Tag: accessibility

Video Breakdown of Fahrenheit 451

fahrenheit_451Hello all, and welcome to another glorious Friday! I feel fortunate today, due largely to the fact that yet another person who is dedicated to media literacy, science fiction, books and issues has chosen to get in contact with me and asked to be featured on this site. It’s always good to hear from people and know that what you are doing is garnering attention. But when they ask permission to share their message in your forum, well that’s just the bee’s knees!

F451Apparently. it was my tribute to Ray Bradbury which got this particular gentleman’s attention, and for good reason too. Through a site known as Academic Earth, where one can create and post educational videos on a variety of subject, Mr. Jack Collins created a video breakdown of Fahrenheit 451 that was both educational and insightful. In his brief but poignant segment, he takes a look at the major plot points, themes and motifs of Bradbury’s enduring classic.

To quote from his description of the video:

Ray Bradbury wrote his dystopian classic Fahrenheit 451 at the height of McCarthyism and Cold War paranoia. In the novel, Guy Montag is employed as a fireman who burns books. The whole of American society has descended into a zombie-like stupor of instant gratification, and books are seen as challenging and disruptive relics, which must be destroyed at any cost.

Today, with the increasing proliferation of surveillance equipment in American cities, the spread of digital books and the decline of attention spans the world over, Fahrenheit 451 remains a startlingly relevant work of fiction today. Watch this video and be instantly gratified (irony alert) with your knowledge of Bradbury’s most famous novel.

Trust me when I say it’s a fine educational short, one which I would definitely use if and when I got the chance to teach this novel. And after watching it, I couldn’t help but reflect upon a certain irony. More and more today, educators find themselves taking advantage of new media and video breakdowns in order to help students make sense of complex subject matter and lengthy texts. A few decades ago, they would simply be expected to read it, internalize it, and report on what they read.

One could easily argue that all this sort of trend really is a part of our society’s growing preoccupation with sound bites and easy accessibility. But then again, in our quest to maintain attention spans and promote thoughtfulness, we’d be fools to not take advantage of the very technology that is making it quicker and easier for people to do the opposite in the first place.

Enjoy the video! As you can tell, it got me thinking, and that’s not always the easiest thing for someone else to do 😉 Check out the video by following the link below, and be sure to comment!

academicearth.org/electives/tldr-fahrenheit-451/

The Future is Here: The Robotic Wheelchair!

For years, people with wheelchairs have been forced to endure limitations imposed by the environment and their fellow human beings. In addition to such natural obstacles as uneven terrain and rocky grounds, there is also the matter of stairs and inaccessible areas. As it turns out, that may be coming to an end! Recently, the Chiba Institute of Technology unveiled a new wheelchair concept that incorporates leg-like motion. It’s known as the wheelchairbot, a robotic chair that can tackle obstacles ordinary wheelchairs cannot.

The key is the five axes its base rotates on, allowing individual wheels to be lifted off the ground and moved in a walking style. It can tackle steps and various other obstacles whilst remaining stable, and can even line its wheels up and extend stabilizers to the left and right, enabling it to turn a circle. This makes it easy to reverse, even in a narrow space. In addition, the chair has a series of sensors that can detect incoming obstructions and deal with them automatically.

Check out the video below for a demonstration of the wheelchairbot in action. I think you’ll agree, the concept shows some serious promise, and may even be a big step towards making all areas accessible to all people!