The academic vision was for a contemporary space for learning and teaching that is modelled on a broadcast newsroom, designed for multiple channels and by integrating the work flow across TV, radio, online and print. The lead academic team’s aim was to create a post-convergent collaborative environment where students are led through the curriculum and participate in activities that mirror a typical broadcast newsroom.
Up until 2019 the space was used an office for post-graduate staff, as these photographs show;
Once on board I agreed with my academic colleagues that our objective should be for the department to embrace contemporary pedagogic methodologies for the development of craft skills through guided experiential learning. We thought that the space should create opportunities for a rich student experience that would support the learning and teaching of journalistic skills needed for the interconnected world of today and tomorrow.
From the onset I considered that that the new space should feature a central teaching position, similar to the editors desk in a newsroom, with clear sight lines to the large group tables for students. Each table would feature a large interactive display screen, with integrated PC’s and monitors for each student, complimented by power sockets for mobile devices. The new technology from Wolfvision has been designed for active learning in that allows for content sharing, presentation from any device via wireless collaboration, on screen annotation, a virtual whiteboard and access to cloud services. The V-Solution using Cynap devices on each table is designed to allow students and staff to share and present from their own mobile device, to connect to remote meetings and include the ceiling visualiser for large scale demonstrations.
The brief we gave the architects at Rivington Street Studios and the City audio visual team under Mike Sadler, was that the space was to feature the cluster approach of newsrooms like the BBC, with group tables and a central teaching position that allows for delivery and presentation of content as well as resembling the news hub desk for the supervisor.
