There has been some interesting formative assessment work going on at Haddington Infants, a school where the youngest learners already produce animations and films and where the kids can now publish them. 80 children aged around 6-8 years are currently maintaining their own personal blogs.
My colleague David is now transferring their learnerblogs.org accounts over to our own WPMU service and explains the advantages this is offering us. People often ask "why would you want to host your own server"? I've explained some reasons already but David talks through the main one: flexibility.
For these youngest learners I've always been keen to try and get some Scrapblogging going on, and now that it appears you will be able to add both audio and video to your photographic and textual pages that ambition will become even more realistic.
It's different from Bubbleshare not only because you will be able to add video as well as audio to your pics, but also because of the 'scrapbook' fashion your work is laid out. Emphasis is very much on telling a story through the whole screen (background, pics, text, [audio, video]) rather than just series of photos on a white background.
The whole thing is drag and drop, too, making interface issues with really young kids a much more minor concern.
As Shel and I pounded through the Scottish Borders last October I had mentioned this educational opportunity in Scrapblog, a product whose CEO, Carlos he advises, and this specialist use of the product had never crossed his mind. When the new product is released I would love to have some kids' work to show from day one just to show it's more than a bit of fun kit. Shel?
Great link Ewan - I hadn't seen Scrapblog before. As you rightly point out, this has huge educational potential.
Posted by: AB | January 12, 2007 at 10:29 AM
This looks really great! The interface is easy to use, you don't need to download complicated software, and you can get started straight away.
Will definitely introduce this to teachers of young learners
Ruby
Posted by: Ruby | January 12, 2007 at 11:46 AM
As always Euan I find something new now and again on your site that makes my eyes open and think - I can use this at school. Will try this with the younger ones when I let them loose with the digital cameras.
Sharon
Posted by: Sharon | January 12, 2007 at 03:29 PM
Hi Ewan,
Have a look at this post about Scrapblogging which includes a good example from Allie and her trip abroad:
http://joedale.typepad.com/integrating_ict_into_the_/2006/12/scrapblog.html
Best wisehs
Joe
Posted by: Joe Dale | January 13, 2007 at 08:44 PM