Tuesday, December 15, 2009

IRL #10

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,842810,00.html

This is a news story from Times Magazine from Friday, September 23, 1966. No specific journalist is listed but since Time produced it, it is probably reliable, although also from a Western viewpoint, which limits the first-hand experience and opinions that can be gained from people who were actually there when the Red Guards existed in China, and also ensures a negative portrayal of the Communist activities (e.g. the diction in use such as "rampage" and "roughing up" [4th paragraph]).
This connects to what we're studying because it's about the Red Guards - their formation, uniforms, activities, violence etc. and even the Chinese press's reporting of these incidents. It enhances what we learned because it gives current reports of the events (it was written in 1966 when these things happened) and adds details about the history and paints visual imagery with its descriptions.

Monday, December 7, 2009

IRL #9

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efBQKHOfW60

This is an educational video clip on Mao Zedong's Communist plans and the Great Leap Forward. Its origin (a limitation) is unnamed other than that it was posted on Youtube by some user, which does not give it much credibility. However, I know some of the facts in it to be true, and it is presented in a manner typical of historical videos (including the voice/words of the narrator and the footage shown), so I am sure it was not produced by some random student or something.
It connects to what we're studying in class since it talks about the Great Leap Forward and events leading up to it, some of Mao's goals, all the private furnaces in China to produce steel, the killing of the sparrows, and the failure of the Great Leap. It enhances our learning by providing audio and visual imagery so I can see how things would have worked and gain a better understanding of the Chinese people's experience in this period. A limitation besides the non-clarity of the origin of this source is that it is only a 5 minute summary of the events, so one cannot learn great detail about it or see a specific example of a Chinese family who owned a mill, etc.