What's New Buenos Aires?

In 1980 I saw the commercial for the new musical EVITA on Broadway. I was 20 and still living on Long Island. I ended up seeing the show 18 times. It is my all time favorite show. I was mesmerized by the commercial which made me want to see the show. I knew nothing about the subject but there was something about the music that reeled me in.

I got to see the amazing Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin at the beginning of their careers and later on I had the opportunity to meet Patti LuPone who graciously signed the portrait of her as Evita that I had painted.

Something I have noticed in commercial advertisements is that we tend to be moving away from focusing on talent to just showing technical aspects of the medium in theater, television and movies. Why is it so hard for a play to exist and keep going? Is it because they don’t have the thrills, special effects and shockers as let’s say Spiderman or Phantom have.

I think many of the youth today require fast action, technology, pyrotechnics and special effects to help them relate to the arts. What does this actually say about technology and its importance or non importance on the youth of today?

I know when I was student teaching many students wanted to watch the movie version of classics instead of actually reading them. Is technology creating lack of imagination because we can now have the visual aspect of a story, video, show mapped out for us as opposed to imagining it in our own mind?

Sometimes the scariest moments in piece are left to our own imagination but my concern is where is that imagination going to?

Below is the Original Television Commercial for EVITA I used for this assignment

Below is the link to the commercial

Original Commercial for Evita on Broadway

An Extra Bonus. 

The Tony Performance of “A New Argentina” – So exciting…

Tony Awards Performance of A NEW ARGENTINA

A Bit of a Rant

In reading More or Less Democracy in the Internet Age by Mark E. Kann I was bothered by several of the statements and information discussed. This may come across as a rant but I was extremely disturbed by this section stating;

The impulsive, impassioned, self-interested masses. Drawing on Alexander Hamilton’s fears of ordinary people and James Madison’s warnings against factions and tyrannical majorities, digital democrats reduce online participation to slow, rational, community-oriented talk. The presumption here is not that greater inclusivity is required for democracy but that greater sobriety is a prerequisite for inclusion.

Ordinary people have opinions. I am an ordinary person and there are many I time I did not have the opportunity to share my opinions or thoughts on a candidate or a law in the making because I would be one of the mindless thousands writing in protest.

What technology has allowed are the thoughts of all… educated, non-educated and beyond having a forum to state their thoughts however much away from what the aristocrats feel should be permissive.

The internet has allowed the common man a voice. The ability to read what other people think and instantly or slowly make a case on their own. I think it is the upper crust snobs who feel that the common, hardworking people of this country who constantly work their butts off should not be aloud to have a say. Why is that? Is it because they are afraid that people will come to realize that there are so many more of us then them. That their theories of what is right and what is wrong…what should be counted as legitimate debate is only what they think is so.

I think the internet has many in that class running scared because here is a platform where the everyday person the elected officials work for can make a statement.

I think the uproar is in the shame that they  will be found out by technology. That as we the working people have a chance to communicate with each other and turn the tides against the unrealistic views of the people that are often in office can be torn down.

Is this an attack…. You bet it is…… It is time to listen to the people – all of the people who each new day are having the chance to make their voices heard.

Those in office should be alarmed as we the people are given more and more opportunity to make our voices heard.

Enough – is – Enough…

Week 3 - New Digital Literacies

“We are moving away from a world in which some produce and many consume media, toward one in which everyone has a more active stake in the culture that is produced.” (Jenkins, p.10)

One of the areas that interested me is Ethics. Young learners today have the ability to place something on the Internet that may have a profound impact on their future perception when it comes to education and employment opportunities. The Three key concerns stated in “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21^st Century” were;

1. How do we ensure that every child has access to the skills and experiences needed to become a full participant in the social, cultural, economic, and political future of our society?  
2. How do we ensure that every child has the ability to articulate his or her understanding of how media shapes perceptions of the world? 
3. How do we ensure that every child has been socialized into the emerging ethical standards that should shape their practices as media makers and as participants in online communities. (p. 18)

How do we ensure that every child can become a full participant in the constantly changing technological world we now live in? I have witnessed the difference in school districts from place to place on Long Island, let alone the world, in regard to what children are introduced or have access to because of the economic factors that are a part of their education and learning opportunities. Is there a way to allow all learners to have the same technological and cyber-social advantage? This will be one of the most difficult areas to address and can have a tremendous impact upon the outcome of their participation in the new world of technological evolution and literacy.

Using the new skills being implemented can help prepare the learner for the world they will meet. These new skills include;

Play; Performance; Simulation; Appropriation; Multitasking; Distributed Cognition; Collective Intelligence; Judgment; Transmedia Navigation; Networking and Negotiation (p.4)

But the biggest problem again will have to do with the access to the technologies used with these skills.

