If you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook then there is a strong possibility that you will know I just got a new MacBook Pro. I dual booted it straight away so I could continue to use Windows but have found myself loading up the Windows side less and less. I appear to be converting to the ways of the Mac.

As previously mentioned I enjoy playing World of Warcraft (when time permits) but have had to stop over the past few months due to the fact that my ageing Windows XP computer has not been able to cope with running such complex graphics. I also feel I have been missing out on something else… Second Life – the alternate reality space where many of my digital literacy friends and colleagues choose to communicate and collaborate.

When I met Angela Thomas at the Centre for the Studies of New Literacies in July we had a long chat about Second Life and some of the fascinating stuff she is doing with Virtual Macbeth. I promised that I would sign up and take a look when I could and now that I have a MacBook Pro now seemed like the perfect opportunity. I was warned that one of the most important things to do was to change the default avatar, otherwise I would be labelled a noob (a person who is new and doesn’t know what they are doing). I have literally spent all day in Second Life trying to customise my avatar and make myself appear unique in the dense population of the virtual world. A population that derives very striking parallels to the real world – not least the fact that you have to use real money to buy clothes.

Above is the completed avatar that I use in Second Life, under the name of Multiplo Innovia. Do add me as a contact if you use Second Life as I could still do with a hand finding my way around!

I’ve been using Microsoft Windows since 1997 and have had various problems including virus attacks and system failures along the way – mostly caused by carelessness on my part. All in all I’ve been happy with the overall Windows experience and stability, especially while I have been using Windows XP.

I’ve always heard people talking about how amazing Apple Mac computers are but had a misconception that most software was incompatible with the operating system. The Mac OS is apparantly less prone to virus attacks,  system failure and is much more intuitive. I have been using the Mac operating system for two years both in class and via a MacBook.

In my opinion, Macs are better for more creative activitie such as media production and animation as they are more intuitive. However for a lot of the tasks I use my computer for I find them to be less effective. When using the Mac OS I miss Microsoft Outlook, I miss a basic desktop publishing suite like Publisher, I miss Microsoft Office running effectively, I miss being able to remove my USB hard drive without a bright red warning appearing and other little niggling things.

Macs are great… but so are PCs. They both have their pros and cons. I like using both but for most of my tasks I stick with my familar Windows…

I’m a PC and I’m twenty-three and a half years old!

Thank you to everybody who sent really great feedback about the Brer Rabbit critical literacy project I really appreciate it. I’ve also heard that it was being talked about at the Decatur Book Festival after The Wren’s Nest (the birth place museum of Joel Chandler Harris in the USA) picked up on the project. All of this really helps raise the awareness of critical literacy with real-world texts.

As soon as the Brer Rabbit project was over I started to think about other big projects that I could build into our curriculum.  This blog post brings together some of my threads of thought for the new project.

I’ve been a huge fan of Studio Ghibli after using My Neighbour Totoro last year and seeing it completely change my class’s attitude towards literacy and learning. I’ve therefore followed the release of the new Studio Ghibli production Ponyo: On a Cliff by the Sea with great interest:

I had every intention of using the film in class but knew that an extended project with real world application would give the project greater depth and be much more beneficial to the children. I immediately began searching for a real-life Cliff by the Sea and by complete coincidence had a conversation with Kate Pahl about museum outreach work and a contact she has at Robin Hood’s Bay. Robin Hood’s Bay is a charming fishing village – on a cliff by the sea and is a perfect setting for inspiring the children and imagining new stories (just look at the picture at the top of this post). It’s perfect for a local study, so for the first time I am able to bring geography skills into one of our critical literacy projects. I also want to bring non-fiction digital literacy skills into the project too but I am currently developing the area further. It will all lead to the creation of a film both in virtual locations created by the children and in the real-world such as Robin Hood’s Bay.

I’ll post more about this project as the planning progresses… bon voyage!

