mySF Project blog

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” /

The twenty-fourth podcast for teachers of secondary students studying Science Fiction, discussing the Pixar animation Wall-E in terms of teaching this excellent gem of a movie to younger secondary students as part of a study of artificial intelligence or humankind’s complex relationships with machines.

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

The text of this podcast can be found in the mySF Project Scripts section of the mySF Project, including a resource list and links to related sites and sources.

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-five minutes.

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

mySF Project podcast, number 24
Direct download: mysf_024_2009_06_21.mp3
length=”12372096″ type=”audio/mpeg” /

The twenty-third podcast for teachers of secondary students studying Science Fiction, discussing the use of X Minus One dramas as ‘Ready to go’ podcasts.

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

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

Podcast 23 discusses the use of the X Minus One series of radio dramas produced in the 1950s and now available as podcasts as ‘Good to go’ podcasts for students. Podcast original authors include Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Clifford Simak, Robert Bloch and others. The suitability of the adaptations of these stories as scaffolding for studies with their advantages and disadvantages is aimed at middle to upper secondary students and their teachers. The podcast includes brief ideas for assessment tasks with some use of evidence from sources to support these uses.

The purpose of the podcast is to join other educators to collaborate on the construction of great SF teaching resources. The podcast is 16M 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 23
Direct download: mysf_023_2009_04_25.mp3
length=”16178450″ 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
length=”30886434″ type=”audio/mpeg” /

The twenty-first podcast for teachers of secondary students studying Science Fiction, discussing the film ‘Eagle Eye’.

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

The podcast discusses the use of the film Eagle Eye directed by DJ Caruso for use with secondary students studying Science Fiction in the area of artificial intelligence, within the Ghost in the Shell theme area of the mySF Project.

Before disucssing the 2008 film, the podcast looks at several texts dealing with the intrusion into privacy by modern technologies, conspiracy theories and the idea of a vastly powerful, networked computer mind choreographing human behaviour. While the film Eagle Eye is pretty weak, the podcast looks at the way some of the ideas can be used productively, including making the discussion authentic through the examination of the students’ own use of mobile technologies, or the school’s surveillance of the students … for their own good.

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 8.4M in size, in mp3 format, running for about twelve minutes.

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

mySF Project podcast, number 21
Direct download: mysf_021_2008_12_29.mp3
length=”8828763″ type=”audio/mpeg” /

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” /

The nineteenth podcast for teachers of secondary students studying Science Fiction, discussing the ‘Year’s Best Science Fiction’, 22nd Annual Collection anthology.

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

This blog and podcast is the fifth and final part of a discussion of the Year’s Best Science Fiction, 22nd Annual Collection anthology, edited by Gardner Dozois, as a valuable, one-volume text for teaching modern SF.

Seven stories from the anthology are discussed in Part 5, including stories by Robert Reed, James L Cambias, Eleanor Arnason, Peter F Hamilton, Paul Di Fillipio and Walter John Williams, in relation to the five themes of SF studied at the secondary level .

If you want to read more about the mySF Project you can find an overview at the Microsoft Education website.

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 23M in size, in mp3 format, running for thirty-three minutes anmd including a last overview of the whole anthology as a teaching text.

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

mySF Project podcast, number 19
Direct download: mysf_019_2008_07_17.mp3
length=”23979867″ type=”audio/mpeg” /

The eighteenth podcast for teachers of secondary students studying Science Fiction, discussing the ‘Year’s Best Science Fiction’, 22nd Annual Collection anthology.

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

This blog and podcast is the fourth part of a discussion of the Year’s Best Science Fiction, 22nd Annual Collection anthology, edited by Gardner Dozois, as a valuable, one-volume text for teaching modern SF.

Five stories from the anthology are discussed in Part 4, including stories by Colin P Davies, Stephen Baxter, Caitlin R Kiernan and Brendan Du Bois, in relation to the five themes of SF studied at the secondary level . If you want to read more about the mySF Project you can find an overview at the Microsoft Education website.

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 14M 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 18
Direct download: mysf_018_2008_07_16.mp3
length=”14383462″ type=”audio/mpeg” /

The seventeenth podcast for teachers of secondary students studying Science Fiction, discussing the ‘Year’s Best Science Fiction’, 22nd Annual Collection anthology.

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

This blog and podcast is the third part of a discussion of the Year’s Best Science Fiction, 22nd Annual Collection anthology, edited by Gardner Dozois, as a valuable, one-volume text for teaching modern SF.

Five stories from the anthology are discussed in Part 3, including stories by Vernor Vinge, Mary Rosenbaum, Vandana Singh, Albert E Cowdrey, William Sanders and Daniel Abraham, 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 20M 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 17
Direct download: mysf_017_2008_07_15.mp3
length=”20648461″ type=”audio/mpeg” /

The sixteenth podcast for teachers of secondary students studying Science Fiction, discussing the ‘Year’s Best Science Fiction’, 22nd Annual Collection anthology.

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

This blog and podcast is the second part of a discussion of the Year’s Best Science Fiction, 22nd Annual Collection anthology, edited by Gardner Dozois, as a valuable, one-volume text for teaching modern SF.

Five stories from the anthology are discussed in Part 2, including stories by Michael F Flynn, M John Harrison, Terry Bisson, James Patrick Kelly and Kage Baker, 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 15M 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 16
Direct download: mysf_016_2008_07_14.mp3
length=”15025761″ type=”audio/mpeg” /