Broadcasting the Curriculum

The Broadcast Curriculum allowed us to demonstrate the wider benefits of media technologies in enhancing learning and motivating students. At ks3 and 4 BB is not subject specific; we supported maths, science, ICT, PE, geography, history and english regularly and languages, art & design and media on other occasions with 8 of our local schools. At primary level (mainly ks2) creative freedom allowed specific TV Shows on anti-bullying, Bollywood dancing and thematic activities tying in with weather, story or history-based topics. Teachers could use the embed codes to re-use the video content in web pages and the school’s VLE. Conferences and staff training were streamed live over the Internet with marketing via social media. All the output distributed by DVD or archived into a dedicated password-protected web site.

The advantage of the CLC was to use professional equipment in a simplified TV Studio setting; the right tools can make a difference to the quality of the final product. Our studio was used with learners as young as 6 right up to adults such as teachers making content for the classroom. Much of our work in the last year of the CLC involved NEETs (Not in Employment, Education or Training) and was a fabulous engager and motivator particularly in our fame hungry get rich quick times.

Unfortunately, funding streams for this kind of activity have ceased so the CLC Studio is due to close in a few months. So what can school teachers do to utilise the Broadcast Curriculum?

Gold option

If your school, academy or federation is feeling flush and BB is a high priority, then Planet PC have several solutions in portable boxes that have great potential. The Movie Box 3 cost around £8k – full details here. There are cheaper and dearer options from the same company. Contents include*:

• Apple MacBook – software includes iMovie’09 and Final Cut Express
• Storyboarding software
• Stop motion animation software and web cam
• High end camcorder with professional tripod
• Hand held interview microphone, tie clip microphone and boom microphone
• Live chroma keyer
• 2.1m x 2.1m pop up reflective chroma key screen and accessories
• Reflective chroma key flooring
• Reflective chroma key material props pack
• Full Lighting kit with floor stands and backdrop clip on lights
• Webcam and stop motion software

*This is a contents list based on when our movie boxes were acquired in 2010

Silver option

Much of the same functionality can be achieved with the following items for under £3k:

• Apple iMac – software includes iMovie for free
• Set of cheap photographers lights (redheads)
• DV camera & tripod
• Stop motion software (eg. I Can Animate) and recommended I Can Present too!
• Tin of Chroma key paint

Obviously not the same effect as the full kit but a fraction of costs however, a dedicated wall of a room is needed for the Chroma paint.

Bronze Option

The very least you could use to set up a mini studio is a Macbook, camera and tripod and this will be less than £1.5k.

None of the ideas above exclude Windows machines, indeed there are several tutorials on You Tube suggesting ways of chroma-keying/green screening using Windows Movie Maker. The popularity of the Khan Academy and the Flipped Classroom suggest there is even more mileage to screen recording video casts (a function built into Mac machines but freely available for PC) but I suggest a blended approach to avoid merely video recorded lectures.

Good luck with your broadcasting adventures!

A goodbye to all that…

The City Learning Centre (CLC) project was started in 2001 established in the grounds or campus of existing schools. At their extent there were more than 100 in the UK. City Learning Centres were imagined as a facility providing state-of-the-art ICT-based learning opportunities for the pupils at the on-campus school, for pupils at a network of surrounding schools and for the wider community. Their emphasis was on aiming to enhance learning across the whole curriculum by providing courses and opportunities for individual pupils from schools around the area. The multimedia establishments catered for any age and level of ICT understanding, and some offered conferencing facilities pre-bookable by local businesses. Many specialised in providing support for Primary education, others on initiatives for Secondaries such as GNVQ courses, the Diploma etc mainly for ICT and Creative Media. Enhancement of normal topic work using TV Studio and video equipment was accompanied by innovative approaches to pedagogy by the CLC staff, sometimes in a teaching partnership with the school staff.

The CLCs  came up with interesting, innovative and replicable lessons, extra curricular activities and to research and discover new ways of using technology in the classroom. An important reason for using the Centres, as well as spreading technology more widely, is that it encouraged schools to work more co-operatively with each other; sharing ideas as they share the resources. It meant that the CLCs were able to be equipped with more specialist technology that would otherwise not be cost-effective for individual schools to buy and attractive for pupils and the community as a place to experience the latest technology, as well as meet and exchange ideas. In cases where transport was difficult (or for times when getting to the CLC wasn’t practical),  schools were able to access resources as part of an outreach programme and even lend equipment for extended periods.

