Feedback: Hillside Beatbox radio station
Feedback
By the end of the first year, all pupils are aware of and have accessed Hillside Beatbox. Stories have emerged from creative work in Art, English and Craft, educational (PSE) visits and curriculum enrichment activities both within and outwith the school. Practical work is being showcased.
This links with one of the aims of the school’s Scottish Executive FLaT project, that all 4th Year pupils will leave Hillside with a DVD exhibiting their range of Multiple Intelligences (see the work of Howard Gardner at Harvard University). All pupils can now navigate the Radiowaves community and open up desired audio files contained within a story. Around half of the pupils have, individually or as part of a group, produced work for the station. It is expected that, as an alternative medium, the station will be used by pupils in session 2005/06 to, for instance, exhibit a musical composition illustrating a social issue or historical event.
Mr Noble believes the activities are enhanced by providing opportunities for collaboration, for example mixing audio. Pupils appear to be on task for longer periods because there is an end result to their efforts. Several pupils regularly work on articles/musical sessions outwith the school day. The use of digital photography provides an additional way of illustrating work.
There is evidence that pupils are highly motivated to produce good quality work as the reward for this is their story being linked to the Radiowaves home page, in a section reserved for those articles deemed to be well written and appealing to a wider audience.