Post Primary

An interview with the Principal of Le Chéile Secondary School about an initiative the school is following to develop enhanced learning spaces throughout the school, facilitated by digital and mobile technologies and following the work of David Thornberg.

An interview with Leona Harrington, Deputy Principal in Le Chéile Secondary School, about how the school plans for digital learning. The school uses the SSE process to plan for digital learning, incorporating the Digital Learning Framework. Professional development of teachers is very important in the school and this takes place both formally during Croke Park hours, as well as informal professional learning amongst staff. The www.dlplanning.ie website is used in particular to find videos which exemplify the school's chosen statements of practice.

An interview with the Principal of Le Chéile Secondary School, Dr Áine Moran, about the school's vision in relation to digital technologies and how they support teaching and learning across the school. Áine describes how the school adopts a 'flipped learning' approach in order to personalise student learning, and provides examples of initiatives in the school such as their 'Blue Sky' modules which allow students to choose from a range of topics and subject areas which they engage with online, facilitated by teachers.

Mairéad Ní Drisceoil, Coláiste an Phiarsaigh, shows how she uses digital technologies with her 1st year German class. The students use their own smartphones, working in pairs, to record a piece of dialogue on the subject of ‘My Family’. They script the dialogue first and then each student records their own piece, working as a team. They edit and re-record the piece until they are happy with it and then submit via a digital portfolio in Office 365. Mairéad is able to listen to each piece and provide targeted feedback within the digital portfolio system. Shared access to smartphones, a digital portfolio system or any cloud based system that allows sharing of content is required. The school’s AUP makes specific reference the use of students’ own devices. The activity itself is a very effective one and can be adapted for all languages and all levels.

Deputy Principal, Liam Ó Laighin, describes how digital technologies are embedded in teaching and learning in Coláiste an Phiarsaigh, Glanmire, Cork. The school plans collaboratively for the use of digital technologies and uses Croke Park hours for training sessions for staff, as well as making use of informal learning opportunities and discussions around effective use of digital technologies. Currently the school is engaged in a Transition Year digital portfolio project which it is planning to develop at other levels in the school. The school has a BYOD system where students can use their own devices/smartphones in the classroom where they are required. This is covered in the school’s AUP policy. Teachers have their own devices, mainly Microsoft Surface Pro’s, and all classes are equipped with whiteboards and projectors. Liam talks about the importance of having access to good quality technology to create resources, an activity which has a significant emphasis due to the challenge of finding good Irish language resources online.

Mairéad Ní Drisceoil, Coláiste an Phiarsaigh, describes how she uses digital technologies in a variety of ways with her 5th year French class. Using their own smartphones, students create Kahoot quizzes on aspects of the language in order to test their peers - an engaging activity whilst also providing Mairéad with important assessment data. Quizlet is another tool used by the class for quiz based activities, incorporating images and flashcard creation. The students also use Adobe Spark Video to create videos of themselves in the target language. The school’s AUP makes specific reference the use of students’ own devices. Mairéad uses the school’s digital portfolio to provide feedback on resources created and student assignments submitted. The activities in this video can be adapted for many subject areas and used at any level.

In this video, PE teacher in Deele College, Raphoe, Liz McLaughlin, demonstrates how she uses ICT to support skills development in badminton with a 2nd year group. Students use a combination of mobile phones and tablets to access an instructional video, and then use the app Videotagger to assess each other in the execution of an overhead shot in badminton. The use of ICT in this way enables differentiation and effective self and peer assessment. Liz finishes the lesson with a short self assessment survey in Google Forms.

In this video PE teacher in Coláiste Choilm, Ballincollig, Garret Hickey demonstrates how he uses the i-Orienteering and Team Shake apps in an orienteering lesson. Garret describes how the use of ICT in orienteering results in high levels of engagement by students as well as the development of mathematical, map-reading, communication and problem-solving skills. The i-Orienteering app is usually intended for outdoor use but due to weather conditions on the day of filming, Garret very seamlessly set up an indoor course!

