Response1:Prosumer Approaches to New Media

In "Prosumer Approaches to New Media Composition: Consumption and Protection in Continuum," Danial Anderson encourages educators to use digital media in their classrooms, saying that so much can be done, even with just the use of a word processor. The term "prosumer" refers to "the convergence of professional and consumer level equipment and software," says Anderson. This meeting of professional, yet accessible software allows for consumers to create high quality work, while having "a sense of agency as a producer." Anderson begins by making suggestions for teachers to incorporate new media by capturing still frames; he used Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour." Students were asked to select an image and explicate on how the visual served as an interpretation of the story. This assignment is a terrific idea because: a)it presents the story in a visual manner, which is more evocative and interesting and b)it makes use of Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligence, which states that every person learns differently - some through visual or spatial mediums, others through linguistic, etc.

Next, Anderson speaks about about another project, in which he asked his students (future K-12 educators) to explore issues of non-textual communication. One of his main focuses was the re-purposing of new media. While he spoke about this idea, he provided a quote from Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin's Remediation in text-form on the right-hand side:

"No medium today, and certainly no single media event, seems to do its cultural work in isolation from other social and economic forces. What is new about new media comes from the particular ways in which they refashion older media and the ways in which older media refashion themselves to answer the challenges of new media." I think this is an interesting precept - teaching students how to refashion older media and used images, music and film stills in new and innovative ways. As Anderson states, this allows the students to become composers, which is a far cry from merely being a consumer.

Anderson ends his video by speaking about the final projects he gave his students, in which he asked them to create a video that conveyed a message (some chose to focus on standardized testing). Snippets of his students' work was shown, and the videos seemed successful. Overall, Anderson's message was conveyed clearly and persuasively. He showed various projects one could do with students, from the low-end of the continuum (the still frame analysis) to asking students to take more active roles and conduct research, interviews and produce their own videos. Visually, I wish the video of him speaking was centered and the text on the right-hand side incorporated into the video, as I found myself distracted, trying to view the video while reading at the same time. Constantly, I pressed paused to take notes, as Anderson had lots of interesting text, but it seemed too separate. Additionally, at one point, the text was black on a black background, which made it difficult to read. I would have opted for a red or yellow to make it stand out more. The music added to the appeal; it was young and current with two of Eminem's songs and other popular artists. Overall, it was an enjoyable video. As a high school English teacher, I would love to do some of these projects with my students, but there is no budget for computers in the classroom, so this seems like something that might be better suited to schools with more resources.