The CLC Blog

Working with Year 13 students from Dartmouth High School to produce a web-site for their A2 Media Studies coursework.

(more…)

Writing stories can be difficult and getting the pace and descriptions is a common difficulty. Students from George Salter High School used the storyboarding software Kar2ouche to create a storyboard about an attack by a creature. The students had been reading Jaws and looked at how to the book and the film built up the tension, some cases leading to a false alarm and others leading to a real attack.

The students had to create a storyboard to set the scene, then build up the tension to a false alarm and then build up the tension to a real attack. The students had seen the following storyboard and finished story as stimulus. They then created their own storyboard and then used it to help create a piece of original writing.

Storyboard Example in Kar2ouche

Story based on the Storyboard

Students from Alexandra took part in a stop-frame animation project. They had to plan, script and storyboard their story and build their sets. At the CLC they then had to make their models and begin the painstaking process of animation using iStopMotion. Once they had their animations recorded they then used Garageband to record their sound track.

Click on the link below to see an example.

bugsbunny.mp4

Working with Alexandra High School we have been creating some pieces of music in GarageBand which are inspired by their Klimpt style patterns.  Once this is done the then the music produced is swapped between students and now new artwork is created using Photoshop which is now being inspired by the freshly created music and other students work.

It’s official, Ian (Music & Media Technologist at the CLC) and his tribute band - The Antarctic Monkeys - are now more famous than the band they cover!

(more…)

According to the Unofficial Apple Weblog, Apple have just released BootCamp 1.1 beta. Obviously, it is still a beta version, but it is claimed to have significant improvements, especially support for iSight cameras, built in microphones, right-click functionality and improved keyboard support!
(more…)

Well day one at MoodleMoot (a moodle conference) in Milton Keynes is over and its nice to get out of the hot house. There have been a number of presentations that I have been to throughout the day.

Niall Sclater from the Open University discussed their adoption of Moodle and how it fits into their plans. They are currently developing an e-portfolio system which could be out in February of next year. They are also working on changing the roles so that students could be locked out of forums but still take part in the rest of the course. They are also working on giving rights to parents.

(more…)

Tomorrow is the official opening of Menzies CLC. After 6 months in the building, not to mention the countless (only because it was before we started!) months prior to that, it is finally near completion. By tomorrow afternoon, the ribbon will be cut and we will be officially on the CLC map - number 104, I believe. Then the real work can begin, although what we’ve been doing for the last 9 months, I’m not quite sure. Check our web-site for photos and comment after the event.

Stop Press!

We have just successfully secured Bryan Robson, manager of West Bromwich Albion Football Club to open the building tomorrow!

At last, I have successfully set up this blog, to collect the views, news and comments of City Learning Centre staff and users, up and down the country. With more than 100 CLCs in England, I would hope that this could be an online meeting place, to share ideas, experiences, headaches, successes and above all, innovation and raising achievement in English cities.