Innovation Project - "We are bloggers!"

Innovation project - “We are bloggers!”

Name and characteristics of the Centre.

The innovation project I have chosen is called “We are bloggers!”. This innovation project is currently being done by Elians British School in la Nucía.

This is a private school, were you can study from Early Ages to Sixth form (including primary and secondary education).

This is a bilingual school, situates in the province of Alicante, in La Nucía. In this school there is a variety of abilities and nationalities, such as Spanish, English, Chinese, Japanese, Norwegian, Russian, French,…

Area where the Innovation Project Works.

There area where this innovation project is taking part is in the subject of ICT.

Also, this innovation project, as I have said below in the objectives they make cross-curricular links with other subject areas, such as in  English language and Art and DT.

What are the objectives of the project?

This innovation project is done in English and  requires the students to set up a blog account and send blogs regarding themselves, our school and interesting things we do.

The objectives are: to use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly and recognise acceptable and unacceptable behaviour online (this follows on from our previous topic about online safety which was theory, so now the children have the opportunity to put it into practice); to select, use and combine a variety of software on a range of digital devices; and to design and create a range of content, including presenting information to others.

They also, make cross-curricular links with other subject areas: English language: in the areas of reading, writing and editing work, and Art and DT: in the areas of designing and photography.

What kind of participants have taken part?

The participants are children from a private, and bilingual school in La Nucía (Alicante), where there is mixed ability and various nationalities, which include: English, Scottish, Russian, Spanish, Norwegian and Chinese students.  The participants of this project are children from year 6, which have between 10 and 11 years.  In this school there are 2 classes of year 6, and both are taking part in the innovation project. A total of 49 students are taking part in this project.

What type of  activities  have been proposed?

Students taking part in this project have been doing and are doing a variety of activities, this activities include, for example: writing  and reading in English (writing their post, reading their classmates posts and writing a comment) and activities related to doing photographs and then loading them up to the blog. The students taking part had or are going to have each week a different activity to complete.

The first week students needed to learn how to create a blog and sign into the blog account, edit work, save drafts and submit their post for review as well as viewing other posts and making a comment The second week they needed to introduce themselves in their first blog in an interesting way.  For example (with prompt questions):

-My dream holiday would be...

-If I could be an animal it would be...because...

-If I had a super power for a day it would be...because...

-The funniest thing that has ever happened to me was when...

-The most disgusting food I have ever eaten was...

-When I grow up I want to be a ... because...

-They have also had to think about what information they can include or should not include to make themselves safe online (ie. not disclosing their surnames or specific information about where they live etc)

The third week they needed to create their own 'avatar' character, using a program,  and then writing about what it tells us about them. The fourth week they needed to walk around school and take interesting photos with a christmas/winter theme (using Ipads then uploading their photos) for a best photo competition. In the fifth week they needed to design their own emojis/use emojis, inserted into text to tell a brief story or create emoji mathematics problems. And the last week they have completed until now, they needed to write about and describe all the exciting Christmas events we have in school, for example de Christmas jumper day, secret Santa, Christmas show etc. 

Everything they do will be posted to share with others. 

The teachers involved in this project double checked everything for security reasons before everything was posted.

It analyses the results obtained and makes a brief reflection about the project

The children take part in this project had lots of fun using technology in an interesting way and for a meaningful purpose, which was to communicate with others in a safe forum.

Parents are very happy and interested in this project as they know that their children are having a good education on technology, on how to use the technologies safely and with responsibility.

All children have been able to access the project despite any difficulties with learning.

Some authors such as Mark Thompson, say that students writing blogs have many benefits, such as: it exercises the students creativity, it makes that Students write regularly and this sharpens the Brain´s performance, it also promotes expression of self, it boosts confidence and improves the communication skills; and all this in a future could make students earn income!

Their post are live and available for others to see so they have to check the content.

Here I leave you the link to the blog, incase you would like to have a look. They have some posts. But they continue posting new posts by students.

http://eliansyearsix.edublogs.org/

References:

Thomson. M. (2018, 21 junio) Why Your Students Should Blog: 6 powerful Benefits| Emerging Education Technologies. Recuperado 14 diciembre, 2019, de https://www.emergingedtech.com/2018/04/why-your-students-should-blog-6-powerful-benefits/