We’re piloting the Rockhaq school music reviews blog with colleges in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. We have Music, Media Studies and English students from our pilot colleges who are studying a range of courses from BTEC Diplomas and Certificates to A/S and A Levels.

One of our pilot schools is South Nottingham College, who are using Rockhaq in lessons to fulfil their curriculum objectives with various students, including their BTEC Sports Journalism pupils. There are two more groups of Music and Media pupils using Rockhaq at South Nottingham College.

What are the Sports Journalism students gaining from using Rockhaq blogs inside and outside of lessons? We’re trying several features and ideas out, including:

  • Motivating journalism students to add music opinion/commentary and news articles to develop and broaden their copywriting skills
  • Encouraging journalism students to learn to use social media channels constructively to spread information and build their own readership
  • Actively allowing journalism students to experience an industry career path and improve their literacy skills by writing music news and reviews
  • Showing journalism students how they are able to build a portfolio of work on their Rockhaq blog profile to show to parents/employers/universities
  • Broadening journalism students’ knowledge of the music and media industry and how they’re connected – so, how music journalism and music reviews are related to PR and marketing
How Rockhaq benefits Media Students

Mike Greenwell, BTEC sport and media coordinator at South Nottingham College, said: “Rockhaq has been an inspiring resource for our students as it has spurred them on to produce articles and blogs for a dedicated forum. They have already started to use Rockhaq outside of college and are keen to see their own work online and being read by their peers.

“Rockhaq provides more context for the students about print and online journalism and they have been extremely receptive to it.”

Listen up!

We’ve only really started but if you’re a media teacher who’s interested in trying out Rockhaq blogs at your school or college, then join our newsletter to keep up with our news stories and case studies, or reserve your place for a Rockhaq blog in September 2012. We are opening our reservation and online payment system for September next week – yay! You and your students can also keep up with our competitions and announcements on our Facebook page or by following us on Twitter.