Talking to Robots

In reading the articles about Conversational Agents and their effectiveness as teaching tools in the classroom, I was not surprised to see the authors point out that middle school students often devolved into vulgar or inappropriate conversation with the avatars. First, middle school students often use the internet to explore sides of their identity and personality that it would be socially unaccaptable or inappropriate to explore in the "real world". In the past, adolescents have done this; it's just that they have had to do a good job of hiding it from adults who might judge them. The idea that adolescents need to develop these facets of their identity and how they might go about doing that in a digital age is an exciting and interesting area of study. 

Further, I thought that the reprinted conversations were a little funny. I, sadly, could not blame the students for testing the limits of what was possible/acceptable to the CPA. If I were that student,  I would never be able to take the CPA seriously enough to be able to use it as a resource. I would resent the fact that someone (probably the teacher or the software publisher) thinks I am so stupid, and has so little respect for the miracle of uniqueness in humanity, that they think that I can learn all I need to learn by having a "conversation" with a robot. I don't care if this is the most advanced robot that has ever been created; it still does not compare with the interaction that students get with other humans. Further, the authors go on to argue that if a teacher is going to use a CPA, he or she should program the CPA to respond to inappropriate or vulgar language by telling the student to stop using such language. The authors write from the point of view that says that the CPA represents a human, and that therefore it should be treated with the same respect. Students know the difference between reality and everything else (or at least let's hope they do), and so it makes complete sense that they see the robot for what it is. 

Lastly, as a teacher, I need to ask myself what the goal of my assignments are. For me, it is always to help students elevate their thinking to that which is critical and analytical. When my assignment asks students to simply have a conversation with a robot in order to gain information, I feel that I am insulting their intelligence and their ability to research. So, instead of using a CPA, I would have the students do a guided webquest and then podcast a dialogue about it (with a partner). That way, students would be using their social skills to learn, and it wouldn't feel like I am putting them with a robot "babysitter" because I didn't have the time or energy to personally address each of their questions and encourage critical thinking. 

Here is what I would look like if I were a South Park Character

Media Literacy Lessons

This first lesson is a complete rip-off from Read Write Think, but it's so great! I want to try it. 

1. Kids share their grammar pet peeves

2. Discussion: Does grammar say anything about your education? Do people judge you on your grammar? If so, how can good or bad grammar affect their judgment of you?

3. Lecture: Grammar, class, and race--> language matters

4. Read Culture of Power by Lisa Delpit

5. Students must collect questions from columns about grammar such as the word column in the back of the Atlantic, "grammar rants" from Dear Abby, etc. 

6. Students must analyze what the language that the writers use says about them, and whether or not they (the students) identify with the writer. Then, the students must analyze why or why not. This step would be in writing and it would be nice if it could take place on a blog with links to the articles themselves. 

7. Students must reflect on what they think their own dexterity with "proper english" says about them. Do they choose to speak or write in a certain way? If so, why? If not, what do they think the way they speak or write says about them as individuals? 

Here is the link to the lesson that gave me the idea. As you can see, I've expanded it a bit. In retrospect, it might just be good to go with the lesson on ReadWriteThink, but then again, it's great to get the kids deeply engaged in this. 

Readwritethink grammar lesson

Lesson #2

1. Students view various music videos of artists like Madonna, Britney Spears, and Lil Wayne to analyze

a) who the video is trying to appeal to

b) what ideals the video is promoting

c) how the video contributes to or changes the artist's image

2. Students decide write an argumentative essay that takes a position about whether or not they think the image that the video presents is helpful or harmful for society and support their opinion. 

3. The students then turn their essay into the script of a P.S.A. in which they attempt to use film to inform the audience of their opinion. The students must also utilize information about persuasive speech to make their video both argumentative (it takes a position) and persuasive (it attempts to persuade others of this position). 

