SYN MEDIA LEARNING WEEK

SYN MEDIA LEARNING WEEK: Teacher Professional Development Series AUGUST 24 – 28

Presented by SYN in partnership with the State Library of Victoria.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Mark Pesce - Young People, Digital Media and Your Classroom
Mark Pesce, one of Australia’s top ICT and social networking experts will address the value of new media as a learning tool and discuss how we can continue to keep up with shifts and trends in online technologies.
Thursday 27 August: 1:30 – 2:30pm
Experimedia at State Library of Victoria: 328 Swanston St, Melb.

PANELS

Media Careers and Training Pathways: Panel Discussion
A diverse panel of media professionals and industry experts will discuss the many media pathways and opportunities available for young people. This is essential information to pass on to your students who are interested in the media and journalism, as well as related fields like the music industry, theatre, technical fields and ICT.
Monday 24 August: 1:00 - 3:00pm
Experimedia at State Library of Victoria: 328 Swanston St, Melb.

Gaming and Learning: Panel Discussion and Play
Games Industry and IT experts will help you learn and experience the educational potential of video games and gaming culture. Starting with a panel discussion on how games help students learn useful skills and ending with a chance to get your hands on some gaming consoles and play!
Friday 28 August: 1:00 – 4:00pm
Experimedia at State Library of Victoria: 328 Swanston St, Melb.

WORKSHOPS

SYN Radio Tour
Take the tour that hundreds of Victorian students take every year and learn about youth media.
This is a hands-on opportunity to learn how to make a radio program from writing to producing. All participants will be provided with a CD copy of their radio program.
Monday 24 August: 3:00 – 4:30pm
House of SYN - 16 Cardigan St, Carlton.

Videoblog Workshop
Sample a taste of SYN’s Videoblogging Workshop, regularly delivered as a one day in school workshop. Learn how students can use Videoblogging to explore and present their ideas, from curriculum-based concepts to personal passions. There will also be plenty of opportunity for hands-on experience using the digital video recording and editing software.
Tuesday 25 August: 1:00 - 3:00pm
Computer Lab at State Library of Victoria: 328 Swanston St, Melb.


WebSmarts Workshop
Looking at online safety and privacy using some of the resources developed by young people through the SYN Websmarts project. We’ll talk about issues such as social networking habits, bullying, illegal downloading and pornography and sexuality online. SYN’s Websmarts project is a multimedia project that seeks to create discussion about how young people interact with the
Internet through the mediums of radio, television and the web.
Wednesday 26 August: 1:00 - 3:00pm
Computer Lab at State Library of Victoria: 328 Swanston St, Melb.

ALL EVENTS ARE FREE / BOOKINGS ARE ESSENTIAL
to book online go to*: syn.org.au/education
e training@syn.org.au
p 03 9925 4693

Sponsored by ATOM (Australian Teachers of Media), Vic Health and IDEA (Institute for Design Entertainment and the Arts)

Access Nano

AccessNano is a unique, cutting-edge nanotechnology educational resource designed to introduce accessible and innovative science and technology into Australian secondary school classrooms.

AccessNano provides teachers with 13 ready-to-use, versatile, web-based teaching modules, featuring PowerPoint presentations, experiments, activities, animations and links to interactive websites. Topics covered fit into current Australian curricula requirements, and include teaching units for Years 7-11

http://www.accessnano.org/teaching-modules

Plan to monitor all internet use

By Dominic Casciani
BBC News home affairs reporter

Communications firms are being asked to record all internet contacts between people as part of a modernisation in UK police surveillance tactics. The home secretary scrapped plans for a database but wants details to be held and organised for security services.

The new system would track all e-mails, phone calls and internet use, including visits to social network sites. The Tories said the Home Office had "buckled under Conservative pressure" in deciding against a giant database.

Announcing a consultation on a new strategy for communications data and its use in law enforcement, Jacqui Smith said there would be no single government-run database. “ Communications data is an essential tool for law enforcement agencies to track murderers and paedophiles, save lives and tackle crime ” Jacqui Smith Home Secretary. But she also said that "doing nothing" in the face of a communications revolution was not an option.

