Use of Renewable Sources in EU (INFOGRAPH)

The use of Infographics is a great tool to be able to show your findings adding maps and videos. The use of having all of the pertinent explanation in only one site makes the user understand better. Our students can develop their IB profile by enhancing their communicator trait with the use of infographs. This is a great way to post the information on a research project or laboratory practice, where they had to produce their own data.

Magazine Cover

Cover designers capture customer's attention by putting catchy or controversial content on the cover.

Here is an example:

The publisher is Best Friend magazine

The intended audience is all the people who cherish friendship regardless or their age (teens and up).

The cover is appealing because it displays an old picture from 1954 and states that someone found this person who used to be their BFF and somehow lost contact with them. Most likely a touching story. Headlines and colors are set to attract the consumer. Two adjectives to describe the picture in the cover are serious but happy. The idea that is being tried to communicate is to know that BFs are forever. 

Misleading Media

Everyday we are in contact with media and ads that might influence the way we look at things. Media is a powerful source that will tell you how to think and what to believe. Therefore, we need to become media literate, developing our ability to be critic. There are three things that are commonly portrayed in media that might influence us; these are: representation, stereotypes and  bias.

A representation is the way the producer shows reality. They do not open a window to reality, they represent it, showing the things they want us to focus on. For example, in the ad below we can see that a person who has aged is represented as very old and extremely wrinkled, a mummy. This image is a representation and an exaggeration. You may probably feel this way about your skin. Therefore, you feel attracted to the article and try to solve your skin wrinkles. We need to be critic about what is being represented and not get influenced about how things are being depicted.

Stereotypes according to the Oxford Dictionary is a  widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing:sexual and racial stereotypes. For example, when you think of a banker, you would normally picture him as wealthy. If you pictured a librarian, you would think of a very thin, quiet, serious looking person who wears glasses. However, not all librarians are skinny, or serious or wear glasses and not all bankers are wealthy. Therefore, media has been feeding us through out our lives with certain images that fix a particular characteristic on something or someone. For example, on the picture shown below we can see a group of older ladies. The advertisement  stereotypes older ladies as being serious, drinking tea or coffe, having a pet and perhaps living all together in a home. This is clearly just a fixed image that society might have about grandmothers. 

The third type of influence that is shown commonly in media is bias. This is frequently shown in graphs in articles that try to show some statistics. However, they are usually biased or with tendency to make the reader agree with what the writer is saying. Most of the time they use graphs with pictures instead of numbers and these do not show the reality. Those graphs tend to exaggerate on the size of the picture to make it clearer, but at the same time it becomes biased. The real numbers are not shown. The picture below shows the sales between two years and the sales in 2001 is NOT really 6 times more.

Learning about media and how it works, as well as the characteristics of it shown above will allow us to be more critic and able to have our own thoughts on things. Students should be shown how to appreciate and assess media.

Codes in Media

It is important to teach students the importance of media codes because they have to be critical. They should know how to analyse things that are being presented to them to be able to take wise decisions on what they buy. In our specific case and lesson plan shown below, it is for them to be able to decide what is a healthy decision regardless of the colors and objects or lighting in the add. This is a lesson we should all know.

Technical Codes

Two Magazine Ads

 

The codes on the Sandwich Thins are:

Symbols- The green color shows relation with nature, being healthy
     The objects in it is a pack of cigarettes and a single one.
Written- Buzzwords are doctor, smoke and Camels
 Catch phrases- More Doctors Smoke Camels than any other cigarette!      
Technical Codes Jr.- Camera angle is from the front making them look serious, very     
                                    straightforward.
Framing and lighting to add on the seriousness.

The codes on Camels are:

Symbols- The color makes it look serious, being successful
     The objects in it are just the sandwich thins which are multi-grain bread
Written- Buzzwords are thin, diet, calories and select.
 Catch phrases it is an excellent source of fiber, with      
             only 100 calories each.
Technical Codes Jr.- Camera angle is from the top making them look smaller, maybe even
                                   thinner.
No framing and lighting is not too bright.

Two TV Ads-YouTube

Pepsi kick Mexico
In this TV ad we find that they use music and and catch words like “despierta”
Kellogg’s Corn Flakes
In this TV ad they use metal elements to imply strength, we can find the “you and only you” written code and the catchphrase: “You are what you eat”. They also use camera angles, framing and lighting to make the man look fit, healthy and attractive.Two Movie Title Sequence.

Codes on “Supersize Me”
This movie title sequence uses the kind of colors that make you think of food.

