Comic Literacy

An apt story-telling moment from the awesome book that Orlando recommended, Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics.

It aint trite.

I couldn't sleep last night, so I decided to watch a movie I didn't want to see, and I learned about someone I didn't want to know about: Lynndie England.

"Big Storm: The Lyndie England Story"
a perfect copy online

As Language Arts teachers, we really do have to hear all voices.

I was wrong about her; she's smart, sweet, and introspective. It's actually a great documentary... not long, and it has some brilliant statements from Seymour Hersch and that General Karpinski lady who was in charge.
a Sundance channel description

You Lose Your Balance When the Sound Hits Ya

The other day--okay, several weeks ago-- one of you all asked me to share some information about Hip Hop, specifically the video of Elzhi from Slum Village talking about patterns in rhyming. I gathered a whole bunch of things that I've found on the innertubes that I've found to be useful in thinking about Hip Hop. If you're going to use Hip Hop in your class, it pays to have some knowledge, not to mention that I think a lot of this stuff is fascinating.

If you're a nerdy academic type, like me, you might want to start with this paper by Wayne Marshall, an ethnomusicologist. In it, he uses a message board posting by ?uestlove, the drummer from the Hip Hop band The Roots, to examine the history and musical impact of sampling, notions of musical authenticity in Hip Hop, and some elements of MCing. The paper is in a .pdf linked to that page.

If your interested in MCing, you might want to watch this video by Elzhi of the group Slum Village. It's fairly grainy and fairly cheesy, but you will get a chance to really hear the amount of internal rhymes, half rhymes, and rhymey rhymes employed in Hip Hop.

For more about MCing, you can check out this other paper by Wayne Marshall on Zunguzung, a vocal riff (sample?) that started out in Dancehall and then emigrated throughout Hip Hop. This post comes with musical examples, which might helpful.

Turning to beatmaking, there is a wealth of videos on youtube featuring producers working on beats, sampling, slicing, and so forth. You can find Just Blaze working on a beat. Pete Rock and several others. That first video is quite long and gets dull. The second one is shorter, but Pete Rock is a bit more taciturn that Just Blaze.

This post by Michealangelo Matos at Oliver Wang's Soul Sides blog discusses Apache, one of those records that has been endlessly sampled and forms one of the cornerstones of the sound of Hip Hop. I believe that most of the musical examples on this page still work. This video discusses the Amen break, another one of those endlessly sampled songs. I don't know what's up with the bald guy wandering around the room in that video, though.

Finally, you might want to look at Jonathan Lethem's piece, The Ecstasy of Influence, an essay on sampling, borrowing, and stealing that he wrote (?) for Harper's. The essay on briefly deals with Hip Hop, but it talks about some of larger aesthetic and ethical questions that surround using other people's work in your art.

a class on digital literacies

Hi!

A communications prof named David Silver who used to be here at UW is now down in San Francisco and is teaching a class/hosting a symposium/lecture series on digital literacies this quarter!

He's blogging about it at Silver in SF.
Check out his intro post for the class schedule and topics!

Sharing of a web project -- reporting Hong Kong

I'd like to share with the class a web site my Hong Kong reporting class created quite some time ago. The technologies used are now out-dated, but the articles are fun to read -- muliticulturalism.

http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/pacific/

I contributed two reports, one about the red light district of San Francisco, anthor about a Feng Shui master.

Enjoy!

The Machine is Us/ing Us

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

Young Adult Lit Resources

Here are a few resources I know of....if you are interested, I can make reccomendations of books for specific topics also. I also have a pretty large collection of YA books, if you want to borrow any some time.


www.booksense.com- a website of independent bookstores

http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=awardrecipients- the American Library Associations website for awards they’ve given out, including the Newbery, the highest award in YA literature.

http://booklust.wetpaint.com/?t=anon Nancy Pearl, a Seattle Librarian, her website about Books

Also check out Book Lust by Nancy Pearl

http://theliterarylink.com/yalink.html- a website that discusses why YA lit is good for the classroom and provides suggestions

Reading Their World: The Young Adult Novel in the Classroom by Virginia Monseau and Gary Slavner -a great resource with practical info for teachers

Gaming Literacy

There are a couple book recommendations about this. Again, I only have interest, not knowledge, in this new literacy.

1. How Computer Games Help Children Learn
by David Williamson Shaffer (2007)
Shaffer is part of the GAPPS Group, Games and Professional Practice Simulations, which recently received $3 million in grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to design and develop innovative game modules, curriculum and tools to support young people's media literacy. GAPPS is part of the Advanced Digital Learning (ADL) Initiative to study and build learning systems that use digital game technologies to immerse learners in worlds where they use the skills and values of professionals to solve complex problems.

2. What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy.
by James Paul Gee (2004)
"Gee begins by trying to help his reader think differently about video games. He explains that “when people learn to play video games, they are learning a new literacy” (p. 13). Rather than thinking just about reading and writing, Gee argues that there are a multiplicity of literacies and that it is time for us to think beyond print when thinking about literacy. He explains that competency in the medium of video games is one form of literacy within a semiotic domain. In other words, video games have their own sense of meaning in that players must be literate to be successful."
http://edrev.asu.edu/reviews/rev591.htm

del.icio.us website is a great tool for you!

You should check out delicious.com. It's a spot on the internet where you can organize your favorite websites. It's like bookmarking on your browser, but better because you can access it from anywhere, not just your computer. Also, you can create a network and look at other people's favorites. The librarian at Shorecrest talked about this a bit, but it's way cooler than she made it out to be. I found it is a great tool to organize all those websites out there with lesson plans, rather than googling for them everytime. Also, it's a place to organize all the information about databases she gave us. Check out my page to get started:
http://del.icio.us/kristifowler

UW Tech recommends pre-teachers to look for:

1. Apple DVD Studio Pro
Apple DVD Studio Pro is a professional application for designing and creating a DVD to archive and distribute your videos. In this workshop, you will learn how to set up your DVD in a sophisticated yet navigable manner. You will learn everything from importing your video to burning the final disc. Other topics include adding sound clips to your menus, creating custom templates, and troubleshooting with the simulator feature. Use your knowledge gained in this workshop to distribute your work, create your own digital portfolio, or even submit your work to a local film festival.

http://catalyst.washington.edu/workshops/video#appleimovie

2. Web Publishing Saturday Workshop Event
The University of Washington provides you with space to create a personalized Web site. So why not use it? During this day-long workshop event, you will learn all the steps necessary to get started creating personalized Web sites.

Learn the language behind the Web with an intro to HTML. Want to spice up your Web site? Learn CSS to add a little flavor to your homepage. Want to add animated buttons or an interactive menu? ImageReady does just that. After completing this workshop you will be able to set up an impressive, professional Web site for practically anything.

http://catalyst.washington.edu/workshops/saturday_web_publishing

Good tech class for website-building

Tuesday March 11

2:30pm-4:30pm

Adobe Dreamweaver 1

OUGL 102

http://catalyst.washington.edu/workshops/index.html

Good tech class for image manipulation

Adobe Flash for the Web
Thursday February 28
5-7pm
MGH 058

The reason I found out about this is I was asking the Technology people if there are any cool ways to digitally do a diorama, or to make images slightly animated.
For example, I read "Izzy Willy Nilly" about a girl who loses her leg, and I wondered if there was a way to make a picture of a girl with two legs slowly lose one (morbid, I know).
They said Flash would be very useful for teachers, and they recommend this class for the future for everyone.

http://catalyst.washington.edu/workshops/index.html