Remove.bg is a website that allows you to upload an image or add a link to an image before it magically removes the background. And all of this happens in 5 seconds or less! I have uploaded a couple of images and it works like a treat.

Call in the Removing Team

The service is free, but only for images of up to .25 megapixels, which is 625 pixels by 400 pixels. Alternatively, there are various subscription services that allow you to upload images up to a whopping 4 megapixels or 2500 pixels by 1600 pixels.

There are a bunch of simple uses for this neat little website, both in the classroom and beyond. For example, earlier this year we opened our first maker space/media lab. Our tech club students wanted to create a community board, which would be made up of portrait photos of each student, plus a background of their choice. So they used remove.bg – with awesome results 🙂

In fact, I also used it to remove background pixels from personality photos of our seniors that I needed to add to the yearbook. I did use it for one of the images, but the lighting in some of the other photos we took was too dark, so remove.bg had a hard time separating the subjects and the background.

Overall, I adore this program for making what can be an onerous task, into a very simple one. Check remove.bg out here.

The core social skills and cultural competencies discussed in the Digital Media and Learning paper are ever prevalent and there are countless opportunities to help our students acquire them, to become empowered contributors.  Negotiation is one that I find particularly important, as our students are presented with diverse online communities as soon as they log in to their preferred game or social media account. I also agree that there is no real central education experience for our students, given the pace at which technology changes. However, I believe that we are experiencing a paradigm shift in our mindset about technology and media.

As smartphone technological developments have plateaued, along with sales, we have a chance to reflect not just on the products we are using to consume media, but media itself! It was only yesterday that an op-ed in the New York Times, by a co-founder of Facebook (Chris Hughes), said that “It’s time that we break up Facebook.” If indeed it will be broken up I hope that we fill the void with something much more responsible and positive…

Stormbreaker

Policies don’t empower people to make stakeholders make positive contributions, but the people who write them do. After reading the amazing blog by Scott McLeod, where he hits the big, ugly rule enforcer otherwise known as the AUP with Thor’s Stormbreaker, and ends up with a delightfully simple EUP (I prefer the acronym PUP; positive user policy, but only because I like dogs). It is bewildering and simple, and I love it because it has changed the way I look at technology and how we can supercharge our students to become empowered contributors.

McLeod’s wisdom is reflected in his TEDx talk as well. I mean we have this fantastic nine-year-old, who started off her online presence by rating her school dinners, and ended up starting a lunchtime revolution in the UK; despite the best efforts of the school board to thwart her. The other examples Mr. McLeod mentions are invigorating and should serve as an inspiration to us all, and remind us to see the good in people.

Diamonds in the Rough

Feeling like I have just drunk from the Holy Grail, I set about reading our school’s AUP and oh dear it did make not make for a pleasant bedtime story. Many of the sentences started to like the ten commandments “I will not” or “I will follow”, not the most inspiring and these will most certainly require a reboot that Disney would be proud of. Having said that, I did spot a diamond or two in the rough. Buried in the jumble I spied a sparkle in the shape of the following two sentences “I will cite other people’s work” and “I will use tech tools in a responsible way”; there is hope. I will take these as a starting point to build a powerful and positive user policy.

Typically we share these documents by getting our students to sign for them when they take their school-allocated Macbook at the beginning of the academic year – not much of a discussion I am afraid. Nonetheless, starting in the new school year, not only will our school have a shiny new EUP/PUP, but it will be introduced to students and teachers on a class-by-class basis, with examples of how to empower themselves in the digital world; and will be referred to throughout the year in a positive light. Furthermore, I will follow up with parents to show them how together, we can create the next generation of empowered contributors/creators.

Pause and reflect

Media literacy is one area that I keep re-visiting, probably because I am still developing my understanding of it. I came across an informative video from Crash Course, in which they describe, at 100mph, what media literacy is. They give examples of each of the main parts of media literacy which are; Access – Analyze – Evaluate – Create – Act and they go on to talk about the herculean Stuart Hall, and the research that he did in the 1970s regarding how messages are encoded by the creators and decoded by the consumers. It is mind-blowing in its simplicity. And should be shown to students to help them become empowered contributors.

I see a golden opportunity here to move forwards with media literacy at the center of our technology teachings, thinking, policies, and vision at our schools. If we manage to weave media literacy into our educational ethos, it may break down the barrage of fake news, disruption, and unpleasantness online.

