The Blog of Eckhoff

Final Project: Stereotypes in the Media

2009-05-03T17:32:00.000-07:00

I went ahead with my plans on focusing on black stereotypes in the media. I planned an entire extension unit to piggy back my "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" unit I usually teach just after winter break. I've included a link to my final write up, which includes an entire narrative of how the unit will progress, a few in-class discussion questions, and cue sets.

Final Write up

The majority of the unit (student activities, resources, etc.) is located here:

Stereotypes in the Media Wiki

I hope you enjoy the materials I put together. Please feel free to comment on anything.

Graphic Novels: I might have to bribe to get them in...

2009-04-19T18:59:00.000-07:00

Back in 2006, I was wrapping up my second year of teaching seniors down in Virginia when a student lent me “Watchmen”, a graphic novel recently turned into a movie, because he knew I was into books like “1984”. It was my first experience with a graphic novel and also one of my favorite experiences with books, in general. Since then, I’ve looked for ways to fit them into my classroom but struggle with how I can fit them into the prescribed curriculum. Up to this point, I’ve done little more than recommend them to students as part of their independent reading requirements for class. Looking at some of the following resources and a few experiments in my classes, I have some ideas.

One of these is a short article on the basics of teaching a graphic novel in a literature class. The others are blogs by educators. The first are entries on teaching graphic novels with links to other sources. The last one is something a masters student put together as part of his thesis on teaching graphic novels.

http://middlehighschool.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_teach_graphic_novels

http://thisteachinglife.blogspot.com/2004/08/graphic-novels-and-comics.html

http://strzyz.blogspot.com/2007/02/graphic-novels-in-classroom.html

http://graphicclassroom.blogspot.com

Beach brings up the software “Comic Life” when discussing students writing their own graphic novels. I tried this myself last fall upon completing the novel “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry”. I assigned my students a few different plot points to present graphically with pictures and text much like a graphic novel. The idea was that they would do this with a published book before doing it to their own stories. We didn’t get that far because the unit was taking too much time. The experiment went well in regards to the students using the program and hitting the main points of each assigned section. What I didn’t like was the students’ limited knowledge of the graphic novel genre. Had I time to do this again, I would at least show them one ahead of time rather than my own crude example of a “Comic Life” project. The students that had experience with graphic novels did a much better job overall. Look here for a few examples from one of my classes:

http://eckhoffla.pbwiki.com/browse/#view=ViewFolder¶m=A1

As far as getting a graphic novel into the classroom, I can fit a few different ones into the curriculum, but still need to get clearance from the powers that be. You know, the ones with the money and power.

Since we spend a great deal of time on “The Diary of Anne Frank” (play) an easy choice would be “Maus”. It fits in with the play perfectly, offers a new perspective on a topic we already study, and still deals with the overall theme of 8th grade literature; how people treat those different from themselves. I like the idea of throwing this in because it would allow us to go through a book as we usually do, but with the added element of images. We could do a lot of different things with analysis in regards to effective and ineffective uses of images to enhance text. Hopefully, analysis such as this would transfer over to part 2 of the graphic novel study; the creation of their own.

I would like to go ahead with my original plan of a narrative paper with a graphic novel component. A big problem I’ll have to work around is kids trying to write stories simply to accommodate the pictures they want to use. I’ve been told by many and know from experience that it’s better to get the story first, media second. I haven’t decided if I would then keep the graphic novel portion a secret until go time.

Many have told me that I shouldn’t do this assignment because of the access issue. Lots of students don’t have access to Internet, digital photography, scanners, etc. I’ve found that by doing creative commons searches on flickr.com is a great way to get around this. It also serves as a great way to get students to try and alter their search terms to find the thing they’re looking for.

The biggest reason I want to add graphic novels to my classroom is the interest level. A few of my students already read them on their own and I feel that the others would get more excited about reading if I added them in. My only worry is that I would turn some of my lesser performing students off from reading altogether since it’s them that read the graphic novels on their own. I don’t want to put a negative connotation on something they read willingly by making it a schoolbook.

The Lovely Local News

2009-03-29T19:41:00.000-07:00

3/24/2009 KARE11 10:00pm

News:Fargo Flood: 3 min.
- Sandbagging
- Weather
- Cresting
- Begging for Volunteers

News:Breckinridge Flood: 1 min.

News:Bismark Flood: 1 min.

News/Weather:Duluth Ice Storm: 30 sec.

News:Elderly couple murder in Hudson, WI: 1 min.

News:Missing man in Crystal Lake: 45 sec.

News/Consumer Safety:Charges against Sarah Jane Olson for Voter Fraud: 3 ½ min.

News:Obama speech about economic recovery: 1 min.

News/Human Interest:Statue of Liberty Crown opening up: 30 sec.

Consumer Interest:Credit Crunch: 5 min.

Weather:Weather: 5 min.

Sports:Sports: 6 min.

Entertainment:Dog Stuck in Tree: 1 min.

Random comments from anchors with weather wrap up: 1 min.

I chose, for this blogpost, to watch KARE11 News because the other local news shows make me kind of depressed for a variety of reasons that I won’t get into right now…

Looking at the above breakdown of the news, you can see that there was actually a lot of actual news going on in this particular broadcast. I was actually quite impressed! I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed with the lack of world news coverage and short time slots allotted to some of the more dramatic local news stories, but they only have 30 minutes.

I picked a pretty unique broadcast to watch; there was a lot of local tragedy going on with the flooding of the Red River Valley so the rhetoric was rather matter of fact. There was a bit of emotional appeal going on in requesting volunteers, but who can fault them for that?

The only part of this particular broadcast that made me raise an eyebrow was the story about Sarah Jane Olson’s return to Minnesota and the possibility of indicting her on voter fraud. It started out as a kind of alert story implied by the urgent speaking tone of the anchors. What transpired, was completely different than what I had anticipated. The people interviewed for this story seemed completely indifferent to Olson’s return and possible voter fraud because she had already spent time in prison. The only person in the whole story to show any concern at all was a state senator, whose name escapes me. KARE11 even went so far as to interview the attorney general about the issue…which is, apparently, a total non issue. Olson had been investigated for voter fraud before and they came up with nothing. It seemed that KARE11 was implying that this woman should just be left alone at this point. I would almost call this segment an entertainment piece because I found the entire topic quite amusing.

