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Below you can read the broadcast times for our Beyond the Classroom project.

Wednesday 3rd March

7pm Beyond the Classroom – The Communities. Episode 1: Kilbarrack

7:20pm Beyond the Classroom – The Practitioners. Episode 1. Video
Footage from wide range of groups (Warrenmount, D8CEC, Tallaght, etc.)

Wednesday 10th March

7pm Beyond the Classroom – The Communities. Episode 2: Tallaght

7.20pm Beyond the Classroom – The Practitioners. Episode 2. Video footage primarily from An Cosan)

Wednesday 17th March

7pm Beyond the Classroom – The Communities. Episode 3: Pavee health
project.

7.20pm Beyond the Classroom – The Practitioners. Episode 3. Video footage from RADE.

Wednesday 24th March

7pm Beyond the Classroom – The Communities. Episode 4: Main

7.20pm Beyond the Classroom – The Learners. 50 minute special.

As well as these initial broadcasts each weeks material will be repeated the following day at 12:30 and then the following Sunday at 12:30 while the programmes themselves will loop at these slots until further notification.

photo credit: UggBoy ( have fun doing it )

DCTV’s PEDAL PROJECT stands as an attempt  to instigate a city wide conversation on the reality and nature of cycling in Dublin, so far it’s proved to be a broad discussion and one where we want to hear your voice.  After releasing a whole slew of media on the subject of the two wheeled life style in Dublin and it’s impact on city planning and politics, we brought a set of guests into our studio last night to add some culminative thoughts to the whole project – you can expect that to hit the screens next weekend as part of the cycling take over of the station on March 6th.

We are still dying for as many people as possible to use the media we’ve created to stir the pot of discussion in their local area.   With that in mind, we’ve produced this guide to putting on a screening.  It’s really easy peasy, and the concepts within apply to any DCTV produced material.  The community bike project, Rothar, have already got the ball rolling with a premiere of the documentary One Less Car on March 24th in the Cobblestone.     Spread the word!

Step 1: Find a Venue, confirm time and date, price and policies

DCTV material has been screened upstairs in pubs, in warehouses and marquees, in the back of community halls and in social centres – just about anywhere people gather and you can dim the lights and keep things quiet for half an hour or so.

Sometimes a venue will have a crowd already associated with it – sometimes you are bringing the crowd so think about this when choosing.

Step 2: Get your Equipment / Media organised

For a small screening you can use an LCD or other Telly or computer screen. You can broadcast from a laptop or DVD player. Remember to think about the sound and also to test everything together before the evening of the screening.

If you have a bigger venue, try and get the best quality version of the programmes. Use a DVD or, if you’ve managed to book a full cinema get in touch and we’ll try and get you a mini-DV version.

Remember – as much as you can test the exact set up you will be using on the night – laptops differ, DVD players differ and projectors differ so make sure its working before people arrive.

Step 3: Select your programming

The Pedal Project has three different documentaries each intended for a s;ightly different audience. It makes sense to choose one of these for your core piece and accompany this with one of the Cycling Shorts – the 3 minute comedy pieces or any local material you may have.

Its good to think of what material will get a reaction from your audience – having a conversation after the screening is much easier if the media engaged people. Remember, you can get DVD copies of the full series from DCTV and these can be sold / raffled / auctioned to cover the costs of the screening.

Step 4: Advertise your screenings

Maybe you already know who’s attending from the venue you chose, or the group you a re a member of. Even so its useful to write an ad to explain to people what’s going to happen, where and at what time. Remember to include any details about a cover charge – generally its OK to charge a few euro for the screening but this is often a suggested charge rather than a fixed fee.

Once you’ve written your advert – as well as sening it to your email lists / facebook friends and printing the notice, let DCTV know and we’ll include it in the list of upcoming screenings of the Pedal Project.

Step 5: Watch your telly

Once everybody has gathered, sit back and enjoy the programmes.

When they’re over we’d really like nto ehar what people think – either about the issues raised or about the programmes themselves. If you give us notice we’ll try and get somebody involved in making the series to attend – if not its still good to have a quick discussion after the screening.

Remember, this is participative media. Your audience should be inspired to act after the screening – either on cycling issues or covering other stories.

Notes:

bikes@dctv.ie will give you advice or support – you do not need to seek permission for a screening!   It’s all released under a Creative Commons License, so fire ahead and do this yourself.

The programmes are licensed for non-commercial use – this means you can charge people to come in, you can sell copies of the DVD but we would expect this not to be the main motivation and the moneys generated will cover costs. If you generate a surplus we would ask you to consider giving a €100 back to DCTV to support other groups.

If you would like to organise regular screenings give us a shout dctv@dctv.ie and we can give you a list of possible content we have.

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A series of new television programmes which tell the story of a small but significant player in Irish education was launched today, Wednesday 24th of February, by Dublin’s Lord Mayor, Cllr Emer Costello, at the Lighthouse Cinema in Smithfield.

‘Beyond the Classroom’ is a series of four programmes which tells the story of the development of community education in Dublin as it was experienced by the communities of Tallaght, Kilbarrack and Dublin’s inner city. The programmes were funded by the BAI (Broadcasting Authority of Ireland) through the Sound and Vision Fund, and produced for broadcast by Dublin Community Television. Four stories span the last 30 years and provide an insight into what community education is and how it has been used in past by Dublin communities.

Read more after the leap..

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Concentration spans have gone to the dogs with the advent of the internet.   Minds race across a  variety of media content and digest small snippets to form judgements.  It’s rare people take the time to sit and come to grips with the more complex picture organisations strive to communicate in traditional printed reports or other publications.  To over come this, DCTV staff have assisted a variety of groups in making viral videos that present snappy and immediate messages that can command and grip event the shortest audience attention.

Coming in at the well reasonable €4,000 mark, these pieces make the perfect organisational tool, and they work on many levels.  People we’ve worked with have used them as the ideal jump off point for an induciton meeting, or simply as a “digital handshake” that permeates through out the social networks of their staff and members.

We’ve made such videos for the Dublin City Community Forum, SIPTU, National Institute for Intellectual Disability, Busy Bees, Front Line Staff Alliance, Disability Focus Group,  Computer Club House, Bike Polo Ireland, Dublin Food Co-Op, Aontas.

We’ve even been involved in some that were so effective we had to keep them out of the public eye!

In this age of high media turn over, the sound byte and the roar of celebrity culture – its quite difficult to hear any sensible debate take place in the main stream media.  With talk shows dominated by expert panels, talking heads and those in power, its rare to see people from the ground or marginal communities get an inch in to have their say.  Whenever they do appear, usually their contribution is already framed to suit a particular narrative or thread of discussion.  Often, this is totally against the wishes of the contributor – but that’s how the media plays it.  This course is dedicated to tearing aside the sanctity of the media and highlighting the game it really is.  Through a combination of collective class room discussion, and hands on role playing in our fully digital modern studio, this course arms participants with the critical tools and experiences needed to play the media at their own game.

Making television can be really complex – but as a whole range of community groups proved during 2009 with our Community in a Studio programme it can also be quite simple. We’ve put together a basic package that replicates the model of the studio discussion shows shot during this project at the low price  of €1,500 which can be added into your budget for a launch or a report. Add this to a hundred professionally produced DVDs for another €500 and you have the most effective member communication possible.  You can read more about this offer here.  Oh and if all that technical studio jargon daunts you, don’t worry we’ve got this handy little comic that tears away the mystery!