DigCit Blog 12: Cyberbullying PSA

   This week in digcit class, we worked on creating our PSA videos. My group happened to be a very solid group and as a result, we did not have to edit our storyboards like the rest of the other groups(not to brag). We all contributed to the PSA very well and we did everything we could to keep it running swiftly. However, if something was not right or could have been improved, we spoke up for the sake of the outcome.

   My job was to make the last three slides in the PSA. Our PSA revolves around cyberbullying and how it can impact a person. We really hope that when people see our PSA, they will think twice about cyberbullying someone. In addition, we also hope people will be upstanders rather than bystanders if they encounter cyberbullying.

   Another job I was in charge of was partially producing the music for the PSA. I helped create the original music for the PSA. However, when we meshed the music into the PSA it did not give off the effect we wanted it to so it was altered. The new music on the PSA was created by my accomplice who did a great job. 

   This was fairly easy because I do not like cyberbullying and think it is very childish even though it can really hurt someone. I have not cyberbullied anyone before and I luckily have not been cyberbullied by anyone in the past(knock on wood).

      If you know anyone who has been cyberbullied before or has cyberbullied anyone, please be an upstander and do something. You never know the full power words have on people. 

    Samatha. "How Can We Prevent Cyber-Bullying in the Social Media Age? - Multiple Mayhem Mamma." Multiple Mayhem Mamma RSS. Multiple Mayhem Mamma, 22 Apr. 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.

Dig Cit Blog 11

   Yesterday in class, we had a meeting with a successful freelance artist/ documentarian/ photographer/journalist named Kevin Beatty. Kevin used to live in North Carolina, went to college in Boston to get his bachelor in science and film, and now resides in Colorado. He makes a living off projects he works on. My teachers scheduled this meeting because his profession is corresponding to what this class tries to achieve; working on a passion project to have an impact. 

   If there is one thing he stressed its the importance of marketing not only your project but yourself in addition. I feel very confident because I think I am doing a good job at that. After the community pitch, the picture of my poster was shared on my mentors personal facebook page as well as the facebook page of the nonprofit organization itself. Due to that action, I have been contacted by people wanting to learn more about what I am doing and some also want to join me. 

   Another thing that I picked up from the hangout was how important marketing is OUTSIDE of social media. Don't get me wrong, social media is important in marketing but that is just a fraction of the bigger picture. Kevin showed us a booklet he made to market what he plans on doing and he sends it to people he wants to work with or just people who might be interested. I am pondering the thought of making flyers or posters to promote the event but I will have to do that closer to the event. It definitely was a great idea! 

   Below is a screenshot of his website and located below it is his website which goes into more detail on what he is about! I recommend you all check it out!(: 

 

  Works Cited

Beatty, Kevin J. "Mixed-Media Story Telling." Mixed-Media Storytelling. Kevin J. Beaty, 2015. Web. 13 Nov. 2015. <http://kevinjbeaty.com/cover/#start>.

DigCit Community Pitch Aftermath

   My digcit community pitch was last night and it went way better than expected. I made my own poster dedicated to informing the public about my project and what i plan on achieving. In the poster, I had pictures of Michael, his children, and his wife Linda who is my mentor as I previously have stated. I had a column on what GBM is and some facts on it. I also had a column dedicated to Michael and another one dedicated to what my final product will be. 

   I met lots and lots of people who were very interested in my poject and what my cause is. I was very scared at first but the people were very welcoming. A lot of the parents were there as well as students which was really nice because they actually comforted me. It was very encouraging all the support I gained from not just the students but the admin as well! I definitely gained some supporters! 

Genius Time Blog Update

   This week ended up being really good for my genius time because it helped clear up what I wanted to do. Next Friday, I will be meeting up with Linda and another representative from the organization so we can organize the event. At that time, we will be discussing the location of the event, what we hope to accomplish, and how we want the video to play out. With that, I will be getting info that will help me get a better understanding of how the video should ultimately play out. I will try and pitch a couple ideas and also get some feedback from Linda and the other rep on what their ideas are. From there, I will be able to plan out a final draft hopefully on the video and go from there. 

DigCit Genius Time Reflection

   This week I have completed the digcit folder. In that, I completed the "Using the Internet to Engage People in Social Causes" activity, the "Change.org Video Questions", and also the "Time to Innovate!" assignment. 

   With these assignments, I have better learned how to raise awareness in social media. I finally realized how big social media is in terms of raising awarness. Social media can be seen as a medium to channel personal thoughts and feelings but can also be used to raise awareness by things as simply retweeting or reposting things and can be as big as having a unified account for an important cause. 

