Final Blog Post

Photo Essay 

(read pictures from top right to bottom left)

At Mon Shiro High, not many students do so well. Some exceeds in grades while others...not so much. Shinigawa, who got an 18, is one of them. Mimi Ito, in her book "HOMAGO", gives us four key concepts that are involved in today's learning environment. We will be discussing about the first three. Shinigawa and his friends can apply these to their academic/non-academic learning.

"By shifting focus away from the individual and to the broader network of social relationships...social groups become key sites of analytic interests" (Ito 14). If a student did not know anyone in his/her class, he/she will most likely not participate because they are afraid they will make a mistake and be made fun of. In a classroom full of peers, the student will most likely participate because he'/she know his/her friends will not mock him/her for making a mistake. Genre of participation is the first key concept in Mimi Ito's HOMAGO.

Genre of participation can be broken down into two categories. The first one is friendship-driven. "For most youth, these local friendship-driven networks are their primary source of affiliation, frienships, and romantic partners" (Ito 16). Students sometime participate in some activities because of a love interest. What Shinigawa's friends did not know was that he was not going to attend high school after junior high. But after he met a girl at Mon Shiro High, he decided to go to high school. 

The second category is known as interest-driven. "Interest-driven practices are what youth describes as the domain of the geeks...the kids identified as smart, different, or creative, who generally exist at the margins of teen social worlds" (Ito 16). If a group of students share a common interest, they will work come together to reach a common goal. At Mon Shiro High, different clubs are working together by decorating the school for the festival. These clubs include the art club, drama club, and yearbook club. 

Networked public is the second concept. "Engagement with media is a constitutive part of how we learn to participate as culturally competent, social, and knowledgeable beings" (Ito 18). When students are not at school, one way to communicate is through technology and the internet. 

Networked public can be broken down into two categories. Friendship-driven is the first one. "With friendship-driven practices, youth online activity largely replicates their existing practices of hanging out and communicating with friends" (Ito 19).  One of the most common ways for students to connect with one another is through Facebook. Students can post on each other's wall, message one another, and invite each other to events and activities. If a student has a problem with his/her studies, he/she can find his/her classmates on Facebook. 

The second category of networked public is known as interest-driven. "Through sites such as YouTube, fan forums, networked gaming sites...youth can access publics that are engaged in their particular hobby or area of interest" (Ito 20). There are other ways students can connect with one another online. One common method is known as mmorpg. Students can engage with one another like they do in real life. They can learn things from the game and from each other while playing. Shinigawa and his friends are playing their own kind of mmorpg to find a student who needs help with his studies.

One of the easiest and hardest thing to do is peer based learning.  "A growing body of ethnographic work documents how learning happens in informal settings...rather than in an explicit instructional agenda" (Ito 21). Not many students want to go out for help. They rather work alone and try to find the answer themselves. Asking for help is the first step which is what Shinigawa is doing.

There are two categories that peer-based learning can be broken down into; the first is friendship-driven. "Our description of friendship-driven learning describes a familiar genre of peer-based learning...important lessons in growing up, giving kids an environment to explore romance, friendship and status just as their predecessor did" (Ito 22). Students can learn non-academic lessons from one another. Attitude and behavior are one of them. These fellow students learn how to be tough thanks to Shinigawa and his friend. 

The other category is known at interest-driven. "In the case of kids who have become immersed in interest-driven publics, the context of who their peers are changes, as does the context for how reputation works, and they get recognition for different skills and learning" (Ito 22). Students can learn different things as their interest changes throughout the school year. They will find new friends to hang out with to learn these new things. If a student, who liked English, becomes interested in Math, he/she will go find students who are good at math to help him/her out whenever he/she will need it. This girl wants to become a troublemaker, and she knows Shinigawa is best at it.

Though learning isn't all that great, when it comes to friends, it can be one of the funnest things ever. Friendship-driven and interest-driven may both be different, but they both do share one common factor, friends. 

Reflection

     After re-reading Mimi Ito's HOMAGO, I realized that I only knew about her ideas from a broader point of view. I did not fully understand her ideas. Mini project one and two were done from my previous knowledge while mini project three was done from my new knowledge about HOMAGO. Knowing more about the concepts, I decided to revise my first mini project. I paraphrased each section, so the essay won't be so long, repetitive, and boring. Randy and Kedric both agreed that short and simple was good. They said it be boring to read a long essay that they already read in class. I added the new knowledge and tried to connect it with the old knowledge. It was hard trying to connect everything to learning. I drifted off every once and awhile, so that became a problem. I like how everything came out. Came out smoothly from my personal opinion.

Work cited

Itō, Mizuko. Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2010. Print.

 Yoshikawa, Miki. "Yankee-kun to Megane-chan Manga." - Read Yankee-kun to Megane-chan Online For Free. N.p., 24 Oct. 2009. Web. 26 Apr. 2013. <http://www.mangareader.net/874/yankee-kun-to-megane-chan.html>.

Yoshikawa, Miki. "YANKEE-KUN TO MEGANE-CHAN." Manga Here. N.p., 5 May 2008. Web. 26 Apr. 2013. <http://www.mangahere.com/manga/yankee_kun_to_megane_chan/>. 

