Alice's Journey Down the Rabbit Hole

As I mentioned in this week's blog posts, my students are becoming increasingly concerned over their smart phones and their privacy. To a teenager, their bedroom door use to provide them the utmost privacy and if it was ever removed from it's hinges, as we've seen in so many teen movies and shows, then they felt their live was ending! But I'm happy to say that teenagers are starting to see that their privacy is violated every day thanks to the thing they feel they can't live without: their phones. And the social media that access from it. One article my students read was from Scholastic, all about how "Alexa" was being requested to testify during a murder trial. Basically the police wanted access to the information which brought up a whole plethora of constitutional issues. I found this article that shed some more recent light on the issue: " Judge Orders Amazon to Turn Over Echo Recordings in Double Murder Case " by Zack Wittaker. The articl...

This week in class, we transitioned from studying memes to studying GIFS (hard -g sound). We essentially began class with a Tweet-a-Thon, where we all tweeted out our favorite or most recents GIFS.   You can see the GIFS I love on my twitter page , but after poking around on GIFHY, I found a few more that I love! Give me a good Real Housewives GIF anyday! After, we had a Studio Visit with Brian Lamb,  "Re-Director" of the Learning Technology and Innovation team at Thompson Rivers University. One thing I found interesting, was that in B.C. they have very strict privacy laws. There should be a consent form, letting students know they're data is being collect, but Brian says you're supposed to explain what is happening to the data, but what he says is interesting, is "who knows" what's happening to it! And then the screen went BLACK! Did Google kick Brian off our hangout? Hmmmm...veryyyyy interesting.... Brian then goes on to talk about the Bi...

What is 'art'? What does it 'mean'? Isn't that the age old question?... ...This week we dived into the concept of Net Art right off the bat...so I decided to jump on it! According to  Net Specific: What is Net Art? , it is an art form that " draws on data from other Internet materials and websites, which helps give them their distinctive dynamics and transience." When you google the definition of transience, you get:  the state or fact of lasting only for a short time.  I find this poetic in terms of our class. We're talking about finding our way out of the darkness and hoping that our time in the darkness is transient as well. Hoping that we can voice new ideas and create new laws to protect our privacy in this digital age, but also, what it means to be living in these digital spaces.  I'm digressing but this topic reminded me of the Finstas we talked about a few classes ago: the fake instagrams teenagers are creating, almost like a digita...

Part of this week’s work is to explore a variety of Net Art that might be of interest when producing a “Field Guide to Surviving the Darkness of the Internet”. One of the suggested sites to start with was “The One Million Masterpiece” , which caught my eye right away. What stood out at first, was the idea that this was a global project, capturing how people viewed the world from a variety of different eyes. As a teacher in a not so diverse town, it’s my job is to teach diversity through the stories I put in my students’ hands, which is part of why this piece of Net Art stood out for me. Through exploring the site, I found that this is one of the worlds largest collaboration of art, and that anyone can participate, no matter how ‘artistic’ they feel they are. This is one picture/image made up of millions. With the creation of the internet, it’s easy to get lost in all there is, part of why the ‘darkness’ is so scary. This collection of art is a beacon of hope, a lighthouse f...

Maybe it's the hair. Maybe it's the  calm, but commanding demeanor. Whatever it is, Boromir/Ned Stark makes for the perfect combination of a "dank meme"  (insert eye roll here as I recall a student that said  "dank meme" every five seconds).  As someone who never thought of memes much more than a form of entertainment, I found the article  "Explainer: what are memes?" from The Conversation to be really helpful! Throughout class, I heard phrases like "replicability" and "searchability", which I could conclude what they meant, but had never heard in reference to memes. The article described the following terms for the reader:  Replicability . Digital objects are infinitely reproducible and exploitable across a range of platforms. Searchability . Finished versions of memes as well as raw materials and templates are easily found. Scalability . Digital objects are created for a particular audience but with th...

Give me all the  Sean Bean memes!                 In class this week, we talked about all  memes! Not going to lie, there was a part of me that thought it's just funny-does it have to mean more?  And even as we talked, and I took it all in, I couldn't help but think we were over thinking it. As we were thinking about memes in our culture, there were some references I didn't quite get. Not sure I remember the shark and Fonzie reference, as well as another one that seems to be escaping me right now-but one thing we talked about was how sometimes a meme isn't understood unless you are in that inner circle, like an inside joke!  S o I found myself googling Teacher Memes...my wheel house!  And then I started to get it...I saw so clearly the sarcasm and the issues highlighted through these memes and immediately got me thinking about future lessons I plan to teach! My students are currently practicing being critical re...

Selfie. One word. But it means so much. It's for the Kylie Jenner's of the world to get likes and compliments and feel good about themselves. It's a way to capture a moment when there's no one to capture it for you. It's about angles and filters, or it's about showing what's real.  Which lately, I feel like a lot people have. I was scrolling through my social media and realized so many of the people I follow post selfies. TONS AND TONS of selfies! And I started reading them. I found they were incredibly vulnerable and empowering. For example, I follow a lot of teachers, who constantly are posting about the peaks and pits of the profession, which are normally accompanied by a picture of their exhausted face, messy hair, messy room, or stack of ungraded papers that will still be there on Monday because we have lives too! I also happen to follow a lot of new moms, who have been very honest and vocal about their struggles postpartum. The ima...

Here is a typical selfie I take many times a day! I take selfies like this because I'm having a great hair day or because my eye liner wing tips are pretty great that day! But what I love about these pictures, is that I don't post them on social media or anything like that, but I send them to my husband! We have a back and forth game of selfies that fly between us on a daily basis! For mine, there's normally some type of caffeinated beverage involved, such as coffee or diet coke, and there's also almost always food involved! On my husband's part, they're normally of him at his desk making a silly face! I love these selfies because it makes me feel connected to him! And it also makes us both smile! If we're having a bad day, we send a few extra selfies! And it helps! For my #Unselfie, I chose two that reflect a major part of who I am: my love for the water and my love for reading. As I sit here and stare at the snow out my window, I can't help ...

Me: What do I think of selfies? Idk ...I have a whole album of them on my phone! When I make a silly face...have a good hair day... Znelxngr: You're so into yourself!  Me: Shut up Z! Z: It's true! You love looking at yourself in your phone. Idk...the whole selfie phenomenon is absurd. Me: Who cares? It's not like it hurts you to see a selfie? Z: It's the whole idea of them! This image conscious and self-obsessed culture we live in drives me insane. "Finding the right angle" or "Which filter should I choose?" just wastes brain cells.  Me: I mean...I don't disagree. But the selfies I take are harmless. I'm not over hear posting selfies left and right. I have them sure, but I have never once posted a selfie of just my face for vanity or otherwise. Like those girls who post a selfie with the caption: "No makeup. No filter. Just me." or whatever. You really want me to believe that you don't care....bull. Z: Yeah, I agre...