Codes on “Thank You for not Smoking”
In this example the main code is a catchphrase which is the inverse of something they’ve heard everywhere, plus the colors and elements.

Lesson on Codes in media

Objective- Students will learn to be critic with media and it’s relationship with their health and the decision making skills.

Materials- Worksheet, projector, computer links to videos (provided here) and adds (provided here).

1. Provide students with the attached worksheet.
2. Show them the YouTube videos, magazine ads and movie title sequences.
3. Instruct them that they will have to fill the chart provided as a worksheet. They have to look at them and explain how it makes them feel, if they would buy the product and why?
4. Let them watch and fill in the chart. Share as a class.
5. Have a class discussion about the main purpose of advertisement, they will probably answer: to sell a product.
6. Brainstorm about what kind of techniques media uses to sell a product, or get you to do or prefer something specific.
7. Tell students they will watch a video about how media creates adds that relate to us to convince us to buy or prefer, certain things.
8. They should now finish completing the columns in the chart that refer to codes.
9. Instruct them to write a reflection on how the selection of media they observed relates to their HEALTH.
10. Share as a class and wrap up by telling them the importance of being critic on everything they see on the media.

Name: ____________________________________ Date: _______________________

Reactions to Ads

	Sandwich Thins	Camels Cigarettes	Pepsi Kick TV Ad	Kellogg’s Corn Flakes TV Ad	Supersize Me Movie Title Sequence	Thank You for Smoking MTS
Do you find it attractive?
What does it make you think about?
Would you buy it?
Second View
What codes can you see?
Would you  buy the product now?
Reflection How does this add relate to your health?

The Importance of Book Covers

When we talk about books we normally center in the information or story we can extract from it, and although it is the most important part of a book, it is not the only one. Think about what you look at when you decide on buying a book. The first thing that will definitely attract your attention would be the cover. Is it appealing, does it show the story, is it the colors that you like, is it different? All of this questions might be some of the things you are looking for and that you most likely don't even acknowledge.

Book covers are a very important part of the process to get a book. A good book cover will show you the relationship with the story. Without telling you what the story is, just hinting. Another important characteristic of a good cover is that it will not show you an image and then beneath it state its name (apple picture and the word apple beneath). Readers are not dumb, they want to connect with the book, but not as obvious as that.

Fig. 1

A good example is the book "The Science of the Bottom Line"(see Fig 1.)  you see a brain divided in parts, which most likely you will connect to psychology or how a human thinks. There is also a half dollar sign showing that somehow money is connected. The title makes us think of bottom, therefore somehow it is the science of money? Once it grabbed your attention you can read it says: a behavioral economist reveals what you don't know about making money. Therefore, it was pretty close to what the book was about.

Another book cover that I consider to be good is the one of the book "Wide Awake"(see Fig.2). The cover shows a yellow clock which by the color already makes you stress a little and the time marked is 3:00, most likely a.m. and that definitely relates to being wide awake. That could relate to being an insomniac or being aware of what is going around you. If you take the book you can read it says a memoir of insomnia. 

Fig. 2

Last, but not least, is the book cover for "The Great Brain Suck"(see Fig. 3) which displays a swirl that gives the impression of being sucked, so let's say you are reading this, then of course you will experience that brain suck. The book describes a country whose citizens are losing their autonomy to a growing reliance on automation, and finds a solution to this modern materialism, hence the brain sucking. 

Fig. 3

*****For image references click on the figure caption.

New and Traditional Media

“New and Traditional Media,” Media and Information Literacy. UNESCO, 2011.

The way people communicate has changed through time, specifically by the improvement of ways to spread those ideas. Currently, the use of technology has not only influenced communication, but also interaction and information exchange. We were originally only exposed to traditional media, such as television, radio and news papers, but with the development of technology this has changed to a new media that includes, social networks, blogs, sites, twitter, among others. Both medias follow the same path, but the use of technology has made possible to more people to be not only informed, being just a consumer; but has made possible for them to post an opinion on different issues. Therefore, this way of communication allowed democratizing the ability to inform others by enhancing a participatory democracy. This has allowed people to participate in social, economical and political matters. It has also widened the area of interaction. The information posted can be accessed by anyone in the world.

Accordingly, teachers have also been influenced and can now share knowledge, get ideas or interact with other teachers around the world. This has powered the construction of tools for education and “teacher or student sites”. Regardless of all the benefits that are clear to the use of technology in class and with students, there is still much to be done. As teachers we have to make sure students learn that what they publish will have an impact, that not all the sites are reliable, that they have to be critic, to show them the tools to enhance their learning, authoring, among others.  Communication will continue evolving and students need to be prepared to face those changes and become a responsible link in new global media.

