Handheld Learning 2009

I have been lucky enough to be a Head teacher for 7 years; 18 months ago I moved to Normanby. I might be wrong in how I am working to develop my Schools curriculum, the talents of my Staff and the resources we offer- but we are seeing motivation, attendance and results rise. I am inspired every day I come to work, and am honoured to be nominated.

At both my Schools we invested in ICT (lots of it! – Wii’s, DS’s, netbooks, Wifi, laptops and 3G PDAs), yet I definitely don’t want to lead an organisation that only ‘does’ computers – nor one that only excels in arts or music or even hard sums!

Pupils respect the trust we place in them: in return take care of their various technologies, both in and out of school. I want to match and exceed their experiences at home, providing a safe, challenging and caring framework for them to take control of their own learning through discussion, experimentation and reflection.

Our strength is listening to the pupils, and their families (or carers), building a school that meets their needs and desires. Therefore the pupils help select Staff, complete my Performance Management and attend conferences alongside teachers. We are building a personalised curriculum and what could be better support for learners than a digital repository and research assistant that’s yours, in your pocket for you to use when you want?

www.northerngrid.org/normanby_innovation/

We were fed up with ICT projects. No, really we were.

We had quickly discovered that they were the best way yet invented to make a huge hole in your school budget. But like most Schools we hadn’t acted on this realisation; we just kept spending!

We did not initially decide to do a ‘PDA’ project. Three months into a review of our curriculum by staff and children we identified that ICT could allow us to personalise the curriculum and enable the children to take control of their learning.

Our children are now mobile learners. They learn at school, at home, at Grandma’s, at the childminder’s, often unsupervised and unsupported. Filtered 24/7 connectivity allows them to enter their virtual classroom, accessing resources from their teachers and support from their peers. They have the freedom to explore, create, harvest information, collaborate… essentially independent learners. In control of their learning, the balance of power in the classroom (virtual and real) has changed. And because this change came from a curriculum review, focused on personalising children’s learning, the teachers have embraced it; they actually have greater freedom to target support and challenge where it is needed.

The children and staff are not learning “stuff”, they are developing as discerning 21st Century life long learners.

Fed up with ICT? Us? No way!

www.northerngrid.org/normanby_innovation/

I have been ILT Co-ordinator at Ashton 6th Form College for five years. During that time we have gone from having very little technology in teaching and learning to now having mobile technology embedded into the curriculum.

In March 2008 we received funding through the Learning for Living and Work scheme and bought PDAs to be used with students with specific learning difficulties and vocational students. These had a big impact on the students, particularly those with learning difficulties because they enabled them to work anywhere, anytime with an unexpected improvement in self esteem because the students felt valued.

We submitted a successful bid for MoLeNET 2 and introduced a range of technologies including Nintendo DS, mobile phones, iPods, iPhones, Flip video cameras and voice recorders. Students on a Public Services course now use XDA Mantles with Wild Knowledge software for orienteering and other outdoor activities. Pod and vodcasting are used to record student activities and demonstrations by teachers so that students can view them at any time. Nintendo DS have been used to raise literacy and numeracy levels for Level 1 students and to improve memory with students with specific learning difficulties. Other students have used iPhones with Apps such as Skype and Tweetie to learn about different forms of communication. Groups using mobile technology have shown improved achievement. We are now preparing another MoLeNET bid with a partner college to explore other methods of mobile learning.

With oral language fluency of the utmost importance to secondary language acquisition, Learnosity Voice focusses on verbal abilities, allowing students to use any phone to dial into a voice application, and answer a series of voice-based questions. It also enables students to communicate one-to-one in real time, allowing them to use the target language in role-plays based on real life scenarios.

Learnosity Voice allows students use their own mobiles to access the application. We chose to use mobile phones for the following reasons:

• Phones are built for speaking and listening.
• There is no learning curve, technical support, installation etc. It just works.
• Almost every single student will already have a mobile phone.

Students then use a computer or iPod Touch to get teacher feedback on their answers and listen to sample answers.

 

This mobile language learning platform has been deployed projects in the UK, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, USA and Australia. Notably, it has been deployed in a large scale pilot project conducted by the Australian government, in the teaching and learning of the Indonesian language across three Australian states. Students involved in this project showed significant improvements in spoken language abilities. For more information: http://bit.ly/tlf-mall

www.learnosity.com/go/products/voice

I’ve always been fascinated by technology and began my early teaching career as an ILT Coordinator in the days of Acorn Archimedes and super market vouchers to buy them (well, every little helps).

Since then technology has become far more sophisticated and I am as keen as ever to find new and different ways of using technology to improve learning and make it as interesting and as enjoyable as it can possibly be.

Over the last two years we have been involved in MoLeNET with 600 apprentices, work based learners full-time students and 14-16 children from local secondary schools. It involved using handheld technologies such as UMPCs, headcams, Nintendos and Classmate Readers.

As evidenced by the tutors interviewed for LSN’s ‘Harnessing Technology’ video the outcomes have been very impressive as teachers report improvements in the quality of coursework by hairdressing apprentices, speedier completion rates and improved attendance and behaviour of young people at risk of becoming NEET. Students are supporting each other, downloading and listening to e-books and working with greater independence than ever before.

Contributing in a small way to the future shape of teaching and learning is hugely satisfying and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with such willing and enthusiastic teachers and learners.

www.moletv.org.uk/Watch.aspx?v=M2ELG

Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings (ALPS)is an ambitious, collaborative programme involving five universities, 16 health and social care professions, the NHS, the Strategic Health Authority and commercial partners (ecommnet, MyKnowledgeMap and T-Mobile).

