The Power of Representation

“It’s important to be aware of your own interpretations and to make every effort to heighten your consciousness about how you are seeing things. As she looked out at the attentive faces I front of her, she realized that connecting the historical lesson on Martin Luther King, Jr., to present-day issues of unconscious bias had increased students’ engagement in the learning process.”

I enjoyed this quote because it really shows how engaged students will get in the lesson when the teacher relates present-day issues to that lesson. It gives the students the tools to think about the subject with context, which helps them create informed.  

The Power of Storytelling

I chose these digital story because each of their subjects is one that is of importance to me, or of situations that I can relate to.

http://reelworks.org/videos/helena/

http://reelworks.org/videos/the-happiness-project/

http://reelworks.org/videos/green-living/

http://reelworks.org/videos/beyond-the-paper/

http://reelworks.org/videos/survivor-of-twins/

Green Living

What do you like about the digital story?

I like that the digital story is based on a subject is based on something that everyone can easily do with minor changes to their lives.

What did you learn from the digital story?

I learned about the different things you can recycle, what products can be made from recycled materials, and how it all helps the environment.

What surprised you about the digital story?

I was surprised by all the different interviews the students was able to do for the digital story.

What social problem was the digital story addressing?

Recycling

How did the digital story provide an example of how digital storytelling can build self-esteem, help young people voice an opposition to social problems, or create an alternative to stereotypes of adolescents typically portrayed in mainstream media?

This digital story was able to give a voice to a young student on the positive effects of recycling in our world and was able to reach people in a way he wouldn’t have been capable of on his own.

Do (or how do) these digital stories provide evidence of that these young people are engaged in analysis of their own culture?

I believe that they prove that young people are engaged in analysis of the own culture, and that they have an invested interest in the success of that culture.

Do (or how do) these digital stories support a healthy respect for multiculturalism and diversity?

PSA The Ethics of Representation

I chose to do my PSA on the ethics of representation because I wanted to show students that media messages can have a strong impact on how they view a certain subject, but there is always more than one side of the story, and you need to be able to objectively find the other side of it.

In the PSA I broke down the ethics of representation down into three categories, subject, author, and audience, and subcategories for each. Under subject there is consent and free will. Under author there is intentionality, consequence, and social good. And under audience there is intentionality and social good. Breaking it down in this way allowed me to pick apart the most important aspects of the ethics of representation. 

PSA Storyboard

My PSA Storyboard

My PSA is on the ethics of representation. It is for students and I will explain the inner workings of the ethics of representation, and how they can use it to deconstruct media messages that they might encounter.