Ponyo – I’m as happy as can be

// February 15th, 2010 // No Comments » // Life

It’s been a long time since I posted on this blog – a reflection of my increased/hectic workload over the past weeks. In addition to this I have been without internet access for the whole first weekend of my half-term break.

Anyway, today I went to see one of the most charming films I have ever seen – Ponyo. It was written/animated/directed by the incredible Hayao Miyazaki, who created masterpieces such as My Neighbour Totoro and Howl’s Moving Castle – films which I have used in the classroom before with great effect. Words can’t really describe Ponyo, but I did think this snippet of a review from the NY Times which came close:

The two were separated — as fated characters invariably are — but she’s found him. Now, as she races along the surface of huge peaking waves she has summoned up by the force of her power, Ponyo is expressing not only her bliss, but also ours [Source]

It really is an absolute marvel and pleasure to watch – it had much more impact than seeing Avatar in IMAX 3D. Go and see it now!

Pirates, Robots and Ideological Literacy

// January 16th, 2010 // No Comments » // Life

The slightly confusing title to this post sums up my slightly confused state regarding this blog. I have so many different things rushing around in my head at the moment that I sometimes forget to blog or simply cannot pick what to focus in on – life, literacy, work or just general observations of the world around me? For example today I have been thinking of the upcoming Pirate/Seven Seas themed week we are having at school, where I am really hoping to plan some ‘out of the ordinary’ stuff to really inspire my class. I’ve also discovered a really interesting way in which fans of one of my favourite TV shows Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles have utilised Web 2.0 technologies to try to revive the cancelled show. On top of that I am in the process of finishing off my first written assignment for the MA in New Literacies I am completing at the University of Sheffield and have lots of conflicting ideas about ideological literacy, of which I could post a series of blog posts about. So many different things – all linked to different areas of life…

Where do I start?

Next year I would like a… TARDIS (please)

// January 7th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Life

I couldn’t let the major event of last week pass without writing a quick blog post. I’m not talking about the ‘big freeze’ but rather the finale to David Tennant’s association with Doctor Who. Most people who watch Doctor Who talk about who is ‘their’ Doctor – a large proportion of the people I know associate the show with the likes of Tom Baker and John Pertwee. I started watching the show when David Tennant took over the role of the Doctor, therefore most of the episodes I have seen feature him. It’s actually quite strange how you can become so attached to a series such as Doctor Who and when something like a complete change of cast happens it becomes quite significant. This is something that has been part of my life since 2005 and now the era has ended.

One of the most significant moments for me was when the Doctor went to see different companions at the end of the episode before he regenerated. The most poignant being when he visited the granddaughter of the woman he married and then the wedding of Donna, giving her a winning lottery ticket bought with a pound coin her late father had given him years before:

I am unsure what the new series will bring – it will probably be brilliant. However, this era will always be the one that I remember most as it has become part of my culture.

Venturing into Second Life

// December 27th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Life, Technology

If you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook then there is a strong possibility that you will know I just got a new MacBook Pro. I dual booted it straight away so I could continue to use Windows but have found myself loading up the Windows side less and less. I appear to be converting to the ways of the Mac.

As previously mentioned I enjoy playing World of Warcraft (when time permits) but have had to stop over the past few months due to the fact that my ageing Windows XP computer has not been able to cope with running such complex graphics. I also feel I have been missing out on something else… Second Life – the alternate reality space where many of my digital literacy friends and colleagues choose to communicate and collaborate.

When I met Angela Thomas at the Centre for the Studies of New Literacies in July we had a long chat about Second Life and some of the fascinating stuff she is doing with Virtual Macbeth. I promised that I would sign up and take a look when I could and now that I have a MacBook Pro now seemed like the perfect opportunity. I was warned that one of the most important things to do was to change the default avatar, otherwise I would be labelled a noob (a person who is new and doesn’t know what they are doing). I have literally spent all day in Second Life trying to customise my avatar and make myself appear unique in the dense population of the virtual world. A population that derives very striking parallels to the real world – not least the fact that you have to use real money to buy clothes.

Above is the completed avatar that I use in Second Life, under the name of Multiplo Innovia. Do add me as a contact if you use Second Life as I could still do with a hand finding my way around!

Half-term Hecticness

// October 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // Life

I’m currently in the midst of a half-term break. However, I have literally not stopped since walking out of the school door on Friday. I’ve been dashing about all over the place and yesterday I travelled to Hathersage (in the picture above) to visit Elaine Millard who I first met at the UKLA conference in Greenwich. Not only is Elaine’s published work exceptional, she is also one of the nicest people I have ever met. We enjoyed a lovely lunch and managed to sort out her blog, which is now online here . Elaine has been one Orange Class’s most active followers on Twitter and we are hoping she will visit Orange Class soon! But we will accept tweets in the meantime!

I’ve also been spending some of my time reading some of David Barton’s fascinating book ‘Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language.” He suggests that literacy takes place in many different domains which embody different types of literacy. I feel like I have been dashing around in different domains all week!

