In the top of Vermont.

Today was one of the best and exciting days in my life. I with my family was in the top of Vermont. The view from there was amazing. It was really unforgettable day. Vermont, I love you!  

Funny legs =)))

Have you ever seen this legs before? May be David can answer this question better than others. But it is just may be=)) 

QUEATIONS & ANSWERS

1. What did you learn in Washington D.C. about media?

Unfortunately, me with the other Azerbaijani students arrived to Washington D.C. just for one day. And this day I just learned the others (I mean participants of other 2 countries) more closely, what is very important in our nowadays media work.


2. What did you learn in Washington D.C. about your student colleagues from the other two countries?

Staying there just for one day I understood that everyone is ready and also is looking forward for the beginning our big and hard work. So, now I am sure that taking a little part in making media more powerful we will find a new views and new perspectives. And it is great!

3. What has been hard or challenging about the DOTCOM program so far?

I thing that the most challenging and hardest thing was to see everyone face-to-face after so long working per Internet. And it was really great when I met with all the participants and stuff in bus. That was very enjoyable for me.

4. What has been exciting and rewarding about the dotcom program so far?

Of course, the most exciting moment was when our plane finally landed in USA. And I thought: "WOW!!! I am really in America". This felling, of course, was really unforgettable. The second was the moment when I met with all of you in the airport and in the bus. As I said before, it was really a little strange, challenging and exciting after a long working per Internet. The meeting with my host family was also rewarding for me. Because I thought about it every time, I didn't know actually how they will be. But I'm very lucky, after the first meeting I really loved this family. And at last...ha-ha...one of the unforgettable and exciting moments was when we for the first in our group cried: REEL ACTION!!! (just at this moment I missed Rob's words and when everyone cried this, I cried GO DOTCOM! ha ha...this moment was really funny for me)))

My Top Three REEL ACTION Themes

1)MEDIA



Here was a short video about the several kinds of "media".
Everyone knows that “media” is one of the important things our life. And a lot depend on ability to use “it”.
With helping of “media” we can receive information and share it with others, to involve the entire world to the difficult problem solutions.
Unfortunately, the “media” isn’t so well developed in our country. And that’s why we can’t share our problems and show the reality to the world. For example, today the main problem of Azerbaijan is the occupation of 20 % of its land by Armenia, and the need to care for over one million refugees and IDPs that emerged as a result of that invasion. I think that it’s really very big number. But many people from the other countries of the world even don’t know who started the war?!Who occupied the territory?! Whose territory was occupied?!
It was just example, where you can see the important role of “media”.



2)ENVIROMENT



This was a little sad but I think very useful video about the environment.



I think that seeing these pictures you understand which ways of saving the environment I mean: Conserving Energy, Reducing Toxicity, Using less Water, Protecting Our Air, Creating less Trash and the others.
We must protect everything surrounding us. I think that “man” is the main enemy of environment. “He” has had many far-reaching effects on the environment over the years. Global warming, pollution and the damage to the ozone layer are a few of the major things that can be heard about in the news. Man has damaged the earth gradually over the years and this damage cannot be reversed, we are now trying to stop any more damage being caused to the environment.
The environment problem concerns all the countries. And it’s one of the problems of Azerbaijan too. And we all together must think about our future generation and try to take care of our land.

So, let’s love & protect the world!



