mySF Project blog

The thirty-fifth podcast reviews a new text for teachers of Science Fiction, Exploring Genre: Science Fiction, designed for Australian students from Year Nine to Twelve, making comparisons with Booker and Thomas’ The Science Fiction Handbook.

This podcast is included as a script through the mySF Project Scripts index page .

This podcast relates to the mySF Project, created in 2005 and still growing.

The mySF Project is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License. Enjoy!

mySF Project podcast, number 35
Direct download: mysf_035_2010_11_15.mp3
length=”10263596″ type=”audio/mpeg”

Direct Download URLs
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Direct download: mysf_035_2010_11_15.mp3
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Enclosure

The thirty-first podcast reviews and recommends Richard Harland’s World Shaker as well as Otomo’s anime film Steamboy as part of the study of Steampunk, a subgenre of Science Fiction.

This podcast relates to the mySF Project, created in 2005 and still growing.

This podcast is included as a script through the mySF Project Scripts section at Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

mySF Project podcast, number 31
Direct download: mysf_031_2010_04_21.mp3
length=”24968508″ type=”audio/mpeg”

The thirtieth podcast reviews and recommends The Science Fiction Handbook and suggests lesson plans, discussions, research topics and essay ideas based on this fine text, for students looking at Wells’ influential novellas.

This podcast relates to the mySF Project, created in 2005 and still growing.

This podcast is included as a script through the mySF Project Scripts section at mySF Podcast podcast script 30.

Podcast 30 looks in some detail at The Science Fiction Handbook by Booker and Thomas as a valuable resource for teachers of secondary Science Fiction, then suggests some ideas for using their powerful articles with Wells’ novellas The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds.

The purpose of the podcast is to join other educators to collaborate on the construction of great SF teaching resources. The podcast is 24M in size, in mp3 format, running for twenty-four minutes.

The mySF Project is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

mySF Project podcast, number 30
Direct download = mysf_030_2010_02_13.mp3
length = “26889908″
type=”audio/mpeg”

The twenty-ninth podcast looks at the Young Adults novel Taronga by Victor Kelleher, as taught to Year 8, English students looking at the sub-genre of Post-Apocalyptic fiction within Science Fiction.

This podcast relates to the mySF Project, created in 2005 and still growing.

This podcast is included as a script through the mySF Project Scripts section of the mySF Project.

Podcast 29 discusses the use of Taronga for Year 8 English students, covering the use of symbols and analogies in the text.Taronga also presents motifs and backdrops well-known within the Post-Apocalyptic sub-genre and is useful for eliciting both creative and analytical responses from students to this memorable and visual text. Finally, the short novel provides a popular model for analysing other texts within the sub-genre.

The full script for this podcast including a resource list of references can be found at http://www.pataphysics.net.au/mysf_project/mysf_scripts/mysf_script_podcast29.htm. Additional materials for the focus class on Post-Apocalyptic fiction as well as the special school project to create this project can be found at http://www.pataphysics.net.au/mysf_project/mysf_scripts/taronga/mysf_script_taronga.htm

The purpose of the podcast is to join other educators to collaborate on the construction of great SF teaching resources. The podcast is 19.5M in size, in mp3 format, running for twenty minutes.

The mySF Project is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

mySF Project podcast, number 29
Direct download:
mysf_029_2010_01_11.mp3
Length=”20371187″ type=”audio/mpeg”

The twenty-sixth podcast for teachers of secondary students studying Science Fiction, discussing Speculative Fiction with teacher and rising author, Conor Bendl.

This podcast relates to the mySF Project, created in 2005 and still growing.

This podcast is not included as a script but there are links to Conor Bendl’s fictions published in anthologies by the Canberra Science Fiction Guild found through the mySF Project Scripts section of the mySF Project.

Podcast 26 talks with Conor Bendl about aspects of the Speculative Fiction unit he teaches to upper secondary students as well as his own fiction and his upcoming debut SF novel.

The purpose of the podcast is to join other educators to collaborate on the construction of great SF teaching resources. The podcast is 10M in size, in mp3 format, running for twenty-eight minutes.

The mySF Project is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

mySF Project podcast, number 26
Direct download: mysf_026_2009_06_26.mp3
length=”10565426″ type=”audio/mpeg” /

The twenty-fifth podcast for teachers of secondary students studying Science Fiction, discussing the recent Australian National University (ANU) course ‘Speculative Fictions’ with its author and chief lecturer.

This podcast relates to the mySF Project, created in 2005.

This podcast is not included as a script but there is a sample essay, by kind permission of Jane, one of the students in Rich Pascal’s Speculative Fictions course. This essay received a fine grade and relates to critical views of two texts, Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus and William Gibson’s Neuromancer found through the mySF Project Scripts section of the mySF Project.

Podcast 25 asks the author of the ‘Speculative Fictions’ course at the ANU about this unusual course with a special attention given to the SF aspects of the course. The discussion covers texts, the relationships between the three genres covered by the course and its reception by tertiary students.

