Star Wars Event and Letter Writing

Star Wars Event

On Wednesday, the LRC hosted a Star Wars themed event in the Enterprise lounge involving activities facilitated by different departments in the College. Inclusive learning students performed the Imperial March on boomwhackers and created Star Wars figures out of saltdough. Make-up students offered hand tattoos of Star Wars characters and other artists displayed their Star Wars-inspired artwork as well as creating Star Wars Christmas tree baubles (which will be displayed on the LRC Christmas tree). The LRC tombola together with sales from cookies made by hospitality students raised over £119 for the Book Trust so thank you to everyone who contributed.

See below for some photos from the event.

Yoda maze activity
Photo: Peterborough Regional College

Science department's Chemist Tree!
Photo: Peterborough Regional College

Animal care guinea pigs dressed up as Porgs for the event.
Photo: Peterborough Regional College

Darth Vader mannequin (for selfies).
Photo: Peterborough Regional College

Christmas is coming and Letter Writing (to Santa or otherwise)

It's nearly Christmas and traditionally it's a time for writing letters although most of our customers probably consider themselves far too old/ mature to write to Santa. However, you may need to write a "thank you" letter for a gift you've received (always a good idea and will mean a lot to the person who receives it - especially as letters are so rare nowadays).

Letter writing, even in this age of emailing, texting and direct messaging, is a skill you are likely to need in the workplace. You may need to write a formal letter arranging a meeting with a member of your staff or to thank a visiting speaker. When sending a CV to a company, it can make all the difference if you write a covering letter. See below for links to resources which help you learn to write a good letter. 

For covering letters see https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/cvs-and-cover-letters/cover-letters  or the National Careers Service website. The ARU website has an example in their CV guidance pack.

To learn how to write different sorts of letters, take a look at the SkillsYouNeed website - a great site for help with all sorts of life skills such as interpersonal skills, writing skills, learning skills.

Why not give it a go this Christmas and make someone's day by sending them a "thank you" letter if you receive a gift. If you are applying for work, remember to write a covering letter with your CV making sure it is tailored to the job. 

Learning activities for the lead up to our Star Wars event

Star Wars - The Last Jedi

The new Star Wars film is out next week and the Learning Resource Centre is putting on a Star Wars themed event in the Enterprise Lounge between 1.30 and 3pm. Different curriculum areas will be providing activities including a Yoda maze, a make up stall, quizzes, crafts and the Imperial March on Boomwhackers! We hope you can be there.

Darth Chester
Photo: Peterborough Regional College

Online Star Wars-themed learning activities

In the run up to the event or even afterwards, we thought you might enjoy some of these activities which help with English and other skills or are just a bit of fun to do.

• Download a Star Wars Apostrophes worksheet on the TES website here. There are also other Star Wars themed activities here which may be useful where they aren't aimed at too young an audience. 
• Learn how to draw R2D2 on the Andertoons website (beginner). Tescos also have a link to the official Lucas drawing instructions which look a bit more complicated.
• The English Caddy website has a whole lot of ideas for Star Wars English language activities (they seem to be aimed at learners of English as a second language but could still help anyone brushing up on their English). However, I am unsure of the authority of this site. The Correct Yoda activity could be useful as a grammar exercise and there are other ideas including a critical thinking activity mainly around a scenario from the Force Awakens film.
• The BBC have created a What Star Wars character are you? quiz - aimed at children, but when it comes to Star Wars, age doesn't seem to matter!
• For those of you more musically minded, try watching this parody by the Piano Guys called Cello Wars: the Phantom Cellist

Hopefully we can report back in next week's blog on how the event went.

Live streaming and Fake News 

Meanwhile in the news this week, attention has been drawn to the risks of streaming apps. Go the thinkuknow website for more information. This website also has videos to help explain online safety to young people with learning difficulties.
The BBC have also announced that they are so concerned about fake news that they are launching a service to help children understand what is true and what is fake. IFLA (The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) have a poster available for download on their website in different languages and we have some of these displayed in the LRC.

Evaluating information - celebrity endorsements and advertising

Evaluating information

In the LRC we are always keen to encourage students (and staff) to be careful when using the internet for finding information. We want everyone to look critically at the information they find before deciding whether it can be used as a source for an assignment.

Advertising and celebrity endorsements

Be aware of websites - especially company websites - which are selling something. If hairdressing and beauty students are looking for information on the human skin, for example, they may find plenty of websites from companies selling skin products which also have pages explaining how the skin works. Much of this information may be correct and they may have consulted with dermatologists but they will probably have paid them to give information that helps sell their product (and perhaps leave out other information), for example. We would recommend using our Primal anatomy online resource, for example, as an alternative.

