Happy Fat Gourg Day!

Happy Fat Gourg Day!

Fat Gourg is the monster drawn in the Monster Motel by Luke when he was 7 (see previous blog post). Both the monster and Luke have become famous since some French artists adopted him as their mascot.

Today is Fat Gourg day - because it's the 8th of the 8th and the roundness of the letters reflect the roundness of Fat Gourg's plump body!

Writing on Kids on the Net can make you famous!

Regular visitors to the eTeachers' Portal and Kids on the Net will know about the Monster Motel, a project which has been on the Web for ten years.

Following on from Saturday's Leicester Mercury newspaper story about the search by a group of young French artists to find the artist who drew Fat Gourg in the Monster Motel, and become an internet craze in France, the story hit the local TV yesterday. It's already made it onto YouTube (no I didn't put it up there!).

Unfortunately the interview they did with me ended up on the cutting room floor. That's probably because I gushed about how wonderful the Internet is as an opportunity for children to write to the world. And how SAFE it is, if it is a well-moderated site.

All writing that is submitted to Kids on the Net is fully moderated and published so safely that it took 5 years, a newspaper, a TV station and thousands of French fans to find Luke.

It's wonderful that they were able to find Luke and interview him! Meanwhile, the current crop of children at his old school, Oakthorpe Primary, have submitted their own monsters who reside on the Monster Motel website in Fat Gourg's Friends annex.

Why not submit some of your own?

Monster Motel hits the headlines!

Kids on the Net features today in the Leicester Mercury. In one of those strange but heartwarming Internet stories, a monster ("Fat Gourg") created by a seven-year-old, Luke, during a writing workshop at a Leicestershire primary school led by KotN editor Helen Whitehead in 1999 has become something of a cult figure for a group of French artists and cartoonists.

"In 2003, the drawing was discovered on the website by famous French online cartoonist Pierre Primen. The 25-year-old raved about Fat Gourg on Primsworld, his website dedicated to funny cartoons and drawings, which gets 50,000 visitors a day, sparking instant adulation. Every year, thousands of fans gather in groups on August 8 - the "eight" symbolising his fat body - for Fat Gourg Day.

"He has a Friends Reunited profile, where he is listed as single and retired, and there is a Facebook page dedicated to finding Luke."

Now the hunt is on to find Luke. His French fans "would like to know if Luke remembers drawing this monster. If he does, I guess we have to thank him for all the fun Fat Gourg has brought to us, and we have millions of questions to ask him about this character. We also have to offer him a statue to pay tribute to his oeuvre!"

Fat Gourg can be found in the Monster Motel on the Kids on the Net website. Children worldwide are invited to contribute their own monsters to this ongoing project.

‘Edutainment’ Live community showcase events with a Hip Hop inspired ethos

Invizible Circle Education is a not for profit, grass roots, youth and community education organisation specialising in the provision of tailored multimedia educational solutions aimed primarily at the children, youth and community sectors.

‘Edutainment’ Live community showcase events with a Hip Hop inspired ethos

A series of old Hip Hop block party inspired events using the methodologies of ‘edutainment’ (education through entertainment) and focussing on a range of themes. The first events will be focussing on the streetlife/ self destruction/ stop the violence campaign we have been forwarding over the last 12 months; a mixture of Hip Hop and community development.

As well as showcasing a range of live Hip Hop influenced artists, it will exhibit art, give issue based presentations and run workshops and masterclasses. The events shall present all of Hip Hop’s main elements including DJs, Breakdance, Beatbox,
Rap/MC, Graffiti as well as spoken word, film and mixed media.

Events in Leeds: Sat 21st June 2008 / 19th July 2008 / 16th August 2008

SAT 21ST JUNE
12 NOON - 4 PM
@ SEVEN ARTS CENTRE, LEEDS, LS7 3PD
AND CONTINUES JUL 19TH AND AUG 16TH 2008

Current supporters include Invizible Circle Entertainment, Hyrograff, the Watchmen Agency, Fresh Jive and UnLtd.

Please see http://www.inviziblecircleeducation.org for further details

Places available on eModerating and Online Tutoring course (online)

5 weeks - online - in Moodle
Starts 4th June 2008
contact helen@reachfurther.com

I am running an eModerating and Online Tutoring course in partnership with Park Lane College in Leeds. This is an introductory course for those starting to or planning to teach online in HE, FE or in schools. The format - 5 weeks online in Moodle - is based on successful courses I have run in the past with local, national and international participants and builds on my work with Professor Gilly Salmon at Leicester University. I'm delighted to be able to offer the course to teachers and tutors inside and outside the college as I know that a mix of participants from different institutions will, as in my previous courses, form a lively and mutually supportive community.

Although it's in Moodle, the skills taught are generic and not VLE-specific. Moodle is very easy to use :) £295 plus VAT

More information at http://reachfurther.com/?page_id=82

Contact me for more details helen@reachfurther.com

Goodbye textbooks: hello open-source

Since I found the Ken Robinson video, I've been looking around the "TED Ideas worth spreading" site. There are some great inspiring videos.

Here is Richard Baraniuk: Goodbye, textbooks; hello, open-source learning. Richard is founder of Connexions, a free, open-source, global clearinghouse of course materials allowing teachers to share and modify course materials freely, anywhere in the world

Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity

One of the most inspiring speakers I've ever heard in the education arena is Sir Ken Robinson. I heard him talking in 1999 about his incredible report, All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education (The Robinson Report).

Recently he's been talking again about creativity and children and schools. I can't believe it's taken me until now to do aYoutube search for him. It was well worth it though: