310MC Research & Development

Thursday 8th October 2009 – First Session

Today was our introductory lecture to our A304MC module. Our first task we were set was a test. This test was based a refresh on our knowledge on the Broadcast module and more specifically the different disciplines and technical understanding.

Most of the 10 questions were relatively simple, however there were two questions that i didn’t know the answer to. This was a worthwhile practice, as it exposed the strengths and weaknesses in my broadcast knowledge and has help point me in the right direction for areas where i need to research and develop on.

After the test we discussed the plan of action for the module and different approached and lesson outlines for term two. The strength and weaknesses of the Broadcast module over the last two years were discussed, and it was decided that a good approach was instead of the students creating their own, original programs that we could devise mini TV scenarios for them to carry out. This would ensure that practical session were utilized to their full capability and that other modules and commitments could not interfere with the production process. A number of different ideas and projects for the second years were also briefly discussed and i will talk about them in detail at a later date.

I am looking forward to this module as i feel it develop a range of broadcast and teaching skills that will not only benefit my degree, but also broaden my career horizons and look good on my developing CV.

For next week we have been asked to think and talk about a particular teacher of teaching style that has been a great inspiration during your life. My next post will discuss this in greater detail.

Exercise 1 - Good characteristics of a Teacher and a Teaching Experience

After some reasearch on the internet i found some of the main characteristics of being a good teacher. These are key to becoming a good all round mentor and are what students expect from their tutors.

Teaching Characteristics

• A good communicator. They should be comfortable explaining things both verbally and physically.
• A good teacher knows how to keep their temper in check and act calmly in all situations.
• A good sense of humor is another great tool that can form an important part of a successful teaching program.
• Good time management skills and always value the importance of time.
• You should always adopt a fair attitude, when it comes to making any form of evaluations. You should assess students on their performance, instead of personal rapports and likings.
• You should have a wide and solid knowledge of the subject you teach. This way, you can be comfortable while explaining things. Plus you will must be well equipped with answers of any possible questions that might crop up during lessons.
• Dedication to your work, plan lessons well in advance and work during teaching and personal time.
• A good teacher should be meticulous and have an eye for detail.  Well thought-out plans and programs for teaching will assist the productivity of a teacher.
• Overall a successful teacher should be a good leader and a good friend. He should also be a disciplinarian and the students must look up to him.

These are a good range of teaching attributes and i agree strongly with all of them. These are the basics in making a successful teacher and can also be good life skills, i will constantly refer back to these throughout the module and in future life.

A Teacher/Teaching experience

A teaching experience that has had a huge impact on my life, was when i was a 8 years old and started badminton. My first ever coach Terry Robins taught every Saturday at the local high school. My Mum and Dad took me along one weekend to a session and it slowly developed from there. Over the next two years my skills in the game grew from strength to strength through the guidance of Terry and i was asked to join up with the junior Warwickshire County squad. Over the next three years i was coached on a one to one basis by Terry that helped me progress through the County ranks and enabled me to become an established County player. Once i reached Under 17 level, due to a number commitments i wasn’t able to continue my coaching with Terry and just attended weekly training sessions through the County. Terry had a big impact on my badminton development, and taught me from beginner all the way through to County standard. It is because of his guidance i am where i am today and i will always be grateful for his mentorship. His dedication, patience, knowledge and passion for the game where definitely his best characteristics and have certainly impacted on not only my badminton but in my everyday life.

Thursday 15th October 2009 – Lecture 2

Today we went through the skills and characteristics of a good teacher and learnt a number of key pointers in becoming a successful mentor. Wer wrote down all the skills and characteristics that contribute to a ‘great teacher’. This was definitely a worthwhile exercise as it got us thinking about the skills we will need to have to become a successful mentor. Here is a list of all the skills and characteristics we discussed.

Skills

1. A good communicator
2. Experience
3. Organisation
4. Good time management
5. A good leader
6. Motivated
7. A good listener
8. Good presentation skills
9. Wide and varied knowledge of specialist subject
10. Clear at communicating with student’s eg explaining problems etc.

Characteristics/qualities

1. A good sense of humour
2. Fair attitude
3. Dedication to work
4. Charisma
5. Honest
6. An eye for detail
7. Good at controlling nerves
8. A good problem solve, always willing to help others
9. Encouraging
10. Can keep temper in check

It is generally thought that skills can be learnt and characteristics are in a persons natural persona. This highlighted the basic range of skills and attributes that make a good teacher and allow me to focus on the things i already have and things that i need to develop and learn to become the best mentor i can be.

After this task we were all given a sheet with a list of 10 areas of the module that will be important to becoming a successful mentor. We had to rate selves out of 5 for each skill enabling us to see which areas we can focus on improving throughout the module. Here is the rating scale - 1=Poor, 2=Some knowledge, 3=Average, 4=Good knowledge, 5=Excellent.

