Category Archives: Other Resources

Teaching & learning resources created by other people.

Poetic Truth

As part of our Year 8 Human Technologies curriculum, we are asking students to consider not only the nature of truth, but also different types of truth (e.g. scientific, poetic, individual, etc). As one activity on poetic truth, we played students four songs, and asked them to sketch out a response to each song based on what they felt. Some students opted to write, and some to draw. One particularly interesting response came from Bethan, who really provides insight into how she responded to the songs. I wonder if the composers and musicians would recognise Bethan’s interpretation of their own poetic truth.

The songs are listed below, after which you can see Bethan’s work (click for a larger image).

Exemplar Me vs Me

In consider the topic of digital citizenship, and refecting on their own identity and participation in online platforms, I ask my students to create a piece of design work called Me vs. Me. Most students follow my lead and use raster editing software (such as Acorn) to combine photos and digital avatars of themselves. Recently, however, we have had a Year 13 student leading an Digital Art activity (with accompanying Free Learning unit), and so we now have a growing number of students who are learning to use digital drawing tablets.

I was really excited to see a couple of girls in one of my classes taking the initiative with their Me vs Me, and apply their newly learned skills to express themselves through digital drawing. What I was not expecting was work of such high artistic value, nor work that was quite so insightful as that submitted by Della (click for full size):

In reflecting on her work, Della said “The online side is more about when you are online you are kind of care free and can express you self and what you like and also you could post or say things that make people think of you in a different way then you actually are. The home me is more about the reality of life and how its stressful and how you have things to do but then just end up procrastinating and then getting more stressed”.

Such deep thinking is not commonly expressed through student work (although I don’t doubt it goes on regularly) and sits perfectly with the art work. In following up, I commented: “Della, well done on an excellent piece of work here. You have taken the elements discussed in class, and seen in the exemplar work, and presented them in a style of your own, showing creativity and technical skill. Digital drawing is tough, and you seem to be making some real progress. In terms of the ideas of identity and participation that we have discussed in class, I love the honest look into the real you, and how it compares to the much more polished online you. Why are people unwilling to sometimes show the real “them” online? I do also like the privacy-protecting use of your name as “Dekka” in the online you. clever! I am going to take the “losing my mind” bit with a pinch of salt. However, if you do feel you are struggling with something, then it is best to talk to a trusted adult, as seeking guidance makes almost all problems better. This is definitely the best work I have ever seen from you. Well done : )”.

On further reflection, and given Della’s input on procrastination and stress, I will recommend her to look at a Free Learning unit called Digital Organisation, and a second one (when it is published) on Focus.

As a teacher it is not every lesson that students really open up to us, but carefully designed work, which engages student interest, can definitely help. What is really pleasing here, from an ICT teacher point of view, is that whilst teenagers are often portrayed as helpless, hapless victims of circumstance, Della has shown that she has a strong grasp on some of the existential difficulties of being an adolescent in 2017. This is a great point from which to make good decisions and change one’s situation.

Epic Wallpapers 3

This is a third collection of wonderful Epic Wallpapers produced by my year 7 students. The pieces were chosen for the strength of their designs, attention to detail, Creative Commons licensing and overall appeal. Well done to the students for creating such lovely work. Feel free to download the designs, which are all at a variety of resolutions (depending on student screen size), but should fill most screens.

Epic Wallpapers 2

This is a second collection of wonderful Epic Wallpapers produced by my year 7 students. The design were chosen for the strength of their designs, attention to detail, Creative Commons licensing and overall appeal. Well done to the students for creating such lovely work. Feel free to download the designs, which are all at 1680 x1050 pixels, and should fill most screens.

It’s Complicated

10326436_303815836450062_376544952_ndanah boyd‘s It’s Complicated (full PDF) is a book which seeks to change the way we view teenagers and their use of digital technology. Viewed as a vulnerable demographic, teens, it is commonly believed, need our protection to thrive. At the same time, many adults feel threatened by the boisterous, physical confidence that teens often exude. These forces combine to make many adults nervous of how, why, when and where teens use Internet-connected technology.

boyd, working from primary research, presents a very different and compelling view of teen technology consumption and use. Cleverly, she points to the many social and structural factors which lead teens to do what they do. For example, she argues that teens find social media so compelling because they have relatively few opportunities to socialise with peers face-to-face. In her view, the highly structured, timetabled and restricted lives of modern teens (think school, tuition, organise sports, lack of free play time, fear of strange danger, etc), dictated by adults, pigeon hole them into behaving in a way adults dislike .

Over the course of the book, boyd returns often to the theme that generally “the kids are alright”, whilst also highlighting some of the positives that come from teen engagement in social media. She astutely notes that often the kids who struggle with misuse of technology are those that struggle with other areas of their lives. This is much the same as adults who struggle with, say, gambling, suffering from some other difficulties from which gambling is simply a release. Ergo, technology is not the problem, but simply a symptom. The question then, is why overreact to the symptom, when we should be looking at the underlying human condition.