What always surprises me about local news is the amount of time the shows spend on weather and sports. I know that weather can be a big factor in peoples’ lives, so it makes sense that a local station would spend so much time on it, but the sports stories can sometimes drag on an on for no apparent reason. On this particular night, they spent a lot of time highlighting scores, which seems legitimate, but I know that in the past KARE11 has spent a lot of time with the “Perk at Play” segment and human interest stories based on local athletes. This suggests that they are playing to our community’s want to know more about personal stories, or are trying to keep us from feeling too negative about the state of things. In other, national, news broadcasts, they tend to focus a lot more on the economy, corrupt politicians, and war.

Anonymity and Empathy...or Not

2009-03-25T19:50:00.000-07:00

One of the things I like to do in the mornings is peruse the Star Tribune website to see what’s happening in the city. Over the past few months, my interest has transferred from the actual articles to the comments left by other readers. They consistently entertain me because of the sheer range of attitudes they cover. When I was thinking about what to analyze for this week’s post, I had a few options but decided on the comment section of a Star Tribune article when I saw one with which I have a personal connection: “Cold and wide and shallow: Anxiety hits the Red River Valley". Having grown up in this area and living through the flood of 1997, I felt I had a bit of expertise in such matters.
In the past, I’ve noticed that the comment sections in these articles typically follow a pattern in which three to four major threads develop with sporadic thoughts intertwined. The major threads typically turn into pointed arguments in which some members simply try to discredit other view points while others resort to direct, personal attacks. Rarely, does anybody change anybody else’s mind; at least the comment sections never include enough information to reasonably assume so.
When I came across the article about the flooding, there were a mere five comments. I didn’t feel that was enough to warrant interaction, so I “lurked” until I was able to amass a collection of 29 comments. At first glance, it appeared that the comments were going to follow the typical pattern, but I noticed some irregularities; presumably because many of the posts came from people with personal connections to the Red River Valley.
In looking at the posts, I kept careful note of the tone of each comment, the different viewpoints presented, and how many people posted in response to others. What surprised me most was the sarcastic tone taken by many of the participants of this particular thread. Stories like this have historically brought on critical viewpoints of people in trouble, but the cavalier attitude people threw at the victims of this year’s flood seem more poingiant than usual. One person writes, “They made their bed, now they have to sleep in it. Or at least that's how it should be. But nope, we have to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into flood control to subsidize their stupidity” referring to the people that are asking for help with sandbagging. This pretty much sums up one of the major attitudes present.

The other major tone present in the Red River Valley Flood thread can best be described as academically condescending. In between the sarcastic jibes and name calling, a few participants posted well thought out, yet rather condescending, arguments in support of the people living in the flood plain or suggesting that they relocate. One participant writes this about the flat spots near rivers: “This is the flood plain and virtually all rivers in an unmodified (natural) state have them. It's the way rivers deal with spring runoff and it IS the adaption. It also tends to make rich farmland as the finer, easier to suspend soil is what's carried by the water”. This is one of the more tame posts present on the thread. The strange part is that these logical and academic posts rarely see a response. In fact, on this thread, none of them did. The only ones that received replies were the sarcastic ones and the few that employed personal attacks.

The personal attack posts are rare, but they did make a few appearances on this thread. One person writes in response to this comment about the people in the Red River Valley, “Move. Problem solved” with “What ever you name is, next time you eat a piece of food, remember, the good folks in the Midwest created it it for your foul mouth..so if they would ..MOVE. you would starve”. What strikes me most about this is the reference to the original poster’s “foul mouth”. There was nothing foul in the original post. This kind of behavior usually goes back and forth for up to six posts, but in this instance, the interaction stopped after this one exchange.
Beach writes about the possibilities of anonymity available to online chats, blogs, and wikis, which, I think, have a lot to do with the different attitudes on this thread; especially the rather crass and sarcastic ones. When one chooses to comment on the Star Tribune website, they must create a username, but there are no rules about what you must call yourself. In fact, it’s very difficult to track down the people behind the usernames at all, which I found out in an effort to ask some of them a question or two about their posts. Since these people are free to choose any identity with no real thought of any consequences for their comments, they seem to communicate much more honestly to the point of becoming offensive.
In a society where empathy and courtesy have high value, I was surprised at the level of judgment and rudeness in these posts, even with the anonymity. Instead of trying to relate to the suffering people of the Red River Valley and offering ways in which they might help with the current crisis, people attacked their “choice” in living there and each other for attempting to defend the flood victims. I could think of only two possibilities for this behavior: 1. These people have become so self absorbed that they have lost the ability to empathize, or 2. These people come from a background of means and have no real concept of how big of a deal it is to move to another city on a whim. I guess a third reason could exist: people just like to complain about things and this anonymous comment format allows them to do it without fear of any backlash. Since I couldn’t find a way to contact the posters directly, for the time being, I won’t be able to find out.

The Stupid Father

2009-03-09T14:16:00.000-07:00

When I worked as a Snap Fitness manager, there was this woman that would come in and watch the “Lifetime” network every single day. She would watch during the time when they, apparently, played all of those shows with the stupid, overweight father married to a supermodel. Every show was the same stupid plot with different actors. I became fascinated by my hatred of these shows and figured it would be a good place to start for this post.

I remember seeing lots of shows on “Nick at Night” as a child in which the father was a wise man capable of solving complex problems for his family with time left for ice cream and a laugh at the end of the show. It seems that in more modern shows, the fathers are all idiots. It’s like watching a show where my most irresponsible and inept friends have real responsibilities and the whole thing just makes me angry; especially since there are so many shows like this on TV right now.

A few clips of what I'm referencing:
"Still Standing"

"According to Jim"

"Home Improvement" (go to the 2:00 minute mark)

Apparently, I’m not alone in this observation. In doing a bit of research, I found many articles that commented on this phenomenon and suggested a variety of possible reasons for this. The main two are:

Rise of Feminism
In this school of thought, the idea is that these “buffoon” fathers came to be out of a need to offset the previous model of helpless out of the house wives. The problem I have with this idea is that despite the fact that the woman is smarter in these types of shows, she rarely works and ends up spending most of her time fixing all of the stupid mistakes made by the father whether in or out of the family. I don’t like this argument because it seems that it’s just another form of what we had before; a woman whose job it is to take care of her man. It also raises the question: why isn’t there a show in which a supermodel male is married to a less than “ideal” woman? I think I see a double standard here…

Masculine Ambiguity of the 1950s
If you buy into this one, it all starts out with Playboy. Apparently, when Playboy rose to fame because men were having hard time dealing with the constraints of marriage and families. Playboy glorified the bachelor lifestyle unapologetically, which lead to this idea that men were to behave in a certain way (don’t talk about feelings, be strong, get women, make money, drink scotch and wine). This kind of behavior seems fine, and often desirable, in many contexts. The belief is that it led to the current “buffoon” father figure because it suggested that a man’s priorities should lie elsewhere, which is why TV fathers seem so stupid all the time.