Noel Ward, from Coláiste na Carraige, Carrick uses ICT to support peer assessment with his fifth year DCG students. Students use their own devices, either smartphone or tablet to engage in primary research for Output 1 design assignment. They create mind maps using GoConqr to plan their designs and provide audio feedback on each other’s mind maps using Adobe Reader. This improves students’ oral literacy and also raises the standard of each piece of work, as students can respond to their peer’s feedback and make changes as necessary. At the end of each lesson, Noel uses Mentimeter as a learning log to capture real time lesson appraisal or exit ticket which allows him to tailor future lessons to meet students’ needs. Teacher generated learning resources and YouTube clips are shared on a class blog so students can access them from home.

Maths teacher Gareth Doherty, from Coláiste na Carraige, Carrick discusses how technology can be used to identify students’ prior knowledge in applied arithmetic. His fifth year students complete questions from student response system Socrative in their copies, and input answers using their phones or tablets. Students can work at their own pace and Gareth can instantly see which questions are problematic and which students require additional support. This feedback allows him to target his teaching to address common errors. Following class he creates a video using the ShowMe iPad app to provide additional support for challenging questions and shares this on his class blog so students can view it at home. Gareth discusses how technology can increase student engagement and also save time for teachers.

James Gilmartin, from Magh Éne College, Bundoran discusses how his 2nd year Science students use their phones to create content. Students take photographs during experiments and then use Adobe Voice (now known as Adobe Spark Video) to create a video describing each stage of the experiment. PicCollage is also used to make posters showing. Finally, students create a trigger image using Aurasma (now known as HP Reveal), which will open their content. By creating their own content, students develop their creativity, communication and collaboration skills. Students' work is shared on the school’s Science blog, http://maghsci.blogspot.ie/.

Maria Nelson from Scoil Mhuire, Buncrana demonstrates how she uses students own devices (a range of smartphones and tablets) to support active learning with her second year Geography class. When introducing a new topic she assesses students’ prior knowledge and builds student engagement using Kahoot. Students self and peer assess their oral fluency and Geography content knowledge by using their devices to record one other. At the end of class students reflect on their learning using Padlet. Maria has also created a class website to share a range of differentiated resources (including images, videos, notes, presentations, Thinglink, etc.) to suit all learners. Students can access these from home for revision purposes.

Geography teacher Seamus Baldrick, from Scoil Mhuire, Buncrana discusses how technology can be used to support revision. He begins by facilitating student self-correction of cloze test homework using presentation software, e.g. PowerPoint. He prepared a revision video in advance using the ShowMe iPad app, which is based on the Irish curriculum and targeted at the needs of his students. After viewing the video, students complete a Socrative quiz in class, which provides them with immediate feedback after each question. Seamus can identify which topics are still problematic and/or which students require additional support. After class, Seamus shares the revision video, other resources and assignments using Google Classroom, a virtual learning environment, which enables to access class material at home.

Rowan Averill, from Malahide Community School demonstrates how he uses tablets to support active and experiential learning with a first year group. Students learn about the different types of advertising (persuasive, competitive, informative and generic) not by being shown examples of each, but by creating their own stop-motion adverts for a product of their choice using the Lego Movie app, to develop their research and creativity skills. Rowan discusses how the use of tablets supports research and collaborative learning with students. He advises using rubrics to assess students’ work and advises teachers to research apps before using them in class.

History teacher Frieda Crehan, from Malahide Community School discusses how technology can be used to support student research and active learning. Students become creators of content using a range of tools such as PicCollage to create Match Attack cards to compare key personalities in History, iMovie to create video logs and Minecraft to create megalithic monuments. Students develop their research, communication and presentation skills. Frieda creates rubrics to assess students and promotes student self-assessment. She advises teachers to experiment, expand and embed the use of technology in learning, reflecting at each stage.

