The e-moderating aspects of Salmon’s 5 stage framework are:
Step 1 Access and Motivation: Welcoming and encouraging
Step 2 Online socialisation: Familiarising and providing bridges
Step 3 Information Exchange: Facilitating tasks and supporting use of learning materials
Step 4 Knowledge Construction: Facilitating process
Step 5 Development: Supporting, responding
The gist with Salmon’s 5 stage framework is that it is a scaffold for learning new online disciplines. As a teacher, I cannot expect a pupil to just pick up some software and be able to use it. This may seem a little surprising since (given access) children could be learning from a young age how to use all this technology for themselves simply by doing just that, trial and error through exploratory play.
If, however, you provide an e-learning resource such as the ones we are developing in Google Classroom, you must ensure that they are able to access and use it in the way that you intend them to, otherwise the learning may miss its target.
To that end, step one, Salmon says, requires the teacher as an e-moderator, to ensure that any new ICT experience is welcoming and encouraging. There is nothing worse than a scary piece of computer software (have you seen WarGames?). For our own e-resource, we will provide stimulating audio and video so that children can easily access the material contained in our activities.
Step 2 suggests adding social and cultural elements to the resource in order to provide bridges between learning environments. Our is a Reading Club so the things they learn in other lessons, particularly Literacy, will be of value in using the e-resource. Allowing them to use this learning in a social way in the e-resource is almost passive in that merely talking with their friends or classmates about things they are interested in cements their understanding of said things.
Step 3 is all about supporting children through their use of the learning materials presented. The instructions (text, audio or video) we display before each activity go some way to providing support. But before the children even get to that, they need to be guided through using the actual platform and have an activity modelled to them.
Step 4 is further social collaboration in groups to work through such tasks. Our e-resource can be tailored to provide such experiences and encourages pupils to talk and work together through some activities.
Step 5 allows the e-moderator to encourage participants to “look for more benefits from the system to help them achieve personal goals and reflect on the learning processes”. Following the use of our e-resource, in particular, we hope a teacher could assess pupil’s ability to self-learn, reflect and adapt their own learning.
We had a very good presentation and discussion from Darren Savage (Joint Head of Strategy at Publicis London) on the future of the web. It featured many interesting things about where the web could be taken in the future from smart textiles to wearables. For an education purpose, I liked the sound of estimotes or BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) beacons.
These are plastic bluetooth stickers that can broadcast information to devices either over long or short range.
In a school this could be very short so that different areas or learning zones of the classroom can receive different information enabling a differentiation for pupils. Using the tablets that the school (may/should) already have, pupils can connect to these beacons and receive specific, custom information directly. This could be primary or secondary sources for history and geography, mathematical measurements of the area or the next part of a story.
An interesting possibility could be to enable EAL pupils to translate the information instantly using their device, thereby instantly differentiating it for them. Other struggling groups can benefit from audio, video and the interactivity that comes with using the device.
Some hiccups: you need bluetooth, it will take a lot of setting up and can be potentially intrusive since it pushes information to any mobile devices within range. The biggest problem however is that you need to have a bespoke app created in order to use them so unless an education or school app has been or can be created, this may not be the product for you.
However, what this does do is give me hope for a more connected school. Much emphasis these days have been placed on the “connected home”, light switches, heating, voice activation and more are now readily available. I’m sure it won’t be long before we start to see more forward-thinking schools adopting this technology for educational purposes………
AHA!
It seems a quick Google discovers people who have obviously been trying to get this going for years. BREAKING NEWS: I did not just come up with this idea.
First of all, Samsung (at the forefront of Internet of Things….er…..things) have their own case study, check this out:
Pretty cool. Using their Galaxy Note device, they encourage ‘Interactive Teaching’ via screen sharing, screen monitoring, lock and auto launch, group activities and more.
I’m getting off topic now but THIS and THIS article are very interesting reads to get an idea of the kinds of things that could be coming!
Based on the e-safety presentations that I have already seen, I believe an effective one should have the following elements:
An e-safety subject
Fun characters (animals, children or adults with interesting personalities)
Discussion prompts based on right and wrong decisions
Songs or videos
Ways of remembering advice, mnemonics, poems, rhymes
Repetition of the above to cement knowledge
Role-play, reconstruction of decision-making scenes
Age-appropriate story anyone can relate to
Clear message
The target audience for these criteria could actually be anyone, adults respond to interesting characters, poems and songs just as well as children. Obviously, they would have to be varied depending on the age of the subjects you are presenting to, be it EYFS, KS1, KS2, secondary or adult.
I will attempt to plan one here using the above criteria.
E-Safety subject
Cyber-bullying. Children in year 5 and 6 are starting to interact more and more with each other and the outside world online so in primary school, KS2 could be where cyber-bullying is most prominent. This will be my focus. I would need to describe what cyber-bullying is, how it can affect children, how you can be mindful of it and what you should do if you experience it.
Fun characters
Given the option, I would choose similar aged children for this rather than animals or cartoons so that the pupils can relate to them and more easily engage with discussion.
Discussion prompts
From my experience teaching literally any other subject or lesson, engaging discussion prompts always trigger pupils curiosity and motivation enabling them to be proactive in the lesson. For this, they could be questions with right and wrong answers or no answers at all if you want your students to challenge themselves or elicit their responses. They could be statements (I have found that something they will disagree with creates the most arguments)
Examples: Would you take someone else’s files or work online without asking? Would you log into someone else’s account and ruin or delete their work? Would you make fun of comments, pictures or send hurtful or threatening messages over the internet? I think it is okay to post embarrassing photos of my friends.
Role-play
Definitely something I have found to motivate children especially in a debate type context is role-play. Putting the children in the scenario, allowing them to act and get out of their chairs is a powerful tool and any lessons I’ve used it in have been quite successful. Using the above prompts, one child can be on one side of the debate and one on the other. During a presentation, I would allow a certain amount of time for pairs or groups to participate in something like this to apply the knowledge I have taught them and also to break up the amount of time I spend talking!
kidSMART (now Childnet) is an e-safety website with comprehensive resources for children, parents and teachers to use to keep informed and spread the message of staying safe online.
For children there are cartoons / animations with friendly characters in different online scenarios, activities, movies, games, quizzes and advice all age-appropriate up to secondary school.
This powerpoint features the colourful and naive Smartie the Penguin being given his first tablet, a story for EYFS children to follow and make decisions throughout. It’s very simple to follow, relates to children of this age and has plenty of interactive elements, questions, discussion prompts and even songs. EYFS children should find it engaging and playful and teachers should find that it makes important e-safety points effectively. Personally, having only taught in Key Stage 2, I am not currently confident teaching e-safety at this young age. However, because of resources such as this, I feel that my future practice will definitely take advantage of what is available here.
For parents, there are links to helpful guides on all varieties of technology their children might be using. For teachers, there are further lesson plans for pupils from EYFS to KS2 and you can book an expert to come into your school. It has SEND versions of cartoons / animations with subtitles, BSL signing and symbol-based resources as well as translation into other languages for EAL.
Like I said, comprehensive. And free. I cannot think of a reason why you would not use this site when teaching e-safety. Everything has been thought of and done for you. I will 100% use this site when preparing to teach e-safety regardless of year group or special provision. The importance of the issues presented cannot be understated, e-safety is paramount, much more so than when I was at school, and yet, the website showcases them in an entirely not patronising manner. They seem to know that people visiting this site may not be very confident in using technology, be they kids, teachers or parents. I have met people from all three groups that would confess to this. I myself would say that my subject knowledge in this area is lacking with regards to the specifics of e-safety and I’m sure there would be things I would forget and leave out. Luckily, now I have Childnet.
Childnet feels like a community, friendly and helpful. There are numerous ways in which children can get involved with the wider community here too (competitions, digital leaders, presentations during assembly). Dare I say, it makes e-safety one thing it could so easily not be, FUN. It makes it fun and accessible, encouraging all to participate in creative and constructive ways.
There are alternatives, the NSPCC has their own site with a few good teacher resources but is less for kids themselves. Kidpower seems especially proactive in all manner of child protection but is American and not free. Safety net Kids has useful bullet points for how to stay safe but not much more. A strong competitor (perhaps the wrong word, partner) is CEOP’s own ThinkUKnow which has similarly comprehensive age-appropriate content and more for parents and teachers. Between these this and Childnet, I feel quite confident that I have a treasure trove of useful and effective resources to teach e-safety to any age-group.
