Introducing Studywiz The overall aim of this module is to introduce pupils to our new Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) Studywiz. This module is designed to be non year group specific and adaptable for use across KS2. I have also included a section on modifying it for KS1 pupils if any KS1 teachers want to add ideas that have worked for them please e-mail me and I will add these as well as I have never taught this age group although I have adapted some ideas from Infant teachers who have used a VLE. If I have included anything specific to Abbotswood I have highlighted it in yellow. If I have included anything specifically for schools that have not had a VLE before I have highlighted these in blue. In the future as we are a junior school this module would only be carried out in year 3. The teacher preparation section is important as this work must be carried out beforehand and will sometimes involve some thought as to how the activity can be linked to your curriculum. There are links to video help files to help you create the resources and we will only be using the easier to create Studywiz activities.
Learning Objective Lesson 1	Lesson Plan Introduction & Using a Chat Room
· To know how to logon independently. · To know there are more than one Studywiz skin and to know which one to use? · To be able to navigate around the early or middle skin class sections and access resources. · To know when, where and how to use a chat room.	Briefly explain the concept of Studywiz. A secure website where all the learning community can share ideas, communicate, view good web resources and eventually connect with other schools. Go over the importance of not sharing your password with anyone. (If you wish to explore this further this link goes to a circle time activity on the importance of password security) Explain that Studywiz has three skins but that they all go to the same resources. We are going to use Standard to change our passwords but in school this year we are going to use Middle. They can use whatever skin they want at home. Demonstrate how to logon to standard view and change their password. Give out their Studywiz generated mail merge sheets with usernames and passwords on. Now encourage them to change their passwords. This will take some time. Having a user with admin rights available during this session can help to sort out pupil problems. Now demonstrate logging on to Middle or Early view and show pupils how to navigate through class pages and access resources. It helps to show this demo using a pupil’s logon from your class as they will see things slightly differently. Stress that pupils should only use the buttons within Studywiz and not the browser buttons. You may wish to encourage use of the F11 button to get a bigger work area and reduce the temptation to use browser buttons. Now give pupils time to logon and explore. Finally demonstrate how to access a Chat activity that you have set up. Go over the rules of using a chat room. Allow pupils to chat around the class. You could encourage pupils to go home that evening and try the chat room out at home although you may wish to put a latest time restriction for it’s use and stress that parents rules over ride teachers rules at home so if they are allowed to go on the chat room up until 9pm but their mum says bed at 8:30pm Mum’s rules are paramount at home.
ICT Skills	Able Extension	KS2 SEN Ideas & possible adaptations for KS1 pupils	Teacher Preparation
Web navigation skills Only using the buttons within Studywiz Changing your password Opening a chat room Contributing to a general chat	Create a separate chat room for your most able pupils and get them to chat in roles related to literacy or history work that you have been doing recently. They can always highlight the chat near the end of the session and copy it into word as an instant play script. (In word they can then use find and replace to change the character names but I would be surprised if our age pupils would find time for all this in one lesson.)	You may wish to give your pupils the link that goes specifically to the early years skin only Click here to open the Early skin page. Create a favourite and share it with your pupils. You might also wish to create KS1 friendly passwords beforehand using the administrator logon so that pupils don’t have to change their passwords. A combination of simple CVC words with a number may be easier to remember. Some pupils find it easier to remember a number. (Passwords need to be 4 or more characters long with only letters or digits) Very young children may benefit from two laminated cards with their user name and password on. One can be held by the classroom teacher and given to the pupil when they use Studywiz in school. One can be given to parents for use with the child at home.	Create some simple resources or know where there are shared resources that you can show in your demo. Show a year group area, there are shared resources available but not in each lesson yet so you will need to look before hand. Logon to Middle or Early Create a Lesson called communication Create a section called Chat room Make sure they are published Create a file resource in your class area entitled Chat Room Rules. Adapt our set of rules or write your own. Create a chat room next to this called Class Chat. Studywiz Video Help Files
Learning Objective Lesson 2	Lesson Plan Using Studywiz Mail
· To know how to send a message through Studywiz · To know how to reply to a message in Studywiz · To know how to add an attachment to a message in Studywiz · To know how to organise your mail.	Explain the limitations of the Studywiz Mail system. Messages can only be sent to people within Studywiz. Messages never leave Studywiz. Explain that all mail messages are recorded and stored on the system. (Good for dealing with cyber bullying) Demonstrate how to Create New message. Explain the (T) means teacher and (S) means student. Use the class drop down list to select the recipients. Explain that you must include a Title and message or your message won’t send. Why not show how you can hold ctrl on the keyboard to select more than one person at a time. Send a quick message to everyone. Now encourage the class to send a message to someone in the class or to the whole class. Demonstrate how to reply to a message. Get all students to reply to your original message. Log on as yourself and see how they have got on. Now demonstrate how to attach a document to a message. Give pupils time to try this skill. Try and find a reason to use it for real this week as this will embed the skill. You could challenge everyone to draw a picture of themselves at home using paint and use Studywiz Mail to send it to you. Allow pupils who haven’t got the internet at home to do this during one break or lunch time if they want to.
