Community Media - Interactive World

The Art of Connection Do you find that you waste time wondering how to start the next sentence? Do you find yourself lost for words when you are required to link your ideas coherently and persuasively? Do your sentences flow together and support the larger structure? Do you want your writing to communicate more effectively and efficiently? The Art of Connection: the Social Life of Sentences is an innovative practical book that explains the Nine Arts of Connection: Location, Timing, Comparison, Contrast and Difference, the Supplement, Disputation, Sequence, Example and Illustration, and the Summary. By following the easy to use guides and examples provided in this book, writers can learn how to write fluently and begin to enjoy the process of composition. Whether your are a student or learning English for the first time, this book will assist you to write successfully to achieve your goals. By dividing the common words and phrases used to signal transition and ...

 PURPOSE This blog examines problems and solutions for collaborative or participatory film editing.  I will be arguing that the time and resources spent on a loving and caring editing of the material filmed is a mark of respect for the community participants. I'm saying that we need to value the detailed impact of micro -changes in film editing - it's part of the media butterfly effect. Helpful advice on film editing typically focuses on the technical aspects of the process. Familiarity with Moviemaker, Adobe Premiere, AVID, Final Cut etc will be an advantage, but it is not the primary subject of my advice in this blog. INTRODUCTION Movie editing software may appear formidable to the beginner, volunteer, or amateur, but the reality is that you can learn the basics in half a day. Gaining a professional feel for editing process takes much longer, requires patience, and will not be everyone’s preferred activity. Remember that attentive editing will ...

Stock characters in Commedia dell'arte Moderately, or potentially ambiguous,  this title serves to capture my response to a work of collaborative fiction called The Mongoliad -  "a narrative of adventure fiction following the exploits of a small group of fighters and mystics in medieval Europe around the time of the Mongol conquests." So far as one can tell the work was directed by  Neal Stephenson , with the support of Greg Bear , Nicole Galland , Mark Teppo . Other collaborators included "filmmakers, computer programmers, graphic artists, martial artists and combat choreographers, video game designers, and a professional editor." "Stephenson gathered a group of martial arts enthusiasts interested in studying historical European swordfighting, and this eventually resulted in some of the members of this group collaborating on a set of stories that would make use of accurate representations of these martial arts." ( wiki ) Initially ...

In this blog I offer thirty-one critical responses to the current fashion for participatory projects and methodologies. While my main focus is grounded in playing devil’s advocate to the evangelical exponents of participatory video, I am very open to being shot down - or at least engaged - in counter-dialogues. (Either through the comments section below, or privately by email). Please attribute all quotations from this unpaid work. It is my life. Please also excuse the rhetorical tendency to exaggerate; I’m not using this blog to craft a highly nuanced critical essay.In other work I have addressed problems with, and potential solutions to collaborative models of work. Also, I’m still working through a projection of what comes after the promise of participation... The participatory field is admittedly quite fuzzy, since arts projects in the community may be quite vague about their intended modes or levels of participation; engagement evidence is notoriously ...

Exams are increasingly selected as the 'gold standard' in the debate about raising academic standards. Compared to coursework, exams are relative quick and easy to assess. They are also free from the issues of plagiarism and other forms of cheating that have proliferated in coursework. Indeed, my research shows that with the right money ($100) it is now very straightforward to purchase online a plagiarism-proof, first class, or A* Essay. In that context I believe that we will be seeing greater reliance on exams in the future, and more of them will be marked by machines in a move toward improved technological efficiency of the educational production line. Their place in the system is secured. In my view, examination procedures involve a special kind of discipline and they operate as a regime, such as that which we might encounter in a prison. Foucault was not wrong when he linked knowledge and power at an institutional level. And exams are also a theatre of persecuti...

Did any of you hear Carole Hough, apparenntly Great Britain's only named "Professor of Onomastics" (University of Glasgow) speaking on BBC R4 this morning? Interesting to hear that her own name has three pronunciations: Huff, Howe and Hock! So what is Onomastics? " Onomastics or onomatology is the study of proper names of all kinds and the origins of names. The words are from the Greek : "ὀνομαστικός" ( onomastikos ), "of or belonging to naming" and "ὀνοματολογία" ( onomatologia ), from "ὄνομα" ( ónoma ) "name". Toponymy or toponomastics , the study of place names, is one of the principal branches of onomastics. Anthroponomastics is the study of personal names." Some of my favourite weird English names are Beaulieu              pronounced      Bewly Cecil                   pronounced      Siss...

Several of my blogs on education, study skills, academic writing, exams, English language/literature and creativity have now migrated to my new blog which you will find here . 52 Examples of Creative Writing Activities. Creative Writing: 5 Old Problems and 14 New Principles.   Poetry at War with Itself: the Sound of Futility.   My Five a Day: Writing Poetry 1.   The Vocabulary of Fear, e.g. Onomatophobia.   Ugly Urchin Alliteration: a Poetry Appreciation Prime. Gender, Women's Writing and Feminism.   A Song for St. Cecilia's Day. 52 Favourite Children's Books. Light and Shadow: the Age of Kindle. 106 Ways to Avoid the word "SAID"   Sound must seem an echo to the Sense! An Ear for Poetry Your Practical Revision Timetable Character Definitions and Techniques The gentle art of reading and writing blogs Blogging before Computing? Witty Will-power and Bardic Gender Politics Rude Shakespeare All Night Essay Crisis ...