Discovering Poetic Licence and the ability to fly.

A journey towards E –Maturity

Draft 2.

Using Blogs as a way to allow children autonomy over their learner journey and a tool to find and

communicate their voice with in a supportive learning community.

The Aerodynamic Failures of the Humble Bumble Bee.

A metaphor possibly relating to: The exploration of critical thinking and
interaction, within our Digital world.

Thoughts behind the title:

Reflections in research:
The increasing use of technology in all aspects of society makes confident, creative and productive use of ICT
an essential skill for life. ICT capability encompasses not only the mastery of technical skills and techniques,
but also the understanding to apply these skills purposefully, safely and responsibly in learning, everyday life
and employment. ICT capability is fundamental to participation and engagement in modern society.
ICT can be used to find, develop, analyse and present information, as well as to model situations and solve
problems. ICT enables rapid access to ideas and experiences from a wide range of people, communities and
cultures, and allows pupils to collaborate and exchange information on a wide scale. ICT acts as a powerful
force for change in society, and citizens should have an understanding of the social, ethical, legal and
economic implications of its use, including how to use ICT safely and responsibly. Increased capability in the
use of ICT supports initiative and independent learning, as pupils are able to make informed judgements
about when and where to use ICT to enhance their learning and the quality of their work.

National Stratergies Statement.

Digital technology provides us all with opportunities to participate in new kinds of learning…However, only those with
critical thinking skills and experience of digital technologies will be able to both harness these opportunities and
discriminately use them, rather than avoiding them or accepting them passively… Digital literacy provides an opportunity
to link established canons of knowledge with popular cultures.
Critical thinking for our digital world. BECTA Research piece in progress.

The increasing digitalisation of the world, “Will require digital literacy of all children for their full participation in society.”

(Rose. J. 2009.)

Technology, for me can be related to the humble bumble bee. Aerodynamically it should be impossible for the
bee to fly, but it does. Fir me, Technology can offer the potential for our children to fly, when perhaps, in the
view of some, they shouldn’t, but again, just don’t tell them, watch and find pleasure.

I have the privilege of having many flyers within my school, two of their “Flights” I would like to share
here as exemplifications of the potential technology possesses in allowing our children to achieve
autonomy over their learning.
The Narration of a Learning Journey.

The Abstract:
This piece of work you are about to read serves as a narration through one project conducted with a year two
class. The projects focus looked at how we as teachers can move more towards the role of facilitators,
allowing the children to have autonomy over their learner journey. Through out the study narration clips,
images and views have been used to both exemplify ideas and thoughts that I might not clearly articulate and
to serve as a accompanying visual narration of what actually happened, illustrating the ideas and pedagogies
with real pieces of learning.

If as adults we believe that sustained thinking, possibility thinking, questioning and interacting with the world
are key skills that ultimately allow children to become great learners, shouldn’t we allow for some part the
children the opportunity of have complete autonomy over what they study? How they apply and display their
understanding? How they use the skills that we model, directly teach? How they develop, rehearse and revise
such learning with our facilitation rather than direction? Leading ultimately to a point in their journey where
they are both confident in developing the skills they have learn and confident in using them to innovate, create
and publish their learning to a supportive audience.

Putting political power behind this possibly personal perspective

What about the digitalised world, Next Generation Learner?

Does technology not offer us a way of interconnecting ideas, innovations, thoughts, ethics and responses to the wolrd in
which we live instantaneously? This isn’t just important to our children, its import to our next generation, of which we will
still be part of, therefore having a stake and responsibility.

http://www.ted.com/talks/gordon_brown.html
Arriving at independence.
 Flight One: Millie and The Highwayman.
www.pleasurereaders.blogspot.com
http://pleasurereaders.blogspot.com/2008/01/highway-man_2188.html
Following the impact of the poetry project and implications and potentials the use of technology unlocked
within our learning community, we decided to use the blogging format to continue developing home school
relations. Using blogs as a way of inviting the parents to comment and join in with their children’s learning
journey. This as already witnessed in the Listen2poems blog again allowed our children to quickly progress
from direct guided, to supported learner. More importantly, as the children’s confidences and competences in
using the technology increased, so did their abilities to use it creatively, critically and autonomously. During
one pleasure reading session I witnessed a group of children logging in to each others developing blogs,
posting supportive comments and critical feedback, then returning to their own blogs to read what others had
posted and develop their learning. This was a first witnessing of independence in learning, the learner
achieving E-Maturity.

Within my learning day I ensured that each child could have time to both post and read comments within their
blogs, creatively using this process to invigorate guided reading activities, choice times and the beginning of
each day, from 9 to 9.15, those moments when you’re waiting for the last child to arrive.
These short sporadic times became invaluable and grew into more focussed session, with a slot every
morning from 9 to 9.20 being dedicated to a review of the reading blogs and a session of reading for pleasure.

