Digital Arts Service Corps - media literacy

Field Report for Marion Duignan - August 2009

Marion Duignan — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:46:58 +0000

Time is flying so fast, I can't believe it!

New Mexico is absolutely beautiful and I love where I live and all the people I'm meeting and working with.

I'm working at the Media Literacy Project located in Albuquerque, New Mexico (the organization was formerly known as "New Mexico Media Literacy Project"). I've arrived at a very exciting time for the organization. They are in the midst of their organizational strategic planning and are in the process of creating a new mission, vision, and guiding principals. The plan also includes their organizational goals, objectives, and tactics (activities) for the next five years.

Part of the more immediate changes is/was their name change as mentioned above. As I'm here to update their existing main web site from plain HTML to a more efficient content management system (CMS)- the change in name meant a new logo had to be designed, which in turn will dictate the new look and feel to the site. For the last two weeks I've been in the process of designing their logo. We've had three meetings so far and the final logo review will be this Thursday, September 3rd. The final, FINAL okay will be left to the Director when she returns after the Labor Day holiday.

Prior to these last two weeks of logo consumption - I did training for Joomla! (My choice for CMS.) This took a good week to get through and I'm sure I'll have to go over sections again when I actually get started on the web site design itself next week. I highly recommend the Joomla! training dvds from lynda.com - there are a set of three that go together and for the most part seem to cover every aspect of how their version of CMS works and most important (for a designer)- how to customize the templates.

Last week I knew I had finally "really" settled in because I wrote postcards to friends and family and didn't go to Lowes, Target or the Big Lots store for apartment stuff : )

I feel very fortunate to be where I am for many reasons - not the least of which is working with my fellow VISTA Candelario Vazquez. He is so much fun and in the first couple of weeks here we really helped eachother make it to the first paycheck!!

So, by this time next month I hope to be telling you all about my trials, tribulations and triumphs working with our new logo on the new web site.

That's it for now. Peace.

In the merry, merry month of May...

Elizabeth Goussetis — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:25:35 +0000

I wrapped up a 20-week long after-school outreach I’ve been teaching at an elementary school. I worked with two groups of students: the older group made a documentary about the experiences of their classmates who have moved to the U.S. from other countries, and the younger group made a collection of short instructional videos on topics of their choice (drawing, making a paper airplane, counting to ten in Japanese, making farting noises with your armpit, etc.).

Both videos were screened for parents at the after-school program’s year-end showcase. The kids were excited to see themselves on the screen, and it was really cool to talk to all the parents whose kids appeared in the film or who worked on it.

But the highlight of the month was taking a group of kids to a fancy, televised awards ceremony.

The Blue Chip Cable Access Awards are given out each year to recognize the work of volunteer producers of cable access programs in Greater Cincinnati. A short documentary made by one of last summer’s video camps I helped with at Media Bridges was nominated in the “student K-5” category. So, I rounded up the kids and parents to go to the award ceremony, which was held at a grand old restored movie theater. When their group was announced as the winner, I ushered a bunch of mostly shy kids up on stage, where they all got big rounds of applause for their acceptance speeches. One girl’s was, “Thank you, people.”

Here's the group photo, complete with shiny award plaque: http://ctcvista.org/files/IMG_7496b.JPG

Both events were good reminders of how important it is to follow through on projects that involve people in creating media. If we want people to realize the power their voices can have through media, we should involve them in the distribution, not just the production. When you put a piece of media “out there,” others will see it, and that is an important media literacy lesson. I see a lot of light bulbs turn on when kids see other people reacting to their work, whether those people are their parents or an entire theater full of people. Distributing one’s work can be an encouraging ego boost, but it can also be humbling and intimidating. Either way, it promotes responsible media-making.

The award-winning documentary was about an awesome, kid-friendly art museum where you can touch and interact with the artwork. It is called the UnMuseum, and it is housed in Cincinnati’s Contemporary Art Center. You can see the video in the youth section of the Media Bridges Web site.

Those of you looking to hone your armpit farting skills will have to wait. I haven’t been able to put those videos up yet. One problem that we constantly have with younger groups is that the instructor always ends up having to do additional editing after the outreach or class is over. Does anyone has a good model for this or any advice?

