ICT | Inveralmond CHS Professional Learning Blog

From February to October this year, I worked on a Practitioner Enquiry into my own classroom teaching. This course was organised by the West Lothian EIS Learning Reps, in partnership with West Lothian Council, and carried an award of Professional Recognition from the GTCS.

The course was taught by Dr Gillian Robinson from the University of Edinburgh and focused on renewing teachers’ thinking about theories of learning and modelled the process of practitioner enquiry. Throughout the course I was mentored by West Lothian teachers who are former participants and Chartered Teachers. As part of my final assessment, I shared my findings by way of a presentation to peers on the course as well as practitioners from across the country.

My enquiry was on the use of technology in the classroom, specifically on how to use it in a more meaningful way than I believe is common at the moment. The process of carrying out this activity led me to expand and alter my pedagogies and practice, as well as sharing a number of new ideas with colleagues. My presentation powerpoint can be found at the link below.

Here: mackenzie ICT presentation October 2015

Steven MacKenzie

A really useful CPD course involving professional dialogue about the success and challenges of using digital learning in the classroom. Delegates also had the opportunity to learn digital learning skills by attending practical workshops. Below I will share some of the highlights of the day and their impact on practice.

“Reconnecting with Glow”

One of the key messages of the day was the potential Glow 365 has for improving learning and teaching. The collaborative functions and cloud storage space can be used to create online learning environments and move away from the iPad/AAL as a “thing to google things” and instead to access course materials and carry out learning and homework.
OneNote in particular is being used to create digital textbooks, track students’ learning, collect and store evidence of unit outcomes and learn collaboratively.
http://onenoteforteachers.com/

“Kahoot”

I attended a workshop on using Kahoot to create and play quizzes on any device. I had used similar things before but this site allows the students’ responses to questions to be exported to a spreadsheet to identify areas the class are weak on. AiFL takes place and students’ can rate their understanding of topics and enjoyment of the game at the end.
https://getkahoot.com/

I have already used this with my Nationals and Higher as part of their revision which went down very well (see below)

Over the next 3 months I will be carrying out a practitioner enquiry, and hopefully implementing some of the ideas and practices I encountered. In particular I will try to explore OneNote and the other apps available through Glow to enhance learning and teaching.

S.MacKenzie