This project involved 1 mixed gender class of Year 5 pupils and their teachers from Blessed Sacrament Primary school. The aim was not only to increase motivation and to engage pupils with the curriculum but also to prove a relationship between the use of Smartphones and attainment gains. The project used cutting edge Smartphone GPS technology, the mediascape toolkit and a local history trail mediascape developed by the Deputy Head Morgan Williams and Islington CLC staff. The trail involved walking along the Regents Canal through Kings Cross Station to St Pancras Station using GPS technology to trigger pictures and sounds on the Smartphones. The pupils were asked to take pictures at various locations (by the audio on the Smartphone). The project took pupils out of the school environment to follow a mediascape (learnign trail).
Action Taken
Working in partnership with the Islington CLC team and the Deputy Head from Blessed Sacrament Primary we designed and built a mediascape based on Primary National Strategy History schemes of work - comparing how the area looked in Victorian times to how it looks today.
In the first delivery session we taught the pupils how to use the Smartphones properly and gave them some background information on the learning aims and context and how the GPS technology worked. In the second session we gave pupils phones and escorted them as they followed the mediascape's instructions describing what activities to do. The Smartphones were used to take pictures which were stored in the phone. In the third session the children produced a PowerPoint Presentation of the Learning Trail.
Outcomes
The project was a resounding success in that it motivated learning for well over three hours and raised attainment. The class returned to the schools ICT suite in the afternoon and created PowerPoint presentations about their findings. We encouraged the learners to demonstrate their understanding and support their findings inspiring further work around the issues raised. The mediascape presented activities to pairs of pupils which reinforced the need to be able to work collaboratively.
Conclusions / Findings
The Blessed Sacrament project reinforced our prediction that GPS technology helps young people associate business and leisure and can be used to promote learning. The pupils responded extremely well to the project and were fully engaged with both the content and technology.
Morgan Williams (Deputy Head) said: "The Trail brought learning to life for the children. They were very excited and proud to be the first school to be using GPS technology on a Learning Trail"
The project also demonstrated that utilising innovative technology can amplify learning experiences. Attainment successes were significant and were observed by teachers during the trail and when producing their PowerPoint Presentations.
The project was filmed and photographed and a short video will be available on the Islington CLC website soon.