State of the Art Digital Technologies

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Overview

Topic / Focus Impacts, requirements and constraints of technology in the context of student's lives

Summary

Use Gotye’s song and music video, State of the Art as a hook to discuss how entertainment technology has evolved and what impacts technology has on us.

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At a Glance

Year Level8

Class Time45 minutes

Students10-30

Key Vocabulary

Critical thinking/analysis Digital technologies Solutions Requirements Constraints

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Learning Intentions

Speculate about the possible future impacts of digital technologies on your local social groups
Compare the functional differences between past and present technology to identify how constraints have changed over tim
Understand how to evaluate digital solutions by identifying their specific requirements and constraints

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Success Criteria

I can think critically about technology
I can define requirements and describe constraints of past and present technology

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Victorian Curriculum Links

Level	Area	Strand	Sub-strand	Key Elements
7-8	Digital technologies	Digital Solutions	Evaluate existing and student-created solutions against the requirements, constraints and possible future impacts. VC2TDI8C05	judging existing solutions on the basis of their possible impact on the economy, environment or society discussing the risks and consequences of AI-generated solutions on a range of platforms, including social media platforms

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Lesson Flow

Stage	Student Activity	Time	Teacher Action
Vocabulary	Provide definitions of Critical thinking/analysis, Digital technologies, Solutions, Requirements, Constraints This might be through conversation or through cloze activities, depending on students’ levels of prior knowledge	5 minutes	Diagnose students undertsand of key vocabulary and concepts Do students know what it means to critically analyse a text? (at the level appropriate for year 8 students) Can students recall what a “digital technology” is and can they relate it to the concept of a “solution”? Define requirements (things you want technology to do) and contraints (things technology can/can’t do)
Introduction	Listening to explicit instruction and scaffolding about the upcoming activity	5 minutes	Introducing students to the music video Scaffolding students’ critical analysis with questions such as, “What time period do you think the song is about? Why?”, “What technologies are mentioned?”, “What emotions did you feel during the video?”, “Does this remind you of any personal experiences?”, “What does Gotye tell us about technology through this music and video?” You might provide some of these questions written on the whiteboard or a worksheet (though the latter may distract from listening/watching)
Watching	Listening to / Watching / Reading lyrics State of the Art music video by Gotye Engaging in quiet peer discussion or taking personal notes	10 minutes	Playing the Gotye music video and handing out printed lyrics for students who may engage more with written text You can play the video twice to encourage deeper analysis For students having difficulty interpreting the figurative aspect of the musical text, you can play the “Making of” video in which Gotye discussing the literal technology and the figurative themes explicitly
Discussion	Discussing thoughts and feelings about the music video, i.e., engaging in critical discussion	10 minutes	Ask students to pair and share their thoughts about the video Listen out for students with interesting views and views that reference to the concepts of “future impacts” (e.g., turning into robots) and “requirements” (e.g., entertainment) and constraints (e.g., the computational technology of the 70s)
Technical analysis	Name present “home entertainment” technologies Think and discuss the requirements that are common and different between the synthesizer in the song/music video/lyrics and current technology Research the constraints of the synthesizer and compare to a present technology You might have students write answers to engage their written literacy skills or type into a word processing program or record audio/video to build their digital literacy skills	10 minutes	Talk about the synthesizer in the music video as a past technology Compare it to present “home entertainment solutions” (can students name these?) You may want to scaffold with examples, e.g., YouTube, social media, video games, music streaming Have students describe their family’s requirements for “home entertainment solutions” Ask students to research (e.g., Google search, reading the lyrics, etc) about the similarities and differences between the synthesizer and the present technology they use through the lense of constraints, i.e., What couldn’t the past technology do that your present technology can? and vice-versa.
Conclusion	Consolidating new information they have learned with past experiences and future expectations for Digital Technologies lesssons	5 minutes	Connect the present (technology you use) to the past (technology your parents and other elders used) to the future (technology you will create)

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Tech Considerations

Access to YouTube, or a downloaded version of the music and making-of video.
Make sure you can play the sound so that it is audible for all students, or allow them to use headphones.

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Resources & Materials

Gotye - State Of The Art (Official Music Video) - 5 minutes 20 seconds
The making of Making Mirrors - 3 minutes (5:11 to 8:15)
Lyrics for State of the Art by Gotye

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Lesson Reflection

I created this resource after trying to engage year 8 students at my placement in imaginative thinking about digital technologies. Many students were confused by the term “Digital Technologies” and the concept that they could create them. Even though these students had basic operational skills, such as simple Python coding, to create technology, there was a lack of cultural and critical literacy surrounding the concept.

I think the myth of the digital native has contributed to teachers neglecting to explicitly teach why technology is meaningful to students. Fears around social media, internet usage, and more recently AI, are the conversations students are most likely to regularly hear from their parents and teachers. Teenagers have a range of views, many believe that their experiences with social media are better than their parents think while other believe they are worse.

Many current students are not old enough to have participated during the initial phase of excitement for the technologies we currently use. So, student are rarely knowledgeable about historical views and attitudes towards technology. Yet, students are not ignorant, and can be incredibly sensitive to societies and cultures they live in. It’s important to show students the whole story so they can understand that we, like them, are interested and are authentically engaging in conversation with them.

Engaging students in conversation via decoding and discussing popular art forms, such as the Gotye music video, is an example of this kind of engagement. Linking the present to the past, future and everyday scenarios enables us to model and discuss the interconnected nature of technology and society. All of this builds the social and cultural literacy of students in the context of Digital Technologies classrooms and beyond.