3)FOOD




Azerbaijani cuisine is one of the most interesting one in the world in general and the Orient in particular. It is somewhat similar to traditions of Caucasian and Central Asian people but has its distinctive features. It is remarkable by abundance of the every possible meat, fish and vegetable dishes dressed by fragrant greens and spices.
The dishes of Azerbaijani cuisine are original and unique. The national foods of Azerbaijan are dolma , bozbash , bozartma , chikhirtma , khashil , kabab, piti , pilau, govurma, plov and so on.
The majority of national food is cooked from mutton, beef and poultry. Azerbaijanis as well as other Moslems do not eat pork. Dishes from chopped meat and, certainly, fishes are widely spread there. He preferred fishes are stellate sturgeon and sturgeon. Azerbaijani cuisine is famous for abundance of vegetables, first of all greens, eggplants, sweet peppers, cabbage, spinach, sorrel, beet, radishes, onions, cucumbers, green string bean, etc.
The national food range also includes many dishes from rice, flour, vegetables and greens. Azerbaijani cuisine widely uses such domestic spices as caraway seeds, fennel, anise, bay leaf, coriander and such kitchen herbs as mint, dill, parsley, celery, basil, thyme etc. Especially popular in Azerbaijani cuisine is saffron: more than 50 national dishes are cooked with this herb! To enhance the flavors of dishes Azerbaijanis extensively use lemons, green and black olives, cherry plums, dried apricots etc.
The most popular breads are oblong churek and pita - the bread baked in tendir.
Vegetable salads are special in Azerbaijani cuisine. Vegetables are very thinly sliced. Salads are eaten as side dishes. Starters and appetizers are very popular too. The most often served are various pickles and marinades. From ancient times Azerbaijani dishes have been cooked in copper ware. Even today villagers observe this tradition believing that a meal prepared in such a way is much more delicious.
Azerbaijan cuisine is not only is tasty but also good for your health – the evidence to this is a lot of long-livers and centenarians in the Republic.

Just taste and you’ll be charmed!

My 90 Seconds Elevator Pitch

Hello everyone! I'm Nargiz. You probably know about bit a little bit. I'm 15. And I study in the 10th form of the school named after academician Zarifa Aliyeva. I love my school very much. And I have very interesting and busy school life. I enjoy it. There're a lot of competitions in my school. And I'm an active participant of all the projects here. A little bit about my achievements of this year. We were the winners of the school volleyball chempionship. Then...Our team was the winner of the Republic Competition of the computer science. We created a school website, which has been selected as the best one. I like travelling very much too. I was int he several places of Azerbaijan: Ordubad, Nackchivan, Sheki, Shamaxa, Qax, Ilisu and s.o. Azerbaijan is a very beautiful country with a beautiful people. I love my country very much. I was in Saint Peterburg and Moscow too. Saint Peterburg is a very beautiful city. And now I'm looking forward to visit America. I think that it will be the best trip in my life. I'm communicative person. So, I have a lot friends. I wanna be a leader. I'n a class monitor and I like it.A little bit about my hobby. I like embroidering, reading and working computer very much. And I hope to see all the participants of the DOTCOM project soon in America. So, see you...Bye-bye!!!

Wrapping Up PHASE 1! (module#7)

I’m happy that I participated in this program. It was really big project. And I want to thank all organizers of this project for giving us chance to join this program. Thanks to DOTCOM we could know more about MEDIA and its role in our life. THANKS!!!


A. What was the most fun/exciting part of the DOTCOM PHASE 1 project for you?



The most exciting part of the DOTCOM PHASE 1 was the end of each module. When you finish your work and wait the comments from the other participants, especially the comment from Dr.W where you read nice words, useful suggestions and inspirational words at the end, like: “GO DOTCOM!” So, it’s really exciting.



B. What was the most challenging part of the DOTCOM PHASE 1 project for you?



I think that modules in DOTCOM PHASE 1 weren’t so difficult but each of them was very interesting. I think that the challenging part of the DOTCOM PHASE 1 was to find a proper video in You Tube. But it was the best part of the work!!!



C. What is one specific suggestion you have for the DOTCOM PHASE 1 project, when we do this project again?



Everything here was thought over, exciting, useful and interesting. But my suggestion for the DOTCOM project is: There were a lot guests who are professional on their work. It was very interesting to talk to them, to ask them the questions, to read their professional answers, to know their opinions and etc. But I think it’d be better also to invite participants who took part on DOTCOM project before. Good idea, isn’t it?!

funny budweiser snowball fight - horses

I like horses very much. I remember my first visit to hippodrome. It was really exciting and funny. So I decided to find the funny video with horses there. So I want to analyze the working of our brains in this video too (I have already got into the habit of doing that :)). At the beginning of the video our LIMBIC brain begins to work. Because we hear a beautiful music, see the beauty of the nature and nice horses. After a little snowball fighting our REPTILIAN brain begins to work. Especially when one of the horses slowly comes with a shrill look and looks at the other 4 horses. And…and… he just touches the tree. And-“BANG”!!! Each of those 4 horses is under the snow. And at last works our NEOCORTEX brain when we see that it was just advertising of beer “BUDWEISER” with a slogan: “Please drink responsibly”.I think that it’s very funny video with an interesting animation. What do you think?

