Knowle West Media Centre meets Simon Willis
December 14, 2006 Posted by Roz in : Education, Digital Challenge, e-democracy, Community Media, Learning, Skills, Connecting Bristol , 1 comment so far6 November 2006
I met with Simon Willis who told me that he has worked for seven years as a detached youth worker in Knowle West and adjacent areas. He told me he had worked in Merrywood and Hengrove with young people on the brink of exclusion. Simon highlighted that detached work is very different from other ways of working with young people. He said that he thought this was to do with being on young people’s own ‘patch’ and the consequent impact on the power relationship, which shifts in such contexts.
Simon explained that he establishes a relationship with young people through dialogue, to get a sense of what might interest them and sometimes he might make suggestions. Simon then talked about the ways in which he has used digital media as a means by which to engage some young people in a process. He talked about how engagement in a meaningful process gave young people a reason to be around youth workers.
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Knowle West Media Centre meets Stewart Weston at The Mede
December 1, 2006 Posted by Roz in : Education, Digital Challenge, Community Media, Media, Transport , 2 comments16 October 2006
I went to The Mede to meet with Stewart Weston. Stewart told me about the different activities that take place at the Mede. He told me that there is lots of work that takes place with the young people who use the centre. He told me about the out of school theatre club which 10 – 13 year olds have been involved in and how this group also have a great interest in setting up their own radio station. Stewart said that there is also interest in setting up a radio station amongst 13 to 19 year olds who use the centre. He said that he thinks such a radio station would be an ideal platform for young people to engage in dialogue with each other.
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Electric December Launched
Posted by Clare in : Education, Digital Challenge, Bristol, Community Media , add a comment
Electric December, Bristol’s online advent calendar goes live today – offering a unique digital present each day during the run-up to the festive season: check out day 14 for the Connecting Bristol entry produced with Beef, a digital agency in Bristol.
A selection box of short films, games, animations and music can be discovered at www.electricdecember.org helping you count down the days to Christmas.
Highlights this year include a mystical ‘Wishing Machine’, where you can select your very own ‘wish cycle’, the chance to design the Super Hero you always wished you could be, a film that wishes lives were not lost to knives and the ‘Wish Library’ a magical place where you can borrow a little festive cheer.
Electric December projects the creativity and innovation of local groups, businesses, artists and learning organisations to the world. Each year local community and education groups are partnered with professional media companies to create new creative content for the web. These partnerships demonstate that the Connecting Bristol momentum, which ensures that skills are pooled and shared and the world of creativity on the Internet is revealed, explored and discussed is thriving throughout the city.
Knowle West Media Centre meets Chris Pickering
November 21, 2006 Posted by Roz in : Education, Digital Challenge, Wireless, Community Media, Media, e-society, Learning, Skills, jobs, Technology , 2 comments26 October 2006
I travelled to KWMC where I met with Chris Pickering, Director of Future Learning, a social enterprise providing training opportunities in Knowle West. Chris told me about his involvement with Knowle West Web and how he has worked closely with Kevin and Diane Jeffries to support them in putting local people on line.
Chris talked about Knowle West and said that the day has gone when you could get local people to go into spaces for training. He told me that he thinks that local people want less consultation and more action. He said that, instead of trying to get people to attend training sessions, the emphasis needs to be on going into people’s homes to work with them.
Chris told me that he has recently obtained funding from UKonline for someone to go around door-to-door to do training in internet and email and also to help people work out how they can use digital technology to ends that are useful to them. He said that Steve Woods of Bristol Wireless has been doing this to a certain extent already.
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