The book has certainly reinforced my existing beliefs in terms of not blocking technology use, but rather helping students to learn from their mistakes. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who works with, or has to parent, teenagers.

The book is broken down into the following chapters, which gives a good idea of the range of ideas covered:

  1. Identity
  2. Privacy
  3. Addition
  4. Danger
  5. Bullying
  6. Inequality
  7. Literacy
  8. Search For A Public Of Their Own

The following are two passages which really stood out in terms of capturing the spirit of the book:

Epic Wallpers

In Year 7, my students undertake a short unit of work called Epic Wallpaper, in which they attempt to make a glossy wallpaper using Acorn and some graphic design techniques. This is the first year I have run this unit, and it went very well, with the students really enjoying the creativity of image editing. The 9 best designs are shown below. All are under Creative Commons licenses, so feel to download and use them as your wallpaper.

Download all 9 wallpapers (ZIP)

All images are 1680 x 1050px and so should work on most commons screen sizes. Well done to Alex, Alvin, Emi, Jamie, Lily, Nicolle, Ruby, Sammi and Serena for their fantastic design work.

The Namoa Pirates

Kowloon Namoa Pirate Behading_tuhmHaving grown up in Hong Kong, thinking about colonialism and imperialism quickly gives me a headache. At the root of this is an unbridgeable sense of cognitive dissonance: on the one hand these two forces created an amazing city which I love as my home, and on the other I know that using force against others for your own gain is morally reprehensible.

Certain British historians have tried in the past to get around this by claiming that the British Empire was less brutish and more beneficial than other contemporary empires, but this seems to be skirting the issues to reduce collective guilt.

With this personal context in mind, I am immediately interested in any historical images of Hong Kong, especially older ones which might offer insight into what life was like under imperial rule. And so it was that the following image really caught my eye:

Kowloon Namoa Pirate Behading
Image via Historical Times, under Public Domain

Viewing only the top half of the image it seems like some kindly old gentlemen on a rural day out, posing for a photo. Look then at the bottom half and witness beheaded humans lying in the dirt. Should we feel for the “pirates” who have been executed? Did they deserve their fate through wrong deeds, or did they simply upset the wrong imperialists? What are passers-by thinking: are they relieved that justice has been dealt, abhorred by the brutishness of these gwai lo (foreign devils), or fatalistically indifferent?

Of course, we will never really know the answers to these questions, but they are worth discussing all the same. I duly filed the image away for later use, shared it on Twitter and moved on. Much to my surprise, a couple of teachers (@vanweringh and @PaulGrace9) who are now in my PLN saw the image and started sharing and researching  ideas on it.

Reading these articles is revealing. It seems like the pirates were genuinely dastardly, but they make up only 6 of the 15 beheadings. Also of interest is that some of the beheadings were carried out by a 15-year old boy. How times have changed.

Our collaboration finished up with suggestions to use HistoryPin and the image below to further explore this area. As was mentioned in our discussions, the topics of piracy and imperialism are so interesting to study as they are still relevant today.

 

Old & Rare Photos

A shell shocked reindeer looks on as World War II planes drop bombs on Russia in 1941This collection of fantastic old images was shared with me by my father-in-law, and is too good not to share onwards. Sadly, I could not find a web-based version of the list, so I have decided to host them here. Enjoy, a visual feast of 20th century history.

Credits: Most of these images are old enough to be out of copyright and so are free to use. For the newer ones, I am sharing them under assumed fair use for educational purposes. The text has been copied from the original email. If you feel this post infringes your copyright, please let me know.

Remix Examples

Remix is one of my favourite contemporary art forms, and something that all of my students study. What could be better than making something new out of someone elses media creations? If you get into remix enough, you even find yourself starting to agree with Kirby Ferguson’s assertion that Everything Is A Remix.

Today I was updating my remix playlist, which I show students at the start of year. I thought I would share some of my favourites. Please feel free to add suggestions in the comments section:

If you are interested in the legal side of remix, you might want to watch Copyleft: A Teacher’s Guide To Sharing (of course, remixing with Creative Commons is the best way to go, but sometimes fair use has to be invoked if we want to critique companies and governments.

2 Minute Warning

Earlier this year I asked my Year 8 students to record a 2 minute warning to their parents, aiming to highlight risks which they might face online. This piece of work followed several smaller tasks (such as Me vs Me), and lots of discussions, regarding digital citizenship, what being online means and how we can stay safe. Of all the excellent pieces submitted, I was most taken by work of Chloe, who I believed manage to convey a lot of meaning in an easy to understand message:

Chloe runs a nice blog where she posts some of her other work, if you are interested in taking a look.