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Editorial #edjournal is an educational technology journal written by educators for educators that focuses on the pedagogy behind the use of technology in the classroom. The key question that #edjournal asks is: Where’s the learning? I feel very privileged to welcome you to the first issue of #edjournal. When the idea for the journal was hatched in conjunction with James Michie and Doug Belshaw in the warm and relatively peaceful days of the summer, it came from a growing dissatisfaction with the way that educational technology continued to presented in schools as a panacea to the learning problems teachers and students faced. Estimates in the Times Educational Supplement state that around £600 million is spent in the UK on educational technology. Undoubtedly, some of it has been well instrumental to raising the educational opportunities of our students but the gap between the level of spending and students/pupils benefitting educationally in terms of learning is dubious. From the stands at the BETT conference to the glossy presentations about new technologies helping to improve progression, the question that we, and many others began to ask was, ‘where is the learning?’ Gustave Flaubert, the meticulous author of Madame Bovary once said that writing about History was like ‘drinking an ocean and pissing a cupful’. It seems, following from Flaubert, that general encounters with educational technology is akin to drinking an ocean of money but pissing a cupful of tepid learning. Encouraged and motivated by a number of educators across the country, the editorial team decided to do something to capture the thinking where the learning becomes the principle behind the use of technology and not an afterthought. The results are, I am pleased to say, stunning and each educator has taken up the theme of learning and educational technology within their particular contexts. On a curriculum planning level, Andy Kemp’s article on mathematics and the use of technology is interesting as it shows that a whole world of mathematical reasoning is closed off to our students because we have a limited conception of how maths can be taught. Andy argues that the appropriate use of technology could help rekindle a fascination with the subject and bring ‘balance’ to mathematical understanding that has been heavily limited by a focus on calculation. Within the classroom, Peter Richardson’s desire to create reflective learners showcases the intelligent use of ICT from a number of perspectives and spatial areas. Dawn Hallybone draws on gaming, often quoted as the bane of our society, to help improve the knowledge and understanding of animals in the Serengeti and the abstract concepts of ‘safari’ and environmental impact. The article I have written explores what learning can occur when you have a book, Wikipedia and the desire to contribute knowledge to the world (and improve your History GCSE answers). With institutions in mind, Jan Webb and Andrea Pellicia’s articles show a variety of ways to innovate with technology with learning in mind for both students/pupils and teachers. The above should hopefully give you a glimpse of the direction of the journal in that we consider teaching and learning to be the most important determinant on whether an article is included. We hope you find something that resonates with your own work or challenges you to improve your own corner of the education landscape. Your thoughts and stories about what you are doing are most welcome and we are planning the second issue with a theme of ‘mobility’ so please get in touch if you would like to contribute.

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It has been an exhausting and exhilarating process in putting the journal together and I want to thank the contributors, fellow editors and the many supporters we have. We hope that in some small way, the work presented here can lead to more than a cupful of learning. NRD November 2010

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The Changing Shape of Mathematics Education

Andy Kemp - Head of Mathematics at Taunton School, Taunton.

The majority of content in the current Mathematics curriculum (in the UK and most of the

rest of the world) has remained mostly unchanged for hundreds of years. Its basis and

focus was designed around the concept of equipping students with the skills necessary for

life. In the period before the late twentieth century, this clearly included a heavy

emphasis on calculating skills: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

However, in the current technologically rich society in which we now find ourselves in the

UK, these skills no longer have the importance they once did. Ask the average student (or

teacher) to add up more than two or three numbers and rather than reach for pen and

paper they reach for a calculator.

Does this show a weakness in their understanding? Or are they simply making use of the

most appropriate tool for the job? The argument against the use of calculators has always

been based on access; what will people do when they don’t have one? With the

widespread use of mobile phones, everyone now has access in their pockets but this still

presents the question as to whether it is appropriate or not. In order to resolve this issue

and decide whether the use of technology in mathematics is something we want to

encourage, or shun as Gardiner (2001) would have us do, we must first decide exactly

what it is we mean when we talk about mathematics.

What is Mathematics?

For many, Mathematics is defined by their experience in school. Therefore, Mathematics

is the act of calculating, whether this is carrying our numerical calculations like finding

the area of a circle; or algebraic calculations such as what is the root of this equation

?

These skills certainly form a part of mathematics, but is this it? Is mathematics really just

a huge collection of skills and tricks? Buchberger expresses the views of many students

when he says:

“Above all, the students ask: ‘Will we ever need this? Who of us, having

graduated, will ever differentiate or integrate a function again? Not even

extracting a root will really occur later, and if it does, we simply use the

pocket calculator! How many of us have, in later life, been assigned problems

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from mathematics classes (“Two trains travelling from A to B with speed u,

...”)?’” (Buchberger 2002 p.3)

For many, the focus of our current mathematics curriculum is based around teaching

students a collection of skills that for the most part, they will never use again once they

leave school. This rather dismal view of the subject is challenged by Conrad Wolfram

(2008) describes mathematics as being made up of four parts:

● translating a problem to a mathematical form (i.e. framing the question)

● deciding what result is required mathematically

● doing the calculation (i.e. moving from the mathematical beginning point to the

mathematical end point)

● interpreting and validating the result.

The majority of time in schools is spent on the third part of this process ‘doing the

calculation’ and of the four parts, ironically, this is the only part that can be more

accurately and more quickly carried out by using technology!

Does technology trivialise school mathematics?

Basic numerical calculators for the most part trivialise many of the skills which form the

focus of the primary curriculum. Effective use of a calculator enables a student to add,

subtract, multiply and divide numbers of any size (within the capabilities of the

calculator). The calculator doesn’t remove the need for students to have an appreciation

for the concepts of arithmetic, however it does raise the question whether it is good use

of time to spend months or even years teaching students how to add whole numbers, then

negatives, fractions and decimals, and then later on algebraic objects, vectors, matrices

and complex numbers... All of these use the same ‘concept’ which most students can

understand (even if they cannot accurate carryout) by the age of 5 or 6, the time is spent

teaching students the different tricks required to apply the same concept to each of these

different mathematical objects.

