Hey fellow bloggers and welcome back to another episode of my snazzy blog. During this blog post I will be reflecting on FACILITATION FRIDAY! For those of you who are unaware on what facilitation Friday is don’t worry because I will explain…

Facilitation Friday was assigned by my teachers to create in-depth and thought provoking discussions within our class about a topic we have recently learned. Each week a facilitator is assigned to lead this discussion on a topic that the class is familiar with, and go more in depth on it. The facilitators task is  to create discussion questions on their topic, and provide a very brief introduction on the topic they choose. Our teachers basically did not want someone to re teach a whole lesson to the class, because that is not the purpose of this assignment. 

I signed up to be a facilitator for June 8th, but with my luck I managed to get sick and was unable to to come to school that day, so I was moved to the following week. I chose a new topic for the new week, and was instructed to choose from events that took place during the 1980s.  The only event that was not chosen by other facilitators, and that the class would be learning about prior to the facilitation Friday date was called “video killed the radio star.” To my surprise I luckily found this topic quite interesting, and am very happy I ended up presenting on it.

I got to focus on the rise and impact of music videos in the 1980s and also learn more about MTV, which was the first television program to promote music videos. MTV was a new concept of TV for the American public, and basically allowed people to watch live performances within the comfort of their own home. It became widely popular within America, and was a program that everyone watched all the time. The evolution of this music video era also allowed artists from around the world become more popular, as they were showcased on MTV. For example, many new British bands such as Duran Duran, Flock of Seagulls, and the Police etc grew in popularity as their genres of music was introduced to the American public. These new bands had brought a new variety of sounds to the table, such as synthesizers and hip hop, that Americans were able to groove to. Ultimately, MTV was able to bring forth the second British Invasion, showcase and promote strong influential female artists, and Michael Jackson was also able to help promote black artists on the MTV stage. 

MTV amplified the power of pop singers within society.

MTV was a cultural phenomenon during the 1980s, as the artists presented on this program became strong influences throughout society, and most especially became role models towards the younger generations. Sadly, the older generations during this time were not as pleased with the power that these pop singers had over their children and the younger generations, and did not support the messages that these artists were trying to convey. In some situations as well these musicians were producing songs that went against the “American ideals” promoted by the conservative party and president Ronald Reagan, which also made people feel against some of these bands. Over all, the younger generation of people still prevailed, and continued to look up to these influential artists, which impacted the way they dressed, acted, and looked. 

There were supposed to be 4 other people presenting alongside myself for this facilliatation Friday,  but there was a little bit of confusion. One person in my class thought that they were supposed to present this Friday, but were sadly mistaken. He still presented but at the end of his presentation our teacher informed us that he was meant to present next Friday, which made sense since we had not learned about his topic in class yet so it was a lot harder for the class to form a discussion. Anyways, the other topics that were presented by my peers during this Friday were AIDs, Ronald Reagan, The fall of the Berlin Wall, and Hong Kong. (a 90s topic) My fellow presenters all decided to create key note presentations to explain their topics, and I thought all of the presentations went well. 

For my presentation I chose to focus on how the music video itself impacted the American public, rather than going in depth about a particular artist or group. I made sure to state that I was only going to be focusing on the music video aspect of my topic, and also presented a very brief introduction on my topic. To further my presentation I also created a visual, a photo collage, which summarized what I would be talking about. Then I presented my questions to the class, and included a brief background/ reasoning before presenting each question to help people understand what I was asking. 

Here is a list of the questions that I asked the class: 

• If the element of video was never introduced do you think that particular performers that were more prominent during this era wouldn’t have become as popular? And if so how?

• How do you think radio was able to respond and reinvent itself after the introduction of video?

• How has video influenced live performances?

• What do you think “killed the video star”? 

Over all, I thought my presentation went pretty well. I was able to facilitate a decent discussion with my peers, and felt that the transitioning between my questions worked well too. People in my class were able to back up their answers and opinions with information from the notes we took in class, and also make connections from their own lives. For example, Michael Fourie, a student in my class, was able to build another question off of the question I asked to the class, and he used connections to Spotify within his question. He brought up the idea of how Spotify has introduced its own personalized music videos on the app, and he was able to further the discussion within the class. The question he asked was also a perfect transition onto another question I had relating to the decline of music videos and MTV.  Ultimately, my class never fails to amaze me with their intellectual comments, and ideas. I feel so privileged to be working amongst a group of talented, studious, and intelligent students. 

I can honestly say that I was not very excited to partake in these facilitation Friday presentations when my teachers first introduced them to the class, but now I am actually very happy I completed one. I found the topic I chose very interesting, and was intrigued to learn more about it on my own. It was quite enjoyable creating my own take on what I would be presenting to the class, and forming the discussion questions. I was also able to learn a lot about my own and the other presenters subjects. All in all, I found that this assignment was a success, but would only recommend the criteria sheet to be more detailed and clear. 

That’s all for today folks! Thanks for tuning in!