Students at Frankley High have returned to their experiment with podcasting which I was helping to support last year. It’s taken a while to get back but we’re hoping to create a learning group where those who worked with us last year begin to show the teachers how to use the kit.

We also went [...]

Stuff the Oscars, two Birmingham businesses have been nominated for a Webby.  Stef and 3form is being recognised for it’s work on the First Light Movies site, a national film initiative established in Brum.

PC Bernie Flynn has been working with young people in Quinton in Birmingham consistently since 2001, merging policing with youth work. For him finding the right people for the job and giving them time to show respect and earn respect is at the heart of good community policing. Anti social behaviour in and around [...]

 

 Quinzone podcast on the Grassroots Channel [8:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Refurbishing allotments used as a fly tipping ground and making the plots available for schools is one of the best uses I’ve come across for the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund. Of course NRF was never about things the council should do (like maintain allotments), but at least this £39,000 spend has the potential to [...]

 

 Neville Lilley on Allotments [7:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Thursday morning and the phone goes. My kids’ secondary school. “Gawd”, I think, “I need to catch a train to London”. Don’t panic. No accident, no expulsions. It turns out I’ve been elected one of four parent governors.

I can be slow at times – because I spent the rest of the day at [...]

 

 Tanya Byron on Digital Media Literacy and school governors [1:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I admire this for being well made and showing how persistence with video in schools can pay off.

Hat tip to Simon, father of the growing international flytipping group on flickr

Nice job from Demos on a number of counts. This is good use of online social media – (this film appears on Youtube and their blog so you can watch it, comment on it and share it – hence social media) and a neat summary of the problem of children no longer feeling [...]

Free Rice is simple, doesn’t require you to login and does three good things: Improves English vocab; Is Fun (in a computery addictive sort of way); Helps with world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

It’s a game based on how good your vocab is. Every time you get a question right the [...]