Saturday, 7 May 2011
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our product is all about using new media educationally, so it’s all about the advantages it can bring to a child’s life. Some people, especially parents believe that media (computers) can be unhealthy but we’re here to fight back saying how it can be a good thing. The product could definitely challenge people’s beliefs as it has been said that it’s the last thing you should be looking at in education – ironically it could be first choice. Our product is primarily educational based in Primary Schools, but what’s to say it can’t work with all media?
When we investigated the schools for the documentary, we found out that they all seemed to be up to date with new media – they both had white boards and laptops which they individually use for their work.
I was doing some research to see if there was anything similar to what we were trying to achieve, and we found an article and some clips too. "Bolton Bloggers" were broadcasted live via a news program. It was clear straight away that the kids were rehearsed and were told what to say, theirs was more produced than ours as it was done in a more professional setting and so there wasn't as much background noise as what we had. Ours was more spontaneous, however, due to the fact that we didn't keep on getting interupted at any stage. They interviewed year 6s and year 2s, whereas we interviewed roughly the same age range.
We tried to let the children in our documentary talk more freely and so that made them talk more naturally than telling them what to say which wouldn't've looked so good, we also tried to keep interviews with the teachers to a minimal as we wanted the children to have more of a say on what they thought.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
We made the ancillary products work based on what we found out from our audience research. We found out that 5pm would be the best time for it to be shown as by that time children would’ve finished school and our target audience is children, so we would need it to be shown at a suitable time for them. At first, it was hard getting a child to be in the poster for us so we just used one of the photos which we took at a local School. Our poster features children on a netbook, we tried not to make it gender specific so that it is eye catching for both
girls and boys.
Choosing a channel was difficult as it is targeted towards children, but we want to encourage parents to watch it with their children too. I am confident that although BBC 2 isn't recognised as a children's channel,they would still watch it.
Finding a suitable listings magazine was the hardest because when we did find one, it was either too girly or too boyish but we finally settled on one. We did find some magazines like "Aquila" which had no listings and CBBC which did have some listings on
the website, but it wasn't an actual listings magazine so we couldn't use that either. In the end, we decided to make up a listings magazine so that we could make up the colours etc ourselves. Like I said before, the time was quite easy because most kids finish school by 4, we took into account the time getting back home and therefore thought it would be best to be shown at 5.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
I learnt that from our audience feedback, most people liked the idea of it and didn’t get a lot of improvements.
The audience feedback showed that this is something that they’d like to see on Tv sometime, there was however a dispute on if 5pm would be a good time for it to be shown. Perhaps if it was just the children watching then yes it would be, but if the parents wanted to watch it as well then it would be scheduled for a later time. I asked people with different ages so that I could get a varied response.
I also interviewed my Mum (who is a Primary School teacher and my sister who works at ARU) because I thought they would be great assets as they both work with children/students. I would've edited the clips a bit more, but I found that every time I did so, it interrupted the sync so therefore I left the editing to a minimal.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
The main media we used were websites, especially Youtube where we got most of the clips from.
In the "Bolton Bloggers" clip on YouTube it shows how a snow day made using new media a great hit with the children at Heathfield Primary School in Bolton. It explains how they decided to have online lessons, which created the use of blogging. Statistically, boys are behind girls on reading and writing but thanks to one snowy day they are catching up.
In order to make this documentary work, we used Imovie 11. It was fairly easy to use, although to start with it proved to be more of a challenge as we couldn't find the tools we needed such as how to shorten a clip. We did get used to it in the end, so it proved to be less of a challenge than we first thought.
The editing was quite easy once we knew how to crop a clip!
There were no major problems with the music, there was a lot to choose from but in the end we went for the track that complimented our documentary the most.
This is one of the other websites that I used
Our product is all about using new media educationally, so it’s all about the advantages it can bring to a child’s life. Some people, especially parents believe that media (computers) can be unhealthy but we’re here to fight back saying how it can be a good thing. The product could definitely challenge people’s beliefs as it has been said that it’s the last thing you should be looking at in education – ironically it could be first choice. Our product is primarily educational based in Primary Schools, but what’s to say it can’t work with all media?
When we investigated the schools for the documentary, we found out that they all seemed to be up to date with new media – they both had white boards and laptops which they individually use for their work.
