RadioEdu Second Semester: Meet and Greet (Week 5)

February 28th, 2014 by WLOY Staff

Hello everyone! This was an exciting week at Eutaw-Marshburn as we had a Meet and Greet with the fourth graders and parents who have received the next round of RadioEdu scholarships! John created two excellent WEMR Eutaw-Marshburn Radio vinyl signs, and we were able to place one on the door to the classroom and another inside the studio. The students were thrilled as the branding gave the radio room a whole new vibe!

We decided that the best way to introduce the fourth graders to the radio equipment would be to have them partake in What Happens Next?, but with a slight twist: J and M would be the engineers for the project! This encapsulates one of the overarching goals of RadioEdu, which is to demonstrate that the program not only teaches the youth involved the skills of audio production and engineering, but also prepares them to be able to manage their own sessions without requiring my assistance. In just six months J and M have demonstrated such mastery and the accompanying confidence that enables them to conduct a recording session with very minimal guidance. I will be posting more about this amazing progression in later dates, so for now I will stick to the events of this evening!

After a brief introduction from Principal Hewitt, John and myself, we invited J to give his own introduction about what he believed to be the high points of the program and offer any advice for new students. He handled this task confidently and was an excellent inspiration for the new students! John and I decided that one of the best demonstrations would be for J to explain and engineer an interview session with one of the new students. Since he was knowledgeable and capable enough to conduct this session on his own, we let him walk the parents and students through the process. He began by giving an overview of the software and equipment, and conducted a step by step review and explanation of each stage of recording. Without my needing to do anything, J armed the tracks for recording, checked microphone levels, set up the mics and cables so that they would be comfortable for the student he was recording, and gave a professional count-in to begin! After the brief interview, J then explained the editing and post-production process, culminating with a finished project that he completely engineered from start to finish in roughly 20 minutes!

We are very proud of the fact that the first generation of RadioEdu youth have learned enough, and are confident enough in their abilities to be able to engineer a session such as this. This points to the future of the program, as the aim is for the students to be able to engineer and produce content for their fellow, younger students. Keep posted for more information about the next phase of the project!

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