PSA response

SOOO this week we showcased our PSA's to the school. Each day of the week we showed a PSA in every English class. After each day one person from the PSA group would post to schoology and tell everyone to go comment on twitter using a hashtag or comment on twitter. If they did they would be entered to win some prizes. They are some pretty sweet prizes so I hope a lot of people comment and see our videos. 

My video was the first one to be seen and surprisingly it got a lot more views than I thought it would get. It is at like 80 something views and has around five comments. So far I am feeling pretty good. We in our digcit class are having ourselves a little friendly competition between our groups. While I havn't checked the standing so far, I am feeling good. I think we had a really powerful PSA. 

As a recap, on what our PSA was about, it was about digital wellness, specifically it was about self worth. We were trying to encourage people who find self worth in social media to not do that. We want them to find it in things that make them who they are. I hope that it really impacted some people and changed some peoples lives. 

So as a conclusion. I'd say that as a whole all of our PSA's in this class were a complete success they all look great and sound great.

I like my PSA

So in this unit we were instructed to create PSA's ( public service announcements). During this project I learned a lot. I learned that you need to know how to edit and create a video that will really capture the audiences attention. Depending on your topic, you can do this in a multitude of ways. For my groups PSA we, our topic was digital wellness and we specifically decided to focus on self worth and social media. We wanted to show how you should not find your self worth on social media. One of the things we incorporated was painting a picture for what it would be like for a person that found self worth in social media, a world without it. Then we listed all the things they should find their self worth in. The music is also a large part of  a PSA. You need to have impactful music to grab hold of your audience. I honestly wouldn't want to change anything. I think we did a great job. If we had better resources, maybe we could have done a little better but overall i fell as if we did an awesome job.

Early Blog

So I know this weeks blog is a day early, but I have some time to kill. Soooo, this week we are doing PSA videos. Our teachers gave us these problems and we have to make a public service announcement video and then present it to the school. All of the problems are relative to the school environment and hopefully we can change some hearts while we are at it. My groups PSA is about digital wellness and we specifically chose to focus on self worth and social media. It is a problem where people try and define themselves by the amount of follwers and likes that they get as well as the flattering comments. If the picture doesn't meat their expectations on likes, they most likely delete. We want to inspire people to try and look to themselves to find self worth and also look to friends and people around them. Don't look for gratification from others to verify what you are worth. 

I was kind of dreadinig the PSA because I wasn't sure what me and my group would do. It seemed almost impossible to find an idea. Then, one day, I figured it out and proposed it to my group. It was great and then we got started and it turned out to be a pretty interesting idea. One of us was dedicated to the writing on the screen for the video. I was dedicated to making the music on garage band. Copyright free of course. And another person was focused on making the call to action website we are doing at the end. Hopefully this PSA will turn out to be good and impactful and not just silly.

Video Chat

Yesterday, our entire class did a videochat with this freelance photographer and documentary maker because a lot of what we do in this class, is similar to what he does everyday for his job. He does documentaries on social issues and on just jobs people give him. He has to make connections, reach out to people, and make him self known to people so he can get a job from people. That is similar to what I am doing. I had to reach out to a local organizations, make connections with people so I could make my issue recognized. He markets himself a lot through social media and I thought that I could use socail media to spread awareness for homelessness and also to post the youtube link of my interviews so people can realize what the organization is about.

Well I should say that I need to make more connections with people so I can further my project, however I am using my organization I used for the first half of my project. However I need to start promoting my project and get it out their. I made a lot of progress with my hoodie drive and if I could inspire more people to donate to organizations that would be incredible.

Kevin, the freelance photographer is an amazing person. He is a doer and a gogetter and always accomplishes his goals. If I could have that same attitude with 

Community Pitch

So, last night was the community pitch for our passion project and it went great. There were so many people that had such nice things to say. The community pitch was a presentation to the community of our project and our progress we have accomplished. A bunch of parents and friends and people came and learned about our project. It felt great to be complimented to so many people that my idea is good. It was an hour long and it went by so fast just talking to so many people. As I have stated previously in my blog posts that my project is about homelessness in my community.

Genius Time Update

Hey everyone. So far things are going really well and I am making a lot of progress with my project. I recently just did my interviews with the people over at my organization I am working with and I got a lot of great footage. I interviewed two women and one of them was an older women who has been there for 17 years and had a lot of experience. She was so knowledgable about the organization and gave me a lot of great footage. 

Also this is the last week of my drives for hoodies and it has been going great. I have probably about 150-200 hoodies and jackets. My school drive has gone so much better than last year and I have collected so many more this year. 

Next week I plan on washing all of the used hoodies and then bringing them to the organization. 

My progress and what I learned.

So the past few weeks I have accomplished a lot. I started my drives in multiple places, and I also scheduled my interviews with the organization I am working with this friday. I had started the drives in my neighborhood, and my mom's work and it will start at my school next week. The hardest thing for me to figure out was how I was going to do my interviews. I needed to figure out the audio as well as the camera angels because I am filming it. Soon my teacher showed me a microphone that she had that I can attach to my ipad and I aslo I have a friend that is going to help film with another camera. 