I was doing some research to see if there was anything similar to what we were trying to achieve, and we found an article and some clips too. "Bolton Bloggers" were broadcasted live via a news program. It was clear straight away that the kids were rehearsed and were told what to say, theirs was more produced than ours as it was done in a more professional setting and so there wasn't as much background noise as what we had. Ours was more spontaneous, however, due to the fact that we didn't keep on getting interupted at any stage. They interviewed year 6s and year 2s, whereas we interviewed roughly the same age range.
We tried to let the children in our documentary talk more freely and so that made them talk more naturally than telling them what to say which wouldn't've looked so good, we also tried to keep interviews with the teachers to a minimal as we wanted the children to have more of a say on what they thought.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
We made the ancillary products work based on what we found out from our audience research. We found out that 5pm would be the best time for it to be shown as by that time children would’ve finished school and our target audience is children, so we would need it to be shown at a suitable time for them. At first, it was hard getting a child to be in the poster for us so we just used one of the photos which we took at a local School. Our poster features children on a netbook, we tried not to make it gender specific so that it is eye catching for both
girls and boys.Choosing a channel was difficult as it is targeted towards children, but we want to encourage parents to watch it with their children too. I am confident that although BBC 2 isn't recognised as a children's channel,they would still watch it.
Finding a suitable listings magazine was the hardest because when we did find one, it was either too girly or too boyish but we finally settled on one. We did find some magazines like "Aquila" which had no listings and CBBC which did have some listings on
the website, but it wasn't an actual listings magazine so we couldn't use that either. In the end, we decided to make up a listings magazine so that we could make up the colours etc ourselves. Like I said before, the time was quite easy because most kids finish school by 4, we took into account the time getting back home and therefore thought it would be best to be shown at 5.
BBC2 - the channel in which this documentary would be broadcasted.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
I learnt that from our audience feedback, most people liked the idea of it and didn’t get a lot of improvements.
The audience feedback showed that this is something that they’d like to see on Tv sometime, there was however a dispute on if 5pm would be a good time for it to be shown. Perhaps if it was just the children watching then yes it would be, but if the parents wanted to watch it as well then it would be scheduled for a later time. I asked people with different ages so that I could get a varied response.
I also interviewed my Mum (who is a Primary School teacher and my sister who works at ARU) because I thought they would be great assets as they both work with children/students. I would've edited the clips a bit more, but I found that every time I did so, it interrupted the sync so therefore I left the editing to a minimal.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
The main media we used were websites, especially Youtube where we got most of the clips from.
In the "Bolton Bloggers" clip on YouTube it shows how a snow day made using new media a great hit with the children at Heathfield Primary School in Bolton. It explains how they decided to have online lessons, which created the use of blogging. Statistically, boys are behind girls on reading and writing but thanks to one snowy day they are catching up.
In order to make this documentary work, we used Imovie 11. It was fairly easy to use, although to start with it proved to be more of a challenge as we couldn't find the tools we needed such as how to shorten a clip. We did get used to it in the end, so it proved to be less of a challenge than we first thought.
The editing was quite easy once we knew how to crop a clip!
There were no major problems with the music, there was a lot to choose from but in the end we went for the track that complimented our documentary the most.
This is one of the other websites that I used
Friday, 18 February 2011
http://y62011.heathfieldcps.net/
This website leads to a blog produced by Simon Haughton.
It focuses on a celebration - schools have found a new way of making writing cool by blogging how they feel/hobbies/stories. As these videos progress, so does the situation as it evolves in to more of a problem with boys lacking behind their female classmates at school.
Visually, it's not generalised right at the beginning the presenter is quick to point out the younger and older students.
Thursday, 17 February 2011
Heathfield's blogs
It's important for kids to be rehearsed when you film them as they need to know what's going on. Like with the Heathfield Primary School video it was clear that the children had been told what to expect and so it ran smoothly.
It was also filmed live with the filmers leaving the kids for a while, then coming back to see what they blogged. It was good they did this live and not recorded as it ment the presenters could keep on referring back to the school and keep on being updated on the children and their blogs.