Mini Project 3

Kinetic Text

Presentation

(watch full screen for better quality!)

Reflection

Mrs. Lacy said a kinetic text about HOMAGO would be very interesting, so I decided to go with it. This literally took me forever! I worked on this slide show for about thirteen hours. I had to make sure everything transitioned right. After that, it took me foreverrr to find a website to upload the presentation that will also present the effects and transitions. But, I am glad that it turned out the way I wanted it to. The video moved smoothly. There was no lag and everything went the way it should have. After talking about what HOMAGO was and how it can be applied to a "real" life experience, I decided to compare what we all think HOMAGO is and what Mimi Ito's researchers believe it is. I asked for my brother for his inputs on Peer Based Learning, Networked Publics, and Genres of Participation. After that, I went back and read HOMAGO with great focus. I found that there were two different kinds of description for each of the concepts, friendship and interest. As you can see, what we see and what the researchers see are both different. But they are similar in some ways. I made sure to color code and add effects to the same stuff. I did not want the thing to be all over the place. 

Mini Project 2

Comic

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Reflection

The hardest part about this project was the dialogue. I wanted everyone to know what was going on and what was involved, and yet, not have too much talking to where it gets boring. At first, it was only one video. Randy told me it was a little too short after I showed it to him and I decided to make it a little longer. I put more into Snowman's problem and came out with what was posted. I thought about what I should do and seeing how I basically explain what HOMAGO was with visuals, I decided to apply it to a situation that can be seen in a movie called "Rise of the Guardians". I like how it turned out but at the sometime don't. The website I used did not allow a lot of text in the bubble which limited the conversation. Other than that, I like it myself. It's short and simple.

Mini Project 1

Photo Essay 

(read pictures from top right to bottom left)

In Mon Shiro High School, not many students do so well. Some exceeds in grades while others...not so much. Shinigawa, who got an 18, is one of them. Mimi Ito, in her book "HOMAGO", gives us four key concepts that are involved in today's learning environment. We will be discussing about the first three.

When students are not learning or when they are learning, they got nothing to do. Some louche around and snooze off while others find ways of having fun. Some may do things because others want them to, aka peer pressure.  

Parents find peer pressure to be a bad thing. When parents think of peer pressure, they relate it to drugs, alcohol, and gangs. Parents do not want their children to get into fights and come home with serious injuries or in a body bag. Shinigawa's parent believe peer pressure is negative based on their son's past experience

However, peer pressure is not always bad. Through peer pressure, students participate more in activities related and non-related to learning. Many do not participate because they do not think they will have fun or might get the question wrong. Shinigawa has never participated in any activities; he is forced to work with another student on a school project.

When in social groups, however, participation is high. "By shifting focus away from the individual and to the broader network of social relationships...social groups become key sites of analytic interests" (Ito 14). If a student did not know anyone in his/her class, he/she will most likely not participate because they are afraid they will make a mistake and be made fun of. 

In a classroom full of peers, the student will most likely participate because they know their friends will not mock him/her for making a mistake. On some occasions, however, mockery can encourage one to participate. Genre of participation is the first key concept in Mimi Ito's HOMAGO. 

Networked public is the second concept. "Engagement with media is a constitutive part of how we learn to participate as culturally competent, social, and knowledgeable beings" (Ito 18). 

Sites such as Yahoo! and Wikipedia provide answers for several problems given to students. Whether it be social problems or academic problems, homework, there is always an answer out there in the web. Forums are always the best way to go. There are topics for almost everything; if there is a topic about it, then there will be several people there to talk about it.

One of the most popular public network used by students is Facebook. Status update is sometime used to ask questions that will be open to others in their news feed. Sometime the question is a little personal so message and wall post is also an option. These group of students are trying to find Shinigawa's Facebook profile to help him with his studies.

One of the easiest and hardest thing to do is peer based learning. Not many students want to go out for help. They rather work alone and try to find the answer themselves. Asking for help is the first step which is what Shinigawa is doing.

Tutoring is available to everybody. There is always someone out there who knows everything you do not know, your friends especially. "A growing body of ethnographic work documents how learning happens in informal settings...rather than in an explicit instructional agenda" (Ito 21).

Students always learn from others; peers provide new knowledge everyday. Shinigawa is surrounded by friends who are there to help him in his time of need...whether he wants it or not.

When all three concepts are put into place, learning will be easier than it usually is. When others learn about the key to your success, they will want to follow in your footsteps. This group of students is seeking help just as Shinigawa did.

Sources: 1) mangareader.net 2) mangahere.com 3) HOMAGO by Mimi Ito

Reflection

Working on this mini project was fun. It was time consuming but it helped me learn more about Mimi Ito's ideas. I thought about a way to provide a visual to Mimi Ito's ideas in HOMAGO. Talking about it does not always help. In books and novels, visualization is not always provided. When the novel is turned into a film, everybody gets excited about it because they can see the words in action. I thought adding pictures and providing an example would help others better understand Ito's ideas. Randy thought it was a good idea, so I went with it. I spend the two recent workshop working looking for visuals online which saved me a lot of time to work on calculus. After finding several images, about fifty, I had to go through em again and again to find the best ones in the batch. That took forever; I even had to cut panels from one page and find another panel that can go with it on another page.