Name: Patricia
Raub
Dept: American
Studies and SCE
Phone: 421-0639
Email: praub@providence.edu
Resources
Requested
Stipend
1 AY: $1,400.00
Stipend Summer: $400.00
Sound
Editing Software: $100.00
Travel:
$220.00
Supplies:
$100.00
Equipment: $30.00
Other: $30.00
Total: $2,280.00
Project
Info
Start
Date: July 1, 2003
End
Date: June 30, 2004
Milestones:
- Phase
I: Revision of one major course
unit for implementation in AMST 101 this fall.
- Phase
II: completion of two course
units for implementation in the spring in
online course taught through SCE (either
History of Work in America or American history
survey course).
- Phase
III: Evaluation of Project,
to be completed by July 1, 2004.
How
would you use the equipment/software after the
Project?
I
would continue to expand my archive of digital images
using the scanner, and I would continue to use the
video and audio software and equipment to produce
streaming videos for use in the classroom and in
online courses.
Deliverables
Angel/Course-Related:
I.
Powerpoint Presentations (posted on Course "Lessons" pages):
(1) Introduction to analyzing visual materials:
Focus on Magazine Advertisements; (2) Introduction
to analyzing visual materials: Focus on Television
Commercials; (3) Introduction to analyzing visual
materials: Focus on Depression Photographs
II.
Streaming Videos (posted
on Course "Lessons" pages): (1) Television
Commercials; (2) Excerpt from Andrew Carnegie:
Richest Man in the World video; (3) Excerpt from
Blackside Great Depression series (steel strike);
(4) Excerpt from History Channel Great Depression
series (steel strike); (5) excerpts from TV situation
comedies with work themes;
III.
On-line Discussions (posted on Course "Lessons" pages):
(1) Discussion of contemporary magazine and television
advertisements; (2) Discussion of selected FSA
photographs of 1930s work/workers; (3) Discussion
of streaming videos on 1930s steel strike; (4)
Discussion of TV sitcom images of work in postwar
era;
IV.
Individual and group assignments (posted on
Course "Lessons" pages): (1) Construction
of group powerpoint ad project assignment; (2)
Construction of individual assignment analyzing
a television commercial; (3) Construction of Group
powerpoint projects; (4) Construction of Documentary
Assessment Form and Related Assignment
Enhancement
of Instructional Practices: Assembling
archives of visual images (magazine advertisements);
Digitizing videos of documentaries and TV sitcoms.
Professional
Presentation: I will be presenting my
projects at the four follow-up meetings of the Learning
to Look: New Media Classroom Institute at
the Graduate Center of the City University of New
York during the coming 2003-4 academic year. I
would also volunteer to present one of the units
I develop for AMS 101 at the fall Instructional
Technology Fair at Providence College. OTHER: I
plan to offer workshops for interested SCE instructors,
particularly those teaching distance-learning courses,
on incorporating still images and streaming videos
into their own courses.
Primary
Objective
I would like to improve
my ability to use digital visual materials more
effectively for instruction in campus-based and
distance-learning courses. I plan to explore ways
to assist students in becoming more proficient
in using the technical skills needed to prepare
projects which utilize visual materials. Specifically,
I want to help students construct PowerPoint presentations,
edit image files, and design and post web projects
more effectively. I hope to gain more knowledge
of and facility with instructional technology in
order to share my expertise with other Providence
College faculty, particularly those with whom I
work as SCE Faculty Associate. To improve my ability
to utilize visual materials in the classroom effectively,
I am already scheduled to attend a one-week New
Media Classroom workshop in New York City June
1 - 6, 2003. Sponsored by City University of New
York Graduate Center, the workshop is entitled Learning
to Look: New Media, Visual Materials and Humanities
Education.
In addition to attending
the workshop in June, I am committed to implementing
a project or series of mini-projects involving
new media resources during the coming academic
year, to maintaining on-line contact via a discussion
board with the other participants in the workshop,
and to attending four one-day follow-up workshops
in the fall and spring. (NOTE: I am not applying
for funds to attend the June 1-6 New Media Classroom
workshop, as Providence College has generously
agreed to cover my tuition, travel, and lodging
expenses for the June workshop; I am instead
applying for a Davis Educational Foundation grant
to assist in implementing my New Media Classroom
project over the next twelve months.)
I
was attracted to the New Media Classroom program because
of its focus upon visual materials. While I have
used slides, PowerPoint presentations, Web
archives of images, and videos for many years, I have
not systematically thought about my approach
to these materials, nor have I had the opportunity
to look closely at the syllabi of others who
use visual material extensively nor to talk
with such instructors. Once I have shared approaches
and techniques with other participants at the
New Media Classroom workshop in June, I plan
to apply the insights I gain to construct classroom
activities, group projects, and individual
assignments which train students to analyze visual
materials more carefully, "read" images
in order to discern the values and attitudes
conveyed by these primary source documents,
and present their assessments in discussions and
papers, as well as in carefully constructed
PowerPoint presentations and web projects.
