Gambling OnLine PSA

I had previously made a video with moviemaker.  So, This project was relatively easy for me.  Initially, I spent a few days thinking about different subjects and trying to relate them to different themes of digital citizenship.  At first, I wanted to tackle "Occupy Wallstreet".  My passion was colored by past experiences with civil rights demonstrations and demonstrations against the government that got us out of Viet Nahm.  This violence changed the U.S.A.  I would not be surprised if "occupy wallstreet" ultimately has similar success.  It begann after social media was used to revolutionize northern Africa.  I suspected this to happen here too.  I was also enjoying a 25th anniversary of Les Miserable and thinking about The French Revolution and the fact that the Poor executed so many of the wealthy French who controlled the government there.  The very idea that it could not happen here does not exist in my mind.  Prevention of revolution is why the government forces children to recite the Pledge every day.  I believe that the brainwashing of children is the greater crime.  I say, "Off with their heads!"

Then, I considered the e-commerce theme and realized that I had participated in Western Union transfers of money and remember being threatened with prison if I failed to report people who either sent and received money by wire when it concerned gambling.  The federal government has standing to prosecute anyone who might send an e-mail across state lines because that is interstate communication and related e-commerce is interstate trade.  So, even when no state law is violated a citizen can be prosecuted for a non-crime in federal court.  Interesting, don't you think?  Big brother is watching you, after all.

So, I e-mailed my idea and got one fellow (not really a fellow) student response to join in the effort.  I was never able to contact the student again.  So, I proceeded on my own using volunteeers.  I had previously written a brief script and identified the punch line to use up front, "You can't win!"  Of course, you can't.  You can gamble over the Internet, but because you can not legally transfer money associated with gambling in that manner, you can't win!

I spent about 2 hours making a series of video clips and about another 2 hours making and uploading the video to Vimeo.  Now, I am using 1-2 hours more to write this memoir and to embed the finished PSA into the blog.  I just learned to embed and I like it very much. 

I enjoy making the movies and as a result, I will use this a lot in class to have students construct their own learning.  I will enjoy helping them.  Maybe, other students will ask me for help when they try to do the EDUC 331 assignment during the last minute.  I will be happy to help them.  I think the hardest part for everybody will be identifying a message and coming up with a script.

One question is whether the PSA is appropriate for K-12 learners.  Except for my last statement, it is because online gambling is where under age children could get away with it.  There is no way to enforce the age limit really.  My last staement could have been something like, "So, if you plan to gamble on line because you are not yet 21, forget it because You Can't Win; You can't get paid".  The truth is that nobody really enforces the law.  How would a Western Union agent know that a person is getting or paying money from gambling?  In one case, I found out because I asked why the customer was coming in so often and getting so much money.  He told me.  He shouldn't have told me.  Now, he does his transfers at a different Westeern Union operation.

My volunteers liked participating too and the movie making program is so much fun that I will buy my own little, sneaky camera that I can keep in my pocket.  Then, when I catch people doing things they shouldn't, I can show them how they looked.  I think that I will also heve students film, edit and criticize some of my class performances.  I bet that assignment will be a big hit.

By this timew in the semester, I have also found that it is nearly impossible to connect with other students in the class.  They don't know me in the first place.  Because of my age, I travel to the beat of a different drum in the second place.  My motivations are different, I think.  It will be interesting to see the proportion of students who do the A contract.  I wonder why they don't have enough time.  My PLC group has done nothing that I kn ow of on the book study or on the wondering.  Why?  I know that one of them is really pressed for time, and has told me she will probably not do the A.  I know that she can do it.  We'll see.  In the third place, it must be pretty damn intimidating to have a grandfather figure who is a university professor for a classmate.  Is it a generation gap thing, or arte they just afraid of not measuring up?  Nothing to be afraid of, really.  We are all neophytes in EDU.  Maybe F2F is too much.  Would Internet interaction with out ever knowing anything elso make a difference?  That would be a very neat Ph.D project for EDU.  Maybe I shoiuld do that.  Where can I do that?