Kahoot is a popular online quiz tool which many Irish teachers use for both formative and summative assessment. In this Business Studies lesson with a third year group mixed ability group, Claire Fitzgerald from Malahide Community School demonstrates how Kahoot can be used to support active learning and collaborative revision. She divides the class into groups and each group is given a topic to revise using tablets, textbooks and other resources. Each group then creates an online quiz using Kahoot to demonstrate their knowledge of the topic and test the knowledge of the other groups. Topics include trading account, profit and loss account, balance sheet, business documents and delivery systems. Active learning and peer assessment is evident as groups create quizzes to test each other out, while developing their research and communication skills. Claire also discusses how the use of technology supports differentiation and students taking ownership of their own learning.

Bairbre Kennedy, from Malahide Community School uses inquiry based learning and peer collaboration with her third year History students in examining the key figures in the 1916 Rising. Her students research key personalities using a variety of trusted sources hosted on the Scoilnet site, such as Ask About Ireland and Britannica School, both of which are freely available to all students in Ireland, whether at school or at home. Britannica School provides a range of differentiated resources. They also use the Dictionary of Irish Biography and JStor Journals, both of which are accessible on the Schools Broadband Network. Bairbre creates Learning Paths to guide her students through resources from Scoilnet. Students present their findings through Google Docs and Padlet and engage in peer assessment.

In this Biology lesson with a first year group, teacher Leona Harrington from Le Chéile Secondary School, divides the class into groups in which they use QR codes to investigate the 7 characteristics of living things. The students working in groups are provided with 7 pieces of information corresponding to life processes. Leona talks about how this task helps students develop their problem solving and communication skills. Each group creates a presentation of their findings using either the Pic Collage app, a mind map or a Powerpoint presentation. Peer assessment is evident where the students share the results of their investigations, reflect on what they have learned and provide feedback to other groups.

Teacher, Anthony Gainley, from Le Chéile Secondary School, demonstrates how he uses a flipped learning approach using ICT to differentiate and personalise learning in his Technical Graphics classroom. Anthony shows how he has created a simple instructional video, using a visualiser, on how to draw a tangent to an ellipse. This video is viewed by students at home in advance of the class on this topic, allowing in-class time to be spent applying what they have learned, and enabling Anthony to spend more time working with individual students and assessing their understanding of the topic.

Religious Education teacher Eoin Walshe, from Le Chéile Secondary School, uses Google Maps, Kahoot and the Bible app to explore the journeys made by Mary and Joseph, according to the gospels of Matthew and Luke, with his first year class. Working in groups they use Google Maps to retrace the journeys and measure the distances travelled by Mary and Joseph. They present their findings to their peers in Keynote presentations. Eoin talks about how using these tools in Religious Education class supports skills development across a number of other areas and subjects including Geography, History, Literacy and Numeracy.

Teacher, Niall O'Connor, from Le Chéile Secondary School, demonstrates how he uses a flipped learning approach using ICT to differentiate and personalise learning in his Maths classroom. Niall has created several instructional videos using the app Explain Everything. These are accessed online by students as homework in advance of a class. In-class time is spent by students applying what they have learned in the video by completing exercises on the topic. This approach helps Niall to better assess students' achievement of the learning objective/s as well as giving him more time to provide individualised support to students.

Teacher, Nicola Molloy, from Le Chéile Secondary School, uses tablets with her students in a Gaeilge class to teach the language of directions The students, working in groups, select two different locations in the school and create a video recording as Gaeilge providing directions from one location to the other. Peer and self assessment are evident in this lesson as students listen back to their recordings and correct any mistakes of their own as well as providing feedback on the inputs of other group members. Students share the final videos with the whole class and feedback is provided by the teacher and fellow students.

In this video Hazel Cooney of Athlone Community College explains the importance of using ICT in her classroom. She believes it leads to more engaged learners and enables her to use new means of assessing pupils, allowing for differentiation. ICT, she says, should never be the main focus of a lesson, but a tool to enhance learning. In her English classes students use Animoto to create videos; Voki to create avatars; Prezi to create cloud- based presentations and Fakebook to create character profiles.