ICT Skills	Able Extension	KS2 SEN Ideas & possible adaptations for KS1 pupils	Teacher Preparation
Create message Reply to message Use attachments Create folders Search for messages	Show more able pupils how to organise their mail folders and how to search for messages.	I would split this lesson up with younger children and maybe have creating and replying in one lesson and attachment in a separate lesson. You will know your pupils best. You could get each pupil to send an e-mail to the person underneath their name in the class list with one word that they like. The person could then reply with a rhyming word or a word they like. You could also play starting a sentence and letting the next person reply with the end of the sentence.	There is no creation of resources needed for this session but a thorough knowledge of the Studywiz Mail tool is essential. Video Help Files
Learning Objective Lesson 3	Lesson Plan Discussion & Voting
· To know how to contribute to a discussion. · To know how to take part in a vote. · To understand some of the etiquette involved in using a forum.	Split the class into as many groups as there are positions on the issue that you are discussing. For example If you are discussing if it is always a good idea to tell the truth then you might have three groups. Yes you should always tell the truth. No the truth doesn’t matter. You should be flexible and tell the truth sometimes. Split your more able pupils evenly between the groups. Explain that you must find arguments from your view point only. Give the group 5 mins to discuss the issue quietly. Now logon and show the class how the Discussion forum works. Go over the different views that can be set. How to reply to an individual or add your comments at the bottom. Explain some of the Discussion forum etiquette such as not ridiculing other people’s ideas or attacking someone personally even if they disagree with them. Allow the pupils a lot of time to build their arguments online. Sometimes doing this is silence can help as it counters some elements of peer pressure. Remind them to respond to other viewpoints with a counter argument. About 15 mins from the end of the lesson allow pupils to change their minds and to say so online and to say why they have changed their mind or kept their given view point. At the end of the lesson stop all discussion and allow a minute of silent reflection before introducing the Vote tool. Explain how when you vote in a general election no one can see who you are voting for, which stops people influencing your vote. Allow the class to vote and then share the results. If you have any time ask the class to reflect on the difference they found between working on and offline.
ICT Skills	Able Extension	KS2 SEN Ideas & possible adaptations for KS1 pupils	Teacher Preparation
Upload comments to a discussion Upload media to a discussion. Vote using the vote activity Know how to view a forum in different ways	You could show more able pupils some of the more advanced browser tools available in the discussion forum but in my experience they will discover these for themselves very quickly.	Younger pupils may not be able to argue from a contrary view point. You could ask them what they think in the first place and split the group according to their existing belief. You may also need support to record their points of view. If you have a classroom assistant you could split your class into two groups separate from each other and allow the teacher and classroom assistant to collect the ideas from the group before replying on one computer for each group. You could also set this as some work to do at home, with their parents scribing for them. (You will obviously need to brief parents on Studywiz before hand if you use this approach) But then if you are going to use any VLE with young children, involving their parents from an early point is crucial.	Create an appropriate place to put these activities within Middle or Early. Create a discussion forum around an issue associated with your PHSE planning this term or with a moral issue. Try and include clear details of what you want the pupils to discuss and outline the positions but not the arguments. Create a Vote and allow pupils to see the results. Video Help Files
Learning Objective Lesson 4	Lesson Plan Assignments
· To know how to respond to an online assignment · To know how to view and upload work to an assignment	· Explain the concept of an assignment on Studywiz · Explain that it could be used for homework if the pupils have the Internet at home or within lesson time at school. · Explain that there are two types of assignment in Studywiz. The Online Assignment where pupils use a text box to feed back and the Assignment activity where pupils can upload work created in other programs such as Word or Publisher. · Get a child to logon and show the class how to navigate to the Online Assignment that you have made. Show them how to input text and how to save it. · Whilst they are carrying out this activity tell them that you will be able to publish the best work so that everyone in the class can see it. · Wrap up this activity by giving a time limit warning and getting all pupils to save their work. · Introduce the Assignment activity. Explain that pupils can save a file. Work on it on their computer. Then upload it back up to the site. · Demonstrate how to download the file so it is saved in their ‘my documents’ area. · Allow pupils time to carry out this assignment. · Unless they need help logon and comment on a few Online Assignments created earlier. You can share this at the end of the session if you have time. · Stop the class before the end and demonstrate how to upload the file back to the activity with title and comment. You must include title and comment or it won’t save. (See the SEN ideas for ways to shorten this process.) If they are working in groups use the title or comment to get them to include their names. · Allow pupils time to upload the file to the Assignment. · If you have time get pupils to look at the Online Assignment created earlier and view published work. They can comment on this work.
