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Educational Uses of |
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Educational Uses of |
Final Semester Projects and Student Reflections
Atifa Manzoor
 Manzoor_symbols_1.wmv |
The topic of my digital story is
cryptography. The main objective I want my kids to get is that
cryptography has been used in history for thousands of years and is
still being used today. A lot of times my students do things just to do
them. They don’t think about the significance or meaning behind what
they do. The dollar bill for example, is something that my students
probably don’t think too much about, but our founding fathers did.
I selected this topic because it is something
that I find very interesting. I love real life mysteries. Anything to do
with a historical mystery like this or the Da Vinci code is right up my
alley. As we discussed topics for our presentation in Cam’s class,
National Treasure came to mind and made perfect sense. |
Charon Grimaldo
 cgrimaldofashionphotostory1.wmv |
The topic of my story is fashion.
The major objective of my story is for people to get my aspect and point
of view on fashion, and maybe change their own. I selected this topic
for several reasons. First, this was the topic that was assigned to me
in my CUIN 7336 Popular Culture course. Second, I was struggling to
figure out how I could make my fashion photo story personal. While in my
literature circles, I expressed my concerns and my opinions about
fashion. My peers and professor suggested that I make my Photo Story
more personal, simply by discussing my opinions on fashion. There is no one specific group that is my targeted audience. My Photo Story can actually be viewed by a wide range of audiences. Anyone, from children to the elderly can view my story and at least find it as something to think about. Read Charon's entire reflection |
Chris Lemley
 LemleyFinal.wmv |
The 1997-98 school year was a
distinct time in my life in a number of ways. It marked the end of my
age of innocence and was the year that I can first remember dealing with
what I had previously considered adult problems. It was the year that I
began to develop my love affair with history and politics that I have
subsequently parlayed into a career. But if you ask anyone in my
hometown of Lorena, Texas about 1997, you will invariably end up talking
football. Ten years after their senior season, the ’97 team has achieved legendary status as the group that restored pride to Lorena football. Their deep playoff run and the attention that it garnered was a defining moment for the town, and, like many from back home, I still measure my life in terms of BN and AN – before ’97 and after ’97. The popular culture of sport was ubiquitous in my upbringing and, although perhaps to a lesser degree, I see the same phenomenon at play in the lives of many of my students and athletes. As a coach, I think that this story has an enormous potential to remind my athletes of the position that they occupy in the minds of those who look up to them. Read Chris's entire reflection |
Jaison James
 jjames-foodwaste-v7.wmv |
My digital story covered wasted
food, litter associated with food, and waste. There are tons of issues
with food and waste, ranging from nutrition to pollution. I thought it
would be interesting to find how food and waste are connected and what
our relationship with food and waste says about humanity. My goal for
the project was to challenge the audience, in order to foster change. I
hope the audience would include anyone who cares about the human beings
around them and is willing to listen. Everyone seems to have a personal
connection to food and waste, and I hope my story would be a natural fit
into any classroom. I think it could legitimately work in any subject.
In math and science classrooms, the cost of waste and the disposal
process can be covered. Social studies classes could cover the human
cost and the political and economic implications of food and waste.
Finally, in a language arts class students can easily examine their own
personal relationships with food and waste. Read Jaison's entire reflection |
Judy Meyers
 judy_meyers_cell_phone.wmv |
I originally came up with the idea
of cell phone ringtones for my digital story. I was in the process of
comparing my family’s phone subscription with other service providers,
preparing for our subscription renewal. I was also looking at updating
the phones we have, knowing from past experience that if the phones
became too old, that they would start having trouble with updating to
the changes that our service provider would likely make in the future.
