This one day seminar will allow for academic staff from different higher education institutions across the UK to convene and to discuss the benefits and problems in collaborative learning, how social media – and other technologies and practices – can be used and to share good practice in facilitating collaborative teaching and learning in undergraduate media studies programmes

We attended to present a paper on ‘Stories & Streams’, a teaching and learning research project we have been running this year, with financial support from BCU’s Centre for Enhancement of Learning & Teaching. Stories & Streams is a response to observations we have made about instrumental ways in which students consume learning based on their expectations of job roles. We have developed a response that is problem-based, peer-to-peer and student-led; the initial findings suggest that students have engaged with learning at a deeper level and produced work of a higher standard (although there are also new problems still to address).

The teaching and learning activity has been delivered by Caroline Beavon, Paul Bradshaw, and Jennifer Jones. The evaluation of the project and the research outputs are being prepared by Jennifer, Paul and me. The article which accompanies today’s presentation will be available in a collection to be published on the HEA website.

Paul’s slides from today
Project blog

The project ended some time ago, but Dave Kane and I developed the project report further, taking it to an internal and an external conference, and finally we submitted it as a journal article which was published earlier this month by EducationalFutures.

If you’re interested in technology in teaching and learning or just Flip cameras, do give the article a read – it’s free to download here.

Students, scholarship, and our KT work

Oliver Carter gave a presentation, on behalf of himself and Faye Davies, entitled Student to scholar: developing vital academic skills on the journey from FE through HE. This paper discusses how, in the School of Media, we start instilling academic research skills from day one of year one. As part of our approach students are now engaged in producing and publishing support materials for our course textbook. The support website is part of a further project managed by Dr. Simon Barber and hosted at Interactive Cultures where we’re trying to rethink what a text book support website should actually do. It’s a nice case study in what we do here, as you can see the clear link between research, knowledge transfer, and teaching and learning, and it all links thematically back to our growing interest in digital publishing.

Web 2.0 in media education

Dave Kane and I gave a paper titled Student led design of Web 2.0 learning and teaching practices in media education. This paper builds upon our previous research into the uses of web 2.0 technologies within teaching and learning. As with our previous work, our hypothesis is that there is often a rush to adopt new technologies, primarily because of their ‘newness’, rather than as a result of a considered analysis of how they assist in the learning and teaching process or with little consideration as to what a learning culture wants to achieve through the use of technology. We looked at a small case study (interviews with students on the MA Social Media at BCU) to understand some of the issues at play in designing e-learning support materials. The work has prompted a number of new directions which we are actively exploring and we look forward to sharing more of this work in the future.

To enter the competition, bookaholics need to express their love of the printed word by uploading their own book-themed photos to Flickr. Some examples can be seen in the Flickr slideshow below.

Can you be more creative? Full details of how to enter are available here. The deadline is 15 July 2010. Good luck!

Media Studies: Texts, Production and Context is published by Longman.

Here’s what the authors and publisher had to say at the launch.

Book Launch: Media Studies: Texts, Production and Context from Jon Hickman on Vimeo.

Dubber has contributed to the timely, if optimistic, ‘After the Crunch’ edited by John Holden, John Kieffer, John Newbigin and Shelagh Wright (free to download). He is also one of the team who contributed to ‘Media Studies: Texts, Contexts and Production’, a textbook which is published this week by Pearson Longman.

Primarily written by Paul Long and Tim Wall it contains chapters by Vian Bakir (University of Glamorgan), and Andrew McStay. There are contributions too from colleagues in the Birmingham School of Media (Oliver Carter and Faye Davies) while Interactive Cultures team members Jez Collins, Jon Hickman and Nick Webber proved invaluable in preparing the final manuscript for publication. You can buy the book and read extracts from the Pearson website.

The book distils the essence of how various media are studied in the Birmingham School of Media, reflecting the ways in which we have worked with the many students who have passed through our classrooms over the years, many of whom are now ‘thinking media workers’ in the various creative industries.

The book aims to set students firmly on course to be critical, informed and canny operators within the field. It is pedagogically rich and covers a wide range of topics from the history of media right through to coverage of new media.  The book interweaves theory, practice, and professional issues throughout, and aims to engage readers with principal issues, challenges and paradigms in media studies.  It outlines why the field offers such a worthwhile scholarly pursuit and aids in making sense of the huge variety of media forms and meanings that are so integral and significant to our daily lives, showing how these are rarely transparent, natural or obvious, but always fascinating.

Much as we do in our work at Interactive Cultures, we advocate media study as a participatory process – learning is enhanced through ‘active’ engagement, whether applying theory, taking part in debate, or exploring subjects through research and analysis.  The key features of the book are as follows:

• Five sections – media texts; media production; media audiences; media and society; media histories – examine approaches to the field including new and web media, traditional print and broadcast media, popular music, computer games, photography, and film.
• Looks in detail at similarities and differences between media texts, industries, and cultural context and examines media audiences as consumers, listeners, readerships and members of communities.
• Provides a set of analytical tools – a language, a range of theories and analytical techniques – to give aid in the navigation of the field and in media research.
• An international perspective frames media in a global context.
• In-text boxes for active learning, including ‘Doing media studies’, and ‘Thinking aloud’, help to develop skills of analysis and theorisation, whilst examining ongoing controversies and significant media practices.
• A range of essential and informative in text-boxes including Case studies, Key terms definitions, Key thinkers, Key texts, colourfully illustrate media practices and ideas, foundational and recent works, theories, and polemics.