Stewart Hall comments often about how media re-presents reality so it’s based on some sort of truth out there. This may be true, but I worry about how playing up a small sample of men in a negative way might affect the population as a whole. I just spent a weekend in Las Vegas visiting some friends and saw the following instances that made me think even more about this blog post:

On the shuttle, a family gets on and there is only one seat left. The father sits down while his family is forced to sit on the floor with the bags. The father seemed completely oblivious as to why his wife was upset with him as she tried to keep the toddlers in line and safe as the shuttle rattled down the road. The father spent this time checking sports scores on his Blackberry. Perhaps this man was just a jerk, but boy did he play into the stereotype.

At Red Rock Canyon, which is a beautiful place to hike, a woman was trying desperately to keep her kids from wandering too close to the cliffs as they scrambled across the rocks. The father slept in the car listening to talk radio. When the kids whined, the father rolled the window up. Nice.

There were more instances in which it seemed men were playing into the media’s portrayal of the stupid father, but these were the best two. Sure, it’s possible that the shows are based on men like this, but these guys fit the stereotype so well (physically as well as personally) that it seemed like they made it their life’s ambition to be like that guy on that stupid show “Still Standing”.

I understand how these media portrayals came to be, but I still struggle with the idea that they were/are necessary for men to have an identity. I, personally, don’t identify with any of them. It seems that we should be trying to come up with characters that function in a realistic, team manner, much like a successful marriage does in reality. Two smart people that look average and don’t spend a lot of time trying to underhand each other in some sort of stupid power struggle that doesn’t really go anywhere. Wouldn’t that be something?

My Agent: Creepy, yet effective

2009-03-01T11:57:00.001-08:00

Express Yourself with Gizmoz Video Clips

The whole idea of conversational agents is really awesome, but wow. When would I, as a single junior high teacher, have time to put together such a fabulous database of possible answers and questions? I would very much like to try to utilize this type of virtual help down the line, but for the time being, it would have to be something someone else has already designed.

I think it would be cool to try these with students and have them talk to each other. I would be curious to see how the conversations would go in that type of a setting; especially if we could have a class that knows I will read them and a class that knows I will not (even though I would) to see the discrepancies in conversations. I'm actually surprised no one has done this before.

What does this MEAN??!! : Critical Theories for Analyzing Media

2009-02-15T11:56:00.000-08:00

Semiotic:
I like this theoretical approach because it allows multiple interpretations within a single theory. The whole idea of symbols and culture is very true to life as one can see when studying color connotations. Red, for example, can mean passion, anger, or authority depending upon the cultural lens one places between the color and their interpreting eye. The whole theory is based upon how meaning is created rather than what the meaning is. I find myself leaning towards this approach to most of the texts I teach in class because I ask my students to spend more time on their explanations of an assigned meaning than the meaning itself. I put little stock in the end result if my students are not aware, themselves, of how they got there in the first place. One way in which I teach this to my students is to present them with vague pictures that, I feel, have some sort of a connection to what we will be/are studying. Without any priming, I have the students jot down any thoughts they have about the image components and then hypothesize as to why this particular image is in class. As we go around the room, each student tells the class how they arrived at their conclusion. The different answers that result seem to run along cultural lines, which I find fascinating.

Feminist:
I’ve also been a long time fan of feminist readings of various media. The whole idea of gender roles interests me because despite our society’s grandstanding about how far we’ve come, most media portrayals would suggest otherwise. Using a feminist lens to view media makes this much more obvious. In recent years, there has been a boost of strong women characters in action movies. In many cases, these women are incredibly independent, which is a positive step, but they also still cling to an idealized form of beauty often achieved with editing techniques and makeup. Also, Beach’s discussion of wrestling and the Coors commercials suggests that media still clings to antiquated ideas of what males should be as well. The beer drinking, football loving, slightly overweight men depicted as fans of these things constantly lust, often successfully, after the idealized women. Another, more recent example, exists in the Swiffer commercials where a woman is the target of a, seemingly male, mop’s attempt at winning her back through romantic gestures. In each case, the woman rejects the advances of the cleaning tools, which suggests strength, but at the same time it is always a woman in charge of the cleaning, and the tools are always depicted as males; and rather stupid ones at that. It seems that the feminist lens is a very effective way to break down the fantasy land that media often thrusts upon us.

Post Colonial:
Post Colonial readings of texts seem geared to best deal with stereotypes placed upon non westerners. Traditionally, non European minorities have been depicted as exotic and primitive beings; usually people from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Post Colonial theory looks at these regions and people in a way that takes into account the western influences placed on them. In class, just the other day, we were looking at an old “Frito Bandito” commercial as a way to build discussion of stereotypes. My students were quick to point out the dress (poncho, sombrero, bandoliers, and guns), outrageous accent, and physical features (short, insane mustache, beady eyes) of the cartoon character meant to be a typical Hispanic man. In breaking down the stereotype, we commented on how it reminded all of us of the Mexican cowboy image from western movies. At one point in the conversation, an Hispanic student whom had been to Mexico many times to visit family commented that the only people that ever wore sombreros in Mexico were American tourists and men that made a living catering to them in a mariachi band. He went on to say that they dress just like all of us unless they’re trying to get money from Americans because they know what Americans “expect” of them. Shortly after this comment, another student spoke up saying, “you know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Hispanic person eat Fritos before. Like, ever!” We wrapped up the conversation by talking about the different ways both cultures influenced each other to perpetuate the stereotype depicted by the Frito Bandito. Best part: this all happened in an eighth grade classroom!

