Multimedia,+Video,+and+associated+New+Literacies+of++Web+2.0+Reading+&+Writing

===We need to produce a 3-minute (or less) digital video that addresses the issue of cell phone use in the classroom. Your audience will be high school and higher education classroom teachers. Your discussion challenge is to consider what "new literacies" may be involved in producing a digital video, and how they might be learned.===

__**Cell Phones as Educational Tools:**__

Cell phones can serve as:

Communication tools:
· Phone calls (e.g. in cases of an emergency) · Conference calls · Text messaging (e.g. to take polls of students opinions, administer assessments, inform students of real-time current events)

· Locate information on the Internet · Download and use education programs · Access live and archived lectures · Provide maps. · Read a electronic book or file · Voice-activated applications such as conducting a search online; assist sight-impaired learners · Evaluate information on and received through the Internet · Synthesize information on and received through the Internet

· Capture Videos · Capture images · Record/capture audio · Listen to music. · Learn a foreign language by listening to audio lessons

· Provide maps · Act as global positioning systems. · Find local businesses/addresses ·  Provide driving/walking directions

Other:
· Dictionaries · Calculators · Daily Planner/Calendar · Translators


 * __Ideas that can be included in the video:__**

**1. The key problems teachers have with unsanctioned cell phone use in schools include:**

• Sending or receiving test answers. __Idea/Comment:__ Is it necessary for the students to learn information that can so easily be exchanged in a text message? If they can find the correct answer at the test time using their cell phone, they can find it anytime. So they don’t need to know the answer by heart. Maybe such types of test questions don’t need to be tested. Anyway human brain memory has limited capacity, so information that can be found so easily don’t need to be remembered. Now that information can be easily and quickly accessed at any time, education can focus on the meaning of information, rather than rote memorization and recall. This perspective allows educators to better tailor content to students' interests and needs than a classic model of memorization-based learning.

• Bullying or harassment via unwanted text messaging. __Idea/Comment:__ Does it make any difference if the bullying or harassment takes place in after school hours? If students don’t use their mobile phones at school they will use them for sure after school, hence by not allowing the students to use them during class time we just postpone the problem for the afternoon or evening. On the other hand, mobiles are just a means for bullying or harassment it’s not bullying or harassment themselves. Students or any other person who want to do any of the two (bullying or harassment) can find other ways to do it. Why don’t we enable our students to avoid these people or these actions? That would be a more effective way to protect them. It is important the remember that cell phones are merely portable modern tool that extends each student's technological capabilities. Cell phones have such a wide range of capabilities that their virtues, as well as their potential abuses, are varied and sometimes unexpected. Only be thoroughly exploring the myriad uses for such multi-media devices can we truly come to appre ciate their utility, as well as come to understand their limitations and strengths. A paper and pencil can slander and bully students, as well as simple words; cell phones are a new era of technology, and this technology should be understood and experimented with before tossing these capabilities out with the bathwater.  • Taking and distributing inappropriate digital photos of students. __Idea/Comment:__ Students can take photos using regular cameras and distribute them by email. Does it make any difference the technology that is used? As for distribution, e-mail can certainly provide a medium for distribution -- should this technology, similarly, be banned? Certainly such restrictions are ill-suited for a modern, progressive educational perspective, and more constructive paths of mediation should be considered. One of the primary reasons that this issue is raised is because of the ubiquity of cell phones in today's schools, whereas cameras and video recorders were never so prevalent. Another reason for the fear associated with this topic is the ease of distribution of sensitive materials. These issues, and others, however, should underline the power of these ever-present tools, and lead professional educators and administrators to consider the ways that cell phones can be used in a more appropriate fashion. A computer, too, is a powerful tool, and students are largely expected to use this resource for their daily assignments and tasks. Cell phones are quickly approaching laptop-level technology and capabilities -- the fact that they are primarily viewed as a phone is a gross misrepresentation of their growing potential.

__**Characteristics/ Features of a memorable video (based on HuskyCT Initial thoughts):**__ ·  It is memorable because it is very scary and realistic. · I remembered the video both because of the video itself and because of its relation to my real world experience. · It is memorable simply because it is hilarious. ·  Videos that have a catchy jingle are very memorable because the tune is stuck in my head. · It was memorable because I couldn't understand what the commercial was about until the end of it. At the end all of them make sense. After watching it ones, I wanted to watch it again and then it was even more funny. · Taking something so simple out of context makes it very amusing. There are some things to say here about the betrayal of expectations, and the ways that such things can benefit abstract thinking, and learning in general