LIFE INOVATION

Source: Wikipedia

The vast amount of visual stimuli that our students are faced with on a daily basis should remind us of why it is crucial to address the skills needed to be media savvy. It goes without saying that today’s kids see more advertisements from an early age than any other generation in history. As teachers, we continually seek ways to encourage students to look at more to help them notice things that they might take for granted. It is not enough to assume that they have all the skills to deconstruct media messages, or for that matter understand why they were constructed in the first place. By beginning the process of teaching media literacy in the elementary grades, we can give kids a leg up on learning about branding techniques, advertising tricks, and the art of persuasion used to target them as potential consumers. Our method is simple: cereal.

Cereal provides a sound place to start on a strong foundation of prior knowledge. Most children know plenty about it besides just eating one brand or another, and many can recite television commercials, sing jingles, or identify mascots. One of the first things we discuss is what it means to be a consumer. We relate it to eating and how they consume food. Then we take it a step further to talk about consuming information, and lastly how a consumer buys goods and services. It’s easy then to transition into what to look for as a consumer when buying something such as cereal. In our school library, we have a bookshelf full of cereal boxes to use as examples, but three of our favorites to start with are the original, Honey Nut, and Fruity Cheerios brands, a mere three of the eleven brands made by General Mills. This exercise can also be done with other products, using multiple types of a single brand.

Source: General Mills

The students carefully study each box and look at all the different elements that go into their designs, such as a heart-shaped bowl with a ribbon about cholesterol, a cartoonized honey bee dropping a little bit of sweetness at the same time it uses a stethoscope to check your heart, or rainbow colored rings packed onto an extra large, milk-filled spoon. They learn what a target audience is and whom the advertiser intends to get to buy a particular brand. Is it for adults or kids? Conversations usually lead to many of them making connections to television commercials that talk about heart health or cute little kids wanting breakfast. With lots of other examples for them to see, the conversation quickly turns into a diagnosis of cereal boxes in search for clues on how advertisers manipulate the visual imagery using bright colors, extra large type, prizes, and more.

Source: PBS Don't Buy It

We keep them engaged by adding a little “Snap, Crackle and Pop” to reinforce what they’ve learned. The students design their own cereal boxes using the Don’t Buy It website by PBS. It's a nice interactive activity to learn the basic aspects of how color selection, celebrities, and name help sell cereal. Another good site for branding cereal is the interactive game called Co-Co’s AdverSmarts. In this game, students have to come up with a new website for Co-Co Crunch cereal by coming up with five gimmicks to promote and market it. For a little more cereal identification, they play Can you name the Cereal Mascots? This timed game to name the sixteen mascots is a sure win, with a little spelling lesson built in to boot.

Source: Media Literacy Project

Talking to kids about cereal is eye opening for them, especially when we show them the typical cereal aisle in any grocery store. By having them analyze the picture to the left, we start the discussion about product placement. Kids are surprised that companies pay for the best spot on the shelf for their brands to be noticed. Where are the brands for them?

Kids get it once they learn what to look for and come away with a whole new level of understanding. They also willingly report back to us on what they have in their own pantries or what they noticed shopping with parents. By paying more attention, they become visually astute at picking up the nuances in branding. We emphasize how important it is to be a “smart consumer” and not to be fooled by advertizing tricks. In other words, kids feel proud and a little more empowered, thinking that they have one up on the marketers.

Source: Fisher Price

Source: NYSCATE

We just wrapped up three days in Rochester at the 2011 annual NYSCATE conference. The New York State Association for Computers and Technologies in Education (NYSCATE) assembled a roster of galvanizing presenters and speakers to empower our students through technology. We met a lot of impressive teachers who shared their savvy and expertise, and we thoroughly enjoyed Diana Laufenberg's keynote address. Some of the particularly valuable workshops we attended focused on web 2.0 accessibility, 21st-century global teaching, and school iPad deployment.

Special thanks to the lively, collegial crowd who attended our session on "Designing Information: Infographics As Literacy." The thoughtful comments made for an enriching conversation. All of the infographic examples we shared are available on this blog, as are all of the resources for creating original graphics. The skill tips and curriculum tools are posted as well. As promised, here is a copy of our presentation [Update: presentation available upon request]. Please feel free to contact us if we can help in any way.

