All posts in the ‘Aifl’ Category
- August 1st, 2011
Doon in the Wee Room: Building a can do culture with the iCan 3/3
- Derek Robertson
- Comments: none Tags: Tags: aifl
: Categories Aberdeenshire, Aifl, Curriculum for Excellence, Glow
Back in 2003/4 some of my colleagues at the University of Dundee introduced e-portfolio, via Blackboard, to the PGCE(S) course. This was designed to enhance levels of responsibility, ownership and peer collaboration in the course. I was not directly linked to this work as it was led by Bob Doig, Graham Williamson and Joe McLuckie but I watched it develop and grow and became very interested in how this innovative and thoughtful use of technology could enhance learning. In essence the students at Dundee used the GTC’s SITE Benchmarks as the template to which they would document their progress and achievements over the duration of the course. Students would work in peer sets of three and would offer formative feedback on each others work at set times of the academic calendar and whenever else they felt it appropriate. A range of evidence could be drawn upon to show just how the students were meeting each of the benchmarks.
These levels of learner responsibility, ownership and peer collaboration were very much in evidence ‘Doon in the Wee Room‘ in Tarves PS when I saw the children using their iCans; Aberdeenshire Council’s own solution for eportfolio. Quite some way ahead of many others in relation to this the team there had worked with RM to use their Honeycomb service to create a space where children could store their work, share it and reference it to assist in their learning. All this would link with Glow. It made me think about my time back at Dundee but also to think how delightful it was to see this same approach being used with learners of such a young age.
When I was watching the children in Mr Cordiner’s class using a range of technologies I spotted one young learner working with Digital Scrapbook. I asked her what she was doing and she told me that she was making an iCan. What this meant was that she was making her own graphic that would detail something specific that she had been learning about or how to do, and then, in her own words, she’d pop it in to Glow. Watch this video clip to see the exchange between us but when watching look at how natural a part of learning this appears to be for this young girl. It appears that the children in this class and no doubt in others where the iCan is being used are becoming more and more involved in determining the success and challenges they are having or facing in their own progress.
I spotted a display of a selection of iCans that the children had already done and captured some of them. Have a look at what these P.2 children can do.
In view of Building the Curriculum 5 and the introduction of profiles in to P.7 this coming academic year and in to S.3 as of 2012/13 it is very encouraging to see authorities such as Aberdeenshire already make headway in to the area of children developing and maintaining their own learning profiles/eportfolios. As well as the bespoke and robust solution of the Aberdeenshire’s iCan there are other schools and authorities using Glow blogs as a means of profiling too. For Scottish teachers who would like to begin to explore how you could use Glow blogs to help develop profiling/eportfolio in your own context then this Glow group is of great use. (Glow login required)
For those of you who are attending The Scottish Learning Festival 2012 this year then please do bear in mind that there are quite a few teacher led seminars related to eportfolio and how resources such as Glow blogs can assist here.
Finally, may I say thank you to all at Tarves PS for sharing their exciting and very impressive work with me and for making me so very welcome. Good luck with those iCans!
More- October 29th, 2007
The Winning Game
- Derek Robertson
- Comments: 6 Comments » Tags: : Categories Aifl, Peth & Kinross, Serious Games
What role can games play in terms of supporting Aifl? Can the design of a game be such that it can help create a ‘winning’ attitude where the player/learner can continually self-reflect in order to move forward? This is quite a serious application of a game and one that possibly fits in with a movement in the games based learning world at present called Serious Games.
Serious Games are described as games that are for education and training purposes and not for entertainment. However, games being games I believe there is always a sense of fun and challenge about games irrespective of them being ‘Serious’ or not…
Anyway, back to the opening questions. Recently we met with a Scottish games based learning compnay called TPLD. They have worked in schools in the past and are currently doing so with an application called Eduteams. They came to talk to the Consolarium to tell us about a new game that they were working in partnership on with the Scottish Institute for Sport Foundation and a man called Yehuda Shinar. Abit more about the partners:
- S ISF: The Scottish Institute of Sport Foundation (www.sisportfoundation.org) is an independent charity, established in 2006. The Foundation is supported by some of Scotland’s most energetic and successful business, political and sporting leaders who share a passion to reshape and inspire the way Scotland performs as a nation. The annual budget of The Foundation is in excess of £1m.
- Yehuda Shinar: Cast your mind back 4 years to the last Rugby World Cup. Do you remember England’s success? Well, it is argued that Yehuda Shinar was a major part in that victory as his Winning Theory was applied by him and Clive Woodward to help create a winning mentality in the England squad. Yehuda’s research has seen him identify what he believes to be the twelve principles that winners employ. whether in sport or business. He calls these his TCUPS: Thinking Correctly Under Pressure.
As a result of this initial meeting we became very interested because we felt that the Winning Theory had the potential to complement and reinforce the Aifl agenda in Scottish schools.
We have now taken project this forward with a small number of local authorities and on Friday we had our initial meeting with proposed project participants to discuss the theory, play the game and consider how it could impact on teaching and learning in their schools. Here’s some photos of the event at Perth HS:
We were delighted to welcome Yehuda Shinar himself to the meeting and he gave a presentation about the Winning Theory. We then had the opportunity to play the game in ther computer room and it proved to be quite an engaging affair with some people tuning in to the Winning Zone more than others. However, the whole point of the game is that there will be a debrief session that can help the player self-reflect and consider what they can do in future to gain improve and gain success. We really want to consider how this ethos can be transferred to other aspects of school life and approaches to learning.
We look forward to taking this project further and reporting back on what we find.
One last thing, very well done to Perth HS and in particular their prefects for the way in which they welcomed and looked after the visitors to their school. They were a credit to themselves and to the school.
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