Rhetorical/Audience:
Since the September 11 attacks, this type of text reading seems more important than most. I believe it was Theodore Roosevelt that expressed an extreme hatred of “armchair parlor jingoes” because of their blind and often ignorant patriotism; especially when they did nothing to back up what they said. Since 2001, the media has done a good job at creating a forced sense of patriotism in many who before the attacks seemed rather ambivalent about the whole idea. Commercials, movies, and television shows started using more red, white, and blue in their images; touting American values; and even suggesting certain things that might be ‘anti-American’ with little or no evidence to support them. My favorite ploy was when the government came out and said (paraphrased, of course) that we should go out and spend our money, do our shopping so that the terrorists couldn’t have the satisfaction of having scared us. Soon after this, stores began running sales with patriotic themes offering incentives to buy large ticket items en masse. The media had effectively turned shopping into a patriotic exercise. I also like to watch the local Fox News station for good examples of stories that attempt to force a way of thinking for an audience. In a very informal way, I noticed a few winters ago how in every Fox newscast, there was a story about a fire, a “dangerous” everyday use product, and an over sensationalized version of the upcoming weather. Basically, scariest newscast imaginable every single night. It is apparently in Fox’s best interest to keep the public scared about something. What that something is doesn’t really matter.

Critical Discourse Analysis:
I find this one to have a lot of real world applications and, without mentioning the actual title of it, find myself dishing out CDA in my classroom most of the time. The suggestion that a particular discourse is greatly responsible in assigning identity rings true in almost any situation. Lawyers root their identities in the discourse of the law, different classes root their identities in a common language and behavior sets as do races and age groups. In addition to forming identities, these different discourses can come together to help create meaning. I was having a discussion with a former student the other day about his current legal trouble. He came out of a store and saw somebody scratching the paint on his truck. He approached the vandal and broke his nose by smashing his head against the truck and then holding him there until the police arrived. He was mystified as to why he ended up in trouble as well as the vandal. He claimed he “had the right to retaliate” in this situation. He was operating under the discourse of his stereotypical white, southern male culture in which retaliation equates with physical violence; something I saw quite often while teaching in the Shenandoah Valley. The problem was that he was actually operating in a legal discourse in which one’s rights are described in great detail. What he did, did not qualify. Without the proper discourse, he could not effectively assign the correct meaning to the actions that occurred and therefore did not understand why he was being held accountable for anything at all. I think it is important for us as educators to hit CDA theory well with our students so that they understand the importance of code switching and when it is appropriate to use one set of discourse rules over another depending upon the situation or text presented to them.

Serious Absurdity

2009-02-08T12:13:00.001-08:00

Have you seen that weird "Nannerpuss" commercial before? You know, the one that announced the free breakfast at Denny's? Well, here's a mildly academic discussion of it via video ant. If it's hard to see, I apologize. I can redo it in a new format if this doesn't work out well.

A Great 2nd Turning Point

2009-02-08T11:37:00.000-08:00

This scene comes from what I would call the second turning point of Michael Mann’s “Heat”. Much of the affects come from camera angles and shots as there is not much dialog to speak of.

As the scene opens, we see Neil McCauley and his crew in a nice 3-shot as they go over a plan, presumably, for their next heist. One gets a bit frustrated watching this shot because we don’t yet know where the crew is. In a film that has been very up front about the characters’ activities, this doesn’t sit well with a viewer.

We get a bit of a hint in the next 3 shot, which includes shipping containers. McCauley begins pointing out escape routes to his fellow thieves but we as viewers don’t yet know what’s going on here until the quick medium shots of a prone photographing, and listening detective break into the scene. It is now clear that this scene is here to show us that the crew if thieves is being tracked. The first sequence of this scene ends with a 2-shot of the detectives leaving their hidden post and a shot of the crew leaving in their vehicles.

The turn of events begins in the next sequence when the entire team of detectives walks onto the scene, taking the same path that McCauley and his crew did in the previous sequence. This suggests a possible change in positions between these two teams in a game of cat and mouse. However, the detectives are presented here in a series of establishing shots. This is the first time we can see exactly what the thieves have been casing; a bunch of shipping containers, a scrap yard, and an oil refinery. During the dialog between the detectives, we get an enhanced feeling of frustration and confusion through a series of close up shots of each detective as they attempt to discern what the next heist is going to be.

The close up shots of Detective Hanna have a slight difference to them. He is the only character with sunglasses on, which suggest he knows something the others don’t. As the sequence progresses, we see more close up shots of Hanna than the other detectives, which leads us to believe that we will also know what he knows. The other characters in the scene continue to look confused and frustrated.

Suddenly, the mood of the sequence changes as we are presented with a series of slower establishing shots from Hanna’s point of view. It’s at this point that he suggests to his fellow detectives that he might know what the thieves were looking for. At this point, the shots seem to “digress” as we get establishing shots of the detectives paired with low angle shots of Hanna suggesting his superiority over the others.

When Hanna finally says that the thieves are looking at “Us, the LAPD,” the shots of the detectives are shown only from high angles. In one case, an over the shoulder shot from McCauley, who has found a high perch from which to photograph the detectives. The entire sequence ends with the detectives in a subservient position (high angles and wide shots) and McCauley in a dominant position (low angles, high over the shoulder shots, and a close up of his grinning face). All of these elements come together to show us that the thieves are now in control. The second turning point of the film has occurred.

With the exception of one brief line at the end of this scene, I think it could serve as an excellent introduction lesson into the use of camera angles and editing to move plot and communicate ideas. Since the dialog is so sparse, a viewer has little choice in paying attention to the technical aspects of the scene.

As part of a larger unit or class, this scene would serve as a jumping point for a more comprehensive look at technical choices in media production for desired effects. Primetime TV shows constantly show us things that someone wants us to care about whether it be terrorists, certain products (a great scene in the 3rd season of "24" has a ridiculously large Ford truck grill in the foreground with the action happening almost as an after thought in the background), or even certain ideas of beauty. Learning ways in which producers, directors, and editors force our attention to certain things will help students start to question why we are to pay more attention to one thing over another in a media presentation.

Media Studies and Digital Literacies: A Rationale

2009-02-01T12:01:00.000-08:00

Will this debate of whether or not digital literacies and media studies are a waste of time ever end?

Our current curriculum focuses on reading texts such as poetry, short stories, and novels; writing expository essays with evidence and commentary; and effectively telling personal narratives in print format. As usual, our current method of teaching these skills comes down to paper, pencils, and the occasional trip to the computer lab to simply type up what we have already handwritten.

