Twofour projects receive Media Innovation Awards

 

Last week I had the great pleasure to attend the Media Innovation Awards. It was a great evening, buzzing with creativity! Another inspirational and funny opening speech by Mark Hawkins made me ponder where Twitter actually came from? ...The Media Innovation Awards, which celebrates the innovative use of screen-based media across the South West, rewards excellence across a range of disciplines and aims to raise the profile of the sector across the region and beyond. Twofour picked up a total of four awards!

Twofour Learning won two awards: for the Growing Schools Garden; and for the Drakes Island Project in Second Life. The Growing Schools Garden, created for the Department of Children Schools and Families. Inspired by the recent Learning outside the Classroom Manifesto, the site contains short films, downloadable resources and case studies as well as toolkits and guidance to help teachers and aid learning. All wrapped up in a fun interactive garden interface. Drakes Island in Second Life was a literacy project structured through a ten week lesson plan, where the material was created and delivered via the Virtual World. This safe, secure teen environment was a great motivator and inspired students to engage with creative writing. The project was created in partnership with Stoke Damerel Community College, Plymouth Children’s Services and with Twofour Learning. This was a massive win for our virtual worlds team and Stoke Damerel! We’re all looking forward to taking the project further.

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Using the P Scales

 

Well, it’s been a whirlwind start to the year. We’ve just completed another set of films for the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority on the P scales. The P scales are designed for children with special educational needs, and help teachers to assess attainment below Level 1 of the National Curriculum. There are 8 P levels. Back in 2005, Richard and Joanna made a series focusing on levels P4-P8. We have now developed the resource to include levels P1-P3 – that’s the lower levels of ability. In just 6 weeks, with the help of our expert consultants Richard Byers, from the University of Cambridge, and Annie Fergusson from the University of Northampton, we’ve managed to recce, film and edit 12 more case studies and 3 teacher reflection films, in around London and the Midlands.

It’s been a very special project to work on, both challenging and thought-provoking, particularly when you consider that it wasn’t so many years ago that these children would not have been given the chances to learn and develop that they have today. We hope that it will become a useful and inspiring resource for teachers that will really make a difference in schools.

The new resource pack will be launched at a series of one-day conferences later this month organized by the National Association of Special Educational Needs.

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