The funding of City Learning Centres  was initially by the British Government through the Excellence in Cities (EiC) programme to ensure they are able to cater for the requirements of local schools and businesses within the area, with emphasis on enhancing opportunities in disadvantaged areas. Up to £1.2 million of Revenue Funding per CLC was available for capital and initial start-up costs plus recurring funding of £220,000 per annum. In 2008, Becta, a government quango concerned with the application of ICT in education, took over the responsibility of monitoring and distributing the funds for CLCs. Becta was liquidated in April 2010 taking the funding out of national government and into local authority hands.

What has happened since funding stopped?

The key to this post is to as this question – where are the CLCs now and what has happened to the resources? This list on Wikipedia shows links to the regional CLCs but has not been updated since the end of funding. Clicking on many of the website links leads nowhere. For some CLCs, the local authority has decided to ring fence funding to keep the service going, albeit in reduced format. Others have closed completely; instances have occurred where host/on-campus schools have subsumed equipment and buildings and others where schools have been rebuilt following successful BSF projects without the CLC facilities. Unfortunately, efforts to become self-sustainable training centres haven’t all been successful (this is the case at my own centre) and LAs have had to close the centres completely. The tragedy here is , as always, the human one. Staff with specialist expertise have been forced out of the industry or redeployed into unrelated sectors. For myself, as a qualified teacher, I have to return to schools-based education at a time when schools are facing financial hardships and there are few jobs about. Where is the equipment? Many clients will naturally clamor for the facilities of a CLC (many were well-stocked with Apple Macs and expensive video tools) and these will have a relatively short shelf-life in terms of current OS, compatibility and even licensing. This list, maintained by Leon Cych on Google Docs, is an attempt to capture the picture as to where they are now in terms of CLC closures. The equipment though will enter an untraceable black hole (distribution, loan, loss) and is after all, nationally funded by tax payers’ money.

PLMeet – Primary Languages

PLMeet  gives us the opportunity to share our ideas with each other.

Over 25 primary teachers attended the Primary Languages TeachMeet last night, with others joining us via video conference from Paraguay and Sheffield and even more via our online stream.

Lots of new ideas were presented, from interactive Spanish PowerPoints to sing-a-long CDs with video dance sequences. More videos and links to the presentations will follow on this website in due course.

Details of speakers/subjects on our www.plmeet.yolasite.com website. See a preview of some of the streamed event in the Ustream archive here. A link to better quality video will be on this post early next week. Lisa Stevens (@lisibo) couldn’t make it to the PLMeet but has supplied this link to her presentation http://bit.ly/9Nd4Vl – recorded at MFLSAT recently.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=15558659&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0

PLMeet 27.9.10 from vutube on Vimeo.

MathsMeet

The MathsMeet unconference was held on Thursday night at the CLC and was a great success.  Organised by and for maths teachers throughout the region, it was streamed live from the TV Studio to the world.

MathsMeet was an event much in the vein of the popular TeachMeet sessions; around 30 teachers from Sheffield, Lincolnshire and Doncaster signed up at a collaborative web site agreeing to prepare a 5 minute presentation.  A further 10 viewers watched live from the Isle of man to the United States, linking socially to the event using Twitter.

Watch this space for interviews of individuals involved in presenting their tips, tools and ideas.  Also, we will edit the live footage into bitesized chunks – all to be available on the MathsMeet web site: http://mathsmeet.yolasite.com.

The CLC is proud to support and facilitate these events and look forward to the next challenge!

Here is one micro-interview of teacher Oliver Offord, from Balby Car:

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=13294565&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0

Oliver from vutube on Vimeo.

Connectedness…

Do you use an online personal network as part of your educational development? If you already aware of Alec Couros’ idea of a ‘networked’ or connected teacher then this diagram will be familiar to you. Indeed, if you know what connected learning can do for you, then you’ll recognise the links above from your use of blogging, twitter and social web tools. If you compare this to Couros’ diagram representing the conventional teacher then you may start to appreciate where you are and where you are going to be in the next few years.

This diagram came to mind when I followed a discussion on Twitter regarding online development for new teachers (on PGCE training courses) or further development for GTP or NQT teachers (on job training or within first year at school). Not only does it suggest the possible links to connect with personal development but also with the learners and learning and even parents. A truly inspirational image… but what does it mean to us today?

Well, today is another of those great opportunities because this evening there will be a chance to visit (either online or in person) to a great connected event — TeachMeet is coming to a City Learning Centre in Blackpool, Lancashire and promises to be a highlight of your connected year. TeachMeets are training and learning sessions delivered by teachers to teachers on practical advice and tools sometimes with integrated technology and online tools. How to take part? Visit www.teachmeet.org.uk for sign-up and directions or follow the #tmbpool hashtag in twitter or streaming video here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tmbpool