However the mechanical task of adding together any of these different objects can be

handled more effectively (and more accurately) by the use of technology. The same can

be said for many areas of mathematics. The current A-level syllabus has at its pinnacle

the topic of Calculus (Integration and Differentiation). Around half of the pure content is

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related in some way to this topic, but the emphasis is very much on teaching students a

collection of tricks for how to integrate or differentiate functions (substitution, parts,

chain rule, product rule, quotient rules etc.). Many, if not most of these questions are

made trivial with the availability of technology such as CAS (Computer Algebra Systems)

which are capable of carrying out symbolic algebraic manipulations such as solving

equations, simplifying expressions, factorising and expanding expressions, symbolic

integration and differentiation, and many other techniques.

This does not suggest that the concepts of calculus are unimportant, as they are crucial

for many areas of the physical sciences, and economics. What it does allude to is that with

the effective use of technology, it would be possible to rationalise the amount of time

spent in schools focusing on the ‘calculating’ part of the mathematics process outlined

above allowing for more time to be spent on Wolfram’s other aspects of mathematical

knowledge.

The knowledge economy

Politicians frequently tell us that that Mathematics is essential in modern society. Adrian

Smith’s report into the state of Mathematics says:

“Mathematical concepts, models and techniques are also key to many vital areas of the

knowledge economy, including the finance and ICT industries. Mathematics is crucially

important, too, for the employment opportunities and achievements of individual

citizens.”

Smith (2004 p.v)

But when we talk about Mathematics being of central importance in the knowledge

economy, do we really mean that students need to be good at carrying out calculations? I

suggest that this is a wrongheaded view. When mathematics is mentioned as being central

to the knowledge economy, I believe people are really talking about the other three areas

we mentioned that make up mathematics:

● translating a problem to a mathematical form (i.e. framing the question)

● deciding what result is required mathematically

● interpreting and validating the result.

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These are the skills which are essential in an knowledge based economy. The ability to

take a problem and turn it into something mathematical, carry out the calculations using

technology and then interpret the results.

For example, an area where the mathematical focus is on these three other parts of the

mathematical process is in the field of statistical research. The mathematics involved in

carrying out quantitative research is immense and complicated. However, what does the

researcher need to know? They need to know how to frame their research as a

mathematical question, know which mathematical tests and tools are appropriate and

then how to interpret these results. What they do not need is to be able to manually

calculate the standard deviation or chi-squared of a set of data as this is much better and

more appropriate handled by a software package such as SPSS.

The example of statistical research and the training given to students in this field provides

a possible model for the way we teach mathematics in schools and branching out to the

other forms of mathematical knowledge such as translating the problem into a

mathematical form, deciding what mathematics is appropriate to the question and

interpreting these results. This would allow teachers to bring balance back to

mathematical understanding and allow the current fascination with the mechanical

calculation skills to be reduced accordingly.

The use of technology may appear to advocate ‘cheating’ but the real issue is that many

of the teachers are limited by their own training. Many teachers learnt to do all these

skills by hand and to move from this conceptual space to one where technology is

embraced is hard but not as impossible as they may think. Since the advent of scientific

calculators we no longer teach algorithms for finding the square root of a number but

students are still able to understand what a square root is. If we are able to use

technology to support conceptual understanding in one way, why would it be any different

with the various other topics that make up school mathematics?

The future?

Whilst there are arguments against the use of technology in the Mathematics classroom

the potential is brilliantly illustrated by Dan Kennedy when discussing the use of Graphical

Calculators in Mathematics:

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Look around you in the tree of Mathematics today, and you will see some new kids

playing around in the branches. They’re exploring parts of the tree that have not

seen this kind of action in centuries, and they didn’t even climb the trunk to get

there. You know how they got there? They cheated: they used a ladder. They

climbed directly into the branches using a prosthetic extension of their brains known

in the Ed Biz as technology. They got up there with graphing calculators. You can

argue all you want about whether they deserve to be there, and about whether or

not they might fall, but that won’t change the fact that they are there, straddled

alongside the best trunk-climbers in the tree – and most of them are glad to be

there. Now I ask you: Is that beautiful, or is that bad?” (Kennedy 1995)

In my opinion, this is a positive vision of the potential of technology to change the way we

teach mathematics in school. No longer do we need to be bound by the historical route

through the subject that demands a full grasp of the intricacies of the skills of arithmetic

before a student can tackle algebra. No longer does a student need to have a firm grasp

of all the techniques of working with algebra before they can explore calculus. By using

technology, students can move freely around the ‘tree of mathematics’; a 10 year old

student is easily capable of understanding the concept of integration in terms of the area

under a curve, so why not let them use technology to look at problems to do with curved

areas?

The problem so far has been that technology has been perceived to be an adjunct to the

mathematics classroom. Even in excellent examples/case studies of teachers using

technology to help their students, technology is seen as a ‘bolt on’ rather than a

fundamental part of the pedagogy to help improve progression and understanding. A

substantive mathematics education will remove the old forms of thinking about the

subject and move towards addressing the four parts of mathematics we identified. This

change has the potential to completely revolutionise school mathematics, allowing us to

structure the mathematics curriculum in terms of conceptual difficulty rather than as it is

at present in terms of its computational difficulty. These changes would finally enable us

to provide students with a curriculum that will help them acquire the skills they will need

to take their place in the knowledge economy.

Bibliography:

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Buchberger, B. (2002) Computer Algebra: The End of Mathematics? ACM SIGSAM Bulletin,

Vo136, No. 1, March 2002. pp. 3-9.

Gardiner, T. (2001). Education or CAStration. MicroMath 17.1 pp 6-8.

Smith, A., 2004, Making Mathematics Count: Report of the Inquiry into Post-14

Mathematics Education. [online] Department for Education and Skills Publications.

Available at: http://www.mathsinquiry.org.uk/report/MathsInquiryFinalReport.pdf

[Accessed 22nd August 2010]

Wolfram, C. (2008). Computer Algebra Systems in the Mathematics Curriculum. [online]

MEI supported by Texas Instruments. Available at:

http://www.mei.org.uk/files/pdf/MEA_CAS_Report_v1a.pdf [Accessed 22nd August 2010]

Mathematics technology comes in many forms, from the basic four-function calculator and

Scientific calculators already common in the classroom; through graph plotters and

dynamic geometry packages; all the way to Computer Algebra Systems (handheld forms

like the TI-Nspire CAS, and software like Mathematica) and even so called knowledge

engines like WolframAlpha.

