ICT in Practice Issue 1

ICT in Practice

ISSN 2053-5104

Transforming education through sharing knowledge and practice Created by educators from around the world ISSUE 1

P4 / WIKI’S IN EDUCATION A primary school case study on the use of wiki’s in education.

P6 / CREATING CARTOONS Use ToonDoo to create cartoons about anything.

AUTUMN EDITION SEP 2012

P14 / MOBILE LEARNING Bringing lessons to life with MacBooks.

P15 / USING iPADS iPads in a primary classroom. What did we learn?

www.ictinpractice.com

www.ictinpractice.com

2

From the Editor Welcome to the first issue of ICT in Practice Magazine created by educators from around the world.

In a world where communication is at the edge of our finger tips, it is vital to share the knowledge and experience we have. What could be a better way than an online publication?

Technology is changing rapidly and shaping not only our lives but also the way we teach and learn.

We can’t try out every single tool or app ourselves. We do not have either enough time or resources, however, by sharing our experiences of learning with technology we can support each other with planning and the evaluation of certain tools and

products. We all know that a teachers time is extremeley valuable and they definitely don’t have the time to read hundreds of pages of research either. What we need are simple articles and practical tips which will support us when implementing technology into our teaching. This is the idea that gave birth to ICT in Practice magazine. No jargon.. Just keep it simple and practical. We are open to contributions. We are not interested in criticising, rather we just encourage simply sharing and finding out others perceptions.

In this issue we have aimed to focus on collobarative learning and mobile technology. With technology there are so many

opportunites to create an environment where chidlren can work as a team and develop further skills. It is not about having the latest or the most expensive tool or pc or laptop, it is more about the content of teaching and how it has been delivered. Have a look at the articles which present the use of various tools that encourage collobarative learning online and in the classroom. Come and be part of our community.

Best regards, Yasemin Allsop Editor admin@ictinpractice.com

Contents ‘Wikis in Education’

by Yasemin Allsop page 4-5

‘Using the ToonDoo animation program’

by Enrica Polidoro page 6-8

‘Student’s perceptions of learning with iPod Touches’

by Yasemin Allsop page 10-11

‘Using Technology for online collaborative learning’

by Chris Burgess page 12-13

‘Bringing lessons to life!

MacBooks in the classroom’

by Stephanie Zenonos page 14

‘Mobile Learning Learning with iPads’

by Martin Svensson page 15

Online Tools for photo editing

‘The Philosophy of EPortfolios’

by Boris Vidovic page 18-21

‘Reshaping schools iCT Make the way for programming!’

by Yasemin Allsop page 22

page 17

3

WIKIS IN EDUCATION Does Collaboration Occur When Children are Learning with the Support of a Wiki?

by Yasemin Allsop

A wiki is a website where users can modify any page, by adding

What makes wikis different is that the user decides for

Based upon research findings it can be suggested that children

content or editing that which already exists.

themselves how they process and groups will develop, usually by making things up as

are collaborative when learning with the support of wikis.

Therefore, wikis could be seen

Wiki’s have been used for many different purposes by different

they go along. Jimmy Wales, founder of most well known

as an effective tool to support collaborative learning and

groups. In education Wiki’s are mainly used for group writing projects, where groups of

example of a public Wiki ‘Wikipedia’ states that Wikis help young people develop

knowledge sharing in education and facilitates group learning where students can learn and

students are responsible for creating their own content and

writing skills and social skills by learning about group

share knowledge. Various types of behaviours associated with

learning from each other in the process of collaborative working. The collaborative

consensus and compromise all the virtues you need to be a reasonable and productive

collaboration, were observed when the children were helping each other with their tasks.

features of wikis make them particularly well suited for

member of society.

cooperative learning environments (Schaffert, Bischof, et al., 2006). Wikis can

For the case study we had a class wiki which was active during the 2010-11 academic

using a wiki brought the group members together to edit the Planet 5J wiki pages which

also be seen as easy-to-use collaborative technologies.

year. I created a wiki called ‘Planet 5J’ for a year 5 class of

allowed children with similar ideas to collaboratively build on

They can support knowledge creation and sharing (Lamb, 2004; Leuf & Cunningham,

children aged 9-10 years old.

By editing the wiki the students aimed to create a ‘wow’ words

each other’s work. It also gave the children equal access to the most recent version of the wiki.

2001; Wagner, 2004) between students.

dictionary which contained interesting and complex

In many ways Wikis are similar to traditional approaches of

vocabulary that would be very useful for their writing skills.

This usage of ‘Wow words’ was

standard group work such as access restrictions, defined

also to be part of the whole schools target.

This case study has shown that

workflows, and structures.

