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Transforming at Macclesfield High School!
As part of the Building Creative Partnerships programme, Year 7 students from Macclesfield High School recently took part in the first of three workshops with Year 5 and 6 pupils from Ivy Bank Primary School. The programme encourages able and gifted students to develop their ICT and media skills in three areas: blogging, animation and podcasting.
The first workshop, “Transformers”, enabled children from Years 5, 6 and 7 to work together to develop their blogging skills. A “blog” is an abbreviation for a “web log”, which is like a diary or journal entry on the Internet. The session was based on the film, “Transformers”, an action-packed movie which the children were able to use to explore technology in today’s society. The workshop introduced students to the concept of blogging and to the idea of building learning communities and sharing ideas. They each had to choose an Avatar (a physical representation of themselves on-line, rather like a cartoon character).
The students took part in free blogging where they explored philosophical questions raised in the film, for example, “Is black always bad and white always good”? Then they “blogged” (or talked to each other) about this issue on the transformer blog. Students explored several issues raised in the film before inserting their own page and developing their own questions to explore which they then posted on the blog.
The students also had to invent a piece of technology which could be transformed into something that would do good in the world. One student developed a toaster which transformed into a robot which could put an end to world poverty, ie. the toast would come out of the robot’s stomach! Students had to animate their technology and justify why it had a purpose for the good of the world.
The students’ newly-acquired skills had transformed their ability to communicate with each other. The group was ably assisted by two of Macclesfield High School’s Year 10 students, Philip Waite and James Taylor. Their commitment, maturity and ability to generate enthusiasm in the younger students for the tasks really enhanced their learning.
Mr Ward, Headteacher of Macclesfield High School, said: “This event was an excellent example of primary/secondary school liaison. Our students were very welcoming to the Ivy Bank pupils. They were willing to work with and support the younger pupils and demonstrated excellent team work as a result. The “Blogging” workshop was a huge success and a highly beneficial learning experience for both primary and secondary boys and girls. I am looking forward to the forthcoming “Animation” workshop which I know will be equally successful”.
For further details, please contact Miss Wilson on 01625 383100.
18.04.08