Good Morning All!

PLEASE NOTE THAT OUR GOOGLE MEET SESSIONS ARE DIFFERENT TODAY!

As we are celebrating Safer Internet Day across the school today, there will be a change to our online session timetable. As we have a special guest speaker who will be delivering sessions to all year groups, this majorly impacts our timetable so we will not be doing a Google Meet session for English and Maths this morning. We will still meet for the afternoon story time as usual though!

The Google Meet special guest will be using a different link to access the live session - this link is in the computing section down below and I have sent it out via Dojo. Any questions, please let me know before 11.15 so I can try and sort them out before we go live!

Please send your work into me via Dojo, Google Classroom or email (joakley@theatlasfederation.co.uk).

We will be marking this work and using it as proof of attendance for each day.

Feel free to watch newsround each day to keep in touch with what is going on in the world.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/news/watch_newsround

Maths

Today we are going to battle it out - prepare your times table skills as I have set up a times table battle on Times Table Rockstars between the boys and the girls. You have from 7am till 2.30pm to battle it out! Times Table Rockstars logins should be in your packs, but if you are having any difficulty, please send me a message.

Art - there is no English session for today

I was so impressed with your pieces of art last week - well done! Lets see if we can recreate the art we made using the website below! If you didn't get round to finishing your art, or if it is in school, recreate the image below.

Computing

Today we are going to be celebraing Safer Internet Day and we actually have a special guest speaker who will be delivering a live session for us all. 

Our special guest speaker will be joining us on a Google Meet session to deliver a session titled: But it's just a game. Use the link below to join the google meet as it will not be hosted on our class page.

The session will start at 11.15 & will run through to 11:45. This will be our only live session this morning so please do your best to attend.

Reading with Mr O

Log back into Google Classroom for a live reading of our class reader "Blitzed" by Robert Swindells. Only got about 25 pages left!

Make sure you are logged in by 12:50pm to ensure you don't miss any of the story!

Computing

So for our second Computing session of the day we are going to continue looking at Online Safety and explore an interesting theme: Deepfakes.

Deepfake images have been popular in the news recently and are when people augment (change) the image of someone so it looks like they are doing something that they are not. This can be when someone makes a computer version of a person look like they are saying something that they never did. This can be unhelpful and confusing as the underlying technology has potential for both creative and dangerous use.

Watch the video below to see the history of Deepfakes.

Probably the most controversial Deepfake shown recently was actually produced by Channel 4 on Christmas Day. They produced a deepfake "alternative" version of the queen's speech. 

It is only really possible to create deepfakes of famous people due to the amount of content we have about them. It would be almost impossible to produce a good copy of someone lesser known like Mr O! It also takes a lot of skill and technology which is why it only really is affecting the most famous of poeple. Below are a couple of Deepfakes of famous people that I am sure you will recognise - however they are talking very differently to how you would expect them to talk!

Obviously the videos are made to raise awareness of deepfakes and for some fun. However I'm sure you can imagine how this can be used differently and could be used dangerously! 

However, the videos can be used in a very useful way - the BBC have actually had a look to see how they can sue this technology to show the news in many different languages so that everyone can access it. Watch the video below to see how this has been used.

TASK - Create a list of pros and cons in your book to show the good and bad parts of online edited content. Online edited contented can involve photoshopping, cropping, filters, AI videos and deepfake content.
Finally, answer the question below: 

• What are the potential consequences of deepfake video technology on us?

Extra information about Deep Fakes for adults from www.commonsensemedia.org (This is an American site but stuill useful)

What are "deepfakes?"

A "deepfake" is a video created using artificial intelligence (AI) showing real people doing and saying things they never did. They are now being used as entertainment, as satire, or as political and propaganda weapons. 

Director and comedian Jordan Peele teamed up with Buzzfeed and Barack Obama to create a deepfake video to serve as a warning of what manipulated video could do.

How are deepfakes made?

While you and your kids can create edited videos using widely available apps like TikTok, Likee, and Funimate, you can't use them to make deepfakes. Two apps that can create deepfakes -- Fakeapp and DeepFaceLab -- are both available for free download, but fabricating a convincing deepfake takes a significant amount of effort and time, even for tech-savvy computer hobbyists. There's little doubt that as the technology improves, deepfake software will become more accessible. In the meanwhile, deepfake creators with technical expertise and malicious intent are committed to their craft -- and it could turn into a big problem.

Why do people make them?

Deepfakes are designed to intentionally mislead people and spread false information. Though fake footage can be used for entertainment and satire on TV and social media (where it's usually identified as such), deepfakes are created by folks with an ax to grind, an agenda to promote, or an urge to troll. They're slowly becoming more common -- and are maddeningly hard to spot -- posing problems for government, the tech industry, and families who are finding it tougher to trust what they see.

Do families need to worry about deepfakes?

Manipulating images to portray a point of view and persuade viewers is nothing new. But deepfakes aren't like airbrushed models in magazines or glow filters in Snapchat. When their targets are elected officials, actual events from history, or other public information, they have the potential to erode people's trust, an especially scary thought. For these reasons, deepfakes have caught the attention of politicians. In July 2019, U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff wrote letters to the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter, and Google asking about their companies' formal policies on deepfakes and development of technologies to detect them. But so far, companies either haven't responded or publicly stated how they will handle this emerging phenomenon.

What can you do about deepfakes?

Kids may actually be savvier about deepfakes than all of us. They know all about using editing tools like the ones in Snapchat, Instagram, and Facetune to create unique images -- and they know not to trust everything they see. These media-literacy skills will be essential as they continue to grow up in an online environment where anyone can create anything easily. Since the problem of deepfakes is only going to grow, it's time to talk to your kids about not only how to recognize signs that a video is manipulated, but also to discuss the why behind the producer's intent.

How can you spot a deepfake?

Since humans can be easily deceived, it may be up to tech companies to help us recognize deepfakes and flag potential ones. Many are developing sophisticated algorithms and AI for this purpose. For instance, the software company Adobe, the creator of Photoshop, partnered with University of California Berkeley researchers to train AI to recognize facial manipulation. This tool could eventually help consumers detect deepfakes. In the meantime, the following characteristics might help you and your kids recognize one:

• face discolorations 
• lighting that isn't quite right
• badly synced sound and video 
• blurriness where the face meets the neck and hair
   

What can we do about deepfakes?

Since doctored media is becoming more normalized -- or at least widespread -- help your kids think critically about the trend:

• Get familiar. Spend 10 minutes together watching some of the most popular deepfake videos to date.
• Talk about them. Ask your kids whether or not they enjoy manipulated images and videos. What's the appeal? Why do they think they're popular and widely distributed? Do they think there are any problems associated with the trend?
• Debate personal responsibility. Discuss whether it's OK to intentionally mislead people with deepfakes and what responsibility creators and consumers have. Does the tech industry have a role in limiting the spread of deepfakes?
• Discuss specific deepfakes. Have they noticed any viral videos that are edited? Was the manipulation obvious or more subtle? What was the purpose of the video? Why would someone make a deepfake?
• Verify them. Try using a reverse image search by uploading a video into the Google search bar (just copy and paste it). 

Reading for Pleasure

Finally, lets sign off the day with 20 minutes of reading your school reader or a book that you are enjoying. Send a photo of your signed reading record through to me.

Well done for today everyone! See you bright and early at 8:40am on Google Meets! And don't forget to send all of your work through to me on Dojo, email or Google Classroom.