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What is the Role of ICT Teachers in 21st Century Teaching and Learning? Andrea Pelliccia - ICT Teacher at Belgrano Day School, Argentina. It is hard being an ICT teacher. We have to endure serious accusations that our students are ‘digital natives’ with the know-how to deal with technology (therefore teaching the subject is not relevant) to bearing the guilt for every incident that occurs with the misuse of ICT tools or even poor typing skills. It would seem that the days of being the magician in the ICT lab, revered for our skills but with little chance of others understanding what we are doing would be longed for but the reality of the situation is that the world has changed and ICT teachers must change too. Thankfully, I have been fortunate enough to work with a group of teachers in the ICT department at my school who relish a challenge. Together, we started to think about ICT away from packages in more detail and came up with a central question: What skills will our students need in order to successfully live and work in the future? We believe that by trying to answer this fundamental question we can make a difference to our students not only from an ICT point of view but also for all other subjects. To help us formulate our approach, we drew inspiration from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills[1] with its vision of how a school can best prepare its students to succeed. One of the key features for success is the ability, in work or in life, to ‘navigate’ content. In a globally competitive information environment, where students have to develop adequate life and career skills such as working in an atmosphere of growing ambiguity and changing priorities, the ability to chart a clear course with a degree of conviction is necessary. Moreover, they also need to be able to work independently whilst also having an awareness that learning is social. Taking on an understanding of the ‘social’ aspect of learning and combining it with our key question, ICT teachers in the 5th grade onwards have actively used the school’s Virtual Learning Platform (BDS Virtual Class bdsvc.bds.edu.ar) as our stage to support students to work on the activities set by other subjects in ICT and catch-up lessons. Consequently, we have found ourselves teaching mind-mapping for literature classes, helping students create posters for Art or sorting out geometrical figures for maths. Achieving such an integrated approach to learning depends on the quality of collaboration between staff and once again, we have been very fortunate to work with a group of educators who see cooperation as a necessary way of working in helping our students to reach their potential. With their subject expertise supporting our efforts, our colleagues have enabled us to create a programme of study where the teaching and learning needs of the individual subjects where married with the ICT skills we desired all learners should have. As a result, 9 year olds became independent learners, communicated with teachers via webmail following the proper etiquette and adopted safe search methods when conducting research on the web. An associated benefit is that the subject teachers also feel more confident with the ICT element and have created more complex and challenging tasks themselves.

As it is usually the case in curriculum design, there may be different pedagogical approaches to building students’ competence in knowledge and the skills. This was also reflected in the Virtual Classroom where the choice of instructional strategies was “tailor-made” taking into account the learning needs of each particular group, the resources available and the teacher’s expertise. What stands true at all levels, from kindergarten to senior level, is the need to increasingly bring features of “real world contexts” to facilitate transfer of learning from school to life and engage students in solving meaningful problems with ICT. The aims and objectives of the IGCSE ICT curriculum with its real world focus led us to improve our approach in our discussions with other subject

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staff and to help develop an answer to the challenge we created ourselves with our key question. The ability to work across a variety of subject areas only enhanced the opportunities to apply a competency-based approach to learning. A common vision underlies the work in our department; we realise there is no point in teaching technology “for its own sake” but we aim to encourage the application of appropriate technologies to all forms of teaching and learning tasks across all subjects. This has allowed us to answer the challenge at the start of the article but also bring ICT into a wider framework of learning. We may no longer be magicians in a lab, but we are happy with the view that we are educators with the development of the student foremost in our minds. References Garrison, R. D. and T. Anderson (2002, December). E-Learning in the 21st Century: A Framework for Research and Practice. Belgrano Day School (2009, December), The Evergreen. [1] About the Partnership for 21st Century Skills The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has emerged as the leading advocacy organization focused on infusing 21st century skills into education. The organization brings together the business community, education leaders and policymakers. To learn more about P21, visit www.21stcenturyskills.org.

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Looking in the Mirror – Reflective Learning Peter Richardson - Year 4 Teacher and ICT Leader at Walton-le-Dale Primary School, Preston. This article looks at the use of technology in developing the process of creating reflective learners and the subsequent impact on learning. It covers hardware and software tools and includes practical applications within a Primary School setting. Before we move on to effectively discuss the role of technology on learning, we need to firstly define the end product. A reflective learner is defined as someone who takes ownership of their learning to the extent where they are motivated to be independently and proactively engaged in the evaluation of their learning. They also display the following traits:

• They do not merely remember or recite a learning objective the teacher has written at the start of the lesson. They understand why they are learning that objective and have often had a say in the direction of that learning to begin with. They are enthusiastic and motivated to learn because the lesson is learner focused, not teacher focused.

• They do not tick off a list of success criteria that the teacher has on the next slide

of their ‘interactive’ whiteboard. They have been active in the creation of the success criteria, whether as a class, group or individually. They are given the space to make their own mistakes whilst being supported on the path to new learning.

• A truly reflective learner does not need to get their book out or a laminated card

to remind themselves of their target. They know their target and were involved in its creation, leading to personalised steps and a desire to develop their learning.

The examples in this article focus on personal experiences of the use of technology in the classroom to support the development of learners towards becoming truly reflective in their learning and it covers three areas: teacher led reflection, student led reflection and reflection outside the classroom. Teacher directed reflection – the use of visualiser Whilst it is important that learners take ownership in the direction of their learning, I believe it is also crucial that we as teachers model processes clearly to give a framework of reference. This can be done in a number of ways with speech and behaviour. The visualiser enhances and amplifies the modelling process so it can extend to a whole host of situations including writing. As an example, during the writing phase of a unit the class shared individual written work through a visualiser and learners were guided and directed to evaluate their own writing in front of others and prompted to reflect on the success of what they were trying to achieve. Others were given the opportunity to annotate, comment positively and constructively offer suggestions for development. Whilst showcasing writing via reading is general practice at the end of the lesson or to revisit work from a previous day, a visualiser offers a small but extremely significant change in the reflection process by allowing for an immediate and shared visual evaluation, creating a far more joined up and overt approach to the learning process. The success of the lesson on writing in terms of sharing and evaluating work with a visualiser quickly led to the extended use of the devices in other areas of the curriculum such as maths. This had a measurable effect in terms of increasing confidence, self-esteem and the quality of discussion about what the pupils were trying to achieve. In

