Podcasting en masse...

The whole class have been effectively contributing simultaneously this morning.

Animation...

As with much of ACfE, it can be hard to know which of the capacities an "experience" fits into, though I suppose that that's partly the point - cross-cutting themes and cross-curricular learning are, after all, at the heart of ACfE.

How and ever, I think that group work type things - when done well - tend to slot quite neatly into the "Effective Contributor" area and that's where I've chosen to place this experience.

With three "Digiblue" cameras at our disposal, the task for the 21 children was to work in roughly year groups (7 P7s, 7 P5s and a group with 2 P7s, 1 P5 and 4 P6s) with the overall aim being:

"create a stop-motion animation film with a Christmas theme"

with a couple of associated tasks:

"create a podcast about your experience of working in a large group and come up with an original piece of artwork for your cover, containing a 'blurb' and a 'tagline' "

I could drone on and on about HOW the groups worked (mostly well, one or two disputes, lots of laughs) and WHAT they might have got out of it (knowledge of the software, mathematical concepts around counting, time and estimating, lots of laughs) and so on, but I truly believe that the best evidence is what they produced.

Now, for the time being, I'm not able to host their podcasts so here's a link to the films they made. Enjoy...and please comment.

Primary 5

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=7165747167531107635&hl=en-GB

Primary 7

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=4677478112320892102&hl=en-GB

Primary 6 (with help from some 5’s and 7’s)

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-1379745491693145341&hl=en-GB

How is this going to work?

I'm not entirely sure of the best format for this, though I suppose I'll learn as I go along and amend procedures accordingly, in line with the very best principles of formative assessment and A Curriculum for Excellence, I'm sure you'll agree.

What I think I'd like to do is to put up postings which share the learning intentions and success criteria of a "learning experience" and to accompany this with photos/videos/podcasts showcasing what the children have been doing and how they've interacted with the experience.

This will allow me to make evaluative, formative statements or comments and this will - hopefully - enable me to inform my future practice.

Well, it sounds good...