April ILP - Becky Hayman

ILP Evaluation

Magazine – Video

Chalfonts Community College

Rebecca Hayman

Overall Evaluation

The Video project as part of the Magazine ILP was, in general, a resounding success, enabling pupils and staff to develop news skills, engage fully in wider learning and learn specific technological techniques, which could be of use in their future lives and careers. The projects were approached with a positive attitude and, as such, enabled creativity to flourish. The scope for these projects, in the wider school curriculum and cross-curricular elements of school life is enormous. There were logistical errors there was, at times, a lack of coherence in the planning and organisation of the day. However, the results and potential for these projects far outweighs the areas of concern. Both the positive outcomes (for staff and pupils) and ideas for development will be addressed in more detail in this evaluation. Overall, these projects were innovative, fully in line with the ethos of the new 14-19 curriculum and allowed pupils to engage in learning which enabled their own individual creative talents to shine through. By introducing leaders from the creative industry and exposing students to the Media professions, students could see how skills learnt at school could be applied in the real world, inform themselves about possible career choices and do something truly new and exciting. The projects also benefited Staff professional development and demonstrated how creativity and technology could enhance lesson planning and teaching and learning in other subject areas. The major issue with the two days was a lack of coherence and organisation prior to the ILP days. As a project leader, I felt that in some ways, the potential for these could not be maximised and fully realised due to the lack of a project co-ordinator or obvious leader, basic materials/structure not being provided etc. Whilst I fully understand that creativity should not be all about structure and organisation, I felt that these projects were left to “run themselves” and it was only down to the professionalism, passion and creativity of project leaders, teaching staff and the enthusiasm of the pupils who, all credit to them, wanted to make the project a success, that they actually worked as well as they did. It could be argued that, as these elements existed, the lack of serious prior planning didn’t matter. However, in my view, the projects would have been more uniformly and consistently successful across groups, had more thought gone into the planning stage. Despite this, as previously stated, the days were a huge success given the time frame and workload pressures on teachers in general. However, if the potential of these projects is to be maximised, these considerations should be taken into account. Finally, a key element of the day for me was the fun, humour and opportunity for individuals to shine. Serious raw talent could be observed at times and this is something we should be nurturing in young people. These projects were all about diversity, creativity and innovation. I feel a great sense of personal fulfilment, having been part of them.

Positive Outcomes

Staff

· An opportunity to work with other members of staff on various levels – organisations, creative. These projects gave staff time to see and appreciate the talents of their colleagues. This could enhance the working environment in the future.

· Staff could learn how to use the technology in the Media suites, the Mac computers, the various editing programmes. They could learn a lot from pupils too. In many ways, this role reversal is essential for pupil-teacher relationships and helps break down barriers which may have existed.

· Staff could see how technology and creative skills could be used in their own subjects. Some examples are:-

Maths – pupils have to produce a Video to teach others how to solve a problem – for example equate the area of a physical space i.e the quad. In class they learn the fundamentals of maths to be able to do this. They take a Video Camera and film the measuring and collation of the information they need. Someone has to present the problem and explains how to do the measuring. They upload their footage, edit the sequence and add graphics to make a peer teaching tool. Back in the classroom, pupils watch each others videos and see if they can solve the problem.

History – For pupils studying McCarthyism and it’s influence on Hollywood in 1950s America. They may have watched anti-communist films in class. Based on their knowledge of US Anti-Communism they have to make their own 1950s Anti-Communist film, edit it and pitch it to be commissioned in a follow up lesson.

· Staff had the opportunity to see potentially difficult pupils in a new light. Many pupils who have behavioural issues really excelled on these days. This also can help build and cement staff-pupil relationships.

PUPILS

· The development of core technological skills and Creative Media (Macs, editing, podcasting), which without these days, most pupils would never have had the opportunity to experience.

· An opportunity to work as a team and feel real emotional pride when an end product is realised.

· They became aware of responsibility. If they had a role to fulfil, they had to do it properly, otherwise the team would have been let down.

· They got to see how creativity is harnessed to produce something of value and that means something to the people who have produced it

· They became aware of certain processes in the Creative Industries and saw how skills learnt could be applied to the “real world”.

· They had the opportunity to engage is something which showed off their own individual talents – whether that be as an ideas person, an editor, a presenter, an organiser.

· They became teachers of each other. It was very independent learning and learning from each other.

· They got to work through problems and try to fix them themselves, rather than give up.

· They learnt the importance of encouragement and respect for other people.

· The one day project enabled students to focus on two different media projects. E.G Radio podcasting and Video editing. This meant that skills could be transferred from one day to the next. E.G Many pupils used audio media they had created on Day 1 over the top of their Videos on day 2. It gave them an overview of the big picture.

Ideas for Improvement

• Guidelines for the structure of the day should have been though out and prepared more precisely. This does not mean to say they should be set in stone because the importance of these days is flexibility. However, there was too little prior organisation.

• The initial part of the day was planning and researching. This is the part of the ILP which need more prior teacher input and if not done properly, could affect the success of the whole project.

• Rooms needed to have bee resourced properly - materials such as sugar paper, pens should have been readily available.

• The initial part of the project – i.e the morning activities were KEY to getting the students to understand the brief. Despite the fact that these days were meant to be about something different to school and not like, pupils needed visual tools to enable them to understand the task. They needed for example to see clips of various adverts like the ones they were supposed to be making. This needed to be prepared in advance

• It is common teaching practice and all good teachers now that verbally explaining to a child, doesn’t always make them understand something. They need to SEE an example of what they need to do. People from outside the profession, may not necessarily be aware of this. Their role in this is to introduce the new skills, demonstrate the technology and enhance creativity. In my view, the day needed some teacher-planned input (mainly for the morning sessions) which allowed the Media Professionals to focus on their area of expertise more. A few ideas and resources for activities, which related to the planning and researching phase of the project, could improve this project greatly. As it stood, it lacked this element.

• This project must have a specific project leader in order to achieve it’s full potential. Someone who sees the bigger picture and is able to co-ordinate the various phases. There may have been one but in the 3 projects I was involved in, I was unaware who this was.

Future Development

· The pupils were so proud of the work they achieved, it would be nice to have forum for pupils to assess the creativity. One idea that could help to drive this project forward is if there was a showcase of work on the VLE. Pupils should be able to view the videos/hear the podcasts and vote for their favourites, leave comments. This would help them engage fully in the process and see the days as a long term learning process rather than a one off!