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particular, learners were given increased opportunities to review each other’s work in pairs and instead of using the visualiser at the end of the lesson, it became a regular feature to have mini-plenaries occurring fluidly as and when they were needed, showcasing either a fantastic example, discussing the next steps or to pick up on a collective mistake. Such was the effectiveness of the tool that I tried to move away from a teacher directed style of reflection to a group directed one. This proved less successful than anticipated because the learners focused more on role playing the teacher/pupil relationship rather than focusing specifically on the learning process that had occurred. As a tool for developing reflective learning, the visualiser was fundamental in helping to model the evaluation process from a teacher point of view whilst offering immediate opportunity for the learners to think about their learning. As a result of the above, visualisers have now been purchased across the school to support the whole school aim of developing critical approaches to learning. Student led reflection - record & playback devices The success of the visualiser as a teacher led method and its relative failure when placed in the hands of the students created an opportunity to think about the best tools for students in the critical evaluation process. The questions that created an opportunity included whether the students had enough opportunities to reflect effectively with their peers and whether the devices could allow some students to move on in the process but not disturb others who were at an earlier stage in the learning journey. We concluded that to be independently and proactively engaged in reflecting on their learning, learners need to want and be able to evaluate for themselves, individually as well as in groups. After much thought, it was decided that record and playback devices such as the Flip Video Camera, TTS Big Point or Easi-Speak Mic could really help explore the possibility left open by the rejection of the visualiser as a group tool. The full extent of these flexible products is beyond the scope of this article, but their use outlined below illustrates the role they played in supporting reflective learner development. Learners are twenty minutes into a maths lesson with the stated learning objective of using the grid method to solve multiplication calculations. One child using an exercise book presses a Big Point on his table. The recording he hurriedly created immediately after the whole class modelled process plays his version of the success criteria. This is the third time he has pressed it in five minutes. A few minutes later on the other side of the room a girl using a giant sheet of paper and counters to show arrays thinks she has the method understood. She has made her own examples and is now going through each step recording it on the Easi-Speak Mic ready to share at the end of the lesson. Five minutes later, a high achieving boy flicks a Flip Video Camera on and turns it towards his work. He points at different parts with his finger, explaining what he did to solve the calculation, going into detail where he spots a mistake he has made. Just before the end of the independent part of the lesson, the child using the Big Point records a question he wants to ask. During the plenary, the children gather on the carpet and the child with the Big Point brings it with them, so does the boy with the Flip Video Camera. The girl with the Easi-Speak Mic leaves it on the table she was working at. I discuss the method with the class, they listen to the Big-Point question and another learner answers it. The Flip Video camera is plugged directly in my teacher laptop and everyone watches the recording on the interactive whiteboard. After the lesson the girl comes to me on her own asking if I would listen to the recording over lunch to see if she has understood the steps correctly. It is clear that the selection of the tools used for this part of the reflective learning process are suited to individual work with the learners taking a greater degree of control in the lesson.

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Reflective learning outside the classroom – Voicethread The two examples above indicate the benefits of thinking about the learning process carefully in selecting the appropriate tools. However, they are limited to the classroom and we believe that learning should not stop at the end of the school day. Voicethread allows for learners to have the opportunity to continue to reflect on and share their learning beyond the four walls of the classroom in a unique way. First, it gives all learners equality in that their time to talk about their learning cannot be detrimental to other learners. Second, it allows for a more internal and private experience with less confident learners being able to share their thoughts without feeling intimidated by their peers. When evaluating learners extended writing pieces, I created a Voicethread with all the children’s scanned work in it. The children were given the choice of contributing through microphones or written comments as well as annotations. They started off with their own work before moving on to their friends and other learners they wanted to read and comment on. Their enthusiasm for commenting was only outshone by their excitement hearing and seeing others comments appear on their own writing. In addition to the advantages outlined above, the use of Voicethread has automatically created a re-visitable archive of reflection. Since our initial use, we have used it several more times for a similar purpose. Learner’s enthusiasm for using Voicethread hasn’t diminished and it has become an invaluable tool for evaluating progression in reflective learning over time. Conclusions There are several other technologies that could have been substituted for some of the above tools, for example the use of Audioboo or Twitter rather than the TTS Big Point or Easi-Speak Mic and a learning platform forum rather than Voicethread. This just further illustrates that it is not usually the individual technology that matters, rather its ability to enhance or deliver the key learning goal. In terms of fully supporting the development of truly reflective learners, the examples I have documented in this article are not yet fully embedded in my own teaching to the extent that I want and believe is ideal. I continually strive to develop both my own pedagogy and implementation of high impact technology across the whole school as a result of thinking about the learning. Despite this, it is clear through the examples outlined that by using enhancing and transformational technology to help motivate, raise independence and engage learners in reflecting on their learning, they take greater ownership and become increasingly independent and proactive in doing so.

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Implementing New Technological Tools in Schools Jan Webb - ICT coordinator, e-learning lead teacher at Weston Village Primary School, Weston, Crewe. Introducing new tools into schools is often a challenge for those implementing the change. “WHY?” is frequently the first question asked by colleagues which needs answering with:

1. Relevant reasons for using new pedagogies – academically sound, researched and based on enhancing pupil learning

2. Relevant examples of new pedagogies being used – effective use speaks for itself and starts ideas snowballing

One of the challenges in rolling out the use of new technologies is conveying the shift towards new metaphors to make the change intelligible such as ‘secondary orality’, ’cyberspace campfires’ or ‘global villages’. New metaphors for learning We are still tweaking a model of teaching and learning that was introduced during the industrial revolution for educating the masses. At that time, schools were introduced which enabled a greater number of people to be educated and learning became paper-based. This superseded but did not differ radically from the oral model of learning, or ‘first orality’, where learning was apprentice-style at the side of people from the extended family and community. Children were taught by a whole village community. 20 years ago, Papert wrote about the need for megachange in schools so we can equip children for the future rather than the past. This change depends on developing a ‘secondary orality’ – as described by David D Thornburg in “Campfires in Cyberspace”, where we learn from a much larger – potentially global – online community, apprentice style but using new technology to connect, communicate and collaborate. In our communication-rich society, learning is still facilitated by human contact. The theory about 6 degrees of separation was originally proposed by Karinthy as long ago as 1929 to describe how the developments in communication of his own era were making the world a smaller place (Barabasi (2003)). If we want to contact an unknown person, it has been shown that by talking to a sequence of no more than 5 people we can make that link. It would make sense that this will affect how we are able to learn in an information-technology based society, with the advent of social media tools and online search engines reducing the number of clicks/connections with others that we need to make in order to find the answer to a question. Nearly 100 years post-Karinthy, my own personal experiences of asking questions online via a search engine or twitter is that this number of connections is substantially reduced! This contraction of the world we have at our fingertips to explore the answers to questions has implications for self-directed learning. Rather than tweaking a post-industrial revolution model of education, we need to develop our pedagogies to embrace this ‘secondary orality’. Putting the use of tools into this context is important for those who believe them to be an additional burden/workload rather than a way of enhancing learning in a way traditional tools can’t. The Problem

