Ch 13 & 14

"Moreover, physical or meatspace literacy practices often mean different things within eBay. For example, one regular eBay user we interviewed said she loves coming across item descriptions that include misspelled words. To her it means she is more likely to "win" a bargain from this person than from someone who spells correctly. Non-standard spelling indicates to her someone who is less likely to be in a professional job or to won a shop and, hence in her eyes, to be less likely to know the real value of ceramics or other objects they are offering for sale."

Ouch! I look forward to sharing this with my students. I want them to see how people with lacking education are judged in the world. I feel like they think of us teachers as nit-pickers and don't realize the rest of the world will judge them in very similar ways.

I suppose I feel very strongly about my students interacting with the public because I often make arrangements for them to do so. (This year my accounting class has gone on two short field trips: Davis and Elkins College Accounting Dept & Elkins Fordland Accounting Dept, Game Design classes have held two coding workshops for elementary students & and one gaming tournament and Digital Imaging students have gone to WV Weslyan College twice and are on their way to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and PNC Park Pirates Stadium 'Education Day' next week.)

In addition to opportunities to interact with the public, my Digital Imaging class, very regularly does work for the public. Our Simulated Workplace company name is "Pixel Pop Media" (last semester it was "Digital Blis"- the misspelling was on purpose. Hope the public understood that!)

Pixel Pop Media has been asked just this year by the public and other teachers/advisors/committees to make signs for homecoming parade vehicles, banners for the Elkins High School commencement ceremony, EHS prom invitations, bookmarks for the Mountain State Forest Festival, dance recital programs, a banner for the EHS  'Top 10%" dinner, three banners for staff events at the Tygarts Valley Regional Jail  and a variety of logos for other Randolph Technical Center Simulated Workplaces.

Generally, I have every students create a design for these projects and then offer all of the designs to our 'client'. Our client meets with me and looks that them and decides their favorite or a combination of their two favorites (and we can combine components of each). This takes the assessment, at least partially, out of my hands and the students hear feedback from the public- not their nit-picky teacher. We have also sold greeting cards for charity. I didn't have to say which one I liked the best. The public said it with their dollar. One card sold exponentially better than the rest.

Digital Imaging Original Class Logo