Summer activities at Egleston Y

Leena Silverman — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:25:24 +0000

Hey everyone,
Thought I would update for the summer. At the Egleston Square YMCA we are having a camp for the after school program children. I am offering a Creative Writing curriculum that I wrote myself for about 6-10 kids; I included digital storytelling. Basically this curriculum lets the kids explore different ways of telling a story. We will write poetry, short stories, fiction or non-fiction, since they are kind of young the short stories will be more like picture books. Then we will do the digital stories. I am thinking about just having the while group do one digital story because it might be a little too much for each person to do their own. What do you think?

Also, for the school age kids i will start a math club. I have been collecting math resources and websites in our delicious website. I have a lot of colorful math games to do and work sheets.

For the Teen Center I am providing a 6 week Media Literacy workshop called Media Minds, established through the YWCA.

The Open Access at the computer lab is getting a slow start, but there is one lady that comes in who wants to have computer lessons, so i teach her Excel and basic computer skills.
So, lots of educational goodness and fun is happening this summer!

Danielle on TV! on CCTV's Critical Focus

danielle martin — Wed, 30 May 2007 03:12:23 +0000

Check out my appearance on a panel about changing the media on Cambridge's cable access station, CCTV Critical Focus show. As it says on their blog, "Critical Focus: A Forum on Media Today is a series of six one-hour videos investigating how representations in the media affect culture, politics, and behavior. Each episode features a diverse panel of experts from academia, journalism, the broadcast industry, and social action agencies assessing the impact of media on our society." This episode focused on discussing some concrete ways citizens can learn about and change the media landscape. Of course, I plugged both the CTC VISTA Project and MassIMPACT's work doing digital storytelling with housing developments in the Boston area. I felt pretty privileged to sit next to fellow panelists like Nettrice Gaskins, Lauren-Glenn Davitian, and Steve Provizer, who've been working on community media, technology, and activism for YEARS, and have folks interested in what I had to add.

Click To Play

Youth Development

Colleen Kelly — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 16:38:58 +0000

Tips for Teaching

There are many methods and approaches but the ones that work best are youth-centered and hands-on. On subsequent pages are several methods and approaches for planning and getting started with your DAY program, including project-based learning, portfolios, after school and in-school activities. Also, creating the space (DAY studio) is important, as well as developing the actual activities for your program. Upon request are some great lessons for teaching digital art (on CD).

Digital Art Youth Program (DAY)

In 2000, three community-based technology centers across the country launched "ArtTech", a five-week summer program that introduced youth to multimedia. Soon after the project was renamed the Digital Art Youth Program or DAY. Nettrice Gaskins created a resource guide for practitioners that was made available upon request. She also ran a local DAY program at the Boston Neighborhood Network from 2001-2004, with the help of an AmeriCorps VISTA (Derek Hixon). The Boston program served nearly a hundred local youth between the ages of 13 and 18. Additionally, Nettrice worked with a public high school in Dorchester to create school-based curriculum for teachers and students.

Creating the DAY resource guide has been a labor of love for Nettrice (she did not profit from it). For more information about the guide visit the DAY web site.

Computer Animation

In 2005, Nettrice taught three computer animation classes at the Massachusetts College of Art. Two of the classes were for 12-18 year olds and the other was for high school students. For these classes Nettrice developed a web site and curriculum. The activities culminated in a CD/DVD and screening of youth work. The work can also be seen on the web here: Digital Media Channel.

Youth Entrepreneurship

Wikipedia defines entrepreneurship as "the practice of starting new organizations, particularly new businesses generally in response to identified opportunities."

Organizations such as National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship have the mission "to teach entrepreneurship to young people from low-income communities to enhance their economic productivity by improving their business, academic and life skills."

One of CTC VISTA Project's participants, The Young Entrepreneurs Society (YES), has a mission of "North Quabbin/Franklin County youth unlocking their potential through entrepreneurship, job readiness, financial and technology education and action" and does so with programs such as a buisness center, cyber cafe, and social service marketing projects.

