Sexual Identity

The media portrays a person’s sexual identity in many ways through television, books and magazines. There are many TV shows that tell you its better to be straight while there are some television shows that tell you its okay to be gay. Shows such as Will and Grace show you the life of gay men who go through dating issues and relationship issues just like a normal straight couple. Will and Jack are both gay however Jack’s character is portrayed as the queen while Will’s character is more of a man. Also on the talk show Ellen, Ellen is gay and she is very open about her sexual identity because she wants her audience to know and understand there is nothing to be ashamed of no matter if you are straight or gay. Ellen teaches people to be proud of whom they are and to never be ashamed or try to hide any part of you. As well, in magazines there are often boy and girl couples featured in ads which shows young children the norm is to be straight and that there is something wrong with you if you like someone your own gender. I think teachers and parents should be supportive of any child who is straight or gay and help them embrace their sexual identity rather than be ashamed of it.

click here if you need any answers or help dealing with being gay

Internet Suicide

Internet suicide is becoming a big concern for many people today because using the Internet makes it a lot easier to commit suicide. All you need to do is search "how to commit suicide" into a search engine on the Internet and many different ways come up. There have been many suicide incidents where someone has committed suicide on their web cam as viewers watched.  Another way the Internet can be influential towards suicide is the types of music that teenagers download and hear on websites can persuade someone to kill themselves. Heavy Metal Music is known for acting as promoter of suicide among vulnerable adolescents and there are many websites that play music that have lyrics with suicidal tendencies that put the idea of suicide in teenager's heads. There are also websites on the Internet that glamorize suicide and make it seem like a joke. This could make it hard for teens to distinguish between a joke and what is real and therefore these sites should not be up and running on the Internet. I think it is important for teachers and parents to monitor what there students and children do on the Internet. As well, teachers need to help their students differentiate between an informative website on suicide and a negative ones such as the sites that glamorize it. 

Editing a video

For the next assignment in Media, Technology in the classroom you need to be able to edit a video. I'm really excited to learn and figure out different ways to put a video together with my group members. This will be my first video i have ever made using imovie on a Mac computer and I am really interested and excited to see the different transitions you can use to make your video better. My group members are Madison, Jaclyn and Hailey and together we picked a social issue that we are going to show in our movie and present to the rest of the class. I am really excited to see everyone else's movie in the class and to see all the different ways people put together their movies. This is my favorite assignment so far in t he course because I’m eager to use a video camera and go around campus and Montreal filming different people and things I will be able to tell after making this movie if I have good editing skills or if I will have to improve and continue to practice to edit. I am looking forward to working with my group on this project.

Slumdog Millionaire

In class today we watched the movie Slumdog Millionaire. We discussed in the class how  In class today we watched the movie Slumdog Millionaire. We discussed in the class how India, the men and women are portrayed in the movie. I think India is portrayed in the movie as very poor and the movie makes it look like everyone who lives in India lives in the slums. Although, I have never visited India I have heard that the movie gives an accurate picture of what it is really like there. India is a very poor country, and a lot of people really live in the slums and the only way people can survive is to steal and cheat.  As well, in the movie men are portrayed as more powerful and stronger than women. The movie portrays women as the weaker gender because the main girl named Latika, goes through many hard times throughout her life. Someone she trusts rapes her and men use her for many different things throughout her life. The move makes you feel bad for the main character, Jamal, when they are questioning and attacking him for knowing the answer to the game show "Who wants to be a millionaire". The police do not believe he could know the answers to the questions because Jamal has no formal education, has been a career their as a child and is from the slums.  However throughout the movie Jamal proves the from life experience he knows every answer to the questions that he was asked. Slumdog Millionaire is one of my favorite movies because i think the acting, and directing were done really well.  I really enjoyed seeing this movie and can't wait for it to come out on DVD. 

Medica Ecology, Technology Planning, And Technology Integration

Yesterday in my media, technology and education class we discussed chapters 4&5 in the book Rethinking Thinking Technology in Schools. In these chapters it discusses media ecology, technology planning, and technology integration, which I found to be very interesting. I think it is very important to understand the impact technology has on families, government and education.  Technology is never used without it having some kind of negative or positive impact on people.  As a teacher you need to be aware that of all the consequences of using technology in the classroom and parents also need to be aware of the consequences technology can have on your children. Media ecology looks into the matter of how media of communication affect human opinions, understandings, feelings, and values. Technology planning is crucial because this process will help minimize technology-related problems, and by planning you avoid wasting time in the classroom on figuring out how to use the technology and what to do with it. The last topic I am going to discuss in this blog is integrating technology into the classroom. This means to use technology successfully and efficiently in the classroom.  As a teacher you need to educate your students on the proper ways to use computers in the classroom and ways to use it to it benefits them.  As well, when teaching a lesson you need to use PowerPoint or smart boards in a way that is useful for the class to learn. When your integrating technology you need to make sure it is being used in the best way possible and that the lesson runs smoothly.  

Power Point and Smart Boards

Today in class we discussed how to use smart boards and how to make PowerPoint presentations. We went through how to use them and the different features on both programs. Smart boards are a really good technological advancement for the classroom because it's an interactive whiteboard which allows the students to be more involved and more engaged in the lesson.  The smart boards work on projectors and computers so any one that is capable of using a computer can use a smart board.  You can use the smart board for teaching geometry lessons because it is really easy to draw shapes and you can get students to come up and measure them or draw their own. PowerPoint presentations is also a good tool to use for a lesson however, the teacher needs to make sure they don't put too much writing on the slides because then the students get bored and unfocused when the teacher is just reading right off the slides.  Also, you can upload videos from youtube onto the PowerPoint and use cool transitions to keep the students focused and engaged. 

 

Talk Shows

Oprah

In a recent class we talked about different talk shows on television. The main talk show that we discussed was Oprah and how she influences many people all over world. Oprah has a lot of power to do good things with her money and often uses it to help people. Unlike on other talk shows, Oprah doesn't only have celebrities on her show who are trying to promote their movies, she also has real people come and educate her audience on real issues. In her spare time she's been helping children in poverty get an education by building and opening a school for young children to attend. I think Oprah does a lot to help people and she is really making and difference and an impact in many lives all over the world. She is a role model for people to look up to because she is constantly helping others out and drawing attention to important social issues that many people may not be familiar with.