1. TV studio equipment knowledge – 4
2. Organisational skills – time keeping/paperwork/preparation – 3
3. Dealing with pressure – 4
4. Getting your voice heard/Effective communication with peers – 4
5. Explaining complex details – 3
6. Listening to peers – 4
7. Counsellor or negotiation skills/supportive to others – 4
8. Group leader/advocate – 4
9. Refereeing/problem solving – 4
10. A sense of humour – 4

Todays session was very enlightening a gave us a great insight into being a successful teacher, i will continue to look over these skills throughout the module to ensure i am using the correct styles of teaching to become the best mentor i can be.

Thursday 22nd October 2009 – CUOnline Task 1 – Teacher Idol

Here is my example of the skills and characteristics of my ‘perfect teacher’.

• The Leadership skills of Mahatma Gandhi – Because he was able to express himself fully and make a real impact on peoples lives.
• The Communication skills of Morgan Freeman – Because he can be clearly understood, easy to listen to and instantly trusted.
• The Presentation skills of Barack Obama – Because he is clear and precise in his messages/speeches, and provides inspiration to millions.
• The width/range of Knowledge of Albert Einstein – Because he was a revolutional thinker and is regarded as one of the cleverest men to have ever walked the planet.
• The Sense of humour of Tim Allen – Because he has the ability to laugh at himself and others.
• The Listening and Interaction skills of Sir Michael Parkinson – Because he is never fased by a situation and carefully processes peoples responses to obtain the best answers.
• The Charisma and Confidence of George Clooney – Because he is and cool, calm and collected.
• The Dedication and Motivational skills of Martin Luther King – He was dedicated to his cause and motivated in getting it across, so dedicated that he ignored numerous death threats to relay his message.

These combination of skills in my opinion contribute to my ‘teacher idol’. Over the years of my education i have met numerous teachers that all have had one or more of these characteristics and difference in teaching styles. I am now going to talk about two teachers who between them have a good balance of these characteristics.

My Secondary School science teacher, Mr Murley had what could be decribed as an old fashioned teaching style. He demanded respect in his classroom and presented and explained at the beginning of each lesson what we would learn from that days class. If you showed him respect then you would reap the rewards. He showed great leadership skills and had good presentation skills and a broad knowledge of his subject. He was straight and to the point and you dare not misbehave in his classroom because you knew that he was a stern character and commanded  the classroom well.

Another teacher who reflects the more laid back, and humourous side of teaching is a lecturer i had in my first year at university, Spencer Murphy. He had a good sense of humour, charisma and confidence about his lecturing techniques that were successful in gaining respect from the students whilst also clearly explaining the topic of the lecture. His laid back style made communication with students easier as they saw him more a peer than a lecturer so were more willing to ask questions and interact in the lecture.

These two teachers showed between them all the qualities/characteristics i have listed to be my teaching idol and have definatly been among a list of teachers i have had during my life that have had a significant impact on my educational development.

Thursday 30th October 2009 – Task 2 (VARK Questionnaire)

Today we have been set a online task on CUOnline. Here is what we have been set.

Task 2

1. Take the VARK test

2. Next write 500 words on your thoughts on this test and VARK by posting on this blog.

Consider the following;

Did your result match the first time you took it and do you feel thats this test gives you an insight into how you learn?

Do you think there is an ideal way of learning and if so how to can you adopt it?

How useful do you think the test is is in helping you become a good mentor?

3. Now think about the students you will be teaching next term – how can you adapt your teaching to accommodate all these different learning styles? Do you think it is important to attempt to do so? How does this knowledge help you approach your class?  Post a short paragraph answering these questions.

4. Finally comment on each other’s postings – giving useful, critical feedback.  Your ratings will be anonymous to other students.

After taking the VARK questionnaire these are the results and assistance the website provided.

Your scores were:

• Visual: 2
• Aural: 3
• Read/Write: 4
• Kinesthetic: 9

If you have a strong preference for Kinesthetic (doing) learning you should use some or all of the following:

Intake

• All your senses – sight, touch, taste, smell, hearing
• Laboratories
• Field Trips
• Field Tours
• Examples of principles
• Lecturers who give real life examples
• Applications
• Hands-on approaches
• Trial and Error
• Collections of rock types, plants shells, grasses
• Exhibits, samples, photographs
• Recipes – Solutions to problems, previous exam papers

Swot – Study without tears

Insert your Lecture “notes” into a learnable package by reducing (3:1)

• Your lecture notes may be poor because the topics were not ‘concrete’ or ‘relevant’.
• You will remember the ‘real’ things that happened.
• Put plenty of examples into your summary. Use case studies and applications to help with principles and abstract concepts.
• Talk about your notes with another Kinesthetic person.
• Use pictures and photographs that illustrate an idea.
• Go back to the laboratory or your lab manual.
• Recall the experiments, field trip.

