Today I attended an AS/A Level Media and Film Studies Inset in London. The brief of the Inset was to launch the celebrated New Specification for Film and Media Studies to be slated in as from September 2008, and also to familiarise Media Educators with the hallmarks of the Spec.
Jeremy Points, the charismatic and erudite WJEC Subject Officer delivered the key note address in which he touted on the need for A Level students to make use of ’suitably edited personalised blogs’ when handing in their coursework to the Exam Board. By the way, Jeremy doesen’t encourage the use of the word, coursework,preferring instead to term it,’Internal Assessment.’
Jeremy went as far as eulogising what he termed, ‘the dawn of a new era, in which we’ll have electronic submission and assessment of students’ work.’ Obviously,in such a scenario blogs will play a pivotal role. Please dont quote me, I havent said,’I told you so!’
As someone who has been ‘demonised and vilified’ willy nilly, as an ‘apologist’ of Blogging, by some colleagues on the course, (I use the terms demonise and vilify tongue-in-cheek here!), you can obviously appreciate my sense of vindication at Jeremy’s sentiments on the relevance of blogs as an educational tool.
I am never one for gloating or blowing my own trumpet lest it becomes hollow – but I still want to maintain and also re-affirm that indeed there is a future in Blogging – well beyond Internet Cultures module, not only for me personally, but woe unto them who will have the pleasure to be my students – it’llbe blogging and more blogging ad infinitum!