Formative as a tool is very useful, fun, interactive etc. I felt like it was very easy to present what it does since it is simple to use and create content for. I did not really leave enough time for questions at the end, in fact, barely got through everything that Formative has to offer but we had some good discussion about the kinds of suitable content and activities that we can put on there. Going forward I’d like to find out how it could be made more collaborative and creative for children. Creating their own content and completing tasks together are powerful learning endeavours which would be beneficial to add to Formative’s already capable repertoire.
Buckingham (2007) describes the BETT fair as an “educational-technological complex” and as an “alliance between public and private interests” taking a largely critical view of the technology contained within. Written of the 2006 fair, he questions how “genuinely innovative” a lot of the products at the fair are, calling some of them “only superficially different to their non-technological counterparts”. Furthermore, Buckingham muses that much of the educational content contained within these products is merely a repackaging of the curriculum.
From my perspective, it seems as though a lot of this is still true. I visited BETT in January 2017, seen here transforming education:
and here in glorious high definition, some very interesting products on show:
The fair itself sounds similar in set up to 2006: a huge, sprawling education technology extravaganza full of marketing opportunities and free pens. It was a lot to take in at first and navigating the crowd is slow going. Choosing which products to pay interest to was difficult even as a student teacher. Luckily, most booths pay little attention to you once they find this out, making it easier to move freely! To visit while representing a school, more importantly a school’s ICT budget, would be a lot more exhausting, I fear, but as someone carrying the intention to bare this responsibility in the future, I walked sceptically but with a keen interest in the potential technological experiences available.
A big however, however, Buckingham’s experiences are from over 10 years ago. The technology available has changed dramatically since then. The booths present in 2017 touted alternate / virtual realities, faster, more accurate touchscreens, panoramic interactive whiteboards, 3D projection, child-friendly programming software and robotics, with many championing years of educational research as evidence of their products worth. Buckingham argued that the technology he witnessed, in and of itself, may not be enough of a motivator with limited actual learning taking place but I would oppose this by saying that some of the hardware on offer here was very impressive and any children present seemed to be having quite positive experiences to say the least. For example, Lego Education’s behemoth of a booth showcased their latest products that realise an effective combination of simple programming, robotics and Lego that children can engage and have fun with while learning basic computing skills.
It should be said that technological advances do not necessarily equate to better learning, certainly several of the observable virtual reality worlds created were merely what one might call “interactive worksheets”. Via headsets such as Samsung Gear VR (which uses your smartphone as a screen), the Oculus Rift and others, you simply move a cursor, looking at a particular area of your surroundings to select the correct answer of a multiple choice question. It is a 3D environment restricted by a 2D plane. I cannot help but think that this software is capable of dreaming a little bigger. Imagine a program that allowed pupils to really experience historical events, the extinction of the dinosaurs, the eruption of Mt Vesuvius, the Battle of Hastings, geographical marvels, mathematical discoveries or distant planets. Maybe we are some years off a fully interactive virtual environment, malleable to our every educational whim but it is exciting to hope that this may be available in mainstream schools in the future and it certainly appears as if that is where we are heading.
Hey wait! Here is a great article on the benefits and barriers facing VR in schools from this year (click the pic):
It features pretty comprehensive information and advice on a variety of different VR technologies from Sevenoaks School in England. The most interesting section to me was actually incorporating it into lessons, the writer highlights that we are “moving away from simply ‘learning’ a subject or topic to ‘feeling’ the content.” I think this is a very important point. Traditionally, in order to achieve this level of immersion in educational content you might have to go on school trips or settle for props / objects brought into school. Like no other time in education, practitioners have the ability to “allow a student to explore, to experience or to be involved in something, as if they are actually present in that environment or place.”
Aaaaaand here’s a possibility you could explore, depending on your budget:
Filled with custom curriculum content (over 500 resources it says) from natural disasters to historical events to….hold up, it’s almost as if they just read my last paragraph and created this thing exactly….weird. It’s certainly not cheap (£2000 for 8 headsets and the content is subscription!) but comes with full training, free demos and lesson plans. Expect more companies like this to pop up over the next few years. Further excitement.
