Whoa! Does Channel One have something good going on?

On Channel One's Network website, it is now featuring a correlation litmus test

"To ensure that our offerings meet the highest educational standards, Channel One Network has partnered with EdGate Correlation Services to identify how the issues and topics explored on Channel One News align with your school's requisite state and national course curriculum and teaching mandates."

This tool is pretty neat. You can do either a standards or a content search.  In the standards search, you first go to the state mandate that you want to comply with, then click on the grade you're targeting and then click on the educational subject you're interested in.  With the content search, you can just click on the grade you want to look up and then content of the educational subject you need to see.  

Based on the statistical findings, it seems like Channel One may offer quite a bit to students that achieve both the purpose of educating them on various subjects and also with making it easy 
to justify Channel One's role in helping schools achieve state mandates. 

One search I ran on a standards search:

• Standards: New York Standards
  
• Grade: 9
  
• Subject: Health and PE
  

These results showed up that met the standard 1:
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR 1.1.2. Students demonstrate the necessary knowledge and skills to promote healthy development into adulthood.  

These 7 archived news stories from Channel One claim to help facilitate that goal:

Archived News Stories ( 7 correlated items )
2007/09/06: Healthier Meals when Eating with Family
2007/09/26: Eating healthy at fast food restaurants
2007/10/15: Food preferences may be genetic
2007/11/27: School lunch sales don't decline when healthy choices available
2008/01/31: School Stress
2008/02/05: Teens and stress
2008/04/21: Calorie counts will be required at New York fast food restaurants


Maybe there is something to this Channel One? Perhaps it may not be completely at odds with the unified educational intentions behind the schools of individual states.  Perhaps it could even be a unification across state boundaries.  

What are your thoughts?

Consumer Teens & Teaching Tools

In my last review, I brought up resources that described how the education in the schools of the U.S. is either becoming more unified or divided because of Channel One.  
One way that Channel One may be unifying the school education is through how kids are 
educated as consumers.

As Darby Saxby in the Yale Journal of Ethics put it: “Today’s schools must develop thinkers, not mere consumers, or they’ll help to produce a society in which everything is for sale - and nothing is worth buying.” 
http://www.yale.edu/yje/ch1.html

On Channel One's website, they describe themselves what Channel One is:
What is Channel One?
Viewed by more than 6 million teens a day, Channel One News is a Peabody Award-winning newscast shown in more than 11,000 high schools and junior highs. It is the most highly rated teen show in the country, covering news and public affairs that matter most to young people in America.

Does this create a unified educated public amongst the adolescent age group?

If we recall Bachen's article on "Channel One and the Education of American Youths," she mentions that the program has potential to advance students' knowledge of current events and increase their interest in news, it is highly conditioned on the teachers to create supplementary activities to encourage those interests.  Channel One has responded...

Teaching Tools presented on Channel One's website:
These tools are resources for teachers to use to supplement their learning materials and to reinforce in their students what is seen on Channel One.  Whether its providing the daily news 
script or weekly quizzes, teachers have these pre-packaged convenient short lesson plans on 
hand to give to students.  But what sort of material does Channel One encourage students retain?

Try this quiz:
CHANNEL ONE NEWS WEEKLY QUIZ
WEEK OF 4/14/08

1. Where does the Dalai Lama live?                 A. Tibet B. India C. Pakistan D. New York
   
2. True or False The “stolen generation” took place from 1869 – 1969 and was a group of British convicts that were forced to live in Australia.
   
3. True or False Last year, scientists discovered a frog with no lungs that can breathe entirely through its skin?
   
4. Which animal is not considered native to Australia?            A. Koala B. Emu C. Dingo D. Echidna
   
5. According to Amnesty International, what country executed more people than any other country last year?                   A. China B. United States C. Soviet Union D. India
   
6. True or False The Kilauea Volcano is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and is located on the island of Fiji.
   
7. What is the name of the current Pope?             A. St. Peter B. Pius VII C. John Paul II D. Benedict XVI
   
8. True or False The Prime Minister of Australia recently issued an apology to the Aboriginal people for the government’s stolen generation policies.
   
9. Misty Trainer and Kerri Walsh won the gold medal at the 2004 Olympics for what sport?         A. Volleyball B. Basketball C. Soccer D. Gymnastics
   
10. True or False According to researchers at the University of Chicago, people actually grow happier as they grow older.