To ignore the untapped resources available with our fabulous computers is a sin. All of the things we have been teaching our students are definitely useful, but given everything that has happened with technology in the past 20 years, we owe it to our students and society to start utilizing these things in the classroom so that our students can actually understand, analyze, and use them.

Reading and Analyzing Texts:
No one would argue that this is important. However, there is more than one way to go about doing it. The internet is full of short stories, poetry, news articles, how-to writings, and various commentaries on endless subjects. Rather than simply reading and discussing what we have in our textbooks, we can send students on “missions” to find both effective and non effective examples of poems, short stories, news articles, etc. We would be teaching them how to first find information and then how to analyze it looking for deeper meanings, hidden agendas, and overall correctness. We would fulfill all the same goals as before, but we would do so with a 21st century method, for which local and national employers will praise us once these students hit the work force.

Writing Expository Essays:
Rather than just throwing down some point/proof/commentary on a piece of paper that a teacher is going to read, why can’t we have students use blogs and wikis? When students write for an actual audience, they are more likely to put increased effort into their final product as opposed to a piece that will only be read by their Language Arts teacher. In addition to publishing work on the internet, students could search other blogs and wikis to see examples of similar work. This would both help feed their minds in approaching assignments and show them how wide of an audience they can potentially reach by posting online. Students could also see and comment on the work of their peers in a helpful manner thus yielding an even more positive product. In many cases, debate on the assigned/chosen topic of each essay may result, which would only increase student learning.

Personal Narratives/Short Stories:
This aspect of the curriculum would be enhanced by all the reasons in the “Writing Expository Essays” suggest, but would also provide a way for students to build community in the classroom by sharing and commenting on each others’ experiences. The entire process would be improved even more if teachers included some of their own work on a class blog or wiki.

In short, digital literacies are only gaining importance in today’s world. Multimodality is the way of the future as indicated by Beach, MTV, VH1, The Disney Channel, and even our new president with his fancy Blackberry, Twitter account, and other web communication tools. If we want our students to compete on the world stage, we must embrace these new modes of expression in order to teach our students how to use them effectively and responsibly. To not do this would be unethical and detrimental.

To accomplish this rather intense goal, it will be necessary for current teachers to undergo professional development experiences that will teach them how to present media studies and digital literacies in an effective manner. We need to know how to present media as a text rather than a passive experience such as watching a movie and answering a few questions. A shared process and language to this effect is the first step in preparing our students for a 21st century society.

I don't care what you say, digital literacy is a big deal!

2009-01-25T13:54:00.000-08:00

Teaching media to my students has always been a rather daunting task because I can never answer the question: Where do I start?

Looking at the materials for this first week of class (Beach’s writings, the companion website, the videos, and relevant bits of previous classes) didn’t really help me answer my ongoing question, but it did reinforce a lot of the thoughts I have about why this is so important. In fact, the Language Arts Department in the Hopkins School District (where I work) has been discussing these issues with each other as we consider from where we will purchase our updated course materials. There seem to be two camps forming on this one: The “Web People” and the “Publishing People”.

I think that the video about media conglomerates actually fits into this quite well. The arguments in the discussion of course materials always come down to the same couple of points. The “Web People” like the fact that there are infinite resources available for low cost; mostly written by independent teachers in other districts. They seem to think that subscribing to whatever a big publishing company decides is a good idea is like selling out and makes us look like lemmings. On the other side of the argument, the “Publishing People” feel that using a published set of materials adds credibility to our program because names=notoriety. They claim that by using web resources, parents will start to lose confidence in what their children are learning because our program won’t look like that of neighboring districts. This debate has been going on since before I arrived in the district and, as one long time participant sarcastically suggested to me, won’t end any time in the next ten years.

I find this rather amusing, actually, because when we (teachers in general) ask our students to conduct research for projects and papers, we always tell them to look in just a few places such as academic journals and indexes while completely rejecting any websites they may come across because, “it may not be credible”. But we don’t know for sure, do we?

Being guilty of the afore mentioned phrase many times, I sound a bit hypocritical when I say we should stop doing this and start teaching students how to critically analyze what they find. Rather than just tell them something isn’t credible/reliable, we should teach them how to track down the creators of content so they can independently decide how to take the news, arguments, proof, etc. that they find. I like how the video about media conglomerates points out that the news stations in town are owned by one main company. It’s very similar to radio stations in the Twin Cities. It also accentuates the idea that these few companies that own the media have gotten their fingers into the education system because teachers actually do prefer their students to pull facts about the world from these companies rather than independent websites because the companies have people that review the content before publishing it whereas the independents have no filter in place. To quote a graphic novel, soon to be made into a movie, “who watches the watchmen?” It makes you wonder…

I thought that the major media outlets’ coverage of the Presidential Inauguration served as a great example of how all these things can get jumbled up. Here we have our first African American president being sworn in so, naturally, nearly all the media outlets were all over it. Fox News, however, had an interesting way of covering it. They spent a lot of time watching what former President Bush was doing; even after he left Washington. This company touts fair and balanced coverage in an industry that has been accused of leaning too far to the left. Just because they’re different, doesn’t mean they’re balanced or better, but many people believe so. I guess it all depends on who you have filtering the content that decides what the public sees. It makes you wonder if you can really believe anything. I suppose we have to take “everything with a grain of salt, even this” as the video states.

Having taken multiple classes with Beach and O’Brien, I’m no stranger to their thoughts and opinions on media literacies. Perhaps that, alone, is reason enough to discount everything I say here (that, and I watch John Stewart religiously). I don’t think it’s an accident that these two are a writing and a reading expert respectively because it’s very hard to teach one without the other. It seems natural that in order to teach students to effectively analyze media we should also teach them how to express themselves using the same media we want them to analyze. How can someone have an understanding of something if they don’t understand how it works? Images, sounds, and text can be combined in different ways to achieve different ends even if the source material is identical. I’ve embedded a youtube video below that shows this in action using a State of the Union speech given by former President Bush. Although clearly done for entertainment, it mimics what happened to the girl in the media conglomerate video.

As many have already stated on their blogs, digital literacies are becoming more important as we continue to embrace technology in society. I think I only know one or two people that get their information from news broadcasts and/or newspapers anymore. Most find their information on websites, emails, and (rather surpisingly) twitter updates! If this really is where things are going, we need to do a better job at not only teaching our students how to dissect this information but also to create a profession in which this is all universally accepted as a viable way of teaching reading and writing. I don’t discount the “old school” way of doing things but rather argue that we need to add something to it. I grow weary of this all or nothing mindset some people grab onto when someone suggests a focus on digital literacies. It’s akin to calling a pro-choice person a “pro-abortion” person. Just because I support digital literacy instruction doesn’t mean I oppose traditional print instruction. It may be hard to believe, but we can do both. I know, I know, I’m naïve, right?

