Election Project Wrap-up

Here are some clips from our live two hour Frontier Election Show. This Show will be re-broadcast on local community access TV stations very soon. I'll post the dates as soon as I get them. Thanks to the Frontier Studio Production II and Video Club advanced video students for their work in producing this Show along with students from Mr. Murphy's Information Literacy Class. The video students represented themselves and their school in a very professional manner. I'm now looking into possibilities for future Frontier social media projects.

Election Project Feedback

Please take a few minutes to post some comments about the Election Media Project so that we can make future Frontier Projects even better. Thanks in advance for your feedback.
Please post anonymously or use first names only and inform me of your post for extra credit. I will publish all the results of this informal survey on this blog ASAP.

These questions are for Frontier students and staff who worked on this Project. They are also for anyone in the Frontier Community who watched the TV show or interacted with student pollsters and reporters.

Evaluate and Summarize-

Here are some essential questions to draw conclusions about this Project. Please answer or comment on at least a few.

1. Effectiveness:

What were the most effective parts of this Election Day Project? Explain.

What were some aspects that needed improvement?
(besides the bad video cable connections with Comcast)

2. Voting and Elections:

What did you learn about political elections and voting?

What affects the way people vote in a political election?

What was the most important issue to people in this Election?

Do you think this Election was more important than other Elections?

3. Social Media:

What role do you think social media and the internet now have in elections?

What is the best way to create effective social media for a community?

Do you think social media sites like youtube, facebook and myspace should be allowed in schools for educational uses? Explain.

Do you enjoy working on collaborative technology/media projects? Explain.

Do you find it interesting to work on projects that involve the community?

4. News reporting and polling:

What makes an interview effective?

What makes a news report effective?

How do media and news reports affect people's social/political views and how they vote?
Explain. (give examples)

5. Share other comments on the Election Day Project:

6. Suggestions for future collaborative social media projects:

Election Project Thanks

This is a belated and overdue THANK YOU!
Thanks to all of the Frontier students, faculty and community members who helped out with the very ambitous collaborative Election Day Media Project. The Frontier students involved in this Project represented their community very well and displayed a professional attitude with their work. This Project was a collaboration of three teachers and their students: Mr. Boisseau, Government Teacher, Mr. Murphy, Technology and Information Literacy Teacher, and Mr. Merrick, Video Production and Media Literacy Teacher. A special thank you to Mr. Murphy and Mr. Boisseau for initiating this Project. A thank you also to the following people (names too numerous to list here):

• Students who conducted exit polling, compiled and presented data
• Students who taped and edited video interviews of voters
• Students who conducted and/or took part in live web/skype reports and discussions
• Students who produced the live TV show, including the technical crew and hosts
• The TV show guests including Mrs. Barrett, Superintendent Nash, State Rep. Kulik, State Senator Rosenberg
• Tom Zimnowski and Marty McGuane, for TV/video assistance
• and others who helped out on Election Day in many ways

Election 2008 Media Project

Here is a link to one of the local news articles about our Election Day Media Project.

http://www.recorder.com/story.cfm?id_no=5445616

"Frontier students do exit polls"
Written by Reporter Chase Scheinbaum, Greenfield Recorder, 11/5/08

Soon I will be adding video clips to this blog from the live Election Show TV broadcast that we produced and the Show will be re-broadcast on local cable community access TV, including FCAT, Frontier Community Access TV, Channel 12.

2 minutes ago: All the major news networks have just called the Election for Barack Obama and they announced that John McCain called Obama to concede.

A few things to confess:

• I can't go to sleep tonight until I find out who will be President.
• We discovered that the audio/video TV broadcast problems tonight were not Comcast's fault, but a bad cable at the high school that had to be replaced.
• Correction: (posted 11/6/08) Evidently the video picture was cutting in and out during the Show even after we replaced the bad cable- which actually is a Comcast problem that they need to fix.
• We did get one real e-mail question from a viewer and responded 2 minutes later by having our student news anchor ask State Senator Rosenberg that question- which was awesome- using social media instantly in real time on live TV! But we only had one other e-mail question and it was from one of the students in our video crew. Maybe next time we do a project like this more people will respond with instant e-mails and comments... I hope.

