Abhijit+Sen+-+W2T

Course information
Course code, name, and sections: MCM 4321 (01) - International Communications Course syllabus: Course instructor: Abhijit Sen Semester and year: Fall 2010

Context

 * ===Describe your course and major challenges in its teaching:===

International Comm (MCM 4321) is a required course in the department of mass communications curriculum. Pre-requisite for this course is Introduction to Mass Communication (MCM 2325).

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The course surveys different media systems, issues, theories, and research in international communications. Students explore the phenomena of global mass communications in order to understand the role of international communication in today's global society. This is a departmental core course requirement. In this course, the students interpret and explain the basic concepts of international communications at the same time give real life examples demonstrating basic concepts like the New World Information Order (NWIO), communication and culture, media imperialism, propaganda, censorship, national development and other issues.=====
 * 1) Students compare & contrast the US media system and communication policies with those of other countries'.
 * 2) =====Students identify and explain the characteristics of global flow of information, news, and entertainment products.=====
 * 3) Students analyze and explain how cultural conditioning and cultural differences affect news coverage and how ideological foundations also affect news coverage.
 * 4) =====Students evaluate and analyze issues and trends in global media and communications industry.=====
 * 5) =====Students analyze and evaluate the impact of western media and new communication technology on culturally diverse societies and develop a greater cultural awareness of the world.=====
 * 6) =====Students evaluate economic, political, cultural and technological impact of global communication.=====
 * 7) =====Students assess the future direction of new & evolving communications technology and "information societies."=====

The primary challenge faced by the students in this course is awareness of sources for international news and economic & geo-political awareness of globalization. My teaching style is a hybrid of different styles - lectures, discussions, Q & A, critiquing articles in class, group and individual presentations and debates. I use the white-board frequently, more than the PowerPoint because I have found that this method fosters more understanding and retention of materials by the students. I try to combine lectures with group discussion and reading sessions where they critique an article or a textual piece for greater clarity. Students are mostly juniors and seniors. The only pre-requisite for this course is Introduction to Mass Communications (MCM 2325), so the students do have some background knowledge of global and trans-national communications. I have introduced //Facebook// as a forum for discussion on major issues in international communications; I am using //Journal LX// as the medium to log international news stories over a period of time; I have instructed students to use //MindOMO// as a tool for the students to outline information on a pre-assigned 'country' during the PowerPoint presentation; and //Google Scholar// to gather information and sources for the final research paper. I expect the students to be more involved and active in gathering information, locating sources of information, presenting the information and data in class, discussing issues in class and online, and writing reports and reviews on various topics.
 * Challenges**:
 * ===Describe your teaching style:===
 * ===Describe your students' major characteristics:===
 * ===Describe the innovation that you want to do, the expected impact on your class, and the means to collect evidences about the impact:===

Processes
1. At the beginning of the semester, I revised the syllabus to include the four Web 2.0 applications that the student would use during the Fall 2010 semester. The four Web 2.0 applications included were: MindOMO, Journal LX, FaceBook and Google Scholar.
 * MindOMO is intended to be used as a guide to a PowerPoint presentation by the students on various countries they have been assigned to investigate and report on.
 * Journal LX will be used to log and record international news stories for each month during the semester.
 * FaceBook will be used for online discussion purposes.
 * Google Scholar will be used by students to find sources and citations for their research paper.

2. An appointment was made with Ms. Jigisha Patel of CETL to visit the class and demonstrate the functionality and utility of MindOMO and Journal LX. The date set for the guest lecture was scheduled for September 23, 2010.

3. On September 23rd, 2010, Ms. Patel visited the class - International Communications (MCM 2325) - and explained how to construct a MindOMO mental map to facilitate understanding of different topics and sub-topics related to the main topic. The main topic for student presentation was a 'country' assigned to them by the instructor. Ms. Patel also showed the students how to use Journal LX in order to log and record international news stories of the month. Students are required to browse mainstream news media and select at least two stories each day for documenting and recording in the Journal.

4. In subsequent classes, I instructed and informed students how to log-on to the discussion board of the FaceBook website, use the GOOGLE SCHOLAR to gather sources for a research paper and to some extent how to access and use JOURNAL LX for blogging purposes.