Portfolios: Not just a big leather satchel anymore

2008-12-01T18:50:00.000-08:00

I remember back during my post bac days I created an efolio, which served as a resume and teaching portfolio. I included lots of links, documents, web pages, and the like, all highlighting my teacher preparation. At the time, efolio was about the only thing that was out there for this purpose, but since then blogs, wikis, and nings have come onto the scene...

I'm thinking that I will eventually take my own efolio material and convert it into a wiki. I'm planning on doing something similar with my students as the year progresses.

At the moment, we're working on a unit wiki around the novel "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry". This is going to be a bit of a warm up for the "big show". Right now, we're adding chapter summaries, comic life adaptations of key points in the story, and down the line we'll add some voice thread and imovie files that they will work on, all based on their own narrative writing.

The "big show" I reference will be individual (hopefully) wikis that include each of their large writing assignments, transcripts of their online feedback and critiquing, and some of their online collaboration work that they will be doing over the next few months. I'm hoping that this will serve as a map of where they've been that can be useful to both my students as a reflection piece to help them decide on where they want to go, and myself as an instructor so I can have an easily accessible record of assessments and instructional pieces for my future planning. I've always had access to all kinds of numbers based on state assessments, but to have constant access to a year's worth of tangible performance assessments will be so much more useful to me. It's one thing to see mathematical representations of a student's ability, but another to actually see the influence of the instructional process. Of course, it's possible that the push to meet standards will eat up more of my time than I can spare, thus making my utopic vision impossible. I'll try anyway.

So what the heck have I been writing about?

2008-11-25T14:46:00.001-08:00

Looking back on my blog posts was a good idea. I hadn't realized it, but I've gotten a lot more specific in my reflections on using these digital tools in writing instruction.

Early on, I focused most of my thoughts on how and when I might implement these different tools. Over the past few weeks, I noticed that I focused a lot more on some of the possible pitfalls of using these technologies, which then made it possible for me to anticipate instructional problems as I pushed my students forward.

I'm sure that a large part of this change in focus was due to my incorporation of the blog, wiki, and a bit of a chat session in class. A year ago, I would've been too scared to attempt these things, but in the past few months, the class has forced me to learn more about things like blogs, wikis, comic life, voice thread, etc. Granted, there have been a few disasters as my students and I stumbled though some technical difficulties, embarrassing mislinks, and a few hilarious misuses of our new tools, we have begun to reach a point where the technology is now working for us rather than being beaten into submission by a bunch of Neanderthals. It's really been an exciting professional development experience.

As far as feedback goes, I’ve been doing the tired old written comments and small conference setup that has worked well for so long. But I’m not happy with it. Ultimately, I would prefer to do all audio feedback, but at the present time, my students’ lack of technology expertise and access has made that rather difficult. I’ve done word comments before, but I find that even getting my students to email a copy of their paper I can actually read can be a rather daunting task. Some of them don’t even know how to compose an email unless I show them.

In their defense, they’re making progress. A science teacher and I have ganged up on our common students and are both using the same technologies in class in an effort to increase the students’ level of exposure. Our collective goal is to get our students to a point where we use very little paper, if any. We have a long way to go, but we’re going to try our best…and probably fail miserably. Oh well.

Interactive Power Points: Is that an oxymoron?

2008-11-18T09:30:00.000-08:00

I learned pretty quickly in my teaching career that if you actually want students to engage in your power points, they have to be engaging. What I mean is, they have to be set up in a way that makes the students DO SOMETHING! Taking notes doesn't count.

In the embedded presentation below, I include links to websites, a few questions to ponder, and a short clip of a stand up comic routine about the pagans and christians. I used this in class back in my days of high school teaching and it was a big success. We used it as a precursor to Beowulf so that the students would understand the presence of so many contradictions in philosophies.

As of late, I've had to compromise a bit with the power points because my students have limited access to computers when not at school. When they are at school, so many of the teachers are using web 2.0 technologies that it can be quite difficult to get the necessary resources to make a really interactive presentation...at least by my own personal standards.

Therefore, I've also embedded an example of a power point I use in vocab instruction. The interaction comes from me. I act like a game show host and draw names out of a hat to address each of the slides because each one has them doing something with the word. In fact, the only thing they are supposed to write down from the slides is the word and definition at the end of the process. They will ultimately write and discuss much more than that, which is the goal and compromise I've made to try and make this technology work for me.

Beowulf PPT

Beowulf Prereading

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Vocabulary PPT

Chapter 4 In Context

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

I hope you enjoy!

Making Videos

2008-11-17T19:01:00.000-08:00

Below, you'll find an embedded video I put together with clips I took while driving from my house to Perkins in Minnetonka. It was a lot of fun doing that.

The process of putting the video together was extremely fun for me! The details involved in sequencing, editing, and adding the right effects really appeal to me. I feel like I could spend an entire day messing around with iMovie and not feel it was a waste of time.

As I worked to edit my movie effectively, I realized a few things:
1. The clips I made weren't always long enough. While I was shooting, I felt that I had a good length of tape, but it was far less than I thought when I began to edit
2. It's easy to spend way too long trying to figure out how to get the timing just perfect

Therefore, when I put this program into action in my classroom, I will have to make sure I tell them to take clips that run for at least 5 seconds a piece. In fact, 10 may be better so as to allow more room for editing and cutting. This was my biggest problem. I'll also have to spend...days, I'm sure, teaching them how to use the program with some premade video clips. This way, when they start working with their own content, they can have a better idea of what it is they want and how to do it.

I will also require storyboarding, which I've just recently introduced to my students. So far, we've storyboarded existing stories, but down the line, they will have to storyboard their own ideas ahead of time.

Without further ado, "Night Driving"...

The Making of a Podcast of Epic Proportions

2008-11-02T11:49:00.000-08:00

If you haven't noticed yet, I like a bit of hyperbole in my post titles. I find it adds a bit of dramatic anticipation that fades quickly upon reading the post. What can I say? That's how I roll!