The Home Office will instead ask communications companies - from internet service providers to mobile phone networks - to extend the range of information they currently hold on their subscribers and organise it so that it can be better used by the police, MI5 and other public bodies investigating crime and terrorism. Ministers say they estimate the project will cost £2bn to set up, which includes some compensation to the communications industry for the work it may be asked to do. "Communications data is an essential tool for law enforcement agencies to track murderers, paedophiles, save lives and tackle crime," Ms Smith said. "Advances in communications mean that there are ever more sophisticated ways to communicate and we need to ensure that we keep up with the technology being used by those who seek to do us harm. "It is essential that the police and other crime fighting agencies have the tools they need to do their job, However to be clear, there are absolutely no plans for a single central store."

'Contact not content'

Communication service providers (CSPs) will be asked to record internet contacts between people, but not the content, similar to the existing arrangements to log telephone contacts.

REASONS TO CHANGE WHAT CAN BE KEPT
# More communication via computers rather than phones
# Companies won't always keep all data all the time
# Anonymity online masks criminal identities
# More online services provided from abroad
# Data held in many locations and difficult to find Source: Home Office consultation

But, recognising that the internet has changed the way people talk, the CSPs will also be asked to record some third party data or information partly based overseas, such as visits to an online chatroom and social network sites like Facebook or Twitter. Security services could then seek to examine this data along with information which links it to specific devices, such as a mobile phone, home computer or other device, as part of investigations into criminal suspects.

The plan expands a voluntary arrangement under which CSPs allow security services to access some data which they already hold. The security services already deploy advanced techniques to monitor telephone conversations or intercept other communications, but this is not used in criminal trials. Ms Smith said that while the new system could record a visit to a social network, it would not record personal and private information such as photos or messages posted to a page. "What we are talking about is who is at one end [of a communication] and who is at the other - and how they are communicating," she said.

Existing legal safeguards under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act would continue to apply. Requests to see the data would require top level authorisation within a public body such as a police force. The Home Office is running a separate consultation on limiting the number of public authorities that can access sensitive information or carry out covert surveillance.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "I am pleased that the Government has climbed down from the Big Brother plan for a centralised database of all our emails and phone calls. "However, any legislation that requires individual communications providers to keep data on who called whom and when will need strong safeguards on access. "It is simply not that easy to separate the bare details of a call from its content. What if a leading business person is ringing Alcoholics Anonymous, or a politician's partner is arranging to hire a porn video? "There has to be a careful balance between investigative powers and the right to privacy."

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said: "The big problem is that the government has built a culture of surveillance which goes far beyond counter terrorism and serious crime. Too many parts of Government have too many powers to snoop on innocent people and that's really got to change. "It is good that the home secretary appears to have listened to Conservative warnings about big brother databases. Now that she has finally admitted that the public don't want their details held by the State in one place, perhaps she will look at other areas in which the Government is trying to do precisely that."

Guy Herbert of campaign group NO2ID said: "Just a week after the home secretary announced a public consultation on some trivial trimming of local authority surveillance, we have this: a proposal for powers more intrusive than any police state in history. "Ministers are making a distinction between content and communications data into sound-bite of the year. But it is spurious. "Officials from dozens of departments and quangos could know what you read online, and who all your friends are, who you emailed, when, and where you were when you did so - all without a warrant."

The consultation runs until 20 July 2009.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8020039.stm

Published: 2009/04/27 13:50:15 GMT

ABC Gallipolli: The First Day

http://www.abc.net.au/gallipoli

Gallipoli: The First Day is a new online 3D Flash interactive by the ABC exploring the events of the first 24 hours of the landing of the ANZACs at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915.

Explore events (from both Anzac and Ottoman perspectives) via a 3D terrain of the Gallipoli peninsula. Watch the story unfold via 3D diorama animations and animations showing troop movements across the terrain.

There's also archive photos, videos and diary entries, and a summary and historical analysis of the overall campaign.

You'll need the Flash 10 plugin installed on your computer to view this, and a solid broadband connection.

There's also a small Google Earth component for those with slower connections - this gives an overview of the key events of the day and features a selection of media included in the Flash site, but contextualised within the Google Earth globe. You'll need Google Earth 5.0 for this.

Girl arrested for texting in class...$298 bail

I can’t decide if I should be applauding a school in Wauwatosa, WI, for taking a tough stand on student discipline or appalled at a lack of reason in the case of a girl arrested for texting in class on February 11th. I think I’m appalled.