One of the first questions that family members ask me in updating our
phones is about downloading ringtones. These days, not only can one
download and select a ringtone for when receiving a call, but one can
assign different ringtones to identify each caller, and can even choose
to have the caller hear a selected ringtone on his end! I love music,
and so I thought this would make an interesting topic. The problem,
though, is how to convey this with taking one’s own pictures and not
relying so much on just advertisements for ringtones--as far as the
visual aspect of the digital story is concerned. Although I found some
humorous cartoons and a statistic on ringtones, there just was not that
much available to make this an interesting story. So, I expanded it a
little to include what else the members of my family wanted in cell
phone features. Read Judy's entire reflection |
Linh Nguyen
 linh_nguyen_final_photostory.wmv |
The topic I have chosen for my
digital story is fashion. Through this photostory, my objectives are to
inform others that fashion is about being comfortable with oneself and
to persuade others to be creative in choosing their own styles instead
of allowing the fashion industry to do it for them. I selected this
topic because I feel it is relevant in today’s society. We allow the
media to influence and mold us into what they want us to become. The
audience for this story ranges from elementary students to adults. The
younger generation is being bombarded everyday with new fashion ideas,
and they need to know that it is okay to not follow the crowd and be an
individual.
This project might be used in a classroom in
numerous ways. This photostory could be used as an engagement/focus to
pique the students’ interest to teach economics content such as wants
and needs, supply and demand, etc. |
Maggie Robert
 M-Robert-FinalAd2.wmv |
As my major group assignment for Dr.
White’s Pop Culture class, I was assigned to the topic of advertising.
Since I was already focusing my attentions on this topic, I decided to
stick with it for my final photo story. The only trouble I really
encountered was how to narrow my topic into something I could tell a
story about, seeing that advertising is such a broad topic. I finally
settled on the idea of advertising as a catalyst for the materialism
that seems to plague our society today. I argue, in my photo story, that
advertising has created a society of everlasting kids, who are more
focused on the purchase of the latest toy, than on the serious debt it
puts them in. When I created this story, I intended its audience to be educators and parents, but I do believe I could present this to my high school students as part of a discussion on economics. Even though the photo story is meant for adults, it is still on a level that high school students can understand, and would be a useful starting point for classroom discussion. Read Maggie's entire reflection |
Rene Cavazos
 Cavazos-Finalproject_1.wmv |
The topic of my digital story
addresses the use of steroids by athletes in our society and what type
of consequences may be encountered by the use of these types of
performance enhancement drugs. It also addresses the issue of ethics and
making the right choices in life. I selected this topic as I myself am an athlete who was once tempted to use steroids by someone that I didn’t really know. I only knew this person from working out alongside him in a local Bally’s Gym. Yes, as a tenacious competitor on the tennis court I want to win all the time. I want to win because I am the better conditioned, stronger, faster, technically skilled, and above all, the smarter athlete. I know that using steroids could have helped with some of these qualities except for two, the technically sound skills and being smarter. I was also concerned with the health risks that were involved. I just could not do it. Read Rene's entire reflection |
Richard Halpin
 richard_halpin_my_obsession_final.wmv |
When I started the project I was hoping to be able to double dip with Dr. White’s class and produce a digital story that would be applicable for both. Unfortunately I drew food as the topic for that class and after a week or so of thinking I decided that I could not manage to muster up enough enthusiasm about that subject to do it justice so I decided to select a topic that is very personal; my love of games. I set myself the objective to try and do some things that I had not attempted before and to try and make an original digital story that was personal as well as informative. I selected games as a topic because I have always loved them. I have never found a game I did not like. It is not a matter of winning for me but the thrill I get from playing them. I know this has had an effect on the people around me and I wanted to examine this in the digital story. I wanted to create a story for everyone that tried to explain my obsessions and attempt to get over the effect they have on those around me. I think that it is applicable to all kinds of things, not just my fascination with games.Read Hal's entire reflection |
Shaunna Smith
 where_have_all_the_heroes.wmv |
The topic of my digital story is
“Where Have all the Heroes Gone?” The major objectives of my project
are: what characteristics make someone a hero, whom do people consider
heroes in today’s society, and the role the media plays in terms of
representing our heroes. Using my own personal love and obsession with
comic books and hero themed movies and television programming, I was
inspired to question why we turn to fictitious heroes to admire. Is it
because our society lacks people with heroic qualities? What about the
good old days...where have all the Larry Birds and David Robinsons gone?
