Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Christchurch sharing

I have just spent two days with my fellow efellows in Christchurch with Vince from CORE. We shared parts of our projects and had sessions on the presentation techniques in preparation for ULearn 09.
We were shown the do's and don'ts of powerpoint presentations - with some incredibly valuable tips. I'm thinking I'll be spending some hours looking for great visual metaphors
We were also given some great tutoring from a toastmaster and toastmistress to help us deliver our presentations with confidence. They gave us tips on how to stand and for some of us how not to clench hands - this will be my little challenge.
It was really nice to be reconnected with my efellows to share the highs and some of the lows and lots of laughs.
We looked again at what Literacy is now that we have completed our project tasks and viewed readings and been part of professional development discussions. We also looked at whether we have changed the way we think about literacy.
It was a very valuable, reflective and reinvigorating busy two days.

Project update

Gosh it has certainly been a while since I last updated my blog.
This doesn't mean I haven't been working on my project it must mean I've been hectic.

Towards the end of last term my students continued writing their stories and loved accepting online feedback. They responded extremely well to any feedback they received and waiting for more after they uploaded their new drafts.
As well as continuing to write their stories they were also asked to create illustrations that would reflect their stories. These illustrations were to be used to bring their stories to life through movie maker or photostory.
By giving the students this creative hands on ICT task it meant they were rereading and reshaping their stories when they recognised errors either with grammar, structure or the delivery of their story.
The next stage of their online presentation was to practice reading their stories out loud, practising expression, change of voice for different characters and fluency in the telling of their story. Once they were confident with this part they were able to record the story and and the recording to their movie.
It has been interesting to notice the children's self assessments of their recordings. Some have listened to their movie and others and have asked to record it again as they feel they could improve it.
The final chapter for these children in this project has been to upload their movie into the class wiki our stories page and wait for more feedback.These Year 3 and 4 students have become extremely competitive and reflective about their online work.
While I still have a lot of work to do to prepare my presentation for the ULearn 09 conference in October, I have been very impressed with how the children have continued to be motivated by the online learning and feedback. I asked them to complete a survey to help round my project off. Almost all of the students would like to continue to have input from an online audience in a wider range of learning areas. The parents that returned a similar survey enjoyed the process and many commented that they felt they saw a different side to their child. They also enjoyed being given the opportunity and guidance to give feedback to more than just their own child.