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Even with many examples of how these tools can be used, initial attempts to use them with a class are often cautious, experimental and with any number of back-up plans. Even the technologically confident and adventurous adopt this approach, so it makes sense that less tech-confident colleagues will need more than simply being shown relevant examples, which could intimidate if colleagues can’t see them as achievable or applicable in their context. Even when use was soundly justified, it was found that there was:

1. Resistance to change – it takes time for a new way of teaching to be accepted.

2. Pressures on time – “fiddling” time needs to be in place, so there is time to explore possibilities and try out new ideas (– the need for this is inversely proportional to staff confidence in using technology, i.e. less confident staff need more “fiddle time”). Besides addressing staff confidence/skills, it also takes time for a new tool to become embedded.

3. Conflicting school priorities. These become more of an issue as the use of the tool moves beyond one person’s/class experiment to whole school adoption.

4. Competence levels being greater than confidence levels – and varying levels of support for this depending on school context. This links to time pressures, but building confidence as well as skills is key to sustainability.

1. Resistance "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Mahatma Gandhi Being ignored/laughed at seems to be a fairly typical response to the introduction of new ICT-based tools but this can be overcome with carefully planned professional development and the recognition of the emotional response to change. Seymour Papert (1993) talks about the “immune response” of schools/staff to change, likening the resistance to the self-protection processes the body uses when an infection comes its way. It’s as though staff/schools effectively seek to integrate anything new into the models of teaching/learning that they already use rather than embracing ‘megachange’. New ideas are merely tweaked to fit with existing practice and this occurs because no matter how open we are to new ideas as professionals, ‘megachange’ is scary and we seemingly revert to a ‘script’ that we are comfortable with at times of crisis or grief for the ways of doing things that we leave behind. The Kubler-Ross Grief Cycle is just one way of describing why introducing a major change takes time and meets resistance.

(via changing minds.org)

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In the context of introducing a learning platform, sometimes the tech doesn't do quite what people envisage it doing, which can, in itself, cause a resistance to using the tools – some might give up and go back to comfortable familiar methods. Sometimes that's just because of time available/other stresses rather than lack of willingness to engage. Others find a way around it so the tools do what they want them to do but it’s important that colleagues don’t end up saying: “We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works.” (Douglas Adams). The new tool needs to be reliable and appropriately-supported and the emotional factors considered otherwise it will be rejected. Becoming ‘wallpaper’ Children seem to embrace change and new ideas more rapidly than adults and introducing a learning platform typically takes three times a long for an adult.

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This is due to developing the familairty and skills needed to make it function well but as the tool is used more effectively, it becomes a natural extension of the teacher’s ability to promote learning and therefore, less intrusive. This was noticed during a project developing the use of forums and wikis for collaboration.

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Resolution – a way forward? A ‘megachange’ such as Papert discusses is more likely to provoke immune responses or grief-type responses but ‘megachange’ doesn’t need to happen all at once. The answer to the question, “How do you eat an elephant?” is instructive; “one bite at a time” demonstrates that change, one small bite at a time, will enable colleagues and make seemingly insurmountable tasks possible. In this sense we need to treat our colleagues as learners themselves (albeit with additional pressures) and just as we want our pupils to reach a “zone of proximal development”, (Zygotsky), so we want our colleagues to reach a similar zone so that they can develop professionally. As Papert put it, we need to allow the cold regions of our brain to become heated up by the hot regions – i.e. we are motivated to learn when the new skill touches on our interests and passions. We also need to consider differentiation because as we differentiate for our pupils, we need to take into consideration the skills/confidence of our colleagues so we personalise their learning experience. What is also important to remember is that being technologically competent doesn’t necessarily equate to technologically confident for some. Technological confidence isn’t just a “yes/no” answer – it is a continuous scale, is related to confidence but sometimes despite good competence levels, confidence isn’t high.

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Bearing this is mind and using what we know, tweaking it, improving it, revisiting it, tweaking it, improving it (the professional reflection cycle we go through as teachers already) was used in “shared planning/teaching” sessions for colleagues so they became increasingly familiar with the tools. The success of such an approach is occurs because it is socially based AND action oriented (Fullan: 2007). Personal contact diffuses innovations through 1:1 support/peer buddying and provides relevant contexts for trying new tools (Hoban: 2002). Hoban also suggests that the chances for change are increased if there is a framework in place to support long term teacher learning and to help teachers cope with the non-linear process of changing classroom practice. Assimilation and use of new tools needs a combination of a situated perspective (which disregards prior knowledge/motivation) and cognitive perspective (which disregards contextual/social influences on learning). To move change through stages of initiation and implementation into institution wide use, there needs to be a community of practice where personal relationships between staff members allows for the recognition of the issues and complexity but also foster development. Hence a person driving forward the change from within the school has an even larger role to play in ensuring the change is sustainable than an outsider who visits to deliver a training session. With their understanding of the unique context of the school and people involved, they will be key to the development of their colleagues. Sustainability In order to embed new tools for learning, there needs to be a shift in school culture and it takes time to establish new “norms” in school. This depends on the adoption of a range of leadership styles by both the senior leadership team and those to whom they delegate responsibility. Often the person implementing the change has no previous experience of educational change and the associated resistance therefore the advice and support they receive will be crucial for the sustainability of a project in order to minimize its disheartening and discouraging

competence

confidence • Able to problem solve • recognises potential applications

of new tools • actively seeks opportunities to use

new tools •

• Able to problem solve • Experimental – will try new

tools to build competence • Uses examples of good

practice to develop own

• Suggested applications • Uses new tools given

encouragement and/or support • Acts on new information if/when

set as whole school/professional priority

• Skills development needed • Pedagogical development needed • Mentoring? CPD?