Taken from: http://www.123rf.com/photo_12186053_social-media-globe-the-development-of-global-communications.html royalty free

Visual Literacy Standars and the Use in the Classroom, a response to the article from ACRL Visual Competency

Burgess, J., Medaille, A. ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Association of College and Research Libraries. 2011 http://www.acrl.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/visualliteracy.pdf

Education is always changing in order to fit social needs. Currently, our society is highly visual and has allowed almost anyone to create visual media. However, being able to be in contact with all of that information does not mean that people are critical about what they are looking at. There is a need for teaching people these skills, especially with a visually oriented global society.

Students are expected to use visuals and most of the time it is taken for granted that they will use them appropriately. However there is a strong need to prepare students on also doing research, interpretation, analysis and evaluation of these visual materials. Showing them about visual information etiquette is also a need. Although there is a great need to teach this, there are no standards showing learning outcomes around visual literacy. The Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education has already determined that there is a gap and has provided tools for teachers meanwhile. As teachers we need to develop classes that meet social needs and even trends to help students be prepared.

We should learn to treat visual information not just as a picture or the extra, it is now an essential tool to learn and it is very powerful. In my classes I like to incorporate lots of visuals because in science and math having abstract ideas makes concepts difficult to understand. Once you make them part of their daily lives it becomes easier to understand and remember. However, I still believe there is a lot of work to be done, in my case I have to incorporate media and visual etiquette to my lessons.

According to the ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education having visual literacy incorporated in the classroom is a group effort. I agree with this idea, I believe that department and level teams should work having specific visuals incorporated in the curriculum just as it is done with the other information. This allows having better structure, organization and cross curricular information. At my school librarians are also a key point to develop this. There are several visuals and media provided by them that should be incorporated in the lessons. 

                                                

 Image taken from: 

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/creative-visualization-urban-legend/#axzz27AkHgbTB

Why do our schools need to embrace the innovations of visualization, a response to the article "Innovation Through Technology"

Lemke, C. “Innovation Through Technology,” 21st Century Skills: Rethinking How Students Learn. (2011) pp. 243 – 269.

Taken from: http://unswict.wikispaces.com/file/view/Creativity.jpg/289200309/314x246/Creativity.jpg

When we talk about integrating technology in education we should start by understanding why we need to do so. According to Cheryl Lemke’s Innovation Through Technology our students should be integrating technology into three different areas of innovation, visualization, democratization of knowledge and participatory cultures for learning. Every single one of them is important in developing 21^st century skills in our students. Our students need to be engaged and skillful teachers will be able to create a flow where students will be engaged and therefore continue their learning in a flow where they will build skills, be creative and acquire a certain expertise in the area. The use of these innovations will help the teachers and students create this learning flow. Students are exposed everyday to visuals and these are organized in our minds through different channels. Teachers should use technology to capitalize the power of visualization and should focus on building their visual literacy by engaging students into thinking critically and creatively about visuals, including advertisements and media. Students should also be able to communicate effectively with visuals and to become informed and critical consumers of information. Along with visualization comes the democratization of knowledge, where access to information has been available to more and more people everyday. The access not only to random information but also to innovative tools and instruction and education in different areas has been made more accessible to everyone with an Internet connection. This has democratized knowledge because it is no longer in the hands of those who can afford it but rather in the hands of whoever is willing to access it. The skill our students need to develop is to be able to sort out which information is valuable and to continue that drive for learning new things. With this access to knowledge, our world no longer works in an individual basis. More and more we are talking of cooperative and collaborative learning. We are now living in a culture of participation. Our students no longer observe a class, or just watch a video, but rather participate and enhance it by collaborating with their peers and learning in a cooperative environment. The use of technology such as Google docs and wikis provide our students with the perfect place to work together and cooperatively produce quality work.

In Middle School at my school we are motivating our students to collaborate in their work. Technology such as Google docs has allowed them to be able to work together with a common goal even if they can’t meet in person. Our projects are collaborative and cooperative, creating a natural flow for motivation, learning and sometimes reaching an area of expertise. Some of the challenges we have faced are having the tools to work cooperatively with technology. However, by implementing strategies such as the BYOT or BYOD (Bring your own device) we have been able use the technology that the students feel more comfortable with and are more successful with. I am sure we will be facing many other challenges but engaging the students and empowering them to work collaboratively to find solutions will always surface over any challenge. 

Taken from:

http://www.scoop.it/t/educational-technology-theory-practice