4

This research project gave me an understanding of how collaboration emerged

children with more structured tasks, where children have an opportunity to work as a team

when the children were using a wiki as a learning tool. It also gave an insight of how knowledge was built socially. For future

and are given a longer time to complete the task. The children could also be given information about the types of roles they could

research, it will be worth to try providing

foster in group work.

Click on the link to read the full paper http://www.tojet.net/articles/v10i4/10413.pdf

BEST WEB 2 COLLOBARATION TOOLS

5

The World's fastest way to create cartoons!

by Enrica Polidoro

I’m an Italian teacher and I know that illustrations have a number of possible benefits to learning. The comic making process itself offers many learning opportunities and comics can provide effective teaching with the incorporation of content delivery. If you think that some concepts, that could be difficult for students to understand in a textual way, could be better communicated using pictures.

Moreover illustrations can be used to get students attention, to increase their emotional interest in a topic and to help them to summarize or rephrase information. As you can see in the picture below comics’ creation gives students a lot of benefits in every school’s subjects, especially to reinforce their computer skills.

Yet I had another scope when I decided to use comics I would like to improve English in my Italian students, so I needed a tool that was simple to use for the primary school. I explored a lot of sites and apps available, which allows you to create characters or avatars, but my choice fell on “Toondoo”, a free illustrating service. In my opinion, it is the fastest and easier way to create cartoon strips. Using a lot of functions everyone is able to create, personalize,

6

and share cartoons, regardless of their artistic ability.

According to website, “ToonDoo is a cool, comic-creating tool that allows you to create your own cool comic strips with just a few drag ‘n drops ‘n mouse clicks!”

It’s produced by Jambav, a fun site for kids that is devoted to creating a unique array of free and customizable online games of educational value for children of all abilities.

Now I want to explain you how to produce comics with Toondoo. It’s very simple: You need to register: it’s free, but you need a valid email (even if you’ll not receive the confirmation of your registration).Choose a username and a password, then press “Register”.

Visit the url http://www.toondoo.com

Login to your Toondoo. To start your comic, press “Tools” and select “ToonDoo Maker”.

Select your panel layout.

Now you can really begin your comic strip: you have got a lot of pictures that you can use!

Drag ‘n drop in backgrounds, characters etc.

7

Props, speech bubbles in whatever order suits you best.

LOOK!!!

At the end you can save it as a public toon (can be viewed by all) or private (can only be viewed by you under 'My Toondoos') And if you don’t find the character that you need? You

You can also upload images from your computer or

can create your own using the TraitR!

anywhere else on the web using the ImagineR toolfeature

If you would like to create a book using your comics’ strips, you have to select “Tools” from the bar and press on “Book Maker”

Follow the instructions! Drag and drop your strips in the open book, following the right order.

Add the title to your book

When the book is ready, you can publish it.

After publishing, if you need to make some changes you’re able to do so at any time in a moment!

8

SCHOOL NEWS Wilbury Primary School has won the Make IT Happy 2012 London Region

Andy Love joins Wilbury Primary School headteacher Kate Turnpenney and pupils in celebrating their IT win in Parliament.

competition and also came third in the whole of the UK.

Edmonton MP Andy Love joined pupils from Wilbury Primary

schools. As regional winners for London they were invited to an

inspiration to us all on healthy eating and exercise.

School and their headteacher, Kate Turnpenney, in Parliament on Tuesday to celebrate their win in a

awards ceremony in Parliament, including a parliamentary tour and day out in London. It was an

“To beat off competition from other London schools is an achievement

UK wide technology competition for 9 – 11 year olds called ‘Make

additional bonus that they won third prize on the day.

in itself, but to come third out of the country is something else. They

IT Happy.’ Wilbury not only won the London regional prize, but they also came third in the country

Congratulating Wilbury’s students, Andy said…

overall, scooping £2,700 for the school.

“I couldn’t be prouder of Wilbury Primary’s pupils – and no doubt

The challenge was to demonstrate how IT projects can help people

their supportive teachers and headteacher - for coming up with such a

lead healthier lives, physically, mentally or emotionally. Children

fantastic winning project. It gives

from Wilbury Primary developed a project called ‘Let’s Get TechnoFit’ which looked at ways that technology, like dance mats, apps and games consoles can contribute to healthy levels of activity. They also researched healthy eating, creating an online recipe book of healthy dishes, and put together a film that reported on their experiences and conclusions.

Wilbury Primary managed to fight off competition from over 60 other

9

were a delightful team who really deserved their success.”

Childrenʼs Perceptions of learning with Educational Games Using iPod Touches

by Yasemin Allsop When I first told the news to the class of children whom I teach maths, that we will

class. I selected these children as I teach mathematics to them every morning, which

soon be using iPod Touches in lessons, the

allowed me to implement multiplication and

reaction I received was very interesting.

division mathematics

They were screaming with excitement as

games on iPod touches

though I’d told them that they had won the lottery. I wondered why. Why were they so

into their regular daily numeracy lessons. This

ecstatic? Would they behave in the same

was the first time that

way if I had said that we will have laptops in

they had used

the classroom? What did they expect? To

mathematics games on

learn better... or were my lessons so boring that iPod Touches would make them more

iPod Touches in the classroom.

fun. I don’t know, maybe..