Output

• Write practise answers and paragraphs.
• Role play the exam situation in your own room.

After reading the advise i have been given by the website, i agree with some of the points made, yet some of the things suggested don’t really fit in to how i like to work, but however overall the questionnaire seems to have grasped my main learning attributes and therefore is quite helpful in improving my current learning style.

Overall todays result did match with the first time i took the test so with this sign of consistency the test has proved to be accurate. I feel that the structured guidelines provided for being successful at this learning style are a great layout and are certainly helpful in making the most of learning and being the best you can be.

Is there an ideal way of learning? I feel that this is determined by the individual. Each individual has their own learning style and as we progress through life we all find different ways of achieving good results. Although we all have our own individual learning styles, as the VARK questionnaire shows, these styles can be categorized into visual, aural, read/write and kinesthetic. All of these styles come with individual and specific attributes that are classed as falling into these styles. However some people feel that they have a number of learning styles that are classed as being in different categories on the VARK questionnaire. This shows that the questionnaire cannot always directly classify someone’s learning style but however it can provide helpful pointers and advise to ensure that an individual makes the most out of their learning patterns.

This VARK questionnaire helps provide lecturers and mentors with a great basis on understanding how their students operate in terms of learning. This allows me to gain a good understanding of the range of learning styles and will give me the information i need to ensure my classes cater for every students preferences. With these different learning styles i can structure lectures and provide a range of teaching styles to ensure all my students are able to learn what i teach them in their own way.

The VARK questionnaire has made me aware of the variety of learning styles that my students may have so i will ensure that in my lessons i will have at least one task that suits each of the 4 learning styles, to make sure that all of my students feel that they have gained extra knowledge and found my lesson engaging and interesting.

Wednesday 4th November 2009 – Task 3

Two minute presentation on things you don’t know

I decided to talk about the internet and technology and found a few facts and figures that people may or may not know. I though that this is a comical yet useful lecture and will allow me to keep my cool and manage my nerves to present well and deliver my information clearly and precisely.

Here is my presentation script that i will use as a pointer during my presentation.

The Internet

Google

There are 31 Billion views on Google every month, compared to 2006 where the number was a mere 2.5 Billion…

Internet devices

In 1984 there were 1,000 internet devices

In 1992 there were 1,000,000

In 2008 there were 1,000,000,000

MySpace

There are over 200 million registered users on MySpace, and if MySpace was a country then it would be the 5^th largest in the world in between Indonesia and Brazil.

Technology

Commercial text

The first commercial text message was sent in December 2002.

Today the total number of text messages sent and received everyday exceeds the total number of people on the planet.

How long did it take to reach 50 Million viewers

Radio 38 years

TV 13 years

Internet 4 years

Ipod 3 years

Facebook 2 years

Technical Information

The amount of technical information is doubling every 2 years. Which means students starting a 4 year technical degree half of what they learn in their first year will be out dated by the time they enter their 3^rd year of study.

NTT Japan

NTT Japan has successfully tested a fibre optic cable that pushes 14 trillion bits per second down a single strand of fibre… That is 2,660 CD’s or 210 million phone calls every second.

Supercomputer

In 2013 a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computation capabilities of the human brain.

Presentation feedback

My presentation went well and i received good structured feedback from my peers. My subject was different and i feel i achieved what set out to do. More practice on my script would have enabled me to present in a more confident way that would have eliminated me reading off the paper. However this has given me room to improve and i shall take on board the useful feedback i received to enable me to improve for my next presentation.

Here is the feedback i received from my peers.

Andrew	Internet facts
StrengthsWell prepared. Lots of fact researched with interesting results found	Confidence, interact with students, sense of humourVery nice factsKnowledge and preparationFacts, confidence, charismaQuite funny, straight to the point and easy to follow
Suggestions for improvementInstead of reading out the big numbers would have been good to have seen them on screen - eg pictures, models, graphs or maybe given us a demo illustration	Don’t read off the paper too much (nitpicking)More nudityUse the room moreMovementCould learn what is on the sheet instead of reading it.

Thursday 12th November 2009 – Giving Good feedback

These are the answers to the Giving Good Feedback task we were set via CUOnline.

1) The point of feedback is to gather other people’s opinions and translations of your work.  Obtaining other people’s comments and views allow you to act on criticism given and provides you with the opportunity to improve from these points in future pieces.

