Blog #3

I personally enjoyed listening to this 1619 podcast. I loved how it had music and different sets of tones. I believe it delivered the message that we should all have universal healthcare and gave us many reasons that support the message. This would be very beneficial to allow high school students to listen and open it up to a discussion afterward. In my opinion, a podcast would be a great educational tool to teach high school students. Many youth in students are interested in having their own podcasts. Many of them have created some but most of them do not know how to properly create content. This goes back to the digital native versus the digital immigrant. Students aren’t being taught how to use these technological educational tools. Many believe that they already know how to use them. 

Since I have been working with third graders, I find it a bit harder to keep them actively listening to a podcast without any visuals for a long period of time. Thinking of the third-grade class I was in this previous school year, I would say that they were more engaged in videos than actually hearing us talk. I also believe that they would gain more knowledge by learning how to make videos instead of podcasts at this age. These third graders were very into TikToks and learning new dances, so I much rather give them a learning opportunity to create a video, teaching the class something, instead of teaching them how to create a podcast. I believe it would be a fun idea to love them to actually teach their peers through their work of presenting their short videos. These videos could be on any topic. They could teach the class how to skip count through a song. They could teach the class how to tie their shoes or even multiply. The possibilities are endless.

Blog #2

Disney was and has been a huge part of my life. I was raised watching Disney movies and the Disney Channel shows. I loved all the princesses but most importantly the little mermaid. Ariel was always my favorite princess. Although I can’t pinpoint the reasoning behind my favoritism for Ariel, I believe her hair color was what drew me in the most since it is my favorite color. I grew up having princess and Barbie-themed everything. My parents would call me their princess and show me all the princess movies. I resonated with the princesses since I believed I was a princess, but I couldn’t quite find myself completely through any of them. Growing up, I was never able to connect with them at a level where I felt truly represented. All of these princesses were mostly white with one Indian and one Chinese princess to create a sense of diversity. Although I felt like Jasmine’s skin color matched mine, I was still not represented since I am not Indian. I remember when The Princess and the Frog debuted and how big of an impact that made on me. I was amazed at the fact that Tiana was the first black princess on Disney platforms. As I grew up, and rewatched this movie, I viewed it differently each time. It was great that Tiana was the first black princess but it would have been extraordinary if she would have been in human form for most of the movie instead of a frog. 

Reading Christensen’s piece, I was hit with the reality that I have secretly been running from. I did not want to face the reality of the injustice that Disney portrays because as I said, I grew up with this it was all I had known. The impact of this reading did not surprise me at all because I too was like Justine and was choosing to be ignorant and happy. As much as I watched all the princess movies, I knew I didn’t ultimately want to be a princess “when I grew up”. I grew up watching the Cheetah girls and resonated so much more with them. There were four girls in which three of them are people of color and one is white. I remember I loved watching this movie simply because I felt like I was being represented and I was able to relate to Chanel who was the Latina cast member. The songs they sang were very empowering especially “Girl Power” and “Cinderella”. The title of the song “Girl Power” says the main message that the song is sending out. The song “Cinderella” has some very powerful lyrics which send the overall message that girls do not need a man to do things for them. The chorus is important, but this one stanza is powerful “I can slay my own dragon, I can dream my own dreams, my knight in shining armor is me”. This means that they, girls, are capable of doing things that are normally portrayed to be a man’s thing and that they are also independent and capable of taking care of themselves. Because of these powerful girl role models I watched, I was able to look past being a princess and consider myself a fierce Cheetah girl instead.

PS: Just a cheetahlicious picture of myself embracing my fierce cheetah side

 

Blog #1

Marc Prensky and Danah Boyd talk about the term "digital native" from opposite sides. Before reading Danah Boyd's chapter, I was agreeing with Marc Prensky's theories. I agreed with his theory because I believe that I am an example of a digital native and understood how he described it. I related to the way he talked about the differences that were between the digital immigrant versus the digital native. I resonated a lot when we talked about digital natives being able to parallel process things instead of linear processing. Oftentimes, I find myself doing a bunch of things at once, such as watching a show, on Facetime and doing homework. For me, this is normal and easy to do but to my mom, this comes off as distracted and she questions how I manage to do it. I have always been the "tech-savvy" person in my family but now looking back I believe it was because I knew how to read English. I was raised by two Spanish-only-speaking parents. I was their little personal translator since I started going to school. There was always a computer in my house, which was the only computer that all my family used.  When I say all I mean, ALL my cousins would come over to do their homework and save it on their floppy discs, check their Myspace, or even just play games. During my downtime, I was found playing games on the computer or changing the layout of my Myspace page. 

I loved Danah Boyd’s chapter way more because it just made more sense. I liked how she canceled the narrative that society has when it comes to digital natives. She states that everyone has to develop these technological skills and that it requires hard work no matter the age group. Boyd says that teens have just a basic understanding of how computer systems work on a day-to-day basis. She talked about how Myspace and its layouts and backgrounds came about and how it was a glitch that teens discovered. This blew my mind because I remember that I would sit for hours changing my background at the age of eight. I went back on Myspace a little over a year ago to see how different it was from the social media I currently use. I was shocked that I still remembered my login information but I had no idea how I used to change the background and music. I was part of that “learning through clicking” group, where I would just click to see where it would lead me and most of the time it would lead straight to viruses. Over time, I have seen computers become smaller and smaller. I have seen the iPhone go through all its phases from 0 to 14. We went from paying the internet per minute used on our phones to having unlimited data. Most of us now have access to the internet through the touch of our fingertips. And instead of having to carry the huge computer that Lesley was talking about we carry the mini-computers in our pockets which are our phones.

All about meee ... Not really but a quick glimpse. 

My name is Roanny. I was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island. I come from a Dominican family which is why I claim to have deep roots in my beautiful Caribbean island. I recently graduated from Rhode Island College with a Master in Arts through the Youth Development program. It feels a bit weird to still be in class after physically crossing the stage back in May, but here we are. My summer has not mentally started for me due to the fact that I am still taking classes over the summer. Once this class is completed I will be more than glad to be sitting outside enjoying the sun and avoiding any types of bugs. I love to spend time with my family and boyfriend when I am not in class. I am also a huge fan of Bad Bunny and Romeo Santos, so I am often caught up listening to their music that I love dearly. 

Below are some links to Bad Bunny and Romeo Santos' Apple music profile in case you are interested in listening :

https://music.apple.com/us/artist/bad-bunny/1126808565 

https://music.apple.com/us/artist/romeo-santos/434832774