As I conduct my content analysis of media literacy definitions, I think I’ll start with Richard Lanham. In The Electronic Word, he points to rhetoric as the appropriate field of study in this era of the network: “This revival of our traditional paideia includes those parts of contemporary literary criticism and cultural studies which have rediscovered that all arguments are constructed with a purpose, to serve an interest–a rediscovery symbolized by Terry Eagleton’s reflection, at the end of his literary-theory survey, that we might as well call the whole subject ‘Rhetoric.'”
Monthly Archives: September 2006
Scholastic Withdraws The Path to 9/11
Finally got around to reading Education Week for September 20 and found this article concerning Scholastic’s decision to pull the classroom materials they had created to accompany the controversial ABC TV drama, The Path to 9/11.
Here’s the intersection of media literacy and documentary film: ABC maintained that their film was a fictionalized version and had already taken a lot of criticism about evident bias against the Clinton administration. Scholastic created materials that furthered inaccuracies. So, Scholastic turned it into a media literacy lesson and, according to Education Week, “replaced the disputed materials with an online discussion guide that took a much different approach to the ABC movie–one that aims to help students dissect the ways the news media convey various messages” (p. 9, September 20, 2006). The article quotes Diane Ravitch who says that creating classroom materials based on “partially fictional accounts of history” is problematic.
First Steps in Final Cut Pro
I got to the section in the Getting Started book about logging and capturing clips and decided to hook up the camera and get started. It was relatively easy to figure out how to mark clips and then capture them. I was a little confused with the way it automatically names the next clip once you’ve logged one, but you just type a different name in the description field and that change the name.
The tape I put in is from the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. We took a long driving tour on a rainy day and shot lots of video. A lot of it is very bad, jumpy because we’re zoomed in too far without a tripod, too dark, unfocused. But then there will be a brief glimmer of quality, when the bird comes into focus and does something interesting. I’m already mulling over an idea for how to put these clips together and make a short travelogue. I’ll include some of the outtakes to show just how much bad video you have to shoot in order to get something good. That seems to be the rule of reality cinema…lots of video.
So, I’ll run the questions:
What have I learned? How to log and capture clips in Final Cut Pro
How did I learn it? I read the manual and followed the directions.
How could I have learned it better or differently? I don’t think I could have. I find I am taking a systematic approach to this, something I don’t always do when it comes to learning a software program. And by reading the manual, I discovered the log/capture feature that makes identifying and capturing clips easy. I’m a little impatient to at least make some kind of movie but maybe tomorrow.
How could I use what I’ve learned to benefit someone else? Does my learning always have to benefit someone else? Sorry, didn’t mean to be flippant but I think this a hard question to answer. Since I am planning to try different methods of logging and capturing, I suppose I can review them to find the method that I like.
It’s Here!
My new computer was waiting for me when I got home. I was a little concerned about the big hole in the side of the box but all seems to be fine. True to all the Macs I’ve ever used, this was easy…got it up and running in just a few minutes. I’m installing Final Cut Pro right now. I’m actually working on the second installation since I accidently cut the power during the first installation…oops!
I’ve read through the first chapter of the Getting Started book and I think I have the basic idea of the process of using the program to organize and create video. Final Cut Pro is part of the post-production process, and the book suggests there is a lot that goes on before you start post-production. But since I’m working in the cinema verite mode and using already existing footage that was shot without any plan in place, I’m going to go right to the logging/capturing step.
I would really like to do something with the Lewis and Clark footage but it’s analog. I’m going to start with some digital footage until I get comfortable with the process of logging and capturing clips. I pulled a few tapes out of the drawer to get me started. With a 500 gig hard drive just for storage, I have the luxury of grabbing as much tape as I want. The manual, in fact, suggests that it is more typical for people to simply capture an entire tape because hard drive space has gotten so cheap. I’ll log after I capture and look for some emergent theme for my first sequence.
I like the Final Cut Pro manual. Several places they discuss the idea of getting your own workflow together and give several different ways of doing things like logging and capturing. Software in general is pretty amazing in terms of allowing different users to interact with it in different ways. And in this case, effective personal use of the software will make the project creation easier and potentially better.
The Mysterious Malcolm Knowles
Malcolm Knowles, informal adult education, self-direction and andragogy
“His work was a significant factor in reorienting adult educators from educating people to helping them learn.” Knowles 1950: 6.
I know this makes me a nerd, but when I got home at 9:30, I popped in the third Monterey Pop DVD and my husband and I enjoyed some lovely pinot grigio and played on our computers while reminiscing about the amazing music that surrounded us as we grew up. I had to open Inspiration and start working on my own concept map. It’s an interesting process but I stumbled on a seeming mystery: who is Malcolm Knowles academically? The infed article from which the quote comes (I love the distinction between education and learning) indicates that he went to Harvard and took classes in philosophy, literature, and law. No psychology, no sociology. So, where does he fit? Maybe that’s part of the reason that adult educaton as a theory gets a bad rap: it doesn’t fit into a discipline.
I tried working on the “personal” piece of the learning concept map. Get at the variety of learning experiences we’ve discusssed in class. Knowles ended up in that part of the map. I think part of the struggle in class last night as we tried to work on this map together was the differing perceptions of what it should do. Some wanted to make it a personal learning concept map but I think that leads us to make unsupported statement about learning, trying to suggest that our personal experiences define learning for everyone.
Lots of the words thrown out were, IMHO, more like synonyms than concepts. For instance, what about the proposition that learning is growth? I would argue that not all learning leads to growth. I took an access class some years ago and while I learned to use access, I don’t think I really experienced a whole lot of growth. Growth becomes a concept when it becomes part of a theory. So, Maslow and Rogers provide a conceptual framework that does suggest that learning is growth.
My starting draft is attached. I did use Inspiration because I like its ease of manipulation.