Assignment #1

Assignment #2

Assignment #3

Assignment #4

Assignment #1 – Blog Post: Media & Me

Part 1 – The Writing Prompt
The first part of the assignment is to conduct an analysis of how media has influenced you by answering one of the prompts below.  Your analysis should include some of your own personal experiences with media, but you must also provide evidence for your argument.

In this case, evidence can come in the form of statistical data (charts, graphs, etc), media samples (articles, videos, images, music, etc), or even quotes from other blogs. After reading your blog post, readers should have a better understanding of your views on the influences of media and a clear sense of the evidence you referenced to come to form your ideas.

A few examples of analytical articles on media influences:

Does Music Affect Teens?
Why Young People Are Targeted by Advertisers
Music Videos Make Claims To Be Real Artistic Statements
Rap Music’s Psychological Effects
TV Viewing Leads Teens to Long Term Bad Diet

Before you begin writing, keep in mind that an effective blog post is contains a mix of interesting text, multimedia content, and links to related content on the web. You will be graded on crafting a blog post that is both interesting to the reader, backed by evidence, and visually appealing.

Pick one of the following prompts:

• • How does the popular media influence the way teens think of themselves?
• • How does news media effect the way we feel about crime & security?
• • How does advertising media influence our sense of self-image?
• • Pick a media sample and tell a story of how it has influenced/impacted your life. (This does not include its inherent entertainment value)
• • Pick two media samples of the same form and explain how one has had a positive impact and the other has had a negative impact.
• • Select a media sample that you feel has imposed a stereotype that is untrue in relation to you.
• • How can teens, like you, use media to induce change?

Part 2 – Adding Effective Hyperlinks
In the second part of this assignment, you will expand on your writing by creating hyperlinks that reference the people, places, objects, or ideas you include in your writing. Clicking on any one of these hyperlink references should take the reader to a unique website that further illustrates your point.

For example: My earliest memory of watching television is with my Mother and Father during the NFL Super Bowl.(here you could create a hyperlink for NFL linking to www.nfl.com)

The way that you interpret these references is up to you, but be creative! The goal is to see how effectively you can communicate your message by using other information on the Internet. The more specific your reference, the better you will be able to communicate your idea.

You may want to consider this part of the assignment before writing your statement, as some ideas are much easier to reference than others. Whatever the case you are encouraged to find websites with information that most effectively references your ideas.

Part 3 – Embedded Media & Formatting
Once you’ve finalized your writing and hyperlinks, it’s time to add some related multimedia content to your blog post. You may use photos, video, or audio from any source on the web. You should position each piece of media within your blog post so that it is visually stimulating and pleasing to the eye. Somethings to consider is the alignment and margins of your content. Does your media fit within the text neatly? Is there enough space between the text and the image?

Requirements
Evidence for your argument
5 Relevant hyperlinks
2 Embedded media clips (photo, audio, or video)
Clean layout (alignment, padding, margins)
Correct grammar, No misspellings

2009 Examples
Love Air Heads? – My Truth About Cheerleaders
The Art of Memeology

Related Tutorials
[Using the Write Post SubPanel]
[Working with Quicktags]

Assignment #2 – PSA Poster

STUDENT EXAMPLES Jenee Dampier – Safe Sex Kevin Madrigal – Energy Conservation Estefania Avila – Save the Children Jose Villanueva – Depression / Suicide

Overview
In this assignment you will create a poster advocating for someone to take action on a particular cause or issue. You can choose an issue that is pertinent to your local community or an issue that is more relevant to the rest of the world. The point is to create a poster that raises awareness about your issue and motivates the viewer to take action.

Part A — Identify A Meaningful Issue:
Select a cause/issue that is significant to you and that you’d like to raise awareness about. This can be a global issue, such as climate change, or even an issue that is much more closer to home, such as something you’d like to change within the SMASH community.

Write the Blog Post

For each of your PSA Poster Topic Ideas, answer the following questions:

-Why is this an important issue to you?
-What about this topic is of interest to other people? 
-Who do you want to speak directly to?
-What imagery represents this idea?