Source: ASIDE

This NYSCATE conference may have been the best-run gathering we've attended in recent years, and it was all done by volunteers. The pacing of the programs and the paperless program app allowed for full but unhurried days. And the little things, like free hotel Wi-Fi, gifts for presenters, welcoming receptions, and helpful tech support all made the conference convivial.

Special thanks to Dave Mileham for organizing the daily details. He was approachable for the most mundane questions and kept the nifty conference app up-to-date.

If you were unable to attend, resources from the conference are available via the #NYSCATE11 hashtag on Twitter or on the NYSCATE ning. Also, if you're in the area and primed for a relaxing, post-tech dinner, check out the escarole and cannellini beans at Pane Vino on N. Water Street.

For magazine subscribers and blog aficionados, infographics may seem ubiquitous these days as fads for the design intelligentsia. For our students, however, infographics are brand new. The notion of a dynamic visualization, riddled with appealing facts, is almost too-good-to-be-true for our modern learners. Infographics can dazzle children with their neon hues and wry caricatures, and when expertly constructed, they can provide an innovative glimpse at complex data.

Putting together an effective graphic is difficult, especially when the audience is under 18 years old. Crafting images and ideas to educate young learners involves a full complement of teacher skills. We call this approach "edsign."

Edsign is the design of information for education. It is the shaping of concepts for the most successful delivery to learners. Edsign involves filtering the "need to know" from the "nice to know." It requires careful planning about what elements to present, in what order, and in what lingo. Edsign applies the talents of the teacher to present details in a logical, dynamic, permanent way that grabs the student's attention and internalizes the key take-aways.

A great resource about the benefits of data visualization is this short video from Column Five. It's been making the rounds of some excellent blogs, but it's worth a look if you haven't seen it - and our students most likely haven't.


The Value of Data Visualization from Column Five on Vimeo.

Infographics can be the epitome of edsign. Good infographics are amalgamators of charts, graphics, icons, symbols, and fonts. They are arresting ways of uniting visual and analytical tools to broadcast clear, data-driven messages.

Bad infographics, however, rely on spash over substance. They ignore the lessons of rigorous graphs and instead blur analysis in the name of pop appeal. Attention to detail is absolutely necessary in creating a quality graphic. Hastily assembled images can lead to misinformation and inaccuracies.

Source: Think Brilliant

We try not to rely on flashy visuals without also emphasizing the analytical skills that students should be developing across every grade level. Ideally, we would be able to infuse daily lessons with examples of graphics that shed light on modern technology or popular consumerism. Teaching learners how to decode infographics is crucial to understanding facets of meaning.

Our students are accustomed to seeing percentages in their textbooks and arrows on their PowerPoints. These are the building blocks of edsign. High quality visuals provide an easy progression from children's comfort zones to more layered, analytical interactions that at once excite the eye and engage the mind. They can enlighten learners through a form of literacy that emphasizes critical thinking, communication, and creativity.

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday and begin to collect food for the less fortunate in many of our schools, it would be a good idea to talk to kids about feeding the world’s population and the problems in doing it. The How to Feed the World film by Denis van Waerebeke helps explain this concept in a simple, clear way using infographics. It begins with the globe filled with humans and explains how the majority of the world contains 850 million people who are undernourished.




How to feed the world ? from Denis van Waerebeke on Vimeo.

Visually, it does an excellent job of using graphics to explain the relationship between supply and demand, imports and exports, and food pricing and production. As for economics, it’s simple. There are plenty of mini-lessons in this resource from how food distribution affects price to why yield doesn’t always mean lower costs. This short visual representation is packed with information, much the same as the Visualizing the World at 7 Billion produced by NPR. Perhaps the most important point is about sustainability and fixing the problem. Its straightforward message just might help kids to make a difference in trying to figure out a solution, too.

Source: PhireDesign, ASIDE

We've been using Twitter for about five months. We can't tell whether we are embarrassingly late to this near-universal social medium, or whether we are still ahead of the slow-to-change teacher curve. We're probably somewhere in the middle, and for us, that's a good thing. We are eager but judicious in latching on to new tools and trends (as anyone who has visited our straightforward Facebook page knows). On Twitter, we have benefited enormously from the innovative thinkers and generous sharers who have introduced us to eye-opening concepts, articles, and resources. In these few months, we've progressed professionally by leaps and bounds. Here are 10 ways that Twitter has helped make us better teachers:

1. Recommended, pre-curated articles from trusted educators - The idea that a fellow teacher has sorted through a battery of blogs and publications to recommend only a few choice readings means that we can faithfully click on the links and reap the rewards of someone's curating. We're grateful for their hard work, which is why we keep following them. Their readings propose new ideas that we can incorporate into our instruction and share with our colleagues.

