Major Project Reflective Learning Log

Log 1:

In addition to unit 7, we are also currently working on unit 1. This unit is all about internet safety. With the growing poularity of social media and websites such as Facebook and Ask.fm, childeren are at risk! Our client- once more Bluecoat Academy has commisioned our class to create an online resource for students and parents about online safety. This task is somewhat unique in compariosn to previuos tasks as this assigement expects us to work as a whole class. That's right, our whole class has now been transformed into a hardworking production team, which may sound interesting and fun, but it is vital that we show communcation skills, managment and organisation throughout the project.

Our first task was assignment 1. We were to collect as much information about internet safety. Weather it was an image of google or a article submitted by the Police, we had to simply find it, and stcick it on the board for our whole team to see it. This was also a first test of our communcation skills. We had to communicate to let others know what we are covering, what we have found and what we are looking at, to avoid any repeated work. Unfortunately, we did come across the same things as eachother, but in time our communication as a team will surely improve.  We then had our first metting as a team- dicussing key areas about the prject and sharing out roles, organising tasks and appointing our producer. From here we will develop this project further.

Here are the roles that were given out;

• Producer - Maqsood

            Assistant -  Nicole

• Branding - Nicole:

            Assistant - Maqsood:

• Animation - Dieter: 

• Game - Sam

• Video - Edna

• Suitable content - Josh

• Resources - Maqsood

• Case studies -  Deniz

• Website design - Dieter 

            Assistant - Sam 

Log 2:

This week, we also researched upon campaign/ awareness adverts. Simialrly to internet safety, there are different target audiences, websites and genres covered by these adverts. By researching into two exsisting adverts, we are preparing ourselves for the upcoming task! We chose two adverts/ campaigns that we would like to research (as induviduals) and in time we will collate this into a powerpoint or prezi presentation- to be presented to the rest of the class. My chosen two adverts are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI4Ye4EZo00 AND https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWN6kchSI2E.

Log 3:

Today marked the day of our second meeting! It is within this meeting where we had two new attendees- Jessica and Deniz. Last week they were unable to attend the meeting. This meant that they were unclear this week about what roles they will be picking up and where they fit into this task. We decided that Deniz would be suited to case studies, as he seemed a little confident with this. We also decided the Jessica would have the role managing Aesthetic design. Once we established what roles would suite them the best, we started to bring together some ideas for this project. We decided to go through each section, and outline any tasks that needed to be completed within that section.

Here is a photo that shows some of the points we made;

               


This task/ brainstorm helped alot. By doing this, we are able to see what exactly needs to be completed under each section. The area the class agreed I should be in charge of is the 'suitable content'. Now, this area seems to cover quite alot, as sutibale content needs to be considered throughout each task. However, one are sutiable contnent links in with stronlgy is 'Case studies'. These two areas need quite a lot of research from a different sources. We may need to ask students/ parents for their views on our ideas or we may gather a few ideas and knowledge of the internet. Either way, the research here, will be needed to be carried out to a near-professional standard- likewise for other areas too.

So why was I the one chosen for this area? Well, as a team, we thought that some articles will be a great feature. This could be a key part of the site where students and parents are able to pick up the most important information and could allow us to make the site very informative by creating these articles. With expereicne and knowledge in writting artcicles, it felt like a strong area for me to take charge of. I can be a very creative, persuasive, informative and passionate writter if I put my mind to it, so I was more than willing to take on this part. In addition to this, I will certaily need the input of market research and of course my team mates for any ideas, to achieve the very best out of the articles. I feel this area will be a strong one of mine, but I know there will be some stumbling blocks along the way. I will become increasingly difficult for me to work on this alone. For example, market research is a task that usually involves more than one partciapant (to speed up data collection) so I will need to direct my peers to help me with this. 

For the final part of the session, we looked further into our ethos we aim to present in our website. A few ideas was discussed, some have great potential and can be found in our production team wiki!

Log 2

At this point, we have yet to start this assignment. We have worked and researched upon various awareness campaigns, which will help us on this project. With this research, we have presented it to the rest of the class...where we were marked on our communication, informative and clarity. To my surprise, it wasn't too difficult to find the research and apply it to my powerpoint. I felt like throughout this task, I was always on track and managed to find plenty of useful information. It was just the case on how I would communicate this to the rest of the class during my presentation.

Log 3

Today, we completed our presentation. I have to say I was pleased on how it went. To find out how successful my presentation was, and what I learnt- visit the post named 'What is Social Action and Community Media Production? Unit 31'.

Log 4

So at this stage, we have now aassigned each member of the group with sprecified areas on the project. As mentioned, I am working on sutiable content. In addition to this, we have researched into existing social and community action campaigns, and also looked into how to work to a brief. 

Now, we are progressing onto assigment 3, which asks us to:

Be able to originate, develop and research an idea for a media product.

Be able to research for social action and community media production work.

This requires us to look further into exsisiting media campaigns using quantitative and qualitatitive data and look for the following:

Aims and objectives

Social, personal and political issues

Ethical considerations

Access issues

Audience research

This had to be collated into a research bank, and with the expereicnes I now have in creating this, this first task wasn't too difficult, but still took a bit of time to compelete. 

For the second task, we were asked to collect similar type of research and various methods, but considering more on the area that we were focussing in on in the e-safety project. I was given 'sutiable content', which doesn't actually foucus on one paticualr aspect. This meant that I had to find one of the aspects that needed more than one person in charge. For example, branding and logo design doesn't need more than one person researching into it. In contrast, the video and game design, is more lengthy and will need alot more planning. We decided as a class that I should help research into the video for the site. Again, this type of task is frequent in Media, and therefore wasn't a strain, but very time consuming. 

For task three, we were asked to collate some primary research. This included interviews and questionnaires. The questioanire I created, recieved some unrealiable data/ answers as some didn't take it too serious. On the other hand, the recorded interviews I did allowed me to gain some intersting points! I was paticualarly intrigued by one of the comments a teacher made. He said the video should answer the following questions for students;

Would this happen to me?

Why would this happen to me?

How do I stop this happening to me?

This is an intersting idea, as it seems to have it's own sturcture already, by simply answering these questions. It is basic, to the point and answers the more vital questions the video needs to answer! This is one of  many things I will consider for the video.

For the final task,  we were asked to gather all our initial ideas and thoughts into one presentation. Thsi included mind-maps, notes, sketches, storyboards and moodboards! We also had to consider factors such as; cost, time, ethical considerations and personell. With this being the last task, time was heavily against me. 

I beleive that, given more time, I may have produced more quality in this assigment. However, I do strongly beleive that I have carried out my research professionally, and have worked hard to get the information I need to help me progress onto the next assigment in this project. 

Overall I feel that this major project is going well. There are areas that may need a little work on, but I do feel that I am progressing well at this stage. In paticular, I feel my presenting, is getting noticabely stronger. The feedback from my peers, suggests that I am able to produce presentation that meet the high grading criteria, but we will find out come the end of the project!

Log 5
 
Now, the near future will see us sitting down as a production team discussing our ideas further. This will incude more feedback on our ideas, when we plan to have our team meetings and what tasks should start when. 

At this, we have had one production meeting where we have discussed these topics. We are now ready to create a gantt chart as a team which will present some of the time decisions thta were made in our first meeting. Unfortunatley, due to technical issues and time constriants, we were unable to complete our gantt chart. Therefore we shall use part of next week's lesson to ensure this chart has been created. This will be difficult as half of the team is away on a trip to Germany! Hopefully we can over-come this obsticle.