I’ve been in the classroom. Texting is a problem. Any teacher who denies that students text in class is either blind, old to the point of senility, or simply not that smart. However, when I caught students sending texts in class, I used our zero tolerance policy, confiscated the phone, and sent it to the office. The kid got Saturday school or a 3-day suspension for repeat offenses. If the kid refused to turn over the phone or denied it, I sent them to the office for an automatic suspension. Piece of cake. No muss, no fuss, just straight-forward discipline outlined in our student handbook.

This was obviously not the case in Wauwatosa. According to the police report published by The Smoking Gun, the 14-year old in question repeatedly denied using a cell phone to send text messages in class. In a brilliant bit of investigative police work, the school resource officer spoke to the girl’s friends and teachers and determined that she had, in fact, been using a phone in class, after he had been called to remove her from the room when she refused to stop texting.

The police report borders on the absurd at points:

[Student's name obscurred] was advised that she was under arrest for disorderly conduct. She was told her disruption in class with the phone out, the refusal to obey the teacher, and her not telling us the truth is what got her arrested. [Student's name obscurred] was asked again about the phone and she was told that she would be searched incident to the arrest. She stated she did not have a phone and she was not going to stand up to be searched. These words alerted me with her zipper open and he [sic] refusal to stand up and be searched she was concealing the phone under her pants

He’s sharp isn’t he? A female officer later retrieved the phone from her “buttocks area” and confirmed that she had sent a text message to her father. Bail was set at $298.

Give her a detention, suspend her, whatever, but arrest her? Really? Around here, we save our arrests for bomb threats, teacher assaults, and drug dealing. Maybe we’re just too liberal here in Massachusetts.

http://education.zdnet.com/?p=2171

Kids turn "teen repellent" sound into teacher-proof ringtone

From: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/05/24/kids-turn-teen-repel.html#previouspost

Kids in the UK have co-opted an annoying noise sold to retailers as teenager-repellent and turned it into a ringtone.

Mosquito is a high-pitched sound "audible only to teenagers" sold by Britain's Compound Security. It is sold to shopkeepers to use as a teenager repellent -- the idea is to play it loudly in and around shops and "chase away those annoying teenagers!!!"

The kids have reportedly converted the high-pitched noise and turned it into a ringtone, which, being inaudible to grownups, can then be used to receive texts and calls in class without alerting teachers.

This is either a magnificent hoax or just plain magnificent -- either way, I love this Little Brother Watches Back parable.

Schoolchildren have recorded the sound, which they named Teen Buzz, and spread it from phone to phone via text messages and Bluetooth technology.

Now they can receive calls and texts during lessons without teachers having the faintest idea what is going on.

A secondary school teacher in Cardiff said: 'All the kids were laughing about something, but I didn't know what. They know phones must be turned off during school. They could all hear somebody's phone ringing but I couldn't hear a thing.

Link (Thanks, Seth and WIll!)

Update: JS sez, "Considering that such high tones are virtually unattainable for the cell-phone loudspeakers I find the story highly suspect. Besides, the sound used as a ringtone would be compressed in some way (maybe not in the newer models, but would all kids have them?), further reducing the possibility that such high frequency content is preserved. I did little research and found this link where cell-phone audio capabilities are presented in detail. According to them the cell-phone's piezoelectric speaker caps its frequency response about at 10khz, while the Teen Buzz plays at 18khz to 20khz."

I had similar doubts -- which suggests that these kids have done something even more subversive than creating an adult-proof ringtone: they've convinced adults that there's an inaudible sound that they can all hear.

Update 2: James sez, "I found this article about the mosquito system. It includes a link to an MP3 of the sound. I'm 18 and I can hear it, but neither my mom nor my step dad (both in their 50's) could distinguish the sound. It's worth noting that my step dad is a country music singer who has a very well trained ear. Since the sound carries over to MP3, and most new phones can play MP3s as ringtones, it would seem likely that students could use the mosquito sound as an adult proof ringer."

Update 3: Gregory sez, "Here's a data sheet for a piezoelectric speaker for cell phones, and shows frequency response measured out to 20kHz. The link that JS found did not say that frequencies above 10kHz were unattainable, but said "The frequency response of piezoelectric speakers is similar to small geometry moving coil speakers up to ~10 KHz bandwidth." As you can see by the data sheet at the URL listed above, small piezoelectric speakers are quite capable of being driven at frequencies above 20kHz. In fact, piezoelectric speakers are commonly used as tweeters in some sound systems; high frequencies are easy, it's the lows that give small speakers problems. A far more important question is the frequency response of the amplifiers that are driving the cell phone speakers. Amplifiers are typically band-limited to reduce noise and increase stability. What is the band limit for the phones in question?"