Reading is one of the most important aspects of learning and finding ones self. It doesn’t necessarily matter what you are reading but that you are understanding and taking in different ideas, views and thoughts created by other writers. It is in using this information to create your own ideas that makes reading and literacy such an important aspect of becoming a part of this world and the communication between us as individuals and collective groups.

Reference

Jenkins, H. (2006). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21^st Century

Retrieved from http://digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9C-E807E1B0AE4E%7D/jenkins_white_paper.pdf

Week 2 - Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?

I believe that literacy includes all forms of reading, writing and communication. When I was growing up I read from books because that was all we had. I remember what a treat it was to watch the film version of a book we were reading in English class. Was the film version less important to my learning and understanding of the book? No, I think it had its own merit and value just as the various ways of reading or viewing a story or article on-line or on tablet has today. I don’t see the value in counting any forms of literacy out. Why would we do that?

Learners today are captivated by technology. Incorporating literacy into that world can only enhance the use of any form and engage them in thinking and understanding whether it is intentional or not.

Now I text or write emails to my friends and colleagues. I still write letters by hand but sometimes I will type them as well. The new technologies of literacy give us a freedom that we have not had before. We can communicate instantly or in a few days depending on the mode of communication. We have choice and can enjoy the new ways in which literacy can be presented to us and how we, as intelligent beings, can manipulate and use these methods for learning and enjoyment.

As new methods of communication emerge we should not negate their value as a platform for literacy. They say “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” which is something I never saw as the truth.  Lets use the computer, tablet, smart phone, internet, blogging, texting, and emailing to enhance our ability to understand and create literacy.

I think it will take some time for this form of literacy to achieve equal value. It is still in its infancy but growing stronger every day. I believe it has a very strong value in 21^st century learning and literacy that will take some time to find its own recognized importance as the learning population continues to use it and as they themselves grow from its use.

Reference

Rich, M. (2008, July 27). Literacy debate: Online, r u really reading? The New York Times.  Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html? pagewanted=all&_r=1&

Week 1 - Approach to Literacy

"The distinctive contribution of the approach to literacy as social practice lies in the ways in which it involves careful and sensitive attention to what people do with texts, how they make sense of them and use them to further their own purposes in their own learning lives" 

There are different ways in which I use text to enhance my own learning experience as well as that of my colleagues and of the developmentally disabled population I work with. 

In my position I share text through central postings within our organization to reach out to the the other Day Hab Coordinators at the other Group Day Habs. We find that by keeping an ongoing (b)log (really a Blog within the company) and having the ability to comment on each others experiences within our own Day Habs allows us to come together as a team to find the best solutions and answers to many of the same issues we are dealing with in our own class rooms. It wasn't until we started this that we realized that by (b)logging each day we can come together with creative ways to deal with these situations as a team even though we are separated by many miles. Not only does this enhance our ability to become more effective teachers it gives our individuals the best chance of finding a solution that will work for them. As stated in the article by David Huffaker "Blogs can be an effective tool for teachers, using blogs to document, reflect, plan and mentor." 

I also use text in stories (picture books) to help the individuals find their own ideas in developing ongoing sagas and adventures created from their own imaginations. Using an enlarged copy of a picture book with text we project it on screen and staff read the story to the group. We then take turns discussing what they think this particular group of sentences is saying about the picture that is shown with it. Later on down the line I will project a picture by itself and ask the group to come up with simple sentences about what they think is happening in that picture or what they would like to happen. After we finish that I then add the text to the picture and on screen they can see what they came up. They are always so amazed when they realize that what they are looking at is something they created and really no different then what we discussed from the page taken out of a published book. It is really quite wonderful to watch.

Reference

Huffaker, D. (2005). The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom.
AACE Journal, 13(2), 91-98

My (IN)famous Journey Here

  I was born and raised on Long Island, lived in New York City for thirty years and currently live on a house barge back on Long Island with my Pug Hannah and a French Bull Dog named Tallulah Rose.

I received a B.A. in Art and Literature from SUNY Empire State College, NY and am pursuing a Masters Degree from the Learning and Emerging Technologies program at Empire State College. 

I am member of Actor’s Equity (AEA) and the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) and also attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

In my Arts background I was strongly influenced by the brilliance of Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat and began my creation of celebrity portraits in the early 1980's. 

 

Having had the opportunity to watch and learn from the talented KEITH HARING as he created his now famous New York City Subway Murals, I tried to incorporate the simplicity of Haring's lines, the beauty of Warhol's color and the written word of Basquiat to develop my own combo-style of personality portraiture. I have had the opportunity to meet with many of the famous celebrity subjects who have graciously signed their portraits thus making their signatures and written comments a part of the original piece.

 

With the onset of the technological age I created of

The Michael Evers Art Gallery as a venue to sell and display my art pieces.

I am  currently blessed to run a program in Southampton, Long Island for 18 Developmentally Disabled Adults which has become one of my most favorite life experiences. It is my hope that I will be able to incorporate the information learned from the MALET program to help better the lives of these wonderful individuals I work with each day.