Language, Learners and the Power of New Technologies

Children love using interactive voting systems. They motivate and inspire young people and when used effectively, can even help teachers reduce their workload. They can be used to stimulate discussion, encourage debate, gather ideas and share opinions. Most importantly they are fun, rewarding to use and encourage the pupil’s voice.

Scotland’s learners are to aspire to be effective contributors, but how can teachers find new ways to ensure the participation and confidence of even the most reluctant communicators? New technologies are simply not worth the investment if they can’t deliver the aspirations embodied within Curriculum for Excellence. Learner response technology has evolved rapidly in recent years and through the use of Promethean’s new technology, you will see examples of practice highlighting pupils’ response with text and numbers, as well as multiple-choice answers. Developments of this kind have created a whole new learning environment.

Participants will be included in a hands-on session, allowing them to experience learner response technology in a real-class lesson. We will also showcase a variety of case studies linking to different outcomes within the Scottish curriculum; including literacy, numeracy, expressive arts and science. There will be a particular emphasis on the use of technology to improve formative assessment. Data can be saved allowing teachers to review past lessons at any time and uploaded to a VLE for teachers, pupils and parents to view.

We believe that good teachers use good resources and a learner response system should be in every 21st century Teachers toolbox.

Ollie Bray, Musselburgh Grammar School, East Lothian Council

Ollie Bray is Deputy Head Teacher at Musselburgh Grammar School (www.mgsonline.org.uk) and Geography subject support coordinator for East Lothian. 

He has won numerous awards for classroom practice and project development, including a Royal Geographical Society Innovative Teaching Award, two Learning and Teaching Scotland ICT Enhancement Awards and a Microsoft / SQA Partners in Learning Award.

He has contributed to the publication four textbooks and various other on-line and off line resources.
Recently he became one of the first teachers in Scotland to be appointed as a CEOP Ambassador (Child Exploitation Online Protection Agency).

Ollie is a member of the Association of Outdoor Learning and a full member of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors (AMI).

His learning log can be found at www.olliebray.com