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/Empowermen

t “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

Manda Orlandini, Spring 2009

Lesson 2Media 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

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 changethe 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)

Nooruddin Farooqui’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: Nooruddin Farooqui’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.”

Nooruddin Farooqui (Spring 2009)

Lesson 4 Change is Possible

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/

”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

Students Model the Possibilities for Us!

Works Cited Student work from:

Marta Weber, Phoua Xiong (Spring 2007)

Kim McMahon (Fall 2008)

Brittany Campbell, Nooruddin Farooqui, Megan Flock, Manda Orlandini (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