The Learning with iPod Touches Project lasted for a whole term.

I spent a considerable amount of time evaulating some maths apps which would be suitable for the topics studied. I had 21 children and

‘It is like, you can touch your learning!’

only 20 iPod Touches, so some had to share. This

The data collection was administered at four levels.

Firstly at the beginning of the study before allowing the children to use the iPod Touches, an online survey was completed by the children about the use of technology to

Martin, 11

wasn’t a real issue as some of the children

understand their experiences with iPod touches and other technologies. Secondly the questions 'What do you expect to

prefer working with a partner rather than

learn from using an iPod touch that you

working alone. 21 pupils from a Year 5

can’t from other technology?' and 'What are

class (ages 9-10, 14 male and 7 female) took

the ways of learning multiplication and

part in the project. The children had higher mathematical skills than expected for their

division calculations?' were asked, and a children's concept map of their discussions

age levels. They were from four different

to answer these questions were written down

classes and did not have much

on a A4 sheet by them. Analysis of the data

intercommunication with the children who

from this document was based on

were not from the same class as them outside of the mathematics classes. They sat

identifying words that indicated their perceptions and expectations from learning

in mixed gender and ability groups not

with iPod Touches.

necessarily with children from their own

10

Childrenʼs Perceptions of learning with Educational Games Using iPod Touches The findings of this study indicated that the students perceptions of learning mathematics with games using iPod Touches was a positive one. This conclusion can be confirmed by the data evidence presented. The results of the post-survey showed that the participants felt good about having had an opportunity to use iPod Touches and reported that using an iPod Touch was fun. They also disclosed that they learnt better when using an iPod Touch (71%).

Furthermore they agreed that using an iPod Touch made learning mathematics more interesting (100%) and easier to learn (71%). The survey also revealed that the students were confident in their technological skills as they noted they didn't need any special training to use iPod Touches.

Students also reported that they liked having an opportunity to complete the same task many times until they were happy with their scores.

When their score was low, this was not seen as a failure, simply as 'low score'. This is very important for two reasons; firstly it encouraged students to try and do better which will impact on their confidence level, secondly it gave them the ownership of their learning. They didn't act because they received feedback from a teacher to do better, they decided for themselves, which score was enough for their expectations and which actions to take when they got low score; re-try or move onto a new task. This study shows the importance of understanding children’s idea of learning.

It was not the purpose of this study to measure learning gained by playing games using an iPod Touch, rather this investigation wanted to find out simply children' perceptions. When used together with well designed learning activities the iPod touch offers many opportunities to increase interactivity and students engagement with learning. The findings presented that learning with games using iPod Touches had an impact on children's learning by making it more interesting and fun, but it is difficult to measure if this had any effect on the students’ actual learning.

Nonetheless they agreed that using an iPod Touch made their learning more fun and interesting, there were a number of students (29%) who didn't know if using an iPod Touch helped them to learn better.

This may tell us that the iPod Touch may not be the most appropriate tool for teaching all students and therefore educators need to employ different methods and tools for teaching and learning to meet the needs of all students.

Although the students’ perceptions of using iPod Touches was more about the affordances of the device, this can also be used for understanding their learning experience. Their comments about their perceptions of learning such as; the visual features of the games, content, learning by doing, being in control, collaborative working, learning without realising, motivation and failure provides us with an insight into how they think and learn.

11

Chris Burgess from Taradale Primary School in rural Australia talks about how he uses technology for online collaborative learning.

CONTEXT

WHY?

W H AT W E D O ?

Taradale Primary School is a small state school in regional

Being a small school we are keen to engage with other

For face to face experiences we spend every Wednesday at

Victoria, Australia. We are located 100km from Melbourne in a town of

schools both face to face and remotely to provide additional educational and social

another small school. We are also a part of a cluster of small schools that work

about 300 people. The school opened in 1855

experiences for the students.

collaboratively together to provide school camps,

during the Victorian Gold Rush, making it

joint excursions and regular ‘Group Days’ where the schools all

one of the oldest schools in the state.

get together for a day of joint learning and

As well as our classrooms and play ground, we

social activities. We also participate in a number of other

also have an onsite farm. The farm is

activities such as maths, science and PE

home to our vegetable garden, orchard and our

Our school lambs and chooks

days with other schools and we house the Taradale Play Group

animals – 4 chickens, 2 calves and 2 lambs. If you would like

for pre-school children as well as hosting a number of

to know more about us, please look at our website below or follow us on twitter.

community activities.

