They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. When I originally set up DraytonPRISM in January 2023, I had two intentions: to teach myself drag-and-drop web-design (so that I could teach it to others as a medium for coursework production and general enrichment), and to create a place to host the podcasts produced by the Podcast Club I was running at the time. One of those intentions bore fruit; the other, sadly, withered a little on the vine.
Now I have other intentions for this website. Those of you who have known me for over 6 years (yes, BOTH of you) will remember when I first set up my YouTube Channel: Octobeard. When I set it up in March 2018, it was mainly as a way to engage with a YouTube-obsessed youth, whom I was teaching. I was in my late-30s at the time, father to a small boy, and feeling very out of touch with teachnology (no, that's not a typo). I had intended for my YouTube Channel to give me hands-on experience of what it meant to be a content creator (I knew I'd never be an 'influencer') so that I could better advise the next generation of wannabe Influencers on what to do and what to avoid.
I started by creating video game reviews and analysis videos. The reviews quickly disappeared into the void, subsumed by an ocean of better, more professionally produced content. But the analysis videos gained some traction, especially with Media students and other Media/Film teachers. I produced more analysis videos, this time keyed to the specific exam board I was teaching at the time (AQA). These did much better. Octobeard had finally found a voice on YouTube.
Then came the Pandemic (I'm sure we all remember that), and I suddenly had seemingly inexhaustible troughs of time to create some of my most professional content. However, though my time was inexhaustible, I -- it turned out -- was not. I overworked myself to such an extent that I made myself quite ill (no, it wasn't Covid), which meant I took a step back from video content creation. I turned my hand to writing for a while. I was even quite good at it, winning a handful of small contests and awards and publishing a novella and then self-publishing four more books (including my first full novel). When I'm feeling more confident, I might even share those experiences here. But today is about Octobeard.
By the winter of 2023, I found myself utterly disaffected in my job, spending very little of my time teaching the subjects that interested me (Media, Film, Video Games) and feeling increasingly like a Cover Teacher, filling in wherever, rather than a specialist Media Educator with 4-degrees. I wouldn't say I was in Hell, so to speak, but I felt very much on the road towards it. So that is why I left the job where I had created DraytonPRISM, with the promise to the students that I left behind that I would not leave them without access to my resources. The switching of this website to Octobeard.co.uk is the fulfilment of that promise.
And I have great intentions for this website too, including more video content hosted on YouTube, audio content (perhaps reviving the withered-vine of my Podcast club), revision materials and more support for teachers. I don't know how many of these intentions will bear fruit themselves (I am now very much kept busy by the many, many periods of Media and Film, and even the occasional eSports lesson, that I have found in my new job). But I have good intentions.
They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions; what they don't always tell you is which direction you are travelling on that road...
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