EDUC 6809 Weekly Reading 8: Creative Production

1.      What impressed you most about young people's engagement with creative production? “Youth producers in highly technical areas are generally driven by an ethic of being “self-taught” (Lange 2007b). Even among youth who are more technical and espouse an ethic of being self-taught, narratives of how they get started contain many references to peers, family, and other adult mentors who provided advice and encouragement in their media-production efforts” (Lange & Ito, 2010).  This is impressive due to the social, collaborative nature of media production, even though many teens are self-taught in terms of skills, they often rely on others for validation and support. This supports the statement of media production being a collaborative, team-work process.  Teens are reaching out to a wide audience of all ages, and seeking to network and display their skills for possible future employment, education, and pure enjoyment. 2.      What concerns do you have about young people posting content online?  My concerns about the content young people post online are related to what I feel educators and parents should be teaching teens.  In 2010, I created a PBL, entitled, Publish My Profile.  I felt that educating teens about public profiles on networking sites was important due to the rising number of teens hanging out on these sites.  My goal was to show students the educational, ethical, responsible features of using social networking sites. Also, to make parents aware of the positive aspects of collaboration, and social media. I believe when teens learn and are explicitly taught about posting content, then it is their responsibility to post appropriate content in conjunction with the situation. 3.      Do you think most school policy toward student reuse of the Internet is reactionary or a necessary evil? I do believe most policies are reactionary, and often a result of “little” investigation or an ignorance of the content on the part of the policy makers decisions.  I also believe that removing students from computer use because of a violation, is probably not the best choice. Removing students from computer use, places more work on the teacher, and doesn’t provide the student with the opportunities needed.  I’m not saying students shouldn’t follow rules, but there has to be an alternative. 4.      How might teachers' capitalize on student's interest in creative production with digital media? Our students are already participating in some form of hanging out, messing around, and geeking out with creative production. As educators, let’s capitalize on these skills, and the knowledge base of our students and provide ample opportunities for the creation of media.  Creative production is a motivator, and opens the door for engagement, and collaboration with teens choosing and defining their own roles (strengths) in the production process.  Based on personal experience, students creating media, performing, and presenting to an audience is one of the best ways to assist students in feeling a genuine ownership of their learning. 5.      Link to a online lesson plan, article, blog post video or podcast  that is an example of student engagement in creative production with digital media for school related purposes.

    Making Presidential Commercials
    This lesson plan requires students to create a 45-60 second script for a commercial for the election of           
    president.