LPSA Conference

Barnsborough has just been discussed at the LPSA Conference at LPDC, Barnsley. 3 teachers involved in the project talked about the impact that the world is having upon the children. The first thing to mention was that the engagement and motivation levels of the children are very high once they have been introduced to the world. Also although the project was initially aimed at raising writing, especially boys, the amount of discussion (speaking and listening) that the world has created is a wonderful and been common across the schools.

Well done to the people who presented today because the presentation had to be altered at the last minute due to others being unavailable.

Discussion Board

Barnsborough now has its own discussion board and forum. The board has been set up by Hugh Gemmell (thanks for the help Hugh) and is available now for children and teachers to use. The idea of the forum is for children to post comments and thoughts about Barnsborough to create online discussion between the schools. Later on it is envisionaged that the children will be able to post work and get it reviewed by other children and teachers.

There is also a teacher's section to discuss the impact of the world and learning and teaching issues.

Feedback from schools 22 February 2007

Yesterday was the first feedback meeting from the schools who have been using the world. The impact of the world has been very positive. Most of the schools have used the world with their classes to deliver the first unit of work (report writing). Some schools have had technical problems which has delayed the start of the unit, but hopefully they will soon be exploring Barnsborough avidly.

All the teachers commented on how motivating and engaging the virtual environment is for the children. The resulting work produced has been of a very high standard for the children with some teachers suggesting that it may be 1 or even 2 sub-levels above where they generally are. One of the reasons may be the way that the world has been introduced to them and the fact that the children have engaged with the purpose of their work (i.e. to help RJ or JJ!).

Although the project is aimed at raising standards in boys writing, all the teachers have commented on how much good quality speaking and listening Barnsborough has generated. In fact some children won't stop talking about it. Also as the children are so enthusiastic to find the clues many of them are reading texts which are quite challenging for them.

The teacher also mentioned that they felt as though the classes were very united about the project and the project was helped to develop working together.

Thanks for all the schools for their input yesterday and a special thanks to Jane MacKay who is continuing to produce top quality planning for the schools to use.

Jane MacKay's Planning Overview

UNIT 1 – REPORT WRITING

OUTCOME: By the end of this unit children will have understand and have used the features of journalistic writing to produce a newspaper report
WEEK 1 – SETTING THE SCENE
IN CLASSROOM
Receiving initial e-mail
Questions about RJ
Agreeing to help
IN ICT SUITE
Into Barnsborough
Finding way around
Initial impressions
IN CLASSROOM
Into Barnsborough on IWB
Whole class discussion
Sharing findings
IN ICT SUITE
Receive 2nd e-mail (report)
Into Barnsborough
Note taking
IN CLASSROOM
Discuss notes
Discussing organisation

WEEK 2 – NOTE TAKING / TEXT ANALYSIS
IN CLASS / ICT SUITE
Organising notes
Barnsborough – clarify and ensure all details included
IN CLASSROOM
Text Analysis – Newspaper reports – Clues and Links
IN CLASSROOM
Text Analysis – Structure
Shared work on Headlines
IN ICT SUITE
Focus on one theory for newspaper report
Note taking

WEEK 3 – TEXT ANALYSIS / REPORT PLANNING
IN ICT SUITE
Focus on one theory for newspaper report
Note taking
IN CLASSROOM
Analysis / Modelling of headline, byline, 1st paragraph
Children write independently
IN CLASSROOM
Analysis / Modelling of explanatory paragraphs
Children write independently
IN CLASSROOM
Analysis / Modelling of witness / expert accounts
Children write independently
IN CLASSROOM
Analysis / Modelling of conclusion / journalist opinion
Children write independently

ALL THE ABOVE SESSIONS WILL ALSO INVOLVE CHILDREN REFLECTING INDEPENDENTLY AND CRITICALLY ON THEIR OWN WRITING AND EDITING AND IMPROVING IT
WEEK 4 – REPORT WRITING / ANALYSIS IMPROVEMENT OWN WORK
IN CLASSROOM
BIG WRITE – Children write own newspaper report
IN CLASSROOM
Reflection and analysis of own work.
Peer assessment
Edit and redraft
IN ICT SUITE
Presentation of newspaper report
IN ICT SUITE
Presentation of newspaper report
E-mail to RJ
IN CLASSROOM
Celebrate / share work.
Discussion of theories

Thanks Jane!

Welcome to the Barnsborough Information Website

Barnsborough is a virtual town which has been created for Barnsley Learning Services by Virtually Learning. The town of Barnsborough is currently being used in 10 primary schools across the borough to raise attainment in literacy. Children in Y5 are accessing the town which is being used as a stimulus for the literacy lessons. The first unit of work taught studies report writing.

The project started in 2005 with discussions about how the Local Authority could use a virtual environment, similar to those used previously for a data handling and creative writing project, to help raise standards. A virtual world environment was considered to be a highly motivating and engaging environment for children especially boys.

Given the almost endless possibilities of the virtual environment, it took some time to decide upon what kind of environment we should use for the project. Eventually the idea of a town was decided upon as it seemed to have the most scope within the curriculum. We then realised that the town would not have any people living in it as the population would consist of the children and adults when they were exploring it. We had to somehow incorporate this feature into the project for it to work effectively.

Why would the town which by this time was called Barnsborough be empty?
Where had all the people gone?
Could the long term task of the children to be to find out what had happened to the people?

The children would visit Barnsborough to investigate what had happened to all of the people. Next task was to decide what had happened to all the people!

There are 4 storylines which we decided upon,

· Alien abduction

Could the townsfolk of Barnsborough have been captured by aliens in a mass abduction?

· Environment disaster

Has the town been evacuated because of an impending nature disaster? Or have the residents been tricked by somebody into thinking there is a disaster coming soon?

· Big business take over

Is Barnsborough situated on an enormous oilfield waiting to be harvested by the local business tycoon?

· Reality TV show

Is Barnsborough the empty studio of the biggest reality TV show in the world? Or have the people all joined a reality TV show to escape from Barnsborough?

So what does the town look like and how exactly do the children explore it?

Each children is given a unique username and password to log with. The virtual world is accessed through an Active Worlds browser which has to be installed and configured on the school PCs. Only schools and individuals involved in the project have access to the browser and access to the world. So there is no possibility of any unsuitable people accessing the world. The children enter the town in the sewers which have been designed so that they can familiarize themselves with the movement and how to interactive within the world. Once they have found their way out of the sewers they arrive in a square in the middle of Barnsborough.

Here they will be able to find clues that link to the four storylines. The clues can be visual (such as the poster above the café), audio (such as a sound file accessed by clicking on the phone in the square), tool tip clues (which are text boxes that appear when the cursor hovers over an object) or they may be hidden behind doors or in cupboards.

Additional content and clues has also been created such as websites and flash programs all of which contain clues to one or more of the storylines.

To link with lessons away from the world, content has been written such as newspaper reports and leaflets which can be read in the world or used as text for literacy lessons. These texts have been given to the teachers so that they can present them in whichever form suits them.

Initial feedback is very positive with the pupils enthusiastically exploring the town and highly motivated back in the classroom to complete tasks to a high standard linked to the town.