Torwards the beginning of the quarter I wasn't sure if I was going to complete the goals I had set for completing of my project. I then buckled down and got my head right and started accomplishing one thing after the other. I contacted people to get the drives started and I also had to schedule interviews. For me these things are kind of scary. I hate having to talk to people but this project has increased my confidence and comfortability with talking to people. 

Next week I plan on starting the drive at my school as well as editing my interview video. It is going to be a long and tedious process editing the video, but it is going to be worth it because it is going to be an amzaing video and a great way to raise awareness for my cause. 

Technology's impact on us

The question for today is will technology connect or conquer us. Many of the adults now- a-days feel as if todays youth have an unhealthy dependence on technology. In some respects that accusation is justified. There are many people that cannot go two minutes without their phone. However todays day and age has adapted to incorporate technology into it. Schools are using ipads and computers, you can now pay with your phone or smart watch, and you can also talk to someone of your family on the other side of the world.

I believe that technology will eventually conquer us, but not necesarily in a bad way. Different technology companies like apple are coming out with different ways to incorporate technology into peoples lives. I believe that we will be completely dependent on technology. I don't think that normal human interactions like face to face with family and friends will go away because we will all be using technology together. We will be able to be with eachother but be connected somewhere else. Normal human interactions will not be lost, just enhanced in a way.

We as humans have the innate nature of advancing in society and technology whenever possible. We cannot stop advancement. We have to adapt to it.

Genious time reflection

The past few weeks, we had a genius time project. A bunch of teachers from the middle and highschool had posters, flyers or banners they needed for a number of things. My project was creating small posters to put around the school for the three home football games left, and the theme of the games. Each game has a different theme. There was Pinkout, Neon, and Homecoming. My job was to create a visual representation of these themes while advertising the football game. This was actually a really fun project. While it took a while because I had three posters to create while others had only one, but I enjoyed it. To make these posters, I used two apps on my ipad. I used canva, which is an app used to make advertisements, posters and what have you, and I also used photoshop mix. It is basically just a photo editing app. 

I thought that I did a really great job with the posters. In class we had critique sessions. We had two of them actually. Our designs would go up on the projector and everyone would critique them. They would give suggestions and compliments to help you make the best design. It felt good to not only help the teachers and the school, it also was a period of growth. Getting constructive criticism, while sometimes it can sting, it helps you grow and learn to become better. 

Teacher Development

This week in Digcit we participated in a teacher development. Normally the teachers of a department come into a room and they listen to another admin or teacher tell them new things to incorporate in there class room.

This week, instead of a teacher telling them what to use. We did. We though of fun and interactive ways we could use our ipads in class. We used different apps and websites and platforms on the ipads to accomplish this. It was a really cool experience to be able to teach the teachers. It was like our roles flipped for a few hours. It was also funny to see that the teachers acted the way students normally act in a class room. They were talking and messing around on their ipads, and sometimes it was actually really hard to get their attention. I guess we now know how it feels to be a teacher.

We introduced them to a lot of different tools and hopefully they will be incorporated in the classroom. The theme that we came up with was collaboration. We decided that we wanted more ways to collaborate with other students in and outside of the class room. It was really interesting to hear the ideas that we came up with during our planning. 

Now it wasn't all just teaching. The day was a half day so instead of going home we just stayed after school and waited for it to start. It was a great time because our teacher bought us pizza and soda and a few of us went to cookout and it was just a fun experience before and after the event. 

Passion project Progress

I know this post is a little later than normal but I want to update you on how my passion project is going and the progress I have gotten.

So, so far I have not had as much progress as I would have liked but, that is partly my fault. I have not been as focused as I need to be. I have what I want to do layed in front of me, I just need to execute. So, tomorrow I have a meeting with the head of the organization I am working with, Crisis assistance Ministry and we are going to talk about my project to come. One of the requirements for this project is to have a mentor. I am hoping that she will be able to become my mentor because, one, she will be a great help because of her experience in homeless outreach, and two, because I have no one else to ask.

I will also be getting my collection location set up soon and getting ready for the weeks ahead of hoody collection.

I know that this blog is a lot shorter than normal, but I haven't had much progress on my project yet. I will update next week with more detail.

Twitter Chats

This week in DigCit, we were introduced to twitter chat. Its a way where people from all over the world can talk through twitter by using a hashtag everytime we post. We use a website called tweetdeck so we can manage the feed by keeping columns where we can get tweets that use that hashtag. 

If I were to create a twitter chat I would do it on the problems of homelessness. I scrolled through a resource that had a list of a lot of available twitter chats and I didn't see any that were on homlessness. Not to say that their aren't any, but there are just not a lot. I saw a lot on the topic of business and socail media. If I were to use it as part of my passion project I would create the hashtag and then I would promote it through all other forms of social media and get people to join. I would ask people to retweet it on twitter and tell everyone they know to join the chat. I know that I probably won't get all that many people to join, however the more people that know about it, the more chance I have of a bigger audience. 

