Consolarium

September 6th, 2011

Land of Me at Port Ellen PS: Encouraging Outdoor Adventure 5/5

Derek Robertson

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: game based learning, Land of Me, outdoor learning
 : Categories Argyll & Bute, Dundee City, West Lothian

A few months back I featured the work of Bernadette Donald from Dundee who was involved in the Land of Me pilot project. She was inspired by the idea that a digital game such as Land of Me was designed to encourage enquiry and learning away from the digital screen, possibly more than actually from it. The context of creating an intrepid explorer mindset, inspired by Eric, Buddy Boo and Willow, in young learners is something that appears to have appealed to many teachers who have been involved with this pilot - including the team at Port Ellen PS.

Outdoor Explorer Logbooks

In order to exploit the children’s heightened levels of curiosity and willingness to explore the outdoor environment and in order to yet again involve parents in the children’s learning the class teacher devised an idea that involved the creation of an outdoor adventurer pack. This pack included:

• A pair of binoculars
• A magnifying glass
• Some bug collection boxes
• An Outdoor Adventurer Logbook

There were four of these packs available to the children to take home so that they could go out into their own environment and explore! The logbooks were packed full of photographs, drawings, stories and information about Islay and the various creatures that can be seen there. One boy even reported seeing an eagle on the roof of the Laphroaig Distillery! A whole host of artefacts were discovered and brought in by the ‘Little Explorers’ and the display table found itself festooned with antlers, shells, broken bird’s egg cases and even an empty wasps’ nest!

As with the earlier post about making outdoor dens in the forest from the school in Dundee the teachers at Port Ellen PS talked glowingly about the impact that this experience and what the overarching context was doing for the children involved. In particular the teachers commented on:

• how much more aware and knowledgeable about their own environment the children were becoming
• the fact that there was purpose and a focus for family time at the weekend was well received by many of the parents
• the fact that children were hugely keen to get hold of the adventurer pack so that they could explore outside, note what they see and then report back to their classmates.

Thank you

Now that we have come to the end of this pilot we would like to take the opportunity to thank the people at Land of Me for supporting our pilot projects and to all the staff, children and parents from Dundee, West Lothian and Argyll & Bute for making so much of what we have done such a positive experience.

September 20th, 2007

Using a dance mat to learn phonics

Derek Robertson

Comments: none Tags:  : Categories Literacy, Scotlearnfest07, West Lothian

One of the many Consolarium projects that are yet to feature in the sharing practice area of our site was showcased today at the Scottish Learning Festival. Entitled, ‘Cha cha cha: phonic blend or Latin American dance?’ it was delivered by Laura Compton and Margo Kerr from West Lothian Council and yet again the delegates who chose to attend this seminar were treated, quite frankly, to a superb presentation.

West Lothian Council was one of the local authorities who were an early adopter in relation to getting involved with out games based initiatives. They visited the Consoalrium earlier this year and a s result a number of projects are currently underway in their schools. However, the one project that has really taken off is the use of Ramba Studios Primary Phonics programme. This programme is designed to be used with pre and early readers in relation to the teaching of synthetic phonics…however the means of integrating with the game is through the medium of dance! Yes, a dance mat is the device that allows the player to play the game.

The team at West Lothian Council was so impressed with this resource that they bought 85 of them, one for each early years establishment in the authority. Today’s presentation was a clear and detailed account of what their experience with the game has been up to now.

I am actually still a wee bit emotional, really I am, as a result of what I saw today because some of the video evidence that was used in the presentation was enough to emphatically show how this game is having an impact in pre-school, primary and special needs contexts. One clip showed some children that were attending a speech therapy class. You have to see this clip because the look on these kids faces as they gained success in the game was priceless. This is what school should be about: dedicated and informed professionals identifying ways in which young learners can achieve success! Fantastic, it really should have been a keynote such was the significance of the shared experience of the teachers in West Lothian that have been using this application.

You won’t have to wait long for this because I am currently working with West Lothian in order to make this case study available.

Anyway, they had set up a demo group within the game by adding delegated names from the list that they had been provided with. These names were then called out randomly by the computer and the audience were so involved that they were more than willing to get involved and have a go. It was actually like the ‘Price is Right’ in terms of the delegates reactions when they got picked.

The depth and detail of what happened and is continuing to happen in West Lothian with the Primary Phonics dance mats will become crystal clear as soon as the case study is available. In the meantime may I suggest that queries about this be directed to Laura Compton and her team. They are a credit to the teaching profession in terms of their attitude, insight and knowledge. This kind of practice can only help to further inform teachers about how new technologies can impact on and enhance the teaching and learning in our classrooms.