5. Facebook interaction on the following topics were discussed online by the class on: i) September 16th, 2010 and ii) October 2010
 * List and Discuss the following: 1.List the top 5 International News of the day - give the title of each story and the source for each news story. 2. Which story interests you the most and which the least....Why? 3. Do you see any biases in these stories.....how do these stories relate to the USA?
 * The second discussion was on a Bollywood movie titled DHOOM 2. The students were required to respond to questions regarding the film and to give their own impressions about a Bollywood film.
 * You can view each discussion in the products section.

The FaceBook discussions were very productive and I got almost 100% participation from my students. FaceBook is a very popular social networking site and and I think every student on campus has an account for the site. The students were more than ready to do the assignment as soon as they were asked to do so. That was one big advantage with Facebook. I have conducted discussions on the Blackboard but I have found that not all students posted their comments, opinions or their answers simultaneously or even with a 24 hours period in the Discussion Board. On FaceBook students were motivated enough to attempt answering the questions and post their comments almost immediately. I am sure the students read each others comments prior to posting their comments and opinions but I noticed that there was hardly any duplication or 'copying' of comments or answers from each other or another participant. All in all, these discussion sessions were productive and informative for all. The students liked the technology aspect of the course too.

6. The students learnt to use MindOMO after an instructional session with Ms. Patel. Students who were having problems in developing a MindOMO mental map for their country presentation were asked to make an appointment with Ms. Patel so that they could get individual advisement from her at the O'Kelly Library. MindOMO mental mapping turned out to be a boon for the students. The map helped the students to outline their 'country presentation' which enabled to present a more coherent and logical flow of information and data about their countries. The students worked in groups of twos, so each student had a partner to work with. The team split up their presentation according to their expertise and followed the outline in their presentation. The presentations were given extemporaneously and had an easy conversational style to them which engaged students in learning more about those countries and their cultures and media systems. Samples of students' MindOMO mental maps are given in the product section.

7. Students were instructed on how to use GOOGLE SCHOLAR during one of the classroom sessions. The students were required to write and research a final paper for the semester in this class. They were told to acquire and use at least 7 sources for their research paper and prior to writing the paper they had to submit an annotated bibliography for the research paper. The samples given for Product #3 are actual annotated bibliographies written by students for the class. GOOGLE SCHOLAR was extremely useful for students for doing the annotated bibliography since it was a one-stop site for getting the sources for the paper. Even though the sources seemed appropriate and relevant I am not sure how advatangeous it was to gather reference material from GOOGLE SCHOLAR than from a communication database or even Lexis-Nexis. The students now have a resource at their finger-tips to collect and gather sources if they ever want to do research on any subject matter or topics if they wish to.

8. We didn't have much time to get familiarize ourselves with Journal LX. Even though I told the students how to access JOURNAL LX and to start blogging, the students either misunderstood my instructions or hesitated to try out JOURNAL LX. I did give the students the option to submit either a hard-copy or an electronic copy of their journal using MS Word. All students logged their news stories entry on Word and submitted them to me via e-mail or through the Digital Dropbox in the BlackBoard. Another reason I felt that JOURNAL LX may distort my assessment of a student's ability was that the JOURNAL gave access to other students' entires and I felt that it would be easy for a student to directly copy another's information and log entries and pass it off as his or her own. One of the item in the international news journal was naming the country and the capital of the country where the news incident took place and they had to look it up in a map or a World Atlas or search on the Internet in order to get it right. The samples given under Product #4 indicates the type of information students had to search and record in their international news journal log.

Products
Include and analyze evidences of the impact of your intervention on students


 * PRODUCT 1**

The link to the discussion on Facebook on September 16th: @http://www.facebook.com/home.php? Details of the discussion are given below:

__**DISCUSSION 1: Reflections on International news of the day (on FaceBook)**__ List and Discuss the following: 1.List the top 5 International News of the day - give the title of each story and the source for each news story. 2. Which story interests you the most and which the least....Why? 3. Do you see any biases in these stories.....how do these stories relate to the USA?====== about 2 months ago · [|Delete Post] Make sure the news stories are international in origin - meaning the stories should originate from outside the US......Hurricane stories are OK since they occur outside the US and affect other countries too....====== about 2 months ago · [|Delete Post]
 * ======Abhijit Sen
 * ======[|Abhijit Sen]