Feedback is not always negative and positive remarks are jut as good as negative ones.  This provides you with the knowledge of knowing what you are producing is enjoyed by others, and that the ideas you are creating are being followed through correctly at the end.

Having a good knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses is key to ensuring that you continue to improve throughout your work, and critical reflection/feedback is the best way to achieve this.

2) 3 examples of good feedback.

• “A well structured and confident presentation that met the aims of the brief fully and provided us with a well balanced topic”.
• “The final artefact meets the brief well and provides an emotional and exposing piece. Very well done!”
• “This is a well put together essay, but to reach the next level being to go into more detail on the media forms and state how they have a direct impact on your theme.”

3) 3 examples of bad feedback

• “More Nudity”
• “Good film”
• “I enjoyed it”

4) Good feedback is well structured and has a clear message for improvement or reasons for why the assessor enjoyed the piece. It must be clear and constructive so that the person receiving the feedback knows exactly how to interpret it and put the feedback into action.

Bad feedback is not structured and very limited in conection with the piece. It shows little or no interpretation of the reviewed piece and gives the person no clear instructions of improvement.

5) To ensure the feedback I provide my fellow students is good there are a number of things I need to keep in mind.

• To engage fully with the work presented.
• Take key points of good and bad parts of their work.
• Provide a structure and detailed review of the work including clear examples of improvement and things that were positive and why I found them positive.

Thursday 26th November 2009 – TV Studio Teaching

Today was our first chance to get to grips with teaching students in the Television Studio. Todays session was arranged as a introduction for the Chinese Students to learn about the studio whilst also providing us with the opportunities to get first hand practice of teaching actual students. The session went really well and i gained a lot from the experience. The two roles in the studio i was in charge of teaching were, the Talkback system and the role of camera operator. The session went well and i feel that i presented both roles well and addressed all the key areas of the roles in good detail. The only tricky side to the session was obviously the communication aspect, as the chinese students speak little English and i speak no Chinese,  it was important that i tried to keep the terminology and structure to my sentences simple to ensure that it was easy for the students to understand. I felt very pleased with the session and as it was my first time of teaching students it went very well. Obviously the more practice in a real situation i get the better i will become.

Thursday 3rd December 2009 – 2nd TV Studio Teaching

Today was our second session with the chinese students and the session was another success, although the turn out was not great it provided me with another opportunity to practice my mentoring skills and approach. Taking the last session into account i continued to keep my communication with the students as simple as possible,  by first demonstrating to them what i wanted them to do and then making them have a go while i was there to ensure they understood and were able to carry out the task. As i was last week i was in charge of talkback set up and roles, and camera operation. In my session i had each student watch me set up the talkback system starting at wallbox two and finishing at the floor manager position. After i had shown them how to set this up, i dissconected the links and asked them to set up the talkback system themselves ready for communication with the gallery. After a few pointers from myself the students successfully set up the equipment and we were then ready for some simple rules and tips in studio camera operation although i had discussed this last week i felt that as it was the first time some of the students had been in a television studio they may have not took everything in so a thorough run through was needed . Here are the main points that is discussed with the students:

• Safety in the Studio – In this section i illustrated to the students how they make a studio camera safe if they are not using it or leave their position at any time; this included showing the points on the tripod that need to be locked off, in this case the pan and tilt, i also demonstrated how to unlock and then lock the wheels on the dolly of the tripod to ensure that the camera remains in a fixed position and cannot be moved if bumped into. I stress the importance of these aspects and also pointed out the potential trip hazard of the camera wires and told the students that these should either be monitored by a runner, or fellow student, or if the director has a definite position for the camera to be in then these wires can be taped down.
• Zoom and Focus – In this section i demonstrated to each student individually the position and operation of the zoom and focus dial on each individual camera. With camera 1 and 3 being the situated in an accessible area on the arms of the tripod these are simple and easy to illustrate and explain, where as the zoom and focus on camera 2 is situated underneath the lens hood at the front of the camera is slightly more difficult to illustrate, but anyone with basic video camera knowledge will be able to successfully carry out this procedure. The students as i expected found camera 1 and 3 operation quite simple but initially struggled to zoom in and focus camera 2, but with some assistance and guidance from myself they were able to master the skill and successfully achieve a standard interview shot with the camera.
• Basic studio shots – The third and final section of my skills session was to illustrate to the students the type of shots they should be looking for them to be offering their director, if they wanted to be a studio camera operator. I illustrated and analyzed a number of different shots with that would be used in a typical studio interview situation. After producing and showing the shots myself i mad e the students take turns in producing these shots on all three cameras whilst pointing out the main shots each individual camera would be expected to provide. This session went very well and i felt by the end of this skills instruction the students had a good concept of framing and shot selection and by the end of my session i was confident that they all had the basic skills to be studio camera operators.