12

How do we do?

Our first online collaboration was through Global Partners Junior. I had participated in this programme whilst working at a larger inner city school in Melbourne, so was familiar with what it could offer educationally and how it would engage the children.

The Global Partners Junior programme is run from the City of New York Mayor's office. It is an online collaborative project linking children from around the world in educational activities that are relevant to everyone.

Prior to introducing Global Partners at Taradale, we looked at the upcoming unit of work to see if it fitted in with our planned curriculum and met the requirements of the state learning standards. Then we looked at how we would integrate it into our timetable and talked to the parents and students to gauge their interest and support. We then looked at our timetable to see when we would fit it in and how much time we would spend on it in class and how the students could use it at home. As our school has a strong focus on digital learning and the environment, we could see that Global Partners Junior would fit well with our existing curriculum and give the students opportunities to learn more about the world and make friends with children from other cultures and countries.

The students all have internet access at home and this project was structured so the students could do additional work at home, for example email their overseas peers, research set topics and continue with their projects.We introduced the programme to the students by having them explore New York

online and finding out a few facts about city, including landmarks, culture, history and famous people. With a city as exciting as New York it was not difficult to engage the students!

The students were keen to talk to and meet their new friends, so as well as email exchanges and the discussions page on Global Partners Junior, we have used our Interactive Whiteboards for Skype and Google chats with other schools, apart from navigating time zones, this has been a relatively simple task.

This particular project has enabled a number of collaborations for the students.

For example, in our last unit we looked at products and services in each of our communities and the way these products and services are marketed around the world. We are currently participating in a project on sustainability with schools in New York, Rio and Mumbai and looking at the impact we all have on the planet. As these topics are of both global and local importance the students were able to relate their experiences with both their classmates and their international peers. These unit topics encourage and cater for different learning styles, if a student wants to work alone he or she can, or a student can collaborate with other students. We have found that the appeal of working with students from around the world has encouraged all of our students to work collaboratively with their peers.

We are keen to expand our network of online collaborations, if schools are interested in working with us or knowing more about what we do, please feel free to contact me.

13

Bringing lessons to life!

Macbooks in the classroom

by Stephanie Zenonos Wilbury Primary School, London, UK In a large, busy primary school, despite an allocated ICT time and a well-devised timetable, “There’s someone in the ICT room” is a phrase dreaded by any impulsive teacher. So what to do if the ICT suite is occupied? Laptops!

“

The laptops allow the children to freely consolidate and follow up, there and then, the subject the teacher has been waffling on about for 15 minutes.

”

A sigh of relief? Or beads of sweat upon the brow? As with everything, it depends on the teacher.

Some fear the temptation of a

The logic of a child can sometimes

laptop in front of an inquisitive

evade you in the

child, will be too much and those

panic of the

little fingers will be itching to find

situation. Laptops

an online game just as the teacher launches into a complex

are the perfect accompaniment for

explanation. However the logical

a group project,

solution, which is not always so

which gives the

obvious, is to take advantage of the

teacher the freedom when it

mobility of a laptop and simply close the lid until they are ready to

comes to seating arrangements. It helps the children assign roles to

be used. Not all problems are as

each other, scan texts, make notes

easily rectified, such as the loss of

and work as a team- skills that are

wi-fi signal (an often occurrence!)

necessary for the future. Of

Shock! Horror! Those beads of sweat are turning more into a

course there is an occasional quarrel over whose turn it is to

stream now. Trying the good old

type, but that’s when teacher

“turn it off and turn it on again”

steps in. A final worry for some

approach has bought us a few

is that the excitement of using the

minutes but “the browser is not connected to the internet” is still

laptops, the thrill of the whole world being at their fingertips

putting a spanner in the works. It is

will be too much for the children

then the blessed words “Shall I

and they might deviate during the

work with someone else?” saves the

lesson from the lesson’s activity

day. Spanner averted!

(just as your head teacher or

14

heaven forbid an Ofsted inspector is walking past). This is exactly why having laptops so readily available is such an advantage.

We’re integrating technology into their every day lives. In this day and age, where technology has become almost compulsory, using laptops and the like, will become as second nature as using a pen, and as we, their teachers, are preparing them for the future what better way than exposing them to something imperative for their future success.

Mobile Technologies Learning with Ipads CASE STUDY

by Martin Svensson Karlskrona School, Sweden

I have worked with my 24 students this year

We haven´t got a printer connection

(from January) with 12 iPads. The students are 10 years old. They

with the iPads so the pupils have to e-mail their work to the

have worked in pairs so they also have to

computers and after that log into a

practice co-operation, but sometimes they have worked alone.

computer to be able to print their work on paper. This has

This is a special ”test project” to see how

been more complicated for the

iPads can develop the kids motivation and knowledge. We have

kids. In Garageband we have to practice to play chords on the

most of the time worked with Pages

guitar and to play the keyboard. We

(Writing stories, research, texts, mind maps etc), Garageband and a couple of other apps. We have also borrowed ebooks from the library. I found many advantages with iPads. It is easy to start and get into the iPad so you save a lot of time. You don’t need an ICT room or something like that, just open the program and start.