Answers: 1) B 2) F 3) T 4) C 5) A 6) F 7)D 8) T 9)A 10) T 11)

Is this what the teenagers need to remember? Sounds a bit like trivia to me. But do the teachers even have time to make it through these materials? Again, most times, Channel One is found in schools that are low in financial and physical resources.  These schools are likely also trying to make sure that their students pass state mandates on math, science, and English proficiency tests. What role does Channel One play in this? Does it make students more interested in learning? Are they more excited about school when there is Channel One?


These are only a few of the many questions to ask and to consider.

Politics and Education: What’s the politics behind Channel One? Is it fragmenting popular culture or unifying it?

Like any type of argument, I found that there are two sides to the story of politics and education. Specifically talking about the issue of Channel One, there is both strong opinions for and against this new media educational program. Though sometimes people seem to be overreacting about the “severely negative” effects of Channel One, there are some legitimate arguments that support these concerns. At the same time, there are clear benefits of having programs such as Channel One in classrooms. The question that it comes down to ultimately is whether the benefits out weigh the costs when it comes to children’s education. (Which is easier said than done)

In Service of What? the Politics of Service Learning
By: J Kahne, J Westheimer
Journal: Phi Delta Kappan, 1996

Often times in popular culture different aspects of society overlap in many areas. One such area that involves every aspect of society is politics. In this article, Kahne & Westheimer state that often times politics is deeply embedded within the education system and in how “we” as a country want to educate the youth. This makes sense because we’re basically educating our future leaders (including political) and therefore it is only natural that politicians would want to be heavily involved in this.

And Deliver Us from Segmentation

By: E Katz

Journal: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 546, The Media and Politics (Jul., 1996), pp. 22-33

This article brings up in-depth questions on segmentation in the United States culture in general. It asks difficult questions like how much power should the government have over public broadcasting in television and who actually has the rights to contribute to such public types of media? Katz brings up a great point about how important it is to have public forums in which people can share opinions and debate, but that television is more one way, just feeding information, but receiving no feedback from the viewers.

Other resources I found interesting:

Power, Meaning and Identity: Critical Sociology of Education in the United States

By: Michael W. Apple

Source: British Journal of Sociology of Education, Vol. 17, No. 2, International Perspectives on the Sociology of Education (1996), pp. 125-144

Channel One: The Dilemma of Teaching and Selling

By: Jerome Johnston

Source: Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 76, 1995

Young People, Politics and News Media: Beyond Political Socialisation

By: David Buckingham

Source: Oxford Review of Education, Vol. 25, No. 1/2, Political Education (Mar. - Jun., 1999), pp. 171-184

Television News and Advertising in Schools: The "Channel One" Controversy
By: Bradley S. Greenberg, Jeffrey E. Brand

Source: Journal of Communication. Vol. 43 Issue 1 Page 143 March 1993

Toward Critical Media Literacy: Core concepts, debates, organizations, and policy

Authors: Kellner, Douglas and Share, Jeff

Source: Discourse, Volume 26, Number 3, September 2005 , pp. 369-386(18)

Popular Culture and Education: Implications for Our Youth's Education

I looked into Channel One and its impact on education and came across many articles similar to the ones Jeanne posted recently. For the most part, many people are not happy with Channel One's presence in schools . The main argument here is that most schools that have Channel One tend to be in poorer communities whereas schools in more wealthier communities have opted not to participate in the Channel One Program. After reading several articles with this main idea, I decided to take a look at the official Channel One website, www.channelone.com. The main feature on the home page was "Celebrity Prom Dresses" with a smaller section devoted to global warming and "Going Green". This visit to the website solidified people's concern about the program. Although the program claims to offer a balanced mix of hard news and popular culture features, a majority of these broadcasts are heavily focused on popular culture while hard news stories are minimal.

With this information, I thought about one of our questions for this project which is:
Does Channel One fragment or unify children in terms of education perspectives?

My immediate answer was OF COURSE! While lower income children waste class time with puff stories about the latest celebrity prom dresses, their more wealthier counterparts are spending valuable class time actually learning material which will help them advance academically. So yes ... Channel One is fragmenting our children. Sort of like the saying " the rich is getting richer while the poor is getting poorer" EXCEPT in this situation, the richer is getting smarter while the poorer is getting dumber."