In this video Siobhán O'Brien and Ciara Doyle, Athy College, outline ICT resources they use to support English. Siobhán's students use Kidspiration, Animoto and Padlet to analyse plays, films and poetry. Ciara's students create profiles for characters from the class novel using Fakebook. All pupils' work is saved to ePortfolios using Mahara. EPortfolios facilitate differentiation and assessment. Pupils are digital natives, they find these tools easy to use and enjoy using them as part of their English classes.

Chris Forde of Athlone community college speaks here about how to introduce ePortfolios as part of the EU Folio project. Since introducing ePortfolios he has noted a move from individual learning to collaborative learning. Assessment of the ePortfolios includes self-assessment, peer- assessment and active assessment from the teacher.The teacher takes on the role of facilitator. To overcome lack of resources pupils can share devices or bring their own devices to school. He has found the EU Folio project to support creative, proactive and reflective use of ICT.

English teacher Hazel Cooney, of Athlone Community college outlines how to use Edmodo as an online community for pupils. She can assign tasks such as EDpuzzles, give feedback and grade pupils' work. Pupils' work can be submitted as soon as it is completed and corrected immediately. The one to one feedback enables teachers to provide immediate, targeted support. Pupils' work is saved and compiled as an ePortfolio allowing them to keep track of their progress throughout the year. Edmodo is a safe community as it is teacher monitored and password protected.

English teachers, Siobhán O'Brien and Ciara Doyle, speak of their school's experience on the EU Folio project. It is an initiative to implement the use of ePortfolios in schools around Europe. The school used Mahara as their chosen ePortfolio software. The project was introduced in a phased way, starting with one class and increasing this as teachers grew more confident. They found that ePortfolios enable continuous, formative assessment throughout the year. The teachers advise on how to set up ePortfolios. Some Athy College students also give their opinion on the system

In this video teachers from Athlone Community College outline their experiences of EU Folio. Hazel Cooney looks at how an ePortfolio enables pupils to assemble and manage their work. She also notes how it facilitates a teacher support network. Gráinne Reid found that using ePortfolios changed the dynamic in her classroom, creating a shared process of learning amongst pupils and teacher. Chris Forde noted the ability to assess work continuously using the ePortfolio. He also commented on how teachers shared reszources and ideas with each other.

In this European Schoolnet video, Jaqueline Wall of Coláiste Bride outlines how to use free ICT resources in the Music Classroom. In one example pupils use Movie Maker to create a movie of their set song. The pupils also used audicity to record and compile instrumental and vocal parts of a song. All ICT work is compiled into a shared resource folder that students can access for future study.

In this video, German teacher Tina Killackey from Presentation Secondary School, Wexford describes some of the apps she uses to support language learning with her 1st year class. These include Quizlet, Notability, Book Creator and Socrative. These apps can be used in any area and support independent and collaborative learning and many forms of assessment.

In this video, teacher Sandrine Pac-Kenny from Presentation Secondary School, Wexford describes some of the apps she uses to support language learning with her 1st year class. These include Kahoot, Educanon, Make Dice Lite and Edmodo. These apps can be used in any area and support independent and collaborative learning and many forms of assessment.

In this video, staff members of Coláiste Bríde, Clondalkin discuss some ICT activities they use to support and promote positive mental health among their students. The ICT tools used include social media, email, video, Pinterest, PowerPoint and Youtube. Through the use of ICT, the positive mental heath message can reach a greater percentage of the school population.

Deborah Ní Cheallaigh, Gaelcholáiste Luimnigh, outlines how she incorporates ICT in her Maths lessons. In this video she demonstrates how pupils use Google Drive and the GeoGebra app when working on functions. When planning, all teachers in the department share a Google Docs file to create lesson plans.