Okay we're done and it went really well. I'll tell you more tomorrow- now we need to break the equipment down. The students did a great job. Thanks for the e-mail questions. Tomorrow we'll know who our new President is-crazy.

As far as I know everything is working great now- live broadcast on Channel 12 right now.
Please e-mail us or comment to let us know if it really is working.

Election Coverage Update

Yes, we are broadcasting live since about 6 pm. It's been great- although we just lost the picture- hopefully it will be back soon (we will still have audio). E-mail questions to:
Election2008@frsd.deerfield.ma.us

Election Coverage update

They fixed it! we should be live on Channel 12 shortly before 6 pm (any minute now).

Election 2008 School Broadcast Update

Unfortunately we just found out 5 minutes ago that Comcast is having trouble with their broadcast signal so we can't broadcast live tonight ;( so most of you won't be reading this until we broadcast the taped Program tomorrow on Channel 12 (unless Comcast fixes it very soon).
I'll post again to announce when the Program will air.

Election Day

Today is the day! Election day 2008.
If you're 18 or older, don't forget to vote.
Check out the links on the right for current election info.
(click refresh to update info.)

Here is a tentative schedule for our live TV broadcast tonight
(subject to change):

FCAT Channel 12, 5-8 pm, Election Coverage
Live from Frontier Regional High School with student hosts
E-mail questions/comments to:
Election2008@frsd.deerfield.ma.us

5:00 pm- Principal Barrett interview
5:15 pm- Mr. Boisseau interview
6:00 pm- Local police officer interview
6:15 pm- State Rep. Kulik interview
6:30 pm- State Senator Rosenberg interview
6:45 pm- Superintendent Nash interview
Later- School Committee member/s interview
More T.B.A.

Please check out the older posts for more info. on this exciting event!

Election 2008

Welcome to the Frontier Regional High School
Social Media Blog!

Right now our main focus is the 2008 Presidential Election. We will be broadcasting a live Election Night TV Show from Frontier High School on local cable channel 12 from 5:00 to 8:30 pm. Check it out! The broadcast will include live interviews with Frontier Administrators, State Politicians & others, interviews with voters, and more.
Please e-mail questions, comments or suggestions to: Election2008@frsd.deerfield.ma.us

A big thank-you to: Frontier Teachers Kevin Murphy and Mr. Boisseau for organizing this Election Night coverage, Marty McGuane and FCAT (Frontier Community Access TV, in the center of S. Deerfield) for the loan of video equipment, Tom Zimnowski for video equipment/technical help, and all the Frontier students and staff who are helping.

There are a lot of creative Frontier school projects that are focused on the Election. Many teachers and students are doing collaborative work to study and reflect on different aspects of the 2008 Presidential Election. Here are a few things we are doing:

• Frontier is taking part in the National Mock Election 2008. Students in grades 9-12 have been voting and we are recording the results. History/Government Teacher Gary Boisseau and new Technology Teacher Kevin Murphy have been organizing and running a very successful mock election at Frontier.

• On Tuesday, Nov. 4, Election Day, we will have many students from different classes at the local voting locations polling voting results and conducting voter interviews. This data will be collected in several forms including: written notes, live audio/video reports using laptops, and videotaped interviews conducted by advanced video students from the Studio 2 technology classes using equipment from the new FCAT (Frontier Community Access Television) Station that is being built in the center of South Deerfield.

• Also on Tuesday, Nov. 4: we will be producing and broadcasting a live Election Day TV show from Frontier Regional High School starting at 5 pm and running until approx. 8:30 pm. This TV show will be broadcast live on local channel 12 to the 4 towns of S. Deerfield, Sunderland, Whately and Conway, MA and will include live student interviews of school community-members, pre-taped student interviews of local voters, student commentary on national election results, local and national election data and more. Please check out this exciting school-community event and share your feedback and comments. E-mail questions and comments to: Election2008@frsd.deerfield.ma.us

• Another Election Day student project: Mr. Boisseau's students will be engaging in live internet discussions about political issues with students in Holland (also in the evening).