Another important note is that, since Buckingham went, the National Curriculum has been updated significantly in ICT, embracing computing in a huge way. The products available to encourage and develop children in this area are plentiful. A brief account of last year’s BETT by Tim Head (here) describes the positive direction we are going in as practitioners of ICT education. Products such as the microbit, Raspberry Pi and various Bluetooth controlled bots (check this video out, further excitement!)
are becoming more innovative, cheaper, more beneficial to pupils with each passing year. I agree with Tim that it is a very exciting time for computing and education.
Stepping back and looking at BETT critically, it is hard to argue with: “The line that separates benevolent, authentic concern for student learning enrichment from self-interested entrepreneurship is difficult to ascertain (Daniel Menchik, 2004 in Buckingham, 2007). The market here is obviously very lucrative, questionable educational benefits blot the landscape and I imagine a cautious primary teacher would have their work cut out to find a convincingly effective educational needle in the BETT haystack. However, my experience was mostly positive and one I hope to repeat in a more professional capacity in the future simply because the technology is so exciting.
I feel that BETT 2017 may well have attempted, with some success, to alleviate some of Buckingham’s earlier concerns and moved “discussion forwards beyond superficial fascination with technology for its own sake and towards a more critical engagement with questions of learning, communication and culture.” For all the brash marketing and overwhelming hanger environment, the innovation, imagination and sheer fun of it all is undeniable. I greatly anticipate my future as an ICT teacher!
In December, we went to Rutherford House School in Balham to showcase our early Google Classroom e-resource efforts and use the feedback to improve them.
Our e-learning resource is a Reading Club with activities based on The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. We have activities ranging from creating a new cover to filling in the blanks to drawing their own Gruffalo. We described the platform and our activities as best we could and were able to get some good feedback from the teachers of Rutherford House.
They highlighted that videos and audio of teaching / instructions were a very good idea since this is the usual way that students will access learning and activities. To that end, I feel that we should incorporate these throughout the resource. They also said that having embedded videos alleviates any need to browse the potentially age-inappropriate content of Youtube and similar. Potential future activities could include watching multiple videos and comparing. However, they did also mirror one of our concerns with the platform, creating new video resources for each activity takes time.
The teachers also noted that modelling and or WAGOLLs (What A Good One Looks Like) attached to each one will ensure that all children know exactly what they should be doing. There is the option for children to ask questions via Google Classroom, however, it may not be the quickest or most effective way of ensuring all children know what they need to do to accomplish the task. The best way would be to preclude any questions with significant initial guidance for completing the task, perhaps our own Q+As.
They were also able to confirm another of our fears with a platform as complicated as Google Classroom. Some pupils are so used to using iPads and tablets that they currently lack the necessary skills to effectively use word processors, online document creators, etc. We aim to somewhat aid this by making the activities themselves as interactive as possible, with lots to watch and click on in order to encourage curiosity and enable children the practice of using the platform.
“A digital badge is a validated indicator of accomplishment, skill, quality, or interest that can be earned in many learning environments.” (hastac.org/initiatives/digital-badges). They are similar to scout badges where you would earn a badge for a particular achievement. Examples could include running a marathon, swimming 100m, completing an online programming tutorial, learning chords on guitar. These badges / achievements can then be visible to employers, parents or friends.
There was a limited selection of companies that had their own badges (BASNO, HASTAC) until Mozilla Open Badges came along in 2011 providing a platform allowing anyone to create their own. According to openbadges.org, there are over 3000 companies using them.
A criticism I have is that many of these companies seem to have left their badges in 2015. Based on admittedly limited research, the notion does not seem to have taken off. I hadn’t heard of them before and I work in software development. I tried to find specific companies or schools that use them and came up short. Any sites that mention them did so several years ago. My worry is that anyone using this initiative, learning new skills and achieving badges over several years would attempt to share them with people that don’t know what they are so put no value in them. Sure, the skills themselves could come in handy but the badges could be worthless, an unrecognised achievement.
I believe the most obvious link to education is as a reward. Teachers are able to give their students badges for their school-based or community achievements. As an award scheme, they could work well, providing an incentive for children to attempt a variety of different things in order to show off their badges to classmates, friends or parents. Depending on the criteria of the badge, children would be encouraged to participate in independent, collaborative, social and / or community-based endeavours which could lead to a general motivation to becoming a successful independent learner.