Principal Donncha Ó Treasaigh describes how Gaelcholáiste Luimnigh has grown from 31 pupils in 2006 to an enrollment of 560. From the beginning the school wanted to incorporate ICT in teaching and learning, with a projector and computer in each room. This has now grown to include the use of tablets across the school. Donncha outlines the process his school followed in order to ensure a successful integration of tablets.

Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Gaelcholáiste Luimnigh, outlines his experience of using tablets for assessment with Transition Year pupils. Pupils use the iTunes U app to create ePortfolios, containing work they carry out during the school year. Other apps used include Pages, Keynote and Showbie. Caoimhín notes the important role of the teacher in managing learning with tablets.

Ciara Ní Dhrisceoil of Gaelcholáiste Luimnigh outlines her experience using tablets for teaching. In this video her 5th year Chemistry class use Explain Everything to revise work done on the topic of titration. Ciara explains how ICT has improved both teaching and learning in her classroom.

In this video Maria Broderick, Maths teacher at Coláiste Bríde, and Sheelagh Clowry, Project Maths Development Team, outline their thoughts on Census at School. This is an international database that supports the Probability and Statistics section of Project Maths. Pupils can input their own data, making statistics relevant to themselves. There are many teachings resources available on the census at school website, and on the Project Maths website.

In this video Art teacher Niamh Comiskey, Coláiste Bríde, suggests how to use ICT to support learning in the Art classroom. She uses a visualiser to demonstrate and record work. Apps such as Pinterest and Instagram can be used to compile secondary sources and research. Niamh has found that using apps that pupils are already familiar with enables her to get the most from technology. ICT also supports peer assessment in her classes.

Teachers from Coláiste Bríde outline how they incorporate ICT into the school day; for administration, teaching, learning and student support. Teachers are supported with formal and informal CPD. Some of the resources, apps and software used in the school include visualisers, Instagram, stop motion animation, ePortfolios, Google Drive, Edmodo, Ubersense and Padlet. The contributors in this video are: Marie -Therese Kilmartin - Principal Niamh Cumiskey - Art teacher Martin O'Keeffe - Business and ICT teacher Carol Regan - English teacher Karen Hopkins - PE teacher Michael A. White - Business Studies teacher Salvo Cacciato - Language teacher Sarah-Jayne Carey - ICT co-ordinator

Sarah-Jayne Carey, ICT Co-ordinator, and Marie-Therese Kilmartin, Principal, Coláiste Bríde, describe in detail their school's move from one computer lab to integrating ICT fully into teaching and learning in the school. Through investment in hardware and software; commitment to CPD; and research of best practice in other schools, Coláiste Bríde hascreated a learning environment that is supported fully by ICT.

This video discusses how the Living Schools Lab can support schools when introducing new technologies. Sarah-Jayne Carey, Coláiste Bríde, outlines their role as an advanced school within the programme. They provide support to other schools via Skype calls, webinars, emails and texts. They can also provide unbiased reviews of technologies they have tried. Ciarán Kennedy, St Patrick's NS, Tuam, and Kieran Carey, De La Salle College, Dundalk, both outline how the Living Schools Lab has supported ICT in their schools.

Geography teacher, Brendan Cremin, shows how he and his 5th year students use Scoilnet Maps to investigate physical and human geography topics relating to the local area.

In this video, post primary teacher Derval O’Connor demonstrates how her students use a variety of presentation tools to support French language development.

In this video, post primary MFL teachers share their tips for the effective integration of ICT in their classes.

In this video, post primary teacher Maria Harney uses the free Glogster tool with students in her French class to support oral language development. Students produce Glogster presentations about themselves which incorporate their own audio recordings.

In this video, post primary teacher Susan Leahy uses online resources in her Spanish class to support differentiated learning. Susan presents these activities to her students on her language blog.

In this video, post primary teacher Tommy Flynn uses digital recorders in his German lessons to support oral language development.

In this video, post primary teacher Susan Leahy demonstrates how she uses a tablet pc to support oral language development in Spanish

Causeway Comprehensive School, Co. Kerry discuss how their use of laptops and software provided gains for students and teachers alike.