ALPS’ has provided over 900 students with secure access to IT systems and network coverage via a mobile device for work-based learning. These students can create and securely store work whilst away from the university, as well as keeping in touch with academic tutors and peers.

Through the ALPS Assessment Suite tutors send assessments to students’ mobile devices. The completed assessments automatically synchronise with the ALPS e-portfolio where tutors respond with timely feedback and support helping to identify struggling students earlier.

Tutors have also provided mobilised learning material such as instructional videos, PowerPoint presentations, guides and quizzes for immediate, pocket-sized support in high pressure learning scenarios. Alongside the ALPS provided tools the students can access email, the internet and create videos, photos and audio recordings.

Going mobile allowed us to support students on placement where there is often no access to PCs or the internet, allowing them to feel connected in what can be a lonely and challenging environment. The portability of mobiles also gets students recording immediate observations and reflecting on their work experience as and when they are going through processes or assessments, strengthening the quality of placement learning.

www.alps-cetl.ac.uk

Karen, known as KC to colleagues and students, is a dynamic special needs practitioner in the area of information technology. Her can-do approach to learning, enables students with a wide range of learning disabilities to access the curriculum according to their needs and ensures that they are fully included in learning.

KC’s insatiable appetite for her own learning and development is willing shared with colleagues so that the whole college develops as an inclusive learning community. Recent research and application has included, developing communication with students on the Autistic spectrum by using accessories and avatars, webcams and range of hand-held digital technology. This innovative work, recognised in 2009 Becta Next Generation award for Furthering My Learning has raised great interest across sector as well as further a field within the international arena. ICT has facilitated learning across the curriculum; enabling individual students differentiated access to learning where little progress was made previously.

KC’s determination and skill has resulted in her work being chosen as an Inclusion and Accessibility Showcase Project by LSIS eCPD programme.

Her vision is that Information Technology is a major key to in individualising learning for students and enabling them to further their journey to a full and integrated life.

www.youtube.com/oakwoodcourtcollege

CapturaTalkis the UK's first mobile phone software to convert text-to-speech from a digital photograph. Designed with dyslexia and literacy problems in mind, CapturaTalk v2offers a discrete, portable solution to recognise and speak text photographed on a Windows Mobile phone. CapturaTalk v2 delivers high-quality text-to-speech and dictionary support for Pocket Word, Notes and Tasks, SMS, e-mail and Pocket Internet Explorer applications, aiding understanding and learning ‘anytime anywhere’. Perfect for accessing information on the move, the software scans a photograph, recognises text and reads the information aloud (or discreetly via a Bluetooth earpiece). Completely redesigned, the software is available as a stand-alone download compatible with a range of Windows Mobile 5 & 6 touch-screen devices. Created by Mobispeech Ltd (a joint venture between iansyst Ltd and Raspberry Software Ltd), the software is fully integrated with the Concise Oxford English Dictionary.

CapturaTalk supports students in accessing all areas of the curriculum; designed specifically to support literacy and language skills, especially useful for students with dyslexia, other learning difficulties or for non-native English speakers..

CapturaTalk is being used across a wide age range, in an education environment, from Year Seven (age 11) up to students in further/higher education and even by adults in the workplace as part of lifelong learning.

www.capturatalk.com

Problem Statement: Feedback forms a critical component of a learning system, however evaluating on continual basis has been a hindrance, due to various reason like
- Time consumed to conduct & evaluate tests.
- For computer-based tests, computer per trainee is not always feasible.
- Incase of paper based test, analysis is limited to human analysis.

Solution:
Drona is designed to solve the above problem for learning and training industry.
It provides a complete platform for creation, distribution and analysis of tests. The tests created will be distributed to all participants in the same class on their mobile handsets.

On completion of test, results are posted back to Drona to provide analysis of score, time-taken, relative performance, etc.

Benefits:
• Enables trainers to conduct conceptual test at end of every session.
• Provides trainers with more information on performance to make better decisions.
• Same test can work on variety of handsets like Blackberry, Windows and Java enabled phones.
• Provides a capability to create tests and collate results in time effective manner with minimum infrastructure.
• Requires no technical know-how.

Features:
• Simple UI
• Easy to use.
• Supports audio-video, images.
• Analysis for trainees, trainers & management

www.deltecs.com/mobileAuthoring.html

I am a Year 6 Teacher, ICT coordinator at Oakdale Junior School. Ten months ago, we purchased a class set of DS consoles, after previously trialling a set that were on loan from the borough. We use the 30 consoles across 350 children, aged 7-11, with every class having a timetabled session daily. Using Brain Training, the children use the consoles to improve and consolidate their mental maths skills. We have extended the use of the consoles to include pictochat to write collaboratively, we use them as a way to promote positive behaviour and for cross-curricular projects using Professor Layton. This year we are part of a small network in the borough using the Wii to enhance writing in the curriculum, and within the school we are exploring the benefit of using the Wii fit to improve control, co-ordination and balance for children with dyspraxia.

For me the last year has been an amazing experience, I had not used hand held devices either at home or in school, now I can’t imagine not using them! The benefits that they bring to the classroom are huge and the use of hand held consoles extends and enhances the curriculum and I have been lucky enough to share our work with colleagues at last year’s HHL and GBL conference as well as conferences held in Luton, Oxford and Cardiff.

www.teachers.tv/video/37337 link to Teacher s TV programme to be shown September 16th
oakdalejuniorschool.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html school blog