Viral marketing and social networking is a great way to target young people and reach new audiences, and we have just produced a hard-hitting viral video for Diabetes UK aimed at tackling bullying. It has had a great response on Facebook and Youtube, and this week was featured on the BBC News website. The two-minute film aims to show school children and young people about Type 1 diabetes, and to dispel common myths and stop young people with the condition experience bullying based on ignorance and misconceptions. It shows a group of teenagers in a classroom teasing a girl for reasons unknown to viewers. The girl then turns to the camera and explains that she has Type 1 diabetes.
To view the viral click http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/My-life/Teens/Fun-stuff/Setting-the-record-straight/
For a summary of the project go to: http://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_us/News_Landing_Page/New-viral-video-tackles-diabetes-bullies/. The Facebook and the Youtube pages have more info and comments too. It’s been a really interesting, not to say a slightly addictive experience, reading all the feedback from the public. Diabetes UK aim to achieve 5000 video views online so please click on the links, forward it to your friends, and get watching!
Friday, June 12, 2009
Setting the Record Straight
Friday, June 5, 2009
Launch of BHF resource for people with learning disabilites
I think one of the best things about my job is making something that will really help people.
Last week, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) launched a new resource, produced by Twofour, specifically designed to help people with learning disabilities understand their risk of coronary heart disease. ‘Live with a healthy heart’, a combined DVD and booklet, gives vital information and guidance to people with learning disabilities about improving their heart health and reducing their risk of coronary heart disease. It includes information on how to quit smoking, lead a ‘keep fit’ lifestyle, control blood pressure and cholesterol levels and eat a balanced and healthy diet. Between 14% and 20% of people with learning disabilities die prematurely from coronary heart disease and they tend to lead unhealthy lifestyles purely due to a lack of knowledge. The DVD follows the stories of six people with learning disabilities and shows them on their journeys as they learn a healthier way of life.
Although we have made SEN professional development resources before, this is the first resource that Twofour has ever made specifically for an audience of people with learning disabilities. It was a real challenge to make the DVD accessible, and the team needed to draw on all our communications know-how at every step of the production process. We knew we had to make the films engaging as well as informative, something that people really wanted to watch. It was a great project to work on!
Learning Disabilities and SEN is getting a lot of media attention at the moment, rightly so, and I’m proud to say that it’s an area in which I feel we are becoming increasing knowledgeable. As a team, we are looking to grow and do more work for this important section of the learning.
Last week, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) launched a new resource, produced by Twofour, specifically designed to help people with learning disabilities understand their risk of coronary heart disease. ‘Live with a healthy heart’, a combined DVD and booklet, gives vital information and guidance to people with learning disabilities about improving their heart health and reducing their risk of coronary heart disease. It includes information on how to quit smoking, lead a ‘keep fit’ lifestyle, control blood pressure and cholesterol levels and eat a balanced and healthy diet. Between 14% and 20% of people with learning disabilities die prematurely from coronary heart disease and they tend to lead unhealthy lifestyles purely due to a lack of knowledge. The DVD follows the stories of six people with learning disabilities and shows them on their journeys as they learn a healthier way of life.
Although we have made SEN professional development resources before, this is the first resource that Twofour has ever made specifically for an audience of people with learning disabilities. It was a real challenge to make the DVD accessible, and the team needed to draw on all our communications know-how at every step of the production process. We knew we had to make the films engaging as well as informative, something that people really wanted to watch. It was a great project to work on!
Learning Disabilities and SEN is getting a lot of media attention at the moment, rightly so, and I’m proud to say that it’s an area in which I feel we are becoming increasing knowledgeable. As a team, we are looking to grow and do more work for this important section of the learning.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Drakes Island Wins Apply Serious Games Award!!!!!
After a rigorous public vote! I had the great pleasure to attend the Apply Serious Games event and pick up an award with our partners Stoke Damerel Community College and Plymouth City Council. The event was opened by a thought provoking key note by Lord Puttnam. He provided a glimpse into a rather gloomy future, where today’s government policies and actions are simply not enough to counter act the growing environmental challenges we face as a population. Lord Puttnam elaborated on this. Being a strong believer of synthetic environments, he felt (like many futurists) that serious games hold an increasingly important role in avoiding inaccuracies in our current projections and can help us ensure we don’t pass the point of no return, economically and environmentally. Extremely interesting key note I must say, I was gripping my seat with suspense!
Sorry I’m getting ahead of myself. Going back to the reason I attended the event. Our Stoke Damerel project won by a land slide, 200 votes ahead of the next leader; our good friends at PixeLearning who picked up second place with “The Enterprise Game” another fantastic educational game! Our project was extremely well received and even Clare Rees from Linden Labs turned up to the event to congratulate us on winning the award and to meet the team. One thing that is clear to me, our project was so successful due to one main factor; the bringing together of several industry leaders; without these passionate people I don’t believe we would’ve won this award.
I would like to personally thank everyone involved who made this project a success! Let’s keep it up!
Read more!
Sorry I’m getting ahead of myself. Going back to the reason I attended the event. Our Stoke Damerel project won by a land slide, 200 votes ahead of the next leader; our good friends at PixeLearning who picked up second place with “The Enterprise Game” another fantastic educational game! Our project was extremely well received and even Clare Rees from Linden Labs turned up to the event to congratulate us on winning the award and to meet the team. One thing that is clear to me, our project was so successful due to one main factor; the bringing together of several industry leaders; without these passionate people I don’t believe we would’ve won this award.