Each child was being filmed with blogging something completely different. There was a boy called Matt who was talking about writing about football or hobbies and a girl named Alice who was blogging her experience of being on tv. Also, some of the younger children were being interviewed. There were 2 boys about 7 years old who were talking about a ghost story they had created. Each child had something new to talk about which was refreshing.
http://clc2.uniservity.com/GroupHomepage.asp?GroupId=274987
Here, you can access the children's blogs plus the some of the staff's blogs from the link above.
It was also filmed live with the filmers leaving the kids for a while, then coming back to see what they blogged. It was good they did this live and not recorded as it ment the presenters could keep on referring back to the school and keep on being updated on the children and their blogs.
Each child was being filmed with blogging something completely different. There was a boy called Matt who was talking about writing about football or hobbies and a girl named Alice who was blogging her experience of being on tv. Also, some of the younger children were being interviewed. There were 2 boys about 7 years old who were talking about a ghost story they had created. Each child had something new to talk about which was refreshing.
http://clc2.uniservity.com/GroupHomepage.asp?GroupId=274987
Here, you can access the children's blogs plus the some of the staff's blogs from the link above.
Blogging at Heathfield School
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-12448932
BBC Breakfast News. Broadcasted Monday 14th February 2011
This is about boys in year 6 at Bolton Primary School who untill recently, have hated writing. It all happened when the school was closed due to a snow day, and so they children and teachers had to communicate interactively via their website. Blogging has become a huge hit with the children - especially the boys who now think that it has made writing become "cool".
There has been an increase in the results in year 6 SATS which is positive as this could make children start to be more interested in blogging, which later improves their writing. It has also been introduced to different year groups so that younger children have the oppurtunity to join in.
"the number of children achieving level 5 and above in SATS writing tests had increased from 9% to 60%".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12000886
This link shows there is evidence of boys lacking behind in writing. But, in my opinion if more schools do what Bolton did which is to use blogging to incourage writing, then maybe it wouldn't be such a big problem.
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Production Diary
Production diary Friday 11th february
We went to my old primary school, Milton Road to ask some of the kids some questions on what kind of media they use - the majority answered computer. When we got in, we had to sign in and get visiter badges. The kids were co operative and we mostly got what we wanted, although there were certain things we forgot to ask them but that can be arranged next time we go visit. We hadn't got permission at the time to start filming, so we hope we'll be able to start this Thursday when the kids will be in a lesson on computers. Also we have a different set of questions to ask the teacher which might not be possible, but we hope it will be.
Wednesday 16th february
We still haven't heard anything from the school, so we won't be able to do any filming any time soon. We might have to try a different school like Sancton Wood or Parkside.
Friday 4th March
Yesterday we went to Sancton Wood Primary School to ask if we could possibly do some filming there for the documentary. We spoke to the head of art (Darin Mount) as the principal wasn't there and told him an overview on what the documentary is about. Hopefully we'll hear back from him!
Monday 7th March
Today we went to Sancton Wood - this time to do filming. When we arrived we signed in and started to interview 5 of the children: Ed, Robin, Amy, Susanna and Emily. We interviewed them in the libary and then we went to the computer room in the hopes of doing some filming in there. Unfortunatly that was not possible as our camera battery kept running out, so had to go back and film another day.
Thursday 10th March
Went to Sancton Wood again today for some more filming, we had 3 extra batteries so that nothing could possibly go wrong. We decided to change the setting of the interviews because when we did it previously in the libary, a window was behind the children making the light shine in the wrong direction which made the video look a bit too dark so decided against filming there again. We didn't get to film the kids today as we got chucked out of the ICT room as it was about to be used by another class which was unfortunate, but we did get to film a teacher. She was helpful in our interview, but she didn't have the knowledge needed for our questions so we are returning to the school again before easter on the 21st and 24th of March to interview some of the ICT teachers of the younger children, and hope to get more filming done with the 5 children too.
Thursday 17th March
Milton Road finally got back to us. We did some filming of the children in their ICT lesson plus a few interviews. We also managed to get an interview with the teacher which was very useful. We were told that the kids were on Photoshop last week putting up their own photos and then manipulating them in to a Budda for their work. This was interesting to know as I am a regular user of Photoshop and the teacher gave us a copy of a child's work to keep which was nice. We did come more prepared this time, but same thing happened again the battery died. However we brought 2 video cameras this time plus batteries and luckily one of the cameras managed to survive.
