Media Specificity

Lord Voldemort takes Pinterest.

https://www.pinterest.com/lord_v/

I had a lot of fun with this assignment. At the beginning I was rather nervous because it seemed so dauntingly difficult, but as I started thinking and talking about it I got excited. Initially, I wanted to make an Instagram account for You-Know-Who, but I started to realized that taking and finding pictures of everything in Voldemort's world wouldn't really help me learn anything new. I decided to make a Pinterest account instead because Pinterest is the medium I use least intentionally. When I am on Pinterest I don't worry about what people will think or what I am saying about myself, I just pin. It was really interesting to pin with a specific intention. I knew how I wanted to portray Voldemort and I just sought to do that. I would say that my Voldemort account pokes fun at Pinterest. I created the standard boards and used them to make a point about a character. The process really made me think about the messages we send through Pinterest and how we portray ourselves there, even though we usually use Pinterest very casually.

I think that this media specificity could be very effective as a character analysis assignment. It helps students to make choices that demonstrate their understanding of a character, but it also helps them to consider the character in a different situation. I think to make the assignment more text based I would include a written piece that justified their choices with evidence from the text. I think that this assignment would be particularly useful for texts that are rich in character development.

Six-word Memoir

raised in the rain we were

The process of creating a six-word memoir was rather difficult for me. I only had six words to summarize my existence! I felt like I had to pick something that would somehow capture the entire essence of my being. Turns out that it just can’t be done in six words. Once I realized that I could not come up with some grand, sweeping statement that would embody me, I began to make a list of things about me. The list felt really generic to me and so I decided to get more specific. I ended up deciding to focus on how the rain has affected my life as a Washingtonian. In Washington rain is everything and I love my state. It has defined so much of who I am. I chose to use this specific picture because it is a picture of my brothers and I at the beach in our rain gear. You can’t tell because it is the photo of a photo, but my brothers and I are standing against a rock that is covered in starfish and sea urchins. I feel that the rain gear in the context of the beach shows how accustomed we are to the rain. Usually people associate the beach with warmth, sun tanning, and swimming, but we are happy just to enjoy it in the rain. Typical Washingtonians.

I really liked this assignment. I think it would be a great assignment to use at the very beginning of the year to help the students introduce themselves to the class. I like that it allow students to open up as much or as little as they want. They get to choose what aspect of their lives they focus on and how much they want to reveal. This would be good at the beginning of the year because the students might still be adjusting to me and to each other. I also like that this assignment forces students to be concise; they have to focus on the main point and express it in only six words. I feel like that requires some serious critical thinking about what is most important.

My Personal Media Consumption

            I would not consider myself the most media savvy person, but, like everyone else, media has become a huge part of my daily life. In the days before the smart phone, my media usage consisted mostly of a few Facebook checks a day and whatever news happened to show up on the Yahoo home page, but now I am surrounded by media. My phone is constantly updating and keeps me connected to everything. My personal media consumption is centered on a few social media sites: Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. I access those media sites many times each day. They help me to feel connected to my friends near and far. The amount I use each particular site depends on how my current friends are using them. Before my mission most of my friends used Facebook to connect, but now I have found that it has become less popular and more of my friends use Instagram and Snapchat so I have begun to spend more time with that media. My mission also changed the way that I value social media. I now have hundreds of friends who live in Italy. Social media is the only cost effective way that I can stay in contact with them and so I have begun to use it more to stay connected with my Italians. Beyond social media that helps me stay connected to my friends I also follow the occasional blog (shout out to the Rockstar Diaries), watch Friends reruns religiously, and read the highlights of the news on my phone.

            With access to so much media it can be hard to decide what to view and how to use it. Honestly, I have never taken time to determine exact standards for myself, but I use the same principles that guide the rest of my life. As with choosing what movies to watch and what music to listen to, I try to choose media that uplifts, entertains, and makes me happy. If I feel like something is degrading or drives that Spirit way I turn it off. For example, when someone posts things on Facebook that make me uncomfortable I remove them from newsfeed. I also try to avoid using forms of media that take up too much of my time and do not help me to interact with others or stay informed. I know that lots of people use Twitter. My best friend is a Twitter queen and has made many friends because of it. However, for me Twitter has always seemed too time consuming. I have a slightly obsessive personality and know that I would spend way too much time on it, so I have simply decided to avoid it.

            I know that it is becoming increasingly popular to use media in the classroom. I think that it is something that can be incredibly engaging and can help students feel more involved. In many of my classes at BYU we use blogs or conversations on Digital Dialog to connect and to discuss issues with what we are studying. I have found that to be very useful. Often I will say things online that I was not willing to share in class. This helps me to feel more connected and improves my learning. However, I can see a few drawbacks. Sometimes those posts begin to feel like a chore because they are so regimented. There are weeks when I don’t have anything to say, but I still have to post. I don’t want students to feel that the media we use in class is a burden.