Knowle West Media Centre meets Lester Freckleton
December 19, 2006 Posted by Roz in : Education, Digital Challenge, Media, Learning , add a comment18 October 2006
I went to the Park where I met with Lester Feckleton, music tutor, and head of levels 1 and 2 in music at The Park and City of Bristol College. Lester told me that his work is about engaging young people in music, and that the young people he works with range from beat makers through to performers. Lester said that he is keen to extend on the work through project activities and through linking up with other agencies, organisations and groups in order to do so. He mentioned Trinity as one such collaborator.
Lester said that it would be great if there were more connections between all the different work that is going on in Bristol involving young people in music. He suggested that new media might be a way of making connections that could then be followed up in physical ways. For example, if there was a local version of YouTube, whereby people could identify other musicians with similar interests to their own, in order that they might then meet up and jam together.
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 Pat O’Hara and Anne Micciche at Filwood Library
December 1, 2006 Posted by Roz in : Digital Challenge, Media, Learning , add a comment10 October 2006
I traveled to Filwood library where I met with Pat O’Hara and Anne Micciche. Pat began by talking about how needs of local people, as are reflected in the services they require from the library, are never static but change with circumstances over time. For example, at the moment there are regular visitors to the library for whom English is an additional language. In response to this Pat has produced a sheet of information in different languages to help library staff communicate with people.
We talked about the internet access that there is at the library. Pat and Anne told me that library members can use the internet for up to two hours a day free of charge. If they are busy and people are waiting to use the computers then this time limit is reduced to one hour. There are ten computers; six for adult use and four for children. The computers are well used, especially after school hours and in the school holidays. They told me that they could do with more computers as the need is definitely there and is increasing. Children tend to use the computers for homework and for games whereas adults tend to use them to apply for jobs and for all sorts of other research such as family history. People also regularly pop in to use multimap or other route planning web sites. There is also a scanner and people use this regularly to scan in and print off photos. The scanner is free but there is a small charge for prints.
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Geeks in the Park on Accessibility
November 30, 2006 Posted by Laura in : Digital Challenge, Innovation, Media, Learning, Skills , add a commentHello Accessible Web Developers and those who want to be,
This excellent podcast from the “Geek in the Park” event on accessibility.
If you’re looking for some good in depth discussion of accessibility then this is brilliant. Topics include:
- Accessible browser technology
- Web developers adding accessibility functionality where perhaps User Agents should fulfill the role
- Accessibility vs business/branding requirements
I could go on but I don’t want this to turn into an essay, anyway I thought I should pass this on.
Main site (recording surprisingly not available here)
http://www.geekinthepark.co.uk/
Recording available here
http://www.archive.org/details/Geek_in_the_Park_27th_August_2006
I hope you enjoy it and find it useful.
