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…ignite…

Ben May and Julia Mangelsdorf. Julia Mangelsdorf and Ben May. Two people who rarely talked to each other and felt they had nothing in common. Until one day (thanks to the all-powerful internet) Ben asked Julia to be involved in a competition. This was a surprising development, wouldn’t Ben prefer to work with a friend or at least someone he trusts with his precious computer? Apparently not.

So there Julia sat, at her computer wondering how exactly this partnership would work. Not quite as she imagined. You see, Julia’s overly fertile imagination had produced visions of horror and ruin. Several months on the results show Ben and Julia actually work quite well together.

Ben, physically attached to his computer, doesn’t just experience life, he transfers it to hard disk. Organising groups for grade 11 camp? Don’t sweat it, Ben has produced a website specifically for this planning period, go post on the forum. The kid loves his computer and is highly skilled in the field.

And then there’s, Julia. Now she can see the benefits of computers, enjoys using hers several times a week and dabbled in the kind of stuff Ben specialises in. Never actually published a site, what could she bring to the group? Well while her computer skills aren’t extraordinary there is the fact that she was president of the local Interact club which involves being the school’s Amnesty representative. If there’s someone in our school that knows about human rights, there she is. 

But QSITE Web Design Challenge isn’t just for beer and skittles ladies and gentlemen, it’s for learning. So while Julia scraped the icky stuff off her rusty computer skills and got into some Web Design, Ben took a deep look into Human Rights, Human Rights violations and what it really means to him. We learnt from each other and, on a slightly teary note, I like to think we learnt about ourselves. In a school situation you are usually working with your best buddies but Ben and Julia managed to uphold a friendly professional relationship, and we weren’t afraid to tell it like it is.

“So what’s our topic?” asked Ben during a team conference session. Julia glanced down at her stack of Amnesty Active before deciding to do the right thing for the team, “Well, I don’t really mind, what would you like to do?”. Being a terrible liar comes naturally to some and it was decided that the team would pursue the wide heading of Social Injustice. After preliminary research had been completed the duo met again. The elusive topic was not overly political but was still relevant to the 13-18 age group. Why not human rights? Human rights are frequently violated around the world without a global outcry. They are not region specific. They effect all people and until human rights are secured something is being sucked out of the lives of every man and woman on this planet.

Our group, …ignite…, created a site that is easily accessible and understandable for teenagers, the people who probably don’t know about human rights but definitely should. So QSITE let a guy who’d never thought about how Human Rights effect him contemplate a ‘world rescue’ of his own. And it let a girl who never thought that she could be truly passionate about web design use it to tackle the big issues.  Hopefully it’ll also allow a demographic that isn’t usually focused on global issues take a good look, and change the future.

The Planning: When the project was decided apon, each team member knew their strengths and weaknesses. The following type of work will need to be undertaken by each individual.

How did it all go?

Well as it would be expected, the group members got caught up in other school commitments. Both members of the group in Year 12 – completing major assignments, examinations and just as recent as two days before submission of this website, QCS, or Queensland Core Skills exams. Needless to say, the final version of the website has been done a lot closer to submission date, than it should have been.

This is another one of those experiences that could have been prevented by simply starting work a lot earlier, than just days before the due date. Both members of the team attend Fraser Coast Anglican College, you may view the FCAC website by clicking on the school logo, to the right.