With the royal engagement this week, some magazines are talking about Meghan Markle the brand and what products she uses. Companies search for high profile people to say they use their products as this can make a lot of difference. Do you look at a celebrity social media account, for example, and decide a product must be good if favourite celebrity uses it?This is called influencer marketing and can be very subtle. Companies can even dress adverts up as news stories. See the South Park video below for a humorous take on this.

 However, Celebrity endorsements do not mean that the products are necessarily the best and the Advertising Standards Authority have ruled that it is now illegal for a celebrity to endorse a product without indicating this in any posts they make on social media.

Listen to a BBC podcast here about why you cannot always trust adverts online.

How do I know if what I read online is an advert?

All celebrity social media accounts (twitter, vlogs, blogs etc) must now by law indicate whether any content is a result of a commercial relationship - i.e. the celebrity is being paid to endorse a product by the company which makes it (i.e. there is a commercial relationship). You will also notice that Google indicates where it's results (usually first in the list) are adverts - so you know they have been paid to put these results first rather than that they are necessarily most relevant to your search. So, think twice where there is #ad  or #adfeature in an online post or website and avoid using the content in an assignment. Smilarly you might also notice the phrases "sponsored content" or "ad or promotion". Avoid this content and instead look for information from recognised organisations (charities, government departments, authorities, associations) or academic institutions. Look for the About link to find out about the organisation/ person behind the website.

The Advertising Standards Authority have more information on this on their website.
Have a look at their advice on identifying when something is an advert.
If you are a marketing student, you may like to read about the Oreo lick race case which led to this standard being introduced or even better read the article through our Infotrac resource.

Info Trac - online newspaper articles and journals

Online newspaper and journal database

This week, we've been going in to some Journalism groups down at MJC to explain Harvard referencing but also to show them how to access the electronic resources which are made available to PRC students by the Learning Resource Centre. When you use these, you know you are using quality resources which when used in your assignments can get you extra marks.

Newspaper articles are great for finding examples to illustrate points in your assignments (or crimes, accidents, new buildings, events etc.). Journals articles are generally short informative pieces often about a more detailed aspect of a topic.

One particular resource which is useful for all students is InfoTrac - a database of newspaper and journals database.
Have you noticed that a lot of newspaper websites are now restricting the number of articles you can view or they cut off the article half way through with an advert encouraging you to subscribe? Have you looked for journal articles and found that the site wants payment?

If you use InfoTrac, you will not have to pay for access, you just need to follow the link from the electronic resources page on Moodle (under the Learning Resource Centre tab) and if asked (outside PRC), choose Shibboleth access, then Peterborough Regional College and input your network login and password.

There are a range of video tutorials to help you. See the video tutorial below for a basic guide to searching for journal articles (our database includes newspaper articles and these can be searched with the journals or separately in the same way).

More tutorials are found here.

If you are a student at UCP, you have access to a number of journal databases similar to this. The ARU digital library gives you access to Academic OneFile which you use in much the same way as the PRC database (and you have access to both).

Keywords and Topic Finder

Searching for information digitally or in books relies on you first thinking of different keywords which the authors may have used related to your topic. InfoTrac has a really useful feature to help you with this called Topic Finder. It  finds other topics related to your search and displays them in tile or wheel format. You can then click on any tile or segment to see results from the database. When we've shown this to students in sessions, they have been impressed. See the video below and then have a go.

If you want any more information or help in using newspapers and journals in your work or searching for information, please do ask in the Learning Resource Centre. We can also do demonstrations or sessions in classes or with groups if requested.

Be Healthy Stay Safe Be Green event

Be Healthy, Stay Safe, Be Green

Yesterday was the College's annual Be Healthy, Stay Safe, Be Green event and the LRC had a stall at this. We enjoyed talking to students who came to our table and asked them what their prescription for a healthier life would be. Here are some of the suggestions:

Stay healthy

Love yourself

Love life

Be positive

Enthusiasm

Physical exercise (football)

Eat healthy food

Drink water

Stop smoking

Eat less fast food!!!

Smile and have fun

Always make the most of everything

Friendship

Read more

Less stress, less worry!

Eating better!

No drugs

Work hard, relax, exercise

Eat fruit and vegetables - 5 a day.

Student prescriptions for a healthier life
Photo: Peterborough Regional College

National Wellbeing Statistics

Statistics are useful sources of information and the Office of National Statistics website is a good place to start for all sorts of UK statistics (crime, population, employment etc.). Each year they report on the nation's wellbeing. Follow the link to read the latest report which covers happiness, life satisfaction and anxiety levels.

If you want to take your own Happiness Survey the Oxford happiness survey is available to print here  or you can take it online.

At the Be Healthy Stay Safe event, LRC staff enjoyed meeting Wendy, the College's new Counsellor. If you need someone to talk to, you can contact her and she will help you. In the LRC we have a collection of Reading Well Books on Prescription which GPs have recommended (set up by the Reading Agency) including some especially for young people. Books cover topics such as overcoming anxiety, overcoming depression, self esteem, stress and OCD. We also have a number of the mood-boosting books which are feel-good, uplifting fiction reads.

