technology with intention
Jac de Haan
This user hasn't shared any profile information
Home page: http://www.billingsmiddleschool.org/beta
Posts by Jac de Haan
300th blog post!
301 days
by Jac de Haan
in Digital Identity
This is officially the 300th blog post on Billings Beta!
What started in June 2007 as a way to document classroom lessons has evolved into an award-winning resource for students, teachers and families to understand the impacts of technology in real-world and digital communities.
Thanks so much to everyone: site visitors, educators that take the time to comment on stories, and the 270+ feed subscribers – your interest in our work keeps students motivated to share their experiences with the world.
Blog for iPad
303 days
Just for fun we installed the onSwipe plug-in on our WordPress blog. This snippet of code re-formats content into a magazine-style layout for the iPad. Screenshots of the results are below:
\
Design Week 2011
308 days
6th and 8th grade students are busily engaged in the Billings tradition of “Design Week” in the days before Spring Break. How excited does everyone get about a week’s worth of exploration around this years topic of PLAY? 106.8 decibels worth of excited, according to our sound level meter! That is louder than a motorcycle or subway train.
To learn more about this year’s Design Week, check out the daily postings on our main website. If you are logged in as a school community member, you’ll have access to each day’s complete photo albums from the right sidebar.
The Battle of Fredericksburg
312 days
7th grade students are studying the Civil War in American History class. They decided to film recreations of some of the battles that occurred. Below is one example by Ben and Cooper with the rest of the class acting:
8th grade students’ art show open to public
314 days
Deividas and Isaac, two 8th grade students, have been playing with iPhone photography for almost a year now. Their first public art exhibit will open April 1st at Fremont Coffee. The show runs through April 30th and also features the work of students from John Hay, Coe and Lowell.
This opening coincides with the Fremont First Friday Art Walk. Congrats to all participants!
Lego Robots – intro to programming
316 days
by Jac de Haan
in 6th Grade
6th grade STEM students are spending Fridays through the end of the year learning about programming concepts and physics with Lego Robotics. We just built the Edubots in class. Arthur, Jake and Collin are all part of our afterschool club, so they are using this time to plan curriculum and robotics challenges for the rest of the class.
Lesson 1: Collin led an intro to the NXT programming environment and simple move commands. Super cool!
Teen digital identity – Rebecca Black follow-up
321 days
7th grade students continue to follow the story of Rebecca Black, a 13-year-old singer who has recently risen to fame via YouTube.
Since our first introduction last Wednesday (6M views, like/dislike buttons disabled) to today (39M views, 1:10 ratio of like to dislike) she has been:
- interviewed on national news programs, including Good Morning America
- appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
- been the topic of an interview with Lady Gaga
- is rumored to have made $25,000 in iTunes downloads.
Today students wrestled with the question is this fame worth the criticism she is receiving?
We spent most of the class looking at her production company, Ark Music Factory. This group of producers, choreographers and marketers seem to have a specific musical and visual idea of what might be successful online. They’ve drawn a lot of criticism in the last few weeks for charging families to make music videos for their children.
Finally, we watched another video from one of Ark Music Factory’s artists. Student debated the quality of the music in comparison to Rebecca Black, noted the guest appearance of one of the producers in the video again, and looked at ratings and viewing history for Alana Lee:
Teen digital identity – case studies
323 days
7th grade students spend mid-year focused on the theme of identity. In Science they study genetics and evolution, in American History they look at the formation of the US through the Revolutionary War, and in Language Arts they read and write stories of personal growth and awareness.
In technology we take a deeper look at the idea of digital identity - who we are based on electronic information that exists in the cloud. One person’s DI can look quite different depending on what type of information a viewer finds: text messages, social networking profiles, search engine queries, gaming stats, etc.
We spent class looking at 2 young people who are intentionally shaping their digital identity with the help of adults. We also looked at the consequences of this process.
MattyB
Matty B is an 8-year-old rapper. He has a large YouTube presence (over 46 million channel views), a schwag store (do-it-yourself t-shirt print-on-demand storefront), and a Twitter handle. Matty B raps to popular songs and takes opportunities to interact with music and dance stars to gain attention and promote himself.
Students can’t find any proof that Matty B is making money off the project so far, but they theorize that as he grows up, his digital identity might turn into a recording contract.
Rebecca Black
Rebecca Black was a regular 13 year old until about 10 days ago when her music video was uploaded to YouTube. The next day a couple of comedians sent out links to the video along with disparaging remarks, and she is now up to over 30 million views!
Rebecca’s video has spurned tens of tributes/copycats, most of them mean-spirited. Is fame worth the price of people asking you to end your life? Students doubted the ability of themselves to stay strong under such overwhelming criticism. We also discussed her ability to turn this experience into a positive one – she has already been interviewed by Good Morning America and been labeled the “next Justin Bieber.”
AT&T to buy T-Mobile
323 days
by Jac de Haan
in 6th Grade
6th grade students discussed the possible reasons and outcomes of a T-Mobile USA takeover by AT&T.
The conversation was wide-ranging…some of the topics discussed:
- what is the history of AT&T?
- how would the purchase of T-Mobile help AT&T provide service to it’s users?
- how would T-Mobile’s customers experience the change?
- how do cell phone companies marketing departments claim colors to represent their company?
- why does the US have more than one cell phone technology (CDMA, GSM, etc)?
- what is a monopoly?
- why is competition important for the US?
- what is the electromagnetic spectrum?
Facebook streams video & iPad 2
335 days
by Jac de Haan
in 7th Grade
7th grade today analyzed a couple of big tech stories:
Facebook begins streaming video – we discussed how brick-and-mortar stores compete with mail or instant download/streaming video services, the death of the DVD, and how many BluRay DVD player owners don’t actually own BluRay DVDs. General consensus was that impulse purchases are most likely to occur when streaming video. Facebook’s approach to streaming video is a little different than Netflix because you can use US currency or Facebook currency. Students point out that once you invest in Facebook currency you are bound to their service – a clever and scary proposition. Also, watching movies in Facebook will drastically increase some people’s Facebook time…this provides more time for Facebook to advertise to the viewer, thus increasing their profits.
Apple announces iPad 2 – we compared the features of Apple’s new offering to the iPad 1 and the iPhone. Students decided this is clearly an evolution, not a revolution. Even though the technology might not be ground breaking, students think that the tablet in general is fairly revolutionary because it is increasing the amount of screen time a person engages in. Tangential conversations turned to the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Google’s Android OS.