1) Egypt to Isarel : Curb construction for 3 months / Yahoonews.com 2)Afgan Officials promise security for elections / Yahoonews.com 3) Hurricane Karl Forms in the Gulf of Mexico / Yahoonews.com 4) Spains Tolerance of Gypsies: A Model for Europe / YahooNews.com 5) France firm on explusions, shocked by criticism / Yahoonews.com 2. Hurricane Karl interest me the most because this is one of the biggest hurricanes we had in a while . Now it is forming in the Gulf of Mexico and some of it took place back in my hometown in Wilmington NC. 3. No i did not see any bias stories. Every story relates to the USA because its either ocurring here or we facing similiar problems. The first article "Egypt to Isarel" relates to the US because the United States has been encouraging Israel to extend its West Bank building limits.====== about 2 months ago · [|Mark as Irrelevant] · [|Report] · [|Delete Post] -Question One: Top Five News Stories and Sources 1. Boeing says airlines need 1 million workers (www.cnn.com) 2. Mexican drug cartels smuggling cocaine into Australia (www.cnn.com) 3. Iranian stoning woman says she was not whipped (www.cnn.com) 4. Philippines: At least 10 might be charged in deadly bus rescue (www.cnn.com) 5. Israel targets weapons storage sites in Gaza, military says (www.cnn.com) -Question Two: Which one interest you the most and least? Why? The story that interest me the most is the Iranian stoning woman says she was not whipped. This story is the most profound to me because it shows how much of an impact other society's have when it comes to attire, and our society is extremely loose. The one that interest me the least is the Mexican's drug cartels smuggling cocaine into Australia. This is interesting because Australia isn't normally a place where you hear thing about crime. Australia is known for the Olympics and Kangaroo's not with relation to the Mexican Cartel. -Question Three: There was not much biasness in these stories surprisingly. I expected some various bias opinions by the author in the stories that have relations to the US. These stories relate to the US in various ways, the US has allies in many countries, which relates to the weapons storage found in Gaza, as well as we have American workers world-wide working for airlines which corresponds to the 1 million workers needed in Boeing. The Iranian woman relates to the US because many who believe in the Muslim religion are seen in America, without the "proper attire." If they were in Iran, they would be punished but since our government is so free, many could careless religion people believe in, let alone what protocols to follow when following that religion.====== about 2 months ago · [|Mark as Irrelevant] · [|Report] · [|Delete Post] 1. Pope: Abuse cases a 'shock'; Authorities: Most cocaine smuggled into Australia coming from Mexico; Iranian media: Woman sentenced to stoning denies lashing over photo; Help wanted: Boeing says airlines need 1 million workers; Philippines: At least 10 might be charged in deadly bus rescue.- CNN.com 2.The Mexico cocaine smuggled into Australia interested me the most because drug trades are always interesting. I've always wanted to know how drugs that are indiginous to a certain country get around the world. The story about Boeing needing workers interested me the least because I don't think that it should be top international news. I already have a job so I wasnt interested in finding one. 3. As I was looking for the top news stories, I looked at the BBC news website as well. The stories for their world news section were a bit more biased. They were still things that effect the UK. On CNN, nothing really had to do with the US but on other websites the top stories had involved Hurricane Karl off the US coast, and the BP well being capped by Sunday. I found it interesting that the things going on closest to home weren't covered in international news.====== about 2 months ago · [|Mark as Irrelevant] · [|Report] · [|Delete Post] 1) Karl grows into Hurricane, Heads for Mexican Coast- AOL News Remains of Sailor found in Shark off 'Jaws Beach' AOL News In UK visit, Pope admits failures over sexual abuse AOL News Newspaper Photoshops Egyptian President in Front of Barack Obama AOL News Ahmadinejad: Muslims 'Are Not Against Americans' AOL News 2) The story that intrested me the most is the one about the sailor remains. My prayers do go out to the family but the headline is what caught my attention. I'm also facinated with sharks. It's a little wierd that the ramins where found in a shark at the place where the last Jaws movie was filmed. The one that intrested me the least it about the hurricane. I know I should be more aware of this because it could directly affect me but I'm afraid of storms so I have a tendency to "steer clear" of them. 3) I really did not see any biases in these stories. I found them to be straight forward for the most part. The story about President Obama did have a little of emotion in it but I guess that was the writers way of being sarcastic.