Bebo is the new and lastest digital world for students to keep in contact. There are many positive aspects of bebo and through reading through my blog you will come to understand how design and literacy come together. Design is a very important part in a child's life as this is what they first learn to do. Design an image that is oringnal and authentic and has many to them in different context. Through allowing students to be a member of this type of blogging they are experiencing new things that will enable them to connect to the bigger and wider community of technology we are producing for them. Students need to be taught and learn the codes so are able to put them to use and be able to make meaning to them in their own individual way. Teachers need to un teach them selevs talked about by Erica Mcwilliams and see that when taking some one elses work is not copying, it may be taken and used in different context or meaning to show a whole different perspective on something. Design is a process that students need to keep referring back to. Word and images together are the most powerful of all design technologies. Let your children become a memeber of bebo and maybe thety could be the teachers of you and let you in their world of how the show meaning in representing themsleves in todays world.

Design is a very powerful process. Through using bebo students will be able to learn and become more knowledgable about the design elements out there. From viewing other peoples blogs and bebo pages students will become to understand how different images and words may be used in different context to give different representation. Through researching and developing on my blog about bebo enhancing students design skills i have come to realise alot if things. From a very early age children are developing their own original designs and giving them meaning and when they are introduced to the alphabet and conventions these designs become more powerful. A student may use a design or an oringinal template but the way they use or give meaning to it will not be considered copying alothough it has the potential to be copying they are adapting and making new meanings of the design.

Words and images are both powerful representations in design. This is where literacy and design come together.

This photo is an image from Gunther Kress's paper on Reading Images; Multimodality, Representation and New Madia. I find this image to be a very powerful image and is very effective. Kress is a professor of Education/English at the institude of Educations, University of London. Multimodality links to oral, visual and written. Gunther Kress talks about this in his paper and the representation images and meaning they portray. He also looks at how different codes or signs can have different meanings by however the user wishes to use it. He talks about about how different social meanings are specific to a particular culture. To view more on what Gunther Kress has to say about image and design click the link below and have a good read as i think that there is alot more to deisgn than people think. http://www.knowledgepresentation.org/BuildingTheFuture/Kress2/Kress2.html

In relation to bebo students may choose an image for example this image below which most people see as peace or thats the context they view it in. However this may lead the student to becoming naive as in different cultures this can be viewed as warmonger where the presidents used as a sign of victory. Students need to become aware and taught the codes. Although students may be taking that design and re using it they must be aware of exsiting signs. They must be asked the questions what does this represent? How may i use it in a different context to make meaning.

Steps to designing and creating a bebo page

Once students are registered with the bebo website, users of this site are to post a profile of themselves which can be read by others online or if you are a private user just your friends you have accepted. What most young poeple or users want is to make their page represent themselevs as much as possible and of course look the best.

As you can by this users bebo page. They have inserted a picture of themselves and above given them selves a name that represents them. WIth design words can have meaning like images. For example if i was too look at the name i could create my self an image in my head of what the person may look like or consider them selves to be. When reading words not every one may get the same image as every body sees things differently. Also when creating your bebo page you choose a skin which is basically a background. When choosing a background the user generally chooses one that relates to them. For example you may choose a skin that is pink and has a lot of spark to it as this is what kind of person you see your slef to be. This girl above has chosen a quote and this may represent her down. Words and images are very powerful and students need to become aware of this but they all have different meaning and contexts to every one.

The next step of creating your page is to invite friends to join their profile and share their page of exciting things about themselves. Every friend will have a different bebo page and this gives the users to view other peoples designs and they way they set things up. A user may visit a page and disciver a new page element they may like to add their design. Users may copy this and add to their page, this is not seen to be copying as they creating a new reason and may adapt it to fit with their page. The same deal goes with the skin ten different poeple may have the same skin as you but the way you use it or see it may give it a new identity. As a friend you are able to drew on what is called a white board, from doing this students are becoming more creative and innovative with the way they use the paint brush. For some one who hasnt done alot of painting on ICT may find this difficult at first but that is the way for every one. Students can become teachers of themselves in doing this type of design. In a classroom the teacher may like to use the white board as an activity to develop on students skills as they may use this type of design drewing in presentations and on book work. The deisgn concpet of bebo could be a good way to use in the classroom in a all about me project. Through powerful images and words students will be able to create a profile that has meaning and represents them as the way the other students may view them.

Students within their on bebo website can always add photos to their design. Within the design elements in bebo you are basically the designer of your page and chooose what u wish to choose to a point.

When people design things they reflect them selves or some one close to them. When some one designs something that has never been done before this becomes oringinal. People then can take this deisgn and re use it or maybe adapt it to fit the purpose it is needed for. People tend to think that this is copying but it may not be. For example if some one takes and uses some ones video of you tube and uses it to display on their bebo page they have taken it and re used it in their own design. Although they may not have changed it at all they have made a new purpose for it which was different from the oringinal. Ericka Williams dicusses in her paper Unlearning that we need to unlearn our selves from this way of thinking. To view more on her what Ericka has to say about unlearning visit; http://www.jld.qut.edu.au/-

When children are of at a young age they before writing they draw pictures to show meanning, as they can not yet comprehend words. A two year old for example might draw a funny shape circle with three dots representing their eyes and nose. Normally to represent their arms and legs children will use sticks. This picture will rerpresent them and most commonly their closet kin. When students reach a certain age they will start to use I and me and move away from drawings and the alphabet cultural code will start to become accepted. The child needs to keep thinking back to designing and creating, as design has meaning to the invidual and is used for representation of things.

Literacy and design and are co- in sided togther. We need to teach our children about the rules, codes and exsisting ideas and ask them questions to get them crtically thinking about it this is the passive side of things. On the other side it active, children need to me taught how to adapt, become creative and the big mian one is re use a design to make it meaning and ourposeful to them by adding elements that reflect them.

Does bebo have the effect to enhance childrens design skills

In our group of four we choose to do the topic BEBO. We thought that this would be an exciting topic to research as it is getting more and more popular in society with children especially. We found that bebo has many components, theres were things such as communication, media skill, community of learners and design. I choose to look into the design components and how this could enhance students learning.

Through researching on the internet i came upon a question which was; What kinds of literacies does blogging enhance? This is a fantastic question as it enables pople to think that yes there are postive outcomes from creating a blog such as bebo. In answer to this question I found that by using blogging it can enhance stronger skills in visual literacy [and] media literacy, for starters. Changes in reading and writing—not just the texting phenomenon, but fluency rates, information sorting, and evaluating happen, too. This are many postive attibutes to blogging that can have a postive effect to students learning within their learning.

I looked further into the design concept and by having stduents learn how to build a blog it teaches them necessary design and conceptual abilities that can transfer to art, photography, graphic design, writing, and other contemporary information-manipulation strategies. Blog building also helps students understand how technology works from the ground up. This is important in todays society as we are becoming a more technology literate society. Students need to become aware of the new ways in which to share their creativity with using bebo students are able to use things such as choosing a colour scheme to display their blogs on, decide on the layout, learn how to drew by using paint brush. Within bebo students are able to choose their own skins, layout, able to drew and leave on other poeples whiteboard, which shows poeples design skills and once used more than once students "tacit" knowledge this also applys for the other design components.