Practitioners
Alison Wotherspoon
“What’s nice for everybody is it gets them using technology to
counter bullying. The kids can be creative, they can have fun with it,
and it’s empowering…”
Background Information
Alison Wotherspoon is Senior Lecturer in Screen Studies at Adelaide’s Flinders University. She came up with the idea of an anti-cyber bullying project for young people. This became a partnership between Flinders University, South Australia’s Department of Education and Children’s Services (DECS) and the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT).
Alison, how did the idea of promoting anty-cyber bullying through mobile phone media producteions come about?
I was at a mobile movie workshop thinking “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to have kids in schools making mobile movies about anti-bullying!” To be able to send something creative around with a positive message! So we approached DECS and received Commonwealth funding as part of National Safe Schools Week.
The plan was for the phone movies to be free to share if using broadband, USB connections, memory cards or Bluetooth.
Young people could also enter their work in some of the mobile phone festival competitions – or upload their creations to a website for sharing with others anywhere in Australia. This would provide a really creative space for kids to stand up against bullying.
How did you go about it?
We put on a one-day workshop which aimed to give young people the skills to make their own creative content for mobile phones, tell their stories - and present their solutions to bullying. Participants wrote, shot and edited their own animations – all based on the idea of ‘a creative way of dealing with bullying’.
How did it go?
It’s been a fun project for everybody. The young people are now empowered to use technology and freeware in creative and constructive ways to counter bullying. On top of that, they can now see some of their work through Bullying. No way!
What was the highlight for you?
What I thought was great about the phone movies is they each reflected the culture or interests of the schools and students that made them. For example, St George College’s clip targeted the right of boys to be ballet dancers and not be teased. Cabra Dominican College came up with a film about compromise and ethnic difference through the examples of sushi and pie. Banksia Park International High School had made plasticine figurines which the impact of being bullied …all the schools were really fantastic!
Were there any difficulties in using the technology?
What we were finding (this was really neat!) was that the students were teaching the adults. Quite often they were more technically proficient than the grown ups. It was a great chance for the kids to have equal power with the teachers rather than being the lower power in schools - for staff and students in schools - to share knowledge and power.
What's next?
The plan is to find the money, do it again and have more lead up time for the students to come up with their scripts. Also, to have trainers go into schools to work with the students for 1-2 days. That way the schools can train themselves up.
More info about Alison's work
Flinders University - Alison's biography and work interests.
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