In
addition to focusing on the analysis of still images,
I also plan to devote some time to developing better
methods for approaching moving images. I will develop
a set of activities to assist students in devising
a set of criteria by which to evaluate video and film
documentaries, and to use this assessment tool to examine
documentaries dealing with specific historical events.
Project
Details
PHASE
ONE
By August 31, 2003, I plan to
revise one course unit which I will use in the
fall in AMS 101, Introduction to American Studies:
Popular Culture in America, a campus-based, day-school
course. I. Analyzing Advertisements: Introduction
to analyzing advertisements I will prepare two
PowerPoint presentations focusing upon recent magazine
and television advertisements.
In
Part I, I will use Adobe PhotoShop to isolate the various
aspects of the magazine ad (setting, use of models,
phrases in the ad copy, slogan or heading, etc.) and,
using a voiceover, I will discuss the impact of each
of these elements upon the "meanings" of
the advertisement.
For
Part II, I will videotape several television commercials,
digitalize them, and edit them to highlight the music,
lighting, product placement, use of models, setting,
which, together, compose an advertisement and create
its "message." Discussion of contemporary
advertisements Based upon the PowerPoint introductions
to analyzing ads, I would set up a discussion on Angel
to analyze selected magazine and television ads. I
would scan the magazine ads from recent magazines and
digitalize the commercials from recent television programs
and I would post examples of both magazine ads and
television commercials the course web site. Many of
the activities in the June New Media Classroom workshop
are focused upon constructing better questions and
activities to help students analyze visual material
more effectively, and I would construct the questions
for this discussion to reflect pedagogical principles
I learn at the workshop. Group ad projects: One of
the graded assignments in this sequence would be the
construction of PowerPoint presentations in which students,
working in small groups, would select, analyze, and
present magazine advertisements from the 1920s through
the 1960s in order to examine changes over time in
American attitudes toward gender, class, race, or ethnicity.
At one time, www.adflip.com provided an extensive archive
of magazine ads, arranged by decade and by product
type; currently, most of the material on this web site
is available only to paying members. The Rhode Island
Public Library system owns two volumes of the All-American
Ads series, edited by Jim Heimann and covering the
1940s and the 1950s. All-American Ads of the 60s is
available from amazon.com for $39.95, and All-American
Ads of the 30s will be published this summer. (See
http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/books/popculture/all/seealso/02971.htm)
With the help of a student assistant, I would like
to scan about one hundred ads from each decade. Using
this visual archive, students would examine the changes
in social and cultural values and attitudes, as reflected
in the advertisements from the various decades. Students
would need some basic training in editing images and
preparing PowerPoint presentations, but the focus of
the assignment would be on the analysis of the advertisements;
therefore, I would be available to help groups with
the technical aspects of this assignment. Individual
ad project: Based upon having viewed the PowerPoint
Introduction to Analyzing Television Advertisements
and having participated in the online discussion of
additional print and television advertisements, students
would select one current television commercial and,
using the strategies and approaches for analyzing TV
commercials presented in the PowerPoint Introduction
and developed in the on-line discussion, they would
examine the advertisements they had chosen. Among the
questions students would address would be: How does
the ad employ various media components/techniques (narration,
selection of models, dialogue, music, etc.) to sell
its product? What underlying values are being conveyed
by this advertisement?
PHASE
TWO
By
February 28, 2004, I plan to construct two course units
to use in the spring in The History of Work in the
United States, an SCE distance-learning course. This
course is currently working its way through the approval
process for new courses. The Providence College history
department has already approved the course and it should
complete the other steps in the approval process in
the fall. Should there be delays in securing approval
in time to offer this course for the spring of
2004, I will offer HIS 104, U.S. History since
1877 instead, and I will develop the units described
below for that course. Later I will incorporate
these units into the History of Work course.
I also plan to use the Analyzing Photographic Images
of Work in my winter intersession ARH 277 (America
through the Camera's Eye) and my distance-learning
HUM 362 (America during the Great Depression)
courses, and I will incorporate the assignments on
Analyzing TV Sitcoms into my AMS 101 (Introduction
to American Studies: Popular Culture) course. I. Analyzing
Photographic Images of Work in the 1930s Introduction
to analyzing photographs Using the same approach
I employed for the Introduction to the Analysis
of Visual Materials in the fall AMS 101 course,
I would like to prepare a PowerPoint presentation
focusing upon the analysis of a single photograph
of Depression-era Americans at work. America
from the Great Depression to World War II, one of the
Library of Congress American Memory digital collections
is a comprehensive archive of 160,000 black and
white photographs taken by FSA photographers
during the 1930s and early 1940s. (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html
) In many cases, the collection provides multiple
versions of specific photographs. By comparing
and contrasting different versions of the same
image, by isolating various aspects of the "main" photograph
(to emphasize setting, subjects, and other details)
and, by using a voiceover, I would discuss the
ways in which camera angle, choice of subject,
arrangement of elements within the composition,
etc. shape the "meanings" of the photograph.