Anti-bullying Week

Finally, this week has also been Anti-bullying week and we had our own display with socks coloured in by students (as recommended by the national campaign).

Anti-bullying Week display
Photo: Peterborough Regional College

Box of Broadcasts - trial

Box of Broadcasts - trial

During November (until 6th December 2017) the College (through the LRC) is trialing a subscription to Box of Broadcasts (in College only). Those of you who are students or staff at ARU will possibly already be aware of this resource as they provide access to this.

BOB allows you to search for broadcast television programmes dating back to the 1990s and then view them (legally). This includes some foreign language channels.

• You can request future programmes (up to 10 a day) and watch currently available broadcasts.
• You can create your own playlists.
• You can create your own clips (see our Dave Gorman clip about the pitfalls of using Wikipedia as a resource on our Moodle 24/7 page.)
• You can view programme transcripts and subtitles
• You can embed programmes and clips in to a PowerPoint presentation or website (for as long as the College subscribes to this resource).

BOB also includes the BBC Shakespeare Archive content dating back to the 1950s.

To use the trial, please go to the link on the LRC 24/7 page on Moodle. Please follow the instructions there for logging in and setting up an account.

Search for a programme and filter by whether it is available now or TV only, for example.

At the bottom of the screen, you will find a link to Help which takes you to short videos to help you learn how to use BOB.

We will be checking usage at the end of the trial to see if it is worth us paying the money to subscribe to this. Please let us know how you find it and any comments - either as a student or lecturer.

Photo https://pixabay.com/en/video-camera-video-shooting-video-1197571/
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TV Programmes as academic resources

They are great primary source material for media and journalism students - for techniques and examples of how different issues are shown in the media at different times or how society views them. These can be analysed and evaluated.

If you are interested in scripts and language (as part of performing arts, perhaps), you can study the language used in soaps, dramas, news bulletins etc. by reading the transcripts and seeing how they are delivered.

TV documentaries often give a good short introduction to a subject especially where the subject is too new to be in a book or journal article  (e.g. Panorama did a one hour programme on the Paradise Papers).

If you are a visual learner, TV programmes may help you learn alongside books and other print resources - but check currency as facts may have changed since the programme was broadcast.

These programmes may show fashion and hairstyles at a particular time and can be used for inspiration for hair and beauty students. (Strictly It Takes Two currently broadcast slots each week from the make up and hair teams who work on the show).

TV programmes can be used as inspiration for media students to create something similar themselves as part of their course.

Cookery programmes may be a source useful to trainee chefs for recipes and presentation ideas.

And the list goes on......

Finally...

Remember - if you use a television programme as a source for your assignment, you should reference it - just as you would any other resource.

Book Boxes

Book Boxes

Did you know that the LRC can put together a book box for tutors/lecturers to use in their lessons?

Ideally we like a week's notice of the topic (but we can do this quicker) and we do need to be sure that we have stock on the particular subject.

Please contact the LRC in person, by phone or email and let us know the topic, when you need it and how many students there are in the group. We will have the box ready for you to collect before your lesson and then you can return it at the end. We can also suggest other resources such as e-books. If you would like a librarian to come to your class and do an activity with your group using the box, then we can help with this also.

Pile of 5 books
https://www.pexels.com/photo/pile-of-five-books-51342/

5 things to do with a book box

1) Introduce books as a way to research

    a) Give each student a book and ask them to find a topic

    b) After 5 minutes ask students to then say how they found the information.

    c) Talk about the index and the contents pages. (Tip: go to the sections where there are the most 

        pages first before the individual pages e.g. 33-37).

    d) Discuss other ways students can know whether a book is useful for their research

        i.e. blurb on the back, author, how old it is, which country it's published in

2) Use a box of books to practice Harvard Referencing

    a) Ask students to use the plagiarism and referencing blended learning activity on the LRC 24/7             page to learn about how to reference.

    b) Then give out books and ask students to reference them either in teams or individually.

3) Use the box of books to help introduce a topic by asking the students to research it themselves

     a) Set some questions

     b) Ask students to research the answers using the books from the box (with or instead of   

         websites) either individually or as teams.

4) Use the books to inspire students when they are choosing what to do for an assignment. e.g. an art  

     assignment/ project or make up/ hair activity.

    (One of our most challenging book boxes was for an art assignment on "Containment". We had to

      find images which portrayed the idea of being contained, imprisoned, caged etc.).   

5) Use a box of fiction to encourage students to look at books to read for pleasure or to introduce 

     them to poetry. One lecturer who worked at the college in the past read with/to his students in
     their tutorials!

    

LRC Halloween book display
Photo: Peterborough Regional College