My mosaic is made of tons of pictures from my Friday trip to Magic Garden. The main photo is about two childs playing on a swing. I also include the original photo below. And the background is a collage of more than three hundred photos that I took on my trip to South Philadelphia. So you probably can't see the small phtos clearly.

It is serendipity that lead us to the Magic Garden. It is serendipity that help us find the other shimmering mosaics. It is serendipity that "guide" us to this children's playground. Our city experience was like a child's play. We stumbled into things we never imagined to see. We climbed onto the strings only kids would play with. That's why I made this child-like mosaic.

Each mosaic tells a shimmering story. It's where we could find serendipity.

https://soundcloud.com/fenceless/julia-of-eyes-mosaic

This is a link to my mosaic, an audio track, which I created and posted onto my Soundcloud page, soundcloud.com/fenceless.

Best enjoyed through ear/headphones.

I came across the following article while perusing the internet. I don't know how to put a link to the article in my Serendip post, so I'll just post the URL:

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/07/30/why-male-pregnancy-matters/

The article begins with the introduction of a new advertising campaign in Chicago meant to take an alternative approach than the usual slut-shaming of teen pregnancy campaigns. Thus, the Chicago Department of Public Health came out with the following adevrtisements:

This advertising campaign is manipulating the binary sense of gender to bring awareness that the effects of teen pregnacies do not just affect who is carrying the baby. However, by doing so brings up the fact that transgendered men can have children. And that the borders of gender are not black and white as this advertisement implies. Gender is not a binary and it is not defined by one's ability to bear children or not. In fact, I think this advertisement further installs transphobia in society with its caption of "Unexpected?" next to these images. It can be said they are using pregnant male bodies as shock value to perputate transphobia.

I put these images up on our blog as food for thought in many different realms. Our class discussions on how to define gender. How media portrays gender. How media influences us. How we disagree with media, but don't know how to react. How society is controlled by media. 

Aight. I confess, I did not do this whole thing in one day. I actually started it when I moved in and didn't finish it until this morning. My mosaic is composed of several hundred old photographs, relics of trip past, cards, movie stubs, and everything that I think has a memory of an easier life attached to it. When visiting the mosiacs with Hanna on friday, I was struck again by how different my adult life is now compared to this time last year. It was both thrilling and saddening. When I got home, I added several photos and postcards of the trip to remind me of that feeling. I also added some unconventional things like feathers and business cards, just like Zagar used on bikes and dishes. 

I hope you like it. 

 'The Key' on pages 99-102.

I was highly disturbed and transfixed by the story of the magical golden keys that would grant a young boy access to paradise if he was "lucky enough to die." This paradise is supposed to be filled with food, women, and houses made of gold and diamonds.The young boy who recieved the key in Persepolis was just 14 when he was basically told that dying for his country would bring him women and take him to an afterlife that was "better than Disneyland." It reminded me of the Quranic tale of how muslim men are promised 72 virgins in heaven if they die as martyrs. After searching around online, I discovered that a muslim woman is promised one good, satisfying husband. I was displeased with this inequality AND the overall idea of exchanging death to recieve an implied sexual satisfaction from virgins or a perfect husband. 

I also found the image on page 102 really powerful! Contorted, anonymous bodys fly through the air with keys tugging away form their necks. Those poor boys experienced such an intense, traumatizing side of humanity that I would never wish upon someone else. 

A recent article in Faculty Focus by Dr. Ronald Jones from Ashford University approached the difficulty of keeping students engaged in an online classroom to the same level of a traditional classroom. Dr. Jones research showed a statistically significant correlation between the time a student spent logged in to an online course and his grade. While he admits that correlation doesn't imply causation, the research seems to suggest that maximizing student engagement can significantly improve student outcomes. In a blended classroom, the instructor has control over how much time students spend in the classroom, so the variable becomes introducing that same level of engagement into the blended aspects of the course. While Dr. Jones focuses his five tips on the online course, they can be easily adapted to work for a blended course. The tips reproduced below are Dr. Jones' original tips, with modified descriptions to fit with blended learning classrooms.

I've learned how broad the topic of education technology is. Everyone seems to have their own way of seeing educatoon technology and defining the terms. Sometimes it is hard to switch back and forth because I'm not always sure if I'm on the same page as others. The Selwyn Analysis paper was kind of hard to write since I struggled with using the same definition of "fair" throughout the whole paper. But I think because of the complexity of these words we use to describe education and technology, it sometimes just makes things pretty complicated. I would really want to try and clarify these terms and gain more knowledge of the subject throughout this semester.

One thing that I have learned from the course so far are the different kinds of technology that are present in the classrooms as well as their implications. I have always looked down on technology since I find it to be a distraction rather than a aid in learning. Our outlook on technology in the classroom is forever changing and we definitely take technologies (both old and new) for granted. My rose would be the encouragement to "think outside the box" and participate in different ways that differ from my math education. My thorn would be that because my computer is broken, it really discourages me from doing my readings online and participating in the types of technologies we're learning about.

I like how this class will require us to actually experience and read the books and video games that the youth are engaged in. Instead of just sitting theorizing or reading what they like about these games and book we actually get to experience it. It will allow us to form a deeper understanding. Technology is something that is affecting us all and I am glad we have a class that can allow us to think critically about its potentials and implications.

The field placements are a way to get experiential learning rather than just textbook learning. I hope we get started soon :)

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