After reading this chapter, all I could say is "wow" and then I'm left scratching my head. It's amazing to think that an imaginary language could will itself into existence from popularity. After reading this chapter, I'm left wondering who or what heard Klingon and said this should be an actual language. It is noted that the popularity of the show surpasses conventional notions of "popularity", as iconic is a much better word. The show's popularity is so iconic that some may argue its fan-base is synonymous to that of a religion. However, it is interesting to think that a television show is not only capable of innovating its own pedagogy, but that it can cultivate its own learning and style of learning at the same time . It is also safe to say that this would not be possible with out the influence of pop culture as pop culture has been the foundation of not only the show's popularity, but also, its survival.
I just saw the video on youtube about the Zombie Apocalypse and I felt more entertained than concern. I had great difficulty taking it serious as a person, but interested and compelled as a fan of the zombie movie genre. As discussed in previous weeks, this documentary seems to be more of the media glamorizing a popular movie genre in documentary form. As discussed in one of my previous blogs, as educators we give learners tools to make the best informed decision about the media. To me, this would be a situation in which I urge learners to utilize the tools given to discern as this seems like propaganda to invoke fear than inform. Furthermore, why is the video not exploring issues like mental health or cannibalism? I wholeheartedly believe that the video's purpose is to piggyback off the popularity of the zombie movie genre to gain a targeted demographic of viewers for more viewership of the network.
This article was a very interesting read as it flirted with unconventional means of pedagogy. Personally, I have never been a fan of Star Trek, but I am a fan of the characters i.e. Captain Kirk, Spock etc. I never thought of the geopolitical themes as extensively as Saunders with regards to Star Trek, but they are there. The part of the article that got my attention the most was the connections he made with science fiction, race and colonialism. More specifically, I am interested in probing his comment: "As a genre obsessed with colonialism and imperial adventure, science fiction frequently inverts the genuine threat that Euro-American imperialism has posed to the non-white peoples of the world, presenting instead an imaginary realm where ‘white people’ are threatened with subjugation or annihilation by a hostile alien force" Hopefully, I'm not getting off topic or misinterpreting this by mentioning it, but I thought "imaginary realm" was an interesting description to describe the fear of the majority being taken over by the minority. When history shows that the grassroots of racism is based in fear (Rushton,1994). It widely known that many of the shows from yester-decades Rushton,J.P., (1994) Race Evolution & Behaviour: A Life Perspective. New Brunswick,NJ: Transaction After reading he article, "If ideas were Fashion" I actually thought that the concept was overly simplistic, however, the more I dwelled on it, I realized that the author was on to something...although I am not an educator in professional life per se, I thought if I was
After reading this article, I am in agreement with most of Reynolds' perspective on the relevance of pop culture and its significance to pedagogy, however, with a critical eye, I am not so sure about his disclaimer that "as educators it is our responsibility to prepare our students/citizens, to learn how to use,consume, and to have personal power over the media." Yes, I do agree with guiding and giving tools to students/citizens on use and consumption of pop culture, but I believe that critical pedagogy of pop culture has to be determined by the individual, not the educator. If we are all different and learn differently, then our metacognition of pop-culture has to be determined at the pace of the learner. If we as educators begin intervening on behalf of learners to teach them how to have "personal power" over the media, then we have to possibly reconsider that the power we are teaching is in fact our own as educators and not theirs as learners, after all, it is "personal power". By teaching students/citizens personal power, we are subjecting them to our own biases as educators and not allowing them to cultivate their own. I believe by providing tools on use and consumption of media, we are promoting critical pedagogy and thus proving Reynolds' statement article:
Empowerment comes when we are able to read media and make informed decisions about what we have read." After watching the video "Century of Self", it was pretty interesting hearing about how consumerism, if linked to what Freud called the "irrational mind" could cause people to act irrationally. I especially thought it was interesting how the cigarette, was seen as a symbol of the "penis" of sorts that represented male dominance and how this societal perception lead to the inappropriateness of women smoking. In this, an interesting irony formed, in that what Freud saw as something that confined or limited women, women used it as a "torch of freedom" in the pursuit of independence.
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