Institution: Sir John Deane's College

Teachers of AS/A2 languages at Sir John Deane’s College, Northwich, Cheshire, use digital audio and digital photos with students to develop their learning skills and engage them in independent learning, with specific regard to preparing them for the coursework component of their studies and at AS in the study of a region.

Context
Sir John Deane’s College in Northwich, Cheshire offers a wide range of AS, A2 and GCSE courses to students aged 16-19. Adult students can attend evening and weekend classes. The Languages department offers French, Spanish and German to students drawn from partner high schools and the wider Cheshire area. In the current academic year 07-08, there are 113 students following AS courses in French, Spanish and German and 85 following A2 courses in those languages. Some students also participate in work experience programmes abroad.

What is the project?
Using digital audio and digital photos at AS/A2 level to develop learning skills and promote creativity

Key objectives

• To enable students to engage with learning in stimulating and innovative ways: in this case, to use free software to create a slideshow on a relevant coursework topic using digital photographs, voice recording and music.
• To motivate and engage students at the end of AS studies prior to the commencement of A2 courses.
• To prepare students for the coursework component of their A2 studies and to enable them to make an informed choice of topic for study.
• To develop learning skills so that students can work both independently and collaboratively as required.
• To encourage experimentation with language.
• To develop critical skills and encourage pupils to edit and re-draft work.
• To promote creativity.
• To explore ways of integrating digital audio and digital images more fully into other aspects of teaching and learning at AS/A2.

How the programme is organised

• The Internet and PowerPoint are used to introduce pupils to a range of topics suitable for development as coursework at AS/A2, eg a regional study or La Francophonie with sub-topics such as slavery, colonisation, living conditions etc.
• Key language of relevance to each topic is explored.
• Students work in groups to conduct their own research on a topic of their choice from those presented to them.
• Students find or create their own digital images to be used in their work.
• Students are encouraged to use photo editing software to work imaginatively with images as they wish: eg creating montage effects with photos from different sources.
• Students next plan the sequence of images to be used when using software to create a slideshow.
• The selected images are inserted in order into the slideshow project and for each image a script for voice recording is created in the appropriate place in the application.
• Students use a microphone connected to the computer to record their narration to each slide and finally use the music creation feature of the software to devise a backing track to accompany their slideshow.
• Projects are saved continually to a specific location on the VLE (Virtual Learning Environment). This enables the teacher to monitor progress and intervene with advice and corrections where necessary.
• Each group presents their slideshow to the class, who develop their listening skills by completing a series of tasks on paper as each show proceeds.
• Completed slideshows are placed on the VLE as a resource for all students to use prior to making their final choice of topic for coursework at AS2.

Evidence of success/results and effects

• This approach creates a bank of useful resources on the VLE for future students as well as the current cohort. Also, the use of the VLE to store projects while in preparation allows the teacher to monitor with ease, thereby ensuring that the final product is of good quality and useable as a resource.
• Students become highly motivated, even those who do not wish to continue with French at A2.
• Students pay greater attention to pronunciation, the range and appropriateness of the expression they use and its accuracy. They are more prepared to re-draft and edit.
• Students become more ambitious in their use of the foreign language. Consequently, they engage more often and at a deeper level with questions of grammar and choice of language and involve the teacher more closely in their work as it progresses.
• Students become more technically ambitious, often using their photo editing skills to produce very effective photo montages.
• Students' creative skills improve, both in their use of language and in the presentational aspects of their work.
• Students are usually better informed and happier with their final choice of coursework topic.

Future developments
In the future we intend to use the same approach for some of the social themes studied as part of the language element of the A2 course. We would also like to extend the current use of sound recording with Audacity for oral practice and testing so that the Foreign Language Assistants comment on students' recordings by recording feedback directly into the students' mp3 files, thereby embedding advice directly into a recording and enabling students more flexible access to marked work.