Monday, May 30, 2011

Did you Know???

We started off this lesson by watching a video on some eye opening facts and predictions about technology, the direction we're heading in, and of course where we come from. This reaffirms the approach to computer tutoring we take at Sunridge Primary and certainly gives us something to work towards.

But first the Agenda:
  • Take register
  • Did you Know video
  • Project instructions
  • Project format
  • Project ideas
  • Interview questions
  • Project prizes
  • Avatars

Did You Know Video
A video was released a while ago and although this video spells out how quickly technology and information advances and becomes outdated, it itself is already somewhat outdated. None the less, it still gives us a valuable insight into the world we're living in and the world we heading for. Amongst other things, it says the following: We as teachers are preparing our learners for jobs which don't exist yet. Half of what a technology degree student learns in his 1st year of studies will become outdated by the time he finishes his 3rd year. 31 Billion searches are performed on Google every month. Where on Earth did we get all our answers from BG (Before Google). The number of text messages sent and received every day are greater than the total population of the planet. It took radio a total of 38 years to reach a target audience of 50 billion people, TV did it in 13 years, Facebook in just 2 years. The top 10 jobs in 2010 did not even exists in 2004.

The Strange or Unusual Jobs Project
I am pleased to see that some of the members have already finished their interviews and gathered their photographs for the project. Well done guys! It also became clear from our brainstorming session tonight that almost everyone else gave the project some serious thought and have a good idea of what they want to do.

I laid the instructions for the project out carefully tonight. And for the benefit of the parents, here it is again. Every club member must find a person who does a strange or unusual job - not something we would probably encounter through one's day to day life. Mom and Dad can help out here. I'm sure you must be able to think of someone perhaps in your circle of friends. Someone who maintains a golf course, someone who make dentures, someone who makes artificial limbs, and a dog food taster are just 4 of the fantastic ideas which have already been taken.

The club member then needs to prepare a list of questions and interview that person, asking them about their job, what exactly they do, a typical day at the office, what is the best part of their work, how did they get started in this field, etc. Once you get going you will see that there are many other questions you can ask. You also need to take/get 2 or 3 photographs of that person's work. You need to get permission from that person to publish your report on the internet. You also need to create an avatar which looks as much like you as possible. This avatar will be used to represent the club member. Type your report up in MS Word so that we can just copy and paste it onto a webpage.

As far as the format of the published project goes. My initial intention was to create a blog with each report being a blog entry. I decided against this as a blog really is an ongoing thing which needs to be updated all the time. Therefore, I decided to rather do it as a website with each report being put on a separate webpage. This will also allow us a lot more freedom with regards to formatting.

Project Prizes

I would like to offer two prizes. One for the avatar which most accurately portrays the club member, and the bigger prize will go to the best strange/unusual job report. I will supply these prizes with the greatest of pleasure but if anyone can help us out with sponsorthip it would be greatly appreciate. Even if you have any suggestions as to what would make for good prizes, I'd like to hear from you.

Avatars

Finally, we spent some time playing around with the avatar creator and I showed everyone how to export the avatar once done. Go to http://www.myavatareditor.com/ to create your own avatar.

Diary

Our next club meeting will be on Monday evening, the 13th of June at 17:15.

Until next time...

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