For me, successful integration of media literacy looks like when we pause and reflect after consuming online material, question its authenticity, and discuss it with our friends. I will most certainly use it to inform my school’s new EUP/PUP.

Points of View

I don’t think we can ever fully learn how to be empathetic because in order to do so you would need to be able to see each and every situation from someone else’s point of view. Sure I have read books that have covered this mythical topic, such as “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie, in which he gives some pretty good scenarios. But for teachers, or anyone working with large groups of people, this is our daily struggle; but also why we keep coming back for more. It is also a vital step in becoming an empowered contributor, as it helps one understand their audience.

I think one of the most important things to build empathy is to listen to the person or conversation. And don’t listen so that you can respond, listen to understand what the person is saying to you! I think this may help you understand the person more, and therefore build up a picture of where they are coming from which in turn may help you become more empathetic.

Having said all of the above I don’t think I have the secret answer to building empathy, but I do know the signs of when we are not doing a good enough job. When communications break down, and people argue, this is a sign that the ability to be empathetic has become fragile. I also believe that digital empathy is much harder to build than traditional empathy.

It reminds me of when I spoke to a group of students about their use of social media, and they collectively said that they preferred to talk face-to-face, because the chances of them misreading a conversation were much less likely than when they were texting each other. Onwards and upwards.
DQ World, the digital citizenship learning platform has a unit on this – suitable for Grades 3-6

I worked with an awesome group of educators to get the final project completed (social media policy). They were organized and well-informed, with a Google Drive setup to store any documents, and Slack used to communicate with each other.

For me, the timing was not great, as it coincided with my first attempt at completing a Yearbook. I categorically underestimated how much of my life would be consumed by this herculean task, so I was not able to dive head-first in with my group. Having said that they were incredibly patient with me. I have not collaborated with people from 3 other countries before, so the experience was brand new to me. I am used to dropping by someone’s classroom or office during the day, so not being able to be physically in the room with my co-conspirators was somewhat alien to me. The bit I enjoyed the most was using comments in Google Docs to highlight points and resolve them later on.

The policy idea was Ryan’s and I immediately jumped on board, as our school also doesn’t have one; but it is in desperate need of such a thing! The standards addressed in the policy cover all stakeholders in our school community and are written in a way that is accessible to them. Like in the week 5 task, we want to empower our students, faculty, and families to be positive with their online identities, but to keep the bigger picture at the back of their minds when doing so. The policy language also links snuggly with the learning around turning an AUP into a EUP. In the content section, we talk about respecting and citing other people’s work. There is a section on well-being and relationships, which ties in ever so nicely with empathy.

For the most part, the social media policy is so open-minded in nature that it could potentially serve any school. The only change that I feel I needed to change was the trip section, as we use Padlet to communicate school trip information and updates. I also added WeChat as our messaging group of choice, given that so many other options are blocked here in China; the preferred one being Whatsapp.

For anyone that is interested I will be facilitating, along with 7 other teaching legends, the previous final project at my school tomorrow; it is due to last all week. I will add a few blog updates during the week, for the first-ever week of coding at SCIS!

Happy Sunday all

Social Media Policy @ SCIS

The day I found out Morgan Freeman had (allegedly) died was a dark one and one that I had been misinformed by the most (un)reliable of news sources Facebook. The story had originated from Action News 3 and had been shared and posted all over the shop. Thankfully the voice of the Shawshank Redemption is alive and well. There is so much fake news out there that needs to improve media literacy skills is greater than ever.

I believe that some news purveyors have misinterpreted the THINK acronym and replaced it with FUN (False Unnecessary Nuisance) instead. More recently I was also misinformed regarding the tragic terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka, when the BBC and CNN had reported, based on information from government sources, death tolls of over 350; only to be revised down, thankfully, to 253, days later (source BBC).

Cabin in the Woods

The amount of misinformation and the speed at which it spreads is shocking, or is it? We live at a time when we want to get the latest Notre Dam billionaire benefactor news, Trump tweet, or Games of Thrones analysis as soon as possible. We want the shock and awe, so I am not in the least bit surprised that this misinformation has spread so quickly that it has matched that of a measles outbreak contagion rate; which is another great example of misinformation – well done anti vaxxcers. Furthermore, just look at the percentage of US urbanites using social media*, and isn’t this also where, according to a Wired article, 68% of respondents in a Pew survey, say they get their news from. A whopping 75% of US adults urbanites in January 2018.

