Category: Idea

Case Study: Digital Floorbooks

This case study explores how Carron Primary have been exploring digital floorbooks to capture learning in IDL across their school. Hear from teachers Aimee Allison and Linsey Archibald about their experiences planning for and implementing the move to digital floorbooks.

Context

“As part of our School Improvement Plan 2021/22 we were asked to undertake a test of change in our classrooms, linked to digital learning and relevant to our class. Aimee identified that it was sometimes tricky to evidence learning in IDL in the early years due to active learning and play. So, as a test of change, to both evidence IDL learning whilst also applying skills developed through Apple Teacher Training, she created what is now known as a Digital Floorbook, using Pages.”

What did you do?

“Aimee began a topic in P2, ‘Animals Around The World’ and began documenting the pupils learning journey. This included recording key questions and prior knowledge and then using Pages to record evidence, such as voice recordings, videos and photographs. We were then able to share pupil voice throughout the whole topic whilst easily reflecting back to the key questions and the journey so far. We then were able to link this to planning, E&Os, benchmarks and skills..”

 

Pages

Pages is a core built in iPad app that allows you to create documents. It has the ability to easily and quickly add a range of multimedia content. Pages can be exported to PDF or EPUB making it easy to download and share content with others.

What was the impact?

“The impact was being able to evidence learning journeys, bringing learning to life. It allowed children to lead aspects of their own learning and reflect back on their learning throughout the context. They could instantly see their learning (we use Apple TV to share our digital floor books), which helped improve engagement.”

The examples below are from Linsey’s class and their P5 Digital Floorbook documenting their learning over their Titanic topic.

Screenshots have been inserted from a Padlet activity finding out what learners already know and what they want to find out about the Titanic from the beginning of the topic.

Photographs of pupil physical work have been added alongside the relevant CfE Experiences and Outcomes statements linked to this particular learning activity. 

Learners have made iMovie advertising films to show their understand if persuasive language. These have been airdropped to the teacher who has collected them all across a few pages of the Digital Floorbook.

Pupil Voice

“I like looking back through all our learning and we can still look at it this year too.”

“I loved seeing other people’s work on the board.”

“I enjoyed making up my own animals and making them talk on Chatterpix.”

Where next?

“Due to the success of the initial test of change, this has now become an integral part of our School Improvement Plan. All classes are now using digital floor books to evidence IDL, and our Primary 1 teachers are also using them to document literacy, numeracy and discovery learning. Our P6 and P7 pupils are using digital floor books to record their personal learning journeys too. The floor books are also a collaborative tool across stages and useful to pass on to future teachers so that it is clear what the pupils have covered, allowing for coherence in learning. We are looking at ways that we may be able to share these with parents and carers in the future, which may mean that we explore different platforms for creating the floor books.”

Case Study: Curipod in the Classroom

This case study explores how Aileen Wallace has been exploring AI for education using Curipod in with her Modern Studies classes at Graeme High School. Aileen’s journey has been one from self confessed skeptic to Curipod Curiosity Champion –  you can read more about that journey in her case study for Curipod here.

Context

“Normal teaching of the Nat 5 course would be a mix of “chalk’n’talk”, PowerPoint, Quizlet and Blooket as well as good old note taking and question answering. Both of my 2022-23 S3 classes were challenging and I had been experiencing behaviour issues since August. This was impacting learning. A variety of approaches been tried by both myself and my faculty head. There had been little impact on the class disruption and attitudes towards learning. Good students were not doing as well as they should have and were getting as fed up with the class environment as I was. Some students were nowhere near where they should be in assessments or basic understanding and were on course for doing Nat 4 only. I had been at a Falkirk Apple Regional Training Centre session led by Mr Llwellyn from Larbert High and he talked about some platforms that he used for teaching online and Curipod was mentioned.”

What did you do?

“I started to use Curipod in the S3 classes for exit tickets and brain breaks. The response from students was very positive. I decided to explore and add more and more elements of Curipod into my lessons. I am now at a point where about 80% of my lessons are done with Curipod decks. Students only need to scan a QR code to join the lesson and this they already know how to do. The interactive tasks are all designed to be very user friendly and students get to grips with them with little to no instruction from a teacher.”

Curipod

Aileen uses Curipod in her lessons. Curipod is a browser based tool which allows students to join interactive lessons in real time. It has a wide range of features for both teachers and students.

What was the impact?

“I have noticed a huge improvement in engagement and behaviour. I very quickly saw an improvement in the quality of answers and in student confidence when attempting questions. This has continued into the 2023-24 academic year. BGE classes are on a rota and it can be tricky to settle some classes. I have found that a couple of weeks of getting used to using Curipod and the majority of students settle quicker at the start of class and maintain a better level of focus throughout the lesson. The range of generators and the adaptability of them makes them useful to any faculty in the school. English are already experimenting with the generated feedback and seeing positive results.”

Pupil Voice

“It makes learning more fun and useful like if the AI was to give us feedback it would give us it back in 30 seconds but if a teacher was to give feedback it would be 2 to 3 weeks (no offence teachers)!”

“It helps the lessons move a lot faster so we’re able to get more done in shorter periods of time.”

“It’s good having that drawing brain break because it refreshes your mind for upcoming questions.”

You can find out more about what students think by exploring Aileen’s ‘What do student’s think about Curipod?’ Canva or watching her presentation from Curicon which can be found below.

Where next?

“I have started to try to introduce Curipod to colleagues. As I said, almost all of my lessons are now done with Curipod and if I am updating old ones I do it by ‘curifying’ them on the platform and adding in the new information. Decks can be shared with students via a link or you can now download them as PDFs which I have found useful for providing revision materials. The limit is really your own imagination.”