This session went very well and i am now feeling confident in my own ability to successfully mentor the second year students next term, i feel over the last term i have grasped the basics in mentoring and i feel by continuing to build on these skills in real situations i can become a good student mentor and hopefully help the second years produce some brilliant TV shows.

Tuesday 15th December 2009 – Next Terms Mentor Group

Today i found out the fellow students i will be working with over the next term, they are Mike LaRosa, Sid Albanis and Luke Ryder. I feel that this is a well balanced group that has various aspects of the television studio to offer advise and knowledge to the second year students. Luke and Mike have a range of knowledge in the gallery, Sid has good knowledge of editing and VT operation and i bring studio knowledge to the table so overall we have a well balanced team. I feel that we can successfully mentor our TV group to creating a well structured television show.

Thursday 22nd January 2010 – First meeting with the second years

Today was our first opportunity to meet and work with the second years in the TV studio. The session began with Karen introducing us to the students and explaining what our roles would be throughout the term. After the introduction Karen and Bex went off to hold interviews for broadcast roles and groups, and it was up to us, the mentors, to run the TV studio and produce an activity that could incorporate the number of second years in a television show set up while they waited for their scheduled appointments with Karen. We decided to run a basic interview style show with presenters and guest that would run for around 3 minutes a time. As the second years came into the studio we established what roles they were pitching for and if there were any roles they would like to try out while they waited. Over the hour we ran the open studio session we constantly had a full gallery and studio team with constant role changes allowing for a well structured and worth while session. The session seemed to go well with the students who were keen to ask questions and find out more about our personal experience in broadcast and the outcome of our shows last year. There were a number of hopeful camera operators who all seem well informed of their desired role and all were confident in camera operation. After the groups have been decided we will find out what group we will be allocated, but from the short time i have currently spent with the students, i feel that they are a good bunch of people who are keen to learn and anxious to get their teeth into the module.

Thursday 28th January 2010 – First session with Red TV

Today was our first session with our mentoring group for the term, Red TV. As this was our first session we started as a team by introducing ourselves to the group, telling them a bit about ourselves, and then proceeded find out about the group we would be working with and the allocated roles that each student had. After this initial meet and greet stage we decided to find out what our group was capable of, and told them to get the studio set up ready for a run through. After half an hour setting up the studio the group were finally ready for a run through and as the session was only an hour long we were left with just 15 minutes to conduct as many mock TV studio run throughs as possible. As the group took to their chosen and decided roles, this brief run through time was designed to allow us as a team to assess each student in their roles and establish if there were any tips or advice we could give. Unfortunately this was not the case as the students just didn’t seem motivated enough and the presenters were less than professional and were very mundane and disinterested, also i found it very difficult to interact with the students as they didn’t seem to totally want to listen to what we had to say. At the end of the hour session, not much had been achieved due to poor organisation by the group and i suppose loose structure and direction from us as a mentor group. At the feedback session we all stressed to the group how important being organised and prepared it is to be successful at this module, and if the students wanted to create a successful television show then they had to work together as a group, attend sessions and get cracking with an idea for a show. The group seemed to have a number of initial ideas of what they wanted to produce for a final show and they planned to meet up after the session to discuss these in more detail. In reflection after the session i felt we could have probably been more involved with the students to get things done quicker in terms of set up and group organisation, and this was reflected in Karen’s feedback to us. I feel that this was the first time in a teaching environment maybe nerves played a part in our distance from the students and hopefull this is something that we can improve on at next weeks session.

Thursday 4th February 2010 – Second session with Red TV

Today was our second session with our TV group and it went 100% better than last week. After taking Karen’s advice to “be more involved” with the students this week i felt we achieved just this and this led to a successful session. Today’s session was all about camera movement and using different camera movements and shots to interact with the presenters to provide the gallery with different shots and angles that would give the show a visual edge. After a brief discussion with the director to what camera movements he wanted he decided that he wanted to try and utilise all three cameras moving at once. Initially this sounded extremely complicated but he was convinced this would work, so after he drew a diagram of what movements he wanted we conducted a number of run throughs allowing us and the director to get an idea of what the shots would look like. After a few run throughs it was clear that these movements were just not viable and where just to complicated to capture the desired effect. So after a quick rethink of movements in a discussion with the director, we decided that to get the desired look he wanted could be achieved by having just camera 3. As the shot wanted, was a walking shot of one presenter, and then the second shot being both of the presenters together, myself and Mike presented the idea to the director that this could be achieved through having the presenter walk in and out of camera 3 and then have camera 2 on the second presenter and have the first presenter walk into camera 2′s shot.   After a detailed discussion and sketch of this idea with the director, he seem happy with the compromise  and we conducted a couple of run throughs  using this revised camera system and it worked well. It was a lot more simple for the camera operators to provide the correct shots, the presenter to understand where to go and the gallery to piece together. We then reviewed the session with the group all members felt happy with the revised movements and the director thanked us personally for our help and guidance towards him during the session which was a real positive aspect of the session and made me feel that i had been able to for fill my role as a student mentor use my knowledge of the module and pass it on to another student, a great feeling.

