Posts Tagged ‘Frankley Talk’

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Very Local Media blossoming in Lozells – but who should keep watering it?

Saturday, May 9th, 2009

I was really pleased to find the first bulletins from Lozells News – a new child led digital service, appear in my feed stream last week:

Lozells News Highlights from can uk on Vimeo.

This is a project from CAN-UK, who’ve been working from Ladywood for more than a decade. Lozells already has the very fine www.lozells.info and the South Lozells Housing Regeneration area is beginning to use the web to tell the story of how it is progressing, see vision-lozells.org.

A couple of things.

The first is the question of how to integrate these a little better and so seed more local story telling? Perhaps a local social media surgery might help? It is a certainly somehting I’d be interested in.

The other is that our own experience of creating local news with young people  in Frankley or Castle Vale (and others) tells us there remains a problem of how we keep things going once the project ends. There’s no lack of enthusiasm from the young people:  Comments like

this was the best week ive had at Frankley, and making this podcast was a great experiance!

and

can’t wait to see if we do anything else

show there is an appetite for more.  It’s rarely an issue of equipment or websites etc, these are now cheap enough and simple enought to leave behind.  I think the problem is often who will take the lead/ownership in your absence.

So thoughts?  How could we ensure that when the project dosh dries up the storytelling keeps flowing?

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Posted in Citizen Journalism, Leadership, Local Government | 17 Comments »

Of All the People in All the World finally comes to brum.

Monday, August 18th, 2008

One of Birmingham’s greatest recent cultural exports has finally found a venue in Birmingham. Birmingham based Stan’s Cafe describe their enormous show over on their site:

As you approach this former metalworking factory you will be given a grain of rice. This grain is you. Inside lots of people are waiting for you, billions of them, each represented by a grain of rice. 112 tonnes of rice – 6.7 billion grains – one for everyone on the planet.

As you explore the extraordinary landscape of rice hills and mountains stretching out in front of you, you discover every pile represents a different population and that together these piles tell hundreds of stories, stories of the world’s people and politics, history and current affairs.

This breathtaking show has amazed adults and children alike, from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Madrid to New York City and now it is coming home. Shocking, up-lifting, thought provoking and funny, Of All the People In All The World will change the way you think about the planet we share. Come and find yourself.

So from the 13th September to the 5th October you can visit this astonishing performance for the modest fee of £2.50 at Birmingham’s AE Harris Factory, B3 1SZ.

Before then you can add a statistic to the performance – just think of one grain of rice represents one person and give them your numbers here.

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Posted in Miscellaneous | 2 Comments »

Podcasting in Plain English plus Frankley Talks again.

Monday, April 28th, 2008

Students at Frankley High have returned to their experiment with podcasting which I was helping to support last year. It’s taken a while to get back but we’re hoping to create a learning group where those who worked with us last year begin to show the teachers how to use the kit.

We also went through a fascinating process for a Creative Partneships project – we had a series of teachers pitch to us about how they would like to use podcasting.

It is a really positive starting point for any school work because it helps the staff focus on why they might want or need your support. It allows us to put our effort where we are most likely to find the enthusiasm to turn the skills into something of mainstream value, which of course is likely to further encourage other teachers to experiment with social media.

Anyway thanks to Laura for listening to the warm up podcast for a year 9 group and commenting. Laura also helped me spot this youtube film from commoncraft on her blog. Useful woman: Laura.

Update. Thanks also to Andy for his thoughtful comment on the Frankley Talk blog about the problems of background noise and people with hearing problems.

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Posted in Citizen Journalism | 1 Comment »

Hear by Right – new website

Thursday, January 24th, 2008

Tim Davies tells us he’s off to the pub having just finished a substantial revamp of the Hear by Right website. Hear by Right sets out standards and principals designed to help organisations involve young people in what they do and how they do it.

The mapping tool looks promising as a means to encourage collaboration between organisations, although there seems be a bit of a gap where brum sits. It’s great to see Tim so closely involved because he is working methodically and intelligently to explore how social media will improve participation. With the site they aim to:

Create a space to share learning from the many 100s of authorities and organisations using Hear by Right to map and plan for change.
Curate and share some of the best resources to support the participation of young people in decision making Encourage organisations to be more open about the challenges and successes in engaging young people in decision making.
 Make clear the neccessary link between participation in decision making and real change for the lives of young people.

Our experience with podcasting as a tool to encourage conversations (and using the microphone as a tool which a lot of people find gives them a bit of extra power and confidence) is that we can relatively easily share skills and engendered huge amount of enthusiasm. However maintaining the momentum is the challenge – it needs to be planned for from the start.
Loads to learn and this site is a great place to start learning.
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Blog rules for schools and young people – to txt speak or not?

Monday, September 10th, 2007

I thoroughly enjoyed PodcampUK at the beginning of this month, but the session which I found most helpful was from Joe Dale. Joe teaches French at a Middle School on the Isle of Wight and what caught my interest were his blog rules.

They help manage the tricky problem of comments, which really motivate pupils involved in blogging or podcasting. If you take a look at the comments on this post from the Frankley Talk podcast project in South Birmingham you’ll see how those who took part wanted to share their pride and got a real kick from the praise coming from elsewhere.

Rule 7 and 10 strike a chord with me because I loathe txt speak. However different types of work may need different rules. As an outsider working in schools sometimes we can make more progress by being more relaxed. A teacher like Joe needs to remain firmly in control and is aiming to integrate web 2.0 in all they do.

  1. I will only use my first name
  2. I will never give out my email address
  3. I will never give out my home address
  4. I will never give out my telephone number
  5. I will respect others
  6. I will not use rude or threatening words
  7. I will not use text talk or chat language
  8. I will not copy other people’s work
  9. I will be responsible for everything I write
  10. I will check my spelling before posting

Below is a conversation I recorded with Joe in a short pause during podcampuk.

Whilst I’m here (and I’ll write some more on Podcampuk soon) thanks to everyone who organised the unconference and mentions for brum based Digital Central for sponsoring such a brilliant gathering, the NTI for hosting it and Aston Business School for a great venue for a party. It would be great to see you all back in Brum next year.

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