Merry Multimodal Christmas

// October 26th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Life

So it’s that time of year again… October?! Already I have seen Christmas advertisements appearing in shops and on television. My local supermarket has had Christmas chocolates in-store for the past few weeks too – the season seems to begin earlier every year. Don’t get me wrong -  I’m a huge fan of the festive season and look forward to it. My friends and I always maintain that Christmas doesn’t start until we have seen the Coca Cola Christmas advert on television – we then know that the holidays certainly are a’coming.

What’s interesting is how the Coca Cola advertisement has become embodied in our Christmas season. Indeed, I remember one year the advertisement was changed and our reaction was certainly not one of joy to the world. The multimodal approach taken to advertising over the festive season is certainly an interesting one. Some companies can pull out all the stops and really create a highly charged and emotional piece of advertising by manipulating modes to persuade and evoke an emotional response. There have been some real gems over the years including the Argos Christmas Wish commercial, with particularly effective use of the visual and audio modes. It’s just a shame that the same company changed their strategy and produced this the year after.

So despite what certain advertisers and supermarkets think Christmas certainly isn’t here yet – not until Coca Cola decides to air their commercial.

I’m a PC and I’m [insert age here]…

// October 4th, 2009 // No Comments » // Life, Technology

I’ve been using Microsoft Windows since 1997 and have had various problems including virus attacks and system failures along the way – mostly caused by carelessness on my part. All in all I’ve been happy with the overall Windows experience and stability, especially while I have been using Windows XP.

I’ve always heard people talking about how amazing Apple Mac computers are but had a misconception that most software was incompatible with the operating system. The Mac OS is apparantly less prone to virus attacks,  system failure and is much more intuitive. I have been using the Mac operating system for two years both in class and via a MacBook.

In my opinion, Macs are better for more creative activitie such as media production and animation as they are more intuitive. However for a lot of the tasks I use my computer for I find them to be less effective. When using the Mac OS I miss Microsoft Outlook, I miss a basic desktop publishing suite like Publisher, I miss Microsoft Office running effectively, I miss being able to remove my USB hard drive without a bright red warning appearing and other little niggling things.

Macs are great… but so are PCs. They both have their pros and cons. I like using both but for most of my tasks I stick with my familar Windows…

I’m a PC and I’m twenty-three and a half years old!

Opening eyes…

// September 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // Life, Literacy

Every so often you come across something new. It opens your eyes to a culture or world that you have little experience or understanding of. At the same time  it can fit with issues you have been thinking about and open your mind to new possibilities. Sounds very dramatic… I will explain.

My Sky+HD box has a service called Sky Anytime which automatically records what it describes as unmissable TV to watch anytime that I desire. While browsing the selection I came across a film called The Full Monteverdi which uses Renaissance vocal music to create a contemporary drama.  The film is sung throughout and the only other audio that can be heard is background noise from the setting (a restaurant). It’s an exceptionally powerful piece of film which is very moving to watch. I found a short segment of the production on YouTube and have included it at the top of this post. I didn’t have the privilege of subtitles when watching but I really don’t think they are needed as the the meaning is fundamentally created through the modes of gesture and sound (not necessarily language). It’s a really interesting text and I would really love to use it (or something similar) with upper KS2 when considering the  affordancesof different modes within a meaning making system.

This film opened my eyes to a whole new world of music and film… it makes me wonder what else is out there and what I am missing out on.

Fragments of time…

// September 13th, 2009 // 7 Comments » // Life

Now that I’m using Google’s operating system on my mobile phone I’ve decided to move all of my mail/contacts/calendars over to Google so that I can keep track of them on the move. While I’ve been dusting off the cobwebs of my old Google account I found a blog I set up in 2006 with one post about being at university. It’s a very surreal experience reading it back:

Ok so I’ve finally given into temptation and joined the world of blogging.

Sadly, I haven’t actually got much to ‘blog’ about at the moment. University ‘vacations’ are not that great… how it can be called a ‘vacation’ I don’t understand, considering the amout of work they actually give us to do. Dissertation research continues, some of the stuff I have to read is actually quite interesting but the sheer volume of literature I have to read makes the whole thing scary. I really miss school and the fact that I don’t have a proper teaching practice until next May doesn’t make things any better.

I do actually miss University… I want to get back into the swing of things. I want to actually start the 3rd year – the end of studying is near and hopefully this time next year I’ll be starting a teaching post somewhere… now that is scary. Doesn’t seem like yesterday that I was starting QE Sixth Form to do my A-Levels.

Obviously I got a teaching post and my huge interest in reading stuff about multiliteracies clearly started at this point  and led to me returning to study for an MA this year. But isn’t it strange how things change – my writing style, priorities and general outlook on life. I wonder what this blog will look like in three years time?

The one that started it all…

// September 8th, 2009 // No Comments » // Life

I’ve just noticed that Walt Disney’s Snow White is being re-released on DVD and Blu-Ray in November. I like to use this film in class when analysing multimodal texts. Some of the scenes are exceptionally powerful (and quite terrifying), in particular the transformation of the Evil Queen into the old peddler woman. It’s actually become very hard to get hold of on DVD as it was only released in 2001 for a limited time.

The film is also significant because it was the first-ever feature length animation… it will be interesting to see how it stands the test of time – especially with a blu-ray release.