Activism Unit August 2013

Unit Title: 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 recent 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. These 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 technology effectively highlight the issues affecting my community?

Initial Research before investigate

Answer the following question in the handout provided

What is activism? And who is an activist?

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

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

Analyse the above websites in terms of their effectiveness and shortcomings.

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?

Evaluate Stage: Online Business Unit

During this stage you will prepare an oral presentation of less than 3 minutes on one of the technologies listed below. The technology of choice will be chosen randomly just before the presentation.

Your task will be to describe the technology discussing it's impacts on online businesses.

The technologies included;
CMS
SEO
Shopping Cart
Page ranking
Encryption
Pay per click
Web 2.0 technologies
Payment options (comment on one)
Site traffic analysis
Https
Denial of service attack
CSS
ISP

Create Stage: Online Business

Use any of the web builders below to build a site that will meet the requirements of Carmen or your own specs.

The website should be at least three page with an Home page, Products page and may be a Payment page.

www.webnode.com
www.jimdo.com
www.dooblekit.com
www.doomby.com

Assessment

Levels	Task Specific Descriptor
0	The student does not create a website that meets any of Carmen’s requirements.
1-2	The student creates at least part of a website with limited features and techniques used. A simple website is created.
3-4	The student uses appropriate techniques of the web builder to create a website that meets most of Carmen’s requirements. The site created is of good quality.
5-6	The student competently uses appropriate techniques of the web builder to create a website that meets almost all of Carmen’s requirements. The website create is appropriate quality using the resources available.

Plan Stage: Online business

Using the Carmen's case study material, develop a detailed plan that Sergio Martinez can use in the development of the improved website.

The product should be up and running within two months from the day it is commissioned.

The Plan should have 3 sections ;

• Basic Plan
• Process /Product Plan
• Evaluation of the plan

The plan document should be less that 3 pages

Assessment Criteria

Levels	Task Specific Descriptor
0	The student does not reach a standard described by any of the descriptors given below.
1-2	The student produces a plan that contains some details of the steps and/or the resources required.
3-4	The student produces a plan that contains a number of logical steps that include resources and time. The student makes some attempt to evaluate the plan.
5-6	The student produces a plan that contains a number of detailed, logical steps that describe the use of resources and time. The student critically evaluates the plan and justifies any modifications to the design.

Online Business Unit: Design Stage Summative Work

With reference to Carmen's situation in the case study document;

The following will be required for your final design work:

1. Design specs with Tests
2. 2 designs
3. Evaluation of designs
4. Justification of chosen design

The format of work should be either soft copy or hard copy in A3

Instructions 

Produce 2 designs for Sergio Martinez Carmen’s e-commerce consultant, for approval.

Each design should include these items

• Home page
• Product & Services page
• Payment form page

This work is to be completed during lesson time only and is due by the end of the Thursday 9^th May lesson. If you complete the task on Wednesday you can use the Thurs lesson to revise for the exams.

Course outline is available in the blog.

YEAR 10 CT EXAMINATION 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 the way they have been used by stakeholders in past
• The impact of using those technologies
•  Concerns and issues resulting from using the technologies

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

Online Business Unit (The case study material and research will be used in the examination)

• Review of some of the online business information technologies as stated in case study material and other researched information.
• Examine how the different technologies function as used in running an online businesses.
• The impact of using different information technologies in running an online business.
• Issues resulting from using the online business information technologies and solutions to some of the related problems

  N/B
-All the three sections will be tested
-The CT exam will be 1 hr 30 mins
-The following command terms will be used in each of the questions
            a) identify
            b) Describe
            c) Explain
            d) Evaluate

Critical Thinking
These trigger words in explain and Evaluate often signal critical thinking. The bold words are the key terms in the various criteria.
Identify / Define- Requires a brief response or just a list.
Describe- shows a technical process step by step, using an example is recommended 
Explanation - Because, as a result of, due to, therefore, consequently, for example
Evaluation - My opinion, overall, although, despite, on balance, on weighing up

Online Business : https vs http

 (20 Minutes)
a) Use the following links to get notes on :

http://www.instantssl.com/ssl-certificate-products/https.html

http://webdesign.about.com/od/ecommerce/a/aa070407.htm

• The differences between http and https
• How does SSL work
• Why Is a SSL Certificate Required?

Answer these questions in Pairs (15 minutes)

Answer the following question from the scenario below.
In the case study Carmen is creating an e-commerce website to sell her products. She is looking into getting either a HTTP or HTTPS site but does not know which one would be better for her type of site.
a) Explain why Carmen should use HTTPS for her website.

b) Describe the duties Carmen has as the owner of a HTTPS site and what she should do to ensure it is secure.