Digital Activism Unit

Unit Title: Digital Activism


Introduction

Issues and problems affecting the immediate community can go underground unnoticed. The bureaucracies or governments and other interested parties tend to curtail any awareness that will change the status quo. Information technology solutions have in the rest past been used to change the leadership of oppressive governments and alter what seem to be serious issues for change in communities. Different technologies have been used popularly to communicate ideas, create awareness to issues in the society. The technologies can be used to inform, to persuade, and even to spark awareness. With the many current IT related technologies, our messages and stories can be told with more clarity, emotion, and with impact.

AOI
Community and Service: Important community issues are shared using different mediums. The many problems of different individuals can be solved by the choice and means we use to relay the information to influence decision.
ATL: Thinking, organization and information literacy

AK Focus : Governance and Civil society:

Unit Question:

How can Information technology effectively highlight the issues affecting my community?

 

Initial Reseach before investigate

Answer the following question in the handout provided

 

What is activism? And who is an activist?

Then, how would you define digital Activism?

What are the different ways that issues of the communities have been brought to light?

What are some of the challenges of using the traditional methods for Activism?

Social Media and Activism
Read the following news article titled: Russians use Facebook to protest alleged election fraud
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/russians-use-facebook-to-protest-alleged-election-fraud/5975
Why did the protesters use facebook?

What were the benefits of using facebook to protest?

Video for Activism
Read and watch any video if possible on the topic titled: 5 Great examples of Activism through web video
http://socialtimes.com/5-great-examples-of-activism-through-web-video_b15316
Why do you think the activists the above articles opted to use a video to highlight their issues?

Do you think there are limitations in using videos for their purposes?

Website for Activism
Study the following website for activism

Free Child project http://www.freechild.org/youth_activism_2.htm

Clean water http://www.emergepovertyfree.org/donate/clean-water

Cruelty against animal http://www.woaw.org.au/14andOver/cruelty-prevention/?gclid=CLT4nMi96rECFUR76wodyGYAsA
Why did the owners of the above websites opt to design websites to solve their problem instead of other solutions?

Animation and Activism
Watch the following animations designed for activism share the reason animations where used in this case
Universal declaration of human rights http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTlrSYbCbHE
An Environmental Activist Aniboom Animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AagOjHpHJ0k

What are the strengths and limitation of using animations solutions for activism?

Music and Activism
Read the following slide share http://www.slideshare.net/emoir/political-activism-in-music
Listen to Political Music activist http://www.carolhansengrey.com/activism/Musical_Activism.html
Watch and listen to XYZ Music http://www.xyzshow.com/freeshow1.php

Among the song listened to,  which was your favorite any why?

Outline other IT solutions that can be developed for Activism?

YEAR 10 CT EXAM AREAS TO BE TESTED

The following are some of the Examination Areas to be tested

Digital Activism Unit

• IT technologies used for activism
• How the technologies work or have been used by stakeholders
• The impact of using those technologies
•  Issues resulting from using the technologies

Sport Technology Unit

• Review of some sport Information technologies in use
• Examine how the technologies work/function are the role played by stakeholders in their
• The impact of using sport information technologies in different sports
• Issues resulting from using the sport information technologies and solutions to some of the related problems

Digital Entertainment Unit

• Review of some entertainment Information technologies tools in use
• Examine how the technologies work/function in particular sectors of entertainment
  
• The impact of using  information technologies in entertainment
  
• Issues resulting from using the information technologies in entertainment and solutions to some related problems

 N/B
-All the three sections will be tested
-You will need to familiarize your self with the following command terms before the examination
                  

Design Stage: Digital Entertainment Unit

Task
You will develop atleast three appropriate designs befitting your product; The designs can be
a) drawn on an A4 paper or
b) designed using an appropriate software but submitted in hardcopy.

Each of the designs should of very good standard and should be measured against the design specifications with a brief self evaluation of each.

The final design should be fully Justified

Assessment Criteria
0
The student does not reach a standard described by any of the descriptors
given below.
1-2
The student generates one design, and makes some attempt to justify
this against the design specification.
3-4
The student generates a few designs, justifying the choice of one design
and fully evaluating this against the design specification.
5-6
The student generates a range of feasible designs, each evaluated
against the design specification. The student justifies the chosen design
and evaluates it fully and critically against the design specification.

NB
Please use the provided checklist to guide your process of this stage.