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effect. Those new to leading such change will need support to recognise the extremely complex issues so they are able to make informed choices. Conclusion Introducing new tech-based tools into schools, whether it is a learning platform, other web 2.0 tools or those still to be invented, is a change process that triggers a range of affective responses. Whilst these tools may be embraced by many, for others it challenges their values and beliefs as teachers. Time, skills and confidence may be constraining factors when aiming for whole school implementation, even with relevant examples of how use of the tool may enhance learning. Conflicting priorities in school may affect the uptake of a new tool or pedagogy but socially-based, action-oriented staff training which is personalized to the context, addresses the affective responses and supports a high-visibility, community-based approach can promote lasting change to attitudes and practice. References: Department for Education and Skills. (2005) Harnessing Technology: Transforming Learning and Children’s Services. 1296-2005DOC-EN. Nottingham: DfES Publications. Department for Education and Skills. (2005) Learning Platforms – Primary – Making IT Personal. 2101-2005DBW-EN. Nottingham: DfES Publications. Goleman, D. et al (2002) The New Leaders. UK: Little, Brown & Co. Gill, A. (2007) One Step Ahead of the Game. Research Associate Report. NCSL. Hoban, G. (2002) Teacher Learning For Educational Change. UK: Open University Press. Papert, S. (1993) The Children’s Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer. New York: Basic Books. Costello, P. (2003) Action Research. London; Continuum. Fullan, M. (2007) The New Meaning of Educational Change. Oxon: Routledge. Barabasi, A. L. (2003) Linked: How everything is connected to everything else and what it means for business and everyday life. US: Plume Books. Jonassen, D. H., Peck, K. L., Wilson, B. G. (1999) Learning with Technology: a constructivist perspective. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. McNiff, J. and Whitehead, J. (2010) You and Your Action Research Project. Oxon: Routledge. Levi-Strauss, C. (1996) La pensee sauvage – the Savage Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Prochaska, DiClemente, Norcross. (1993) In search of how people change: applications to addictive behaviours. Journal of Addictions. Vol 5, No 1, pages 2-16. Berk, L & Winsler, A. (1995). "Vygotsky: His life and works" and "Vygotsky's approach to development". In Scaffolding children's learning: Vygotsky and early childhood learning. Natl. Assoc for Educ. Of Young Children. pp. 25–34 http://www.markhneedham.com/blog/2009/08/13/challenging-projects-and-the-five-stages-of-grief/ - accessed 14.9.10 http://changingminds.org/disciplines/change_management/kubler_ross/kubler_ross.htm - accessed 14.9.10

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The Boy in the Nazi Jumper: Literacy and Knowledge Creation in the History Classroom Nicholas Dennis - Assistant Head, Felsted School, Felsdted, Essex. A key question is how to harness the potential of ICT to deliver what is pedagogically useful in day-to-day history teaching, rather than what is technologically impressive in terms of ‘what can be done’. Terry Haydn History is essentially about people: their hopes, jealousies, fears and the complexities in between. Chapman (2009) believes that the study of History is about understanding ourselves as we cannot make sense of the present or act in the future without some understanding of our past. It seems logical to conclude therefore that our endless fascination with others and ourselves and the explosion of educational technology in schools should naturally combine to create learning experiences that are meaningful and significant. However, as Haydn’s quote suggests, a substantive answer from educational institutions and companies producing the technologies seems to be lacking. With an emphasis on ‘better, faster, easier’, technology is seen as a simple panacea to intricate and divergent learning problems our students confront. his ‘better, faster, easier’ view has been reinforced in part by the many blogs, web pages, conferences and tweets highlighting the latest technologically impressive use of a tool without referring to the context. Driven as teachers are by a desire to improve learning, colleagues around the country have latched on to these tools in the hope it will have some effect on the students without really knowing if it is helping to achieve the stated desire. It is no wonder then, that we appear credulous to colleagues when they ask for proof of learning or suggest another activity that can have the same result. Moving beyond a simplistic understanding of ICT in the History classroom where it becomes pedagogically useful in day-to-day teaching demands us to think carefully and critically about what we are trying to teach before we apply the use of technology. In the following paragraphs, one possible way to overcome the issue of the banal use of ICT in History teaching is outlined by focusing on what is effectiveor important rather than what is impressive or urgent. Defining the context of the important - the learning problem Wider reading and the understanding that comes through reflecting about what has been absorbed distinguish the good historian from the outstanding one. Literacy is important for progress in History and as such, the department at Felsted has encouraged wider reading in a number of ways; at A2 the students have to read and review AJP Taylor’s The Course of German History and throughout the school we have a History Book Club where fiction is matched with the activities covered during Year 9. Despite the modest success of the push with more analysis that is detailed and citations in essays and in class discussons, the level of student motivation at GCSE level does not match their self-motivation/concentration in other areas of their lives, such as playing computer games. Claxton (2002, p.19) in discussing the four dispositions for successful learners highlights the ability to be rapt or intrinsically engaged with the object of learning. Students may become engaged for a variety of external reasons such as a desire to please the teacher or fear of the consequences if they do not complete work. Essentially, there is nothing wrong with these motivations apart from it does not lead to being ‘rapt in learning’ and pursuing, as Counsell notes, the most difficult of tasks when they are fired up and excited. (2000, p.62) Engendering a sense of intrinsic motivation and allowing them to develop the ‘habits and dispositions…so that over time they

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become second nature’ (Claxton, 2002, p.19) is more effective than a short term burst of externally driven productivity. To help resolve the learning problem of literacy and motivation at GCSE, a return to the source material (be it the textbook or wider reading) with the issue defined is necessary as this often throws up interesting possibilities. After a chance conversation with an International Baccalaureate (IB) student, a book called ‘Destined to Witness’ written by Hans J. Massaquoi was recommended as something which would interest the students. The son of Liberian father and German mother, he grew up during the Nazi period in Germany, fought in the Korean War and became heavily involved in the Civil Rights movement. His story was bursting with a complexity absent from the textbook but also a familiarity in terms of a young person trying to make sense of the world around him and as such, the book seemed to be a good choice in helping to resolve the literacy issue. However, it was the image on the front of the book that sparked the idea to use it as a motivational tool for wider learning.