Instead our youth is stuck with the Barry Bonds’ and Michael Vicks. I’ve
also explored the fact that everyday people (parents, teachers, public
servants, etc...) are not regarded as the heroes that they once were. I selected this topic because I have always been enthralled with heroes…whether on tv or in a book. I wanted to explore the appeal of fictitious heroes and delve into the lack of representation of true heroes in the media. Read Shaunna's entire reflection |
Sophia Mela
 smela_final_project_functions_1.wmv |
I decided to create my digital story
as a story to illustrate the mathematical concept of functions. I teach
Algebra 2 and most of my students are in eleventh grade. The idea of
functions is very difficult for most of my students to understand
because it’s usually taught very abstractly. When I was covering
functions earlier in the year, one of my classes came up the analogy of
having boys being represented by the x variable and girls being
represented by the y variable. The natural pairings of x and y elements
to represent functions lead the students to make the
boyfriend-girlfriend metaphor to represent functional relationships in
math. I decided to piggy back off of their idea and came up with a story and incorporated Hollywood characters so that my students could relate to the characters in the story and hopefully have a concrete reference to connect the idea of functions from the story to the math idea. I see myself using this project next year as we begin the topic of functions. Since the story is five minutes long, it’s a perfect length to be used as an introduction or focus exercise. I could also use it a review this year when we begin reviewing for TAKS. Read Sophia's entire reflection |
Sam Brower
 SBrowerFinalDigitalStory7358.wmv |
The topic of my digital story is
performance enhancing drugs. My objective with this topic is to
hopefully get people to question the value that we place on sports and
at what cost is it worth to become an athlete. I chose this topic
because there is not enough discussion about what affect steroid use at
the professional is having on students at the high school level.
Steroid use has become common in many high schools and there needs to be
some research done in this area to discover why steroid use is on the
rise and what, if anything, can be done to halt it.
The intended audience of my digital story is adults
but I do think that it can be used in the classroom also. It is
definitely a digital story that could be shown to athletes that are in
middle and high school. I would want to tweak it a little to relate it
more to their lives, but it could be a very effective tool. It can also
be used in a social studies or health classroom. Both content areas
would be the perfect place to discuss the drug use amongst high school
students and what could potentially cause future drug use. |
Amber Bopp
 |
In the digital story I created, I focus on the beauty hidden within a tragedy. The objectives of this assignment are to give teachers an avenue to assist children that have gone through any type of trauma in the medium of art. I also hope to let those that have been tragedies an outlet to express themselves and tell their story. Particularly, those individuals that have been through Katrina. I want to give hope that is sometimes hard to see when facing the struggles of life. My entire family lost everything in Hurricane Katrina. Many of my little cousins had to go to new schools and new cities. Life wasn’t what they knew. Our families were now dispersed and we hardly saw each other. I know we were fortunate compared to a lot of the people that didn’t evacuate. We watched on TV everything that was going on and couldn’t believe my eyes. I was depressed and angry and felt great lost. Many people were doing something to help. I saw on the news that in Houston, there were 4 mothers who just went to Reliant Stadium with paper and markers to help the children. These mothers had no training in art therapy. They just wanted to help. |
Rebecca Lacquey
 RLacqueyFinalProject2007.wmv |
The topic of my digital story is
Henry J. Heinz. My assigned popular culture topic was advertising, and
during my research on the history of advertising, I came across some
interesting information on Henry J. Heinz. As I began to research him
more closely, I realized he would give me an opportunity to tie my love
of history with modern day advertising. My main objective is to show how
Henry J. Heinz pioneered many modern day advertising strategies and
techniques. I selected the topic of Henry J. Heinz and advertising because it would allow me to tie history into my project, while also giving me the ability to cover a topic that was unique and different. Originally, I had two different ideas that I was contemplating for this assignment, but my story circle group really encouraged me to develop my final project on H.J. Heinz. The intended audience is anyone who wants to learn more about H.J. Heinz and/or advertising. It is probably more suited to High School age students and up. As I was creating this project, I wanted to make sure and include information that I could share with my students in my 11th grade United States History classes. Read Rebecca's entire reflection |
