10 Ah has! & 3 Questions

Ah Ha!

1. Advertisers target Facebook users, just like the Feed!

2. In order to better understand the production and persuasive techniques being used "against" them, teens need to know how to analyze the media they see and hear.

3. Another way to better understand the media they see on an everyday basis, is for teens to learn how to create and produce their own media.

4. As educators, we need to harness the positive aspects of new technologies in order to make sure students know how to use them as resources rather than just as entertainment.

5. At least half of the stories we see in the news and read in the paper are advertisements from public relations firms.

6. There's no such thing as multi-tasking, it's just high speed toggling. Our brains may move quickly from one thing to the next, but we can ultimately only focus on one thing at a time.

7. Our students have grown up in a very different culture than we did. Whether it's the televisions, cell phones, or internet, our students need more stimulus and do not seem to learn as well from traditional teaching techniques.

8. One of Feed's themes was the fact that technology does not always work without fault. We need to be cautious not to become too reliant on technologies that could fail us.

9. People in cults have similar characteristics to those who are part of "product cults". We are being advertised to the point where we think owning certain products can fulfill emotional needs.

10. Advertisers are constantly trying to "break though the clutter" to get to their potential clients more effectively as they become numb to more and more advertising. "Cool hunting" is actually a profession!

Questions

1. I am still concerned with the amount of time it takes to properly incorporate media education into my already packed curriculum.

2. Statistics seems to be the one area of math that lends itself well to media education, I'm interested in finding other connections.

3. What can we do to prevent the big corporations from controlling everything from the news we read, to the advertisements we see, to the movies we watch?