The Aylesbury Vale Academy - Success Beyond Belief

KITE in its second and final year has developed even bigger and better giving the students at the Academy a genuine experience of mobile technology in everyday lessons. The Science, Technology and IT departments came up with creative and innovative ideas to integrate and use the HP technology in modules of work that focused on the development of student's problem solving abilities thus allowing students to engage and evolve beyond the project itself by creating awareness of careers in these fields.

Areas of the KITE project concentrated on the development of the VLE so that learning could be taken outside the traditional space of a classroom, the use of a host of software and hardware in conjunction with the HP technology was achieved in areas like Technology and IT.

The KITE project had a significant impact on enhancing and motivating student learning across these three subject areas were students worked independently, this in turn lead to students experiencing to a deeper knowledge and understanding of the subject and practical skills they have been acquiring through the task and use of mobile technology.

The aim for these departments is now to continue and sustain the use of this type of mobile technology and others, to enhance the student experience making learning more interactive but also linking it to the community and the selection process of future careers for our students.

KITE in Science

In science the HP mobile technology was used to teach a module on forensic science. The mobile technology allowed students to take photos, research techniques and log information on their crime scene to keep track of all the evidence they had processed and help them decide who committed the murder.

During this module students were involved setting up a crime scene and databases, then using the laptops to investigate blood splatter patterns, footprint, fingerprints, entomology, wound analysis and substance ID. This will involved problem solving a wide range of challenges including video conferencing between the crime scene and the classroom, using the HP tablet at the crime scene to draw diagrams of the scene and take pictures that can be emailed back to the classroom and other students. Using photo editing software, the students in the classroom will be able to enhance these photographs and, hopefully, look through a mock database to identify the perpetrator.

On reflection, this project allowed students to develop a deeper knowledge of a subject by handing the learning over to them hence making the more independent learners. It also allowed them to develop their team working skill. Group work in a number of activities allowed students to divide tasks amongst themselves. Our students rose to these challenges and acted in a mature and sensible manner whilst undertaking this module of study.

KITE in Technology

In Design and Technology students undertook a range of different design and make projects using the HP laptops over the past two academic years. This covered areas in Robotics, Systems and control, Graphics and Textiles. This year saw the department take on longer term projects which were based on building a Lego robot; paraplegic swimwear design, mobile phone design working with SolidWorks design software and a hand held maze game design which was CAD CAM based.

Students in the robotics club had to design and build a robot; the HP laptops were used to access information about the project including how to build all the different obstacles for the robot to negotiate. Further more students needed to contact other teams around the world to gather information about the task they would need to complete during the competition. The HP lap tops were used to build the programs for each robot so that it could complete the desired task. This was the main problem solving part of the activity as students had to build the programs block by block so that the robots could achieve their tasks. The parameters that the robots worked in were very tight this made the problem solving even more demanding. Once the program had been devised it could then be downloaded to the robot so that it could work independently from the operator.

The second challenge these students have undertaken using the HP laptops was to design a new type of swim suit for a paraplegic swimmer. The largest part of this project was to research the subject. Students had to use the laptops to contact paraplegic athletes and doctors. Students also used the HP lap tops to record video and talks that were then shared with other students. Finally the lap tops were used to share the student's final ideas with the project leaders. Again the lop tops enabled the students to work independently from the teacher but also to record and feed back to the teacher.

Year 10 students in the Graphic products group were give a design CAD CAM problem which was to design a mobile phone outer shell for the teen scene.

The aim of this project was for students to build on their design, development and IT skills acquired in a previous project by using a 3D router to cut out a product. They investigated possibilities of what their target audience wanted from a mobile phone and looked at possible materials and existing designs.

The 3D router was linked to one of the HP laptops so that once students had developed their final deigns of their mobile phone they had the opportunity to set up the 3D router and cut out their products via the HP laptop. The skill of machine set up was made fairly easy with the HP laptop; students were able to effectively control the machine form the controls on the laptop including the stylus, using information acquired from the machine simulation.

A group of Year 9 students worked on designing a hand held maze game; again students use the HP laptops to gather data which formed bulk of their research, which was used to inform to write a specification for their design. 2D design was the software used to design and develop their ideas. Students tested a two dimensional version of their mazes on a CAMM1 cutter, this allowed them to evaluated their designs and make necessary changes, their final designs were cut on a Versa laser cutter, both these machines were run using the HP laptops.

KITE in IT

IT's contribution to the KITE project involved Year 10 option students changing the way they looked at software manipulation. The aim of IT's project was to produce a video tour using a host of technologies like the Academy's the innovation room technology which includes green screen technologies.

Students worked on this project between September 2010 to April 2011 were they were involved in a variety of different problem solving activities that comprised of evaluating existing videos of virtual tours for a variety of different situations including video tours of holiday destinations, sightseeing spots and museums. Students were then grouped and role profiles were create within each group like scriptwriter, director, cameraman, etc. Students brainstormed the structure of their virtual tours and planned the project. Further research was completed by students which included accessing Geobeats a website that specialises in holiday virtual tours. They then created their story boards and started their filming. After all the raw footage was collected each of the HP laptops were used to collated, edit and produce the virtual tours.

The change for the students and the IT department was the use of the HP laptops as opposed to fixed computers in an IT lesson made it possible to stimulate and motivate students which allowed for good teaching pedagogy to exist and also balance good communication with their peers which allowed a better overall project to exist. The HP laptops made a significant difference to the experience for the students as it allowed ultra portability towards their project which was based upon a video tour so the project match ideally with the HP Laptops.

The KITE project has unearthed that students are engaged in their learning when the appropriate technology is made available to them which resulted in positive independent learning in all the areas mentioned above; this has definitely improved the flavour of the learning experience in these departments. All subject areas intend to develop this project further over future years and to integrate mobile technology as an everyday part of students learning feel a great buzz on launching longer term projects in the next academic year. .

Looking into the future the vision is to use these experiences to ensure that these types of technology are available in all departments and lessons; which should be
apparent in the Academy's new building.