The purpose of the podcast is to join other educators to collaborate on the construction of great SF teaching resources. The podcast is 12M in size, in mp3 format, running for twenty-eight minutes.

The mySF Project is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

mySF Project podcast, number 25
Direct download: http://media.libsyn.com/media/pataphysics/mysf_025_2009_06_23.mp3
length=”12371427″ type=”audio/mpeg” /

mySF Project podcast, number 21: I am Legend

This podcast relates to the mySF Project, created in 2005 and still growing!

The podcast discusses the use of the novel and film I am Legend for use with secondary students studying Science Fiction. These texts and many of the associated ideas for the Last Man and post-Apocalyptic narratives can fit into the Shape of Things to Come theme area of the mySF Project.

There have been three film treatments of Richard Matheson’s novel I am Legend. The podcast discusses the novel and its precursors including Mary Shelley’s The Last Man. Two film adaptations of the novel are analysed, showing how the Last Man model can be used for social criticism with a longer look at the new I am Legend film starring Will Smith. Two derivative films useful for discussing racism and gender (The World, the Flesh and the Devil and The Quiet Earth) are noted with ideas for teaching, then the podcast ends with different uses for the Last Man or post-Apocalyptic text, including comparisons with the short stories “‘The End of the World as we Know it’” and “‘The Smile’”.

The text of this podcast can be found in the mySF Project Scripts section of the mySF Project.

The purpose of the podcast is to join other educators to collaborate on the construction of great SF teaching resources. The podcast is 30M in size, in mp3 format, running for a worrying forty-five minutes.

The mySF Project is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

mySF Project podcast, number 22
Direct download: mysf_022_2009_01_15.mp3
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The twentieth podcast for teachers of secondary students studying Science Fiction, discussing the film version of ‘The Children of Men’.

This podcast relates to the mySF Project, created in 2005 and still growing.

The podcast is an interview with a doctoral student at the Australian National University, Viv, who published a thesis in late 2007 on the film version of “The Children of Men”, directed by Alfonso Cuaron.

Viv recommends “The Children of Men” as a major new text for Science Fiction studies and comes up with some compelling arguments to support her case. She will be speaking on her research at a conference in New Zealand in November.

“The Children of Men” DVD fits very neatly into the theme area of Visions of the Future within the mySF Project. It has great discussion points for middle and upper secondary students including an oppressive dystopia of the near future, the forever war against terror, the treatment of immigrants, the end of capitalism … and many more.

The purpose of the podcast is to join other educators to collaborate on the construction of great SF teaching resources. The podcast is 22M in size, in mp3 format, running for about twenty-five minutes.

The mySF Project is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

mySF Project podcast, number 20
Direct download: mysf_020_2008_10_14.mp3
length=”23341623″ type=”audio/mpeg” /

mySF Project podcast, number 14: Nebula Awards Showcase 2006, Part 2

This podcast relates to the mySF Project, created in 2005 and still growing!

This blog and podcast is Part 2 of 2 discussing the Nebula Awards Showcase 2006 text as a valuable, one-volume text for teaching modern SF. The stories from the anthology and their commentaries are discussed, in relation to the five themes of SF studied at the secondary level .

The text of this podcast can be found in the mySF Project Scripts section of the mySF Project.

The purpose of the podcast is to join other educators to collaborate on the construction of great SF teaching resources. The podcast is 25M in size, in mp3 format.

The mySF Project is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

mySF Project podcast, number 14
Direct download: mysf_014_2008_04_22.mp3

length=”25233281″ type=”audio/mpeg” /

The eighth podcast for students studying in one of the five, thematic units within the mySF Project is offered here.

This podcast is the first part of the support notes as podcasts of the mySF Project, created in 2005 and still growing!. This blog attaches the part one of the first podcast overview of the ‘Brave New World’ theme area. This is a major theme in the study of SF at the secondary level and originally it was aimed at students in a largish high school in Canberra, Australia. If you want to read more about the mySF Project you can find an overview at the Microsoft Education website.

The podcast draws together comments on the use of SF in modern society focusing on the theme area of Brave New World, a look at genetic engineering narratives in SF, within the mySF Project. Its purpose is to excite, interest and involve students in Years 9 and 10 with the SF content they will be studying for ten learning episodes, equating flexibly to ten weeks for face-to-face students. The podcast is around 4.8M in size, in mp3 format.

This podcast discusses the four short stories accessed in learning episode two , by Fritz Leiber, Theodore Sturgeon,and Greg Bear.

The mySF Project is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

The point of the podcast here is to share resources with other educators teaching SF to secondary students and to spark discussion, criticism and collaboration. Please use and respond, if you have time.

mySF Project podcast, number 8
Direct download: mysf_008_2008_02_16.mp3
length=”4444386″ type=”audio/mpeg” /