   My final product has become more of a blur over the past couple of weeks. I have been trying to figure out how I can make the video outstanding for both Michael and Linda. I honestly am way better at just doing things in the momment than precisely planning things out because I tend to overthink simple things. My schedules benchmark is semi-completed but I do not mind because I feel like its what I need to do to make it the best it can be. 

   My goal for next week is to try and have a better understanding of my project and how I want it all to play out. Once I have a better understanding of how I want it all to play out, I can finally take action but for now im just going to have to keep brainstorming. 

"Fight The Good Fight 5k." - Home. Fight the Good Fight, n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2015. 

Failure v. Success

   Failure and Success are very important in both life and in school. Lots of people think failure in school means failure in life and vice versa. Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Albert Einstein, Walt Disney, Charles Dickens, Elton John, Ringo Starr, and Princess Diana all dropped out of school and became very successful in life. Lots of students also fail in life to some extent, but they may do great in school. So what exactly is the point of failure and success?

   I personally think that failure is crucial to life and success. People usually think that failure is a word that means no success, no pros, and nothing in return. I would have to disagree though. In life, ive failed countless times. Every single time I fail, I always learn something about myself. When I fail, I think of it as experience that I can learn from. I usually end up learning about what kind of person I am and what kind of person I want to be when I get older. In other words, I learn wether or not something is for me or not. Experience is very vital to growing as a person and the most important kind of experience a person can have is failure. Failing may seem like a bunch of cons, but in terms of growing into the person you want to be its a pro. With failure comes realization. If I fail at something I personally think is important, I always learn about what I can do to improve. With that improvement, I change my approach and sometimes even my mindset into something more realistic or even more creative and unique. 

   In school, failure is just bound to happen somewhere along the lines. If I were to ask all my teachers how many times ive failed, im certain they would all laugh because they all know that ive failed more times than they care to count. This is just bound to happen like I said. But with all my failures, ive learned to better understand myself a little bit better. Some of my failures made me realize that I should put in some more effort to get better grades, some of them showed me that some things are just not for me, and on occasion ill make mistakes and want to genuinely improve because I care about the topic/material. All of those are okay, because in life I dont think I will be remembered about how well I am at math, or how well I am at remembering the periodic table, or how well I am at remembering dates. I also dont want to be remembered for any of that, but some school material may come in handy from time to time. 

   If someone feels like a failure, they should know that they are not. The word "failure" in my opinion is very misunderstood, making it a big misconception. Everybody fails sometimes. Some people fail in one thing and others succeed, but everyone fails in things that others find success in. Its all mandatory. If someone who labels themselves as a "failure" really wants to succeed at the task at hand, then they shoud keep pushing because there will come a day where it all pays off. If someone considers themselves a "failure" at something that is irrelevant to them and what they want to be in life, then that is totally okay. Ive been there too and its alright for that to happen. 

PD Reflection Blog (9/28/15)

   Me and my partner Ryan presented the app "Nearpod" to teachers in a professional development presentation. For me at least, this was very easy because I have always been a supporter of Nearpod so I felt like it would be pretty easy for me since I knew what I was taking about. 

   Going into this presentation, I was a bit concerned that the teachers were going to be insanely judgmental and critical. I felt like some of the teachers were just not going to care at all and would not participate which would make it a lot more difficult for me and the class.                

   Overall though, it went a lot better than I expected it to be. The teachers were nothing but cooperative and it helped create an easy and fun atmosphere. This was great because it made interaction easier, it got our points across, and it was a great example of what I think a good and healthy relationship between students and teachers should look like. The presentation really surprised me because all the teachers seemed like they were having fun learning how to make both their jobs and the jobs of students easier. I felt like I contributed in creating a very efficient and consistent atmosphere that made it easier to learn as well as having some fun in the process. If I were to improve anything it would probably have to be wording and how I got some things across. However, I thought me and everyone did phenomenal jobs. 

   Me and some of the teachers had great conversations on Nearpod. If they needed help, I was more than happy to help them out. Some still were unsure on how it would benefit the class but I felt like I talked to those teachers and made it even more clear. I had a lot of fun teaching them and I think most of them were happy to be there as well! 

How Modern Education Destroys Creativity

   Hello and I really hope that if you are reading this blog post its because my title captured your attention. In my own personal opinion, I believe that modern education is destroying creativity and destroying peoples potential. I do understand that the topic is controversial and my ambition for the outcome of this blog is to help others comprehend and better understand my point of view. I would really love hearing other peoples opinion on this topic so do not be afraid to comment!(: 

   First, I will be uploading a link to a youtube video that I encourage you all to watch. The clip is taken from a television comedy show called "Silicon Valley" about a group of friends who create one of the most efficient and helpful tools on the internet. In the clip, the main character goes up to a famous entrepreneur after a TED Talk hoping to sell a percentage of the tool. Watch what happens: http://youtu.be/eIAvB_pZ-6Q

   The reason I am putting this on my blog is because I think he is completely right. An education in this day in age typically is being stuck in a classroom listening to a teacher/professor talk his or her knowledge into a classroom. Whats the problem then? I believe that this takes away from actual experience that could be learned and felt firsthand. I think that firsthand knowledge and experience is a lot more important and vital to life than just words being transfered about things that are going on in the world. Sure, in some cases the information might be relevant but they also take away from more relevant and important things.

