Case+studies-learning+platforms


 * Case Study: Using Shaka in Primary Schools ||

‘Shaka Tameside’ is a new and exciting interactive website that includes many features associated with social networking sites and many features that can be used to help children learn. More details can be found here. This case study shows how Shaka might be used in a Primary School. Shaka was used in three Tameside Primary Schools in the summer term 2009 with Year 5 and 6 classes. An important issue for both schools and parents is online safety. One key feature of Shaka Tameside is that it allows pupils to log onto a safe, secure and monitored online environment. The first session was spent in class going over e-safety issues and discussing rules for using Shaka. Children have to agree to keep to the rules and there is an explanatory letter that can be sent home to parents. All children had a unique username and password that allowed them to log on. As it is a website it can be accessed at home. In this trial stage some schools decided to just allow access in school and there are settings that can easily be adjusted to allow access at certain times only. The Shaka site has a fun or social element that children really enjoyed. They could talk about their favourite music, books, television etc. They could pin notes on their notice board and make friends with others (the e-safety message was mentioned at the start of every lesson e.g. How do you know who you are talking to online?). There are three features that we used to support teaching and learning and the children found them really interesting and motivating. The forums, wiki and blog were very motivating and helped support teaching and learning. The social aspect of the site was a great tool for teaching e-safety. These sessions in Tameside primary schools shows just some of the ways Shaka can be used. If you would like to use Shaka in your school or need any more information click here. You can also contact your school ICT account manager. ||
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 * Forums - it is very easy to set up a forum and we started with some general ones to give the children the idea of how to post to a forum. They posted to forums such as 'What is your favourite television programme? Give a reason for your answer' or 'What is your favourite sport? Give a reason for your answer'. All children who are logged on can read and post to the forum. This made it motivating for children and they took some care with their post as they knew others would read it. They could also edit their own post so if they made a mistake they could go back and change it. Finally, they could read and make comments on other children's posts. When the children had understood how to use a forum we set questions related to the curriculum and these were very successful for generating thoughtful answers. It gave all children a voice and allowed them to respond to their peers.
 * Wikis - children were given a word connected with their Ancient Greece topic. They then had to research this word on the internet and post their findings on the Wiki for everyone to see (Hermes, Nike, trireme etc). In the wiki the information is in alphabetical order so it is like an online reference book. Children were able to read and comment on each others work.
 * Blog - children wrote their own blog. This could only be seen by their friends. It is like an online diary where they can do recounts and write about their thoughts and feelings.