Mick Connell shows how PGCE students engage with digital film

1. ‘Teaching Sheffield’ -
Dissemination
The University of Sheffield
PGCE English Creative Project
December 2011 – June 2012

2. Background and Context
• We offer a secondary PGCE English course
for 20-25 students at The School of
Education.
• We offer approximately two days of college-
based work on digital and moving image
literacy within the core English programme.
• Our access to up to date, digital and ICT
resources and expertise within college is
limited.

3. ‘Teaching Sheffield’ - Objectives
 To give our students an opportunity to collaborate on an
original, creative enterprise
 To explore the use of a range of digital and media resources
within an English subject focus
 To develop capacity and confidence with a digital
technology/resources
 To devise, compose, produce and present a digital, still or
moving image product that has value in its own right and
potential for the classroom
 To exploit the resources available in and around Sheffield
 To link with and feed into the DeFT Project and to maximise
the gains made from the partnership work with Rawmarsh
City Learning Centre (CLC), Rotherham.

4. Teaching Sheffield - Programme
 Friday 16 December 2011– Digital and Moving Image
workshop at Rawmarsh City Learning Centre (CLC),
Rotherham
 Tuesday 8 May 2012 – Introduction – Continuation of
workshop themes – CLC input and project orientation
 Wednesday 9 May – 9.30 -12.30 - First group work
session – ideas, planning and programming
 Friday 8 June and Thursday 14 June – filming/making
days – 3.00pm 14/6 – back here to submit tapes
 Friday 15 June – editing and production day –
Rawmarsh CLC
 Wednesday 20 June – 9.30-12.30pm – dissemination
and presentation

5. Day 1 – Orientation and Skills
Development
 Poems and Film in Rawmarsh Cemetery
 In small groups the students had to make a
short still or moving image presentation and
reading of their chosen poem
 Before filming and recording the students
were briefed on the camera and the editing
software (i-movies)
 The afternoon was spent editing to
presentation standard

6. Poems
Late Fragment
And did you get what
You wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
Beloved on the earth.
Raymond Carver - A New Path to the Waterfall

7. Findings/Questions from Day One
 Capability and confidence with digital technologies were
widespread but variable. Almost all students could operate the
software, a few were confident and knowledgeable users.
 Some students were much more ‘hands-on’ than others. Was
there a causal link between capability and confidence?
 Confidence and daring were more influential than technical
capability. The more daring knew what they wanted and were
quick to seek technical support. By contrast the more technical
capable/confident students were able to test alternative/options.
 Were some students apparently inactive because others were
more capable? Were some students daunted by the creative
nature of the task rather than the technical demands?

8. Outcomes from Day 1
• Students had gained insights into the challenges,
frustrations and satisfactions of working
collaboratively
• They had, in part, overcome their nervousness about
being ‘creative’
• All had made some gains in their capability and
confidence with the digital cameras and editing
software
• They had been given an understanding of how
creative tasks can be used to support close,
personal and analytical readings of literary texts.

9. Teaching Sheffield – The Main
Project – Summer 2012
 Students worked in self-chosen groups of four/five.
 One member of the group – the role rotated – served
as recorder; capturing, reporting and evaluating the
process
 It was important that all group members shared
responsibility, opportunity and roles
 Dissemination and presentation had to be a group
responsibility
 Dissemination should focus on process as well as
product

10. Teaching Sheffield –
Topics/Themes
Here are just a few of the potential topics and
themes that you might explore:
 Sheffield - History
 Sheffield – Night and Day
 Sheffield – Study/Student experience/PGCE/
 Sheffield – Global city/Communities
 Sheffield – City of Sport/Arts
 Sheffield – Transport and Communication
 Sheffield – Town and Country
 Sheffield – Backdrop for literary resource eg
GCSE poems

11. Teaching Sheffield – Student
Outcomes
Assignment should:
 be a short digital still or moving image film/presentation that
incorporates image and sound and which lasts between two
and three minutes
 focus on Sheffield or use Sheffield – or surrounding region – as
setting/backdrop
 be documentary, artistic, personal viewpoint, literary, curricular
 demonstrate exploration and engagement with a range of digital
media applications and technologies
 be a joint, collaborative enterprise
 have a focus on process and project management

12. Teaching Sheffield – Project
Outcomes
We identified five key positive outcomes from the
project:
(i) All had made gains in both their digital capability
and their ‘digital imaginations’ or ‘digital daring’

13. Teaching Sheffield – Project
Outcomes
(ii)The partnership with the CLC had not only equipped and
informed the project but had demonstrated the value of this
external resource and expertise to the students

14. Teaching Sheffield – Project
Outcomes
(iii) Students had experienced ‘learning within the task’
as well as ‘learning from the task’. The task and the
product were important.

15. Teaching Sheffield – Project
Outcomes
(iv) Project was evaluated very positively by the students. They
enjoyed the practical and collaborative aspects and valued the
development and extension of their digital knowledge and skills
– being taught ‘at the point of need’.

16. Teaching Sheffield – Project
Outcomes
(v) The project had demonstrated that effective
teaching and learning in English are, and should be,
active and creative and not wholly sedentary and
cerebral. It had also highlighted the key place of talk
in learning.

17. Final Thoughts and Good
Intentions
 Three of the five groups chose to focus on
contrasts: north and south, rich and poor, old
and new. Why was this?
 Less time for filming, more time for editing
 More emphasis on initial, collaborative
research and planning
 Greater opportunity for students to identify
and reflect on their achievements and
learning