So, my mind was made up. Channel One is definitely causing fragmentation among our youth. However, I decided to do a little more investigation and looked more broadly at Popular Culture and Education. Turns out that there are some people out there that advocate incorporating popular culture in education (see below articles).

With these new sources, I am not so sure if Channel One is causing fragmentation. I have formed new questions that need further investigation. For instance, could it be that incorporating popular culture into education will encourage children to learn about the world around them and apply what they learn in the classroom to the real world?

Steven Johnson in his book "Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter" argues that "the pop culture we soak in every day has been growing more and more sophisticated and, far from rotting our brains, is actually posing new cognitive challenges that are making our minds measurably sharper." So, could it be that children exposed to Channel One are in fact becoming smarter? Is there really a significant divide between poorer children exposed to Channel One and wealthier children who are not exposed to this program?

ARTICLES

Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter by Steven Johnson

The $10 billion video gaming industry is now the second-largest segment of the entertainment industry in the United States, outstripping film and far surpassing books. Reality television shows featuring silicone-stuffed CEO wannabes and bug-eating adrenaline junkies dominate the ratings. But prominent social and cultural critic Steven Johnson argues that our popular culture has never been smarter.

Drawing from fields as diverse as neuroscience, economics, and literary theory, Johnson argues that the junk culture we're so eager to dismiss is in fact making us more intelligent. A video game will never be a book, Johnson acknowledges, nor should it aspire to be — and, in fact, video games, from Tetris to The Sims to Grand Theft Auto, have been shown to raise IQ scores and develop cognitive abilities that can't be learned from books.

Likewise, successful television, when examined closely and taken seriously, reveals surprising narrative sophistication and intellectual demands.Forget everything you've read about the age of dumbed-down, instant-gratification culture. In this provocative, intelligent, and convincing endorsement of today's mass entertainment, national bestselling author Steven Johnson argues that the pop culture we soak in every day has been growing more and more sophisticated and, far from rotting our brains, is actually posing new cognitive challenges that are making our minds measurably sharper. You will never regard the glow of the video game or television screen the same way again.

Startling, provocative, and endlessly engaging, Everything Bad Is Good for You is a hopeful and spirited account of contemporary culture. Elegantly and convincingly, Johnson demonstrates that our culture is not declining but changing — in exciting and stimulating ways we'd do well to underst

AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE: SHOULD WE INTEGRATE IT INTO AMERICAN EDUCATION?

Fain, Thomas A Jr

Educating the youth of America has always been a significant challenge, and the present is no different. We will be more effective as educators if we integrate the study of the popular culture with traditional education. Doing so will result in making our youth's education more meaningful, more relevant to the world in which they live, and will allow our youth to truly understand more of what they learn. This article explains why the study of popular television programs, movies, music, and literature will greatly enhance the learning experiences of our students.

Educating the American youth is and always has been a significant challenge. Obviously, it would be wise of us as professional educators to use as many techniques as possible in order to be successful in our mission. It is tempting to become so concerned with the standardized tests that are so much in vogue at present that we don't strive enough to make education truly meaningful to our youth. We need to do more than just teach facts and mathematical formulas; we need to provide an education to which our students can relate. If we do this, our students will not only learn more, but they will retain more, and they will be better able to apply what they learn after they graduate from high school or college.

By integrating study of the American popular culture into the education of our youth, we can better provide a means for them to take what they learn out into the world as adults. Our students obviously understand the popular culture in which they live; by merging the study of this culture with traditional education, they will be better able to grasp concepts, make sense of what they learn, and acquire perspective of the world in which they live.

Furthermore, our students will have a better attitude in regards to their education if we can emphasize relevance to the world in which they are familiar. Also, integrating traditional education with the things in society that they see as important will better motivate them to learn... (see http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3673/is_200407/ai_n9421958)

Does Channel One fragment or support the school education and system? Is it a supplement?

New resources!

CorpWatch is an organization whose mission statement asserts that it “investigates and exposes corporate violations of human rights, environmental crimes, fraud and corruption around the world. We work to foster global justice, independent media activism and democratic control over corporations.”
In its report on Channel One in Schools, they emphasize resistance to Channel One and view it as a very negative influence in the schools of the United States.

