Digital Citizen’s diary; Building on foundations

Day 4

By Megan Garvey

After working on recording techniques, it was time to return to the computer based tasks, essentially helping us in the long term. ICT skills can often be an essential part of radio, and we were learning these skills to use in our projects later in the course.

The task involved editing a recording which we worked on yesterday were, in pairs, we traveled out into the city to interview each other for 3 minutes about our basic profile. We would later be using this recording technique, called a vox-pop, to interview the public about a news headline for our project.

Today, however, we had a chance to edit our interviews. We were taught how to edit the important information, using it to build a suitable interview. We were all slowly building up a body of work, showing how many skills there were to be learnt at Ariel Trust, after just 4 days.

As the work was our own, and it would be used at the end of the course via internet radio, we all felt a sense of pride towards it, meaning that we had an actual reason to be involved in the course.

Over the next few weeks we would start producing work to add to our project theme, which all schools across Liverpool could use, and we were the designers of it.

At the end of the second week, I had learnt skills which I could use in later years, meaning that the course was laying valuable foundations for me, and other students to build on.

Tags: Ariel Tust, Broadcasting, Editing sound, ICT, Megan Garvey, Vox Pop

Hate Crime- No such thing as low level

By Megan Garvey

The dictionary definition of hate is intense animosity or dislike, whilst the dictionary definition of crime is an action or activity considered to be evil, shameful, or wrong. So what do you get when both hate and crime come together?

A crime motivated by racial, sexual, or other prejudice, typically one involving violence, is the outlining of Hate Crime and it exists in strong force across the community.

Ariel Trust has worked alongside agencies, to produce a short piece of film which looks at how a “low” level crime, can have an extremely large effect upon a person’s life. The film also highlights how more must be done in order for communities to be a safer place for all those currently under attack.

The film looks at two sides of a victim’s harassment; how victim’s lives are being improved by relocation and arrest, but also how many victims have received little or no support, so their situation has escalated and resulted in, more often than not, murder or suicide.

During the film agencies offer hope for victims of hate crimes, but do highlight how many attacks there are per year. The film highlights that in Merseyside alone, there were 144 homophobic attacks last year and 40% of lesbian and gay people live in fear of being attacked. More alarmingly, out of around 52,000 Hate Crime incidents, over 43,000 of those incidents were influenced by a person’s race.

A lot of the shocking figures used in the film highlight how there is still so much hate crime, making many sufferers wonder how much is actually being done to solve the ever-growing problems of hate crimes in many communities across the nation. Yet, the Hate Crime film reminds us that these incidents aren’t just numbers, but rather individual people. People who are suffering daily and people who have received help but is often not enough to live a safe life, free of abuse.

For many people, the help they received was simply too little, or too late, and murder or suicide was the only option left for the abuser and abused.

However, Merseyside police have now developed a one to one programme whereby more help is being offered and one officer is assigned to a hate crime victim. This communication from agency to family has had a positive effect on many families across Liverpool, proving how measures are being put in place to make a difference. A brighter picture is being painted and now more victims are prepared to speak out, in order for communities to be safer and happier places across Britain.

Tags: ariel trust, Hate Crime, Megan Garvey, Merseyside police, violence

Digital Citizen’s diary; the reality of radio

Day 3

By Megan Garvey

This day saw the start of the second week and the beginning of our biggest and possibly most challenging task yet. At Ariel Trust, there is a sound booth full of recording systems and microphones, and today we could put this to good use, along with our very own voices for radio.

In teams of four we would get to host our own news flash and, being an over enthusiastic amateur, I volunteered to be in the first group. However, I immediately realised my error when sitting next to me was a fellow student who worked part-time for a hospital radio station and two fellow students who had deep, loud voices, perfect for radio!

However, my cue went in a flash and we all wanted to do it again, just showing how fun it was. Although I had never done anything like that before, having someone who had experience in radio in your group, made it somehow easier and not as daunting, as there was always someone to turn to if you needed to ask for advice.

But more over, day 3 showed how diverse the course was; last week we were working with editing software, and today we were hosting a news programme. Two completely different things somehow had a link. I began to realise that there is so much more to radio that speaking into a microphone and saying hello. You have to edit what you say, change the pitch and delete errors.

Today proved how challenging working in radio could be, but also how different each day could be for both presenter and producer.

Tags: Broadcasting, Digital Citizens, Editing sound, Megan Garvey, Producing, Radio

Digital Citizen’s diary; taking the challenge

By Megan Garvey

Day 2

It was an exciting morning at Ariel and we were almost too ready to start with the technological side of the course. However, bearing in mind an alarm had woken the majority of us up at 8am, we all made sure the tea and coffee was downed in mass number before we even thought about switching on a computer!

We started day 2 by using digital editing software, again, something that was completely new to most of us, but our tutors were on hand to give extra support. I was amazed at how quickly I was learning new skills from a programme I had never even seen or heard of before.

