Technology and creativity

There’s been some strange goings on at Seedley Primary School in recent weeks. Anyone walking the corridors of the Salford school could be forgiven for thinking the latest Speilberg sci-fi epic was being made next door. If the extraordinary sounds emanating from the classroom were anything to go by, then you wouldn’t discount the possibility of abduction by extraterrestrials either.

As it turns out it’s a little less dramatic than that. Inside the class, being led by Sound Artist and Designer Dan Steele, a huddle of excited children sit around the computer creating sonic mayhem and playing back a sound collage of unidentifiable thumping, grinding and swooshing noises. In another corner of the room, year four pupils add digital effects to the sound of a dripping immersion heater. Criss-crossing the room and pouring over everything from jam jars to door hinges are eager pupils scurrying about with digital recorders trying to gather the strangest sounds possible.

Welcome to the world of ‘audio postcards’, an initiative that Dan Steele says improves children’s listening skills by getting them to create a snapshot of their environment. As one of several artists appointed by Creative Partnerships Manchester Salford to foster creative learning in schools, 27-year-old Dan says he’s been overwhelmed by how enthusiastically the children have engaged with a project that he admits is a radical departure for most.

“When I first came here I was told by the teachers that a lot of the children had poor listening skills and limited attention spans,” he explains. “But they’ve wholeheartedly engaged with this and been spellbound all the way through it. To see them craning their neck to catch the sound of a creaking floorboard or a teacher speaking next door or listening intently to someone squeezing a net sponge is a sign of just how focused they’ve become.”

That focus has very much shifted to a more creative use of computer technology, with Dan keen to share his skills with teachers and firmly embed new approaches to learning.

“What I’ve seen in schools so far is that they’re not using computers in a particularly exciting way and there’s so much potential to explore,” he explains. “I’m looking to connect teachers with this potential and remove any barriers that may have, up until now, prevented them getting the best out of what equipment they’ve got.”

Sharing information on downloads – in this case Dan is using a free open source software package for recording and editing sounds called Audacity – is one useful signpost. But the main thrust of the CLICT project (Creative Learning with Information Computer Technology) is to make teachers aware of how their computers can be used to create new learning opportunities.

Over at The Friars Primary School nearby, where Steele has also been involved with teaching children with learning difficulties, he’s made a radio play of Jack The Beanstalk and presented a children’s story, page by page, with pupils’ own illustrations and accompanying sound and animation.

“I used a recording programme on the ibook to do the Jack and The Beanstalk play, which the children loved doing.” he explains. “We had a narrator, improvised the storyline a little and made everyone a CD of the play. For the children’s story I used PowerPoint, Illustrator, a few basic animation packages and made a DVD out of it.”

More ambitiously he’s also made a short film for Seedley Primary school’s centenary celebrations, which, with Creative Partnerships partner, Workers Film Association, saw the children dress in Edwardian costume to recreate the 1900s. “It was very well organised,” says Steele. “We had four film crews, a director, a gaffer and a sound producer. They loved it that much that they didn’t even want to go on their dinner break.”

But with enthusiasm levels in schools across Salford reaching fever pitch because of these initiatives, are teachers not worried that they won’t be able to recreate the ‘wow factor’ in lessons once the projects are over and the school’s resident creative practitioner moves on?

“Not really, if anything it’s made us realise just how exciting lessons can be,” says Charlotte Harrison, a teacher at Ellenbrook Primary School in Worsley. “Not so long ago the idea of using an animation package would have terrified me. I thought I would have to go on several courses to begin to do this kind of stuff. Now I can see it’s a lot easier than I thought. It’s given me lots of ideas for when term starts again in Autumn and I can’t wait to test them out.”

For Chris Finn, Creative Partnerships Manchester Salford Creative Programmer, the success of the CLICT project can best be summed up in that it’s made schools adopt a completely different approach to learning. “We’re talking about children from the age of five up experiencing the high end of digital art and they’ve taken to it like a duck to water,” he says. “The schools didn’t just want this to be filtered through the art department they wanted everyone involved. From web design and robotics to film making and animation, this use of technology is applicable to every subject and can really make the curriculum come alive.”

And with the schools’ creative practitioners equipping teachers with the skills to use their technology to much greater effect, Chris Finn is confident that there will be a strong knock-on effect in terms of advancing children’s skills.