   Another thing that bothers me is the expectations of most modern age staff members. What "is expected" of us is to gain material and usefully and appropriately incorporate it into the world outside of school. From the perspective of a student, it basically means we are expected to "copy" material from textbooks and notes into our brains, then vigorously and tirelessly learn the material in order to pass the class. In other words, a good handful of students might interpret school as just learning irrelevant material for a short period of time to pass a class, then completly forget the material taught.

   All of the irrelvant material and false interpretation of school and what school should be about kills creativity. It puts students under the illusion that "intelligence" is the most important thing in the world and creativity is meaningless. I put intelligence in quotes because if you think about it, learning then forgetting is not intelligence at all. We are judged on how well we can do as we are told. If you can mimic a school systems idea of a "perfect student", then you are a perfect person. If you be yourself and your ideas do not meet up with the schools systems idea of a perfect student, then there is something wrong with you. 

   In school, we are given a canvas that has already been painted on and are expected to mimic it onto a blank canvas to the best of our ability. Having said that, my school does not do that in a literal interpretation but most schools, and my school as well in some/most cases, have the same goal as my metaphor or something along the lines of it. In my opinion, we should be given a blank canvas and should be able to paint our own unique and creative painting. I think schools should focus more on embracing creativity instead of trying to set everyones brain to the same setting. My digital multimedia and global citizenship class does an outstanding job of embracing creativity. I am not saying that intelligence is something that should be dismissed, but creativity should be more fairly encouraged in a classroom. 

   I would love to get feedback on my blog on wether or not you agree and why!(: 

Blog Prompt #4

   If I were to moderate a Twitter chat, I would probably moderate a chat on what is wrong with society these days and some possible solutions. I would probably do it on this topic because I feel as if it could be very informative and very efficient. If the people who made up this society could just discuss its flaws as a whole, then some things could potentially change for the better which should be a goal. 

   I would say that I can use a twitter chat as part of my genius hour project because potentially what I want a do is to participate in a twitter chat where problems are brought up and then we all give our solutions. This could help me out because what it would do is help me open my eyes up a little more and then that will get me thinking about some possible solutions that I hopefully can incorporate into my own project. I will like to use my twitter chats to help out my project by gathering solutions and trying to use some of those solutions for my project.

   A twitter chat is an effective way to communicate with others because it connects many different people from many different places and many cultures. Twitter is a free source of communication that accepts just about every account. Given said that, with many new people comes many different perspectives. When people with different perspectives come together, then there is a better chance of getting the best possible solution. 

DigCit/Shark Tank Presentation(Blog 3)

   This week in my DigCit class, I presented my passion project to the class. It was definitely very significant because it was the first time where I really articulated my plans for my passion project. I had to craft a presentation on what I hoped to do, what I hoped to accomplish in the end, and why I felt I had to do this specific project. Writing it was a big step to get closer to the bigger picture and the presentation itself was another big step. I had to take time so I could understand where I wanted to go with this project and also just to think about if I really wanted to do this. After thinking about it long enough, I realized this was perfect and it made me feel better knowing that what I plan on doing has a significance not just on me, but others as well. 

   My peers were very helpful and had very good feedback. They all understood why I wanted to do what I felt like I had to do and were nothing short of helpful. I did get very good questions that I have to think about and will hopefully answer soon in order to make my project as good and powerful as possible. A big problem with my project is that the marathon for Michael is in July which is after the school year. Me and Linda will already have everything planned out by then though so I feel I can digress. 

   If I learned anything about this topic is how some "small things" can make a very big impact on peoples lives and in the community as well. As I stated in my previous blog, Michael had Glioblastoma Multiforme. After doing some research, it turns out that only 2-3 people in every 100,000 have this brain cancer and the people who do have this form of brain cancer only have a 5% survival rate. This was shockingly low in terms of its popularity and also the survival rate. I think that not a lot of people are aware of this deadly form of cancer because it is not as common as others. Although it is rare, we should still work hard as a whole so that maybe one day we can rid the world of it. However, I am somewhat glad that not a lot of people have to endure the things Michael had to go through. Michael was a great person and his death most definitely had a big impact in my life and in the lives of people around him. 

