Legality Stuff

Obviously, there are a lot of restrictions and things to be wary of when working with kids. I researched this at the start of the semester to ensure that my project was even viable. All research sources are casually referenced in the Useful Links post. Below is what I found...

- DBS checks are the general requirement when working with minors in the UK.
- They are simple checks that look for any criminal history to ensure you're safe to work around children.
- There are a few different types of DBS checks that cover different things (voluntary, age levels, different lengths of time, different levels of contact).
- School visitors without checks need to be supervised at all times when around children.
- DBS checks are not necessary for short, uncommon contact with children.
- If I decided to make this project into an official, long-term plan, I would need a DBS check (should cost around £40). But for this semester, I should be fine without a check.

Designing My Dinosaurs Pt. 5 - Fitting Them Together

Designing My Dinosaurs Pt. 4 - The Squad! TO FINISH

I want each of the figures to serve a role in my presentations and represent something. Below will show their designs and some initial thoughts on this side of things...

Name: Poppy

Species: Triceratops

Colour: Red

Theme: 

Name: Paddy

Species: Bracheosaurus

Colour: Orange

Theme: 

Name: Patsy

Species: Pleasiosaur

Colour: Yellow

Theme: 

Comments:

Name: Percy

Species: Pteranodon

Colour: Green

Theme:

Comments:

Name: Purdy

Species: Tyrannosaurus Rex

Colour: Blue

Theme:

Comments:

Name: Perry

Species: Stegosaurus

Colour: Purple

Theme:

Contacting Schools

My general idea for contacting the schools is to establish a relationship with them first, whilst also doing some research and finding out how the teach social media at their school. After we have a good communication going, it will feel more comfortable to propose the idea of me presenting my work to the students. Below is an example of the type of email I sent. The emailed varied slightly between the 5 schools I sent it to, but this is the jist...

UPDATE: As of 3/5/19, I am still yet to receive any responses from any of the school. It's a shame, but if I did it again, I would probably use a more direct for of communication - such as a phone call or hand delivered letter.

Designing My Dinosaurs Pt. 3 - Design Process

Whilst designing my dinosaur characters, I continued to look back at my research to inform my design choices. This included colour, line thickness and simplicity of the designs. You can see the process from sketch to final design below...

Designing My Dinosaurs Pt. 2 - Existing Examples

Below is a collection of some dinosaur designs that I found whilst researching fitting styles, that will use to inspire my own designs. All of these images have been casually referenced in the Useful Links post...

Stegosaurus Shape: I like that the shape is very soft. It's a very simple silhouette, but is instantly recognisable. This is an element I hope my character have.

T-Rex Line Art: The thick lines in this piece fit well with the research from my previous post, as do the exaggerated features. I do, however, feel that this is a little too detailed. Possibly slightly too scary for younger children, too.

Dinosaur Outlines: I love this style. I think with a bit of colour and very basic cell shading, these sort of designs could really work with the modern, exciting cartoon style that the children I'm producing my work for are used to. I do think that some of the characteristics get lost and it's maybe a little too simple (particularly on the stegosaurus).

Improved Outlines: These are a few outline-style designs that have some of the same charm as the last selection, but with a little more detail. I really love the stegosaurus here, but think the t-rex is a little awkward in the mouth area.

Pixel Dinosaurs: I love these designs! The have the basic shading that I mentioned using on the outlines, bright colours and more detailed outlines. These are the kind of super simple characters I'd love to have in my presentations! However, these are done in a pixel art style. While this could work quite well with the 'digital' theme of my presentations, I don't really like the idea of using it with the KS2 group. I could potentially use this for the robot design for the older kids though.

Dino Phone Stand: This immediately caught my eye when I was looking for references. This phone stand by Amazon really has the design simplicity I had planned for my designs. I love the little smile as well, which is quite soft and welcoming. The colour as well, I think is really gentle and nice to look at.

Dinosaur Silhouettes: Coloured versions of the designs in this image are what I originally had in mind for this presentations. I like the little spots and stripes, but think the shapes are a bit too unnecessarily complex for what I want.

Designing My Dinosaurs - Theme

To decide on how I wanted the little characters in my presentations to look, I first decided to look into TV shows that were currently popular with children of KS2 age...

Some of the most popular children's cartoons from TV channel, Cartoon Network, as of 2018 include...

Other key titles that I found through my research (casually referenced in Useful Links post), include OK K.O, Spongebob Squarepants, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, The Simpsons and The Miraculous Ladybug. All of these titles deviant wildly from realism in their art styles. 

All of the characters have very exaggerated features to the point that they do not at all look like a person/the animal they were based on (for example; Jake the dog in Adventure Time). This is a trait has become increasingly popular in children's media over the past couple of decades (see above - Teen Titans Go! (2013) vs Teen Titans (2003)). These styles also tend to have very obvious line art - usually thicker and/or black. The only one of the titles listed that does not adhere to this theme is Miraculous Ladybug - as it is produced with line-less 3D animation. It does, however, still exhibit the exaggerated body shape/head sizes of other cartoons.

Findings From Reviews

From my brief reviews in the previous post, I have drawn a few conclusions...

- There are very few easily accessible educational videos for young people on the risks of social media.
- Those which can be easily found are quite 'preachy' and talk down to kids in a way that I feel makes it hard for them to learn anything.
- The ones that aren't like this generally go the other way and provide very little information.
- It seems like the only way kids are presented with social media education is in the form 'no, this is scary and bad, and nothing good can come from it'.

From this, I can identify that there is a real niche in the market for a way to talk to young people about social media in a more casual and fun way. I believe that kids will be more likely to listen if they're not immediately just told 'no' and treated in a patronising manner. This thought comes from the fact that the most engaging video was the one created by kids themselves! It felt less patronising and less like a lecture (more like advice).

Reviewing Online Presentations/Videos/Seminars

Positives: Clean, basic illustrations. Lots of information. Fairly short.

Negatives: Overly complicated language. The 'links' on the drawings are confusing. Not too much Sense of 'fun'.

Positives: Really fun animation - engaging. Texture in background makes it more interesting. Selective colour highlights key points. Clear text. Fairly Short.

Negatives: Quite repetitive. Some of the metaphors and illustration gets confusing. Sound isn't great.

Positives: Key relatable characters, introduced casually. Bright colours. Very simple little animations bring your attention back. Few words. Short.

Negatives: Some of the fonts chosen aren't very clear - too much font variation. Big words might cause confusion.

Positives: Nice colours. Consistent style.
Negatives: Very pessimistic and dark. A little creepy. Very little actual information.

Positives: Nice animation. Bright colour scheme. Good information for parents.

Negatives: A bit slow. Not the best for a younger audience.

Positives: Probably the best at putting the points across (because it's made by schoolkids who know how to talk to kids their own age). Nice narration. Good little illustrations.

Negatives: Not very visually engaging. Repetitive. Hand writing can be difficult to read.

The above clip is from a series by a prank-YouTuber. He created numerous videos where he uses social media to trick kids and prove to their parents that their children aren't as knowledgeable on social media safety as they thought.

Positives: Is very on-the-nose. Proof. Makes viewers (particularly parents) think.

Negatives: Presenter is a bit irritating. Provides no actual information on staying safe. Long. Frightening for younger kids (to the point that they don't anything).