Thursday 11th February 2010 – Lighting and Chroma Key

Today’s session focused around the aspects of lighting and using chroma key. After being in charge of lighting last year for my broadcast module, i felt that i had good enough expertise in this area to help Red TV’s lighting operator. After having a brief chat with the lighting operator i established that he knew what he was doing and instead of having to teach him lighting set up from scratch i was just able to provide little pointers and advice for when he would have to think about lighting the studio with a set in place. I stressed the importance of working closely with the set designer as it is key that a lighting plan is drawn up, so that if for whatever reason the lighting technician cannot get into a session then there is a copy of the set up so someone can fill in and provide the lighting needed in the studio. As my roles in previous broadcast modules have been in the studio this is where i focused my attention for this session as Mike took control of the gallery with regards to working the chroma key. However although i was not part of the gallery side of the chroma key, it was important that the lighting in the studio was correct for the chroma key to work properly. So i gave a quick run through to the lighting technician about the use of the back lights on the blue screen and stressed the importance of having a balanced amount of light on the blue screen to avoid shadows and over lit areas. This session was extremely successful and by the end of the session i felt that the students had a good understanding of lighting set up and chroma key set up. Whilst conducting lessons on lighting and chroma key we did run throughs of the groups draft script at the same time, so they were able to see these two functions in a television production environment. The feedback session went well with the only issue being to make sure that a finalised script could be ready for after activity week. The group as a whole seems to be working well and the show is starting to come together, however i feel the presenters sometimes need prompting to be more lively which is puzzling to me if it the role they pitched for, and also the lack of set designs is a slight worry but we have been assured that this will be in place for next time we see the group. We then took the director to one side and made sure that he felt everything was going ok and that he needed to take addvantage of activity week to get the script finalised and have the whole show all planned and ready to start full run throughs when we next see them. The group seem to be getting on well and are all pulling together for each other and they get everything in place over the next week then there is plenty of time to practice and get the show the best it can be.

Thursday 18th February 2010 – ACTIVITY WEEK

With no session this week it has been another day i can direct to my own studies, however i have decided to do a quick post on how i feel the sessions have been going so far.

Over the last few weeks i have seen a distinct difference to our mentoring group than that of my broadcast group last year. The group seems to generally get on with each other more and generally pull together to help one another out. The studio is running smoothly with everyone quiet on set and the only voice over the talkback system being that of the floor manager. This illustrates the understanding the whole group has over simple TV studio rules, last year in my module everyone was trying to speak at the same over the talkback without listening to what the floor manager had to say, but i am happy to say this is not the case with our group. Each person seems to have confidence in their roles and it is very rare when they do not know what to do, and it is generally advice that i have been asked for instead of a detailed illustration of certain equipment. This has helped a great deal in group morale and  confidence in each others ability as every person in the group is trusted to carry out their role when required. The only worry i really have as i stated last week is the lack of set, which hopefully can be sorted this week, and lack of enthusiasm from presenters! This has been a problem for the group as a number of people have been having to tell the presenters to put more into it. This is the main concern, as the success of the program mainly hinges on it presentation, and if the presenters are not passionate about the show then the audience won’t be. I know that this is being addressed this week so hopefully this will have been sorted by next session. I left my email address with the director at the last session and as i have received nothing i presume everything has gone according to plan and i look forward to seeing what has been sorted next week.

Thursday 25th February 2010 – 2nd draft of script

It was clear to see that the group had been busy over activity week and they had a finalised 2nd draft of the script that was ready for a run through and had started planning their finalised set. Today the studio time focused on a number of run throughs which allowed the group to demonstrate to us how their show will look. The camera movement has been simplified with all three cameras staying in a fixed position which seems to have made the presenters more at ease and generally more appealing on screen. The auto cue operator had come into the studio earlier in the week to type up the revised version of the script so this allowed the group to get straight into their practice instead of wasting time waiting for it to be typed up. The director seems happy with the way things have been going and we were mainly spectators into todays session as the group ran through their show. After every run through we gave our opinions and highlighted areas where we felt the take could of improved. A set design is going to be brought along to next weeks session so we can start to visualise what the backdrop will look like and the group are also planning to produce an advert for their show at next week’s session. Everyone in the group seem s to be happy with the way the show is progressing and there have been no serious disagreements or arguments that were the main issue when i did the module last year. If the students continue to put the same amount of effort into the last few weeks as they have so far, then they will be in line to producing a solid TV show.