The pupils learn from each other

like rings on water, as a teacher you just need to start up the idea and most of the kids love to work with the iPads. They are also often proud of their work. Another advantage with the iPads is that you learn with several minds. You can for example see a picture of an animal, listen to the sound of the animal, and the right pronunciation

have also worked to add our own lyrics to a famous melody. The pupils have of course got a headset when we have done this.

When I asked the students about fun things to do with the iPad they answered: • Stories in the app

in English and all the time you touch. I think this is great. I don’t

• Olympic research

think there are so many disadvantages; of course some kids thinks its more fun to just play

• Writing e-mails to a friend

games and watch videos on youtube. The temptation to do this instead of work is sometimes too big. We haven´t had so many technical problems so that’s good.

15

• Hangman

• Making a song and making music • Talking Tom • Writing stories • Reading for one another • Using You Tube • Playing games

5 best iPad Apps for Education

GarageBand by Apple Inc. GarageBand allows you to turn your iPad into a professional recording studio. You can make your own music and edit sound files on the go. http://www.apple.com/uk/ipad/from-the-app-store/apps-by-apple/ garageband.html ToonTastic Toontastic is a brilliant ipad App which enables children to create animations and cartoons in a fun way. You can select characters available in the Toontastic library or use your own drawings and voice to make it more personel. http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/toontastic/id404693282?mt=8 Story Kit Create an elctronic story book whenever you like, wherever you want. You just need to write some text and add your drawings or photos from your album. http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/storykit/id329374595?mt=8

Mathemagics Learn and practice mental maths tricks in a fun way. Progress through different levels and learn to answer faster than you did before. http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/mathemagics-mental-math-tricks/ id306586847?mt=8

16

Online tools for photo editing The days when we purchase a software for every single task is

Having these programs available online freely also helps us to close

their tasks. They can use alternative programs that they have found

long behind. Thanks to the advances of technology we can find many programs freely available on the

the gaps in students learning. The students can access and use many free programs from their homes

online. I think schools should always provide pupils with a list of online programs that can help with

Internet. There are online tools for almost every need such as; Photo /

which helps them to develop their skills further. When students receive

their homework task, which may be useful for reducing some of the

video / sound editing, animation, web design, text editing, presentation and many more.

a homework / project they don’t have to wait to use specific programs at school to complete

barriers to their learning.

Pixlr http://pixlr.com/ Pixlr is a free online photo editor. You can edit, adjust and filter your images. You can apply some amazing effects which children found it fascinating. You can even draw your own pictures.The best thing about Pixlr is that you don’t need to download anything or register to use it.

FOTOFLEXER http://fotoflexer.com Fotoflexer is an advanced online digital photo editor. It offers many features that are only available with professional editing softwares. You can edit images, apply effects and create animations. It also allows you to import photos from social network accounts such as facebook.

BEFUNKY http://www.befunky.com/ With Befunky you can transform your photos into fantastic works of art such as oil paintings, vintage images etc. You can even add frames, speech bubbles and graphics to make it more interesting.

BIGHUGELAB http://bighugelabs.com/ Bighugelabs is a creative factory where you can create pop art posters, jigsaws, maps, magazine covers, movie posters, calendars and much more fun stuff. You can open an education account for free which allows you to register your students, so that they can sign-in without an email address.

You can gain access to the contents created by your students.

PHOTOVISI http://www.photovisi.com Photovisi is a photo collage maker. it is free and very easy to use. You can select from many themes and apply different effects to make your photos fun.

17

The Philosophy of E-Portfolios

by Boris Vidovic Principal, Pujanke Elementary School, Split, Crotia This article is a mental exercise of my readings on the philosophy and education of eportfolios. It is written in the linear way: just for the purpose of looking back at some facts pertinent for understanding and applying an eportfolio in the classroom.

The idea of collecting drawings, pictures and essays of students and artists has been around for a long time. The purpose was to present one`s achievements to other people.

With the advent of modern communication technologies, people began to implement this idea in the digital environment. The new practice emerged in the early 1990s.

From that time on the e-portfolios have become paperless, that is to say, digital. They employ a combination of technologies to create and publish collections of students work, stored in digital formats, either online or on other electronic media like a CD or DVD. Digital collections or archives are made of audio, video, graphics, and textual "artifacts". They are usually digital records of personal and professional profiles and achievements.

