managing ict managing ict
Increasingly, gaming
students’ enthusiasm at receiving new laptops
sometimes wanes within a few weeks, the interest for
consoles are being accepted
PSPs remains strong 18 months on. Most encouraging
is the way disaffected students become newly engaged
by the visual content they are able to capture.”
as a useful tool in education.
Alison Carter, Longwill School for Deaf
We hear from three
Children, Birmingham
teachers who are using the
“Longwill School has a combination of both deaf and
hearing teachers. Over the last 18 months we have
used PSPs to help teach profoundly deaf learners for
PlayStation Portable device
whom British Sign Language is their first language, and
English is their second language.
in their classrooms
At Longwill, our main aim is to develop pupils’
skills, helping them to function independently in both
the hearing and the deaf world. I am always looking for
ways to use ICT to provide innovative e-solutions for
Paul Quinn, The Harefield Academy, London
engaging pupils in learning, and more specifically as
“We have been using PSPs for over two years in a number a tool to overcome barriers to learning relating to our
of specific areas including PE, A level ICT, drama and profoundly deaf pupils.
English. In PE we have been using the gaming console Having completed a case study on our pilot of PSPs
with the attached camera to record video of our training last year, we concluded that the devices were of benefit
sessions. This enables us to not only provide video in raising levels of parental engagement with school
footage of the gymnasts as they perform, but we can and learning in general.
replay and watch each movement frame by frame. Consequently, we made the decision to roll out the
This means we are able to view the performances PSPs to the entire school and since September 2008,
in fine detail, which is useful for helping to refine and every pupil has acquired one of their own. To ensure
perfect sequences.
With students able to instantaneously review their
recorded activities, they can easily assess their individual
performance via identifying incorrect movements. This
encourages personal critical analysis of their activities A portable
parents were adequately prepared, Longwill provided
them with training sessions on how to use them safely
and effectively.
The pupils travel daily between home and school
with their PSP, and I am pleased to say they all take
and means that if unsatisfied with any of the performance great care of their own device. We have received
they could ascertain how it could be improved. positive feedback, with staff and parents commenting
The ability to load media-rich content, as well as
html pages and jpegs of PowerPoint slides, allows the
A level ICT students to access learning content on an
individual basis. Students also use the device to record
their responses to tasks set via the PSP which can then
approach
on how beneficial they are in improving home-school
links and overall communication.
Furthermore, the school has discovered that we
can use the PSPs as a means of providing a wealth of
information to parents which fulfils the government’s
be uploaded and shared with peers via the network or online reporting target.
interactive whiteboards. We are also using the PSPs to share the phonics
Increasingly used in drama and English when work which is being undertaken by their children in
working on role-play, hot-seating and groupwork, the learning environment in which new ICT opportunities Trade which each child within the school had a role school. We make video clips of what we refer to as
PSPs encourage instant feedback on oral skills, use of are constantly explored. At Holyhead School we have in. The students recorded video and images relating to “Visual Phonics by Hand”. So now phonics learning
expression and movement. Again, as with PE, this helps co-ordinated a pilot using PSPs in modern foreign the topic of Fair Trade which they then presented in a can happen at school and at home, with parents who
to develop students’ critical analysis skills.” language, geography and history lessons. school assembly. feel supported as they endeavour to help their child
We used the portable devices in various ways; Young people can relate to this form of technology with learning.
Emily Blain, Holyhead Secondary School,
in geography the students used the video camera to and as it is something many of them would choose to Several authorities are now following Longwill’s
develop a glossary of images focusing on the town of use in their personal time, are inspired by using them example and exploiting the PSP’s potential to support
West Bromwich
Warwick. within education too. not only deaf sign bilingual pupils, but also those in
“We pride ourselves on providing an innovative With the students, I also developed a project on Fair Another difference I have observed is that while mainstream settings.” SecEd
10 SecEd • may 7 2009
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