Category Archives: Aberdeenshire

Aberdeenshire, Apple, Critical thinking, Curriculum, Learner, Sharing devices

Mackie Academy: The learners’ perspective

May 17, 2013 User deactivated Leave a comment

Mackiepost4HL — Working with the stylus on the iPad

The iPad pilot at Mackie Academy in Aberdeenshire has been situated in the Expressive Arts faculty. The staff met to identify where the iPad and the apps they had access to would best suit their needs over the course of the academic year. This agreement led to the creation of a rota that would enable effective sharing of the devices across year groups.

We met with some S3 learners in their art and design class to hear what they thought of using the iPads in their learning and interrupted Jessica and Kirsten who were using a stylus to paint in a specific app. They both felt that the contact point of the stylus and the iPad was too thick and that it did not allow enough control when they were creating their work.

They liked the fact that the app allowed them access to a range of digital materials to draw and paint on. They felt that this was a good way to explore a wider range of materials, even though they were in digital format.

MackieArtPupils Interview with Jessica and Kirsten

It was interesting to see that there were definitely some critical judgments being made by the learners in this class about when it was and when it was not appropriate to use an iPad in their learning in art and design. The learners said that they preferred non-digital materials at times and that their decision to use the device depended on what they were trying to do, what the brief was or what they felt was the best medium to suit a particular task.

Aberdeenshire, Apple, Pilot overview, Sharing devices, Teacher

Mackie Academy: iPad pilot overview

May 15, 2013 User deactivated Leave a comment

Mackiepost1HL — iPads shared across the Faculty of Expressive Arts

Aberdeenshire Council has a long history of commitment to and use of digital technologies to help deliver better outcomes for learners. This past year has seen them continue this as they have begun to explore the use of a range of devices in their schools with pilots trialling iPads, Android tablets and iPod Touches.

One of these pilots saw 30 iPads being made available to Mackie Academy in the beautiful coastal town of Stonehaven. We visited the school and met with Fiona Robertson (DHT) who gave us an overview of how the school planned to use the devices in their pilot.

Mackie Academy: iPad pilot overview Pilot overview (apologies for slight interference in this recording)

The school decided to share the devices between learners across the Faculty of Expressive Arts. This faculty was chosen because they felt that it might have been the obvious choice to put the devices into the language or maths departments, so they wanted to see how they could enrich the learning in the arts. The teachers in the Faculty of Expressive Arts worked together at the start of the year to identify the key aspects of learning they would like to cover with the aid of the iPads. From this meeting an agreed rota for learner access was established to meet these objectives.

Early thoughts on impact on learning

Mrs Robertson commented that Mackie Academy wanted to make sure that their young people would get a range of experiences with ICT provision, but that this had to be linked to effective methodologies that teachers could employ so that better learning could be achieved. She was keen to stress that a device, and the iPad in the this case, is not solely the answer to helping effect change. Although the school was in the early stages of the pilot Mrs Robertson felt that she was seeing teachers making good use of the devices to complement existing practice and that there were growing examples of the devices being used to present learning in different ways to learners.

MackieFRobertson3 Early views on impact on learning audio recording

1:1 deployment, Aberdeenshire, Apple, Teacher, Trusting learners

Fishermoss PS: Acceptable Use Policy and teacher confidence

May 14, 2013 User deactivated Leave a comment

FMpost3HL — Developing a culture of responsible use of devices

Aberdeenshire Council has a long history of commitment to and use of digital technologies to help deliver better outcomes for learners. This past year has seen them continue this as they have begun to explore the use of a range of devices in its schools with pilots trialling iPads, Android tablets and iPod Touches.

One of these pilots saw every pupil and teacher at Fishermoss PS in Portlethen being given an iPod Touch by the Local Authority ICT team. We were obviously very interested in finding out more about this ambitious pilot and visited the school late in 2012 to see how things were progressing.

We met with Charlie Barrow who teaches P7 and he shared with us his experience to date of using the iPods in his practice. Mr Barrow took some time to explain to us how the school had planned to ensure that a culture of responsible use of the devices was developed at the school, how parents were on board in terms of partnering the school and how the Acceptable Use Policy enables this agreement to be presented in a documented way.

Fishermoss PS: Acceptable Use Policy

1:1 deployment, Aberdeenshire, Apple, Teacher

Fishermoss PS: Exploring the use of the iPod in learning

May 14, 2013 User deactivated Leave a comment

FMpost2HL — Exploring potential for learning

We met with Charlie Barrow who teaches P7 to ask him about his experience so far in using the iPods in is class. He talked about the fact that he had created a set of ground rules, such as the devices all being synced and charged first thing in the morning. The school had a docking station that enabled this to happen. He also talked about the way in which he had established an iPod pot system that ensure that he would get the class’s attention when he asked for it. All iPods had to be placed in the pots when the children were instructed to do so so that they could focus fully on the teacher.

