EICE Awards winners 2014

EICE Awards winners 2014

From over 200 nominations, there were some deserving finalists for the Education Innovation Awards 2014 with the winners being announced at EICE in Manchester, congratulations to all of the winners and finalists.

Special thanks to the Awards sponsors:

Teach Primary Magazine

Innovate my School

FE week

University Business Magazine

NIACE

And the winners are…….

Category: Primary (sponsored by Teach Primary Magazine)

Winner: Layton Primary School

Location: Blackpool

Number of Pupils: 608

At the end of September 2012 our blogging journey at Layton Primary School began. One particular class embraced blogging more than others with the children taking real ownership of the content posted. By the time Class 6J were leaving school in July, their blog had had over 21,000 hits, boys were engaged in writing and there was a 300% increase in Level 5 writing.

Children were sharing their work with schools around the world, with every child having their own individual blog page and taking part in the 100 word challenge every week. A class Twitter account was set up, which was linked to the blog, where children could share work with parents/carers and other schools. In addition Flickr gallery was linked to the blog so parents/carers could see pictures of their children at work. An app club was also set up where children tested apps and shared their reviews on the blog, along with work they had completed in class using the apps on the iPads and MacBooks.

Class assemblies were live streamed with Bambuser and literacy lessons taught with other schools using Live-Writing through the blog. During school writing weeks children created their own animations using iMovie and Smoovie, then using Vimeo to host their animations and embed into the blog.

Children in 6J became digital leaders supporting staff and children across the school in Blogging and using technology to support learning. Gradually other teachers became enthused and shared the success with the children in their class, this was then like a domino effect on using technology.

Category: Colleges (sponsored by FE Week)

Name: Oldham College

Location: Greater Manchester

Number of Pupils: 3,500

During the 2012/13 academic year Oldham College embarked on an innovative eLearning curriculum initiative which replaced taught subjects on a large scale. Without using timetabled teachers the courses are delivered via Moodle either in one of the College’s Learning Resource Centres or remotely with students accessing the resources from home.

Support is available from Learning Resources Centre staff throughout and automated tracking reports are provided to curriculum teams to enable them to see student progress and achievement

The qualifications completed are: Internet Safety Level 1, Personal Finance Level 1, Health & Safety Level 1, Environmental Sustainability Levels 1 and 2, Healthy Living Level 1 and 2.

The work completed in the Moodle course is linked to a tracked report and onto the formal Ascentis accredited online assessment which takes place in the College’s Online Assessment Centre. The assessments are taken at a time to suit the individual student and, therefore, offer a truly personalised delivery model.

The introduction of this curriculum enabled the College to be innovative in its deployment of teachers contracted hours. With the income from these qualifications it enabled the College to transfer these teaching hours into additional one-to-one tutorials to further support our students with their studies and monitor their individual progress on their main qualifications.

Over 2,000 qualifications have been successfully achieved by students with the highest uptake on the Internet Safety which demonstrates an innovative and successful approach to eSafety delivery.

In addition, the College’s Moodle curriculum offer continues to grow and offer independent learning and added value opportunities for all staff across the whole of the curriculum. On average the College Moodle site experiences around 4,000 unique student logins per month.

Category: University Category (sponsored by University Business Magazine)

Name: University Campus (Oldham)

Location: Greater Manchester

Number of Pupils: c1000

At the University Campus Oldham we have a dynamic team of lecturers committed to the use of technology to support learning and development. Students integrate emerging technology and online collaborative learning tools for group support, research and assessment. These include: Prezi, Twitter, Facebook, Moodle and the use of audio feedback in formative work.

Prezi is used as a visual research tool on the BA (Hons) Digital Arts. Students collect information in response to a brief or made drawings and uploaded them to a group Prezi projected on the screen, which showed live uploads appearing in real time, and also an avatar representing each active student so that every group member could see what the others were doing and could view the pool of information growing on the screen.

Twitter is used for backchannel discussions using hashtags on the Teacher Education courses. Staff and alumni contribute to the conversations, sharing resources and providing mentoring support. Moodle is fully integrated into the teacher Education courses, providing blended learning opportunities including group chat and discussion fora.

Facebook is used to share work in progress and provide peer review and critique. This process occurs naturally on some course, and is part of the course design on others. It generates vital collaboration and informal mentorships and new friendships between the year groups. Audio feedback is used for formative and summative feedback as part of electronic submission of work on the Teacher Education courses. External examiners have praised this method as both innovative and inclusive.

Category: Secondary (sponsored by Innovate My School)

Name: Pool Academy

Location: Cornwall

Number of Pupils: 950

This year we have put in place a 1:1 student to iPad system and the results have been an explosion of innovative ICT embedded across the curriculum! Not only has this unleashed the creative potential of our amazing teachers, but it has also give students a powerful new range of tools to express themselves not to mention destroying the digital divide.

This term alone we have seen teachers setting differentiated group homework using google drive- so students can work together on documents at the same time even though they are in different places. In science we’ve seen students discovering physics by making slow motion speed camera videos of model cars. The DT department now marks work using videos with the teacher exploring the projects that they have made so it frees up their time in lessons. In RE we’ve got students creating virtual Mosques in Minecraft instead of the usual cardboard- so they can show everyone around using the apple tv and projector.

Our “e-Merit” system was written by our ICT department. Teachers use an app (written by us) to scan qr codes on students planner to reward positive behaviour. Students can then use their app (again written by the ICT team) to see how many “emerits” they have received, a chart of their tutor group peers’ merits and also spend them in an online shop.

We are absolutely amazed by the advances we have made- from simply being able to show each student’s work on the whiteboard with a few taps or using the camera to more complicated subject specific apps that let students virtually dissect frogs!

Category: Adult Learning (sponsored by NIACE)

Name: SPP Pumps

Location: Forest of Dean

Number of Staff: 250

SPP Pumps has been a world leader in the design manufacture and production of centrifugal pumps and systems for a variety of applications across a range of industries for 130 years and has recently engaged in a scheme to actively engage employees in learning.

Based in Coleford in The Forest of Dean, the company employs 300 people worldwide, about 250 locally. During 2013, the company became involved in the Workplace Learning Advocates (WLAs) scheme - a project managed by Workbase, which trains employees to promote learning at work.

The Engineering Manager was the first to train as a WLA through a blended learning approach, with support from a Workbase regional adviser. She then trained as a maths champion and encouraged employees to carry out some online maths questionnaires. This led to a series of 'Making Ends Meet' evening workshops - looking at money management and maths with the kids. Very practical top tips were shared for saving money, such as using Ebay and Freecycle. Practical and ethical considerations, like fuel costs and the impact of the supermarket on the local economy were also discussed. Employees used IT to look at support for themselves and their families.

The outcomes were shared with a newly appointed HR Manager and she has supported an employee who attended the workshops to train as a WLA. She started the training face-to-face, before completing it through a short online course and is now being supported to take learning forward across the company. She receives guidance via emails from the adviser, also E-shots with free local and online training opportunities to share with employees. She is planning to set up opportunities on the Company Intranet and it is hoped further workshops will take place in the near future.