They present the following section on resistance in their article http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=888:

Resistance to Channel One

Communities across the country are fighting to get Channel One out of their schools -- no simple feat as the contract lasts three years and generally renews automatically if no one protests. Students and parents have asked for alternative homerooms, spoken out at school board meetings, written newsletters, and even staged walk-outs during the program to protest its compulsory nature.

Communities protesting Channel One are in good company. Since the outset of the program, almost every national educational group has taken a strong stand against Channel One and other commercial broadcasts in the classroom. These include:
o American Association of School Administrators
o American Federation of Teachers
o National Association of State Boards of Education
o National Council for the Social Studies
o National Council of Teachers of English
o National Education Association (NEA)
o National Parent Teacher Association (PTA)
o National School Boards Association
o National Association of Secondary School Principals
o National Association of Elementary School Principals

From what we see here, it is evident that there is not a unified backing of Channel One in the classrooms of the U.S. Why is that?

The following articles also help to enlighten us:

‘Channel One’ Plan To Improve Education: Is It Short-Changing Our Youngsters?
Reprinted from THE SCIENTIST@ 3(7): 10,3 April 1989.
http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/essays/v14p338y1991.pdf

Channel One and the Education of American Youths
By: Christine M. Bachen
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 557, Children and Television (May, 1998), pp. 132-147
http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7162(199805)557%3C132%3ACOATEO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-G&cookieSet=1

Part of the abstract:
“This article analyzes research investigating the alleged benefits of Channel One-the technology, student learning of current events, increased student interest in the news-and the major cost-the advertising. It concludes that outside uses for the technology remain modest. While the program can enhance students' learning of current events and spark their interest in the news, its ability to do so is largely dependent on supplemental activities by teachers. Teachers are constrained in their use by organizational factors and restrictive terms of the Channel One contract.”

From this research report, teachers are shown to be restricted in their roles as educators. So what are the children learning?


Channel One.
By: Celano, Donna, Neuman, Susan B., Phi Delta Kappan, Feb95, Vol. 76, Issue 6
http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED366688&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED366688

Part of the abstract:
“In a recent study, described below, we found that teachers rarely, if ever, use Channel One as a focus of instruction in their classrooms. Even though the newscast is truly innovative because of its daily presence in the schools, its value as an educational product is limited. The program is switched on every day with little thought of how the show might help meet students' educational goals.”

From this research report, Channel One is not actively incorporated nor applicable to the educational needs of the children that are viewing the commercial.


Channel One in the Public Schools: Widening the Gaps.
Michael Morgan

Part of the abstract:
“This paper examines what kinds of schools and what sorts of communities choose to receive Channel One, and where Channel One fits in the pool of educational resources. The study used the data archives of Market Data Retrieval, which involves 17,344 public schools and covers grades 7 through 12, revealing some of the following items: (1) Channel One is most often found in low income area schools, where it is often used instead of traditional educational materials when resources are scarcest; (2) schools that can afford to spend more on their students are much less likely to utilize Channel One; (3) Channel One is more often shown to the students who are least able to afford to buy all the products advertised, thus increasing a sense of alienation and frustration; and (4) increasing commercialization of the culture and the schools suggests a shutting out of other voices and interests of the educational system. The study suggests that the use of Channel One in low-income, socioeconomically deprived schools presents an illusion of providing more and better educational facilities which only contributes to widening the societal gap.”

This personal account can be found at this website: http://www.yale.edu/yje/ch1.html (Yale Journal of Ethics):
Whittling Away at Education: The Encroachment of Channel One
By: Darby Saxby
In the article, Darby states, “Today’s schools must develop thinkers, not mere consumers, or they’ll help to produce a society in which everything is for sale - and nothing is worth buying.”

Overall, I was hard-pressed to find anything positive about the influence of Channel One in the educational support that it could provide to schools across America.

We've been re-thinking our focus...ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

So we've been re-thinking things. After our T.A. took one look at our blog and said, "Way too vague," we've been trying to think of a better way to link all of our interests. 

Here's what we have:

Education

Place and space

Politics

Pop culture.

Well, in thinking about ways to combine them all, Channel One News came to mind. If you've never heard of them, don't worry, but you might be hearing about them from us in the near future.

To give you a better idea of who they are, I've attached a link. And please, feel free to leave comments.

Quiz: Credit 101

Before getting a credit card, learn the basics

Also, here's a screen shot I yanked from their website:

It's a bit small, but the headline says: Are you ready to go plastic?