Reflective Journal
Week 0
Monday 07-09-2020 to Sunday 13-09-2020
Our Websites
This week we hadn’t started a proper lesson timetable but we met some of our tutors online and were introduced to some of the ways that this year will be working, for example that we will be recording all our work this year on our own websites. We had made websites to put our Year 1 Final Major Project (FMP) work on during the Covid-19 lockdown at the end of Year 1. That was the first time I had made a website and I found it quite challenging. For my Year 1 FMP I researched different website building software including Wix and WordPress. I also asked advice from friends more experienced in website creation (Adam and Harley) and concluded that WordPress was more flexible but could seem complicated for beginners, and Wix was easier to use but more limited than WordPress. For my Year 1 FMP I decided to go with Wix, to enable me to spend more time on the actual filming project. However, on learning that we would again be creating websites, I wanted to expand my knowledge and learn how to use WordPress.
90% Bloopers
Although I think that I get on fine with everyone on my course, I have a particularly close group of friends on the course, there are 5 of us – Adam Vincent, Ellie Simpson, Jack Harper, Harley Graham and me. We started working together well as a group about a year ago, on our first Year 1 project during which we learnt the importance of working together as a team professionally. The way we learnt this was because when we were helping each other film our individual first projects, “Poker Hand”, we weren’t exactly as professional as we could have been. We joked around quite a bit, which was good for getting to know each other and for bonding, but it meant that we had way more “bloopers” than useable footage. So, we came up with the name of “90% Bloopers” for ourselves, and it has stuck. Fortunately, we did all have enough good footage to edit our individual films. However, during the rest of the year we worked really hard to develop our professionalism and teamwork, and then during lockdown we supported each other through the challenges of having to rethink our Year 1 Final Major Projects due to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, and the whole Covid-19 issues.
So, when we were told about needing to have our own websites, Adam had the idea of the 5 of us buying a domain name of “90Bloopers” and each having our own WordPress website on 90Bloopers. An advantage of this is it makes use of our Group Identity and Brand that we have already been establishing, and hope to continue using after we leave Amersham College. Adam is technically strong in this area, so he sorted it, and I am learning a lot from him about website creation, and we share what we are learning with each other, which is great. We have a strong teamwork ethic.
So, welcome to my website, gedwards.90bloopers.com
New Equipment
Attila also told us about the refit of the TV studio, the TV Gallery, and about the new camera equipment that has been bought. I love technical equipment and I can’t wait to get into College to learn about and try out this new equipment. He also explained that the editing rooms are now BBC quality, which is really exciting.
Zoom Lessons
Currently our class are all in one group, Group A, but Attila told us that if more students join the class then we will get more tutors and the class will be split into 2, smaller groups. Also, the plan is to have a week in College alternating with a week of Zoom lessons at home. I think this is a good idea given that Covid-19 is around. However, I can see that it will be challenging for both us students and the teachers. Film making by its nature is a very practical course and I’m sure that I’m not the only one looking forward to using both the existing equipment and the new equipment that Attila told us about. Being out of College for half the time will potentially limit our time with the new equipment, which I don’t think the tutors are happy about either. However, we’d miss even more time if we started going down with Covid-19 so on the whole I think it is the best decision in a difficult time.
I can also see challenges with the online Zoom lessons. Having been Home Educated for 10 years, I have been used to live online lessons as one of the ways I did learning (as well as travelling around to over 3 counties to all sorts of groups lessons). I was lucky to have tutors online who had been specifically employed and trained to teach online. It is not easy, and I don’t envy our tutors having to adapt. In my Home Ed online lessons, we had groups of no more than 7 students, and had software purpose-written for online teaching, as opposed to software (Zoom) that is more designed for meetings. There is a difference, for example, in my online classrooms the teacher could see when a student was (or wasn’t) typing something, e.g. a question or an answer to a question. I think this helped the teachers, when they asked questions, to know when to move on or if someone was still typing, We all had mics, which could be used when we wanted (or were asked) to speak. We didn’t use webcams, which has a good and bad side. Not having webcams can be good for people who don’t feel confident either having themselves or their room on view to the rest of the class, some of whom they may not know that well. If they have anxiety challenges, then a webcam can be very difficult for them. However, not having webcams/mics can make it much harder for teachers to know what is going on with the students, especially with Zoom where it doesn’t show when someone is typing. And not everyone has mics or webcams either.
I can see why we are using Zoom, since online learning started happening very quickly, due to the pandemic lockdown, and there wasn’t the warning to get a purpose-built system in place. Also, Zoom can be free for the students, and used on different platforms. But it is still not ideal so learning this year will be interesting. I have a mic, which I will use, and I also have a webcam. I hope our online learning all goes OK. There will undoubtably be teething problems as we all get used to it, but I’m sure we will all make it work. (Later note – I am using my webcam for all lessons, to try and help our tutors, but I am one of only a few as yet, so I can see that this is indeed a challenge for our tutors. I know that I, whether in class or online, always prefer to get confirmation that what I have said/done/sent has been heard or received, and I can see in lessons that our tutors prefer to know if we have heard and taken in what they are saying, so I always try to say something to make sure that they know that I heard them, whether online or in person. I hope this helps)
Even given all the challenges, I still feel that the week-in-week-out idea is the best option in difficult circumstances.
Black & White Photos/Filming
The other thing that Attila did was to tell us that part of our first Unit would be to take 3-5 Black and White photos that tell a story. He will tell us more about this next week. I’m a little bit nervous, since I haven’t really taken photos in Black and White before, and I noticed that the brief for Unit 9 also includes a Black and White Silent film too. And I want to get it right and do well. However, I am also intrigued since I like challenges and learning new things.