 

What made it arresting was his jumper and the Nazi Swastika sewn into the middle of it. Immediately, questions began to bubble; was he made to wear this as a punishment or did he choose to wear it? When was this picture taken and how did he manage to survive and locate this picture? Although ideal as a piece of Initial Stimulus Material (ISM) (Phillips, 2001) to introduce the topic of life in Nazi Germany and generate interest, it would not create the necessary internal motivation for study by itself. Wikipedia and the SAMR Model However, the richness of Hans’ life story and the ability to make the familiar (life in Nazi Germany) strange demanded that the use of the image should be more than an introductory tool. As part of the research process, the simple method of ‘Googling’ Massaquoi threw up a number of surprises. First, there was very little online about this remarkable man and second, the amount of information on

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Wikipedia, the readily cited source by many students and seen as the definitive guide to all knowledge, lacked even a moderately considered treatment of his life. At this stage, a decision had been made about the use of Massaquoi’s book in a range of lessons. First, his story would introduce the topic on social life in Nazi Germany but also provide contextual ‘colour’ for the area of study. The GCSE unit on life in Nazi Germany covers the treatment of minorities and Nazi policies on the young, workers and women. Massaquoi’s book provided rich and compelling source material for each of these topics. Second, Massaquoi’s story seemed a natural fit in terms of promoting wider reading. The intention to use his story as a contextual wrapper was deliberate as it was hoped that enough interest would be generated whereby the students would want to find out what happened to him. However, it needed something more conclusive if it really was to fire the imagination of the students and it at this juncture, Reuben Puentedura’s model for thinking about the use of technology in schools had a profound impact.

Puentedura’s model presents a simple checking system for the use technology in schools with each level clearly indicating the opportunities available with each half of the model stating whether the use of technology would be merely an enhancement of what already exists or allow for the transformation of learning. Thinking about Wikipedia in relation to the SAMR model ignited the idea that the students could do something transformational with the material from Massaquoi’s book and gain an appreciation of the role of what an actual historian does by writing for an audience. The final outcome of their reading would be to produce ‘new’ knowledge for the world by editing and adding to Massaquoi’s Wikipedia entry. This simple editing exercise would fulfil Haydn’s principles on the effective use of ICT in History teaching as the pupils are asked to do something with the information they are given and there is a valid historical purpose to the activity undertaken. (2000, p.105). It would also provide the necessary motivation – who would not be motivated to reveal something that did not ‘exist’ before? Process With a clear purpose, the learning process could commence. The image of Massaquoi became the centrepiece for the whole unit of work rather than just a

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lesson and the confusion, awe and intrigue it provoked provided the momentum for the learning journey. The students were amazed when told of the Wikipedia entry objective and this led to an interesting discussion on their authorial power as knowledge producers and Wikipedia’s impermanent nature. Each sub-topic within the unit of work, such as the role of women, began with a passage from Massaquoi’s book which generated a sustained interest in his life which ultimately led to a few students deciding to read the book themselves as they could not wait until the next lesson to find out what happened to him and his family. Exam question answers and class discussions became littered with examples from Massquoi’s life and the class returned with regularity to the unique experience Massaquoi faced in comparison to the information in the textbook. Writing the Wikipedia entry was helped enormously in that the site’s rating for articles closely resembles a GCSE mark scheme in detailing what is needed to achieve the grade. Repurposed with students in mind, the ‘mark scheme’ was given to the students with a clear target of a ‘C’ class article. Class of article

Criteria Reader’s experience Editing suggestions

Start An article that is developing, but which is quite incomplete and, most notably, lacks adequate reliable sources

Provides some meaningful content, but the majority of readers will need more.

Provision of references to reliable sources should be prioritised; the article will also need major improvements in content and organisation.

C The article is useful, but is still missing important content or contains a lot of irrelevant material. The article should have some references to reliable sources.

Useful to a casual reader, but would not provide a complete picture for even a moderately detailed study.

Considerable editing is needed to close the gaps in content.

B The article is mostly complete and without major issues, but requires some further work to reach good article standards.

Readers are not left wanting, although the content may not be complete enough to satisfy a serious student or researcher.

A few aspects of content and style need to be addressed, and expert knowledge is increasingly needed. The use of supporting materials should also be considered if practical.

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The target was made even more manageable by relaying to the students the two things they needed to do: 1) Provide information about Massaquoi’s life that was not on the page. 2) Provide page references. The first requirement was straightforward for the class as they regularly absorb and recount key information from sources. What was different was the focus; they wanted it to be as good as possible. The second stipulation was slightly more difficult as GCSE students are not required to reference works but they quickly grasped the idea. In groups, the students were given extracts from the book and were told to focus on the ‘C’ class requirements and the level of focus and the writing produced was impressive and their entries can be seen on the Wikipedia alongside the work of History teachers at the Schools History Project conference workshop.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Massaquoi Conclusion In terms of the original objective to promote greater literacy, the project met the intended outcome. In particular, the boys in the class were motivated to read the book themselves (which they helpfully showed throughout the rest of the topic). It also got the students to engage with a piece of text that they all read eagerly for five minutes at the start of the lesson and enabled wider contextual knowledge for the GCSE unit as a whole, accounting, in part, for the excellent external GCSE results with a number of the students attaining full marks. As a supplement to reaching a better understanding of life in Nazi Germany, the project also made them aware about the role Wikipedia should play in their future studies. It also instilled a sense of purpose – they had produced ‘new’ knowledge for the world that for any person, regardless of age, is impressive. The study of History is essentially about how we relate to each other and the work the students conducted through the project retained a sense of wonder and horror about our capacity as a species to treat other human beings with kindness and cruelty. Stories such as Massaquoi’s demand to be treated with the appropriate respect: I fell through the cracks of modern history’s most extensive, most systematic mass-murder scheme, with the fortunate result that I am still around and able to write this account of my life. (Massaquoi, 1999, p.xvi) Attempting to build this sensibility with impressive technology does a great disservice to the education of the students under our care and to lives of the people who have gone before us; such stories should never fall through the cracks caused by our inability to discern what is really important in the face of the technologically impressive urgent. References Chapman, A., 2009. Introduction: Constructing History 11-19. In: H. Cooper and A. Chapman, eds. Constructing History 11-19 London: Sage 2009 Claxton, G. Building Learning Power Bristol: TLO 2002

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Counsell, C. 2000. Historical knowledge and historical skills: a distracting dichotomy. In: J. Arthur and R. Phillips, eds. Issues in History Teaching London: Routledge 2000 Haydn, T. 2000 Information and communications technology in the history classroom. In: J. Arthur and R. Phillips, eds. Issues in History Teaching London: Routledge 2000 Massaquoi, H.J. 1999. Destined to Witness London: HarperCollins 1999 Phillips, R. 2001. Making History Curious: Using Initial Stimulus Material to promote enquiry, thinking and literacy Teaching History 105December 2001.

