Making Curriculum Pop

Before we get to today's "super" resources, I want to thank all the most excellent people who have joined the discussions and started blogs. All the information has been great and replies to yesterday's blog were fun and informative.

Now I know there's some sort of super cultural event coming up this weekend, but I must admit, the only sport I really follow (Nicole says I drank too much of the Kool-Aid) is college football. Those of us on the Ning who are Wolverines probably get nervous with the idea of looking at a football field after the wounds we suffered in '08. It was one of the worst seasons in Michigan football history. But there's no need to worry - we don't even have to watch Sunday's game - it is just filler for the commercials and The Boss (btw - Rolling Stone gave the new album five stars)! A dude on this NING who understands this in a big way is Frank Baker.

For those of you who don't know Frank Baker he's a really interesting former TV newsman turned media literacy educator. Yesterday night on his MC POP blog he featured his incredible web page for teaching about the Super Bowl. These resources are just the tip of his super iceberg as he also runs a site called the Media Literacy Clearinghouse that overflows with great lesson plans, ideas and resources.

Now my interpretation of Frank's work (and he'll probably correct me later - represent FB!) is that he's grounded in the disciplines of communications and media literacy. These fields are super related to my personal interests/research/philosophies but you'll find as we get to know each other better - especially on days where resource posts drift into opinion - that I hang out more in the cultural studies world. Do we even care? Well, probably not. I only mention it because I think it is always helpful to know what POVs people bring to the table. I spend a lot of time explaining what cultural studies is since that's what my doc work is about - and if people want a larger discussion about the CS we can rock that - but I really don't want to dork out today. So, I'll stick to the short definition - CS is mash-up discipline focused on issues of culture, power, and identity.

Last year Nicole and I started a Pop Resources Wiki from our CS in education POV that will hopefully one day be as cool as Frank's Clearinghouse "with a little help from [our] friends." At this point lots of things are placeholders (we're no Wikipedia) but the comic resources link is pretty rich as are some other areas. Most of the wiki is virgin territory waiting to be added to. If Nicole and I make any major updates to the wiki I'll be sure to pass them on. In the meantime, if you visit and you have things to add don't be shy as anyone is welcome to join the wiki and add resources - heck, you can even adopt a genre or topic - its much easier than real adoption - just ask Madonna!

Keepin' it funky here in icy NYC,

RRG:)

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