We’re super pleased to say that Rockhaq music review blogs have just been embedded into more Music teaching units, this time for Level 3 BTEC Music Technology students, at South Nottingham College.

We already have one group of Level 2 BTEC Music Technology students piloting Rockhaq as part of their Working In The Music Industry course unit, and some of these students have gone on to use their Rockhaq blog way outside the classroom.

Now Music Co-Ordinator Ed Whiteley has embedded Rockhaq blogs into another BTEC Music Technology course unit, Listening Skills for Music Technologists, and Team Rockhaq are pleased to see our music journalism community growing and being used to further innovative and creative teaching methods. If you’re a teacher who is interested in seeing Rockhaq lesson plans, join our newsletter.

So, what will the BTEC Level 3 Music Technology students gain from using Rockhaq blogs inside and hopefully outside of lessons? We’re trying several features and ideas out, including:

  • Allowing Music students to explore the sonic components that make up a track, and to put these forward in an engaging music review format
  • Encouraging Music students to compare production methods used on albums from different decades, and to discuss the overall impact this has on the listener
  • Showing Music students that they can evaluate the opinions from their peer group by leaving comments and continuing the discussion beyond the classroom
  • Providing a showcase for Music students to review their own music and to have their peer group and other members of the Rockhaq community discussing their work
  • Motivating Music students to use the community as a forum to actively promote their own work and furthering their knowledge of music publicity and promotion

How Rockhaq helps BTEC Music Technology pupils

Course Co-ordinator for Music Ed Whiteley is thrilled at the opportunity to use the Rockhaq school reviews blog for his Level 3 Music students. He says: “We’ve seen really positive results from using Rockhaq blogs for our Level 2 learners, from increasing their literacy and communication skills to seeing them engage with their peers and comment on each others work, and use it in their own time outside of the classroom.

“Now I’d like to see what difference it makes to this second group of mine. I’d like to see how my students react to writing reviews as part of the listening assignment, and how comparing and evaluating different production techniques translates to being a more exciting and relevant experience for them by discussing this in the form of music reviews.

“We also have more students in this group who are playing gigs and making their own music. Having the potential to get their tracks reviewed by other students on Rockhaq could be a really useful real-life publicity exercise for them, and some learners are already showing interest in having their tracks discussed in the Rockhaq music reviews community.”

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 Music Technology pupils. There are three further groups of Music, Creative Media Production and Sports Journalism pupils using Rockhaq at South Nottingham College.

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