Maybe the only way to avoid being misinformed is to live in a cabin in the woods.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

“We send the EU £350 million a week” was the incorrect number displayed on a large red bus during the disastrously run Brexit campaign, and it was one that some of my more right of center minded colleagues back in London (I didn’t have many) fell for. And by fell, I mean that they went on to vote to leave the EU, their decision partially based on this fake news. The number has been proven to be incorrect by various news organizations including Channel 4 News, BBC, and The Guardian; based on information from fullfact.org. I will stop here for the sake of getting into a political rant and move on to how our more vulnerable students are being hoodwinked by the media.

A story that gripped Grade 4,5 and 6 students throughout our school and perhaps beyond, was the 14 Days of Fortnite alleged extension. Despite having how long the event would last in the title, according to a story from slashgear.com (with an official tweet from Epic) some social media users had planted the seed that the event would be extended – it wasn’t. Now although this may seem trivial to me, it is the center of a lot of young gamers’ universe, and as such, they were let down by the failed promise of an extension on the event.

I am in partial agreement with some of the experts, according to this PEW article, and think that technology only serves to aid the dark side of humanity. However, I believe that with the increase in fake news, will also come a rise in societies’ (perhaps aided by ethical technology) perception to weed out the wheat from the chaff. I think we are on the cusp of a technological seachange of not believing the first tweet that pops up in our feed.  And maybe, in time, much like the boy that cried wolf, we will pay less attention to the people and platforms spreading the misinformation.

So how will I improve the media literacy skills of my students? See below.

Consuming and Sharing

“What actions might you take to support your students in responsibly consuming and sharing information?” A good starting point would be to deconstruct what each of these words means i.e. responsible – consume – share.

1. To be responsible means that you take ownership of something, whether it turns out to be good or bad.
2. To consume would mean to use something, in this case, read, watch, or play.
3. To share means to pass something on that you have consumed.

Now that I’ve got my elementary definitions out of the way, I need the plan to disseminate this to my students, colleagues, and friends; and I can think of an example* starting with the own news that I consume and in turn share. *Thanks to itstillworks.com for the inspiration and IFLA for the fantastic critical thinking poster.

Step 1: After reading or watching a news story verify the author. Check what articles they have written in the past. Is there any bias? Which websites, companies or news channels, and magazines have they written for in the past?

Step 2: Compare the story to other stories on other reputable websites. Are there any consistencies between the facts reported? Are there any citations?

Step 3: Re-read the information after confirming with other sources. Check the date it was written. Try to see it from another person’s point of view. Try not to let your own bias influence you.

Step 4: Share on a media platform of your choice and await the replies, comments, likes, retweets, and so on.

All I need to do now is come up with an awesome infographic and change the words around until I have a very cool acronym.

P.s. I would like to leave the readers with a link to a very good book relating to this week’s topic – Media Manipulation – Trust Me I’m Lying

This week’s task regarding privacy has a high potential for being mostly a generational problem. As a borderline Gen X’er, when I created my first Yahoo, and subsequently Hotmail, email accounts – not only would I give a fake name, but I also submitted a fake date of birth. My reason for doing this way back in 1997? Simple – I did not know to who I was giving my details, therefore I calculated that it was safer to give fake details – rather than have my real personal details out there. In this blog, I will attempt to address the question of how to contribute authentically whilst protecting privacy.

Oh, how times have changed. Not only do I not use my yahoo email address anymore, but when I have conversations with my Gen Z students, they seem somewhat blasé to handing over these details. Conceivably this is because they are used to entering and uploading a whole host of personal information. It could be they just don’t think about it as much as I did- despite the fact that data breaches/leaks/hacks appear in an almost weekly news cycle. So let’s try to find that desirable middle ground, and get out students to share openly, whilst protecting their privacy at the same time.

Where is the Gap?

