Service learning may 2_2010

Participatory Archives
http://multiculturalamericaong.blogspot.com/

150 Multicultural America
 The students from the Film 150 class offer much to consider
regarding the future of education.

 In Film 150 students build what I call “Participatory Archives.”
These are online multimedia rich archives developed in
collaboration with students and community partners such as: Kids
Matter (foster care), Walnut Way and L.A.N.D (neighborhood
development), MPS/Loyola Academy (education), COA Youth and
Family Centers, Our Next Generation, Boys and Girls Clubs (youth
mentoring), Hope Network (single parent support).

 What are the lessons the 150 students have for us about the future
of education and our larger collective future?

Media Matters

Film 150 classes hold online live blog (cross class virtual seminar) on
politics of difference in Avatar and District 9 [April 23, 2010]
Reposted at http://tinyurl.com/33v9he3

Lesson 1
 Media Matters: explosion of materials that are
downloaded, shared, remixed, uploaded.

 Language of media requires new skills for “speaking”
and “writing”

 Will our students be consumers only of media or also
creators/producers

 Media Literacy and Fluency key to 21st Century
education

Revisit assumptions about digital knowledge

 We assume at times students already know everything
about digital/computer learning as if they had a chip
implanted at birth

 Students need to learn digital skills
 Students teach us an openness to technology and bring
excitement and experimentation to the new forms of
expression and “writing.”

 Students are empowered by this process

Student
Experimentation/Exploration/Emp
owerment
 “I must say the first few weeks of
this class were quite intense and I
was very overwhelmed and had
no idea what I had gotten myself
into. I had even considered
dropping this course because I
just am not good with technology
and all this creative making
material.”
 “I found a windows movie making
program that was super easy and
perfect for me making a slide
show type of movie…I think it
turned out better than I had ever
imagined and it was relatively
easy.”
 MEGAN FLOCK Spring 2009

MandaOrlandini, Spring 2009

Lesson 2
Media Myths Can Be Discredited
 Harmful/hateful ways of seeing/speaking can be
changed
 Critical readings/thought part one but there is a second
step needed
 Education needs to move beyond university walls
 Education needs to move beyond the instant click of
information
 Education must include meeting and speaking with
people outside of the university

Media Myths Discredited
 This photo essay tells the story of a
girl I met through Kids Matter.
Meeting her was an experience I will
not soon forget. *Leila is
an exceptional girl with a really
bright future. Unfortunately, her past
is not as great .But she continues
to excel at everything she puts her
mind to. *Leila's story was truly an
inspiration to me, as I hope it will be
to you.

Kim McMahon photo essay

Initially, I had it in my mind when I found out
that I was going to be working with a foster care
program that I was going to be working with a
bunch of rowdy, troublemakers. It seemed that I
already had a predisposition about foster care,
and the people who were placed into foster
care. …

I had seen numerous movies where foster care
youth have been portrayed in a negative light,
whether it is troublemakers, bullies, or even
drug addicts. I’ve never had a personal
experience with foster care, and I have never
known anyone in foster care, so I was really
basing my own opinions on the closest thing I
could relate to: the media……

Brittany Campbell

Lesson 3:
A model for change
 Our photo/video interview and reflection essay gave us
a model for changing media stereotypes

 Students went outside the university and interviewed
those engaged with our community partner and/or in
neighborhoods where the partner was based

 Students also wrote reflective essays in response to
the conversation

 The result: we found a model for change

An equation for change
the tipping Point: the camera + conversation = compassion

Phoua Xiong’s Photos

“If I traveled to 35th and Lisbon every Monday and Wednesday and
assigned stereotypes to everything I saw in the media to real life, my
experience at Our Next Generation would have been much different….”

Monika Janczuk, Fall 2009

Dialogue: “I’m black, you’re white, that’s
cool though”….

 On my drive home from the Goldin
Center I had a chance to reflect on
some of the six year old wisdoms I
had heard that night. Stereotypes
are as common as horrible high
school garage bands, but even to
a six year old? Our different skin
color seemed to be continually on
Jonathon’s mind; was this just
curiosity? I have more questions
than answers at this point, but I
hope to find out more about race
and what it means to these
kids…..Cory Miller
(Spring 2010)

 Students transform compassion to something much
more than feeling and become a voice of conscience
for our community.

 Daniel Benson’s project notes the physical deterioration
of public schools (empty bookshelves) as well as the
efforts to remember community history (through
murals)

 NooruddinFarooqui’s final project looked at impact of
economic inequalities and segregation on foster care.

From Compassion to
Conscience

Daniel Benson Spring 2010

Tale of Two Cities:
NooruddinFarooqui’s project “Conquered by Segregation”

From: “Conquered by Segregation”
 “What’s interesting about these pictures is that all of the
photo’s I took are of areas that are virtually MINUTES
from each other. Milwaukee has always intrigued me in
this aspect in that one minute your surrounded
by luxury and the next your surrounded by houses in
which you wonder if people can even life in. It is
honestly, horrifying.”

NooruddinFarooqui (Spring 2009)

Lesson 4
Change isPossible
 If our students can change, can be transformed by a
camera, a conversation, and engagement, then we all can
change. We can transform, our future can be transformed.
Let our students be the models. We have much to learn from
their wisdom and leadership.

 Marta Weber’s reflection (next slide) from the first 150
“participatory archive” models the possibilities for us.

 For more links to Film 150 projects, see:
http://film150kidsmatterspring09.blogspot.com/

Students Model the Possibilities for Us!
”To be completely honest, I didn’t even know where North Ave. was until this
year, let alone where the Walnut Way neighborhood was—or that it even
existed. I knew Milwaukee was highly segregated and that beyond the east
side the city was economically diverse. Then this class, and particularly this
project, introduced me to Walnut Way, a once economically stable community,
wiped out by the proposal of an expressway and the closing of major
manufacturers. A community, which now is undergoing restoration,
rehabilitation, and redevelopment—the words are endless.

This project forced me, or shall I say allowed me to go out and discover the
rich history of the culturally diverse city I live in. Once I was briefly exposed to
the brief history of a once thriving African-American community, I was eager to
learn more about its past, and once I was exposed to the youth of the
community, I was more importantly concerned with its future.”

Marta Weber final project

Works Cited
 Student work from:
Marta Weber, PhouaXiong (Spring 2007)

Kim McMahon (Fall 2008)

Brittany Campbell, NooruddinFarooqui, Megan Flock, MandaOrlandini (Spring
2008)

Josh Bryan, Monika Janczuk (Fall 2009)

Daniel Benson, Cory Miller (Spring 2010)

Other sources:

http://www.avatarmovie.com/

http://tinyurl.com/37h77cr(MasterNewMedia)

Other photos by Vicki Callahan

Service learning may 2_2010

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