Here are another funny videos :

Media and Leadership- Learning The Persuasive Language of Media.(module #5)

When we watch this video it seems that from the beginning till end this advertisement appeals to only one brain- LIMBIC brain. Perfect song, sunny day and positive mood of man influence on me and I’m sure that all people who watch this video as well.
Before this video I didn’t have any information about this cigarette- “Kool”. But now I know about it and this advertisement appeals to my NEOCORTEX brain.
1. Big lie: This is a big lie. Cigarette never can be health-giving for people. Nobody can say even one positive side of cigarette. NEVER!!! All atmosphere of above can’t be thanks to cigarettes.
2. Hyperbole: “There’s only one way to play it”- it’s very funny and unbelievable. How it would be better if we could play saxophone just smoking…
3. Plain folks: Probably the man is very famous musician but shows himself as a folk man. He is very close to people. He helps to everyone around him. And all these thanks to “KOOL”.
4. Beautiful people: This man is really attractive. May be he is really musician but he looks like as Top model from the fashion magazine. This is a way how to attract females’ attention.:)
5. Repetition: One “breath” of cigarette- he helped lady to catch the dog, another “breath” of cigarette- let him relax and appeared on the scene with perfect performance. Again “THANKS TO CIGARETTE!”

This is the true. Persuasive technique is big power which pushes and helps to development. Even if sometimes there’re bad sides like cigarette and alcohol advertisements.

Our Brains on Media (module #3)

Oh look at this picture! It was done in Petersburg. I sent my summer holidays there. There are a lot of protected forests in Petersburg, like parks, full of squirrels and birds. It is so quit and peaceful there, you forget about your problems. Squirrels don’t scare people and you can feed them.
When I look at this video, I return to beautiful time spend there and my LIMBIC BRAIN starts working automatically: nature, music, no violence, peace around, positive emotion weaves you.

And suddenly, a huge car traveling at full speed appears. Not only mine, but the REPTILIAN BRAIN of poor squirrel, all animals and lady in the car react to unanticipated situation. We say:”0000000hhhhhhhhhhh”. A little bit funny, but this is a truth.

What helps us to avoid this terrible car incident? Of course perfect BRIDGESTONE. Just this BRIDGESTONE advertisement let us look at screen and use our NEOCORTEX brain. Our car has the same tires as well. Really good one! Believe me!

My Personal Media İnventory

1.BOOKS:

Of course, I like to read the books very much. To tell you the truth, I haven’t enough time to read. But on holidays I try to back to my “library”. I like to read different kinds of books: detective, fantastic and classic.
Nowadays people don’t read a lot as there’re a lot of other ways like internet, television,computers where we can get full information about everything. From one side it helps us to save time and to find information very quick. But when we read a book we’re completely absorbed in the “world of the book”. And feel ourselves as a hero of composition. My favorite book is “Harry Potter”. This book really let me see and feel a world of mysterious.


2. NEWSPAPERS/MAGAZINES:

I also like to read newspapers and magazines. I’m subscriber of the several magazines: “Golden Globe”, “100 people who changed the world”, “National Geography”, “Erudite” and so on. I can get more interesting and detailed information about well known people as Lev Tolstoy, Nobel, Peter I, Leonardo Davinchi, Alfred Chichko, Einstein, Grimm brothers, Adolph Hitler, Mussolini and so on. I advise you to read “Golden Globe” magazine. Each number of this magazine is dedicated to the one country. And DVD with full information about history, culture, tradition also attached to the magazine. So, you have a chance to read, to watch and to hear at the same time.