What other projects or ideas are floating around about entrepreneurship? Here's a place to start!

cool documentary that i think digital media folks working with youth might like to see...

brittney fosbrook — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 18:53:24 +0000

as a vista in the city i am alway looking out for free and interesting events. the public library in san francisco is pretty amazing at showing free films a couple of times per month and last night i had the pleasure of checking out the awesome documentary by Byron Hurt entitled " Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes." The documentary take as in-depth look at masculinity, misogyny, violence and homophobia within mainstream hip hop music and culture. although i thought the analysis could have run a bit deeper, the film makes a point to trace the interconnections of white supremacy, racism, homophobia, sexism and capitalism. and not only that, there are appearances by 50cent, mos def, fat joe and a bunch of other famous artists.

the screening was sponsored by a bunch of youth media production companies in the bay area and many of the audience members were youth affiliated with the said organizations. the film is showing on pbs, tuesday, february 20th so check your local listings. i know that there are screenings of the film around the country. a five minute cut of the documentary is also on youtube.

check it out and happy hump day.

Digital Media Group - November Updates

danielle martin — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 22:20:02 +0000

Sorry for the delay, but here’s the notes from the last Digital Media group call on November 3rd. As a whole, a lot of our conversation centered on the challenges of working with youth media projects, such as lack of equipment, youth motivation, developing handouts and guides. Subsequently, AJ followed up by volunteering to gather any curriculum and handouts people are willing to share. [Check out the archives of the discussion list at http://www.ctcvista.org/forum/] In future calls, we plan to center on topics such as web design techniques (Dreamweaver or Drupal), video editing help and youth development. Our next call is scheduled for Friday, December 15th at 2pm EST.

Here's some individual highlights:

AJ & Kevin (Home Inc) - working on after school programs with little to no video equipment; HOME Inc is evicted from office space and moving to BNN Roxbury; developing Final Cut materials for youth; challenge of distributing tasks out to large group of youth (8-22 youth) to do one video project; meeting challenge of no equipment by improvising and using cell phones; offered to gather some of CTC VISTAs curriculum and handouts
Colleen (Project Think Different) - see article for Digest about new Media Literacy Series program (Media Watch Teens she trained in the summer now lead 4 months of trainings for other org's like Roxbury B&G Club; office dynamics and personnel changes at PTD adding to her workload;
Dina (Project Think Different) - now that PTD electronic community projectthinkdifferent.org/civic/ ("a socially conscious My Space") is in it's final stages (where she edited Drupal/PHP modules by hand) with radio, forums, and podcasts - its soft launch on 10/31, working on some print materials for PTD and CTC VISTA and re-organizing the PTD filing system
Gariet (Portland Community Television/OLLIE) - getting hardware soon for MNN's Digital Distribution project and continuing to work with schools; requests more time in the day!
Jeff (UTEC)- switched to TANP group; we’ll miss you!
Jessica (Center for Digital Storytelling) – participated train-the-trainer in Ukiah, now she's trained to do those workshops (future workshops include foster youth and domestic violence); research about who's doing storytelling in Berkeley area is now on hold because they don't have time to support; working on content for the StoriesforChange.net portal; working on redesigning some promotional materials and a Final Cut Xpress handout update (will try to share shorter version)
Lashanda (Benton Harbor African Arts and Culture Council) - programs are going ok but working with supervisor to get updated computer equipment.
Lauren (Media Bridges) - getting some content for the youth channel but needs more!; in process of setting up youth film festival with schools (old name "Sprockets") as Youth Channel kickoff and more established programs for youth such as an 8 week project based workshop in January; interested in doing collaboration to go to conferences;
Ray (Computers4Kids) - developing workshops and writing them up; 10-15 workshops developed so far - digital photography, 3d modeling with Bryce, photoshop composites, web page design, silent movies with imovie, remix in GarageBand;
Richard (MOLLIE) – working on video projects in schools, where the subjects of the videos match the school curriculum, such as astronomy – challenged by lack of hard drive space for editing; wants to set up an audio production track but need to survey the community
Shaneka (WYTEC) - attending an Entreprenuership conference in AZ; developed a tshirt business/marketing plan with youth; continuing to develop a girls program; also developing an adult computer literacy program (created her own manual) based on resources on GCF Global learning (will check about sharing the .pdf)
Tony (BGC AZ) - Techathalon this weekend; he's been doing the setup with getting teams organized and working behind the scenes; posted AYW animations (with video and sound); lack of real programming for teens, so he's trying to do movie/video projects but teens don't like the more structured programming;; got his motorcycle going as a form of transportation;
Will (Reel Works) - been working on Benefit 11/14, documentary about the program; helps with classes, guides people through the editing process; working on using MySpace to recruit new youth, and putting movies and films up on there;

