RadioEdu Second Semester: Week 6

Friday, March 14th, 2014 by WLOY Staff

Concepts: Introducing New Students

This week we were very excited to return from a brief break due to MSA testing and begin with the fourth graders who have been selected to participate in WLOY’s national award winning program What Happens Next. At the end of February I posted about the open house/demonstration meet and greet session for the parents and students who have been selected to receive the next round of RadioEdu scholarships, and this is the first step in their journey! Just as J and M begin with What Happens Next in the Fall, the fourth graders will be using that program as a medium to learn audio production and engineering! What I’m going to call the “RadioEdu twist” on this structure is that our current fifth graders, J and M, will apply their engineering knowledge that they have learned throughout their time with RadioEdu and will be engineering and producing the fourth graders’ content!

We started the session with a brief introduction by Principal Hewitt, and John and I also gave a brief overview of the program and setup. As we want to really promote autonomy of our youth, we had J take the lead on what he likes most about RadioEdu and any advice he had for the new crowd. After this, J took the new students into the studio and gave them a tour of the software and hardware. He explained, in detail, how the mics work, the importance of position, sitting still, and how to check levels. We then had J engineer a session where he would conduct brief interviews with each of the fourth graders! J had no prior knowledge of this, as it was an impromptu session. He handled it remarkably well and was able to professionally conduct the recording, ensuring that the new students moved along swiftly, as we only had about 30 minutes left to finish all the interviews!

John and I were both thrilled to see how well J handled the session. He needed very little guidance, and I only jumped in when some of the newer students were becoming a bit too excited. J checked their levels, armed the tracks for recording, and made sure that each new student was recorded at a solid volume. John and I are looking forward to implementing this model as the future of RadioEdu, as it strengthens the bonds between the students in the school and provides a practical application for the skills that they are learning!

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RadioEdu Second Semester: Meet and Greet (Week 5)

Friday, 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!

[insert meet and greet media]

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