The Daily Show

As do most from my generation, I honestly appreciate The Daily Show and what it tries to do. While it does inform us of what has happened in the world, and more importantly, how supposedly trustworthy news outlets respond to it, it also reminds us that not every event in life needs to be taken as seriously as cable news would have us do. I would love to use The Daily Show in my classroom. Here are a few ideas about how I could make that happen. 

Irony and Satire- 

1. Read Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal"

2. Discuss the definition of Irony and its connection to Satire

3. Students must watch the Daily Show and analyze a segment in terms of its use of irony in a short reflection paper. 

- Answer: What makes this segment ironic? What makes it the opposite of what one would expect? 

- Answer: How does this irony reveal a truth? Could this truth have been revealed more accurately without the use of irony? Explain your answer

4. Class Discussion- How is irony and satire effective in illuminating truths about social problems? 

I believe that this lesson would be an excellent way for kids to connect their own reality and experience to that of those living hundreds of years ago. It would also help them to understand that when they read something, they need to be on the lookout for cues that it might be funny, or might have been meant to be at least, so that they can become more critical and discerning readers of all types of texts. In the end, this is what The Daily Show helps us do: it helps us to take a more critical approach to the media messages that we are bombarded with each day. Thankfully, though most semblances of truth in journalism have dissipated, we still have a forum where someone is interested in providing contrasting (mostly humorous) viewpoints. 

Daily Show Simulation

1. Choose a news story that is prominent in the headlines this week. Follow the coverage of that story on at least 2 tv news broadcasts (1 network, 1 cable), 1 print publication (online or print edition), and The Daily Show. 

2. Analyze how The Daily Show is able to parody this coverage on its broadcast in terms of devices such as hyperbole and satirical language. 

3. Create your own video parody of this same topic. Try to get at the truth of the issue while still being humorous. 

4. Post this video to our class's wiki page. 

5. Review at least one of your classmate's videos. Analyze it in terms of its use of hyperbole and other satirical devices we have studied in class. Post this analysis as a blog post. 

This lesson would help the kids to see media and replicate it, therefore helping them tap into their own agency as filterers of information. Often, apathy is bred out of a sense that the establishment is big and untrustworthy that "resistance is futile". When the students see that not only are they able to take in news from different sources and analyze it, but then they are also able to understand it so well that they can make fun of it, they will feel as if they are actually participating in the process of media dissemination instead of constantly defending themselves from it. 

tv news analysis

TV News 10:00 pm

 

1. Weather- Thunderstorm coverage, warnings etc.  (2 min)

              - lots of radar images, serious talking tone

2. Cut to live coverage of Milaca where there was a storm(1 min)

- cut to prerecorded story about the storm, footage of tornado damage from last night

3. Back to studio- Walter Cronkite is sick (10 seconds)

4. Pot Bust- (30 seconds)

5. Brainerd mom illegal downloader (30 seconds)

6. Denny Hecker (30 seconds)

7. Recession, job cuts (20 seconds)

8. KC Chiefs move from River Falls to Missouri (20 seconds)

9. Graphic and teaser (30 seconds)

 

Commercial Break 10:06 pm- 10:10pm

 

10.  Kare 11 Extra- Analysis of response (media and WHO) to swine flu (5 min)

              - voice over, images of cable news hysterical coverage

              - media self-critique about coverage of swine flu?

- minnpost “authority” quote “if you’re watching cable news, you’re doing something wrong”- AH HA!

- traveler’s testimony of mexico is safe

- talking about the “hype” that was created

11. Kare 11 food drive plug  (30 seconds)

12. Weather forecast (3 min)

              - more storm infoà there’s hail!

13. Banter, Teaser for sports, sponser info for the “cabin cast”, which is apparently the weekend forecast in the summer

 

Commerical Break 10:19- 10:23

 

14. Sports Scores, Sports coverage (4 min)

              - includes human interest story about group horse ownership

 

Commercial break 10:28-10:31

 

15. Cheeseburger in a can story (30 seconds)

              - lots of laughing

16. Forecast (30 seconds)

 

             

 

 

Assignment 5

For this assignment, I watched the ten o'clock news broadcast on Kare 11 in the Twin Cities on June 18, 2009. Please refer to the log below for more information about the segments I will refer to. 