Twitter chat is a really effective way to communicate because it is an easy we to reach anybody. Anyone can create a twitter and anyone can use the hashtag. Twitter is an international website and it is just as easy for someone next door to me to join as it is for someone in France to join. I think of it as a central platform in which everyone can participate.

Shark Tank

Week three. It has been great. Earlier this week did a "Shark Tank" propasal project where we pitch our idea to the class and get feedback. It was a really great experience where I was given good and bad feedback on how to make my projecty better. It really helped to narrow my focus on a couple of things. Before I did not have any idea of who my mentor could. Now I was given the idea of asking someone at the organization I'm working with to be my mentor. I realized that it was perfect. All they do there is help the homeless and the poor and will be able to give a lot of good guidance.

I also learned a few things on how I should approach my video. Before I was going to just walk around town and find some homeless people that might talk to me on camera and tell me about their story. I then learned that one, it could be a little dangerous, and two, that I should try to form relationships with people before I ask to get them on camera. I want to go down to the organization I am working with and ask them if there are any people that frequent the place. If there are then I will be able to talk to  them every time they visit.

In the future weeks ahead lke next week, I plan on having contacted my organization, a contact my teacher gave me who does a lot of outreach work in California will have been contacted by me. I plan on getting a little guidance and a push in the right direction from him. He most likely can't function as a full time mentor simply because of the distance of 5000 miles but we can skype and talk some things out. I also plan on having contacted a few places to see if I could place collection boxes in a few spots to start the collection going soon.

This should start getting exciting and I will keep you posted next friday on my progress. See you soon.

Genius Time and my Passion Project

Well, it is the end of week two of digcit and i have to say that it has been a very productive week. A few days this week our teacher gave us "genius time" which is essentially a period or part of a period to brainstorm and generate ideas about what our passion project will be and all that it encompasses. Last week I already had a good idea about what I was going to do for my project. I was going to do a "Hoodies for the Homeless" drive and collect sweatshirts hoodies and jackets and give them to an organization to distribute them to the homeless people of my city. After talking to my teacher, she told me that I need to make it bigger and bring more awareness to it. I had some time to think during this weeks genius time and I decided to do a winter and spring drive. However that wasn't enough. I needed a way to make it more of a global or national issue. I need to raise awareness some how. My teacher suggested that I make some sort of video. At first I was stuck and couldn't think of how I could make a video to raise awareness before the actual drive. Then it hit me that I should go talk to and video tape an interview with actual homeless people. I think it would be a great way to connect with my project. 

This project is really important to me because it breaks my heart to see someone sleeping on a bench or begging or digging through trash just to get a meal. It also makes me sad to see people shivering in the cold outside during the winters. There are some places people can go during real cold weather but not everyone can and they can't stay there forever. Eventually they will have to go back into the brutal cold of winter. Everyone needs a good jacket to survive winter. I also talked about doing a drive in the spring. The issue you here really isn't as bad but it still lays on my heart. Although homeless people have clothes for spring and summer. There are hundreds of kids in my local school system that are homeless. Kids when they go to school, they don't want to be where the same clothes every day or every week. If kids also had the opportunity to get new clothes for spring as well it really brings satisfaction to my heart knowing they can have a few more cool outfits to wear.

For the number of jackets and clothes are will be collecting, I don't really have a set goal for how many I will collect but I do want at least 200. It would be great to get that many for each but if I don't it's ok, some kids will still receive them, and if I exceed it, that's even better.

First Week and My Heartbreak

Well it is the end of the first week of digcit, and I have to say that it is going to be a great year. Even though we really didn't really start getting into the juicy parts of this class, we got a nice overview of what we will be expecting the rest of the year as well as learning how to be good digital citizens. We actually learned how to blog. Not one person including the teachers had ever blogged before and it was a learning experience for everyone. Even though putting all of my thoughts out there for the world to see isn't exactly in my comfort zone, I know it will just help me and give useful new experiences. I am excited to see what responses I get back.

One of the first challenges of this class have been trying to find a passion. I know that there are plenty of people that have a passion for things but before this class I was not one of those people. I hadn't found something that I really felt strongly and passionately about. One of the big parts of this year is a passion project. We have to find something we are really passionate about and either volunteer or raise awareness or something like that and we will do a presentation at the end of the year. Since a lot of people had trouble finding a passion, my teachers explained to us that sometimes to find your passion you have to figure out what breaks your heart. At first I was a little confused about how something that makes you sad can be a passion. It was then explained to me that if something really breaks your heart it will cause you to want to make a difference. To really find out if something breaks our heart, we made a heart break map.

Our heartbreak maps were basically three different size hearts inside of each other. The first level would be what breaks our heart. The second level is what about it breaks our heart. The third level is what we can do to make a difference. This was really great in helping me find what I am passionate about and I never really realized it until now.