This Side Up

A naive music-lover’s patience is tested on his quest to download music online as his perspective on technology completely changes.

Watch this video with your children, and then try some of our teaching and activity ideas below.

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

English

• Pause the video at the start… what could be inside this box? How will it change the man’s life?
• Create a set of instructions to teach the man how to use his computer properly.
• The man in the story is called Oshan. Can you retell the events from his point of view?
• The creator of this animation says that he ‘loves to make drawings think’. Can you come up with your own idea for a story in which a drawing comes to life?

Maths

• The computer shows 0.0001% when it starts downloading. What does this mean?
• If the computer really took 45 months to download (and it started today), when would it end?

Computing

• Design some banner adverts to promote your favourite bands and artists.
• At one point in the video, you can see the man’s computer screen extremely close-up (at 1:48). Can you find out how monitors and screens display images? How do they work?

Design Technology

• At the end of the video, the man tries to play a CD on a record player. Why will this not work? Can you find out how each device plays sounds?
• Can you design the home for a new character?

Music

• Who is the person on the man’s poster? Can you find out more about him? Could you listen to some of his music? How would you describe it? What instruments can you hear?
• If you could compile a playlist of songs for this man to listen to, which tracks would you include? Why? Do you think that he would like them?

History

• Find out about the history of music recording (including vinyl records, cassettes, CDs, MP3s etc.). What are the pros/cons of each?

PSHE

• Think about how the man’s emotions change throughout the story, e.g. excitement, frustration, boredom, anger, and confusion.
• Can you look in a mirror and try to show different emotions? Could you create some sketches of these facial expressions?
• How do you deal with frustrating situations?
• What does it mean to be patient? What can we do to stay calm and patient in difficult situations?