Monthly Archives: June 2013

Transforming communication “scapes” in the Americas

Leave a reply

Communication pictures

Yesterday I ran into this very interesting article in Sinopsis México introducing us to a new communal cell phone network developed by the Zapotec community of Telea de Castro in the Oaxaca highlands. The article immediately reminded my of a documentary aired last year by Al Jazeera called “The Internet Indians” about the Ashaninka, who in the middle of the Amazonian rainforest use the internet to protect their lands. It also reminded me of the work of Cineminga engaging in communal video production in many parts of the world. Continue reading →

The role of social media in the dissemination of news

Leave a reply

At several times during the semester I mentioned that social media are becoming more and more valid sources of news. I talked about my personal experience discovering Twitter as an important source and encouraged you to pursue this channel as you tried to learn about your future host countries. What happened last night in Texas not only showed the new relevance of social media, it also presented the way in which in many important instances it has even overtaken the traditional role of cable news networks.

Interesting unpaid internships at WGBH

Leave a reply

Recently I posted a short piece about a Federal District Court decision regarding unpaid internships. I just ran into this page that includes a whole series of this kind of internships. (I assume that they do follow legal procedure, particularly since WGBH is a non-profit organization.) While many of the positions do not necessarily deal with Spanish and would therefore not be applicable to the Spanish IE, I remind everyone that Caroline Gould recommended two or three internships before graduation. I also see a couple of positions that could clearly be related to Spanish – the one with La Plaza and the ones with The World. I would also like to point out that in more and more of these internships I see that familiarity with social media seems to be an important asset.

Early course assessment

Leave a reply

As a pilot course for the recently implemented Integrative Experience initiative at UMass Amherst, the Span 394 and 494 sequence has been going through an extensive assessment process. Students filled three different evaluations – the standard UMass course evaluation (SRTI), an on-line evaluation sponsored by the General Education Council, and a third evaluation created by the office of Community Engagement and Service-Learning (CESL). I have been looking forward to the results, and yesterday received the SRTI. I am very pleased that students reacted very positively to the class. Continue reading →

Federal District Court decision regarding unpaid internships

Leave a reply

A few weeks back I ran into this other article from the New York Times announcing a Manhattan Federal District Court’s decision with important implications for all university students and other prospective interns: “Judge Rules That Movie Studio Should Have Been Paying Interns.” The ruling was the conclusion of a lawsuit brought by two interns who demanded to be paid by Fox Searchlight Pictures for their work in the movie “Black Swan”. In his decision, Judge William H. Pauly III “noted that these internships did not foster an educational environment and that the studio received the benefits of the work.” Continue reading →

A reason to take a service-learning course?

3 Replies

Back in May, before I created this blog, I ran into this column in USA Today: “Why you should take a service-learning course.” At first glance it is clearly an argument about the benefits of service-learning, its main thesis being that “Service-learning courses give you the opportunity to see how your voice and actions can make a difference in the real world.” The article goes on to list another series of benefits that these courses can bring to students’ academic and professional development, and, again, at first glance I’d say that I am in total agreement with them. Continue reading →

Pre-Departure Ponderings

2 Replies

So even though school’s been out for over a month and I still don’t ship out to Uruguay for another 5 weeks I have to say that I miss this group and the support and advice we shared with each other. It seems that now, more than ever, I need advice on how to go about getting ready but I’ll manage.

The worst part about being home, and being away from this group, is the closed-minded-ignorance of practically everyone I talk to about traveling. Everybody asks me how stable it is where I’m going and if I’m going to be safe and if I’m really going to try to backpack South America for 2 months and it just seems ridiculous. Continue reading →

Early personal reflections on Spanport’s Integrative Experience

Leave a reply

This Spring semester I had the opportunity to teach the first version of UMass Amherst’s Spanish and Portuguese Integrative Experience sequence.  Its stated purpose is to give our students an opportunity to reflect upon the way in which their General Education courses relate to their major and personal development as future professionals.  As the University gave us the task of developing such a course, our program’s first reaction was that we should link this course to education abroad, assuming that such an experience would give students a real-world opportunity to use their knowledge of the Spanish language and culture.  Continue reading →

My first post: a comment on the blog’s banner

1 Reply

I just got two images from the Creative Commons site.  The first one, a UMass picture is public domain.  The second one, a picture of the Alhambra from the Albaizin taken by Mihael Gremk, requires attributions, but I’m not sure how to do it. In the spirit of transparency, I give the site from where I got it:  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Granada_01.jpg I have cropped the picture a bit.