Hoeben’s Blog

For the past 15 years I have been involved in setting up international exchange programmes with Grassroots Theatre Company (GTC), a Zimbabwean performing arts company that specialises in Theatre for Development. In the past two years, the company has been running a festival called Sangansai Children’s Festival (SCF) in Masvingo, a rural district of Matableland in Southern Zimbabwe. The aims are to work with disadvantaged rural communities helping to raise awareness of social, health and general developmental issues affecting poverty, whilst also providing children with a sense of cultural pride and, of course, enjoyment. Children from local primary and secondary schools work with Grassroots’ facilitators for six weeks prior to the festival in preparation for a series of performances to a local audience of around 3000 people.

The festival is an ideal platform for developing  international links between children in the UK and Zimbabwe since GTC visit the UK every year, currently visiting Wales, Yorkshire, Norfolk and Scotland, and could help to facilitate communication. I was imagining the opportunity for a video-sharing project, where children could create a short 1-minute clip sharing a talent, which could be collated and projected during intervals during the festival. Likewise, our partnerships in the UK could help to build up a database of videos that could be continually added to.

Below is a short video of a parade with some of the participants from the festival singing through the village:

To find out more about GTC, visit their website or blog. If you are a teacher and interested in such a project or have other ideas, please get in touch.

This was a quick and easy slideshow using PulpMotion that transforms your pictures into a virtual gallery. I enjoyed showing this to my Year 7s using images of their own sculptures. You can also include video and a soundtrack.

Kiel Johnson’s Cardboard Twin Lens Reflex Camera Time Lapse from Theo Jemison on Vimeo.

My A-level students can only just about create a pin-hole camera using a pringles can….

Goollery is a site that documents the many projects that have been created using google-related applications. Below is an example of one such use where the user has created alphabet shapes using Google Earth. Please click here to visit the Gollery site.

Ollie Bray recently posted this useful video of himself discussing uses of Google Earth in a Teachmeet conference in Havering.

Love this response by one of my A2 Photography students, Amaryllis Garland, to the work of Laura Letinsky and her exam theme ‘discord’. You can see more of her work here.

The tradition genre of still life often bores students rigid, but by using more contemporary artists, the world of objects becomes far more interesting. I particularly like the work of Peter Fischli & David Weiss and Alina Szapocznikow, who is currently showing the The Photographers Gallery in London.

Magnetic Movie from Semiconductor on Vimeo.

This is a good example of how animation can be used to help explain difficult concepts using real-time footage and underlying invisible elements such as magnetic fields.

This is a beta application called 280 slides that has all the signs of being an excellent free online piece of software that acts like keynote or powerpoint allowing you to create presentations online and post them to sites such as slideshare. Microsoft are already working on a free online version of word – however, there are already a growing number of open source applications such as Google Docs that are already offering free online word processing that MS are a bit behind …for a change.

The above image was made through controlled voice sounds – by alternating the pitch and tone or your voice, you can literally draw an image. Click here to visit the application designed by zefrank.

This video is an example of how it is being used as a form of live performance art:

BECTA are responsible for developing the government’s e-strategy and have the official remit of “leading the national drive to ensure the effective and innovative use of technology throughout learning.” Last September 2008, Charles Crook and Colin Harrison from BECTA published a report called: ‘Web 2.0 Technologies for Learning at Key Stage 3 and 4′, and make the cautious case for further adoption of web 2.0 technology. Below are some extracts, which make interesting reading:

“Overall, although most learners use the internet for learning, there is only limited use of Web 2.0, and only a few embryonic signs of criticality, self-management and meta-cognitive reflection.”

“Many learners lack technical skills, and lack an awareness of the range of technologies and of when and how they could be used, as well as the digital literacy and critical skills to navigate this space. Teachers should be careful not to overestimate learners’ familiarity and skills in this area. There is a clear role for teachers in developing such skills.”

“Findings on impact are cautiously positive. The research team identified four potential benefits to learning and teaching from using Web 2.0 to establish and sustain a participatory, collaborative, creative ethos of enquiry. These were found in the data, though in differing degrees:

• Stimulating new modes of enquiry
• Engaging in collaborative learning activities
• Engaging with new literacies
• Online publication of content

When used effectively, Web 2.0 technologies had a positive impact on motivation and engagement through involving students in more participatory learning.”

You can see a video on the use of web 2.0 in education here.

There is a tenancy amongst teachers to assume that children/young people can essentially be self-taught when it comes to technology and that all they really require is access to new technologies. Although this progressive view of learning has its merits, especially for encouraging creativity, most people require some kind of theoretical understanding, which they can then subvert. Nevertheless, the creation of ICT as a subject has led to technology becoming a separate discipline with a fixed curriculum and has further excluded its collaborative use across schools.

There is a reluctance by many teachers to learn about new technologies over existing practices, since it is possible to satisfy the curriculum requirements by using teaching methods that predate computers.The use of technology has to be exciting and open up potential learning opportunities in order to motivate staff, whilst also being integral to the assessment process. In terms of CPD, there is a case for sharing current pedagogy that involves the use of technology within schools.

Blogs and RSS feeds are a useful way of disseminating good practice and departments should be encouraged to share their achievements in this way, along with, of course, the students. Fronter have a useful tool called ‘News’ on their MLE servie, which allows for this. However, it is only an internal system and does not encourage interaction with a wider, global audience like blog platforms such as Blogger and Wordpress.

I would be interested to know what other people think about how technology should be taught in schools?