Handheld Learning 2009

Wednesday 7th Oct

Scotland is once again demonstrating their lead in the effective and progressive use of new technology to improve learning and teaching. This session will showcase and explore some of the countries exemplar initiatives that are using mobile and ubiquitous technologies and the outcomes that have been achieved.

- 9.30 -10.00 - Katie Barrowman, LTS - The success of Glow Meet: How online video conferencing is connecting and enriching learners’ experiences across Scotland

Glow Meet has been used in Scottish classrooms for over two years, bringing opportunities to schools that they could not otherwise access. These include storytelling events with over 1000 early years children participating, virtual author visits from world famous writers, collaborative science experiments between schools hundreds of miles apart….the list goes on. Come and find out more about the endless possibilities live web-conferencing can bring to learning and teaching.

- 10.00 -10.30 - Derek P Robertson, LTS - CANVAS: The National; Scottish Schools’ Virtual Art gallery

CANVAS (Children's Art at the National Virtual Arena of Scotland) is a new National resource designed to make the concept of teaching and learning in a virtual world as accessible and relevant as possible to Scottish teachers and pupils.

In essence CANVAS is a 3D virtual art space where Scottish pupils from the ages 3-18 can exhibit their still or moving image art. Schools access to CANVAS is via Glow and with this comes the opportunity to exhibit pupils' work, in a safe and secure environment, to the huge audience of pupils and teachers throughout Scotland. It encompasses a main exhibition space, one dedicated gallery for each of the 32 local authorities and an auditorium for virtual seminars and tutorials.

The nature of this resource is hugely participative as not only are pupils able to exhibit their work but they also will be able to appear in-world, represented by a virtual character called an avatar, so that they can talk via a chat facility to gallery visitors who come to visit and view the art works on show in CANVAS.

This presentation will detail the conception of this project, how it became a reality and it will also showcase exactly how schools are beginning to engage with and explore the teaching and learning of Art and Design via a virtual world

- 10.30 -11.00 - Brian McLaren, LTS - Professor Layton and the Curious Classroom: Learning from a narrative driven and puzzled filled computer game

The people at Learning and Teaching Scotland’s Consolarium initiative has been busy exploring the potential of computer games as learning tools for the past few years now and when they read about the game Professor Layton and the Curious Village for the Nintendo DS they were very keen to find out more about what promised to be a narrative driven and maths puzzle packed game. They were most certainly not disappointed when eventually the game was played and were hugely excited about just what could be done in a class with this exciting resource. A P.6 class in Clackmannan PS agreed to join in the fun/learning. Packed full of video evidence this presentation will share just exactly how this game opened doors to problem-solving, imaginative writing, animation, MFLE, entrepreneurship and many other aspects of learning and classroom life.  It will also offer advice on how such a game can be planned for and managed in the classroom.

- 11.00 -11.30 - Refreshment break

- 11.30 - 12.00 - Lisa Sorbie, Perth High School - The mysterious case of Hotel Dusk Room 215, the S.2 English class and the exploration of the noir genre

The developing genre of narrative driven games and how these can be used to engage learners with writing and reading is an area of games based learning that the Consolarium has been very keen to explore. This presentation will focus on how an S.2 class from Perth High School used the game Hotel Dusk Room 215 for the Nintendo DS to initiate an investigation into the noir genre of writing. This coupled with Old Time Detective stories freely available on iTunes became the stimulus for this class of children to find out just what the main aspects of the noir genre were and how this knowledge could help them begin to write, and record their own noir style audio recordings. Be prepared for depressed skylines, rainy nights, hard bitten detectives and….. a real story of motivated learners.

- 12.00 - 12.30 - Anna Rossvoll, Aberdeenshire Council - Wee Musicians: Exploring the music curriculum with Wii Music

Primary schools across Aberdeenshire have been leading the Wee Musicians project to explore and experience creativity and enterprise. This Games Based Learning project demonstrates how the use of the Nintendo Wii and the game Wii Music can provide a rich context for learning that enables children to find out about, and be creative with a range of musical instruments.

Throughout the project, the children used Wii Music to explore a wide range of musical instruments and played both virtual and “real” instruments. This allowed pupils to bring their own talents to the project but also gave them the opportunity to develop new skills as they played instruments that in some cases, they had not heard or seen before. There was a particular focus on exploring music that is traditionally Scottish. This was integrated with ongoing projects in schools throughout Aberdeenshire linked to the Scottish Homecoming.

As well as learning about musical instruments, children led many experiences which enabled them to develop their sense of rhythm and pitch. The pupils were able to make links with Academies to find out about orchestras and secondary pupils supported the children in playing instruments and recording their own singles.

The use of new technologies and Glow underpinned this project. The children regularly recorded their achievements and shared successful learning through the Wee Musicians Glow Group. This group provided an environment for all the wee musicians across the authority to communicate, collaborate and share successes and challenges.

- 12.30 -13.00 - Ollie Bray, LTS - Web Tools for Teachers: how Scottish schools are making the most of free web based resources to communicate, collaborate and learn.

This presentation will showcase some of the exciting work that has been going on in a number of Scottish Schools who have been making the most of free web based resources.

During the 30-minute session you will be shown examples of innovative practice from a variety of curriculum areas in both the primary and secondary setting. Examples will include on-line comic books, animation, collaborative documents, 3D modeling, web-based games and the creative use of web 2.0 technologies.

Importantly, any of the resources mentioned will be able to be replicated in your own school or education authority.

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