“They’re getting such a valuable mix of multi-media skills and will be able to decode the media we’re surrounded by at a much earlier age,” he stresses. “When you’ve got children using architectural programmes at the age of eight to create cityscapes then I think we’re capacity building for a huge quantum leap in how schools will soon be viewing technology.”

More about the activities

Before CLICT launched, creative practitioners worked with teachers to prepare for the project. Creative briefs were drawn up within each primary school, developing creative methods for using ICT and ensuring there was a clear plan of how to involve the whole school.

Each project used ICT packages that were either free to download from the internet or already owned by the school. Using free or existing resources was an essential part of the CLICT project – the aim was to equip teachers with the skills to use the school’s technology to much greater effect, enabling them to teach the curriculum more imaginatively.

St Mary’s CE Primary School
Teacher: Gill Evans
Creative Practitioner: Micci Bromwich

St Mary’s CE had never used their whiteboards creatively before. This project involved children using classroom whiteboards with digital blue cameras – software that allowed them to make films, add animation, music, sound effects and even titles. The cameras, supplied by TAG Learning, are wireless, making them really easy for children and teachers to operate. Whiteboards were used so the whole class could edit their films together. Their films were projected from computers, allowing the children to work individually and as a group.

Micci Bromwich worked with pupils to look at the human body’s digestive system and re-draw it. Using the cameras they filmed ‘pretend’ bits of food going down the digestive system and re-created the digestive process on the whiteboards. Micci showed teachers how to look at any computer work station via the classroom whiteboard. This allowed the whole class to participate and work together, adding sound such as music and voice-overs, exhibiting, sharing and editing work together.

Teachers wanted the children to be able to recall the information they had learnt. Because the pupils had re-drawn, animated and filmed the processes of the digestive system they could recall the information they learnt more easily. Pupils learnt through creative use of ICT, first understanding and then participating in the activity.

School: St Mary’s RC Primary School
Teacher: John Forshaw
Creative Practitioner: Simon Blackmore

This project looked at mass and dimensions using the theme of space exploration. Year 5 children were encouraged to think about how a scientist may go about sending a probe in to space. They created 3d environments from cardboard containers. Children designed robotic cars which they programmed, via classroom computers, to move through their cardboard 3d environments.

Children then went on to build traffic lights and programmed their robotic cars to move through corridors and through the traffic light system. Pupils even controlled the movement of other children and teachers within the school via the traffic lights. One class couldn’t come out of their classroom until the lights has turned green!

Teachers reported that the project developed pupils’ literacy skills – they used descriptive words to describe the environments they had built and the navigation of their robotic cars. Children also developed an understanding of how to use maps and plan a route and they learnt how to give a robot and PC a command to perform a specific activity. Teachers used ICT to develop literacy skills.

St Peter’s Catholic School, Manchester
Teacher: Judy Royal
Creative Practitioner: Graham Clayton-Chance

Graham Clayton-Chance worked with teachers at St Peter’s to develop children’s literacy, speaking and listening skills throughout the school. He planned ICT activities that would help children develop new vocabulary and encourage them with writing and reading tasks.

Graham worked with a wide range of media including film and animation, using programmes such as Stop Motion, PowerPoint and Movie Maker. One activity involved children watching a TV advert and then re-creating the ad. They would plan the advert, design it, story board it and finally film the finished piece.

This classroom activity was designed so it could be used from primary stage right through to secondary. Graham developed nine different TV Advert workshops, each re-packaging the activity so it was relevant to different Key Stages.

Want to find out more?
Workers Film Association (WFA) are developing a CLICT pack which will enable teachers to use the ideas in their own classrooms.

The pack contains:

Project descriptions
Lesson plans & resources need
Outcomes – what children will be able to do at the end of the project
Details of technical skills children and teachers will gain
Educational standards for e-learning: details of Key Stages covered
Assessment suggestions
MAC and PC alternatives
Links to websites to download free software
Images to cut out and use in class
Story boards to work from and blank story board templates
Movies so teachers can see what the projects should look like

For more information visit the Salford City Learning Centre website: http://www.salfordclc.org.uk/

Or contact Workers Film Association T: 0161 848 9782 E: wfa@timewarp.co.ukThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

www.creative-partnerships.com

http://www.mediaed.org.uk/content/view/120/127/