games and many people work to make them great pieces of literature. (A game can't be great without a good storyline and a conflict.)
I like the idea of utilizing video games in the classroom, but we must be very careful that the lessons we want to teach are taught. Just like movies video games can't be rewards or time passers, at least not without some outside meaning. The biggest problem I see with this becoming a reality in most classrooms is funding and school board permission. Not many people are going to see this as a possible learning tool, and are going to need a lot of time and convincing to allow video games in class. Then just like with movies there will be bunches of parental problems with ratings and content of the video games. Is this something that is useful enough to be worth it?

Overall, I think technology will soon run much of the classroom. But as it takes over we must not forget why/how things were done so we can prove the worth of anything for a student to learn. If we can't do that sooner or later students won't need us to teach them anything.