Thursday 4th March 2010 – Set Reveal and Advert

Today was the first chance we got to see the intended set for the show. The set designer had created a cardboard model of the set and dressed it out with each fabric she wanted to use. The set is made of mainly fabric with the exception to the centre piece of the set, which is a heart being made out of cardboard and then covered in sequined fabric. The model gave us a great idea of what the set was going to look like, but the set is still not complete in real life! Although we have been told that it will all be in place for next weeks session, and i hope this is the case as everything else seems to be in place. Using aspects of the set that were ready, the items were put in place so that the advert for the website could be produced. It is a simple 15 second advert that is aimed to be a teaser for the actual show. Using the sequined fabric as a back drop for the advert, the lighting in the studio had to be addressed, so i assisted the lighting technician in achieving a balanced light set up that looked good on screen and we were ready to go. However the first couple of takes did not go well as the director wanted to use a number of different cameras and angles, and for such a short piece it just wasn’t working. So after talking through simpler options him and the group, and stressing that a simple one camera shot would produce the same effect they agreed with us and on the next take got exactly what they wanted. This was pleasing that the group had taken on board our advice and it had worked to their benefit. After the group had produced the final take of their advert they decided that they would finish the session early to have a group meeting and focus on getting the set complete as it is imperative that this is complete for the next session to ensure they avoid any last minute problems when they have to produce the final form of their program on the assessment record.

Thursday 11th March 2010 – Final Assessment

Today was Red groups final assessment day. I had a touch of deja vu, it reminded me of my final assessment day last year. The whole show came to a shuddering halt as the whole team seemed disorganised and unprepared for the record session. The session was delayed 45 minutes due to a fire alarm and whether this had an impact on the groups moral i am not sure, but by the start of the session the group seemed to lack enthusiasm and it took them almost an hour to get their set up and in place. After the set was ready in addition to the three studio cameras there were also three roaming cameras set up, these were in place to film a behind the scenes type show!? In my opinion this was unnecessary as it proved to difficult and wasted a lot of time filming scenes for that then the actual show. The whole group seemed confused about the behind the scenes filming except for the director, who had taken it upon himself to add this section into the show in the past two days. This was the main issue for lack of organisation and time wasting and something that could have easily been avoided by simply dropping the idea. The session seemed to be a disaster and nothing really got done. It is a shame because before today the show seemed to be taking shape but at the final push it fell apart due to over complication of cameras. The stress of the session could be seen in each student and by the end of the recording they all seemed disillusioned with the show and each other. Unfortunately this seems to be the case in this module as the last two years the same thing has happened to my broadcast groups. Maybe the size of groups causes the issue, the larger the group the more people that need to be relied on and in most cases this is the reason for failure. After talking with the director after the session he says they have filmed some other parts of the show during this week and he feels quite confident with how the show will end up. Maybe he is blinded by what he envisages his idea in his head or maybe he has got some good footage, all will be revealed next week. Hopefully it all turns out ok because as a whole the group have put in the effort to produce a good show.

A304MC – Pass it on! Presentation

1)    What were your expectations for this module?

At the start of this advantage module I expected an enjoyable and hands on module that would allow me to pass on and develop my own broadcast skills. The module not only allowed me to work with fellow media production students, but also share my own knowledge and skills with others to assist them in producing a broadcast piece that they can be proud of. The other personal expectation of this advantage module was to get an insight into the skills and attitude needed to become a lecturer. I looked at this advantage module as a chance to gain hands on experience in teaching a form of media that I had a good basic knowledge of and a great opportunity to get a feel for teaching. As competition in the media industry is tough another outlet that is available is the world of teaching, allowing me to pass on knowledge I have to others around a subject I am passionate about.

2)    How did term 1 help prepare you for mentoring?

Term 1 was a good introduction to what makes a good mentor. The numerous tasks we were set at the start of the module really allowed us to engage with the basics of teaching. The tasks allowed us to look in detail at the different aspects of mentoring and gave us a clear definition of the attributes, that we either have or need to become a successful mentor. The reflection on previous teaching experiences really allowed us to deconstruct the main attributes of being a good mentor and illustrated the levels that we have to aim at to be a successful mentor. The last two weeks of term 1 were the most productive in my opinion, actually putting into action the skills we had been talking about with real students was a massive learning curve and was something that I had been look forward to since the first week. However, without the weeks of preparation, I would have not been as prepared for this task if I had done it without looking into mentorship.

3)    What else could you have done to prepare for “real” mentoring?

