Network 13
Connecting 2 Schools Via Digital Postcards
Inspired by two highly innovative educational projects - Room
13 and Streaming
Stories - Network 13 was established to create a
communication channel between two schools based ??? miles apart. |
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| Project Outline |
Network 13 enables the students of Hareclive
Primary School (Bristol) and Caol
Primary School (Fort William, Scotland) to communicate
with each other via digital postcards.
Similar in layout and intention to traditional postcards, the
digital postcards created by the students can contain a variety
of digital media - including images, audio, video and words.
These postcards act as a communication channel through which
students can exchange not just their artwork, but their experience
of their schools and life in general. |
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| The Interface |
The website interface was designed to be intuitive
and fun to use. It uses a similar system to many email applications
- allowing users to create, save, delete and receive 'mail'.
The process begins with the students creating the content
to send to each other. This often consists of scanning or
photographing their existing artwork. More often than not
however, the students are encouraged to create work specifically
for this project - work that ideally 'replies' in some way
to postcards that they have received.
Throught the project, the idea of creating a dialogue with
other students, and responding to postcards with relevant
content is encouraged.
After logging into the site with their unique password, each
student goes to their personalised homepage that displays
Network 13 news and thumbnail images of all the pupils in
the other school that they are able to communicate with.
By clicking on a pupil, they then get directed to a "Create
Postcard" page that allows them to create and send a
digital postcard to their contemporaries.
Once their content has been uploaded to their personal folder
on the website, they can then select their preferred media
and arrange it in the form of a postcard. They can insert
a variety of media into their postcard - including photographs,
video, audio and a short message.
The pupil's Inbox and Outbox then grow to contain all postcards
that they have sent and received...
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| The Digital Postcards |
Network 13 is not a publicly viewable web space,
although a public gallery will soon be available.
The digital postcards take many forms - and allow much room
for creativity.
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| Forum Highlights |
As well as communicating through digital postcards,
the students can exchange ideas via an online forum - giving
them the opportunity to talk about interesting issues. And football...
Pupil 1:
Hey, wot team do u support coz if its Rangers Woohoo if its
anything else rubbish (boo)
Pupil
2:
Hi Rangers are rubbish
Celtic are way better
Wotz up after school????
Pupil
1:
your way wrong! and after school i dont no wat am doin but r
we still goin for a sammys!x (squeak,squeak) |
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