Andria Pena
| Coming soon... Read the entire reflection |
Rachel Rejona
 Rejona-ShoppingWantsNeeds.wmv |
My digital story is on the topic of
“shopping.” I chose this topic, honestly, because I like shopping and I
had to use the same topic in my other class. More specifically, my
digital story focuses on the difference between “wants” and “needs.” I
teach second grade and I thought that if I was going to spend so much
time on this that I would do something that I could actually use with my
students. One issue that I had when I was developing my digital story was trying to find a way to make it personal. I want to use it for a Social Studies/Economics lesson for seven-year-olds, so I thought that the best way to make it personal would be to try to incorporate pictures and ideas to which they could relate. In other words, my digital story will probably be more personal to my students than it is to me. I tried to put myself in their shoes when I was making it so that I could “see” how a second grader would perceive this topic. Read Rachel's entire reflection |
Carolyn Repa
 Repa-oregontrail.wmv |
The topic of my digital story is the
Oregon Trail. I chose this topic because I wanted to find a new way to
teach this topic to my 5th graders. Last year when I attempted to teach
westward expansion the students where so board with it. I think that
bringing in the history along with my past and the game would capture
their attention from the beginning of the unit. To create my digital story I used Microsoft Movie Maker. I find this program to be very user friendly. The only problem that I came across was having music and narration. To fix this problem I used Roxio Sound Editor to create one audio track from both the music and narration. Read the Carolyn's entire reflection |
Elizabeth Aleman
 finalphotostoryroberto.wmv |
Coming soon... Read the entire reflection |
Andrea Barela
 barela-MarionPStory.wmv |
The topic of my digital story
stemmed from the theme project my group chose in Dr. Cameron White’s
class. Our theme was sports, and we chose steroids as the popular
culture topic we would focus our presentation on. At first, I created a
PowerPoint with a variety of pictures that are in some way related to
the steroids phenomenon. I attempted to use these pictures as my photo
story for this class, but I determined that there was no flow between
the pictures or any way that I could personally connect them to me. From our small group discussions over our first drafts of our photo story scripts, I realized that if I was going to keep the steroids theme relevant, there would have to be some sort of personal link between this topic and myself. I know some of my friends used Creatine in high school to help boost their athletic careers, but that is the extent of my first hand experience with any substance that could enhance athletic performance. However, issues concerning professional athletes continued to occur throughout my group’s conversation, and of all the names thrown out, the one person I was disappointed to talk about was Marion Jones. I decided that, sadly, her actions had had an impact on me and the way I approach rooting for athletes now. So my story sprouted from those feelings of disappointment and how steroids have inadvertently affected the way I look at professional athletic events in general. Read Andrea's entire reflection |
Keyana Jackson
 hiphopfashionnewdirection.wmv |
My digital story is on the topic of
Hip Hop Fashion. My goals for the project were to give an overview of
Hip Hop fashion from the early 1980’s to present. The digital story
covers all aspect of fashion from clothes, shoes, jewelry, hairstyles,
and music. Another goal I set for this project was to show how Hip Hop
evolved over time and some major influences that affected the fashion
trends such as traditional African influences with hairstyles, and the
impact that street thugs and prison inmates had on the gangster era of
Hip Hop. The topic I selected for my digital story was Hip Hop Fashion. I was assigned the topic of fashion for popular culture class and once I decided on the sub-theme Hip Hop I thought of several ideas for a digital story. The intended audience includes individuals who like Hip Hop fashions or those interested in the historical aspect of Hip Hop. Read Keyana's entire reflection |
Anh Nguyen
 A.Nguyen-FinalProject.wmv |
1. The theme of my photo story for the final project is advertising. This is quite large a topic so I narrowed down on the effects of advertising on young children. In my story, I told how advertising, through the mass media, has exerted its impacts on kids and changed them into consumers since they are toddlers. I also mentioned globalization in my country Vietnam, which has helped expand the influences of advertising in an ancient and agricultural culture. This has created a new generation of young consumers running after the Western way of life at the expense of traditional values. In the end, I suggested some measures to prevent the negative effects of advertising on young children and teenagers.