This news cast was pretty much completely ridiculous from the start. The first segment had to do with the severe weather that we have been experiencing in the region in the past 24 hours. It involved two live segments, one from the studio with lots of radar graphics and one from a field in Milaca, where it appears there has been a thunder storm. This reminds me of the segment that Beach refers to in Chapter 9 of Michael Moore's documentary Bowling for Colombine. This weather story felt sensational and unnecessary, since there is clearly nothing that anyone can do about the weather. I think that a tasteful description of various warnings and ways to protect oneself would have done the trick, but these guys decided to indulge their audience's craving to know exactly how exciting and terrible thunderstorms and tornados can be. At one point in the field weather segment, the reporter said "Amazingly, no one was hurt" just after reporting that only one structure was really damaged. 

The newscast then continued to talk about the stories of the day, leading with Walter Cronkite's apparent sickness. This is probably because Walter Cronkite is member of the news community, so his sickness is very important to the news channel. Then, they go on to tell us about other current developments, have a commercial break, and then come to a story about news coverage of swine flu. Now, at the outset this story appears to be a useful critique of news media in general, which would lend an air of credibility to KARE 11. That is, until you hear that they are mostly criticizing every other news outlet and public health official for raising the alarm about the swine flu, and only wryly pointing out their own bottle of hand sanitizer they placed in the office. I guarantee that the swine  flu led their news cast for about two weeks a month and a half ago, but they failed to mention that. 

In the end, the local news cast was low on information and high on sensational reporting. 

Possible News Critique Lesson

For my seventh grade students, news critiquing would require that they actually understand the news. I think that the first project we did would have to focus on methods to gain information and make it relevant to their lives. First, I would teach the kids the conventions of a newscast, such as the definition of a lead story, human interest story, media convergence story, the difference between a local, national, and international story. Then, I would have the kids watch the news for a week and choose a story to follow. I would have them keep track of the story both on the news cast and in one other type of news publication (web, print, or radio). Then, I would have the students write about any differences they noticed in the way that each outlet reported the story, when the story happened in the broadcast (and what that says about its importance), and whether they would have reported the story differently and why. 

Assignment 4

In this post, I will be discussing various media representations of sex in the U.S. It seems to me that sex is often portrayed in U.S. media as separate from love; that is, it is more often discussed as "lust" or as less than actual love. For instance, in the popular books/movie series Twilight, Bella Swan and Edward Cullen's love is deepened and given more respect because they resist their sexual impulses until after they are married. We as the readers/viewers are supposed to know that because Edward will not allow Bella to indulge her sexual desires and thereby sully herself, he actually loves her more than other men who might take advantage of a woman who "doesn't know what she's doing". 

Further, we see the obvious example of sex portrayed as separate from love in reality television. Often, on shows such as The Real World, we see young adults "hooking up" and then we see testimonials of how although this hook-up was nice, neither is looking for a "serious relationship". This is something that has even spawned new phrases such as "friends with benefits" or even more crass examples which I will not list here. 

All of these representations seem to fly in the face of what religion teaches us, which is generally that sex is a sacred part of love, that indeed, sex and love are inseparable parts of the same intimate relationship that human beings have both in this life and the next. In Catholicism, sex is something that is limited only to marriage, and that only serves to deepen love and serve God. For buddhists, sex with the correct partner is a step towards Nirvana. Though these religions do value monogamy, just as Twilight does, they all see sex as something that is spiritually intertwined with love, and that love is something that helps one fulfill one's obligation to worship a god. With these contrasting representations of love, the louder or more available message is bound to win cultural importance. Still, never do either of these representations allow for the fact that sometimes sex is more relevant to love than other times; that, in fact, there is actually a gray area which it would not serve either popular media nor religion to tell the public about.