Introduction | Latest Activities | Projects 2006-7 | Extended Projects | Archived Projects
Latest activities: Events and dissemination (2006-07)
BETT Show, 13 January 2007
Visitors to BETT 2007 at Olympia in London were able to hear Peter Morris of Gordano School describe how his Year 7 pupils engaged in extended and spontaneous online writing activities using a wiki, while Project Co-ordinator, Terry Cooper, gave a presentation on the Languages ICT web portal in which he focused on action research developments. ALL, supported by CILT, represented languages on the Subject Association Advice Centre stand.
You can read a full account of Peter’s action research project on these pages. You can also view a video of BETT 2007 on Teacher’s TV.
Digital video in action, 1 March 2007
12 teachers in the East Midlands have joined the Digital video in action project, launched with a hands-on training day at Brookvale High School in Groby near Leicester. Ian King, a teacher at the school, guided participants in the use of digital video with pupils, sharing his experiences in the classroom and hands-on editing skills. Terry Cooper, Project Coordinator, and Gill West, Comenius East Midlands Regional Manager, worked with teachers to structure and plan their own digital video action research projects.
Ged Hockey of Weavers School, Northants, led a discussion of digital video work produced with his pupils in the pilot project of 2005-06. There was also time to view a selection of videos produced by pupils and teachers taking part in the earlier Digital Video in the MFL Classroom project, an initiative from CILT in collaboration with the BBC 21CC (21st Century Classroom).
This new Leicester-based network of action researchers will come together for 2 twilight meetings to share experiences and plan future digital video action research. Findings of this year’s projects will be published during the summer.
Languages and ICT in action, 8 March 2007
Halifax High School was the venue for a one-day event in collaboration with Comenius Yorkshire and The Humber. More than 35 teachers, recruited locally, attended presentations and hands-on workshops led by members of the network based in Halifax. Teachers heard about the role of podcasting in developing listening skills, and had practical experience of working with digital audio and video.
Plenaries, introducing participants to the principles and practice of classroom-based action research, were led by Terry Cooper, Project Coordinator, and Wendy Adeniji, Halifax-based Network Coordinator. Richard Hammond from Becta outlined the new Self-review framework for schools and Simon Green, Comenius Yorkshire and The Humber Regional Manager, highlighted the possibilities offered by Comenius Centres in the region.
The network members who shared their action research experiences were
- Cally Berry, Skipton Girls High School
- Nicola Dean, Brooksbank School, Elland, W. Yorks
- José Godoy, Halifax High School
- Amy Parker, Dixons City Academy, Bradford
Language World 2007
This year’s Language World conference in Oxford hosted by the Association for Language Learning, featured a strand of Languages ICT Action Research sessions on Friday 30 March. Teachers who completed projects in 2005-06 led the sessions, presenting their projects and findings with samples of pupil work. Information on Becta’s self-review framework was also shared with colleagues.
In “From PowerPoint to Wikimania” Peter Morris of Gordano School and Khalid Mahmood of Holte Visual and Performing Arts College presented their action research. Peter used Wikis (easily set-up and moderated websites) to enable pupils to work together, writing, editing and reading each other’s work, and explored how far a teacher needs to intervene and moderate. Khalid used PowerPoint in a Year 9 fast-tracked GCSE Urdu class to develop confidence in speaking and reading skills.
In “Harnessing multimedia”, Richard Henderson of Billingham Campus School and Fiona Hilton of Brinsworth School explored the use of digital video, mobile phones and authoring software to enable pupils to engage more deeply in the learning process. Richard guided Year 10 German pupils, with no experience of filming or editing, over an 8 week period to script, produce and edit a series of 3 minute videos about their school. Fiona worked with Year 10 French pupils using authoring software and video clips from mobile phones to create multimedia interactive materials around the theme of healthy living.
“Creating the virtuous circle” examined the use of interactive whiteboards and Classroom Performance Systems (CPS). Lizzie Hoskins of Redruth School used the interactive whiteboard to increase pace and motivate a low-achieving Year 8 group and her work has progressed into an extended action research project. The project on CPS, undertaken at Pilton Community College and summarised by Terry Cooper, Project Coordinator, focused on reading skills, with the software used to motivate Year 9 pupils and to address different elements of National Curriculum level descriptors with the aim of providing accurate assessment and targeted feedback.
Further dissemination
Articles have been published in the following Bulletins:
- MFL Issue 13, Spring 2007 (for secondary language teachers)
- MFL Issue 14, Summer 2007 (for secondary language teachers)
- Links Issue 34, Spring 2007 (for teacher trainers in languages)
These bulletins are available in hard copy via the CILT Direct service or for download from the CILT publications website the term following publication.
An article was also published in the March 2007 Language World newsletter, available to ALL members.
The termly ICT News Update available on this website keeps teachers informed of project developments and much more in relation to the use of ICT in the teaching and learning of languages. In addition to the current update there are archives of previous issues.
Members of the Association for Language Learning receive ALLNet, a regular email news bulletin, which contains postings about Languages ICT Action Research project developments. Major developments are also announced on the Linguanet-forum discussion list and the CILT News Service, available via the CILT web pages, email alert or RSS feed.
Looking ahead
Dependent on available funding 2007-08, CILT and ALL will develop opportunities available via the project to explore and disseminate effective and replicable practice, including through collaboration with the regional Comenius centres and their satellites.