3. MUSIC:

Sure, I do love to listen to music. Unfortunately, I can’t play. I like pop and National music.
You probably know about Mugham. It’s really specific music which belongs to our nation. Nowadays there’s new wave of music in Azerbaijan- combining pop and Mugham. Last year Azerbaijan took part in Eurovision musical competition. Our young singers sang the song where the pop, rock and opera music was combined with Mugham and it was very original and exiting composition.
I carry my IPod with me, it let me listen to music even when I’m out .I’m relaxing when I listen to music. I like Shakira, Beyonce, Beatles, Sarah Connor and so on.

4. TELEVISION:

I don’t watch TV so much. As a rule, every morning when we’re preparing to school (my parents to work) we watch morning news. During the day I like to watch sport, music programs. My favorite channels are “National Geography” and “Discovery” .Because all programs of these channels are about nature, animals, and unusual histories. We also never pass information programs, because it’s very important to know about all news in my country and all over the world.

5. VIDEO GAMES:

I don’t play any video games. I think that it's waste of time . I don’t know is that good or bad but I’m not interested in playing video games. I'm interested in other parts of media more.

6. COMPUTERS:

I use computer at home and at school. At school we do a lot of projects, presentations, learn programming languages. Recently we had a new project. The name of the project was “We are studying and teaching”. I have prepared presentation about “Scale of Notation”. At first, I learned everything about scale of notation myself. Then I had a chance to show this presentation and everybody liked it. I think that it was very helpful for them.
Now we are working on a new big project. We are preparing site about our school. All presentation, video clips created by our students during the year, whole information about us, our teachers and our school will be collected in this site. We’ll take part in competition between other schools of Azerbaijan. And I hope our school will be a WINNER!

7. INTERNET:

I spend much time on the internet. Internet helps me to save my time. And this is the only way to get any requested information immediately. Doing my home task I have to use internet to find needed information. Thank to internet I can contact my friends.
For the moment I use internet to participate in DOTCOM project. It’s very interesting and new for me. Thank you very much for that.

MY MEDIA PREFERENCES:

1.Computer

2.Internet

3.Newspapers/Magazines

4.TV

5.Books
6.Music
7.Video games

Music

Thank you for so interesting topic. Music takes the main part in our life.
Azeri music has deep roots in its culture. Historically Azerbaijan is famous for his music, I’d say classic Azeri music- “Muqam”. It’s really specific music which belongs to our nation. There are different kinds of instruments to perform Muqam: tar, kamancha, zurna, qaval. All these instruments are handmade.
I’d like to notice one thing. The Azerbaijan youth are interested in modern music which is very popular nowadays. I mean jazz, pop and rock music. But they love and always advert to our historical music- Muqam. Last year Azerbaijan took part in Eurovision musical competition. Our young singers sang the song where the pop, rock and opera music was combined with Muqam and it was very original and exiting composition.
I’m proud of our well-known Azeri composers. Most of them are famous all over the world. Uzeir Hacibeyov, Gara Garayev, Fikret Amirov, Vaqif Mustafazade are one of them.
I do want our music to be popular and recognized in other countries. Maybe you know Alim Qasimov, Aziza Mustafazade, and Sevda Alekperzade which have made their contribution in distribution of Azeri music all over the world.
Unfortunately, I don’t practice music professionally. But I like to listen to the music very much. It helps me to relax.

The Azerbaijan State Museum of Musical Culture

The State Museum of Azerbaijani Musical Culture was founded in 1967. Main objectives and policies of the Museum: collection, preservation, study, popularization and reactivation of the materials related to the history of the Azerbaijani music.There are approximately 40 thousands exhibits collected in the museum fund. Among them are such Azerbaijan national musical instruments as tar, kamancha, saz, daf, goshanaghara, zurna, ney as well as other musical instruments with specific features - cane-tar, cane-saz. Furthermore, the museum's collection contains gramophones, gramophone records, musical boxes, original music manuscripts (scores) of Uzeyir Hajibeyov, the founder of the Azerbaijan professional music, Bulbul, the founder of the national professional vocal art, and the famous composers Gara Garayev, Fikret Amirov and other distinguished music figures, personal belongings of the prominent musicians, posters, playbills, photographs, audio and video records, fine art exhibits, sheet music, books and other materials. All of them are valuable samples of the Azerbaijan national musical culture.