In the beginning, e-portfolios were designed by the tools commonly used for building websites. People would have had a solid knowledge of HTML or Flash to design e-portfolios. It caused great problems as web mastering was and still is a timeconsuming and complicated activity.

People want to have a very simple and practical tool by which they can produce their own e-portfolios in short time, just by clicking here and there, without any funding. An average user of an e-portfolio does not have time to be committed to any technologies that require a lot of technical knowledge and expert support. Moreover, maintaining an e-portfolio is a never ending process.

Today, we fortunately have lots of software packages by which people can easily compile their e-portfolios.

Unfortunately, the standards are not yet N E firmly T W O R Kset, I N Gso people face a problem of interoperability. They cannot always contrive data with an ease from e-portfolios made on different platforms. This is a serious shortcoming as simplicity is regarded essential to the efficiency of modern technology. There are some promising examples of overcoming this problem, but the deeper you go the more problems come to the surface.

AWA R E N E S S E-portfolios are still in the nascent stage of development. According to a white paper from the Electronic Portfolio Consortium: "There is not

18

yet a coherent understanding of functional requirements, design specifications, or how and to what extent an electronic portfolio might benefit teaching and learning�.

To use an e-portfolio in an efficient, effective and economic way (The 3 E`s recommended by the EU), it is not only a question of having some basic equipment like computers, digital cameras, scanners etc. However, theoretically cool this technology might be, it is a worthless piece of the machinery if the users do not have clear ideas of what they want to achieve with this machinery.

Therefore, the philosophy, epistemology, education, psychology and brain biology in many ways should precede the technology.

If a school wants to introduce the eportfolio as part of its educational work, the school management must first put on the agenda the questions of purpose, assessment, goals and educational standards. Without clear outlines of learning standards, teachers and students might easily go astray.

The e-portfolio provides a unique way to use educational standards for the benefit of students and teachers, while validating the individual work done in classrooms. The school management also has to design the school's digital portfolio with the precise architecture.

Novice teachers and students find the created portfolio templates useful and helpful while more advanced users find them too narrow and simplistic.

If a school wants to use successfully the e-portfolio, the school management should plan well in advance and give explicitly clear outline structures and learning standards before students and teachers start to populate their portfolios with artifacts. Teachers can individually define these learning standards, but they can also use public standards set if the school decides to adopt them. In either case, creating a set of standards precedes any e-portfolio project. Standards should be used as organizational guides for student work and as the organizational structure for the e-portfolios themselves. With explicit learning expectations mapped out in the eportfolios, students can work in collaborative, constructive and connective ways to complete assignments and tasks that meet those requirements, whilst teachers will also have a clearer way how to assess and provide feedback for the students work.

In the eyes of the many educators the-portfolio is an effective, efficient and economic assessment tool. The e-portfolio is designed to better organize student work, and provide an ease of access to teachers, students and other stakeholders. The e-portfolios also can be designed for more intimate interaction between students, teachers and other stakeholders, as they have opportunities to view individual student work, personal reflections and detailed feedback.

Moreover, the e-portfolio can efficiently organize and index personalized data which shows the educational progress of every student and that of the whole school.

The reflection and feedback are an integral part of the e-portfolio. Each student provides personal critiques for every item of work they included in their e-portfolio.

Students are encouraged to write about how they feel regarding the assignment, their understanding of the learning standards, and how they feel if they have met or not met the expected standards in their work. Teachers are expected to write feedback for each student's portfolio.

Displaying a student's reflection with teacher feedback allows both students and teachers to reflect on their understandings of the learning standards. Students may also see how their understandings match or do not match with their teachers' understandings, and vice versa.

This allows for a continual process of reflection, understanding and learning.

If more teachers are involved to attach feedback to a portfolio artifact, it creates a deeper dialogue between teachers and students.

Teachers could easily compare their assessments with each other.

Students could also view a diverse array of critiques from different teachers, which assist them as they continue to reflect and improve upon their work. The e-portfolio utilizes the strength of an entire learning community.

The level of reflection and assessment is richer with the eportfolio because student work is displayed with their reflections, data about the learning standard, and teacher feedback. This connection of elements allows all stakeholders to continually reflect on the learning process.

19

Today, we witness different practices of using the e-portfolio around the globe. Here are some practices.

Some people maintain a presentation e-portfolio to show an individual's achievements in relation to particular work or developmental goals to others: their skills, competencies and attitudes when applying for a job, or a college course.

Others prefer to maintain an assessment e-portfolio which includes personal reflections on the content and what it means for the individual's development. It also shows the evidence of achieving certain outcomes of some academic programs. It is a kind of summative assessment which can be easily verified, accredited or certified by external institutions for recognition of a formal qualification or diploma.

Some people, especially students, prefer to use e-portfolios just for recording all steps in learning which they can easily look at again and again from different angles.

