Review the infographics below–what message does each seem to be sending regarding violence in video games?
Infographic: Violence and Video Games
(Image courtesy of Online Universities)
So why use infographics? Let’s explore their purpose and effect…
Mr. Martin's Musings
Random thoughts from a random man...
No one likes to fail…right? In most instances, we’ll do just about anything to avoid failing, as it’s one of the most demoralizing feelings a person can experience. And yet, there are countless examples of failures in our society and history from which we can learn so much; indeed, even our personal failures can be moments of awakening.
To help us understand the power of failure, examine the various cases of failure below. For each, consider what makes each example a moment of “failure.” How did those who failed react? Did anything positive come from the failure? What lessons can one learn from studying this particular example?
Movies
It’s common for movie companies to shell out tens–and sometimes hundreds–of millions of dollars to bankroll movies that they foresee as potential moneymakers. And we’ve all heard of those box-office blockbusters: Titanic, Avatar, Terminator… But what about those big-budget flops? What causes them to fail, and what can we learn from them?
Sports
Much like the blockbusters, we can all think of legendary teams who have created dynasties in their respective sports, such as the Boston Celtics, New York Yankees, and–of course–the Green Bay Packers. But what about those losing teams? What do we make of those teams who have historically struggled to win, such as the Detroit Lions football team who went 0-16 in 2009? What can we learn from a team like that? Did they learn anything?
Education
Schools are certainly under a microscope today, as administrators, politicians, and the public are paying especially close attention to things like graduation rate, attendance, and test scores. When schools are labeled as “failing,” they’re subject to intense intervention from state and federal government, and they even risk being shut down. So what does one of those failing schools look like? How can we determine if it’s experiencing success?
Politics
While we know that there is always a winner and loser in any presidential campaign, do you know there are also candidates who have run for office multiple times, only to lose every single one of them? What do we make of them? What keeps them coming back? Can we learn anything from them?
Senior year: a final learning opportunity, or a wasted year of miscreant mischief?
In a recent editorial in the New York Times, Marc Bernstein, a faculty member in the Education Department at Fordham University, proposed an alternative to the traditional senior year: namely, going straight to college, internships, or similar post-secondary fields. As a means of opening up dialogue, the staff at the Times opened up his editorial to responses–and that conversation has just continued.
Another conversation revolving around alternatives to the traditional senior year occurred via NPR’s State Impact Ohio radio show, in which several players in Ohio’s secondary and post-secondary education worlds debated the merits of the current high school model. The full audio clip can be seen below, and it reflects a similar debate raised recently by the CBS Evening News, in which they profiled two very different high school seniors and their perspectives on the necessity of senior year.
So what’s your opinion? Is senior year worth it, or is it simply an extended slide in which students increasingly lose motivation, becoming simply occupants of desks rather than learners in them?
For your final post, juniors, you’ll get a chance to make an argument that answers that question. In this blog, you can incorporate any number of the different elements we’ve discussed this year: videos, audio, images, links, social media…the list goes on! I’d also like to challenge you to go outside the classroom walls and interview your peers–either via video or audio recording–to get their perspective. You could even host a podcast on the subject, complete with a conversation/debate between you and one of your peers! However you choose to go about it, I want to get your perspective on the topic, and I want you to defend it using as many varied outside sources as you can!
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