ELECTRICCHALK

…because everybody learns from everybody else.

Education Blog:

Digital Storytelling 2 – beyond slideshows

December 3, 2010 - Learning - By: Chris

Pic: Man with arms outstretchedDigital storytelling doesn’t just have to be about slideshows. A freer approach to narrative than thinking it has to be about beginning, middle and end means that many more approaches can be used. I look at 2 quick examples here.

Nanostudio – creating music on your mobile

October 4, 2010 - Uncategorized - By: Chris

Pic: Nanostudio screen dump
At school, I spent more time than was healthy trying to create a synth epic a la Vangelis using the music department’s (at the time quite advanced) Roland D20. Unsuccessfully, as it turned out.
The keyboard had cost over £1200,

AudioBoo – It must be love!

May 28, 2010 - Site of the Week - By: Chris

Pic: Wall of soundI’m going all gooey about AudioBoo at the moment. It’s sat around in the perpiphery of my vision for a while now but in the last month or so I’ve started to see it as a really useful addition to my network of tools, especially now I’m a JesusPhone user.

Here’s why I’m gushing…

Poetry and Photostories – Evaluative Case Study

February 2, 2010 - Uncategorized - By: Chris

Pic: Hallam Cascade by shanerounce CC on FlickrThe first semester of my MSc is now complete. The final assignment was an evaluative case study on a project using photostories as a way of helping Year 11 students develop their skills in analysing poetry. I’ve posted the document and comments are welcome.

CP3 Conference – resources available

November 17, 2009 - Site of the Week - By: Chris

Pic: Image Credit - Tom BarranceFilm Education’s CP3 conference is a routinely excellent occasion and well worth your attention if you are involved in using digital media in education. I’ve blogged about it before….
The last event was in Liverpool (way back in July)

Digital Photography in York

October 14, 2009 - Uncategorized - By: Chris

Pic: York MinsterI was invited last week to support a creative session at the Sheffield Primary Headteachers’ Conference in York on digital imaging. It was run by Rob Walker from Playing for Success with me tagging along and throwing in my tuppence-worth.

I thought I’d share the results with you.

Myna – Easy audio creation on the web

September 24, 2009 - Site of the Week - By: Chris

Pic: Myna from AviaryAviary has recently released a web based audio editor called Myna… and it’s well wrth a look regardless of what area of the curriculum you’re from.
Aviary already has an established web presence with its fantastic suite of image and

Adobe Clip Notes – Collaborative video annotation

September 9, 2009 - Uncategorized - By: Chris

Pic: prem cs3Adobe Premiere CS3 and 4 allow you to render a movie to Quicktime or Windows Media and embed it in a pdf. When you share the pdf it allows you to play the video and add annotations at specific points in the movie. Many users can add comments so you can build up a converstation about a particular video clip.

Literacy skills in the media industry

August 14, 2009 - Comment - By: Chris

Pic: London NewspapersA recent Guardian article pointed to the decline in literacy skills of new recruits to the media industry. I thought it was interesting that Skillset talks about competence with multiplatform media being important but that “traditional skills” like literacy and communication are part of that.

So how much emphasis is placed on cretive writing in the media studies syllabus?

HD video in education

April 16, 2009 - Uncategorized - By: Chris

We’ve been thinking of options for purchasing camcorders for a while and amongst other questions I was thinking was the move to HD video actually worth it.
BECTA’s done quite a helpful article on it here…. It puts some