Online Communities (Precursor to MMP)

Having done some thinking and looking into what I will need going forward, I have decided to focus on how physics teachers use technology in their classrooms. Since one of the things I have found myself struggling with so far is how multimedia use may apply to the physics classroom, I hope that by following other physics teachers I'll be able to better understand and apply this Web Design class to my future profession. As such I have decided to follow the Google+ community called 'The Physics Classroom' (found at https://plus.google.com/u/0/+PhysicsclassroomPlus). They have several subsections to look into such as Physics Interactives and more promisingly, Teacher Toolkits. I haven't seen anything yet that is distinctly devoted to technology in the physics classroom, though I certainly will continue to look.

As I start the Multi Media Project, I hope to use this group to find inspiration about where to proceed and how to better understand the relevance of 'multi media' and what counts as this. This certainly will not be my first attempt at incorporating technology into the physics class (see my sample project from another class: http://weibelphysics.shutterfly.com/) and certainly in that previous project I did incorporate video, though I imagine that this project will give me quite a bit more trouble. Browsing through other peoples' responses to this I find myself overwhelmed at how everyone else seems to know what they're doing and unfortunately this did not really help me sort my own thoughts in regards to this. I don't really feel as though I have gotten a solid start on this and if not for the post deadline wouldn't feel ready to post this at all despite having been working on it for several days. However even a half done step is better than no step at all and I hope that if I keep going things will start pulling together more as the weeks go on.

Media Critique

In this post I will be looking at the Starbucks 'Michael Buble' commercial. In this commercial a female homeowner drinks a starbucks product after which she goes about her daily life while celebrity Michael Buble sings to her about escape from a boring life into fantasy. From the way she goes about her day we can see that there is a male of clearly different genetics sharing her home (perhaps a husband?), that she dresses professionally, and lives by the city. We get the distinct impression that she is middle class and there is a further implied undertone that she is not necessarily happy with her life. Before she drinks the Starbucks Coffee, she and the man both seem drab, with dull expressions and a bored or depressed demeanor. The moment she drinks the coffee however, she smiles and her day starts immediately going a lot better as the man from before is replaced by this fantasy man and she entertains ideas of adventure, romance, (even though she might already be married perhaps?) and travel.



This commercial is clearly aimed at the middle class, particularly at those who feel they are not living up to their potential in it. It is particularly noteworthy that the woman portrayed wears glasses and ties up her hair in a bun, which gives the impression of a person who is restrained. However it is also clear from her flight of whimsy that the reason for her restraint is not her own mind and is thus implied to be the world she lives in. This middle class as market demographic makes sense because the pricing range of Starbucks puts it a bit out of the lower class range and upper class can all theoretically afford better. Thus voices of poorer people living in the city itself are brushed over in favor of this woman who owns her own home and only goes to the city for business. I think it's pretty clear from the choice of wardrobe, hair style, and accessories that the makers of this commercial intended to reach out to a market of busy and stressed homeowners and so chose this woman in particular as representative of that whole demographic.