This assists them with a quick search, recognition and reflection on what they have learned to reach a certain point. Students should know how to plan, validate and assess. This formative assessment can be a self-assessment, peerassessment, tutor assessment, critical friend assessment etc.

The main purpose of the formative assessment is to enhance deeper learning by applying new epistemology of learning which is exponential, networked, quick, and based on constructivism, knowledge connectivism and postmodernist eclecticism.

Continued from page 19

E-Portfolios For teaching and learning The students should master core, traditional competencies (mother tongue, foreign languages, basic competencies in maths & science and digital competencies) and also transversal, creative competencies which are decisive for a successful life in the knowledge based society (learning to learn, social & civic competencies, initiative taking & entrepreneurship and cultural awareness & expression).

They signify more than just knowledge and skills. They are characterized by flexibility, entrepreneurship and taking one`s own responsibility. Not only is flexibility expected by individuals, but innovation, creativity, selfregulation and internal motivation.

Social maturity is also expected: it helps in preventing social pressure, taking different attitudes, making independent judgements and taking responsibility for one`s own behaviour. However, it is of the utmost importance to know how to develop reflection, using metacognitive skills, creative skills, and taking a critical stand. It is also important for an individual to know how one formulates his experiences, including thinking, feelings and social relationships).

This is the real terrain for using social media which is tightly connected with e-portfolios. I will tackle this issue later in the text.

Some sharp critics warn that eportfolios are full of vivid images which do not convey any serious messages. This is the Old School view which is not taken into

consideration by serious scholars.

The New School advocates the aesthetic embellishment of eportfolios because it shows that the brains of the digital Homo Zippiness function using both hemispheres simultaneously: from the one in charge for abstractscientific to the other in charge for language-artistic processes. This is the way that opens creativity: combining science and arts into one creative whole which has been recently named cross-pollination or cross-fertilization on which creative cultural industries are based. This also shows that users of e-portfolios are heading into a good direction which leads them to science and arts applied in the new digital environment.

Some users provide a record of things that a person has done over a period of time, and may be directly tied to learner outcomes use eportfolios for personal development planning (PDP.) They can easily follow the course of executing the plans of their personal or/and professional development.

Many students and workers use personal learning e-portfolios to combine all formal and informal ways of lifelong learning. Recent studies show that an average person spends 85% of their time in informal learning, and only 15% of their life in the formal learning.

Informal learning motivates and encourages students and workers to search for new bits and pieces of knowledge which they combine together during their life. Using eportfolios in this way really

20

promotes lifelong learning and galvanizes creative forces in people. It establishes the school as a community of learners. In the broader global context it is a place for the free flow of information, where different forms of collaboration exist, and where the sharing of knowledge and work – in real time – without regard to geography, distance and language takes place.

The e-portfolio allows people to archive a wide variety of materials, and then to disseminate those materials to a larger community.

These materials can be of great value. The e-portfolios allow them to reuse them. They are able to delve into a portfolio and draw out examples of previous work so that they become part of their instructional content, rather than just being archived on a shelf somewhere under the label, 'Last Year's Work.' When students see other students' work, it accelerates the learning curve enormously making it more authentic.

Although most people still think of e-portfolios logistically, as just a better way to collect and organize student work. The e-portfolios really provide good storage, but they can be used for many other educational purposes (reflection, self-assessment etc.). Moreover, they are a good resource for student and teacher collaboration, and as a powerful motivator for the students who can publish their work on the Internet.

It is incredibly motivating for students to be able to publish their work on the Internet and to see that what they do matters to somebody other than teachers.

Suddenly, their parents, grandparents, and friends can see it. They can see what other students are doing, compare their work, and get peer feedback. They can even display their work for potential colleges. This is an overlooked aspect of the e-portfolio that makes it just as powerful as a teaching tool.

time in the online environment and learning than in the brick classroom or the library. Multiple teachers and multiple contents cannot comfortably fit into a rigid box, called a content management system (CMS), which is a closed system, like Moodle. Many software packages of the e-portfolio with the rigid templates designed and managed by schools or software firms seem to be a kind of a closed system which is in contradiction with the new epistemology of learning, teaching and understanding.

It is important to understand that e-portfolios differ from other similar digital systems. They are not merely an account of one's own history, like an electronic scrapbook, or a personal space for expression, like a blog. E-portfolios are designed specifically to highlight skills, represent work, and organize information.

Teachers and students use e-portfolios to collect use, reuse in creative manner audio, video, graphics, and textual "artifacts," such as work samples, assessments, resumes, lesson plans, and personal reflections.

