Tag: Working in Schools

Blog rules for schools and young people – to txt speak or not?

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.

The Tenth Pink Slip – School’s Podcasting in Frankley

A few weeks late with this but I just want to share with you the work of a group of year Nine Students at Frankley High in Birmingham.

I’ve been working for Stan’s Cafe and Birmingham Creative Partnerships, with musician Mathew Beckett, to develop podcasting skills in infant and senior school students and staff in Frankley. The most recent results are up on FrankleyTalk (blog every much in beta! any tips to improve it visually gratefully received).

It’s the start of the process for most of the young people, and we have more time in September to leave develop the skills, and hopefully enthusiasm, to continue to use these techniques to raise creativity, aspiration and citizen involvement.

The group pictured above chose to produce a piece of short radio fiction and radio journalism on the connection between boredom and antisocial behaviour. Their starting point was “The tenth pink slip..”  – a drama created in less than a day and based on the fear of getting too many pink slips from the police. The tenth one, they told us, means a likely court appearance.

From dramatists to journalists: the next part of the work produced radio journalism exploring the link between boredom, crime and gangs. (listen to “The Estate We’re In”).

One curious frustration was our attempts to invite the police to come and talk to the students. In principle they were willing to help, in practice it didn’t happen. Even a direct appeal from two of the most pink-slipped young men didn’t manage to get the critical interview. Better forward planning which helps the services understanding the value of work like this as a means of talking directly to young people is on my to do list.

The team presented their work twice, once to the rest of year 9 and once to a Creative Partnership conference. If you want to understand what the work meant to the group listen to this podcast (produced by a shy (!) volunteer conference goer who we trained on the spot)

 

Also read the many comments on the Frankley Talk blog – add to them if you wish.

Northfield Young People’s Forum "Leaders of Today" – a new podcast on the Grassroots Channel

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Jenni Rowley and Selina Okunnu of the Northfield Young People’s Forum talk to us about how power is shifting towards the young in Birmingham. From April 2007 the forum, run by 11 to 19 year olds, will have up to £80,000 to offer as grants to the young people of this south Birmingham constituency. There is also an update on a story from July 2006 about Get Hooked on Fishing, based in Bournville.

For any of our dozens of other programmes about active citizens please find the Grassroots channel here.  Any comments are welcome, use the link below or email grassroots@podnosh.com.

Youtube: messages with your messages.

I was working yesterday with the Northfield Young People’s Forum (no website yet) here in Birmingham, looking at ways they can use online social networking to widen the conversation and attract more interest for what they do.

We explored youtube – citing the number of comments attracted by this Birmingham councillor for his film on graffiti tagging. The group I was working with all saw the possibilities, and highlighted the need to combine being entertaining with making a point.

Johnnie Moore spotted the video below, which shows how one person who is autistic communicates with the world. It is entrancing and intriguing and it part of a series of youtube films made to suport the work of www.autistics.org – a site which is also using second life to make their case.

The key lesson hear is that to be engaging you don’t need to set out to entertain. You do need to be authentic.

Couple this with news that Google is close to releasing a means of earning advertising income from you youtube videos and (ethics of taking advertising as a proviso) being engaging may also help your group raise money online.