I would like to personally thank everyone involved who made this project a success! Let’s keep it up!
Friday, May 1, 2009
Our Life - Our Curriculum Launch
Twofour Learning and the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) launched the first year of their “Our Life – Our Curriculum” project at the Groucho club recently.
It’s the first year of a groundbreaking project that will follow 20 learners through secondary school across the country. Almost all of the young people and their parents attended the event as well as guests from SSAT, DSCF, QCA and the press. The second year (academic year 8) is already in pre-production and the team are looking forward to seeing the progress made by all of our participants.
Read more!
It’s the first year of a groundbreaking project that will follow 20 learners through secondary school across the country. Almost all of the young people and their parents attended the event as well as guests from SSAT, DSCF, QCA and the press. The second year (academic year 8) is already in pre-production and the team are looking forward to seeing the progress made by all of our participants.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Twofour projects receive Media Innovation Awards
Last week I had the great pleasure to attend the Media Innovation Awards. It was a great evening, buzzing with creativity! Another inspirational and funny opening speech by Mark Hawkins made me ponder where Twitter actually came from? ...The Media Innovation Awards, which celebrates the innovative use of screen-based media across the South West, rewards excellence across a range of disciplines and aims to raise the profile of the sector across the region and beyond. Twofour picked up a total of four awards!
Twofour Learning won two awards: for the Growing Schools Garden; and for the Drakes Island Project in Second Life. The Growing Schools Garden, created for the Department of Children Schools and Families. Inspired by the recent Learning outside the Classroom Manifesto, the site contains short films, downloadable resources and case studies as well as toolkits and guidance to help teachers and aid learning. All wrapped up in a fun interactive garden interface. Drakes Island in Second Life was a literacy project structured through a ten week lesson plan, where the material was created and delivered via the Virtual World. This safe, secure teen environment was a great motivator and inspired students to engage with creative writing. The project was created in partnership with Stoke Damerel Community College, Plymouth Children’s Services and with Twofour Learning. This was a massive win for our virtual worlds team and Stoke Damerel! We’re all looking forward to taking the project further.
Read more!
Twofour Learning won two awards: for the Growing Schools Garden; and for the Drakes Island Project in Second Life. The Growing Schools Garden, created for the Department of Children Schools and Families. Inspired by the recent Learning outside the Classroom Manifesto, the site contains short films, downloadable resources and case studies as well as toolkits and guidance to help teachers and aid learning. All wrapped up in a fun interactive garden interface. Drakes Island in Second Life was a literacy project structured through a ten week lesson plan, where the material was created and delivered via the Virtual World. This safe, secure teen environment was a great motivator and inspired students to engage with creative writing. The project was created in partnership with Stoke Damerel Community College, Plymouth Children’s Services and with Twofour Learning. This was a massive win for our virtual worlds team and Stoke Damerel! We’re all looking forward to taking the project further.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Am I Smarter than a 16 Year Old?
I just spent the last few months edit producing ‘Are You Smarter than a Ten Year Old,’ the second series of 70 x hour long programmes that TwoFour makes for Sky One.
Something of change from my usual Producer/Director role in TwoFour Learning, this was a highly enjoyable foray into game shows and a learning journey in which, I have discovered, I was not alone. Unbeknownst to me, large groups of students here in Plymouth have been studying this very subject for a module in their Media Studies GCSE, and so last Wednesday I was invited to speak to a cinema full of 16 year olds, about this heralded genre of programming.
There is little more intimidating than the scrutiny of hundreds of pairs of occasionally disdainful teenage eyes. I have presented to a relatively wide and diverse range of people, but I am always most nervous when standing up in assemblies or classes, something about the awkwardness of adolescence seems to come back to me. That said I really enjoyed it.
Trying to relay the vast amount I learnt about the pre-production that goes into a studio show of this magnitude, formats, and the nuances that an edit and good post production can bring to the show was difficult. I hope it was an informative and energetic session which really helped to place a lot of the theory these kids have been learning into a real, practical and embodied context, and more importantly within a professional field which they may want to access when they leave school.
Although most of the students remained effortlessly cool, the teachers all voiced their approval, and judging from the number of invitations I’ve had from schools running similar programs of study- I’m thinking I might be able to run a nice little sideline in after dinner speaking!
Read more!
Something of change from my usual Producer/Director role in TwoFour Learning, this was a highly enjoyable foray into game shows and a learning journey in which, I have discovered, I was not alone. Unbeknownst to me, large groups of students here in Plymouth have been studying this very subject for a module in their Media Studies GCSE, and so last Wednesday I was invited to speak to a cinema full of 16 year olds, about this heralded genre of programming.
There is little more intimidating than the scrutiny of hundreds of pairs of occasionally disdainful teenage eyes. I have presented to a relatively wide and diverse range of people, but I am always most nervous when standing up in assemblies or classes, something about the awkwardness of adolescence seems to come back to me. That said I really enjoyed it.
Trying to relay the vast amount I learnt about the pre-production that goes into a studio show of this magnitude, formats, and the nuances that an edit and good post production can bring to the show was difficult. I hope it was an informative and energetic session which really helped to place a lot of the theory these kids have been learning into a real, practical and embodied context, and more importantly within a professional field which they may want to access when they leave school.
Although most of the students remained effortlessly cool, the teachers all voiced their approval, and judging from the number of invitations I’ve had from schools running similar programs of study- I’m thinking I might be able to run a nice little sideline in after dinner speaking!
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