Learning spaces

There is an excellent history of student generated content at Plymouth Institute of Education. Throughout the programme of initial teacher education, our specialist computing and ICT students are constantly creating blogs, videos and other digital representations of their learning. Occasionally I like to showcase some of their work for a larger audience such as in I'm blogging this. So here's another batch for you: The question the students had to address on this occasion was: 'How can psychological and pedagogical theories be applied to create effective learning spaces?' Clearly, the word 'space' can be extended to beyond the walls of the traditional classroom. Here is a selection of some of the videos my students have created:

The video below by Charlotte Faber shows how teachers can use a range of techniques to help children to remember better. Again, this content is supported by psychological theory - which she will later be able to use in her formal assignment for this module.





The video above by Jody Day is about creating environments to help children to learn and remember better. He draws on some essential psychological theories to support his arguments.

This video (Screencast doesn't embed easily into Blogger) by Claire Sims discusses learning environments for children and addresses the issues of curiosity, connections, play, and active learning through making and exploring.



This is a thoughtful video by Edward Larter that focuses on how children best learn, and what teachers can do to facilitate memorable learning. The background jazz music is an added bonus!

Finally, here's a video by Chloe Dwelly that focuses on how ICT can help children to learn:



The students also blog regularly about what they are learning during their sessions, and these thoughts can be developed further into their assignments with some deeper thinking and application. Blogging becomes more than just an 'online diary' as students begin to engage with the more critical aspects of their learning, reflect on their practice, and demonstrate through a number of digital literacies how they have made use of theory in practice (praxis), critical awareness of the issues, and a developing ability to present their work for a discerning audience of more than one.

Here are a selection of some relevant blogs by students, some with additional videos on show. Do have a read and send a comment or two - they will really appreciate the encouragement!

Little Miss Blogservation by Jessica Rood
Teaching with Natasha by Natasha Ferguson
Learning with Miss Sims by Claire Sims
Student Experiences by Jody Day
World Wide Ed-ucation by Edward Larter
Emily Plym14 by Emily Brannigan
Charlotte Bytes by Charlotte Faber
Lunch Boxes and Crayons by Chloe Dwelly
Primarily Georgia by Georgia McEnery
Worthwhile Education by Aaron Worth
Blackboard to Blog by Frances Dingle
Learning with TEA by Tom Langley


Learning spaces by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.