According to the press and most of the people I’ve spoken to iPhones seem to be the only smartphone worth getting at the moment. After a bit of searching I can across the HTC Hero smartphone – I accepted that it was no iPhone but did cost me a fraction of the price.

After a few days my opinion has changed. I actually think it appears to be better than the iPhone. One feature which I am very impressed with is the convergence of social networks within the operating system of the handset. For example the phone allows you to link contacts with their Facebook and Flickr profies showing information such as status updates and photo albums within a single contact card. It acts as a portal for digital participation. The video above shows this in a bit more detail… I didn’t expect to be impressed but I am – very!

I’ve always loved the way that media can be edited, remixed and reinvented with the use of digital technologies. I started doing it myself at a young age (see previous blog post). I noticed how Angela has recently blogged about remixing as a means of transformative story-telling (here). She uses the term hacking popular culture, which I think is a brilliant way to describe the process.

I’m going to try and dig out some of the texts I’ve hacked over the years but until then you can enjoy two other examples I’ve used at training event. Above is a hacked version of Mary Poppins and below a remixed version of The Shining… enjoy!

A few months ago I wrote about using texts of popular culture as a means of exploring issues of racial prejudice within a critical literacy framework. I then said I would reveal more about a project I was planning based around the issue. With a hectic workload and conferences to attend, I completely forgot… so now that the project is actually over I am able to give more detailed account.

I really enjoy reading Jackie’s blog and remembered when she wrote about Disney’s track record of racial insensitivity and in particular a website she referenced which listed the most racist Disney characters. According to the site the second most racist character is Uncle Remus from the Song of the South. The film includes animated segments of stories of Brer Rabbit and friends as well as featuring aspects of life on a Southern USA plantation. Disney have never released the film on home video or DVD in the US in its entirety because they fear its portrayal of slavery, and some of its content, may be misconstrued. The character of Uncle Remus is a fictional storyteller created by Joel Chandler Harris who collected and published the stories after hearing them from slaves he met on his travels. The movie does clearly portray, maybe unintentionally, the racial segregation after the American Civil War. Does this make it racist? Is the portrayal of Uncle Remus racist? Does this prevent us from watching it or even talking about it (something Disney is currently doing)? Should space be created to talk about such issues, especially in the classroom?

Independent of the fact as to whether you do find the above clip racially insensitive or not -is the issue of racism too taboo for a Disney film? Are we to forget that it actually happened (and still does)? Are those who want the film banned essentially trying to delete or hide something that is actually a huge part of America’s history? All these questions got me thinking.

During my first year of teaching I ran an animation project. Although it incorporated aspects of storytelling and development of social skills, the focus was very much on text production using a discrete set of animation skills. The children enjoyed it but I felt it could be so much more. The focus on text analysis was fragmented and mainly looked at texts from an ‘end product’ point of view with little analysis of the underlying meanings and values within a text. I’ve also been reading the work of Barbara Comber who suggests that using texts with a critical perspective can open up discussion of issues such as racial prejudice in an open and contextually driven manner. I therefore decided to use the Uncle Remus stories and Song of the South film as the basis for a project that incorporates animation as a critical practice.

I wanted the project to not only include aspects of multiliteracies but also aspects of critical literacy towards text analysis and production. Unlike multiliteracies there are several versions of critical literacy pedagogy , all of which involve an active, challenging approach to reading and textual practices. Barbara Comber describes a number of core principals of critical literacy including subverting taken-for-granted texts, focusing on cultural texts and examining how power is exercised and by whom (Comber, 2001). I wanted the children to experience the Brer Rabbit stories in a range of ways through oral, written and multimodal texts so that they could further understand that literacy embodies a vast array of modes and textual practices. I then wanted them to ‘dig deeper’ into the texts so that they could understand the underlying meanings and themes. I wanted them to understand what it was like for a slave working on the plantations and why oral stories were such a huge part of their life. The project allowed us to open up discussion of the area of slavery and prejudice in an open and contextually driven manner so that they could consider texts meaning in the world (Comber, 2001). I could tell that the children were thinking critically about the issues after asking them why slaves would tell stories orally and being told that it was because slaves didn’t have any money, so couldn’t go to school and therefore couldn’t learn to read (paraphrased). I’d never said that in a lesson before.