====== about 2 months ago · [|Mark as Irrelevant] · [|Report] · [|Delete Post] 1. Boeing Airlines to need 1 million new workers. 2. Mexican drug cartel to smuggle cocaine into Australia.(CNN) 3. Iranian stoning woman says she was not whipped.(CNN) 4.Phillipines atleast ten must be charged in deadly bus rescue.(CNN) 5.Isralei targets weapons storage site in Gaza; military says.(CNN) Question 2 The story that interest me the most is the one about the Iranian woman speaking out today. She says she has not been beaten for other charges and is till awaiting death. She was sentenced to death by stoning after committing adultery, She is awaiting her death, mewanwhile her son and activists are all speaking out against her sentence. Himan interest stories and stories where someone is being mistreated always interest me and this one is no different. The one that interest me the least is the one about the Mexican drug cartel smuggling drugs to Australia. Drug smuggling goes on every day in every country and death by stoning does not. Question 3 There is bias in the Iranian story beacuse I believe that she was forced to make the statement and the Iranian media gave the stiry to CNN. Im sure that their purpose was to make the Iranian government seem less violent and ruthless. The story relates to the USA because we are the watchdogs of the world and we ahould speak out against the mistreatment of humans.====== about 2 months ago · [|Mark as Irrelevant] · [|Report] · [|Delete Post] 1. Pope begins U.K. visit amid sex-abuse scandal (MSNBC), Militants Shell Israel on Second Day of Talks (Wall Street Journal), U.S., Afghan troops blaze trail in Taliban home (San Francisco Chronicle), EU summit dawns in shadow of Roma row (m&c). 2. The Pope's U.K. visits, Militants shelling Israel and Afghan troops and the Taliban intrest me the most. I am interested in what is going on with the Pope and the sex abuse scandals. I didn't think that they were still having sex scandals going on, so i'm interested to read more into the story. I am interested in the Israel and Taliban stories due to the miltary and their actions. I am trying to get a better understanding of the "war" and the Taliban. These phrases are used a lot in the news and so freely among people, so i'd like to be in the loop and know what they are talking about. Especially as a Muslim, i'd like to be able to speak facts about the troops and the middle east and what is going on so that I am not walking around sounding ignorant like a lot of other people. The other stories intrest me the least because I don't really relate to them and they aren't being talked about as much. 3. Normally, I see biased opintions about the military stories or the Iraqi stories, but i did not see any biases in these storied. These stories relate to the USA because they are dealing with our miltary and our troops and why we are over sea's fighting. We need to know what we are fighting for and what progress is, or isn't being made. The Pope relates to the USA by religion. There are people who may have attened or still attend a church with a Pope and may be dealing with the same issues, or not feel safe. These issues are important because they all relate us as human beings. ====== about 2 months ago · [|Mark as Irrelevant] · [|Report] · [|Delete Post] 1.North Korea wants to revive nuclear talks, says Jimmy Carter 2.Afghanistan election violence fears lead UN to evacuate third of staff 3.Turkish explosion kills bus passengers 4.Pope's visit: Benedict gives Queen copy of rare text 5.Hosni Mubarak left red faced over doctored red carpet photo -All from USA Today World News 2) The two that are most interesting and the lest interesting are:"North Korea wants to revive nuclear talks" and "Pope's visit: Benedict gives Queen copy of rare text". I found the first one least interesting because North Korea has sent "strong and clear signals" that it is prepared to abandon its nuclear weapons programme if the US guarantees it will not attack the communist state, according to Jimmy Carter. I find this interesting because we made a peace agreement with them in 2005 and this issue is still being debated. However there are clear signals of the resuming efforts to abandon nuclear weapons. I believe that this process is long overdue and that Carter should try to negotiate even more. The latter story I found most interesting because it was sweet but quite mysterious. In a symbolic gesture, the pope gives the Queen a copy of a priceless manuscript that was ripped apart because of the bloody historical divisions between Roman Catholics and Protestants- according to John Hooper. This manuscript had been stolen in the 17th century and even placed in the black market. It hold a lot of history within itself. I feel that this was very considerate for the pope to give this to the Queen but contrary to this fact, it was stated that there was no apparent reasoning for this action. That is the part that I find mysterious. 