Part B — The Call To Action
Once you’ve decided on your particular issue or cause, pick a clear phrase that targets your audience, and tells them specifically what they should do about your cause. Your call to action will be the most prominent text on your poster.

If your issue is about saving the environment, your call to action ought to be a direct message like, “Recycle your household paper products!”

Part C — The Imagery
Once you have crafted your call to action, you will need to determine your central imagery. This central imagery should illustrate your call to action and almost be synonymous with your text. Generally, the larger this image, the better.

For instance, if your call to action is “Recycle your household paper products!”, your imagery should either be of a recycling bin or an old newspaper.

Grading Criteria
Your assignment will be graded on how well you use text and imagery to communicate your call to action. You are encouraged to use images found on the web, though you should also feel free to incorporate any other images you create on your own (photos, drawings, etc.).

Requirements:
Clear call to action w/ related central imagery
Dimensions: 8in x 10in, 200 dpi, RGB
Consistent Color Scheme
No more than 2 different fonts

Assignment #3 – The Podcast Report

Examples:

RadioLab – Blog and Radio Show Examples

Student Examples

Dreams –

Code Switching:

Overview
In this assignment, you will create a podcast about a significant issue relevant to the SMASH community. You will be working in groups, though your group may create multiplel podcasts to satisfy ALL of the interests of the members in your group. You are encouraged to choose a topic of particular interest to you as long as it relates to the SMASH community in some way. You are essentially recording an oral presentation that anyone can hear online.

You should start by thinking of a topic that really matters to you, and that you feel other people, outside of the SMASH community, should hear about. When organizing your presentation, it may help to outline your ideas as if you were writing an expository essay. This will make you much more comfortable with your topic, and ensure that you cover all of the important points.

The goal of this assignment is two fold:

1. Identify a significant topic that you think others around the world should know about.
2. Develop a creative way of engaging your audience and building interest in your topic.
   

Part I – The Topic

• Your group will conduct a brainstorm about a topic that they feel will be most effective.
• Outline your presentation, and post your outline to your blog for your group members to review.
• Record all of the vocals for each member in your group.

Part II – The Interviews

• You will be required to interview AT LEAST 2 people about your topic. These people can not be people in your class, and only one can be a SMASH student.
• You should schedule your interviews AHEAD OF TIME, so that your interviewees will be comfortable with the interview process.

Part III – The Editing

• You need to edit your vocals to be clear and concise so that all of your audience can hear your podcast.
• Insert background music in to your podcast that relates to your topic.

Requirements

• Everyone in your group must participate and speak in the podcast.
• Each student is to produce their own “remix” of the vocals and interviews recorded in the podcast.
• You must post your podcast to the blog, with a summary of your presentation, and a related image or montage.
• You must use some kind of background music or sound effects to compliment the topic of your podcast.

Examples

Music Piracy

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Assignment #4 – The Flashback

Examples:

Overview
In this assignment, your group will create an interactive Flash & Video presentation that teaches something significant you’ve learned during your past 3 or 4 weeks at SMASH. Your group may choose anything you’ve learned from this class, your other classes, or even the SMASH program in general. If you like, you may even create a presentation that teaches something from a variety of subjects. This project gives you the opportunity to become a teacher and a producer of the knowledge you have consumed at SMASH.

Your group should start by thinking of a subject or technique that you understand well. This should be a subject that you feel would be beneficial for someone else to know. Each main idea in your group’s presentation will be taught using a mix of slides and a video supplements. For example, a slide discussing the various types of dogs may contain a list of different breeds and the accompanying video may feature a dog owner talking about their experiences a particular bleed.

Once completed these educational presentations will be shared online, with the ability for other schools/organizations to embed them into their own websites. What you teach here could teach many.

Step I – Your Lesson Plan & Outline
Choose any variety of subjects to teach. You may be as broad as you like in your lesson plan, but be sure to focus on the most significant or interesting parts of your subjects.

Create an outline for your presentation, titling each mini lesson and writing out the lesson text. You may also want to include sub-sections for your title graphics, sounds, and animations. The more detail you add to your outline, the easier it will be develop your presentation in Flash.

