Following my induction with Youth Engagement, Ed, Emma and I met up with Alan Ellis, the Principal Learning Technologies Officer from Knowsley City Learning Centre. Alan was involved with the project when it first started in 2007, so it was interesting to hear what he has been doing and tell him about where we are now up to.After discussing the ideas that have been formulated from my visits to the various teams, Alan introduced us to the new handheld devices that the Learning Centre has purchased;
the Samsung Q1 Ultra! 
These devices combine all the features you would find on a PC, multimedia device and PDA, not only this but it is compact and lightweight and has a 7” wide touch, colour screen! Although the capabilities are endless we focused on using them to create video and audio. The device has a built in front and rear cameras so is capable of ‘point and shoot’ filming. Once footage has been captured it is them possible to use Windows ‘Movie Maker’ to sequence a film with audio and export it as a video file. Having various internet connection options these files can then be uploaded, emailed, blogged or simply sent to a PC. Having these capabilities would enable young people and staff to create video diaries, starting from the day they start on a programme to the day they finish. This would not only track progress and be used to evidence activities and achievements but could also be used in the final presentation to show visually how each person has changed over the course of the programme in terms of personal development. Alan can offer us a number of these devices on loan within Knowsley so it was agreed that Huyton Prince’s Trust Team would be an ideal place to start.
Zico is a firefighter with Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, he is also the winner of the Northwest Regional Development Agency Young Achiever of the Year Award.
The award ceremony was back in November 2006, but Zico’s story is now on the Princes Trust website.
We are looking to explore potential partnerships within the UK and in Europe to work with Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service and Kisky Netmedia Ltd to establish funding for our emerging technology projects. We are exploring two avenues, one UK Universities and the other with The Merseyside Brussels Office.
Dr David Allen, Leeds University Business School and Dr Anoush Simon from Aberystwyth University visited MF&RS 17th May 2007 and presented their own research groups and discussed the types of projects which they had undertaken. The general conclusion was that we could work together on collaborative projects; however, it was important to note that the scale of the current activity (in terms of thought and scope) was wide and would have to be broken into a number of work packages or linked activities.
After meeting with Laura Bonacorsi European Policy Officer The Merseyside Brussels Office, Ed, Katie and I have decided to approach potential partners in Europe and we have just completed the partner search document and sent it to Laura.
Published on
11 May 2007 in
People.
The OurOpenSpace project is very new; we’re just at the beginning of our journey. And as we embark on research, creation, innovation and dissemination in the world of Emerging Technologies and Youth Engagement, we’d like to introduce ourselves; the project team.
I’m Katie Lips, a Social Media Evangelist and Creative Technologist and I’ve been working with Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service to explore emerging technologies and how they can be used to enhance, and to innovate in youth engagement and non-formal education. So far, we have embarked on a series of micro projects which we will discuss here on this blog.
My interest is as a technology user, blogger and as someone who uses Social Media tools and communities on a daily basis. I work on a range of projects exploring leading edge technologies for my company Kisky Netmedia. In previous roles, I have also devised and lead national technology projects in the education sector, having worked with online diaries and with video projects by young people, way before blogs and YouTube were household names.
I have been researching a range of related projects which I will blog about here, and my aim for this blog is to create a collaborative ideas space where anyone working in the field of Youth Engagement can learn about related projects, and share their ideas and experiences. I am particularly excited about this project and working with the forward-thinking team at MF&RS.
