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Bradley Barton Primary School, Newton Abbott - Imagine Logo Case Study

Thanks to Jackie Prouse, ICT Co-ordinator

Introduction

According to Jackie Prouse it is "easy to get set in using the software that you already know". When Jackie started using Imagine Logo with pupils at the school, her eyes were opened to the huge possibilities suddenly available to her. Jackie has been quick to seize on Imagine Logo not only as a tool to cover the ICT curriculum but also as a cross-curricular tool, helping pupils to reach their full creative potential.

On first seeing Imagine Logo, Jackie was excited by the scope of multi-media facilities that it contained. She immediately picked up on the built-in speech synthesiser, the facility to import video clips, animations, music, sounds and text. It was along the route of multi-media that she decided she wanted to take her pupils. The results have been fantastic.

Getting to know Imagine Logo

In the words of pupils within Jackie's Year 5/6 class, Imagine Logo was "challenging, but generally easy to use". For Jackie, the best way in to using the software was to work through the manual, A Turtle's Guide to Imagine. By introducing her pupils to the child-centred activities within the manual, she was able to demonstrate and teach the whole plethora of multi-media facilities.

Children began by changing the shape of a turtle, then adding further turtles, and changing their shapes. They soon learned to make the turtles "speak", by using the speech synthesiser. From here, they learned to bring in sounds, images, text and music. They also learned to link multiple pages. At this point, Imagine was theirs to use as they would!

In order to consolidate their understanding of the Imagine Logo environment, the pupils were set the task of creating their own talking book, with images, text and linked pages. This they found an enjoyable task. As one pupil has put it: "Making the characters talk is really good fun."

Teaching Methods

It is worth examining Jackie's methods in introducing the software to her pupils. In demonstrating how elements of the software work, and how to access and use functions within the software, Jackie employed the use of the interactive whiteboard. This has proved an ideal way to teach the principles of the software, in a whole class environment. Following her explanation, Jackie sets the pupils to work individually or in pairs, to consolidate what they have learned at their individual workstations.

The interactive whiteboard is used, also, in the plenary at the end of a lesson. The board provides an ideal way for pupils to show the rest of the class what they have done with the software. The idea of interactively showing something creative, such as a talking book, is a big thrill for pupils. For those not particularly confident in talking and presenting, this method creates some equality, and they can make their presentation and receive praise from their peers by clicking through their project.

Strategies for differentiation have also been well-employed in the pupils' use of Imagine Logo within the classroom. Jackie has ensured the differentiation by outcome is achieved by setting objectives that are achievable by all pupils. Those who are more able can extend their use of Imagine Logo in attaining the objectives. For teaching, Jackie organises the class so that less able pupils are paired with more able pupils so, less able pupils are given the means to excel. Teacher support is also crucial. Once Jackie has demonstrated how to use the software, by use of the interactive whiteboard, she is then on hand to troubleshoot and to attend to individual pupil needs.

A Multi-Media Project for Geography, Using Imagine Logo
Exploring a Market Town - Newton Abbott

Having learnt how to use Imagine Logo for multi-media, Year 5 and 6 pupils planned and developed their own projects for Geography. The projects were on the local market town of Newton Abbott.

In developing and building their multi-media projects, pupils have used many ICT skills that work in conjunction with Imagine Logo as an authoring tool.

Use of ICT has included:

Using digital cameras and importing original digital images
Importing images from the internet
Scanning images (the pupils had to draw their own "Town Shield" as part of a related Art lesson. The finished product was scanned in to their Imagine Logo project)
Importing sounds and midi files
Linking pages
Introducing text and sound files
Building in live web links / hyperlinks.

Each child in the class has produced a project on Newton Abbott - harnessing the true power of a multi-media environment to bring their project to life.

Click here for a higher resolution image

What is nice about Imagine Logo is that any project that has been created can be saved as a stand-alone .exe file, or as an HTML web page. Pupils are thus encouraged to think about audience during the authoring process and are able to make their work available to a wider audience.

Summary

Jackie Prouse has made effective use of Imagine Logo as a cross-curricular multi-media authoring tool. The projects produced by pupils are sophisticated and expressive and ICT has consequently been used in the areas of Literacy, Geography and History.

The pupils have thoroughly enjoyed using Imagine Logo and will be using it in the future for further projects. One of the plans for future use of Imagine Logo is for Year 5 and 6 pupils to create talking books and activities for younger pupils.

One particular pupil who has enjoyed using Imagine Logo is Andrew. Andrew is a computer whiz and a software connoisseur. He says, of Imagine Logo: "It is great to use. There are so many things you can do with it. The Newton Abbott project was really interesting and no other program would allow me to do all of those things. It is easy to use and lets me be creative…"