Monthly Archives: October 2016

A learning community is a group of people who share common academic goals and attitudes. They are continually growing and becoming valued more in education for teachers and pupils. Since Funding for Virtual  Learning Environments (VLEs) became available this has also shown an increase in popularity and use of them in schools.

The Teachers Viewpoint.

When planning and organising lessons online communities can be extremely helpful in order to share resources and idea in the teaching community. There are many websites that offer this such as TES and Twinkl etc., these websites allow teachers to correspond with each other in a educational/ professional environment as well as share lessons.  They can offer both, advice on good lessons plans that will aid a child’s learning and ease the planning process as well as lessons that may not have gone to plan, being able to offer support and guidance on teaching. They also offer a number of solutions and suggestions this allows the teacher and communities to work together developing lesson plans.

Using resources in the classroom can also benefit the teachers and pupils as the teacher can set and monitor homework from an online community, such as Fronter or Frog, that the class is a part of this allows almost instant feedback and communication between teacher, peers and pupils on an educational level outside of the classroom.

On placement when in the role of teacher, I definitely found the numerous websites and online professional chats for teachers supportive, they were able to give incite into activities that the pupils would enjoy on specific subjects as well as activities and lesson plans that didn’t follow the correct path. Having access to readily available lesson and support allowed me to develop my own ideas as part of a community and also offer them to others to expand or diversify. They opened up an infinite number of channels thought which I could learn and help other. I also found that due to the National Curriculum the amount of resources available for the correct content is huge! Allowing teachers to adapt and even use plans and advice straight from online communities, although I feel they should always be adapted to suit the class being taught.

The Pupils Viewpoint

As mentioned pupils can be part of  VLE’s such as Fronter, Frog, or even Moodle in higher education, these are accessible at home in school and across the world. I feel that providing pupils with a safe environment that they can access at home and in school can also increase their willingness to learn as it can create a more active and social side to it to learning. Being able to show their parents and peers what they has achieved can act as a motivational tool as pupils then wish to take pride in their work. VLE’s and learning communities can benefit pupils as they are a place to record and find resource allowing them to share learning as well as find new channels of learning though embedding content.

As I have used Fronter and Moodle from the perspective of a pupil I feel that they are a great source of information when away from school for pupils as well as parents, they allow pupils to continue learning at home but in different styles.

I’ve only discussed a limited amount of implications found on learning communities but overall my experience and understanding of them is good, I feel that they benefit teaching and learning at home or in the classroom. In practice I would definitely use a VLE or learning community to aid my abilities to teach, as well as the pupils ability to learn.

Barrs and Horrocks express that blogging in schools has been seen as an effective practice if use correctly. Although some blogs by students have been seen as vague and didn’t allow or encourage responses from other students in regards to feedback and comments, thus it is important to have guidance from the class teacher. To encourage students to research and self-educate the teacher should ask probing questions to enable the student to move on or further their learning and understanding of a topic. Barrs and Horrock also suggest that its important not to always provide exact locations for the students to research as this will allow them to explore the internet in regards to a safe topic. At a younger age it is important for students to develop an investigative nature towards their works, as when they get older and move on to years 5 and 6, structure become more vital in regards to the style and type of writing produced by the student. As the teacher your role is to comment on blogs to stimulate the students learning. Comments can be a form of motivation showing students that as the teacher reading their works as well as showing they ‘care’. This can also promote further learning.

When it comes to blogs I feel that Barrs and Horrocks agree that as the teacher it is important to be enthusiastic and enjoy class blogging, making them creative, engaging and inclusive for all students. Blogs can enable students to focus on content rather then literacy books that are used in class all the time. Students responses often depend on the teachers initial prompt, the class needs a standpoint for approaching a task as well as a time constraint to promote an effective blog. The role of a teacher throughout blogging is key to the success of the project.

Blogging videos has also been highlighted in Barrs and Harrocks article as effective classroom tools as the teacher to develop students understanding and knowledge of a reading or lesson through this. Blogs can allow a new library for learning, as videos can be embedded in order to enrich the lesson or activity.

When introducing blogs to the classroom it is important to build up to them as this it a new platform for the students to work with and they may need to adjust their style of writing. The affect of moving from paper to online can be hard for some students and preparation is key, it may even benefit the students if they take part in a oral rehearsal before filming a video blog. Another way to integrate blog into the classroom or at home would be to keep them relevant to the class topic or homework, taking it step by step leading in to a new blogging community.

Barrs and Harrocks discuss the idea that blogging isn’t just for the classroom, allowing children to continue their blogging as homework could improve the relationship between school and home. Home blogging also give the student work time to improve or increase content in their blogs. On the other hand not all students will have access to the internet or a computer at home thus this could create issues so perhaps time could be allocated after school to those whom need it. Allow the Student access at home could also widen their scope of topic that they are able to blog about, for example they could create their own safe blogging environment for home activities.

Analysing some of pedagogic approaches to blogging in these project classrooms have shown teachers are utilizing this tool but there’s still a connection to writing on paper, this can help to develop the students literacy work  through different mediums. Blogging can have affect to the quality of writing good and bad depending of the method or quality of teacher, it can also become a cross curriculum activity as links often improve work. Good writing content has a purpose.

Key features of a blog are:

• Good content and ideas
• Real meaning and purpose
• Imagination originality
• Creativity
• Fluency and momentum
• A strong sense of a reader/ audience

From reading Berners-Lees post he explains that the a system similar to the WWW has been around since the 1960, this came as a shock to me, as I’ve grown up with the internet around me. The internet is now an open resource, that the majority of people have access to, making it easier to communicate and learn across the world. Berners-Lee’s article points out how the web could be a vital tool for communication and I feel that it is also important in regards to education, and research. The internet is increasingly developed over the last few years as now there are apps, social media, and even online communities. In regards to education and teaching the internet and computers has altered the way and what is actually being taught. In 2013 teaching children to understand algorithms in KS1 became part of the national curriculum, due to this resources have been expanded online and in schools to enable this learning. Using online resources also allows teachers to communicate with each other and problem solve or plan lessons online.

My personal experiences with the web differ. When younger the internet in regards to my uses consisted of search engines. Throughout my education it feels as though the web has been an essential tool in order to gain my full potential, in regards to research and investigation it can have a positive and negative influence on education and learning depending on the resources available or selected. I also found that on placement the computing/ICT lessons in year 3 where similar to what I remember doing in year 7 thus expressing the advances in teaching over the years, being up to date with the current specifications in computing and ICT it vital in order to learn and teach correctly.

When teaching in the future I feel that it is important to understand the class and their preferences, in order to create a version of the curriculum that children will enjoy and be able to engage with as computing/ICT is a visual and active subject. Its important to remember that children are open to learning and even systems/programs that have the initial thought of over complication or to be ‘hard’,  to teach or learn, can be taught effectively if segmented into manageable lessons allowing the children to slowly learn and understand what they are being taught, this can also be a enjoyable way to learn as the children can move at their own pace, rather then being overwhelmed with a  complex system/program.