TheiPad 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.
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.
TheiPad 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 Miss Norrie (art and design teacher), who talked with us about her experience in using the iPads with her learners. She thought that having the devices available meant that her learners had greater to access to digital media in art and design classes and broadened their experience of using different media to create art. She also liked the fact that the iPad had everything contained within one unit, which meant that learners could search the web for images by and information about artists such as David Hockney and then move straight to an app that would allow them to create work themselves.
Miss Norrie also felt that by having the iPads mirror to a presentation screen via Apple TV was of great benefit, as was functionality which allowed lessons learned or techniques mastered to be shared wirelessly by any learner during the course of a lesson. Although the pilot was in its early stages, she felt that she was seeing a more open and collaborative culture in her classroom.
One criticism that she had of the device was that the contact point of the stylus that can be used to draw or paint on the iPad was too thick, compromising the learners ability to create fine detail in their work.
Garageband being used to help learners compose their music
TheiPad 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 Barrie Drennan (music teacher) who explained to us how he and his colleagues had planned to use the iPads in their subject area.
The S1 classes were due to be involved in inter-disciplinary learning activities that were going to involve the use of movie making and audio recording. It was expected that learners would create sound effects and soundtracks in Garageband and import them into their movies.
The S3 classes were going to look at the composition aspect of the new Music and Technology Qualification and look at creating loops from the existing bank of samples within Garageband. They would then move on to recording their own material, which could be used with the samples already available on the device.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
At Preston Lodge HS in East Lothian you will see a progressive yet considered approach to ensuring that the digital world is used to best effect to ensure better outcomes for learners. This can be seen in the way that the school is developing a learning culture with independent learning at its heart. Calum Stewart (depute head) explained to us that there had been a focus on developing their learning to learn programme in order to help nurture learning attributes such as learner resilience, resourcefulness, responsibility, reasoning and reflection. He explained that such approaches were designed to help all learners and educators reflect on the idea that learning was not just about knowing content but equally about learning how to learn.
This focus on learning to learn has been embraced by many of the learners at the school and none more so than the head boy Jamie Halvorson. We were keen to chat with him about how he and his peers had begun to use Twitter to help build a pupil learning community but we found out that he had left the building and was heading home. The DHT sent him a Direct Message (DM) on Twitter and asked if he wouldn’t mind returning to speak with us. The message was received and Jamie duly returned in order to meet with us!
Jamie explained to us that he thought Twitter was a very powerful tool to help support the learning culture in a school and so he and his peers decided to come up with a mechanism by which learners throughout Scotland and beyond could share their perspectives on their experience of school. He wanted the pupil voice to be heard and for it to give formative feedback to school about what was working, what was good, how things could be improved and how learning could be widened and shared, but fundamentally he wanted to ensure that such a mechanism could help ensure that:
…all pupils benefit from the system (school) as much as possible.
Inspired by the #pedagoofriday hashtag used by many teachers in Twitter he decided to begin a #pupilfriday hashtag. This means that learners who have Twitter accounts can Tweet a comment about school on a Friday and include the #pupilfriday hashtag. This allows all the comments to be pulled together so that anyone who wanted to follow this thread of discussion could easily to do that by filtering for this phrase in Twitter.
Jamie told us that the response by pupils had been immense and that there had been no evidence of abuse of the hashtag. He was also delighted to see that other schools in Scotland were contributing to the growth and life of this particular digital learning community.
It was clear that the school’s focus on developing a thriving and contemporary learning culture had an effect on Jamie because he stated that he and his peers wanted to use these tools and exploit them in order to change the way we learn. He said that school had to be more about learning and not about getting an A in your exam. He felt that once this was achieved there was nothing beyond that – that you don’t develop your learning anymore. He agreed that the continued updating of the Neil Takes on Science site that he and his peers jointly created was an example of how they have continued to learn beyond success in exams.
School needs to be about more than just getting an A in your exam.
Social media and their potential to support and enrich learning are tools that schools across Scotland are exploring. There are undoubted issues and challenges for us to consider in relation to how misuse and abuse of such well-intentioned channels can possibly derail the vision that schools may have for the development of a digital learning culture, but what we can learn from Preston Lodge HS is that a cohesive, committed and considered strategy that embeds digital tools at the heart of learning can help nurture and grow a thriving learning culture inside and outside of school.
Preston Lodge HS: Instant access to the internet and web tools
Preston Lodge HS has worked hard to implement a series of initiatives that are focused on the development and growth of a rich learning culture in the school. Calum Stewart (depute head) explained to us that there had been a focus on developing their learning to learn programme in order to help nurture learning attributes such as learner resilience, resourcefulness, responsibility, reasoning and reflection. He explained that such approaches were designed to help all learners and educators reflect on the idea that learning was not just about knowing content but equally about learning how to learn. With the advent of pupil-led learning spaces at the school, such as Neil takes on Science, Mr Stewart remarked that he was not sure what the main driver was that had led to this; whether it was the devices that were enabling access to the weband dynamic web tools, whether it was the learning culture they were looking to nurture and grow or whether the changing nature of their courses were becoming more appealing to learners. Nonetheless, he was sure that he was seeing positive change in attitudes to learning in the school and thought that all these factors were helping to effect change.
Mr Stewart was keen to stress that the culture in relation to the use of devices was one that was not looking to fixate on a particular device. The learning culture that was being grown would thrive no matter what device was being used and the possibility of having an open network to enable a BYOD (bring your own device) option for his learners was one that he very much looks forward to.
Finally, Mr Stewart commented on the need for learning to be open to change and particularly so when digital technology is misused by learners. Although there had not been any incidents of note in relation to this he believed that if there were the school should not react in a way that might lead to the closing off or shutting down of new ideas and methodologies. He stressed that managing perceived and actual risks with effective planning and carefully considered responses to any challenges that arise is the best approach to help us take learning forward.
One of the class teachers at Preston Lodge HS who has been working with the Chromebook pilot is Feargal Kelly (biology). We took time out of his busy schedule to discuss with him what he thought he was seeing in terms of the impact on learning and teaching in his classroom as a result of his involvement with the Chromebook pilot. He talked about how having access to a web-enabled device that connected to the internet very quickly has changed things for him. Initially Mr Kelly used the device to help the learners in his class plan for their own learning but he felt that this approach was becoming too device centric, so now he has developed an approach that encourages the learners to dip in and out of using the device when it is required.
Mr Kelly discusses how an open network enabled him to develop a culture of appropriate use and behaviour when accessing collaborative tools. He gave us some examples of minor misuse and he talked about the ways in which he addressed these and held conversations with his learners about appropriateness. He believes that these learning conversations happened because nothing was blocked on the open network that they were using.The issue of blocking sites and access to effective learning tools is detrimental to the development of successful learner and responsible citizen aspects of Curriculum for Excellence and that if we are really in the business of educating young people then we should be having conversations to educate them.
Mr Kelly also discussed how the learners he works with have embraced the freedom to write for the web – a freedom that appears to have been enabled by the Chromebooks, the open network and the learning culture and climate that he has established with his learners. He gave the example of the Neil takes on Science work created by some of his learners and how Biology was no longer just learning facts or passing an exam, but how it had become a much wider learning experience, one that they owned and were intrinsically motivated by. It was also felt by those learners that they knew their science better as a result of creating the Neil takes on Science site because they had to think how best to convey their learning so that others could learn from the materials they authored and published.
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