Nearly there …

But before you finally breath a sigh of relief remember to check that you have all the required documents. The guidelines state:

you must submit the following:

• Independent Study proposal (You should keep your own copy of this document for on-going reference)
• Ethics approval form (if appropriate)
• Research diary.
• Three copies of Independent Study Report
• Submission of unbound copies of the Independent Study Report incurs a 30% penalty.
• Non-submission of a research diary will incur a 30% penalty

We have also come to an agreement with the student life office that you can submit over the counter. This will protect the submissions from any damage.

Don’t leave everything until the last minute! These last couple of days are important. Proof-read. Check. Proof-read again.

Presentations for those students taking the placement unit will take place on Tuesday 5th May in room 3, Media Suite at 10.00.

The placement guidelines describe this assessment as:

A 15 minute presentation to peers and tutors relating to their experience of the placement (30%)

Neil and I will also allow 10 minutes for questions. Please refer to the assessment sheet below for details on the criteria Neil and I will use to assess the presentations.

Presentation Assessment

There is now an ethics approval form available in document archive for those of you requiring one.  If you are unsure as to whether you do need one, please consult your supervisor.

Dates/times of this year’s graduation are now available here on the mmu website.

So, it’s the final straight – take a deep breath and … keep going!

Those of you who have been keeping a reflective diary in the form of a blog may have been thinking how to get the blog into a form that can be submitted as a printed diary.

Here’s an easy way to do so using BlogBooker.

First you need to export your blog and save it to your desktop. In wordpress you do this from the dashboard:

This puts all your posts, comments, links and images into an xml file. Save this file to your desktop or anywhere else you can easily access it from.

You next need to go to Blog Booker where you will see:

Clicking on Get your blog as a PDF file you have to choose which blog platform you are using. Choose wordpress if you are using a wordpress blog.

Now you simply have to load the xml file you saved from the export your blog step here:

There are some settings you can play with in order to format the book how you want it. When you’ve finished click ‘create your blogbook’ and after a few minutes you’ll see a .pdf version of the blog which you can open and save.

That’s it. You now have a printed version of your blog in chronological order (remember blogs posts use reverse chronology) with a contents page, posts, images, links etc. etc.

Just think … if you had kept a blog, how easy it would have been!

Just wondering how many of you might be feeling like this with your independent study … remember, see your supervisor!

I don’t know how many of you are transcribing interviews for your independent studies. However, those who have done transcribing in the past will know how time consuming it is. Here’s a (free) piece of software that may help.

Express Scribe is free professional audio player software for PC, Mac or Linux designed to assist the transcription of audio recordings.

The program is installed on the typist’s computer and can be controlled using a transcription foot pedal or keyboard (with ‘hot’ keys). This computer transcriber application also offers valuable features for typists including variable speed playback, multi-channel control, file management and more.

Express Scribe is completely free and can be used without any restrictions.

Here’s a screenshot to show you what it looks like.

It’s very easy to use. There’s a quick learning curve and it certainly does ease the process and speed up completion of the transcription. I’ve used it and liked it.

Happy New Year to all.  I really hope it will be one full of hope for the future.

Talking of the future, I have posted the Assessment Schedule for the year. It is not complete and Paul will be updating me on it this term. You can find it on the document archive page.

Can any student who has yet to sign their unit options form please pop into my office this week to do so.  On Friday I will take all the forms to the inter-professional office.

Remember that you are responsible for the assessment for all units that are specified on that form.

Get acquainted with SAGE’s many journals in Communication and Media Studies now during our free online access period. We are currently offering free full-text access to 24 journals for two months until the 31st December 2008!

The journals featured are immediately available to you today through this free trial offer. All you have to do is register here. Once registered, you will have full-text online access to these titles! You can browse abstracts, perform quick or advanced keyword searches, and download full-text articles.
Journals included in the free trial are European Journal of Coomunication, Journalism, Media, Culture & Society, and New Media & Society.

Regards,
Wernard Swart
SAGE