by Susie Kim
July 18, 2011
Today is a sad, catastrophic day: it is the beginning of the book-meltdown revolution. As you may have hear, Borders Group, the corporation that controls Borders Bookstore, has announced that they will be liquidating their remaining 400 stores, taking away 11,000 positions from their employees. California's unemployment rate just went down too! I am not sure if these people will be able to receive their unemployment checks.
This is when technology, the almighty literacy haven, becomes a nightmare for people with jobs in the literature/ writing industry. With the closure of Borders nation-wide, publishing companies will print less books to save money; why would they print the same amount, when one of the leading book distributor has gone down? Amazon and Barnes and Nobles are the last remaining book companies and the internet isn't really helping with its free and easily accessible collection of informative resources.
I was in Barnes and Noble the other day to buy a book... it was $17.95. With my teacher- 25% discount, it would be about $15. So I decided I would save my money and look for it online, which I did. I would've preferred the book but why pay at all if I can attain the same or about the same amount of information online for free? Now I feel guilty about not buying that book... my purchase would probably have saved a person's job. But at a time like this when unemployment rate is high, and people are living paycheck-to-paycheck (like me), it is hard to think about others when one can barely survive on him/herself.
Technology is great because it is cheap, easily attainable and accessible, and bountiful. Technology is evil because it creates pollution, takes away manual labor which in effect takes away jobs. Technology is terrible, yes, but also great (yes, a quote from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone).
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
There is no "technology" without "techno"
by Susie Kim
So I was driving one day from I don't remember to I don't know where, and I was listening to the radios and one of my new (at-the-moment) favorite song came on: "Take Over Control" by Afrojack and Eva Simmons. I absolutely love it! Great beat, rhythm, and bass. I would dance in my seat every time the bass- break came on and get really into it! Then it hit me, I'm 25 years old who loves to dance and go to clubs to "exercise" and "practice" my grooves, and the middle- and high- school students are also probably loving this song and dancing to it. That made me feel slightly old and awkward at the same time because when they go to dances and listen to this song, and if they go to raves, etc, they will be used to it. I am just getting into House and Techno music while the students of today are growing up with it.
It must be fun to be a student of today's generation; they have endless informative resources (by phone, laptop, or iPad), digital cameras, great "techno" music, "free" file-sharing, and more! While I was growing up, we still had pagers, thick Nokia phones, some internet, and Oregon Trails (totally not hating! LOVE that game). It would be SO nice to live in their generation where many things are more accessible inexpensively. They have Facebook to keep up with their friends while in high school (with 400+ friends), while we (my generation) got Facebook while in college with fewer friends (600+ including high school and college friends). Technology is part of life for them as day and night is for us "older" generations. Man, life is unfair, I wish I was born in their generation; at least, we had "Baby-Sitter's Club", "Boxcar Children", and Donkey Kong while we were growing up :)
So I was driving one day from I don't remember to I don't know where, and I was listening to the radios and one of my new (at-the-moment) favorite song came on: "Take Over Control" by Afrojack and Eva Simmons. I absolutely love it! Great beat, rhythm, and bass. I would dance in my seat every time the bass- break came on and get really into it! Then it hit me, I'm 25 years old who loves to dance and go to clubs to "exercise" and "practice" my grooves, and the middle- and high- school students are also probably loving this song and dancing to it. That made me feel slightly old and awkward at the same time because when they go to dances and listen to this song, and if they go to raves, etc, they will be used to it. I am just getting into House and Techno music while the students of today are growing up with it.
It must be fun to be a student of today's generation; they have endless informative resources (by phone, laptop, or iPad), digital cameras, great "techno" music, "free" file-sharing, and more! While I was growing up, we still had pagers, thick Nokia phones, some internet, and Oregon Trails (totally not hating! LOVE that game). It would be SO nice to live in their generation where many things are more accessible inexpensively. They have Facebook to keep up with their friends while in high school (with 400+ friends), while we (my generation) got Facebook while in college with fewer friends (600+ including high school and college friends). Technology is part of life for them as day and night is for us "older" generations. Man, life is unfair, I wish I was born in their generation; at least, we had "Baby-Sitter's Club", "Boxcar Children", and Donkey Kong while we were growing up :)
Monday, July 4, 2011
Anime Expo: Future
This weekend, I attended Anime Expo 7at the LA Convention Center and thoroughly enjoy it! There were MANY people (dressed in costumes, or cosplaying), lots of fun things (some for free), free Hi-Chew candy, and movies and anime shows. They even had panels and forums that people can attend to learn new things like origami, how to use markers and Photoshop, understanding the culture of anime and Japan, and so forth. It is fascinating how in the past three years that I've attended, I feel like there is more and more people coming to the convention. I know that at first they started with about 10,000 people coming, but more than 70,000 people attended the convention. People all over the world attends; I've talked to people who came from Japan, Germany, Korea, and the UK. The convention has been going on every year for 20 years around the weekend of Independence Day. To think that the animation industry is becoming so popular is exciting.
So it got me thinking, I think it is important as teachers to be aware of our students' interest and culture. In the past three years I've attended workshops that are so useful for me as an educator: a Photoshop workshop, how to use markers to color, creating Origami, how to get into the Animation industry, Korean Pop 101 forums, etc. If the teachers are aware of such informational conventions
(such as Anime Expo, Photography Expo, etc) and advice and/or suggest them to our students, then not only will we appear as being "aware" of the world and support our students' interest, but our such awareness can facilitate the want to learn. To rephrase this last thought: if I suggested to a student who was quiet but knew they liked manga, I can suggest AX to them, who in turn will be excited and want to research about it, (hypothetically) plan to attend it, look at the program guide and learn of available workshops that might interest them, and learn from those attended workshops. This is what I hope for of myself and my students, but the idea tickles my want to spread the greatness of anime and animation. I am partial to anime, since I've grown up with it.
Convention are soo cool!
So it got me thinking, I think it is important as teachers to be aware of our students' interest and culture. In the past three years I've attended workshops that are so useful for me as an educator: a Photoshop workshop, how to use markers to color, creating Origami, how to get into the Animation industry, Korean Pop 101 forums, etc. If the teachers are aware of such informational conventions
(such as Anime Expo, Photography Expo, etc) and advice and/or suggest them to our students, then not only will we appear as being "aware" of the world and support our students' interest, but our such awareness can facilitate the want to learn. To rephrase this last thought: if I suggested to a student who was quiet but knew they liked manga, I can suggest AX to them, who in turn will be excited and want to research about it, (hypothetically) plan to attend it, look at the program guide and learn of available workshops that might interest them, and learn from those attended workshops. This is what I hope for of myself and my students, but the idea tickles my want to spread the greatness of anime and animation. I am partial to anime, since I've grown up with it.
Convention are soo cool!
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