Today, we went to Sancton Wood to interview the children in their ICT class. It went well - we got what we wanted, which was things that we missed out last time like asking them about the after school media club. Was nice filming them during a lesson as we could film what they were doing and to talk to them about it, we also interviewed their ICT teacher which was good so we got her input as well as the children's. We did have a problem with the mic - it kept on not working which was annoying but hopefully we got the sound in the end. We didn't really use the tripod that much because we wanted to get right up close to the kids as before we didn't really do that.
We went to my old primary school, Milton Road to ask some of the kids some questions on what kind of media they use - the majority answered computer. When we got in, we had to sign in and get visiter badges. The kids were co operative and we mostly got what we wanted, although there were certain things we forgot to ask them but that can be arranged next time we go visit. We hadn't got permission at the time to start filming, so we hope we'll be able to start this Thursday when the kids will be in a lesson on computers. Also we have a different set of questions to ask the teacher which might not be possible, but we hope it will be.
Wednesday 16th february
We still haven't heard anything from the school, so we won't be able to do any filming any time soon. We might have to try a different school like Sancton Wood or Parkside.
Friday 4th March
Yesterday we went to Sancton Wood Primary School to ask if we could possibly do some filming there for the documentary. We spoke to the head of art (Darin Mount) as the principal wasn't there and told him an overview on what the documentary is about. Hopefully we'll hear back from him!
Monday 7th March
Today we went to Sancton Wood - this time to do filming. When we arrived we signed in and started to interview 5 of the children: Ed, Robin, Amy, Susanna and Emily. We interviewed them in the libary and then we went to the computer room in the hopes of doing some filming in there. Unfortunatly that was not possible as our camera battery kept running out, so had to go back and film another day.
Thursday 10th March
Went to Sancton Wood again today for some more filming, we had 3 extra batteries so that nothing could possibly go wrong. We decided to change the setting of the interviews because when we did it previously in the libary, a window was behind the children making the light shine in the wrong direction which made the video look a bit too dark so decided against filming there again. We didn't get to film the kids today as we got chucked out of the ICT room as it was about to be used by another class which was unfortunate, but we did get to film a teacher. She was helpful in our interview, but she didn't have the knowledge needed for our questions so we are returning to the school again before easter on the 21st and 24th of March to interview some of the ICT teachers of the younger children, and hope to get more filming done with the 5 children too.
Thursday 17th March
Milton Road finally got back to us. We did some filming of the children in their ICT lesson plus a few interviews. We also managed to get an interview with the teacher which was very useful. We were told that the kids were on Photoshop last week putting up their own photos and then manipulating them in to a Budda for their work. This was interesting to know as I am a regular user of Photoshop and the teacher gave us a copy of a child's work to keep which was nice. We did come more prepared this time, but same thing happened again the battery died. However we brought 2 video cameras this time plus batteries and luckily one of the cameras managed to survive.
Monday 21st March
Today, we went to Sancton Wood to interview the children in their ICT class. It went well - we got what we wanted, which was things that we missed out last time like asking them about the after school media club. Was nice filming them during a lesson as we could film what they were doing and to talk to them about it, we also interviewed their ICT teacher which was good so we got her input as well as the children's. We did have a problem with the mic - it kept on not working which was annoying but hopefully we got the sound in the end. We didn't really use the tripod that much because we wanted to get right up close to the kids as before we didn't really do that.
Thursday 24th March
Today was our last day filming at Sancton Wood. This time, we didn't interview the children instead we just interviewed the ICT teachers of the enfants and how it differed if anything and what was the same. We managed to interview them in their office so it was away from any noise and we sat behind the window to get the lighting right, as first time we interviewed the children in front of the window it didn't turn out so well on camera. We also filmed an introduction to the school
We have had to negociate to film the children in both schools due to the Child Protection Act. There were some concerns about where the footage of the children would go, we explained that only us the teacher and the examiner are to view it. We have also had to wait to get permission from the school and the parents which is why this has taken so long to get filming. Another problem that has occured is that we can only film the selected few who were chosen, so we have had to be careful that we dont film any other children. Sancton Wood allowed us to film without our teacher present - but Milton Road asked for our teacher to be present during the filming process, which was fine.
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