Assignments evaluation by Susan https://padlet.com/susan_a_brown/odqrqohkht2b Evaluating assignments en-us 2019-10-29 17:45:42 UTC 2026-03-13 14:47:39 UTC hello@padlet.com susan_a_brown https://padlet.com/susan_a_brown/odqrqohkht2b/wish/404045808 This rationale describes the design of a video created for Re:Connect Project, which is being
developed by the community organizations People Know How, VIE, and Ragged University
(Re:Connect Scotland). One of the aims of the abovementioned project is to combat social
isolation by means of digital technologies. The project encompasses a range of different cases,one of them being a situation when an elderly lady living on her own is not able to develop such
basic digital skills as searching the Internet, using email services or communicating in social
networks due to her mental state of computer anxiety, which results in feeling disconnected from
other people (Dunedin, 2016). It was suggested that video tutorials created in compliance with
multimedia design principles for older learners could be a possible solution to the problem.
Within the framework of the present assignment, it was offered to produce a series of videos for
teaching elderly people how to use Gmail.]]> 2019-10-29 17:51:53 UTC https://padlet.com/susan_a_brown/odqrqohkht2b/wish/404045808 Before explaining about the app itself, first I would like to clarify my teaching context. I work in Indonesia as a language teaching consultant for Indonesian teachers who teach Japanese language at high schools. Japanese language is taught as a second foreign language in Indonesian high schools throughout the school curriculum (3 years), and students choose the Japanese course from other language choices such as Korean, France, Arabic etc. The main reason why students want to choose Japanese language is because of their interests in Japanese animation and manga culture. This means that students already have intrinsic motivation to learn Japanese language in the beginning at least to some extent. However, when they actually start learning Japanese, they find it too challenging to master Japanese language and some of the students lose their motivation to continue learning. One of the difficulties lies in the memorization of 46 Japanese syllabaries, hiragana. Some teachers give up having students memorize hiragana, and end up using only roman characters, but since each of the hiragana works as a phonetic symbol, it is important for students to be able to recognize hiragana characters and associate the sound with them for the proper pronunciation. Currently, with a limited amount of time allocated to Japanese language classes, a lot of teachers introduce all the hiragana in one lesson and the memorization part becomes students’ hiragana-writing homework, resulting in the rote memorization and the decline in their motivation to learn. As almost all of the high school students in Indonesia now have their own smartphones, I thought the use of an app could be one solution to support students’ homework in a fun way. In the next section, I will illustrate the functions of the app and its evaluation in relation to the literature review. susan_a_brown https://padlet.com/susan_a_brown/odqrqohkht2b/wish/404051135 2019-10-29 17:58:38 UTC https://padlet.com/susan_a_brown/odqrqohkht2b/wish/404051135 oliviaalterlove https://padlet.com/susan_a_brown/odqrqohkht2b/wish/404341410 This assignment will discuss the use of podcasting with differentiated visual storyboards with fourteen-to-sixteen year old learners to prepare or ‘prime’ them for important practical experiments in GCSE chemistry (Middleton, 2016; Popova, Kirschner and Joiner, 2014).

  I am currently working at School W, a state secondary school in London where the students come from a range of backgrounds, ethnicities and entry levels. In my role as chemistry coordinator, and leader of a group focussed on the integration of technology into the curriculum, I have influence over the school’s curricula. 


Currently, resources from every lesson are uploaded to a virtual learning environment, and students and parents are used to accessing this. However, this is not currently an interactive experience. The learning environment is only used to recap lesson materials or for students who have missed lessons. The resources I am creating aim to act as complementary to those already available. Learners have been seen to still value in person lessons most highly, and these resources will facilitate this by developing listening and summary skills before the lesson begins (Middleton, 2016). 

In addition, the resources aim to increase the impression of permanent contact between students and teacher in order to increase student motivation and the variety of ways in which students are engaged with learning (Middleton, 2016). It is school policy that students complete a short independent task before each science lesson. These are designed either to secure knowledge or to prepare students for their next lesson. Preparing students aged fourteen to sixteen for the upcoming lesson will be the focus of this assignment. 
 GCSE and A level science qualifications are changing to exam only in June 2017 and June 2016 respectively. One of the major changes is the way in which practical science is assessed. According to Ofqual; ‘In their exams, students will be required to demonstrate their understanding of scientific experimentation. At least 15 per cent of the total marks available in each science GCSE will be dedicated to this. This proportion is large enough to have a significant effect on a student’s grade, but not so large as to distort assessment or hinder coverage of other requirements in these subjects.’    (Ofqual, 2015)  

This assessment includes recalling the steps of a method, explaining specific steps, analysing data and applying understanding to similar experiments. This is an area of science that students currently find challenging and, therefore ,a new way of introducing content could have a significant impact on learning and assessment outcomes. These resources will support students in their understanding of three practical tasks in the GCSE chemistry specification and will differ from the PowerPoint presentations and videos, which are the most common media currently used.  A person’s behavioural intention towards a technology can be determined by perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. The more exposure a person has had to a given medium, the more likely they are to find it useful (Rahimi and Katal, 2012). 
Therefore, if students are exposed to podcasting early in their education, they are more likely to find it useful and to want to use it themselves for learning as they develop their independent learning skills.
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