How do you teach screen subjects to students who don’t engage with the ‘classics’?
Alexandra Ferguson Alexandra Ferguson

How do you teach screen subjects to students who don’t engage with the ‘classics’?

During my time at university, many of my class had just seen The Departed (2006), and we shared with one of our lecturers how much we’d enjoyed it. Her response was to laugh at us and imply we were idiots because none of us had seen the original film, Infernal Affairs (2002). Now, as a teacher myself, I can understand her frustration, but I can also see an opportunity for her to engage with us about something we were excited to explore. As you might imagine, her response to my excitement didn’t encourage me to watch Infernal Affairs, and also didn’t encourage me to continue to share my opinions in the classroom.

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Notes from… Script Fest
Alexandra Ferguson Alexandra Ferguson

Notes from… Script Fest

Thank you to Into Film, Ben Murrell and Rebecca Knapp for providing exceptional CPD sessions for teachers, exploring everything from script and story structure, to script coverage reporting and copyright.

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Teaching Production Management in Practice: Listening
Teaching Production Management in Practice Alexandra Ferguson Teaching Production Management in Practice Alexandra Ferguson

Teaching Production Management in Practice: Listening

Our resources this week provide a listening task to introduce students to the realities of listening while listening: listening to information from two sources at once. Combining this with our previous resources on Radio Lingo and Using Radios gives students a true sense of the on-set experience.

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Teaching Production Management in Practice: Using Radios
Teaching Production Management in Practice Alexandra Ferguson Teaching Production Management in Practice Alexandra Ferguson

Teaching Production Management in Practice: Using Radios

Practicing these elements before getting to set will help improve their confidence, and testing their knowledge will ensure they feel comfortable with each part of the process.

Students may ask why a mobile phone isn’t just as good as a radio for on set communication. This is an excellent starting point when introducing the use of radios on set.

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Teaching Production Management in Practice: Radio Lingo
Teaching Production Management in Practice Alexandra Ferguson Teaching Production Management in Practice Alexandra Ferguson

Teaching Production Management in Practice: Radio Lingo

Using radios effectively and understanding the correct etiquette on set enhances a student’s skills on set and also gives them more confidence to walk into professional scenarios as they are equipped for their surroundings.

To support teaching students on-set radio lingo, we have created an approachable teaching sheet for students, as well as a practical knowledge test sheet which asks students to test what they’ve learned.

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Can educators prepare young people for a ‘world without work’?
AI, Careers, Opinion Jamie Waller AI, Careers, Opinion Jamie Waller

Can educators prepare young people for a ‘world without work’?

by Jamie Waller

Technical and vocational training has to be one pillar of our approach. We need technical people who can code, who can build and maintain data centres, who can design the user interfaces through which people access AI services. We need to train them to use Large Language Models such as ChatGPT, so they can prompt them effectively to get the outcomes they want, and verify and critically analyse the information they’re given. 

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