The P7 pupils of Ballykeel Primary in Ballymena had their first taste of doing their Christmas Topic through  C2k’s LearningNI. Teachers, Shirlie Gregg and Jane Orr, provided a range of multimedia tasks that encouraged their pupils to exchange ideas, pictures and school work.
Pupils participated in online discussions on a variety of Christmas topics - over 240 discussions were posted! Shirlie commented, “The discussion forum worked extremely well.  The pupils took part enthusiastically and willingly in the chats, with some also contributing at home.  We felt that as the discussions were online the children were more motivated to participate and share their views.  They are doing this at home all the time with sites like Facebook and Twitter so it didn’t feel like schoolwork!”

Nena

Because it is web-based, LearningNI is great for providing opportunities to exhibit pupils’ work to teachers, other pupils and even parents, via the internet.
“The workspace was an effective way to share the children’s work.  They were able to upload completed presentations, spreadsheets and word documents and share these with their friends.  The most popular part of being able to share work online was that their parents were able to view it at home.  This was something that we have not been able to do previously, specifically with presentations, and was most rewarding for the children,” said Jane 

Jordan Philpott’s Christmas e-card

Children really take to technology and LearningNI provides this in a learning context, as Shirlie pointed out, “We felt the pupils were generally more engaged as they had opportunities to express their views openly, share their work in school and at home and participate in their learning in an interesting way.”
As P7 pupil, Charley aptly put it, “LearningNI Christmas project was fun and we were still learning!”

For further information, contact
George Blackwood
C2k Curriculum Consultant for Primary and SEN
Tel. 02890279030 ext 2133
Mob. 07717228755
email George.Blackwood@c2kni.org.uk