Staff & Students embrace multimedia thanks to Karten Network

Staff & Students embrace multimedia thanks to Karten Network

Staff & Students embrace multimedia thanks to Karten Network

Posted: Fri, 26 Jul 2019 09:06

Staff & Students embrace multimedia thanks to Karten Network

Staff and students at RNIB College Loughborough can occasionally be a little reluctant to take part in songs, films and performances. But not this year.

Thanks to Karten Network, RNIB College Loughborough have been able to invest in a brand new Media Hub, which has been used by staff and students over the last year to create a number of excellent media productions.

In December, all students took part in at least one performance in the Christmas Show. For the first time we had a lot of films and the students and staff enjoyed making their films. The Media Hub team were on hand to provide support, or to do the filming. The team identified that not all students and staff knew how to make a film, so we showed them how to film and also made some How To Guides (eg How to film using an iPad) for staff and students in order to improve the quality of films.

The team also finished making the Emergency Services and Autism film which was requested by the Leicestershire Police for their Autism Awareness event. Students and staff learned how to make simple animations for this film.In May, the College held a Eurovision Day. Each Enterprise worked on their own project for their allocated country. The Media Hub created a short Travelogue film for Croatia and some of the other performances were films, including the Hardest Karaoke Song in the World from Iceland by the Speech and Language Therapy groups. It proved to be the catchiest tune of the day (and we are still singing it months later). The film was made using iPads against a green screen.

For the final term, students and staff chose to perform and record 'I'll Be There For You' by The Rembrandts, better known as the theme tune from Friends. This theme captured students' imagination and we used a lot of media technology to make the finished product. We recorded the students and staff singing and took photos of the students and staff with their friends. The Friends background was then added in post-production using editing software (see photo showing staff at RNIB college in front of the Central Perk café).During our Celebration Event parents and visitors with their families and the students were invited to have their own photos taken in front of the green screen. Photos were then edited instantly to create the Friends themed backgrounds and printed off for the parents as a souvenir of the day.The new sound system in the Arts Centre worked perfectly for the Leavers' presentation, and the parents and visitors were impressed with the amount of technology that had been used in College in the films, photo-stories and presentations throughout the year.

The use of technology has had an impact on students in College, and this is what some of them said:

"I am going to miss media. I can make films on my iPad at home now and I learned how to edit my films." (LC)

"I can lead the Media group and I know what to do." (LS)

"My mum has bought me a tablet and I can use it to take photos and film things like my mum sneezing." (ER)

We have already started planning for next year and have an awful lot of work to do – we have had a few film requests from external customers already, and our new Media Hub trainer started this month with a lot of knowledge and enthusiasm for all things Media. I am sure that our second year as a Karten Network Centre will be even better than the first.

To see some of the videos produced in our Media Hub, head to the RNIB College Loughborough YouTube channel here; https://bit.ly/32UX6Ca

Tags: RNIB College, disability, media, performance, sight loss