   Michaels wife, Linda, will be my mentor for this project and I am very excited to partner up with her because she is also extremely passionate about helping people with Glioblastoma Multiforme and people in general. Me and her will be discussing what we can do as a first step and what we hope to accomplish in the end. The race last year was super great and it was very beautiful seeing all the people coming together for the cause but I hope the upcoming one can blow the previous one out of the water. It was very nice being in that atmosphere but if we keep going and improving, then me and her will hopefully be successful in getting the word around about how scary the form of cancer is. With that acknowledgement in the community, I am almost certain we will have a more significant amount of people trying to find a cure.   

DigCit Blog 2 Prompt

   I have decided to focus my project on promoting a charity that raises awareness on Glioblastoma Multiforme(GBM). I have decided to focus on this charity in specific because it raises awareness on something that happened in my life that had a big impact on me personally. 

   Sometime freshmen year, I was still unsure on wether or not I wanted to continue playing baseball. I knew that I wanted to continue practicing so if I wanted to continue playing, I could do it easily. I had no coach or mentor given the fact that it was the off season but my parents were good friends with a person who was good at baseball. I heard he was a very cool guy who knew a lot about baseball and used to play a lot of it. I decided to practice with the guy although I did not know him at all. I felt rather uneasy but I decided to go to our one-on-one practice. This was when I first met Michael.

   Although I cannot remember the details vividly, I do remember his attitude. Michael was a very optimistic and very positive person. He knew baseball very well, but he knew people better. He knew exacty what to say to people and how to say it. After roughly two weeks, my parents informed that Michael previously had cancer. I knew this was a big deal, but it wasnt at the same time. Cancer never was something that defined Michael and even after learning he had cancer, it never changed my perspective of Michael.

   After a couple months after first meeting Michael, my mother informed me that he had cancer yet again. I was scared of what might happen but I knew he was a fighter and would never stop fighting. Me and Michael still talked every once in awhile after that but I still asked my parents about how we was doing. This time was a lot different though because this form of cancer was a lot worse. I wont go into details but the symptoms were making themselves known. The symptoms went of for about a month or two but there was still hope. Then, after being picked up from my friends, my mother informed that Michael has passed away.

   When I found that out, it very hard. For awhile I was very sad that I would not be able to see or talk to him ever again and it was very strange because it was so sudden. He left behind two young kids and his wife and I wanted to do everything I could to help them out. When I found out his wife started a charity that helps families with dealing with Giloblastoma Multiforme, I had to help. I attented their first 7K annual event and also helped out. So, for my passion project, I will be helping Michaels wife Linda with the event. I will be raising awareness hopefully by making videos and interviewing Michaels family. I also will be helping out with the actual event. Although Michael passed away at the hands of GBM, he won the fight because it never changed him. 

First DigCit Blog Post - 8/21/15

    There are many things I love and am passionate about. I am very passionate about music and how it connects people and generates so many emotions. I also am passionate about film and how it also can generate many emotions and how genuine and relatable they can get. As a matter of fact, I would like to make music or films as a profession sometime in the future. But if there is one thing I'm extremely passionate about, its people.

   People are great but I think we can all agree that some people connect and interest us more than others for lack of a nicer way to put it. Thats all natural in my opinion though, its inevitable in life and people could also argue that is helps us in some way and makes us better people in a strange way. What I have a problem is when people are being discriminated towards. 

   Life is a right in my opinion. We all have a limited period of time on this planet and it should be our duty to make it as positive as possible. We never know when we will leave and its debatable as to where we go but its a fact that we will one day leave for good. Before we leave, we should try and make our existence as happy and joyful as possible because that is the whole point of life in my opinion: to create beautiful and authentic things in a material world. 

  So why limit or deny people the right to work towards that goal? Because of race? Because of gender? Because of religion? The list goes on and on. I have a theory that just about everyone that is human is vulnerable to same things as the other. This theory makes it harder for me to understand why people would discriminate against another. We are all vulnerable to emotions and feelings just as strong and soft as the next person. So when one person harasses another person wether it be verbally, physically, or mentally by discriminating or anything other form, would the victim be expected to just miraculously move along, not say anything, and forget it due to their race, gender, religion or whatnot? I say no because we all are vulnerable to the same emotions and feelings as everyone else and that should definitely be considered at the least. 

   This problem, sadly, is extremely hard to solve. All we can do is encourage others to not promote discrimination and to also not take action in discrimination ourselves. Although it would be very hard to extinguish, I do believe and hope that maybe one day discrimination would be extinct. If this world can work together, anything is possible. We are the people who make up society which is taken for granted daily. That means, I am apart of society, you are apart of society, your teachers are apart of society, my teachers are apart of society, my family is apart of society, your parents are apart of society, and so on and so forth. Therefore, we must not talk about society as if its something that we are not apart, but rather embrace it in. I think when we embrace it, then we will see change.