PSA

This week in class we released our PSA projects. The projects included awareness towards copyright issues and online safety. We thought of ways to get the majority of the school to see our projects and eventually decided to show them during everyone's English class. Students were allowed to go into Schoology and make a post telling people to check out their video. Although most English teachers forget to show it in class or just don't want to show it, it's the best way to get the largest viewing audience. 

The projects have a good message, but most people didn't take them seriously at all. It's hard for High Schoolers to create a PSA that can actually be taken seriously. 

Below is about the only copyright PSA I can find on Google images. So there!

PSA

The last couple weeks we have been working on creating PSA's. Unfortunately, our group was assigned to do a copyright PSA. At first our group was stuck because it was hard to think of ideas about copyright issues. Although it is a tough subject to do a PSA on, the idea behind it is important. If you post something on the internet, you should not use someone's work without their knowledge. It is nearly impossible to not use copyright free work, but its worth a shot if you consider another's work. Overall the PSA is solid. We added a black and white filter to help the lighting.

PSA

This week in DigCit we finished up our planning and started our filming for the PSA project. We are making a video about copyright. The PSA is supposed to be a relatively short video that gets the message across quick. In our video we have several people standing in front of a wall holding different signs that try to persuade people to not use copyright material. It is nearly impossible to not use copyright material, but we are trying to show people that using copyright material can be considered stealing from the original creator. The only issue I think we will have with our video is that we tried to keep the setting exactly the same, but the lighting will be different for some shots because one day we recorded on a sunny day and the next was a cloudy day. We also need to pick a song to play in the background of our video. It's hard to find a decent song that is copyright free, but we have some songs lined up. Although that may be a little issue, I feel that the editing will go over well.

Below is a copyright free PSA brought to you by Smokey.

Video Call

Yesterday in class we had a video call with Kevin Beaty. Kevin is a freelance photographer who went to Lake Norman Charter middle school and went to Hopewell. We spoke to him about his education and what he has done to get to the point he is at now. He gave us an insight on how he views the education system, but I feel like he still owes a lot to the stuff he learned in college. Although Kevin is into photography and documentaries, he told us that he actually doesn't have s strong social media presence. Kevin posts a picture of the day, but he made it sound like he would much rather make a handmade product that would stand out more to his clients. This discussion told me that doing stuff on social media will not get me very far considering the very low amount of followers I have. Since I am doing an equipment drive at school, I feel like contacting people face to face and making the message clear throughout the school will work better than just posting something on Twitter. To encourage involvement I feel like the best way to go about it would be the old fashion way (actually talking to people). Advertising my equipment drive verbally to teachers and asking them to tell their students would be a simple way to do it. Along with the flyers and banners I think it will work out.

Community Pitch

Last night at our community pitch event we presented our passion projects to parents and people who were going to the school play. I was surprised with the amount of people that showed up honestly. This event helped me get the message out to a few parents, but my best bet to get the most donations would be to inform students at school and specifically go after my teammates on the baseball team. I know that I have over 20 bats in my garage alone and plenty of gloves. I know that most of my teammates have been playing since they were five years old and have plenty of old equipment in their garage. Overall, the presentations were not as bad as I thought they would be. The time actually flew by while we were presenting.

Passion Project 3

For my Passion Project this week I have started to plan how I am going to further promote the equipment drive. I know that I will but up a banner and flyers provided by Turn Two For Youth throughout the school. It would be helpful if I could put most of the advertisements on the bulletin board near the front door of the school. If I could get help with promoting the drive through Twitter, school announcements and emails to parents, I think this project will work out. I have also been working on my poster board for the community pitch even we are doing next week. This event will help give some people an idea of what we plan on doing for our projects.

Passion Project

I'll be honest, I have not done much work on my Passion Project this week. I don't have much to do other than wait. I'm already going to get flyers and a banner from TTFY. I don't want to start advertising for the equipment drive in October when I plan on having the drive towards the end of the third quarter. I think I have most of the pieces in place for this project, so I have not worked on anything recently. Something I do need to look into is equipment drive collection containers.  

