News from Room 402 / Mid-March, 2012

Posted by Christina Jenkins on March 11, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Above: The final film in Sixteen is a documentary of a youth subculture. “Bronies” refers to boys (and men) who watch “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.”

Game Design: The final challenge concludes on Wednesday! The photo on the homepage of this site is of Maria working on her final game; you can find additional photos from Game Design on Flickr.

Sixteen: The final Sixteen documentaries will be shown in class on Wednesday and Thursday of this week! In addition to the topics above, the films document youth subcultures ranging from “Beliebers” (Justin Bieber’s fans) to “Potterheads” (Harry Potter fans) to “Sneakerheads” (those who collect, sell and trade sneakers). The films from this class – perhaps more than those from any other Sixteen class I’ve taught – truly represent an incredible combination of anthropology and documentary filmmaking. I’ve learned so much from watching them come together. Families – please consider joining us for the screenings at school on either Wednesday (12:50-2:20pm) or Thursday (9-10am).

Senior Projects: This week represents the end of the senior project process for students who have chosen to not continue with their work in the spring. These projects – which range from a new prototype of a wheelchair for dogs (Alexis), to a collection of stories by and for young women struggling with insecurity (Alicia), to a t-shirt campaign concerned with the correlation between maternal mortality and poor water quality in developing countries (Ayana) – aim to change the world, and many will. For students who continue with their work, look for announcements about those presentations in the spring.

And etc: The NYC iSchool’s Technovation Challenge team, which I coach with Ms. Fetzner, has finalized its mobile app concepts and will be moving forward in the next few weeks to prototype them using Google (now MIT) App Inventor. Ms. Fay and I presented our work with Sixteen and #Disastercamp at a conference in San Francisco last week. And, most importantly, new pictures are up on Flickr! Check out different albums for each of the courses I taught this trimester.

I hope to work with you in Cartography or #Disastercamp next term!