It was during one of these times that Millie’s “Flight” began. After over hearing a discussion the children were
having about a certain story plot in Eastenders. I decided to challenge their understanding of fate, betrayal
and tragedy with storytelling with a much richer stimulus than the popular soap. These issues, in my opinion
are often overlooked in the early years and to often text are selected on happy, overly joyful emotional
response. So, I gave them a copy of The Highwayman, by Alfred Noyles.
From here it was my privileged to watch how the children developed this discussion into a three week long
project, determined by them, with myself a facilitator of their most wonderful ideas. Within these weeks the
children wrote their own plays, learnt passages of the text by heart, enacted dramatic retellings and emotional
charged performances, drew beautiful illustrations and wrote a wonderful collection of narratives and poems.
When discussing that this is actually a text that they should be looking at in year 5, the children and their
understanding and ownership of the project took one further step. The children had observed me and our ICT
Coordinator playing around with some new video conferencing equipment. They sat and watched us play, as I
would the children in my class, then asked, “Can we use this stuff to talk to year 5’s, can we video to another
school and share what we have done? And so we did. We set up the video conference, networked with a very
support school, held many conference sessions through which the children shared all their writings,
performance and discussion and further used the technology to allow the year five children an opportunity to
become leaders in learning, offering feedback, analysis and supportive innovations and ideas. As adults,
again we were nothing more than facilitators of the technology and learning, setting it up and stepping back.

Again I am finding it difficult to really explain or exemplify the impact it had on the children’s learning and how
truly E-Mature/Independent they had become. So, once more I will try to illustrate my passionate ramblings
with images from the children’s own learning.
 Flight Two: Discovering Eden
www.edenproject.blogspot.com

Burnham categorises profound learning as:

“Meaning, Creativity, wisdom, intuition, moral, challenge, interdependence.”

These experiences of child autonomy have left me with a strong viewpoint, that’s to ensure that both my
children and the children I teach don’t live their lives through other peoples second hand views and
perceptions, a nightmare vision Tim Smit describes as “…a world of non- biologically related clones in a
hysterical oversimplification of a possible future.” He continues,” The antidote is to take a few risks,
and let the mud squidge through your toes from time to time.”

The impact of the listen2poems project and my learners abilities to autonomies their learning, analyse, review
and innovate throughout The Highwayman project were to evermore change the learning contexts I facilitate
with the children I “teach.”

Reflecting on these experiences it became evident that the such innovative projects were much more
manageable, sustainable and therefore much more likely to become realities in other practices if the focus on
children as researchers moved from the methodologies of research and into a focus on developing children’s
research skills within contexts they have chosen. Not researching into how we learn, but using research skills
to deepen learning experiences.

I wanted to ensue that all children within my class would have the opportunity to conduct independent,
autonomous learning projects, recorded and evolved through blogs. In ensuring this would again be part of
classroom practice and not a club or add on, once more I creatively played with both curriculum and provision
mapping, looking at skills needed to be covered with frameworks and National Curriculum studies and the
possibilities of the learning context and such skills being conducted through the children sown learner
journeys.

After meeting Tim Smith and becoming truly inspired by his work. Munnaan, aged 6 at the time, pledged to
create his own dome in our schools grounds.

Within this project Munnaan quickly moved through the key learning characteristics associated to a child
moving from directed learner to independent enquirer. Initially time was spent developing his key skills,
already a competent blogger, Munnaan further asked to be shown how to scan in documents from his ideas
book, a learning scrap book that I encourage each child to fill with wild and wonderful ideas, ideas others my
say are not possible but ideas the child would love to explore. Accompanying the skills associated with
scanning, Munnaan further took direction I developing his filming, downloading and uploading of material
skills. This period was one of rapid speed, skills modelled and then practiced. This was essential though, as I
believe the learner needs to journey through all the key paths, not just enter into the learning context as a
independent, but have new skills, and challenges shown to them, modelled and discussed, explored so they
can in turn analyse and innovate themselves, giving them a learning and technological cultural history through
which they can take an idea, past learning message and create a unique response, original to them and their
learning. Munnaan did this. The concept of bloging, scanning, filming, online chats, digital imagery are not
new or unique or original, but the way in which he used them and evolved his ideas clearly are.
As an independent learner Munnaan created and published his ideas. Established a support group and
construction team and made his idea a reality. An award winning, Observers ethical child of the year.
Currently, after facing a few constructional issues, Munnaan’s dome is now the subject of a new learning
development in our school, the design and creation of a dome that will be more sustainable, A dome that will
withstand the attentions of our fox community and forever unpredictable weather. Munnaan has left our
school, but his idea stays planted within the community a learning community ever more E-mature thanks to
the valuable lessons a group of independent learners taught us.
 Leaving Little Hooks behind.

When developing this case study write up I was asked to think about hooks, little pieces delight, moments
when as a practitioner and facilitator you realise that “That can’t be ignored”.

These are my little hooks, the flights the children in my class took when becoming independent learners and
the possibilities that e-maturity offered them. Potentials that allowed them to fly:

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the children for letting me watch them fly.