Workshop 6 - Games based learning

 In our final workshop we came right up to date with the latest tools available in schools to engage pupils with their learning. Children are growing in a ever advancing technological world and it dominates their every day life.
To what degree should schools take advantage of this? If a child is adept at using an ipod touch at 6 years old, can it help in a literacy lesson? It is surely about harnessing a child's interests.

Game based learning must therefore be a success! All children enjoy games and if they can be adopted in their learning, the benefits will be clear.
Reasearch suggests that UK students (specifically at secondary level) are among the unhappiest in Europe, so there is a need to engage pupils successfully.

Wordle

Wordle is an online tool for creating “word clouds”, which are images from text that you type in to the website. You can enter the text or  Wordle can get the text from a website.
Wordle can be used across all subject areas. Teachers use Wordle word clouds for:

• Comparing the themes and word choices in different texts.
• Summarising
• Brainstorming

The results are really impressive and could easily be displayed around the classroom.


Voki
 This website lets you create your own digital avatar. It is like having your own 'mini me'!
The website probablyy describes it best:
“Voki enables users to express themselves on the web in their own voice using a talking character. You can customize your Voki to look like you or take on the identity of lots of other types of characters… animals, monsters, anime etc. Your Voki can speak with your own voice which is added via microphone,  typing of text, upload or phone"

”

This is very useful for pupils who find typing difficult if literacy skills are poor as it allows you to use your voice to add text. It would also build confidence for pupils with EAL.

Engaging children appears to be the key. Cost does not need to be an issue when such a wealth of educational websites at their fingertips. All that is needed is a good WIFI connection!
However  it is worth noting that this is not a given in some rural schools so it is more difficult for some to keep up to speed.

M- Learning
Mobile learning is the new buzz word as we can now communicate everywhere with pocket sized computers and more and more sophisticated phones. The possibilities are endless.
Follow this link for a great presentation about  the uses of mobile learning. It looks at all  areas as well as within schools. pretty amazing really!
http://www.m-learning.org/knowledge-centre/presentations/42-mobile-learning-in-the-uk-2009-

Workshop 5 - Digital Media - Speaking and Listening

Digital media moved on this week to consider its uses for speaking and listening.There are now many 'talking devices' available to assist pupils with presentations, instructions and discussions eg. talking postcards and tins. Inexpensive and simple to use. One of the most popular is podcasting.

Podcasting allows children to present their work and experiences to a huge audience over the Internet. Schools are increasingly using the internet to promote what they do, and to celebrate the achievements of their children, and podcasting is an excellent way of doing this.

The word podcast is a play on the word broadcast combined with the word iPOD! It is basically an online broadcast, similar to a radio show and many schools have established their own school radio.It is becoming increasingly popular for schools to link up wiyth schools abroad and have regular link ups.

The educational benefits from this are limitless. As we live in a world where ipods and you tube are now entrenched in our day to day lives, even for very young children, we must promote their educational use.

The idea of a podcast will be second nature to many!

A podcast can connect to an audience of thousands but a child is only speaking in a small group which is helpful for those who find talking in front of the whole class quite frightening. It can be a great confidence builder. T he interactive nature of podcasts allows pupils to receive feedback and provide comments.

Examples of good podcasts include:

http://www.downs.kent.sch.uk/podcast/?pid=10&type=podcast&title=The+Downs+FM+%28Podcast%29

http://www.sandaigprimary.co.uk/radio_sandaig/index.php

It is important to remember that good monitoring controls are in place!

 

Digital Video equipment was also put to the test. We attempted some basic animation using plasticine and a digital blue video recorder.It gave us some indication of the patience required at Aardman in producing Wallace and Gromit! A sequence of shots are recorded with a slight movement of the plasticine shapes each time.Over 100 shots created 6 seconds of film!

I have worked with Year 6 pupils in producing animated stories and believe the opportunity for cross curricular work is immense. Literacy for  creating the story, art in designing the backdrop and characters, maths to consider scales required and timing issues etc, etc! The main problems stem from unco-operative video recorders which can delay pupils and lead to boredom! It is therefore not easy to keep a whole class working at the same stage and probably better to teach the entire process at the start of the lesson.

Of course, animation is not the only option. It is possible for schools to turn pupils into film stars themselves! The following articles has some great examples:

http://education.guardian.co.uk/digitalvideo/story/0,,842745,00.html