2. Links to terrific resources - In looking for online help, we always comment that we don't need lesson plans, we need resources. Web 2.0 tools and interactive sites offer dynamic ways to engage students and create projects. Through Twitter, we've been introduced to new web tools and have also gleaned helpful ideas for using them.

3. Wake-up calls about what we don't know and aren't doing - There is at once a soaring sensation and a sinking feeling when we realize all of the methods that are working successfully in America's classrooms and that we have not yet tried. School reform is a monstrous beast, and educational theory morphs in minutes. We try to keep up, but Twitter lets us know there is always more to learn. We stay motivated intellectually and keep improving professionally.

4. Tried and tested tips by respected professionals - Anytime someone recommends a new lesson or project, and then shares evidence about what worked well, we know we can successfully follow their lead in our own classrooms. Mimicking people we respect is the easiest form of professional development.

5. Important comparisons of challenges facing independent and public schools - Parochial, charter, independent, home-school, and public models all face similar difficulties in gauging achievement and motivating learners. But from there, the challenges branch in disparate directions when considering funding, testing, unionization, and leadership. As independent school teachers ourselves, we feel it is important to stay connected to the issues affecting all educators nationwide.

Source: PhireDesign, ASIDE

6. Confirmations about how much agreement there is among educators, and how much disagreement there is among administrators, parents, and politicians - Everyone we follow on Twitter seems to concur about creativity, play, projects, technology, collaboration, and problem-solving. Why do so many other voices fight against these proven influences? Why do so many forces crowd the teacher out of the classroom?


7. Revelations about real-life colleagues who are also on Twitter - It's neat to read what's on our friends' minds away from the daily hallways. We think we know our colleagues well, and then they surprise us with their reading lists, clever outbursts, and political leanings. Tracking their tweets, we know them anew.


8. Realizations about how funny the Twitterverse is - There are a lot of funny people out there. Who knew how witty teachers and Tweeters were? It's nice to laugh and learn at the same time.


9. Introductions to visually keen Twitter aggregators - Impressive tools such as Paper.li and Scoop.it! help cull related ideas and offer them in imaginative, accessible layouts. Individuals can design self-published newsletters around particular areas of interest. Threads of hashtags help connect ideas. Check out our daily Paper.li, about graphicacy and design in education.


10. Recognitions about Twitter's value to other social media - Social animals prowl freely. They know no cage. Every networking possibility links to readers and friends in other social media. If you're on Twitter, your blog, Facebook page, and LinkedIn profiles will all see upticks through their interconnectivity. Feed one, feed them all.

We've spent three days here in Louisville among a loyal community of educators and learners at the National Middle School Association (NMSA) conference. Thank you to everyone who shared their self-created materials and their years of experience to promote high-quality teaching. Because middle level students occupy such a quirky niche within the many tiers of schooling, a dedicated gathering for their teachers truly helps foster like-minded innovations. We have attended valuable workshops on advisory relationships, web 2.0 tools, social studies strategies, service learning, comparison skills, and family communications.

A highlight of our visit was meeting with Ashley Smith, Jr., Southern Trustee of NMSA, now known as the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE). He was candid and sincere in soliciting feedback on how AMLE can better serve its members.

Source: ASIDE

Many thanks to everyone who came out and attended our presentation on "Where Financial Media Meets Media Literacy: Integrate, Don't Isolate." The inspired ideas and free-flowing collaboration yielded a terrific session. At heart, the message of motivation and student interest made it more important than ever to target that in-between place of money and messaging where today's teens operate.

Here are the links and projects that we referenced to unite branding, advertising, markets, trade, entrepreneurship, and new media:

• Media Savvy
• Money Matters
• Question It
• Kid Entrepreneurs
• Colonial Travel 

By the way, if you're in the neighborhood, the Kentucky Frito Misto at Bistro 301 is tasty, and the vibe is low key and welcoming. Thank you, Louisville, for your hospitality.