3. Both of these relates to the U.S because first of all Korea having nuclear weapons could lead to massive destruction even against the U.S if there was ever controvery. I feel that the Pope situation does not have any relevance towards the U.S but we could take interest in the topic and their customs for our own interest. ====== about 2 months ago · [|Mark as Irrelevant] · [|Report] · [|Delete Post] 1. Egypt to Isarel: Curb construction for 3 months - yahoonews.com 2.Afgan Officials promise security for elections - yahoonews.com 3. Hurricane Karl Forms in the Gulf of Mexico - cnn.com 4. Spains Tolerance of Gypsies, A Model for Europe - yahoonews.com 5. Pope's visit to UK - cnn.com Question 2: The story about Hurricane Earl interest me the most because people are still suffering the impact that Earl had, and it was recoreded as one if the biggest hurricane that ever hit North Carolina. The Pope visit to Uk is the story of the day that didn't really grab my attention even thought it seems like a very important story, it really doesnt seem interesting too me. Question 3: I didn't see any bias in the stories today, all the stories seem factual and the united states either faced the similar if not the same issues. In the second story about Afgan officals promising security for elections is similar to the 2008 U.S presidency election when security was inhance everywhere in Washington D.C because of the fact that the first black president was elected.====== about 2 months ago · [|Mark as Irrelevant] · [|Report] · [|Delete Post] 1. a) Message to pope: Our souls were 'murdered' (www.msnbs.msn.com) b) Pope begins U.K. visit amid sex abuse scandal (www.msnbs.msn.com) c) Mexico celebrates 200 years with huge fiesta (www.msnbs.msn.com) d) Pontiff faces numerous challenges on historic visit (www.msnbs.msn.com) e) Police find 6 skulls in U.S. tourists' luggage (www.msnbs.msn.com) 2. The story that interested me the most was the U.S. tourists with skulls in their luggage. How often do you think someone finds skulls in someone elses luggage at an airport; Not too often. The story that least interested me was the celebration in Mexico. I know their celebrating the bicentenary for the Independence from Spain but it seems like old news to me. 3. I thought it was a little bias in the "Skulls" story; why did the American tourists have to be the ones to be searched? They were charged for desecrating the dead being that the skulls were real but they thought they were fake since they bought them from a souvenir shop. I think they may have been targeted being that they were from America. In relation to America, we target those from other countries as well if we find them to be "out of fit".====== about 2 months ago · [|Mark as Irrelevant] · [|Report] · [|Delete Post] 1.) Boeing: Airlines to Need 1 million new workers - CNN Money 2.) Mexican drug cartels smuggling cocaine into Australia -CNN World News 3.) Cuba complains restrictions unchanged under Obama -CNN World News 4.) Iranian stoning woman said she was not whipped -CNN World News 5.) Hurricane Karl forms in the Gulf of Mexico -Associated Press (Yahoo News) 2.) The article about Hurricane Karl was the most interesting to me. It has to be a nervous time for those who are living in New Orleans and invisioning the size that's projected for this storm. I least liked the article about Cuba complaining about Ob3ama. I am sure that the President has given attention to the Cubans, but we have severe national security and health care situations that are probably at a higher priority for him. 3.) I did not read biases in these articles. The Cuban story dealt with international talks with our president, and Hurricane Karl is hitting our continent and it may cause damage to one of our states.====== about 2 months ago · [|Mark as Irrelevant] · [|Report] · [|Delete Post] 1. Egypt to Isarel: Curb construction for 3 months - Yahoo.com 2. Spains Tolerance of Gypsies, A Model for Europe - Yahoo.com 3. Hurricane Earl Forms in the Gulf of Mexico -CNN.com 4. Pope's visit to UK - CNN.com 5.Afghan Officials promise security for elections - Yahoo.com Q1. Hurricane Earl forming in the Gulf interested me more because I like to hear about the storms going on so that I can make sure that it doesnt come close to my area. The story that interested me the least was Spains Tolerance of Gypsies, A Model for Europe beacuse it just seems really boring. It may also be because I really dont understand the story as well. Q2. No I dont really see bias in these stories. Q4. They relate to the USA because some of the place involved in these stories usually have some involvement with USA in some kind of way.====== about 2 months ago · [|Mark as Irrelevant] · [|Report] · [|Delete Post]
 * ======Antonio
 * ======Marisha
 * ======Dorothy
 * ======Lena' Tink
 * ======Arleatha
 * ======Brittany
 * ======Kelsey
 * ======Christopher
 * ======Adrian
 * ======Ninjaa
 * ======Rose