Fishermoss PS: Charlie Barrow initial thoughts Interview with Charlie Barrow about his initial thoughts on the iPod pilot

Mr Barrow explained that he was developing his understanding of what the device could do and how his clearer understanding and awareness of its functionality could be best applied to help support and enhance the learning that happens in his classroom. Although he talked about using apps as starters and extensions for certain lessons he was beginning to apply some innovative approaches in the use of the device, such as exporting Smart Notebook lessons as a series of images. He would then sync these to the devices so that the learners had their own sets of digital notes that they could refer to at any time. These notes included learning intentions, success criteria and word banks. He noted that the learners in his class appeared to readily and easily accommodate not having such material in paper form.

Fishermoss PS: Impact on learning with the iPod. Mr Barrow discusses the pilot’s impact on learning

Mr Barrow was of the opinion that devices such as the iPod Touch offered a lot in terms of enriching and extending learning and ensuring that the digital aspects of a high expectation culture could be addressed through the use of a range of apps and tools such as Augmented Reality, GPS, QR Codes and the range of tools that use still or video images. He was looking forward to bringing some of these tools in to his practice over the coming months.

1:1 deployment, Aberdeenshire, App purchase and management, Apple, Device management, Teacher

Fishermoss PS: iPod Touches in the P2/3 classroom

May 14, 2013 User deactivated Leave a comment

Fishermoss PS: iPod Touch in the P2/3 classroom

We met with Ashley Rennie who teaches P2/3 to ask her how her early experience in using the devices with her young learners had been. She explained that she was still very much finding her feet with the devices and with what they could do but at that stage she was allowing the children to have their iPod Touches at their desks all the time to use when they saw fit. A number of learning apps have been installed on the iPods and she was allowing the children to use them when they thought it would help them with their learning. Although she is allowing a degree of freedom of use of the devices she is using them in structured ways when carrying out tasks such as spelling and phonics work and she is differentiating her input at these times based on who she feels requires direct teaching and who is more capable of coping with increasing levels of independent learning.

Fishermoss PS: iPods in P.2/3 Interview with Mrs Rennie about her involvement with the iPod pilot

Mrs Rennie remarked that simple things such as the World Clock on the iPods had created a real sense of enquiry and that it had stirred her learners curiosity about the wider world at large. As a result of a most probably overlooked facility in the iPod Touch the class have been motivated to explore areas of the world where they have visited and where they can see that the time is currently different from that in Scotland.

Technical challenges

Mrs Rennie told us that there has been some issues with the management of the iPod Touches in the early stages but that she did manage to take responsibility for ensuring that all the devices for her children had been synced and that all necessary apps had been installed. She felt that this was a challenge but that once it was done it was done and she could carry on with looking at how to use the devices in her practice. One problem that she did identify as an issue for her was the fact that the iPods could not play Flash games or resources that she felt were appropriate for her learners.

Fishermoss PS: Technical challenges with the iPod Touch Mrs Rennie discusses some of the technical challenges of the iPod pilot

Aberdeenshire, Android, Learner

Mearns Academy: The learners’ perspective

April 15, 2013 User deactivated Leave a comment

At the time we visited Mr Fleming’s S6 class he was in the process of teaching them about the past three Prime Ministers of the UK. The Android tablets had been booked out for this lesson and they were being used to access the relevant pages of a website their teacher had created.

We interrupted Mathew and Helena to get their initial perspectives on what having access to the Android tablets meant for them. Mathew felt that:

it was great to have a device that let you immediately access current information and not just have access to a textbook that might be out of date
the touch screen and the immediacy of the tablet device was really appealing and that this was much better than the access to computers was before the pilot.

Mathew acknowledged that the pilot was still in its early days and that they had been mostly been using the browser up until now. He was aware that there were subject-specific apps that could be used to support his learning but he felt that the school’s start with the pilot was a good one. Interestingly, Mathew was of the opinion that in school he still preferred using paper and pencil to help him learn to the digital surfaces and tools that were becoming more and more prevalent!

Mearns Academy: S.6 Mathew Interview with Mathew from S.6 at Mearns Academy

Helena was also happy to be involved with the pilot and she felt that having access to such a flexible tool and not being stuck at a desktop was a good experience as a learner.

She too acknowledged that the pilot was in its early stages but she looked forward to having access to a device where she could save her own stuff and have all her material in the one digital place.

Mearns Academy: S6 Helena Interview with Helena from S.6 at Mearns Academy.