This is what some of the preview reviewers said (from the Back Cover)

“… will soon be staking its claim to be one of the best recent introductions to media studies. … It is a textbook that I believe should be on all introduction to media recommended reading lists.”

Paul Rixon, Principal Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies, Roehampton University

“… destined to become a key text for students of media, communications and cultural studies … it provides excellent summaries of key debates and encourages students to understand as well as critique contemporary media.”

Tony Purvis, Programme Director: Media and Cultural Studies, Newcastle University.

“… an admirable testimony to the rise of the subject of Media Studies… the authors have achieved a rare product: a media studies textbook that students should want to read from beginning to end.”

Helen Wood, Principal Lecturer, Media Studies, De Montfort University

“This book offers a long awaited answer to our scholarly needs… I can recommend the book unreservedly as an introductory textbook for media departments in different countries.”

Hannu Nieminen, Professor of Media Policy, University of Helsinki

“More than a textbook, this is one of the most accessible and comprehensive guides through the study of media to date. Academics, students and media professionals should all consider adding it as a reference.”

Virginia Madsen, Lecturer in Media, Macquarie University, Australia

An essential companion book is by David Barlow and Brett Mills: ‘Reading Media Theory: Thinkers, Approaches, Contexts’, also available from Pearson.

Andrew Dubber and Jez Collins are leading on a project that uses research and industry knowledge skills and how, as lecturers and academics, we can transfer that knowledge back into the classroom and use innovative approaches to teaching and learning by using online technologies to enhance student studies and professional understanding of the creative sector in Birmingham.

Interactive Cultures have established a very strong partnership with Veronica Holdings in The Netherlands. A culturally revered organisation by the Dutch, Veronica has evolved over the years into what today can be loosely described as a social media and entrepreneurial venture capital company.

Building on the joint work we did over the summer on Pacemaker, a new handheld, digital DJ mixing device, we incorporated parts of the project into a new third year module called Music Industry Enterprise.

Music Industry Enterprise builds on the courses offered by the School of Media and reinforces the forward thinking of course leaders in designing courses that have industry relevance and allows students the opportunity to work closely with local companies.

The students were paired with 4 local music industry organisations who had already worked with the Interactive Cultures team as part of the AHRC Knowledge Transfer project and tasked in ascertaining the challenges facing the companies in the short and medium term future and then coming up with a workable solution for them.

We asked the students to be creative in their approach to the research and dissemination of their findings, we set up a dedicated blogsite and asked them to use that and the associated technologies available to them, video, photography, audio etc, (this can be viewed at http://mc685.wordpress.com) to build up a body of evidence of work which they could then return to too construct a patchwork report for their assignment.

We were looking for a level of understanding of the issues and realities of working in the Creative Industries, a creative approach to problem solving within a real life business environment, a realisiation of how they could use these new found contacts for their own professional use and a level of organisation and teamwork.

The second part of the module has given the students the opportunity to work on two ‘live’ online music projects and to apply the knowledge they have gained. Working as teams they have been tasked with preparing their company for entry into the market place, business plans, marketing strategy, web presence etc, they will be presenting to venture capitalists, identifying funders and writing funding bids.

Once this is completed I’ll write a follow up post filling in the blanks and letting you know what Interactive Cultures gained from the project and how we believe it will inform future professional studies teaching.

What we did in Phase 1

In Phase 1 student teachers were asked to take Flip video cameras into the classroom.  These new breed of pocket video cameras are small and easy to operate, making them relatively unobtrusive when compared to a traditional camcorder. Working in pairs as part of their initial teacher training practice, the students were encouraged to film one another and use the footage to reflect on their own teaching. We set up a private group on Vimeo to allow the students to share and discuss footage.  Students attended a workshop that introduced them to the process of recording and sharing video.

Initial feedback on Phase 1

A number of interesting observations can be made from the first phase of the project.  Colleagues in CRQ are undertaking a number of focus groups and writing a full report on the outcomes, but here are some initial thoughts:

• Video and the Internet are scary and emotive subjects within the classroom context.  The very fact that we were using these two tools created a barrier to some students even getting started with the project as their schools simply would not allow them to use the equipment.
• The online forum to share video and discuss teaching was wholly unsuccessful.  There is a suggestion of social networking fatigue amongst the students, but the key here is about the way in which they actually used the cameras.
• Students found their own uses for the equipment.  In some cases it was too early for them to take a reflexive approach to their teaching (this was after all their first teaching experience) and so they did not use the equipment.  In others they preferred to use it directly as a teaching tool, for example recording demonstrations and running a looped playback, freeing them up to move around their class.
• Reflexive use of the cameras came about when lecturing staff made school visits to work with the student teachers.  With a lecturer to record and lead the discussion, this reflection on teaching practice was viable and effective.

Plans for Phase 2

The next phase of the project will be starting in January, and will see a change of direction.  Much more emphasis will be placed on the education lecturers modelling practice with the cameras, and leading the reflexive use of the technology.  Additionally those students who have found opportunities to use the camera as a teaching tool will be given the opportunity to develop this further.

We would be interested to hear from teachers, and teacher trainers: how would you use video technology in your classroom to make you a better teacher?