After exploring the programme, we were all confident enough to produce our own work and edited our own radio jingle, which had to be around 30 seconds long. It seemed a challenging task was ahead of us, and 30 seconds seemed to be around 3 hours in my head.

In no time we all had our finished products, each one different from the rest, which somehow made our group all the more exciting; we all had a different approach to our work, meaning that if we produced a body of work together, it would be diverse and could appeal to all sorts of people.

We were all starting to become more confident as the hours passed by and were ready to take on even more challenges next week.

 

Tags: ariel trust, Digital Citizens, Editing sound, Megan Garvey, Radio

Digital Citizen’s diary; Butterflies on the train

By Megan Garvey

Day 1

I was about to start my first day on the Digital Citizens course and as I jumped on the 9.25 train, a few butterflies circled my stomach, but I remembered all of the exciting opportunities Ariel Trust had to offer, so sat back and relaxed, and in enough time my train pulled up at Liverpool Central.

I was about to partake in an 8 week course at the Liverpool based charity Ariel Trust. Throughout my time spent there over the summer I would be creating educational resources for all schools across the community, which both teachers and pupils could use.

But, the reason behind those unruly butterflies earlier on the train, was the fact that the course was based around broadcasting and computers, two things which I wasn’t really confident about doing. What happened if everyone was a super talented techno whizz kid? What happened if everyone already had experience in radio, and there is little me who has neither technological nor radio skills to my name?

But wasn’t that the reason I wanted to do this course in the first place? I wanted to learn new things, challenge myself and meet different people, all of which would help me in my future careers. This fear of mine was soon forgotten as I settled down into my seat at Ariel, I realised how mixed the group was.

After introducing ourselves, some of the group worked part-time at radio stations and some, like me, wanted to learn new skills and build upon completely fresh foundations. Those nervous butterflies changed into excited ones as we were told what was ahead of us in the weeks ahead, and by the end of the day the conversation was freely flowing among all of the students

For me, the course already seemed to be a perfect combination of hard work and dedication, but also fun and freedom; I could use my own ideas to create my own piece of work, which was something to aim for during the course. But, for now I could let my creative energies rest a little, as for the first day or three we were working together as a team.

As I stepped on the platform to jump on my train I felt optimistic about the future weeks at Ariel and wondered what would be in store tomorrow.

Tags: ariel trust, Course, Digital Citizens, Megan Garvey, Radio, students

Arson Project Heats up.

By Kate Realey BA

Ariel Trust is currently working on an Arson education resource which it’s planned will be in Primary Schools in the North West by the beginning of the 2011 academic year. The Arson resource, along with Ariel Trust’s other education software (including ‘Domestic Abuse’ and ‘Past and Present’) is designed to educate young people aged 9-11 about social issues that the current syllabus ignores. This transition resource will be mapped against the KS2 curriculum and will help prepare students for their move into High School.

Ariel Trust is working alongside schools to ensure the material we include in our resources coincides with the syllabus and is appropriate for that age group. Along the way we will be getting regular feedback from Primary Schools in the North West to make sure our learning resource meets the criteria.

 The learning resource will include video footage of actors performing certain scenarios around the subject of Arson, lesson plans and exercises for the children to complete, an Agony Aunt who will offer guidance and advice on the issues surrounding Arson and games and quizzes for the children to enjoy but also learn from. All the above is intended to make the children consider and think about the dangers surrounding Arson and what actions they might take to prevent such things happening.

For the last few weeks I have been working on a Journalist News Exercise. My lesson plan consists of four exercises, all of which teach the children how to write a good quality news story. This includes how to write a fitting headline to a news article, basic interview skills that elicit the best response, how to write a news story for broadcast, and finally how to read a news story. By tailoring each exercise around the subject of Arson the children are considering the repercussions when making wrong choices.

Tags: ariel trust, Arson, Kate Realey, KS2, learning resource

Plastered 2 finds its voice

An aspiring young actor has brought to life our re-developed alcohol learning resource ‘Plastered 2’.

Keith Rice, 17, is currently studying at the Liverpool Media Academy and he has kindly recorded the narration for ‘Plastered 2’, where he will be voicing the new character Eugene.

 

His voice will feature throughout the resource which includes a number of activities mapped against the Maths curriculum. 

 

These include surveys, scatter diagrams, histograms, cumulative frequency diagrams as well as extensive teaching tools that offer support for teaching across all exam boards.

 

The re-developed ‘Plastered 2’ will be launched this Friday 1^st July at the Maths Subject Leaders Meeting at Toxteth Annexe, where 22 schools from across Liverpool will be receiving a copy of the resource for free.

 

Its aim is to improve young people’s attitudes towards alcohol and improve their performance in the classroom.

 

‘Plastered 2’ is now available, to read more about this unique learning resource, click here. 

Tags: alcohol, arieltrust, keithrice, learning resource, liverpoolmediaacademy, Maths, plastered