2. In
creating this photo-story, I would like to express my opinions on the
effects of advertising as a cultural institution on young minds from the
stance of a mother and an educator. I also would like to introduce a bit
about my culture, which may influence my way of thinking in issues
concerning advertising and consumerism. Although I’m not a new comer to
the US, I still observe American society from an outsider’s view, in
which there seems to be a dichotomy of ‘me’ and ‘them.’ The photo-story
also expresses my concern about a potential double gap of culture and
generation in my family in the future. |
Kristal Scott
 kscott_finalproject.wmv |
My digital story is about the cost of fast food.
With this project I at first wanted to explore how much Americans were
spending on fast food, but I ended up revealing my bad habits. I chose
this subtopic from my pop culture group’s theme on food. I intended for
this to be targeted to everyone in my pop culture and digital
storytelling class, but I guess it can relate to anyone who is hooked on
fast food or has any other addictions. If I were to use this in the
classroom, I would show it before doing a unit on my student’s
interests, advertising, or fast food. I would want my students to create
their own scripts or digital stories to show something they are
interested in and some of the reasons why they are interested. I would
also like them to tell me how advertising has affected them and the
things they like. Read Kristal's entire reflection |
Kimberly So
 k-so-final.wmv |
The topic of my story is about my
grandfather. I selected to do a story revolving around the theme of
family and history. I wanted to tell a story about an instance in U.S.
history that changed my family’s life forever. That instance was the
Vietnam War. This conflict forced my grandparents and their children out
of their country and into the hands of fate. Fate led them to America,
where they had to start a new life. My grandfather was recently
diagnosed with lung cancer about a few months ago. I wanted to in a way be able to do a project that I could hold onto and share with my family at Christmas dinner. I also wanted to learn more about my family’s history. Often times, people live their lives not knowing the most interesting stories and experiences their parents had. I wanted to take advantage of the project to actually capture these stories and learn about them so I can tell it to my children. Read Kimberly's entire reflection |
Suzanne Taylor
 |
For my digital story, I created a
spoof of the movie, A Day without a Mexican. I titled it A Day without
Math. I suppose I chose this topic in order to prove to my students the
importance of Math in their everyday live. Many of my students have to
ask the dreaded question, “When will I EVER use this in real life?” My
usual answer to this question is, “Has your real life not yet begun?” I find it very frustrating to hear that my profession is seen as unnecessary to life. The truth is that even if they don’t sit down and solve one and two step equations with pen and paper, they still do it in their head for various reasons throughout the day. In hopes to change their views on algebra, I created a scenario where math never existed. The intended audience is my high school freshman students on their first day of high school. Read Suzanne's entire reflection |
Daira Valdez
 Guatemala-final.wmv |
My digital story had several topics
that relate to pop culture. The main ones are tourism and the changes
that occur when a location is deemed a touristic hot spot. My main
objective was to introduce my country from different perspectives: my
first home, an ideal place to visit on vacation, and a place that has
been affected by urbanization. I selected this topic because I wanted this digital story to really capture a personal perspective. I knew this was the right choice once I viewed the final product and could not contain my tears. The intended audience is my 3rd grade class as well as my classmates at the university. I made this story hoping that I can show it to my students so that they can learn about my country. Read Daira's entire reflection |
Sun Hwang
| Coming soon... Read the entire reflection |