A further criticism is to do with badges as a motivator themselves. Children, by their nature, have an intrinsic motivation to learn things they are interested in. These digital badges provide an extrinsic motivator that may be at odds with the learners own interests, possibly even promoting behaviour favourable to the badge issuer instead of the recipient.
Overall, I see digital badges as a good concept that never really took off. Like QR codes.
I would say that one of the key barriers preventing implementation of online learning communities in primary education is teacher subject knowledge in ICT. I have been on two placements now where the class teachers have not been experienced enough to teach the current National Curriculum, let alone set up an effective online learning platform.
I would say that overcoming this barrier is relatively easy, however, any of the freely available learning platforms come with tutorials enabling even the most hesitant technophobe to access them (Google Classroom). Some even provide demonstrations and bespoke training courses at your school (Frog). The barrier is, I believe, a personal reluctance to apply oneself into learning how to use new technology. The ones I’ve spoken to, the assumption that they aren’t good at or can’t do it and from very experienced teachers(!) is surprising. They must have forced themselves to learn subordinating conjunctions at some point (as I have recently), it’s no different to me.
Of course, there is always the “I don’t have time for that” which I suppose is valid excuse if you school has to devalue foundation subjects (as many do, particularly around Year 6 SATs time). The amount of time the pupils would have to use it, or rather, the amount of time the teacher is able to afford it can be a challenge to find. Luckily, as with anything, as you learn more and more software skills, the faster you get at learning newer skills. Both schools I have had placements in have had ICT once or twice a week (during SATs, not at all!), sometimes as a reward for completing work in other areas. While this was slightly disheartening, this encouraged the thought that even if a school decides to employ a particular (possibly expensive) learning platform, it could be money down the drain if the school doesn’t have a strong promotion of ICT. Giving time to use these platforms is essential if the numerous benefits are to be realised (see below). Furthermore, you would hope your system would become more efficient over time.
Benefits of online learning platforms:
Improved organisation of information and communication across the school
Parental involvement and supporting learning at home
Increased opportunities for independent and personalised learning
Enhancing the accessibility, quality, relevance and range of learning resources
Improved processes of monitoring and assessment for learning and teaching
Increased opportunities for collaborative learning and interaction
Enhancing digital literacy
Making best use of teachers’ time
Facilitating effective and strategic leadership and management of teaching
Supporting additional educational needs and inclusion
Improved management of student behaviour and attendance
Building the school identity and community
School use of learning platforms and associated technologies – London Knowledge Lab Institute of Education – University of London March 2010
Herein lies the enablers. Surely, a pursuit of positives such as these is a worthy one. Even something as simple as Planbook, which was only for teachers at my placement school, triggers several of the above benefits. It’s a great example of a learning community that allows teachers to see, on one page, all their lesson plans for the week, resources, differentiation, targets and assessment. With everyone using it, they are able to see what all other teachers have planned. With enough detail, any teacher could take over if one happened to be absent. I fully intend to encourage the use of this or similar sites in any school I happen to be in in the future. Planbook helps to distribute the learning efficiently and manages teachers time effectively which will filter down to the children but only indirectly. Children should 100% be part of their own learning community.
Heeeeere’s a good one on the definition and benefits of learning environments (click the pic to engage):
The writer opens with “Alearning communityis a group of people who share common academic goals and attitudes.” Hey, sounds like a classroom to me. Taking this online so that children can remain part of their community outside of school is, frankly, a no-brainer. It will aid the sense of belonging, promote collaboration between members and sharing of experiences which itself creates stronger trust bonds and the feeling of community. This bit is particularly The Good Stuff:
With these so obvious benefits, clear goals and zero discernible disadvantages, how can we as practitioners possibly achieve this? Where could we even start? If only there was a website with, like, 14 tips on building a thriving online community…..
What is clearly evident from the above articles is that online learning communities are significantly beneficial, successful, efficient and allow children to be part of greater experience during their time at school. Providing the initial, possibly time consuming, legwork has been done and (watch your feet on the sweeping generalisation) teachers get over their fears of technology, e-learning communities are quite worth it.