If students interact more and more online with multiple contents, teachers and peers, it means that there is not only one place (the school building) where they learn, but they learn from the whole globe. The center of their learning is becoming a personal learning environment (PLE) which is supported by WEB 2.0 software and applications capable of interacting even among themselves (RSS, FOAM, Atom). The parallelism with the student interaction is obvious. Today the learning processes are distributed over the whole Internet in multiple locations. Today students collaboratively learn from multiple sources using multiple software and multiple digital identities. The aggregation and integration of interaction processes occur in the centre of the Web2.0 space, usually called a personal learning environment (PLE). Scott Wilson called this space a virtual learning environment (VLE) in 2005. His diagram (shown here) has been modified by many since then. It is interesting to note that the e-portfolios are seen in five different capacities, each contributing with different data. This makes the e-portfolio highly interactive, not static, technology suitable for educational purposes.

The new paradigm of learning which stresses creative, lateral, non-linear thinking, which can be practiced only by reflection in a collaborative learning way, where a dialogue is of the upmost importance between and among teachers and students, among students themselves, between the school and the community: the school as a community of lifelong learners. This approach demands a great flexibility in the learning methods and flexible and open learning systems.

Students do not have only one teacher for a course or subject, but many teachers, mentors, advisors, critical friends, including numerous peer-students outside the walls of the schools, as today`s students spend more

What are my plans?

F I R S T LY

S E C O N D LY

T H I R D LY

Firstly, I plan to introduce the e-portfolio in my school as part of an e-learning program with ten year old students on account of its enormous educational potential. I will not only use the e-Portfolio alone, but together other currently widely used Web 2.0 applications in order to create a personal learning environment (PLE) for each student which is vital for deep, personalized learning.

Secondly, I will try to persuade the highly motivated teachers to start using the eportfolio in their personal development planning (PDP). The-portfolio will help them to visualize what they usually do and try to achieve.

Thirdly, I will also try to persuade both teachers and their students to use the e-portfolio for the formative assessment of student work which is free of any stressful activity, liked both by students and teachers alike..

21

Reshaping Schools ICT? Make the way for Programming!

by Yasemin Allsop Watching a Hollywood movie a few months ago brought many thoughts to my mind. The old wise monk was sitting in his mountain top monastery. He was getting ready his tea and also having a conversation with his student. The student had so many worries about what was happening in the world. The monk took the tea-cup and began to fill it. As it overflowed from the younger monk’s tea cup, spilling tea onto the table. The student monk held out his hand to signal to the elder to stop pouring. He told him it is full. The old monk answers: “Like this cup you are full of opinions and speculations. To see the light of wisdom, you must first, empty your cup.”

Some may ask what the link is between this conversation and ICT in education.

Well, I believe that our ICT lessons have not been as boring as some politicians suggest. Some of us had cracking lessons.

ALICE Alice is a 3D programming environment where pupils can create animation or tell a story via animated videos or simple video games. It is freely available on the Inetrnet and enables students to learn basic fundementals of computer programming. www.alice.org

SCRATCH Scratch is a programming language which puils can use it to create and share interactive stories, animations, games, music and art. http://scratch.mit.edu/

It is rather about the content of our technology lessons, how it has been delivered and made relevant to students.

Yes programming will probably enrich our lessons and take it to a different stage, but research shows that there are so many amazing tools that we have been using also have a great potential to implement technology into our curriculum. The example from the Holywood movie reminds me that the students brains are like a cup and we have to stop filling it up with irrelevant knowledge and spend more time on transferrable skills to equip them with the wisdom of life.

apply and develop their own ideas. Much of this knowledge won’t even be remembered, as it is not useful for life!

So the issue is not about technology, or which tool is better, it is more about how we approach education in the whole. You can tell a group of children how to create an animation, but then if you do not give them enough time to plan and work on a project, how will they develop their applying skills, or team working, organisation, creating, critical thinking or most importantly communication?

At that point I would like to mention another movie which was about Hypathia, the great teacher from Alexandrea. She asks the children many questions, yet doesn’t just stand and tell them everything she knows, she allows them to think and experiment with their ideas, sometimes for months.

Well, some may ask ‘Is technology is the only way to achieve this?’ and the answer is, of course not, you can use drama, PE and many other subejcts, however, the kids love technology, so why not use it to reach and teach them. I haven’t tried programming with a class yet.

I will start teaching it from September. We will see how it goes. So, come on give programming a chance, lets find out if we can re-shape our ICT in our classroom.

So when we translate this to today, we are very good at firing thousands of pieces of information and knowledge at our students, but not giving them enough time to 22

www.ictinpractice.com

23

EDITOR Yasemin Allsop

Š ictinpractice.com All materials are strictly copyright and all rights are reserved. Reproduction of any materials from this

yallsop@ictinpractice.com

magazine without permission is strictly forbidden. We accept no liability in respect of any material submitted by users and published by us and we are not

Published by

responsible for its content and accuracy.

ictinpractice.com London, UK

24