Tell It Like It Is
Back in the day job and I’m pretty pleased with this - we’ve been awarded Runners Up in the @A_L_T Technologist of the Year award for the work I’ve been collaborating over with @audioboo at Michael Faraday over the past few months.
Recognition, a cheque for £500 (heading straight to the school tech funds…) and hopefully more collaboration with audioboo across the other South London schools in which I work.
But the real value of the work is hopefully in helping the pupils on this project with their speech and language skills. The premise was that the ‘poverty of language’ [URGH] holds back progression. It’s a horrid term, but probably holds some truth.
The educational theory behind Talk Aloud was that if you have a poverty of language, you also restrict your own personal development.
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”
Or something.
But yer man Ludwig didn’t have the #edtech benefits of the modern interweb when he was theorising how the individual is defined by their vocabulary.
What the Tech Team at SE17 wanted to achieve with Talk Aloud was to allow the pupils to self-assess their communication skills using audioboo as an online platform.
What the Tech team at SE17 *really* wanted to achieve was to help grow the culture at Michael Faraday where tech tools are embedded across the complete school curriculum.
The pupils aren’t taught maths, literacy, science and ICT in isolation; tech tools are second nature when working with numbers, words or test tubes.
We’re getting there…
The nominative determinism of a South London school so rich with scientific heritage wasn’t lost on some.
@Jason_Cobb Good to see nominative determinism working as it should
— Stefan Czerniawski (@pubstrat) September 13, 2013
I like to think that the nominative determinism for Talk Aloud was that we were nominated for the award, and it was determined that we were half-decent…
Like all good scientific experiments, we needed an aim, a method, a result and a conclusion.
As explained in the *ahem* audioboo below, the aim was never to find a project in which we could shoehorn audioboo into. We wanted to address learning issues, and then see what online tools or platforms could offer a solution.
Audioboo just happened to be a brilliant fit.
The methodology involved working with Year 3 and Year 6 students. We asked each pupil to bullet-point ten ideas about their own lives, in less than ten minutes. This would form the narrative for the boos - kids are experts on their own self-identity.
We then went through the process of recording a short boo, unscripted, using the bullet points to tell the listener a little more about the lives of the pupils.
“My name is Charlie, I like Millwall, McDonalds and…”
Um…
Which is more or less what we expected. Some initial boos were OUTSTANDING - which made phase two slightly tricky…
This is where the teaching took over. A detailed literacy programme then followed, with each pupil being given guidance on how they can improve the structure, delivery and language in their recordings. Year 3 looked at adjectives; Year 6 were encouraged to explore connectives.
The recording process was then completed with an unscripted second recording of each pupil being made. The three-minute audioboo time limit was pushed to the limit on almost every recording. The results were inspiring, and ultimately measurable in terms of educational improvement.
Ten out of ten.
We then celebrated the project with a presentation - posh cake, fizzy pop and the visit of some local politicians and press.
It all worked.
Recognition from the Association of Learning Technology will hopefully allow the model to be rolled out elsewhere. Feedback has certainly been positive at the #altc2013 conference in Nottingham this week.
Audio Boo project at Michael Faraday school such simple use of tech, yet so effective. Impressive #altc2013
— Paul Madley (@onepablo) September 11, 2013
Excellent presentation about a talking project at Michael Faraday Primary School…#altc2013 using technology appropriately
— Helen Heywood (@skillsacademic) September 11, 2013
And so what next?
We’re not entirely sure, but we are convinced that the belief in developing a culture of #edtech awareness across the entire curriculum is the solution. Teaching staff have been great in realising that to fear the tech is to stand still, both in the development of the pupils and their own professional careers.
Oh - and audioboo are absolutely ACE.
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