The Mackerel Wrapper

A weblog for Pete Ellertsen's mass communications students at Benedictine University Springfield.

Thursday, December 08, 2011

COMM 150: Last day of classes

Some last points about our subject matter in COMM 150, and a couple of housekeeping matters relating to the final exam, grades, etc.

  1. Some information on copyright is posted below. Click here to open a new window, or just scroll dow to the next item. Bottom line: You don't have to worry about copyright for school, since you're covered by the "fair use" exemption for educational purposes. But if you publish anything away from school, including on your own blog, you have to be careful. My quick-and-dirty post tells you how to be careful.
  2. Your final exam is posted below. Click here if you want to see it in a new window, or just scroll down a couple of posts.
    3. If you have a solid A in the class, you don't have to take the final. See me after class. If I don't have all your papers, see me after class. If you're not sure what's going on and don't know where you fit in, see me after class.
  3. I like to close my classes with a YouTube video (which of course I'm using under the "fair use" copyright exemption for educational purposes, right)? This semester's is embedded below.

"Hallelujah Chorus," Christmas Food Court Flash Mob

Earlier this semester we watched a "flash mob" organized by the Copenhagen Philharmonic in Denmark. This flash mob, in a shopping center food court in Canada, was also superbly organized, choreographed and recorded by Alphabet Photography of Niagra Falls, Ontario. To read more about the agency, link here to their About Us page. Cooperating were Robert Cooper and Chorus Niagara, The Welland Seaway Mall and Fagan Media Group. According to its website (which features a picture from the flash mob, "Fagan Media Group integrates the strengths of like-minded associates who believe in quality production values and captivating content, offering a one-stop portal for all media services including, broadcast, corporate, website, social media and software design." They certainly demonstrate quality production values in the food court video project.



Some of you may also consider the message of the song appropriate to the end of the semester.
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1 comment:

CVanDyke said...

Such a cool video! I am now addited to looking at Flash Mob YouTube videos thanks to this class! I wonder how long it takes to orchestrate something like this? And where you find out about participating in one of them? Also curious if I need to take the final? Thanks!

Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 5:37:00 PM CST

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About Me

Springfield (Ill.), United States
I'm a retired English, journalism and cultural studies teacher at Springfield College in Illinois (acquired by Benedictine University and subsequently closed). I coordinate jam sessions for the "Clayville Pioneer Academy of Music" at Clayville Historic Site and the Prairieland Strings dulcimer club, and I sing in the choir and the contemporary praise team at Peace Lutheran Church in Springfield. On Hogfiddle I post links and video clips for our sessions and workshops on the mountain dulcimer (a.k.a. "hog fiddle"), as well as research notes on folklore and cultural studies, hymnody and traditional Anglo-Celtic and Scandinavian music. I also posted assignments and readings in my interdisciplinary humanities classes. The Mackerel Wrapper (now on hiatus), carried assignments and readings for my mass comm. students. I started teaching b/log when I chaired SCI-Benedictine's assessment committee, and reopened it as the privatization of public schools grew increasingly troubling and closer to home.