Technology rocks!

I had a breakthrough moment today - well, several, in fact. My September starters had reached the end of their "waves" topic, so it was time for revision and a topic test. Groans all round usually. So far this year, I've introduced the idea to them of preparing revision sheets as we go along. So, at the end of the General Physics and the thermal effects topics, I gave them each a single sheet of A4 paper, with a few headings, diagrams and partially completed sentences. They were told to complete this sheet and add anything they liked to it, so long as they only used one side of the A4 paper.

As an incentive, I allowed them to use the revision sheets in their topic tests. So far, I'd had mixed results, with some students completing the sheets well, others poorly or not at all. They couldn't really see the point of it. However, we are starting to talk about the exams now, so I guess they are slightly more focussed.

Anyway, I went through a couple of exercises I'd previously prepared on the IWB, from the wonderful Learning Activities Toolkit. This comes with the Smartboards and enables quizzes, games and other activitiesto be prepared in just a few minutes. I used a Keyword Matching activity as well as an interactive page which was already in the Gallery - there are so many pages pre-prepared in the Gallery, it's often surprising what can be found.

Afterwards, I gave my students a blank piece of A4 paper and said that I thought it was time they took a little more responsibility for their own revision, so I hadn't prepared a template for them. One or two did look shocked and a little worried, but I told them I would help them and give advice if they needed it and they settled into the task well. So well, I was stunned by the co-operation between students and the impressive quality of their work.

More than that, they started making suggestions of their own, about revision. One student, T, said that she thought the IWB activities were a really good way to revise and suggested they could write their own questions in future. Another student, who usually struggles with Physics, was the first to ask for the wireless mouse so that he could try to complete the activities to check his understanding. This technology really captivated them and having a wireless keyboard and mouse means they can stay seated, which speeds up the activities. A second and larger class, doing the same activities later in the day, simply passed the mouse from one student to the next without being asked to do so.

At times, I felt I wasn't really needed in class! The students just got on with the tasks, some alone, others working in pairs or groups, but every one of them engaged and busy.

Several students commented that the revision sheets were a great idea, they totally understood it now, with C declaring that reading the textbook and writing just the important points, or those she couldn't remember easily, made the revision more effective as she was interacting with the textbook! Wow, I felt as though I'd died and gone to Teacher Heaven.

I was able to give some directed praise during the task, especially to the groups working well together. What was also interesting was that some had chosen to use the same format as the previous template sheets, so clearly that had a bigger impact on them than I'd thought. I've also promised to publish their revision sheets in our VLE "Study Smart", which they are keen to see. One student remarked "ooh, we can be famous!"

Perhaps even more interesting was that they also asked me, without any prompting, if I could make an app for their mobile phones as flashcards or as a similar exercise to the Keyword Matching one. This generation really does look to their mobile technology in every part of their lives. They want us to keep up and are genuinely appreciative if we make the effort to do so.