Investigation Activities

Write some notes in your books or prepare or use Prezi software to describe the information below. The information relates to the unit digital entertainment.
a) What is the difference between and definition of computer graphics, digital media, and multimedia?
b) Distinguish between bitmapped graphics and vector Graphics. List at least four differences between them.
c) Define: pixel, color depth, resolution
d) What is an interactive multimedia and hypermedia?

Your prezi software should atleast include a useful video and apply the various prezi techniques available.

Investigate Stage: Digital Entertainment

Challenge
There are many different forms and ways of entertainment. The use of information technology has contributed to either improving or worsening the way we are entertained. Your task is to identify a problem that can be addressed through the use of digital entertainment solutions. The problem should be clearly described and the clients current way of entertainment describe. The problem description should include the current limitations the client is facing and detailed explaination of why you think an IT solution will be the best.

Examples:
-An artist entertains by drawing his comic work manually, this takes a long time: Is there a software that can be used by the artist to speed up his work?

-A music student is learning manually how to play an instrument; The student is frustrated, and does know if there is progress; can a website with collected lessons about the instrument be a solution? or what other solution do you foresee?

The final investigate stage should not exceed 6 pages of font 12 Times New Roman. All responses should be in paragraphs with sub-headings for identification. APA in-text citation and APA format of referencing should be applied. The process journal must be used throughout the design cycle

The investigation document should use the following sub-heading where possible: Description of the problem, Design Brief, Secondary research(problem and Technology), Primary research, Design specification, Test strategy, Bibliography.

Assessment criteria
Level 0: The student does not reach a standard described by any of the descriptors given below.

Level 1–2: The student states the problem. The student investigates the problem, collecting information from sources. The student lists some specifications.

Level 3–4: The student describes the problem, mentioning its relevance. The student investigates the problem, selecting and analysing information from some acknowledged sources. The student describes a test to evaluate the product/solution against the design specification.

Level 5–6: The student explains the problem, discussing its relevance. The student critically investigates the problem, evaluating information from a broad range of appropriate, acknowledged sources. The student describes detailed methods for appropriate testing to evaluate the product/solution against the design specification.

Useful reading and research;

Digital Entertainment Unit

Introduction
As we live in this life, were are either entertained or we entertain. The packaging and presentation of the entertainment is critical in reaching and pleasing the targeted audience. Entertainment comes in different forms and ways. The means that was used to entertain in the yester years are not the same means used today.
Question to ponder: Which group of people would you like to entertain? What will be the entertainment? what IT tool will you use and Why?

This unit is aimed at investigating and understanding the digital technologies in use, their impacts and solution to any problems arisng from their use. There are many digital entertainment solutions but their effectiveness vary from tool to another. Below are the details of our next unit

Unit Title: Digital Entertainment
AOI Human Ingenuity: Student will develop digital products that can be used to entertain.
Significant Concept: The choice of a technology for entertainment determines the success or failure of its productiveness.
AK Focus
Pluralism: How has IT in entertainment influenced our perception of other people?
Unit Question: To what extend has information technology influenced the way we entertain?

Digital Entertainment Unit
Develop a mind-map or a brainstorm that will guide your entire process of the design cycle. The brainstorm can be drawn or you can use any software. The Brainstorm should show atleast two possible aternatives to the following;
Investigate Stage
-the Problem
- the Client
- the product
- the primary sources
- Testing strategy
Design stage
- Design types
Plan stage
- Planning tools

Project proposal
Use the provided project proposal document to fill in the details for your next CT project.

Examples of Smart Programs

Attempt using the following examples of smart programs
Task A
Talk with ELIZA in the link below.
http://www-ai.ijs.si/eliza/eliza.html

Talk to A.L.I.C.E in the link below
http://www.pandorabots.com/pandora/talk?botid=f5d922d97e345aa1
Who do you think is smarter between the two and why?

Task B
Attempt the expert programs or the simulations in the link below. Which of the listed i more meaniful and why?
http://www.exsys.com/demomain.html

Natural Language Program
-Try to ask question and see the responses: Do you think the program can answer all question correctly? Why
http://start.csail.mit.edu/

Can the computer Quess correctly
Think of an item and answer 20 questions to see if the computer can guess it.
http://www.20q.net/

Translation Programs
- Can the computer translate a language better than a human?
-Tryout trnaslations below and see the translation in the other languages
http://translate.google.com/#

Teach baby Rose
-Try teaching baby Rose somethings and see how she learns: What is your observation?
http://teachrose.com/rose/src/talk.php