On-Line Discussion of Selected FSA Photographs
To ensure that students thoroughly understand
how to analyze photographs, I would select pairs
of related images from the archive to compare
and contrast in an on-line discussion on the
Angel course site.
I
would work on framing the questions for this discussion
to (1) lead students to analyze the images carefully
AND (2) make my questions open-ended and provocative
enough to produce a lively on-line exchange of views.
Group projects: The culminating assignment in this
sequence would be PowerPoint presentations in which
students would work in small groups to select, analyze,
and present images of a work-related topic presented
in Thirties documentary photographs, using the PowerPoint
Introduction to Analyzing Photographs as a model. Among
the work-related topics groups may select would be
the following: tenant farmers, migrant workers, housewives,
street workers, the unemployed, etc. Students would
be taught to use the correct format for citing electronic
sources, although the photographs on the Great Depression
web site are not actually subject to copyright restrictions.
(See http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fares.html)
II.
Film and Video Images of Work Assessing Documentary
Approaches to Work Film and video documentarians
have often focused upon work patterns and conditions.
Their different approaches provide us with the opportunity
to compare and contrast one presentation of work
with another, and to evaluate the effectiveness of
individual documentaries in presenting work topics.
Dissecting a Documentary To present the elements of
a documentary clearly, I plan to start by producing
a streaming videotape of a brief (three- to five-minute)
excerpt from the American Experience video on Andrew
Carnegie, focusing upon the section on work in the
Homestead steel mill. I am thinking of making several versions of the tape,
omitting the narrator's voice from one version, the
music from another, and the visuals from the third
and then asking students to consider how each omission
impacts the film. The overall purpose of this exercise
is to induce students to think about the various elements
of the documentary and to consider how each can change
the mood or even the meaning of the film. Evaluating
Documentaries The Providence College Media Center owns
two videos which present the Republic Steel Strike
in the 1930s: The Great Depression series, produced
by Blackside, Inc. (which also produced the Eyes on
the Prize series) in 1993, and a second account covered
in a series also entitled The Great Depression, produced
by The History Channel in 1998. I plan to digitalize
the two accounts in streaming videos and ask students,
in an on-line discussion, to consider the strengths
and weaknesses of each account. Based upon the comments
made in this discussion, I will prepare a documentary
assessment guide, which students can use for their
final project, which will be to rent, watch, and analyze
one documentary film dealing with a work topic, such
as Michael Moore's Roger and Me, which focuses upon
the impact of General Motor's decision to layoff workers
in Flint, Michigan in the 1980s, or Barbara Kopple's
American Dream, an account of the Hormel Strike of
1985-86. Analyzing TV Images of Work as Primary Source
Documents I Love Lucy: Job Switching (1952) Honeymooners:
Letter to the Boss (1955) All in the Family: Archie
is Worried about His Job (1971) The Simpsons: Homer's
Odyssey (1990) While TV sitcoms can scarcely be used
as realistic documentaries presenting American work
patterns, they CAN be used as primary source documents
which reflect-and shape-social and cultural attitudes
toward work.
For
this introduction to an analysis of work trends and
attitudes in the postwar era and to compare/contrast
work in the postwar period with more recent depictions
of work, I plan to digitalize scenes from the above
videos, all of which are episodes which foreground
work issues, and to post streaming video links to my
Angel course syllabus. I would write questions for
a class on-line discussion which encourages students
to consider how work is being presented through
the dialogue, action, and themes in these episodes.
The questions would address the following issues: What
is the nature of work presented in these shows,
and how does it change over time? What roles do men
and women play, with regard to work? What issues arise
in the workplace?
Assessment
/ Impact
To
determine if my students' learning has been enhanced
and/or improved, I will include questions on my course
evaluation forms for the fall and spring, specifically
asking students for their reactions to the new media
practices and assignments I have added to the courses.
I will also compare/contrast students' level of expertise
in analyzing still images this fall with that of students
taking AMS 101 last fall.
Change in Instructional
Practices: Since I use visual images
already in most of my classes, adopting more sophisticated
and well-thought-out approaches to the analysis,
evaluation, and presentation of such material will
clearly augment my pedagogy.
Change in Instructional Practices: I
will know if I am using the tools of technology
better if I improve my ability to frame on-line
discussion during the year. Also, since the skills
I will need to construct the Analysis of Thirties
Photographs unit in the spring are essentially
the same as those I will need to set up the Analysis
of Comporary Magazine Advertisements the previous
fall, if I construct the spring unit more quickly
and efficiently, I will know that I am becoming
more expert in using the tools of technology
needed for both of these units.
Process Evaluation: I
will also know if I am successful if I manage
to complete all or most of the project outcomes listed
above.
Quality
Evaluation: I will additionally
know if I am successful from the feedback
I will be given by the other Learning to
Look Institute participants in New York City
when I present my project to them.
Anticipated Benefit: One
benefit that should accrue from my altered instructional
practices is that I will be able to transfer the skills
I learn to other courses I teach, particularly ARH
277, America through the Camera's Eye; AMS 433, The
American Home; and HIS 103 and 104, the U.S. History
survey courses.