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Going on Safari: Games Based Learning in Action Dawn Hallybone - Senior teacher/ICT Co-ordinator at Oakdale Junior School, London Borough of Redbridge.  ‘The most powerful learning tool ever created’ is how Lord Puttnam described the video game. The use of this technology within the classroom has been gaining momentum in the UK over the last couple of years and I have been using Nintendo DS consoles within the classroom to both engage and enhance the curriculum for the last two and a half years. Over the last year, I have been part of a contextual hub for gaming in the local borough called the Redbridge Games Network. The initial brief (to look at using the Wii console to improve writing within schools) allowed teachers across the borough to evaluate a series of games to assess their potential use within the classroom to encourage and improve writing.

We were clear that if the game did not provide an adequate springboard for writing, it would be rejected; one example was the Wall-E game. The film provides many opportunities within the classroom to discuss environmental issues and we thought the game did not add to this experience. Games we did feel would provide the necessary stimulus for writing include Wii Sports, Mario and Sonic at the Olympics, Mario Kart, Wild Earth African Safari and Another Code: R. Following our identification of the games, we moved towards thinking explicitly how they would help writing.

I decided to select the Wild Earth African Safari game for use during the summer term with a Year 6 class. Tim Rylands and Peter Richardson have both used this game to great effect and I researched carefully its use with other classes and year groups. The learning rationale for using the game was simple; I wanted to immerse the children within a ‘safari’ to give them a stimulus for their writing and to extend their knowledge on habitats and I was drawn to this choice in part by the pupils. We had previously been working on the World Cup and one of the tasks was to choose five activities they would do on holiday; one of the top choices for the children was to go on Safari.

To give them a contextual awareness, I first asked the pupils to research where exactly we could go on safari by locating areas using Google Earth. I then explained that the place chosen for their next block of writing was Serengeti National Park and they were asked to find out more information about the park and think about why parks of this nature were necessary as the form of a debate. This gave all the children a good basic knowledge to begin with not only of the park but also allowed them to grasp the very difficult concept about the importance of protecting species within a natural environment as far as possible.

The next part of the learning process was to fly to Tanzania and visit the Serengeti using Google Earth. Before we zoomed in to explore the environment, we discussed what kinds of habitat we might see and what animals we might find, making clear cross curricular links as I firmly believe this is an important part of the learning process.

We then zoomed in and had a look around – with the children in control as they always see things that I miss. Once we had a good ‘feel’ for the environment we then watched a short video from YouTube which showed a range of still images of both the animals and the habitats found in the Serengeti. While the children watched the clip, I asked them to name their favourite animal and one adjective to describe that animal. We then went round the class with the children calling out their animal and adjective, while they did this I typed all the words quickly into Wordle – a tool that we have used a lot in class.

It’s great to see the words that stand out and leads to a great discussion on why certain words stand out – also enables children to look at the smaller words, all the time

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extending and sharing the vocabulary in the classroom. Using the images from the video and the Wordle, the writing task was then to create the voiceover for the video that the children then presented in the ‘style’ of David Attenborough.

Equipped with contextual knowledge, we were then ready to go on safari! Using the Interactive Whiteboard with the Wii, we played the game by moving through the park taking a series of photographs which form part of the mission, while at the same time being aware of their impact on the environment and finding out facts about the creatures as the move through.

Going on Safari

I had chosen the co-operative mode to play this game with one child being the photographer and the other ‘driving’ and navigating their way round. Throughout the game the children are reminded about the primary and the secondary objectives and there is also an environmental impact meter they need to be aware of. This bar decreases the more of a negative impact the players have on the environment they are moving through (which can occur by disturbing other animals or causing too much noise). At timed intervals the player’s roles switch throughout the game and I had also told the class that once those ‘on’ safari had taken five pictures they would also swap.

To maximise the learning based on the game, the class was arranged into five groups; three groups were ‘on’ safari, one group making notes on what they saw using adjectives and adverbs to describe what they saw, while the last group made notes on facts about the environment or animals that was relayed by the game.

The pairs of children worked together well – they had to co-operate, they also had to take their time as they soon realised that the controllers and the movement within the game were very sensitive. The rest of the class joined in with enthusiasm calling out – ‘the baby elephant is over there!’ while the note taking groups frantically scribbled. The major disturbance came when we were all charged by an ostrich! The entire class – myself included – we really were ‘on safari’ and we had disturbed the environment. Over the next hour, we spent time photographing the elephants and finding out more about them, their habitat and their social interaction it was a great hour with all the children engaged.

After the hour ‘on’ safari the groups went back to their table and they carried on talking about the game and sharing what they had found out – this was then shared with the whole class. A class fact file was assembled on elephants and those that had been in control talked about how they had felt, while those observing gave words to describe the scenery. The writing tasks that followed were an information page on elephants and a diary entry of our first day on Safari.

The benefits of this for a teacher are numerous; the children were in control of their learning – literally but also they decided where they would go collectively, they were in

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charge of making notes, describing how they felt and what they saw and the writing they produced was fantastic. We followed this up by using a great online game called switchazoo – this enabled children to have fun making up their own creatures – which they then had to name and describe their habitat, their social interaction with other animals – if any and other facts that they felt the reader should know. It was a good way of transferring their knowledge and also for them to be able to use their imagination and create new creatures.

Our second foray into the National Park was to photograph Giraffes and once again the class was organised into the same groups and everyone settled into their roles quickly – even wearing their pith hats – which some deemed totally necessary to fit the experience. We did however encounter a creature that I had never heard of, a Zoorilla, and it was their mission to take a photo of it! So, one of the class went to the computer and ‘Googled’ it – then turned the screen around so that those on Safari and the rest of the class could see what it looked like and could find it – which we did! This clear example of the children in charge of their learning was followed by a more structured element where we went straight into the ICT suite and the task for the children was to use an outline grid from www.purplemash.com to choose 6 creatures they had met on Safari to write a short paragraph about. They had to include either the giraffe or the elephant and the other creatures were up to them using facts from the internet to support their descriptions.

Our use of the game was over a short and concentrated period at the end of the summer term for Year 6 and I firmly believe that we succeeded in using the game to stimulate their thinking in a wide variety of ways. The children developed their writing skills, their knowledge acquisition, their time management, speaking and listening skills, co-operation, scientific and geographical knowledge and they had fun. Using a game like this as a contextual hub for learning in the classroom is a very effective way of reaching out and enabling all learners to succeed and develop. It provides a clear focus with understandable links to their learning. It also allowed us to reinforce the idea that it is ok to say ‘I don’t know’ and to ‘fail’ as long as the students tried again which the game and games based learning allows us to do. It seems that Samuel Beckett’s words are ideally suited to the class and games based learning in general: ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.’

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