My Letter to John Mayer...I'm Not Waiting

danielle martin — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 20:52:00 +0000

Dear Mr. Mayer,

I've been a fan of your songwriting and style for quite a while. I've persisted in this admiration even in the face of people calling you a "sell-out", your experimentation with new genres, and your screaming female co-ed fan base. Many times, I've marveled on how well you articulated moments of behavior and feelings around growing as a post college adult and finding a purpose in the world. I tend to actually pay for your albums and listen to what you have to say, as do millions of other people. In this way, I've become a consumer of both your goods and your philosophy.

But I am also an activist. I believe every person has a story and deserves to be heard. I speak out for what I believe, but I also made a now two-year commitment an AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers In Service to America) to actually take action to support my beliefs as well. And while I try to read and listen to as many voices as I can to both support and challenge my beliefs, the one voice I refuse to give audience is one of apathy.

In my work as a VISTA (especially with my placement this year with the housing developments of Boston and Massachusetts), I've listened to many types of voices: voices of fear of walking down a street to participate in GED programs because of gang violence; voices of anger around misrepresentation in the media; voices of exhaustion about the powerlessness caused by bureaucratic systems and ignorance of opportunity. Many of these voices are not heard beyond the walls of small community centers, church basements, or under funded technology programs, and certainly not in the mainstream media or on the floor of Congress. And I have to admit there were moments in the past couple weeks where I was shocked that people were hesitant to share their voice with me because of who I am and where I come from.

Here’s why I’m writing to you. Your song "Waiting on the World to Change" angers me - not because I disagree when it calls out an unpopular war, media bias, or corporate owned media content, but because its proposed solution is to abide. I'm glad you “care” and have awareness that “the fight ain’t fair.” But I’m discouraged to hear that you know these things, but have chosen to use your far-reaching voice to encourage our shared generation to merely “wait” for it all to blow over until power comes to us by default.

While working with non-profits, I’ve encountered a surprising fear of change in the way we do things, even though our missions is often to exact change in other institutions, systems, and individuals. In the face of such stoicism, some fellow VISTAs have expressed frustration and say “why doesn’t that older generation just loosen up a bit or let us take the lead?” In our role of building capacity in the war against poverty and disempowerment in one short year, there’s no room for VISTAs to wait for the voice of the people we serve to be heard. We’re not volunteers in waiting for America. We’re “standing at a distance” from the sources of funding and power in our communities, but we’re trying to improve the system and enact change NOW because the need is not always in the far off future

So every “we” uttered in your song angers me, because you purport to represent my fellow VISTAs and I…and you don’t. If you feel misunderstood, Mr. Mayer, then I’d wish you’d turn your writing talent and power to reach millions of listeners toward highlighting the work of few who are trying to empower people to make change, if you’re not willing to do it yourself.

Sincerely,

Danielle Martin

VISTA Leader

CTC VISTA Project / MassIMPACT

P.S. Please note: the opinions in this letter are solely my own and do not represent those of the CTC VISTA Project or MassIMPACT. In addition, you could also begin to remedy this situation by providing free tickets to your shows to any interested AmeriCorps volunteers and giving them a chance to share their work with your audiences. VISTAs love free tickets.

Media Literacy on the Streets (of Boston)

Colleen Kelly — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 19:47:16 +0000

by Colleen Kelly

You would think creating a new media literacy series would be easy enough. There are enough of them out there. Thus, when I was asked as a brand new VISTA to create a new media literacy curriculum for Project: Think Different, I figured I would just quote some Noam Chomsky and maybe throw in some media statistics and get something at least presentable together. The task seemed simple.