Update 3: Tony sez, "I've just had a look at 'Mosquito'. It's recorded at a low level, a sort of 'European siren', switching between two high tones at 2Hz. There are some giggles & rumble present (cells would probably not pass these audibly), but the high tones measure around 15,000 to 17,000 Hz. Interested geezers should pitch-shift the sound down an octave. That's exactly the same range as old TV flybacks used to emit ... which I *used* to be able to hear walking by someone's house."

Some great new technology articles

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2008/12/YE8_techbreaks

http://www.wired.com/software/webservices/news/2008/12/YE8_web


http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/magazine/17-02/ff_obama?currentPage=all

http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/02/twitters-hackab.html

I'm still here

Sorry about the lack of posts recently, but I've been overseas in London and Paris, so I haven't posted much of late.

I have found heaps of great stuff to add to the blog soon, but I'm concentrating on finding a job before I use up my internets...

British ISPs restrict access to Wikipedia amid child pornography allegations

Potentially a sign of things to come here in Australia, if the government's proposed Internet Filtering plans go ahead.

They've blocked access to the crappy poodle haired German cock rock band The Scorpions because they have an album called "Virgin Killer" which features a prepubescent girl on the front cover. I see that no one has called for Led Zeppelin's "Houses of the Holy" to be banned either...

It's a crap album, by a crap band and it was made in 1973, plenty of time in which to have had anyone connected with making/distributing/listening to or purchasing the album arrested. I think it's high time people to a long hard look at themselves before they try and break the Interweb Googletube. It's a series of tubes apparently and people can do things on it that are bad.

Although there is no plans to filter/legislate content sent via peer to peer networks, email, torrenting or such, only the big bad "Internets".

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/British_ISPs_restrict_access_to_Wikipedia_amid_child_pornography_allegations

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikimedia,_IWF_respond_to_block_of_Wikipedia_over_child_pornography_allegations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Killer

No opt-out of filtered Internet

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php?id=1399635276&eid=-255

Australians will be unable to opt-out of the government's pending Internet content filtering scheme, and will instead be placed on a watered-down blacklist, experts say.
Under the government's $125.8 million Plan for Cyber-Safety, users can switch between two blacklists which block content inappropriate for children, and a separate list which blocks illegal material. Pundits say consumers have been lulled into believing the opt-out proviso would remove content filtering altogether.

The government will iron-out policy and implementation of the Internet content filtering software following an upcoming trial of the technology, according to the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. Department spokesman Tim Marshall said the filters will be mandatory for all Australians. “Labor’s plan for cyber-safety will require ISPs to offer a clean feed Internet service to all homes, schools and public Internet points accessible by children,” Marshall said. “The upcoming field pilot of ISP filtering technology will look at various aspects of filtering, including effectiveness, ease of circumvention, the impact on internet access speeds and cost.”Internet Service Providers (ISPs) contacted by Computerworld say blanket content filtering will cripple Internet speeds because the technology is not up to scratch. Online libertarians claim the blacklists could be expanded to censor material such as euthanasia, drugs and protest. Internode network engineer Mark Newton said many users falsely believe the opt-out proviso will remove content filtering. “Users can opt-out of the 'additional material' blacklist (referred to in a department press release , which is a list of things unsuitable for children, but there is no opt-out for 'illegal content'”, Newton said.

“That is the way the testing was formulated, the way the upcoming live trials will run, and the way the policy is framed; to believe otherwise is to believe that a government department would go to the lengths of declaring that some kind of Internet content is illegal, then allow an opt-out. “Illegal is illegal and if there is infrastructure in place to block it, then it will be required to be blocked — end of story.” Newton said advisers to Communications Minister Stephen Conroy have told ISPs that Internet content filtering will be mandatory for all users. The government reported it does not expected to prescribe which filtering technologies ISPs can use, and will only set blacklists of filtered content, supplied by the Australia Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

EFA chair Dale Clapperton said in a previous article that Internet content filtering could lead to censorship of drugs, political dissident and other legal freedoms. “Once the public has allowed the system to be established, it is much easier to block other material,” Clapperton said. According to preliminary trials , the best Internet content filters would incorrectly block about 10,000 Web pages from one million.