I just finished making my first legitimate podcast and overall, things went pretty well! I figured I would have to plan ahead a bit so in talking with my parents about their upcoming retirement and move, I not only wrote questions ahead of time, I told my parents what I would ask as well. I wanted this to appear spontaneous, which worked well because my parents are pretty good at doing the acting thing. Thinking about the use of voice, this could have been a pitfall had I interviewed someone else. I know that in doing a lot of drama in the classroom, students can sound overly rehearsed in a lot of ways. Interviewing is always more interesting when it sounds spontaneous, which will require some instruction from me. This part of the podcasting was awesome. I had problems, however, with the Audio Hijack limits.

Since I had a limited amount of time to get my information, I felt that I came off as dismissive in the interview. That came to me after I got over hating the sound of my own voice. Down the line, I suppose if I did something like this with my students, I would have to make sure that our software was all legitimate because trial versions can make things really annoying. In fact, I had to cut the best thing my mom said because the program started putting noise all over the recording!

My topic for this might seem a bit off, but I thought it would be a practical way to try out the technology since I'm looking to do some type of inquiry project with my kids. This topic is something I'm actually quite interested and now have a more personal stake in this topic since it will directly involve my immediate family.

I like the idea of doing a podcast type interview instead of the standard written type because it gives kids the opportunity to roll with the punches as it were. In a written interview, I see kids write answers to their questions and then just move on. Doing it over Skype and podcasting adds the "off topic" factor to things, which can often take the interview into much cooler territory than anyone anticipated at the outset. As mentioned above, it would also be a great way to teach kids about the use of their voice. We can look at how they sound in different social situations by listening to recordings of themselves and then work to emulate those sounds depending on the topic and questions they ask in their interviews. I think that they would really enjoy this because a lot of them, I'm sure, would start to see some rather "unsavory" applications to voice manipulation. I suppose they'll start to see how I can always tell when they're lying to me!

I really enjoyed doing this assignment! I can't wait to build up the courage to now teach the technology to my students! Pray for me.

To subscribe to this podcast, copy this URL into iTunes.

A bit off topic, but worth a look...

2008-10-31T08:11:00.000-07:00

I live for the possibility of getting an answer like this from a student!

They didn't study - Upload a Document to Scribd

Podcasting: Fabulous Classroom Innovation or Just Another Excuse to Play with Garage Band?

2008-10-28T18:58:00.001-07:00

To start, a brief update on Comic Life:

I started using it today in my Creative Writing class. So far so good! The students are using it to convert one of their longer stories to a graphic novel. They are frustrated that I won't let them use copyrighted pictures, but they're getting over it...

And...the issue of the week; podcasting.

I'm a bit behind on my own podcast at the moment, what with the end of the quarter and all. I was upset at this until class tonight when we learned how to record a Skype conversation. Before that, I didn't think I had anything worth podcasting about. I mean really, nothing. I think, for my first real attempt, I'm going to do a Skype interview with my brother, who now teaches south of London, about the differences he sees in our systems and what kinds of things he has to do to comply with standards. I might be the only one that finds this interesting, but that's okay. It might be good to play for my students this spring when they all start to complain about having to take MCA tests. I'll show them the podcast and say, "You're not alone. Suck it up!"

I was reading the ning tonight and saw Scott's post about hating his own voice. I feel exactly the same way, so unless I either become intoxicated or get over my own self deprication, I don't see myself being overly creative with the podcasting medium. I will DEFINITELY have my kids work with it. I subscribe to a few podcasts such as "Car Talk", "This American Life", and "The Onion Radio News". I especially like the format of "TAL" and "TORN" as and English teacher because they lend themselves so well to storytelling. I think it would be engaging to have students mimick the style of one of these shows, much like they did at West with "A Prairie Home Companion". With a "TAL" format, we could focus on personal narratives, autobiographies, or interviews. With "TORN" we could concentrate on news reports and, more importantly, satire!

I'm a little scared about teaching them the technology after the great wiki debacle of 2008, but after a nice Christmas break, I think I'll have the courage to tackle such a daunting task...or at least have a little less sanity making me more prone to engage in self destructive behaviors. Only time will tell...

The Online Con aka The Online Role Play

2008-10-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, I love these things! I sometimes get a bit too into them, which is a bit odd considering that when I have the choice as to what side of a debate I will be in one of these things, I purposely choose the one with which I disagree. It forces me to look at the other side of things.

I started out this role play be trying to be very academic, professional, and formal by citing research and staying relatively low key in my tone. I noticed, quickly, that most others were doing the same thing. At least those on my side, so I went the other direction and focused more of my energy on emotional appeal through anecdotal evidence, which was actually all true. This seemed to work better because people began referencing my posts and even responding to them! I was most pleased when I received a rather rude reply to something I stated. I figured I must be doing something right!

It seemed pretty clear that most people were not going to change their minds, so I took the Sarah Palin approach: There is no bad press (at least that's the approach she seems to be taking).

Throughout the whole thing, I felt like I had very little power. It was hard for me to decide who really had it at all, but it definitely wasn't me. This made me realize, quite sadly, that we as teachers don't have nearly the level of power we should in deciding issues such as this. People always listen to "experts." I guess I was out when those that work in the field all day, every day were deemed incompetent.

In the end, I left the role play still feeling that coeducational classes are a good thing, but I wouldn't be opposed to trying a single gender approach in at least a few. A colleague has told me numerous times that she loves "how super laid back [I am]" because I'll try anything once. If it doesn't work, I won't do that again!

Digital Storytelling

2008-10-14T08:45:00.000-07:00

I'm totally going to use this in my class soon. We have some short stories coming up and a few are more difficult Edgar Allen Poe stories. I had students draw comics last year, but I think combining Comic Life, which our school has, along with flickr will be a lot more engaging and relevant since it's technology based. It will also add a real fun factor!

I put this comic together (quicktime format) using pictures I've taken over the past four years. They're all completely out of context, but it's still pretty funny...at least I think so. I'm not sure what my brother and friends will think when they see it...

Please Excuse me while I wiki my moodle...

2008-10-06T06:38:00.000-07:00

Wikis, Moodles, Blogs...who thought these names up anyway?

As I've stated in class, my idea for my final project is a collaborative research project incorporating a wiki, a blog, and voicethread (which will probably then make flickr necessary). We will research topics related to one of two novels and create voicethread presentations based on our findings, which we will then post to a course wiki.