IMPACT: The students were able to access international news stories from various news websites. They became more aware of international breaking news stories coming from abroad and political and economic implications of those stories. They not only explored and found various international news stories but also learnt what others had found from their search and exploration. Hopefully this exercise widened their horizons about global news and media flow and about globaliztion in general.

__**Discussion 2. Reflections on a Bollywood movie - DHOOM2 (on FaceBook)**__

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[|Abhijit Sen] Use the questions (handout) given in the class to review the movie DHOOM 2..... a) Specially indicate how Hollywood has influenced this particular film  b) Indicate any Indian cultural modes & styles included in the film c) If the movie is a HYBRID or not....if yes, why do you think it's a hybrid cultural product. Discuss.

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[|Abhijit Sen] Yes you are required to answer (d).....but try to understand what is HYBRID - a combination of styles, forms, acts, structures and even cultures. So in the film did you see any fusion of styles, forms and cultures ? Where ? Give examples.... about 2 weeks ago · [|Delete Post]

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[|Abhijit Sen] When you say the movie DHOOM 2 took/borrowed materials from other Hollywood movies it will be good to point out where in the movie did you see that happen ..... about 2 weeks ago  · [|Delete Post]

1.) Dhoom II was filled with Hollywood influenced dances, songs, actors, special effects, clothing styles, and story lines. The movie had a lot of Rock-inspired music and scenes reminiscent of the Matrix. Some of the dancing was like that that you would see in a Pop or Hip-Hop music video. The film had a lot of action, comedy, romance, and they really focused on the sex appeal of the actors. 2.) Although some of the language of the movie was in English, most was in Hindi. Most of the dancing was Indian-inspired and the songs sounded like contemporary Indian songs. 3.) Yes, the movie was definitely a hybrid. Their story lines were Hollywood inspired. It was filled with stereotypical Hollywood scenes. The movie had everything all rolled up into one. The script was also written in Hindi and English.====== about 3 weeks ago · [|Mark as Irrelevant] · [|Report] · [|Delete Post] A) Hollywood has influenced this film in a plethora of ways. The action was very intense, the dancing was a classic, and the over dramatic special effects topped it all off! B)It was hard to differentiate a lot of Indian cultures and styles due to the fact that most seemed Americanized. However, their cultural music set a tone that made the viewer realize that it was Indian oriented. Another factor was the surroundings. I noticed that the environment looked foreign and the language was simply self-explanatory. C)I do feel that this movie is a hybrid cultural product. Thus saying,watching this movie still kept me in the similar comfort zone of viewing an American made movie. If it had not been for the duality of language uses then I may have never known this was Indian oriented. ====== about 3 weeks ago · [|Mark as Irrelevant] · [|Report] · [|Delete Post] A) There are Hollywood influences all throughout this movie. The only thing that related this movie to their own culture was the language. It looked like the fantastic four characters were put in high school musical. B) Well it is obvious that the traditional Indian customs were out the window. I remember the scene when Ali and and the other guy were talking about Suheri's sister, how if he was to make her his wife, then his mother would be upset because she didn't know Hindi. C) I loved this movie! It was very corny in the beginning and the stunts were unrealistic and unbelievably lame, but somewhere and somehow in the middle of the movie I became very intrigued, perhaps because I love romantic movies!. This was the first Bollywood movie I have sat through. I liked the dance scenes too. Next time can we watch a movie made in Jamaica? D) This movie is not a Hybrid nor Indian. This movie is....how can I say this...a regular movie with a cast full of Indians, you know how they have the urban drama movies with only black people, but this one was cute and bubbly, with Indians.====== about 3 weeks ago · [|Mark as Irrelevant] · [|Report] · [|Delete Post] A.Hollywood has influenced the film by adapting some of the same parts of American culture. When Americans go to see a movie, they want to see action, romance and even comedy. The actors have to have an attractive look so people will come see the movie. B. The music aspect is the easiest to point out. The dance and dress did have an influence. C. The movie is a Hybrid.While watching the movie I still felt as if it took place in America. But Some of the editing and the action scene seemed unrealistic.====== about 3 weeks ago · [|Mark as Irrelevant] · [|Report] · [|Delete Post] Portia Banner A. I saw alot of Hollywood throughout the movie. The dancing and the fighting seemed to stand out the most because parts of it seemed to be from the American Culture. With that being said some of the moves were American. B.Even though some of the moves that were used in the dancing scene looked American, they dressed like the Indian culture(well the females did) for the most part. Another thing is the music too. C.I'm not sure if I want to call this movie Hybrid because even though it did have some American Culture throughout the movie, it still stood out as in the Indian Culture.====== about 2 weeks ago · [|Mark as Irrelevant] · [|Report] · [|Delete Post] A. This movie reminded of hollywood alot. I say that because of how they had scenes where there was some fighting almost as if it was an American action film. The scenes where they had the dancing and singing made me think of a musical such as Glee thats over here in America. B. In some scenes they dressed in Indian attire. Some of the musical scenes is where you would see that at. The whole movie was spoken in their native language. C. The movie was a lil interesting and boring. I say that because the part that was musical tended to bore me a lil. Some of the songs on the other hand sounded good and kept my attention. Some of the movie looked really fake and that had me lost in the movie as well. I wouldn't watch Bollywood movies for sheer pleasure I dont think. D. I'm on the fence on whether to call it hybrid or purely Indian.====== about 2 weeks ago · [|Mark as Irrelevant] · [|Report] · [|Delete Post] 1. Hollywood definitely had a big influence on this movie because the music was similar to american music and so was the dance. The people in the movie did not wear traditional indian clothes they looked like they had an american style to them. The special effects and the way the movie was laid out was really similiar to the hoolywood films. 2. The music did have a cultural indian theme to it and the dancing was kinda like a traditional indian dance mixed with a us kinda dance. 3. This movie was kinda interesting being that it was not a hollywood film that im used to. It was just like a us film when it came to the action and comedy. Overall i thought the movie was alright. 4.This movie is definitely a hybrid because it has both aspects of indian and hollywood in it.====== on Tuesday · [|Mark as Irrelevant] · [|Report] · [|Delete Post] a. There were many Hollywood and Western influences in the movie. The whole cops and robbers theme that is replayed in the movies is evident. Also the appreciation that the cop has of the robber and vice versa, its almost and understanding they have for each other. This "idea" is visible in alot of Western movies. All the basketballl scene..Which is the All-American game also represents a struggle for power.Alot of parodies from American movies were seen in this movie. An example is "Love and Basketball' with the basketball scene. There is also a James Bond feel to some of the characteristics of the robber. The chasing and being able to always outsmart his opponent. Also the master of diguises is a concept seen in American movies like "Borne Supremacy". b. There also were indigenuous cultural elements displayed in Kabil Alvida Zna Kahna that celebrated being Indian. The indian festival displayed fire throwing and other Indian traditions. Also the "song and dance' breaks that made it sort of a musical is a characteristic of Indian film making. Also when one of the female spoke to her home everytime she returned home. Im assuming that to be some Indian tradition. c.I enjoyed this movie.Some would say that its corny but I found it to be very entertaining.I enjoy movies where a person is clever and outwits his adversaries. I loved the different disguises that he came up with.I love the dumb sidekick who is just as happy to be the dumb one. d.I think the movie is hybrid because of the Hollywood elements. The idea of using sex symbols in movies and the dumb sidekick. Also because of its similarities to many American movies that I have seen.======
 * =====Ninjaa
 * =====Kelsey
 * =====Leah
 * ======Bianca
 * =====Portia
 * =====Rose
 * =====Lawrence
 * =====Arleatha

