The 'buzz' of putting student magazines together, with banter and blether assured. Come in and have a wee peep...

Over the last couple of years the team has been involved in putting a number of student magazines together (usually with the CPC, P4W and GR4W groups). As a result, there have been a great deal of wide ranging, wonderful and witty submissions from the learners and a few of the topics are noted towards the end of this post.

Part of the process has been to introduce the idea of putting a class magazine together, and so far not one student has objected to the proposal. We cross-refer to a variety of different magazines available commercially and discuss the types of articles that might interest the writers (and the readers)!

Not only do the students get to write an extended piece, or one substantive submission plus some smaller articles, but they are credited for the work as part of their Core Skills (Communication) Writing task which they thoroughly appreciate!

When we put the magazines together, one of the things we do is ask the respective groups what they would like the publication to be called. A list of possible contenders are offered, such as: Interact, Network, Dis-course, Scribble, Extracts, Articulate, Lexicon, Blurb and Digest, but in the end the students have always decided on what they would want their magazines to be called.

So, democratically, the magazines have been called: The Banter, Blether, Peep, The Voice and Buzz!

Some of the topics that have been covered in past  and present publications include being a young mother, joining the army, the perils and powers of social media, film, theatre, gig and album reviews, raising money for charity, supporting the Edinburgh Capitals ice-hockey team, editing videos and running a small business, representing GB at judo at the paralympics, training Siberian Huskies, lowering the vote for young adults in the UK, a memorable trip to T in the Park and raising awareness to support local bands, to name but a few.

The Communication lecturer acts as the editor and works with the DTP section (the wonderful Chelsea and Nick) and the end product is a beautiful colour, glossy magazine for each student and tutor to keep as a memento. All magazines, yearbooks and other student work, as always, are kept on the shared drive in a clearly labelled folder.

Not only do students enjoy reading the articles, but parents, partners, grandparents and guardians too.



 

Skills for Broadcast Media

One of the cohorts that we have taught extensively in the recent past is NQ Broadcast Media. To freshen up the servicing input from the Communication side, the Senior Lecturers from the respective curriculum areas held a couple of meetings to discuss the best way forward. As part of the team's commitment to delivering a Communication curriculum that is fresh, engaging, challenging and vocationally relevant, for the speaking task at level 5, we asked the students to  deliver a presentation where they considered one or more of the following subjects familiar to them:

• Editing
• Camera
• Scriptwriting
• Radio
• Sound
• Digital Media

The summative brief was flexible enough that the students could shape their own talks, demonstrating their interest and level of expertise. Students were encouraged to deliver their talk on jobs that would be suitable for them in the future. Skills development in the following areas were analysed:

• Storyboard Artist
• Production Assistant
• 3D imaging
• Website design
• Commercial video production
• Post production sound
• Photographer
• Image engineering
• Lens based media

The students reported back that they enjoyed presenting on these topics and didn't feel like it was an actual assessent in a sense, as they felt they were doing a "fun" and "what we like doing anyway" type of a project. Rest assured though, the criteria for assessment was rigorous, valid and pitched at the correct level for these students' learning abilities and the results were very good indeed. Some students were assessed at Level 6 as a result of their industry.

 

Feedback sessions with input from student, peer and lecturer enhanced the learning experience considerably. A selection of presentation topics from the students can be seen below as way of evidencing the quality of the work. This is a brief that we would hope would be built upon for future students on the Broadcast Media curriulum area.

Subjects delivered

As the students looked at the brief, the following ideas were created, resulting in a great variety of topics, such as: work experience at the Scottish Media Academy, pitching a script for a screenplay written by one of the students, radio: past, present and future, online journalism and the part social media plays in news gathering, reflecting on work experience in the field of Broadcast Media, how the WHALE access course bridged the gap from raw ideas to meaningful application of vocational skills.
 

 

 

Example 1 from Mark Hetherington

Example 2 from Mark Hetherington