The really fun part of the wiki is going to be when we start using it to debate the ethics of Charlie's surgery in "Flowers for Algernon". We've just finished part I of the story and are already getting some nice discussions that touch on ethics based on how others have begun to treat Charlie. Over the next few days (weeks?? who knows with the limited availability of computers) we will learn the ins and outs of the class wiki by debating different ethical dilemmas. Last year, we did this in a course discussion format, which was marginally successful, but as I discovered with blogs, some students will be more apt to participate in the written format. Since much of the content will be old, we can focus more on the logistics of the wiki...at least at first.

I'm hoping that our course wiki will be an ongoing thing this year that will bring a lot of good resources to the students for each unit we study. This will not only help them as we study for tests, learn strategies for research, and practice literacy skills for the MCAs; but will also help me prepare for next year when we do all of this over again. I'll have models of work to show, experience to share, and a chance to revamp things that don't work the first time around.

Flickr and Voicestream: Innovative Classroom Tool, or Another Way to Procrastinate Grading

2008-09-28T14:29:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to make Flickr and Voicethread a part of my final project. Right now, I just have to decide on which unit I will use them.

My two options are "Call of the Wild" and "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry". In the past, I've gone out and located images that depicted the time period and struggles present in these two stories. What I'm thinking is a combination research project and synthesis assignment in which students locate photos and images related to each story and create a slide show in which they include a narration describing the pictures, why they chose them, and what specific character or event from our story the pictures can help us understand. To keep the higher ups happy, I will also have them write and turn in a printed script of what they decide to narrate. To culminate, we'll have a share session of our voicethread projects and then comment on each others' work on the class blog (or ning if I can get that up and running in time).

I'm hoping that some of the less motivated students will turn it up a notch knowing that their work will be seen by their peers, and possibly their parents once we get everything posted. The technology aspect won't hurt the motivation part either. I think that as a teaching tool leading up to the actual assignment, we'll spend a day or two in the lab putting together small voicethreads that show off our personalities. As they say in some of the NUA trainings I've done, "New strategy, old content. Old strategy, new content". By the time we get to the actual assignment, we'll be able to focus on the content more than the technology...that is, until the internet crashes in the middle of 1st block again like it did last time. Perhaps a writing prompt as a back up...? sigh.

Here is a slide show of pictures I put together at my favorite dog walking spot where I used to live. The Voicethread version includes a narration that explains the ridiculousness of that day because it was a snow day. As a native Minnesotan, I felt obligated to photograph this hike...for reasons, I think, are obvious in the pictures.

Now that I can run it, how am I supposed to use this in the classroom...?

2008-09-21T11:06:00.001-07:00

It's funny you should mention that! I actually gave this a shot last week and had a pretty successful run! To see what we produced, click here.

That represents a small bit of what I want to do with these down the line. In this example, I was able to produce a great discussion by first having my students post comments about an IQ test we all took in class. Part of their posting assignment was to first read what others had posted. This actually worked a lot better than I could've imagined because we were able to debate the claims of cheating while tying that into the bigger issue of intelligence and how one could effectively measure it. The students were engaged the whole time because they knew that 1. Their comments would be read and 2. They got to read the comments of others! Fantastic all around!

One of the things I'd like to do with this in the future is stage an active debate on issues surrounding ethics, which we will highlight in the coming weeks. I'd like to post some ethical dilemmas on the blog and have people weigh in. I would to this in 2 ways: During the first one, I would allow students to stick to their own viewpoint on whatever issue comes up. In the second scenario, I would tie in role playing so that the students would have to attempt to understand other perspectives.

In addition to this, I think the blog can be a useful communication tool between students, parents, and me. I currently run a moddle site, which is okay, but the blog format offers a lot more in terms of 2 way communication. The moodle doesn't really allow for that.

Speaking of blogs, here's a digital map about the experience...

I hope it all makes sense!

Home backpackers hostel

2008-09-16T15:22:00.001-07:00

Home backpackers hostel
Originally uploaded by heatheronhertravels

I stayed here with my brother when we were in Valencia. It was like a 20 minute walk from the train station, but the place was so awesome, that it was totally worth it! I definitely recommend it. There's an awesome kitchen, a rooftop terrace, and ultra friendly staff!

Searching for Information That isn't Garbage...

2008-09-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

As of late, my primary search method has been creative googling. I admit that it can get pretty hard to sort through some of the bogus information from the good, but I feel that I've become quite adept at finding exactly what I'm looking for.

A lot of times, all it takes is a search for the exact question I'm asking such as, "how can I rewire my garage door opener to get around the safety sensor?". This search lead me to the realization that I shouldn't, under any circumstances, do this. I'm now searching for a new sensor pack, another task google with which google has helped me.

Since my school doesn't have access to a lot of online databases, I usually default to google in all my searches on the academic level as well. When I taught high school, I found Lexis Nexis and the Expanded Academic Index to be invaluable in the information they could bring me. I directed my students to both of these databases as they researched literary criticism and theory for their final papers. We had a lot of success with this searching for multiple terms such as "1984, World War II, Facism, and Individualism". I guess if you know what you are looking to find, just a few key terms is enough. Sometimes, we would start with something simpler like a book title. Reading our findings from this search would boost our thoughts to include other topics, thereby, narrowing our search to something resembling the above list of search terms.

In the event that we had to, and do now, have to default to google, we end up spending a lot of time evaluating the credibility of the source. If a name is available, we search just the name to find out some information about them. We do the same for organizations, colleges and universities, and sometimes screen names. This usually gives us enough information to know whether or not we can believe what the article is saying.

Another thing we look at is the date updated and the domain name of the webmaster's email address. This can often point us to new information like an organization being funded by an oil company, for example.

We often times run into an argument that never ends because everybody has a bias. What we end up doing is agreeing or disagreeing that a particular source is about the best we are going to find, but still pick apart the biases we find so that we can come up with some idea of the truth of the matter at hand.

I'm debating subscribing to RSS feeds from NBC, CNN, Fox, and BBC for my news to compare the different slants on stories. I got this idea during the RNC when, after a lovely prime time medical drama, Fox news reported that protesters exploded pipe bombs in Saint Paul. Upon checking Kare11.com, I saw a video that clearly showed the same explosions to be flash grenades from police. Interesting, don't you think? The experience showed me that many sources are important to getting a balanced look at events as they occur. Everybody has an agenda.