IMPACT: Students learnt about a media product from another culture - how much different or similar is it to our cultural products, in this case a movie. Students learnt that movie-making is the same in other cultures but there maybe variations in behavior, dress, music, dance, dialogs etc in films from other cultures. On the other hand the media and cultural products from a different culture may even be 'hybrid', that is a mixture of elements from two different and separate cultures.


 * PRODUCT 2**
 * __MindOMO; SAMPLES:__**
 * Mental maps used by students to present information on various countries and their political, cultural, economic and media systems.**
 * ﻿[[file:Italy.pdf]] ynmnmnmn **

IMPACT: Students learnt how to outline their presentation using MindOMO mental mapping. This was convenient for them because they did not have to use hand-held note cards to read while presenting the information.

__**GOOGLE SCHOLAR Samples: Annotated Bibliography on International Communications topics**__
 * PRODUCT 3**





IMPACT: Students learnt to use the GOOGLE SCHOLAR to search for sources and reference materials for their final research paper. This was very convenient for them because this was like a one-stop site for all the reference materials they needed.

__**JOURNAL LX: International News Journal**__
 * PRODUCT 4**



IMPACT: A negative impact could be discerned since none of the students used JOURNAL LX to post their entries for the International News Journal. I think the students had a difficult time accessing JOURNAL LX or were confused as to how to enter journal entries in blogging site. It was easier for them to just record their entries in Word.