Post your lesson plan to the blog and continue to edit it, if necessary, as you design your presentation.

Users will need a way to navigate the frames in your presentation. Depending on your lesson plan, you will want to create a linear or non-linear presentation. You will need to design your navigation buttons slightly different depending on the style of presentation you choose.

A Non-linear Presentation
If you create a non-linear presentation, users will have the ability to navigate to any part of the presentation at any time. Therefore, each frame would require a series of menu buttons, allowing the user to access the various mini lessons of the presentation in any order they choose.

A Linear Presentation
If you create a linear presentation, users will navigate your presentation, from start to finish, in the order that you determine. Therefore, each frame would only require a “Next” and “Previous” button to guide the user through your the sequence of mini lessons. A linear presentation is most effective if your mini lessons are cumulative, or if you want your user to always see a certain frame at the end.

Step II: Creating the Placeholder Flash Frames
In Flash, you will create a different frame for each mini-lesson in your lesson plan. Your presentation must have AT LEAST 5 frames. Two of these frames should be used for your Introduction and Conclusion. Use as many frames as you need to complete your lesson plan. Use the text tool to create a simple title for each frame.

Content
Start by copying and pasting the text from your mini-lessons in to each of the respective frames. It may help to use multiple text fields for easier formatting. Loosely arrange your text before designing a background.

Step III: Split into Departments – Flash & Video

At this stage, your group will split into two departments. You will have to work in parallel, correlating your efforts so that they can be integrated at the end.

The Flash Department

The Flash-Masters will be responsible for creating buttons, sound effects, simple animations, and the text content of each frame. The Flash-Masters will have completed their part once the presentation has navigation, fully designed frames, and placeholders for where the video supplements will be embedded.

Buttons
Buttons are the most important task for the Flash-Masters. You may create “next” and “previous” buttons that allow your viewer to advance linearly through the presentation, or you may create a menu bar with many buttons–allowing viewers to jump to any section of the presentation from anywhere (non-linear).

Backgrounds
In Photoshop, create backgrounds for each of your frames. Your backgrounds should help to accentuate the ideas of each frame, but you may design them however you like. You might want to use a consistent design for each frame depending on the content in your lesson plan.

Animations & Sound
Once you have finished designing a layout for each frame, add animations and sounds to bring your presentation to life. You may want to animate certain elements in your background, or even animate text or other graphics. You can add background music to each frame or just simple sound effects for your animations. However you incorporate these media samples, you should make sure that they engage the learner and aid in the teaching process.

The Video Department

The Video-Masters will be responsible for writing the script for each video segment, shooting the footage, and editing each segment. The video-masters will have completed their part once they have at least one individual quicktime movie files to embed into the Flash presentation.

Writing The Script
Start scripting your supplemental videos based on the content of the frame you’re placing the video in. You can do a simple “video professor” style speech about the information, or you can use voiceover and photos/videos to describe the information. Regardless, it may help if your videos are consistent in style and format. Write all of your scripts before you begin shooting any of your videos.

Shooting The Footage
Ideally, you can shoot all of your footage in one session. This will help to maintain the consistency of your video supplements. If you’re shooting “video professor” style speeches, it may be best to shoot everything on the same background.

Editing The Segments
Once you have finished shooting all of your footage, you will edit at least four separate videos. Your videos may need to have fade-ins/fade-outs depending how their incorporated in to your flash presentation. Once completed, you will export each video as a Quicktime movie.

Step IV: Flash & Video Integration

At this stage you should be ready to place your videos into your Flash presentation. First you must have Trevor or Simon sign off on both the Video component and the Flash component. Once integrated and revised one last time, your group is ready to upload!

Requirements

• Your subject(s) must be something you learned at SMASH this summer.
• Your presentation must include AT LEAST 5 frames.
• You must include a Start page or title card, regardless of your presentation style.
• You must incorporate at least one supplemental video clips.
• Your video clip(s) must be at least 30sec and no longer than 90sec
• AT LEAST one of your video clips must have spoken narration.