CONVERGENCE WEB 2.0 IGSMediaStudies + student YouTube channels

The syllabus asks you to reflect on your own experiences, and the A2 exam requires analysis of all alspects of production work, including its reception. Well, lets take a moment to consider YouTube as part of this. The IGSMediaStudies alone has had over 50,000 views since I set it up 5 years ago, and thats a TINY fraction of the overall views student work has had when you consider that ONE film piece on ONE of several student channels had over a quarter of a million views...

IGSMediaStudies uploads have been viewed worldwide...

This blog itself seems to have picked up an international readership...

Top 10 countries by views as of 25th May 2015

These have been viewed on gadgets as much as on computers...

Gadget viewing is on the rise; the 2014 Creative Arts Evening GlobalGaga vid set a new high benchmark...

A wide spread of OS used, not least mobile OS... 

A wide spread of OS used, not least mobile OS... 

I have a screenshot of this from a year ago with over 250k views; now down to half that - peculiar! Either way, student work is racking up serious numbers of views - George isn't the only past student to have pocketed some handy cheques from YouTube, having been invited (as have I) to join the YouTube channel programme.

Quite a change from 2001, when I started teaching, and video coursework would literally end up gathering dust in a cupboard, on an unwieldy VHS tape ... and the problems with crashing (on a Windows machine, running Premiere, it must be said!), the expense of a decently specced computer, and the steep learning curve of the software at this time, all ensured that all bar a handful of the 100s of Media students produced print work, as this was simply more manageable and affordable!

The Macs the work on the IGSMediaStudies has been produced are, on the whole, horribly underpowered, but even so, moving from iMovie 06 to Final Cut Express 4 through to Final Cut Pro X now, an impressive range of film and video work (plus additional print work as part of A2 packages) has been created and viewed far beyond the classroom (including national film festivals) ... and soon may be utilised by a new local cinema, displacing the annoying ads!

Perhaps some day one or more of these will be an extra on a 4k Blu-Ray, highlighting the roots of a commercially successful filmmaker...