The Participatory Culture paper has more depth than a Game of Thrones episode, but reading through this week’s readings reminded me of when I taught in Cambodia…

I made a few Khmer friends over my three years there. And back when I used Facebook, they were also friends there too. What I was initially curious about was what kind of things they decided to share on social media, such as (lots of) selfies, what they were eating and checking into, live streams of seemingly innocuous scenarios, and so on – but meanwhile, they seemed to be impervious of how many people had access to this information. All too often they just assumed that only their friends could see their posts, not friends of friends and so on. For me, the gap here was not in the technology available to people in less well-off financial circumstances, but in the boundaries of what could/should be shared and with whom, and how this created a digital footprint that had the potential to be permanent. They were so many gaps I didn’t know what to think or where to start.

ctions Speak Louder Than Words

Always have done – so what did I do to maintain my students’ privacy and that of my own? Well for starters I got my students to create a website that would go on to serve as a repository and portfolio for their learning at school. They could upload their work from all of their subjects, choosing which pieces to upload. We used Google Sites for this, as it was simple and easy to use, and we could control who could see it. Next up I told them to add their first names only, no surnames, email addresses, home addresses, or any other personal information. Finally, they could upload a picture of themselves, but with a twist. I instructed my students to use Avatar Maker to create a fun picture of themselves. So in essence they were able to create a digital footprint, which allowed them to contribute authentically, whilst maintaining a sense of privacy, albeit playfully – not dishonestly.

I do practice what I preach. I have a website called Techned, on which you will find no personal information of mine. I do identify myself as a technology teacher, who teaches internationally. I also share resources and add reviews; of late it has been more dormant than an episode of Firefly. So I consider this a good example to use with my students on how to contribute.

Small Print

There really is some incredible, and sometimes downright scary, readings this week. Many of these have led me to think that we might not be doing enough to protect our students’ privacy. Sure, we have a school AUP and digital citizenship lessons – but there is room for improvement. The Eduator Toolkit is more readable than a menu from Burger King. It reminded me of something we do at school, which is to ask students to register and install apps – which in some cases prompt students to enter in their own personal information. For example, Fusion 360 requires students to enter in their name, D.O.B., school name & address, plus graduation date! It is a lot. Much of the data is needed to verify the student is in fact eligible for a free account, but what else could the data be used for or passed onto?

Recently I used remove.bg with some students in an after-school club. They decided that they create a community board, where each club member’s picture would be displayed, against a background of their choice. Beforehand I had checked the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and was relieved to find that any pictures uploaded to their servers would be deleted within the hour! The documents did take some time to digest, but given that we were uploading pictures it was important to know where they went – it pays to read the small print.

Memorable Quotes

I do like some of George Soros’ quotes, particularly when I can find a way to relate to them. In January 2018 he said, “Mining and oil companies exploit the physical environment; social media companies exploit the social environment.” This point seems to be echoed in the New York Times opinion piece when Zeynep Tufekci talks about the leaked article which describes how Facebook is predicting when young people were feeling insecure or worthless; just by monitoring their posts! Again, this prompted me to rethink my thinking on how to educate students to protect their information.

With or Without the Mask

Occasionally I despair at the actions of the tech and social media giants. I wonder what can we do as teachers. What can we do against this tidal wave of information? But then again I think that if we don’t do anything it will hardly make things better. To begin with, we can act as guides, and light the way for our students and the next generation to change the nature of the internet into a more pleasant place.

There is the question so purposefully posed by COETAIL “How do you contribute authentically while protecting privacy?” Ouch – now that is a good one.

Let’s begin at the end… Charlie Warzel, New York Times, argues that we need to radically expand on the definition of privacy – I could not agree more if someone asked me did I want 8 weeks’ worth of holiday at the end of the school year. Once we educate both ourselves and our students on what privacy is, then we can start taking appropriate steps to protect it.

Now let’s go back to the beginning – Authenticity. I know that a lot of people – myself not included as I am holier than thou – prefer anonymity over authenticity – check out this Guardian article from a few years back. When we put on the mask, we adopt the devil may care attitude, we are more likely to take risks with our comments but only because we are free from being judged by our peers.

In class, I played out this drama with Padlet. At first, I created a Padlet page, where the students had to log in with their accounts before adding a comment for a given question; meaning that I could see who said what. Then, in a different lesson, I changed the Padlet settings so that the students didn’t have to log in, and therefore contribute anonymously. Predictably, the anonymous comments were more detailed than their named counterparts.

Definitely, is a lot of work to do on how to contribute authentically whilst protecting privacy.