DOTCOM program workshop.

I know that I have good communication, leadership and presentation skills. In my school when somebody have a problem, being a class monitor I always try to be a person who helps to solve it. I’m also an active organizer of all school arrangements. And I like it. I love to be at the centre of attention. I fill that I can discuss and convince people. So, participating in this program and representing Azerbaijan, together with giving information about problems and achievements of my country I can also be an active and interesting participant of discussion.

My home community.

Nowadays the main problem for Azerbaijan is Karabakh’s war problem. We have a lot of refugees from there. I do like them to be able to return home in the nearest future.
Education and health care is very important for each of us and for each country. We have a lot of new constructions built in the city, but not so often we can see new stadiums, swimming pools and libraries.
If I’d be a president I’d spend the main part of the country’s budget to develop education system, public sport and health care in order to increase intellectual and health level of population.

Media in my life.

My favorite book was “Harry Potter”. I’ve read all the 7 books 3 years ago. I like fantastic and detective books. My favorite writer is Chexov. His works are very interesting and have fundamental meaning.
I play video games very rare. My favorite film is “If only…” I like music very much. I like to listen Rihanna, Beyonce. I don't like rock, maybe I don’t understand it so well.
My mother orders a lot of books for me and my brother. They are:”National geography”, “Erudite”,”100 people which changed course of the history”, “The golden globe” and so on. Have you heard about these magazines before? They are very interesting and useful. I read them regularly.
We can’t live without media. For example, Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie- famous detective story writer hated the media but without it she couldn’t became as famous as she was. With helping of media we can become a lot of information and so, it's very important for everyone.

Hi!

Hello Dr.Rob and other participants of the program! As you may remember, I’m Nargiz. You can call me Nara. :) I’m from Baku (Azerbaijan). I’m 15 and I study in the 10th form. I’m very glad to participate in this program, because it’s very interesting and useful.

My school.

My school is named after Academic Zarifa Aliyeva. We make a lot of projects there. For example, recently “The 20th January” is the tragedy day for Azerbaijan. And we made a lot of projects and videos about this day.
I’m a class monitor. And so I can say that I’m a leader of my class and I like it. I always want to be in the center of attention.

My wish.

I want to be an economist/businesswoman. A lot of money…oh…it’s my dream.

My hobby.

So…My hobby. I like embroidering (I have a lot of pictures), collecting old coins or coins from different countries. I enjoy traveling too. Last year I was in Saint-Petersburg. It was very interesting and nice there. I’ll attach some of photos and videos here.

The role of the sport in my life.

Going in for sport is very important for me. I became the 4th grade in chess, I was the 1st in my school in tennis, and then I went in for badminton. Plus I’m swimming for 10 years but not regularly. Because I have a lot of lessons at school and a lot of home/work at home. So that’s why I can’t find time to go in for sport regularly. It’s so sad. :(

My family.

My family isn’t big: father, mother and brother. I’ll not talk about them a lot because it’ll be very long. I just can say that my father is IT Manager, my mother- administrator, brother-pupil (the 9th form).And each of them want to see me in the list of that 10 children from Azerbaijan. I hope that it’ll realize.

My friends.

I have a lot of friends. Do you know why? Because I’ve changed 4 schools. We meet and phone to each other very often. So they play the main part in my life. And I hope that I can find new friends in this project.

Languages which I know.

I like to learn languages. Now I can say that I know 4 languages: Azeri, English, Russian and German. And I think that my knowledge for of these languages is good enough, because I can communicate with people using all of them. For German language I have been participating special courses out of school for 3 years. All others I study at school.

Hello everybody! I've just created my blog.