Lessons learned
The first important lesson learnt is that Web 2.0 applications are important tools and technology for learning and can be used in the classroom effectively for pedagogical reasons. There are various ways of imparting information, facts and data to the student and technology is definitely helpful in teaching and learning. Students are very skillful in using communications technology and it's a useful way to get students to participate in given assignments. So using FaceBook for discussion purposes was very convenient and useful. Students were eager to participate in the discussions since they were already registered on FaceBook and knew how to navigate the FaceBook easily. So was GOOGLE SCHOlLAR regarding ease of use. A few students already knew how to use the site to locate sources for the research paper. MindOMO required a little bit of training and hands-on-instruction but most students picked-up how to develop a mental map for their presentation..

The FaceBook discussions were very productive and I got almost 100% participation from my students. FaceBook is a very populat social networking site and and I think every student on campus has an account for the site. The students were more than ready to do the assignment as soon as they were asked to do so. That was one big advantage with Facebook. I have conducted discussions on the Blackboard but I have found that not all students posted their comments, opinions or their answers simultaneously or even with a 24 hours period in the Discussion Board. On FaceBook students were motivated enough to attempt answering the questions and post their comments almost immediately. I am sure the students read each others comments prior to posting their comments and opinions but I noticed that there was hardly any duplication or 'copying' of comments or answers from each other or another participant. All in all, these discussion sessions were productive and informative for all. The students liked the technology aspect of the course too.

The students learnt to use MindOMO after an instructional session with Ms. Patel. Students who were having problems in developing a MindOMO mental map for their presentation were asked to make an appointment with Ms. Patel so that they could get individual advisement from her at the O'Kelly Library. MindOMO mental mapping turned out to be a boon for the students. The map helped the students to outline their 'country presentation' which enabled to present a more coherent and logical flow of informationa and data about their countries. The students worked in groups of twos, so each student had a partner to work with. The team split up their presentation according to their expertise and followed the outline in their presentation. The npresentation were given extemporaneously and had an easy conversational style to them which engaged students in learning more about those countries and their cultures and media systems. Samples of students' MindOMO mental maps are given in the product section.

Students were instructed on how to use GOOGLE SCHOLAR during one of the classroom sessions. The students were required to write and research a final paper for the semester in this class. They were told to acquire and use at least 7 sources for their research paper and prior to writing the paper they had to submit an annotated bibliography for the research paper. The samples given for product 3 are actual annotated bibliographies written by students for the class. GOOGLE SCHOLAR was extremely useful for students for doing the annotated bibliography since it was a one stop site for getting the sources for the paper. Even though the sources seemed appropriate and relevant I am not sure how advatangeous it was gather reference material from GOOGLE SCHOLAR than from a communication database or even Lexis-Nexis. The students now have a resource at their finger-tips to collect and gather sources if they ever want to do research on any subject matter or topics if they wish to.

We didn't have much time to get familiarize ourselves with Journal LX. Even though I told the students how to access JOURNAL LX and to start blogging, the students either misunderstood my instructions or hesitated to try out JOURNAL LX. I did give the students the option to submit either a hard-copy or an electronic copy of their journal using Word app. All students logged their news stories entry on Word and submitted them to me via e-mail or through the Digital Dropbox in the BlackBoard. Another reason I felt that JOURNAL LX may distort my assessment of a student's abilities was that the JOURNAL gave access to other students' entires and I felt that it would be easy for a student to directly copy another's information and log entries and pass it off as his or her own. One of the item in the international news journal was naming the country and the capital of the country where the news incident took place and they had to look it up in a map or a World Atlas or search on the Internet in order to get it right. The samples given under Product 4 indicates the type of information students had to search and record in their international news journal log.

Students seemed to be reluctant to use the JOURNAL LX. I would recommend that students should be required to attend a separate session on JOURNAL LX either at CETL or in a computer lab. I would also recommend that instructors use other Web 2.0 applications to support classroom teaching and learning. Instructors should experiment and see which Web 2.0 app would work for him or her in the long run. I would highly recommend Facebook as a platform for discussions on various communication issues. The instructor might get almost 100% participation and if the person wants to foster critical thinking, discussions are the way to go. AS you can see from the samples above, students enjoy getting on the FaceBook and discussing the issues presented to them. MinDOMO was an excellent tool to map their country presentations. I noticed that it was easier for the student to follow MindOMO while presenting than just using the PowerPOint. Moreover, while using PowerPoint students tend to read whatever is on the screen instead of explaining the main points or speaking extemporaneously. GOOGLE SCHOLAR no doubt is an outstanding site to locate relevant sources for a research paper. I would highy recommend that an instructor in International Communications use all the three apps for teaching along with the white-board for student learning and pedagogical reasons.
 * Future actions **