I feel that a lot of my time was spent explaining to the pupils what they had to do – this of course took time as each group had to wait their turn. Perhaps it would be a good idea to make a small project track (say, a couple of voice recordings, some music and a jingle, all in bits) and make them all do the editing of the same piece in the morning, just to practice using the actual tools, so that when they do go away and do their own thing, they know exactly what to do.
I have experience with Garageband and Macs and so know how to use both quite well, but I feel that a member of staff who had never used any of these tools before perhaps would have found more difficulty in aiding the students.
As we discussed, perhaps having a set amount of themes in order to narrow down the decision making process could be a good idea.
Perhaps get them to hear bits of radio plays, so they have an idea of what they are and what is expected of them?
At first pupils were reluctant to ask me for help as they thought I was just “another body” with no experience in the field (perhaps this is partly my fault for having said MFL has nothing to do with media in the beginning) but when they realised that I knew what I was doing, they were eager to ask for my help.
I think the end products were quite impressive on the whole, although some more guidance could have made the projects even more interesting and involving.