Social Media Representation

This past week in DigCit we talked about how to properly represent yourself on social media. We went over different examples of students who presented good and bad qualities on their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Based on the examples, I feel that I lean more towards a "good" example than a "bad" example. On Twitter I never tweet anything offensive, but sometimes my retweets can be a little inappropriate. I really enjoy inappropriate and crude humor. Recently I've tried to clean up my retweets and ask myself, "Would I want my parents to see this?". Other than the humor, I think that I am respectful to others on social media and give an authentic representation of myself.

Genius Time Progress

I've made a little progress with my Genius Time Project. Turn Two For Youth got back to me and would love for me to do an equipment drive at the high school and middle school. Turn Two For Youth specializes in providing equipment for people in the community and in different countries, such as the Dominican Republic. They offered to provide flyers and a banner to promote the equipment drive around school. They also offered to let me use their Facebook page to document my progress. With a little help from the school, getting the message out to middle school and high school parents would make a big difference. Making announcements at school and sending out emails asking for support would be very helpful. My "partnership" with Turn Two For Youth will really help with the whole process.

PD Reflection Blog

On Friday, our DigCit class did presentations for Professional Development. The tool I helped present was Todays Meet for the Social Studies department to help give teachers a new way to engage their students during class and outside class. Honestly, I was pretty nervous about presenting in front of teachers about a tool that I was not 100% sold on. Although I was uncertain about presenting at first, I found a couple realistic ways that Todays Meet can be used in class. I thought my presentation was decent. I feel that I could have explained the tool better and left out a few important pieces of information. After all the presentations were done I felt that I was more comfortable explaining Todays Meet one on one with some teachers. Overall, our class surprisingly received positive feedback from the teachers.

Blog 3 Shark Tank

This week in class we created a "Shark Tank" presentation to show each other what we plan to do for our Genius Time project. The presentations helped us because not everyone's project was set in stone and ready. Through some feedback, I was urged to just stick with baseball equipment because going too broad can cause complications through the foundations I am hoping to work with. The next couple of weeks I am going to contact a couple foundations that help give back to the community through sports. One local foundation that I am going to contact is called TTFY(Turn Two For Youth). Although I want to concentrate on benefitting kids in the Charlotte area, their campaign in 2015 is focused on delivering bats, gloves, helmets, cleats and uniforms to the Dominican Republic. We'll see how it goes from here!

Passion Project Blog

For my Passion Project I wanted to do something that I could relate to. I couldn't put a finger on what I wanted to do at first, but every idea kept revolving around sports. One of our first assignments in class wanted us to give three examples of the things that we love and what we hate to see happen to them. The three examples that came to mind were family, friends, and sports. When I started thinking about it more and more, I truly believe that sports can help with family life and making friends. Kids who are not fortunate enough to have both parents in the picture sometimes need a role model or mentor in their life and can make friends through sports. I have met the majority of my friends through sports and have learned many life lessons through my coaches over the years. For my Passion Project I want to focus on baseball because that's the sport that I have played my whole life. I want to reach out to kids who can not afford the equipment necessary to play. For someone who has played for over 10 years, I know first hand that equipment is very expensive. I hope to reach out to local communities and leagues to help provide equipment for those in need. I would want to start small and eventually make an equipment drive at the high school and middle school. Overall, I feel like I should give back because I have been fortunate enough to have the equipment given to me and having my family/coaches take their time to teach me the game I love.

Experience in DigCit

Dig Cit is by no means your typical high school course.  I went into this class not really knowing what to expect, and I honestly still don't know what to expect.  I have learned that we are trying to change our perspective and actually use our own creativity to make something that may benefit or spread awareness for an issue.  This class is trying to help spread ideas in the community, not a class that revolves around getting good test grades. The challenges I have faced so far is deciding what my passion project will be about.  I have some ideas in mind, but that doesn't mean all of them will turn out alright.  I'm excited about working on something that can hopefully help others.  I'm also excited about collaborating with people inside and outside the classroom to help make these projects successful.  Hopefully we can do something important and help others!