Project Think Different Media Watch Team

But, (there is always a “but”) I needed to make the curriculum accessible to teens. Boston teens. Boston teens living in the neighborhoods in which teenage death rates are the highest, in which an attraction to hip-hop music and commercial materialism are identifying aspects of the youth culture, and in which young people are most likely to be portrayed in the news media in relation to situations of crime and violence. Clearly these are the teens in the greatest need of media literacy awareness, but how in the world was a white, relatively affluent, punk, college-graduate female from Austin, Texas ever going to create something that actually worked for these kids? Seeing as my first days in Boston included getting severely confused by public transportation, being shocked at how many people lacked innate kindness, and staring in disbelief at how the seemingly numerous Dunkin’ Donuts actually all had customers, the task seemed slightly daunting at best. How could I ever relate?

A lot has changed since that first week. I live amongst the people I work with. I listen to the music they listen to. I shop at the places they shop. I see the things they see. I travel the way they travel. I even use food stamps. It is amazing how much you can learn through immersion. As any foreign language instructor will advise, immersion in a culture is the best way to learn a second language; my project wasn’t any different.

Now that I have immersed myself in the community in which I work, being the Youth Media Coordinator for Project: Think Different has gone extremely well. Project: Think Different’s mission is to create a renaissance in music, film and video media education in order to engage people in civic dialogue and action among disenfranchised communities to ensure equity and fairness. We use the media arts as an organizing tool to reach disenfranchised young people and enable them to “think differently” and think big about their ability to create positive change in their lives, communities, and society at large.

After a whole lot of work with our Media Watch Team (a group of ten teens that work part time at Project: Think Different and came up with the outlines for the workshops in the curriculum), fairly high stress levels, and maybe a small skirmish or two with my co-developer Cara Powers, the Media Action Series is complete. It is an interactive multi-session training, co-facilitated by the youth of the Media Watch Team. The new curriculum addresses the media’s role in creating a culture of violence, racism, sexism, and commercialism while educating, empowering and organizing youth to take action on the subjects of media literacy, accountability, access and policy. The Series will look at the various forms of media with a focus on entertainment media, popular culture, and Hip Hop media specifically, that youth consume as entertainment and informants of their socio-political perspectives and social behaviors.

Our objective through the Media Action Series is to create a culture in which young people believe in their power to create change in the media and beyond, and to provide youth the education and access to resources to become well informed, socially responsible, and participatory citizens of society.

The Media Action Series launches the first week of November, 2006. We hope to examine how the media’s portrayal of youth and minority communities affects their own sense of worth and value to society, how our behavior, language, and attitude is affected by the media industry, and likewise, how other people’s perceptions of our behavior are effected by the media’s perpetuation and proliferation of stereotypes. We also hope to address the negative aspects of today’s commercial Hip Hop and popular culture with solution-oriented approaches, inspiring young people to become more conscious consumers of music, video, television, radio, and news media, enabling them to recognize the alternatives available that offer more empowering and positive experiences; thus cultivating a culture of young people who believe in their own ability to demand and create those alternatives.

By keeping the curriculum centered on a hip hop culture, I feel the Media Action Series has a unique potential to engage Boston’s youth and inspire them to take part in positive social change. All in all, I am happy with the finished product. By learning my second language, the language of a Boston teen, I have become part of something so much bigger than myself. I can only hope some of Boston’s youth can learn a fraction of everything I have.

Colleen Kelly, a current CTC VISTA member, is the Youth Media Coordinator at Project: Think Different. Working in the Priority Area of Digital Media, she has developed a new hip-hop centric media literacy curriculum that will be presented at various locations around Boston. Colleen recently relocated to East Boston, MA from Austin, Texas, (the Live Music Capital of the World!) where she graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science degree in Radio, Television, and Film. Colleen hosted a talk show on Austin's community radio station for four years and has also produced multiple short documentaries.

Media Literacy / Education

danielle martin — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 22:41:05 +0000

Media literacy is basically the "ability to “access, analyse, evaluate and use” media." (Wikipedia). Many non-profit digital media programs find it essential to incorporate media literacy components into their workshops and programs, but what's the best approach? Are there free curriculum available out there for CTC VISTAs to use? Does it make sense to teach media literacy to CTC VISTAs themselves?

Here's the ideas generated during the brainstorming at the Fall '06 PSO around this topic:

-media construction (reference MNN curriculum, ACME)
--developing a critical eye
-connecting media making to school curriculums
-equipment donation
-audio production