Activity 2: Using Blogs for structured learning activities

Below is a series of tasks that Scott posted on his classroom blog a couple of years back. Have a play. Having a classblog is another place to give students direction and free up your time to work/talk with them individually.

writing task 5 - corporate and political subversion

OK, it's time to get on your soapbox ... time to get political and angry about all those mean, greedy and cold hearted people in the world who tread upon us 'bleeding hearts'.There have been a couple of interesting issues in the media lately that you will research and form your own views about. These issues relate to politics, media manipulation, and the ideal of free speech. Make sure you take the time to read critically and try to understand how the presentation of the issue might be biased.

1. Michael Moore and his latest film Fahernheit 9/11
Research the controversy over Moore's new film. What groups are involved? What are people saying about it? Why has there been this reaction to the film? What were Moore's reasons for making the film? What are his critics saying? What award did the film recently win?(approx. 150 words)
Michael Moore's website
Moore's mission: get Bush (the age)

2. Super Size Me! - overweight culture and the fast-food lifestyle.
Morgan Spurlock ate McDonalds every meal for a month. WHY? Find out what the deal is and why he did it. What point is he trying to make? What happended to Spurlock during the filming? What is being said about the film by critics? How has McDonalds responded? What other problems/controversey has McDonalds been involved in the past? (approx 150 words)

Check out these links to get you started on this one:
Mac attack (the age)
Eyes on the fries (the age)
The good burghers of Macca's (the age)
Super Size Me website

3. Culturejamming and the art of the sniggle
What other kinds of subversive political or anit-commercial activity can you find online? There are thousands of websites, blogs, ezines, games, etc. that satirise (poke fun at) politicans and corporations. This kind of social comment is often called sniggling or culture jamming, and has become a popular way of getting an 'alternative' message across in the media. See what you can find.

What kinds of subversive activities could you become involved in? What needs changing in your local area? At school? How would you go about conducting a campaign to comment on and change whatever the problem might be? How successful do you think you would likey be? (150 words)

Begin with the following links, but you may also want to try searching for relevant terms:
Adbusters Culturejammers
Subvertise.org
Sniggle.net - the culture jammer's encyclopedia
Corporate Watch
CORPwatch

When you have finished the above tasks, have a look at this example of satire

There are plenty of other examples available all over the web. Try a google search for 'class blogs' or something like that. You can have a look at another (rather shortlived!) example here. Natalie used this blog when she was working with a Foundation English class on the 'Communication and the workplace' area of study.

Other examples:
Jo's class blog
11e's class blog
Miss Cleine's class blog
ap english juniors