Week 9: I’m not going to class tomorrow, and I’m the teacher…
I’m in Scotland at the moment for other-work-related things. Which means I can’t be in class for teaching commitments tomorrow. But taking a page out of the Jon Hickman school of teaching, I am not going to be around either. Which should be bad, I should arrange something for the 2nd years in the same way I am for the 1st years, who are getting one of those online classroom discussions via our VLE, moodle. All the technological sophistication of a chatroom in the early 1990s. But that’s e-learning for you. But it’s 10.50pm on a Monday night (at the …
Project: Stories and Streams, week 4, handing over curriculum control to the students.
As there are only two weeks left of the first level of investigations for the online journalism, alternative media and web production students, we are now starting to prepare them for the directed study week (week 6) assignment, a tool used by the institution as a check point snap shot of the module, filing in the gaps and the student’s individuals outputs so far. Assignment Context. Initially we wanted to only have one assignment, 100% of the coursework, to be handed in at the end of the course in May -acting as an individual portfolio of work reflecting the student’s …
Stories and Streams, Week 1: Exploring the Education and Olympic Context @BCUMedia #media2012
Today kicked off the first ever joint Online Journalism and Alternative Media 2nd year production module at Birmingham City University. After spending some time (re)developing the model for delivery, this morning was where we put our shared google documents into practice. Process: News Conference and Forming of Groups After an hour long news conference (video above shows format), where students were encouraged to explore the potential issues and research questions to aid their future investigations, they were asked to complete a short questionnaire (based on skills and interests) in order to establish which role they were be given for the …
Stories and Streams: Introduction to Alternative Media and Web Production @BCUMedia #media2012
Following on from last year’s #mc539 Alternative Media and Web Production (AM&WP) module at Birmingham City University, which I had an active role in developing as a course and was encouraged to be shared online beyond the classroom through a class blog and the #media2012 network - this year we (Jon Hickman and myself) have collaborated with Paul Bradshaw and his 2nd year Online Journalism (OJ) module to produce, what we hope, is an innovative approach to teaching both OJ and AM&WP as a working newsroom behind an online content management system, where both sets of students from each module will work …
What the hell is #mc539? (Week 1-9)
We’ve now hit week 9 of mc539 (the 2nd year web and alternative media module I teach at Birmingham City University), the last week before the end of term and the class go off to fulfil their project manifestos over the coming weeks. The entire course is available online and in public under creative commons. Here is a recap for those who are interested in the little world of #mc539, but may have missed it: Course introduction: “Alternative media is not new, but the web has provided an increased opportunity for alternative-ness. This course addresses alternative media practices, and explore …
Olympic Media: An Overview (Guest lecture for Ithaca College London)
As part of a series of workshops delivered around the Olympics to visiting students from Ithaca Collage in the states, I was invited to speak about Olympic media and give an overview of its history and its challenges. The session was roughly two hours long and covered media contexts, history of Olympic media, media technology and the games and some of the research case studies that I’ve been working on around Vancouver 2010 and London 2012. The prezi from the workshop is below: Olympic Media:: An Overview on Prezi
#500words on the purpose of education? Where do I begin! #purposed
So when Doug Belshaw asked if I would contribute to the #500words Purpos/ed challenge, a month long “borderless forum” discussing and promoting debate around the purpose of education. I was honoured to be included but also a little nervous about what I would say. And the more I think about it – there is so much more than 500 words to be said – I’ve written this 3-4 times now! I can relate to Stephen Downes‘ post - I also rebelled (to an extent, I still do!). It certainly wasn’t what the guidance staff would have predicted to be my chosen life path (half way …