Learning Platforms

In our forth session we focused on VLE's (virtual learning environments) and MLE's (managed learning environments) which are known as 'learning platforms'. They are online environments/websites that provide a number of resources and tools which allow you to upload/download documents. They are used by learners to directly manage their learning. A learning platform is available to: learners, parents, support staff, teachers, governors and school management.

These online environments are about access for everyone, sharing, and are a great communication link with parents and carers. These are some of the features they provide:

• Email
• Discussion boards
• Homework
• File- sharing
• Tests/surveys

They offer great opportunities for parental involvement, parents are able to: check on homework, see their child's progress, track attendance and access work the class are doing if their child is off sick.

Ultimately it gives children the chance to personalize and take control of their learning. An MLE or VLE  helps support children to achieve the best of their abilities.

Interactive Whiteboards

Blackboards and chalk, iconic classroom items, have been replaced by a new super whiteboard. In our third session we were introduced to the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB). The Interactive whiteboard is a large touch-sensitive screen which works with a computer or projector.

'It can be used as an alternative to virtually every other classroom resources, traditional and modern, for example blackboards, flip charts, OHPs, maps, pictures, number lines, 'big books', calculators, and cassette and video players.  At a touch, the teacher has access to a bank of resources that would previously have been taken years to accumulate and a vast cupboard to store.'

   - BECTA 2006, Teaching Interactively with Electronic Whiteboards in the Primary Phase       (https://publications.becta.org.uk/download.cfm?resID=25918))

The Interactive whiteboard is an incredibly powerful tool with huge educational value. It is great for collaboration, sharing and discussing ideas. The IWB works on lots of different levels and is linked to different learning styles; audio, visual and kinesthetic. It can be used to deliver a wide variety of benefits to the classroom, such as:

• Provides whole class participation in presentations and discussions
• Develops children's thinking, discussion, literacy and ICT skills
• Lessons can be enhanced by easily integrating video, animation, graphics, text and audio
• Can be used to reach SEN and EAL pupils with unique and diverse learning styles

'Interactive whiteboards affect learning in several ways, including raising the level of student engagement in a classroom, motivating students and promoting enthusiasm for learning. Interactive whiteboards support many different learning styles and are used in a variety of learning environments, including those catering to students with hearing and visual impairments.'

                                                                                       - SMART Technologies Inc 

Raising children's achievement and enhancing their learning whilst keeping them up to date with technological advances can only be seen as a good thing. It appears Interactive whiteboards can play an influential role in children's learning and will remain a prominent feature in the classroom. 

Gone are the days of blackboards and chalk.

This link provides both resources and research findings from six schools who took part in a whiteboard pilot project.

http://www.kenttrustweb.org.uk/kentict/kentict_iwb_smart.cfm

Web 2.0

In this week's lesson we looked at Web 2.0. The term “Web 2.0” was first quoted more than a decade ago by Darcy DiNucci in her article “Fragmented Future”. She predicted that:

"The Web we know now, which loads into a browser window in essentially static screenfulls, is only an embryo of the Web to come. The first glimmerings of Web 2.0 are beginning to appear, and we are just starting to see how that embryo might develop. The Web will be understood not as screenfulls of text and graphics but as a transport mechanism, the ether through which interactivity happens. It will [...] appear on your computer screen, [...] on your TV set [...] your car dashboard [...] your cell phone [...] hand-held game machines [...] maybe even your microwave oven." 

                                                       – DiNucci, D. (1999) "Fragmented Future," Print 53

The internet has come on leaps and bounds in the last ten tears and DiNucci’s predictions are frightfully accurate.  Web 2.0 has changed the internet from a tool which allowed you to email, shop and research into an interactive, social and collaborative platform which has revolutionized the way in which we communicate and learn. The opportunities with Web 2.0 are seemingly endless. Some examples of Web 2.0 tools include:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• youTube
• Skype
• Wikipedia
• Blogging

In schools today teachers and children are using Web 2.0 based tools, to facilitate and enhance their learning, such as; classroom blogs, wikis, podcasts, picture/slide shows, forums and widgets.

Blogs are a great way to foster learning, they are fun, creative and help children to keep up with technological advances.

A good example of a primary school using blogs across the school:

http://www.sandaigprimary.co.uk/otters/

eSafety

Information and communications technology is ever present in the world today, we are in a digital age and technology is what children know. Children have access to computers and the internet in school and at home and technology plays a big role in both their learning and their lives. E Safety is therefore of paramount importance and presents health and safety issues that must be considered.

The key issues of eSafety are:

• Content: children should be protected from sexual, racist and violent content.
• Commercial: children should be made aware of internet scams, phishing and pharming.
• Contact: protection from strangers using interactive technology with instant messaging.
• Culture: the use of cyber bullying through phones, blogs and social networks.

It is important that schools, teachers, parents and carers take responsibility and work together in safeguarding children from potential risks.

You can learn about and test yourself on internet safety at this BBC website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/help/web/staysafe

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center (CEOP) have created an animated internet safety video to help young people understand how to keep safe online, how to treat each other well and to understand what personal information is.