Others things I could have done to prepare myself for “real mentoring” were conducting more real life mentoring sessions. There is nothing better than learning as you go along, and I feel that if we had had a few more practical sessions with students then I possibly we could have been better prepared for getting started. Possibly a get to know you session with the second years may have helped to make them aware of the knowledge we could pass on and what current knowledge the students had themselves.

4)    Do you think mentoring made a difference to L2 students? Give example/s

In some situations the mentoring did make a difference and help the students with their productions. A good example of where my personal mentoring made a difference to the students can be found on my blog, entry Thursday 4th February 2010 – Second session with Red TV:

“After a brief discussion with the director to what camera movements he wanted he decided that he wanted to try and utilise all three cameras moving at once. Initially this sounded extremely complicated but he was convinced this would work, so after he drew a diagram of what movements he wanted we conducted a number of run throughs allowing us and the director to get an idea of what the shots would look like. After a few run throughs it was clear that these movements were just not viable and where just to complicated to capture the desired effect. So after a quick rethink of movements in a discussion with the director, we decided that to get the desired look he wanted could be achieved by having just camera 3. As the shot wanted, was a walking shot of one presenter, and then the second shot being both of the presenters together, myself and Mike presented the idea to the director that this could be achieved through having the presenter walk in and out of camera 3 and then have camera 2 on the second presenter and have the first presenter walk into camera 2’s shot.  After a detailed discussion and sketch of this idea with the director, he seem happy with the compromise and we conducted a couple of run throughs  using this revised camera system and it worked well. It was a lot simpler for the camera operators to provide the correct shots, the presenter to understand where to go and the gallery to piece together. We then reviewed the session with the group all members felt happy with the revised movements and the director thanked us personally for our help and guidance towards him during the session.”

This mentoring experiencing was probably the most rewarding contribution we had on the second years and highlighted to myself that I had the experience and knowledge of the broadcast module to make a difference.

5)    What was the hardest part of mentoring for you? Give example/s

The hardest part of being a mentor has to be connecting with the students. There were numerous times during our mentoring sessions when different students were dismissive of what we had to say, if I had a pound for every time I was asked “Are you getting paid for this?” then I would have probably earned the basic salary of a lecturer! At times when we tried to advise the presenters on their presentational style we were either ignored or told they knew what they were doing. At no time really during our sessions was our input ever took seriously because we were just viewed as fellow students and not a lecturer. This was at times frustrating as it resulted in us just simply being another body in the studio. However the student who seem most receptive to our input, was the director who was always keen to hear what we thought of a run through or if we had any opinions on possible aspects to change.

6)    What was the best experience you had as a mentor. Give example/s

The overall mentoring experience was a positive aspect for me, although at times it was frustrating it provided me the opportunity to work with different levels of students and apply my broadcast knowledge to different aspects of the gallery and studio in an attempt to help others in their production. However the best experience I had throughout all my sessions has to be playing a cameo role in a run through of their script, this provided me with the opportunity to fully engage with the show and pick up on things that I felt needed improvement or could be altered to provide a better effect r structure to the show. This was the only session where I felt all the students warmed to us an actually took on board our opinions.

7)    What would you do differently if asked to mentor again?

The main thing I would change if asked to mentor again would probably making myself engage more with the students who were not so receptive to our help and spend time to show how useful we could be and try to interact and learn from those students and find a style of mentoring that would appeal to them personally. Another aspect of my mentoring I would change, would be having a set structure to each session I was involved in providing student with handouts that they could take away and read at their own time enabling them to learn all the key areas of broadcast, that are needed to produce a good quality show.

8)    Give a definition of a good student mentor – using your experience from this module to illustrate.

A good student mentor is someone who can connect with their students learning needs and where appropriate give clear and direct advice that provides help and assistance. Effective time management and good subject knowledge is key to becoming a successful student mentor.

9)    Which of these best describe your mentoring style and why?

I feel the classification that best describes my mentoring style is, Problem Solver. The reason for this is that I am always willing to help others with problems they incurred in their broadcast production and if I did not know the answer or correct operation myself then I would find someone who did.  Throughout the mentoring sessions I had numerous conversations with the director around the style, shots and general advice on his show and I managed to provide adequate assistance throughout.

10)    How has mentoring progressed you professionally or personally? Did you meet your expectations in question 1?

The mentoring sessions have enabled me to get a glimpse of what it is like to be a teacher. The experience highlighted the knowledge I have of the television studio and therefore has given me confidence in my own ability and also being able to work with  new people and make my opinion count. The overall experience of the module was positive however at times it was hard work in motivating and getting across to all the students but this is something that happens in the teaching world and gave me a good insight into the some of difficulties that can occur.