After exploring existing Brer Rabbit stories I wanted the children to reinvent the texts for a modern day audience using animation techniques and the iCanAnimate software. The children subsequently designed their own narrative and created backgrounds and characters while working with a local artist.

The children’s animation skills were exceptionally impressive and they were able to animate scenes without any adult support (remember these are 6/7 year olds). This was entirely down to the fact that the children were able to play with and explore the software and hardware a week before we started animating. The project was managed by having a roundabout of activities available to the children so every child had the opportunity to animate, create characters, paint backgrounds and complete critical literacy activities.

Technology was not the basis of the project but rather the development of critical literacy skills achieved through the embedded and meaningful use of technology. I really think this is a better strategy than doing basic ‘ICT projects’ as the children (and adults) develop an applied knowledge and understanding of how digital technologies and texts work within the world.

Notes:
Special thanks must go to Elaine Keeley my amazing teaching assistant for  helping to implement this project and Jackie Marsh for feedback on the project design.

Huge thanks also to my brother, Michael Waller, for helping to recreate and remimagine the Brer Rabbit characters.

“I never thought fish swimming in a glass bowl could be so emotional”

The title of this post and the above quote come from the video sharing website YouTube in response to the high definition video above that appeared on the site and has become ‘viral’ over the past week. My guess is that the video has become so popular because it really demonstrates the potential of HD broadcasting. Today BSkyB announced that subscribers to their HD service have doubled over the past year and that the service has moved ‘centre-stage’ to their business plan. It shows that HD is becoming more widespread and popular, especially since YouTube now allows uploads in HD – just like the video above.

As well as the sheer wonder of the sea-life in the video I also find the way the people in front of the tank behave and interact. Not least the toddler playing with the rope barrier and then noticing the diver in the aquarium. It’s great how video can capture such moments and the HD quality makes it feel like you are standing there too (you must make the video fullscreen when you’re watching).

The soundtrack really adds an extra depth (no pun intended) and stirs an emotional response. Therefore users of YouTube have responded to the video through the comment feature below the video. The comments range from appreciation of the video production to serious debates about conservation and saving the oceans. It’s brilliant how Web 2.0 can be used as a platform to explore issues such as this and really make the issues in themselves ‘viral’ and open up discussion in a shared and open manner to a mass audience. At the time of writing this there have been over 2000 comments written in response to the upload and it has been viewed over a million times…

Save the oceans.

I’ve just lost an hour of my life. Why? Because I went to check something quickly on wikipedia (I can’t even remember what it was). After reading the initial article (not in the traditional manner of course) I clicked on a link within the article, which linked me to another article, and then another and another (you get the idea). I ended up reading stuff that had no relevance to what I initially intended to find out, although obviously interesting. Wiki’s are such a huge collaboration tool for collective intelligence and shared knowledge it’s literally impossible to find something that doesn’t interest you. It was actually quite hard to pull myself out of the wiki-whirlpool in the end and start to do something else.

I’ve never actually written a wiki article before, maybe I should. Or maybe I should try and plan a project around it next year?

Over the past few months I have been playing with the Joomla Content Management System (CMS) when developing websites. This site, for example, is built using Joomla as is the UKLA Learning Today website I am currently developing.

I have just finished the designs for our school website using Joomla and I am constantly thinking of new ways that we can use this system to integrate Web 2.0 practices into the curriculum. Virtual Learning Environments are good… but ultimately most are only visible to verified members and not the world. What we have here is a system where children can log-on within a special user group, create a page (which is not published until an administrator/teacher verifies it) and then it will automatically appear within the website and be automatically formatted using the site’s style sheet. The extensions and modules are endless… for example I have installed facitilities for video uploads and comments. And the best thing of all – Joomla is open source… user-led websites to the massess for free!