Lego Serious Play.

In my creativity and concept class, we had a Lego workshop. This Lego workshop was away for us to be able to learn more about ourselves and learn more about what people think is important when working in a group.
In this class, we were asked to build a tower, starting with a small square base. The tower could be any shape or size just as long as it stayed on the square base. Once we had built our towers, we discussed our towers with the rest of the group. We also looked at if there was any part of the tower that could actually reflect our own individual personalities. Mine was quite structured. I think that I like to be quite organised especially when I am working with other people.
We also had a new task, this was to think of what is most important when working in a group. I chose that everyone should have an equal chance to voice their thoughts. I then used the Lego to create a building which I thought represents this.
I thought Lego serious play was a very good way of helping people express themselves rather than trying to explain themselves from writing.

Creating a game.

In class on Tuesday, we were paired in two's. I paired up with James Mc Keown. In our groups, we were asked to come up with a game that we would be able to use within the university.
James and I looked at different types of games including intellectual, physical, group games and board games. From looking at different games, we talked about what games people enjoy the most.
James and I then decided that we were going to come up with a game for a mobile phone. This game is going to give different challenges everyday. If you complete the task and have evidence such as a photograph or video to prove, it can result in prizes for the winner.
Now, James and I have to show how our game is going to work and give evidence as to who is going to enjoy this type of game.
Below is a link to our prezi that we made to represent our game idea.
http://prezi.com/5fkezmki60ju/challenge-accepted/

Animation Time

In class on Tuesday, we were given a task. Our task is to make an animation, it has to be 1 minute long and can be any form of animation that we choose. I am in a group with Mark and James Dunn. We talked about different ways of creating an animation and also looked at different animations on the internet.

We chose to make an animation out of lego. Mark came up with a good storyline for an animation which James and I both agreed was a good idea and would make a good animation.

Because our teacher had lego in the class, we started building the house that we were going to use in the animation. We then started to create our animation taking photographs and moving the objects very slowly. Unfortunately we ran out of time so we will hopefully finish our animation in class next week.



The lego house above is the one that we built for our animation.

Using Wiki's to talk about "Charles Leadbeater"

Recently in class we have started using Wiki's. A wiki is a way way of finding information on a particular topic. I was given the topic of Charles Leadbeater's book "We Think" and had to write about the positives and negatives of the book.
I was lucky to get We Think as a topic to write for my wiki because Charles Leadbeater talkes in his book about what is good and what is bad about using wiki's and collective intellegance.
When I was creating my Wiki, I thought it was quite a boring process. I didn't quite plan out how I was going to start my wiki and how it was going to end however after speaking to a lecture about planning out the wiki, I discovered that most wiki's don't be planned out well and they are just knowledge from other people.
I think using wiki's is a good way to find out information on particular topics. I also think that this is a good way to share u knowledge with other people so that we can all learn more.

Below is a link to our Wiki that we created for Charles Leadbeaters book, "We Think".
http://contemporarymediaissues.wetpaint.com/page/Charles+Leadbeater+-+We+think

Beginning media at John Moores University!

My name is Kirsty and I am currently studying Media Professional Studies at John Moores University. I chose this course because I have previously studied media for two years as a BTECH. I found my BTECH in media very interesting and after studying a music video class in my first year, I have wanted to become a music video director. From studying this, Jonas Akerlund (a music video director) became a very big influence in my decision to continue on Media.

During my course, I have used editing software, filmed footage for short films and music videos, worked on radio dramas, took a photography class which helped me to understand the different types of shots that I would also be able to use for filming and have created my own website.

Within the next three years I hope to achieve building my own confidence and learning more skills so that I will be able to fulfill my dream of becoming a music video director. :)