ICT Skills	Able Extension	KS2 SEN Ideas & possible adaptations for KS1 pupils	Teacher Preparation
· Text editing within an online assignment · Viewing both types of assignments · Uploading files to an assignment	If pupils finish early they can comment on others work in the Online Assignment	With younger children I would probably just stick to using the online assignment activity at first. With SEN pupils I have used the Assignment Activity to upload sound files created using the built in sound recorder in windows where pupils verbally respond. The only issue with this is that these can only be a minute long and pupils must include a title and brief comment in the text box. To get round this pupils just put a number from 1-10 in the text box to express how hard or easy the activity was.	Watch the video help files on Create group writing assignment Create upload file assignment It is important to understand the difference. Have a look at your curriculum and decide on an activity that pupils can write a response to. Within your class area create a lesson in middle or early view. Create a section within this lesson. Create an Online Assessment activity within the section. Make sure you include clear guidance in the activity as to what you expect them to write. For the assignment activity either create your own document as a template or download this brief activity. Then create an Assignment with the document attached for pupils to use as a template. Make it any easy activity as they won’t have long to complete and upload it back to the assignment.
Learning Objective Lesson 5	Lesson Plan Gallery
· To know how to view and comment on items in a gallery · To know how to upload an item to a gallery	· Explain the concept of a Gallery in Studywiz. A place where you can share pictures and documents that everyone else in the class or group can see and comment on. · Open up the Gallery that you have created with pictures in it. · Go through the different tab views that they can use. Suggest that they avoid the slideshow as it takes a while to load. Demonstrate how they can comment on a picture and rate it using stars. · Allow pupils time to comment on the Gallery. · Stop the class and explain that the Gallery can be used for sharing work as well. Open the second Gallery and show pupils how they can upload work files. Demonstrate how these pieces of work can be downloaded and then commented on. · Give pupils time to do this. · At the end of the session talk about some of the rules associated with using a gallery. Not uploading rude pictures or pictures of children with not many clothes on. Explain that our gallery can only be seen by us but that some web galleries are totally open for all to see. Moderate their comments, can the comment be misunderstood? Is the comment hurtful or rude? If so don’t include it! Explain how things posted on the web have no visual facial context so we have to be careful not to upset others accidentally. The best way to do this is to say you are daft with a cross expression and a smiling face. · Ask pupils if they can think of a use for the gallery to share things from home. My class came up with the idea of sharing some holiday photos. I then created a gallery for them to do this at home and they loved it. If you are teaching upper juniors I would suggest showing them how to reduce the size of photos using Microsoft Picture Editor which comes with Microsoft Office.
ICT Skills	Able Extension	KS2 SEN Ideas & possible adaptations for KS1 pupils	Teacher Preparation
Navigate around the gallery tool Upload a gallery item Comment on a gallery item	Show more able pupils how to use Microsoft picture manager to reduce the size of photos so they are a manageable size	I would recommend removing tagging for younger children.	This activity is really aided if you have created some interesting work using the computers recently. At Abbotswood I would suggest using their Materials Branching Databases or a Word document in Y3, An inspiration mind map in Y4, A spreadsheet in Y5 and a Powerpoint in Y6. You need to create two Galleries. One needs to be unpopulated and allow pupils to contribute, tag resources and rate items. With the other Gallery I would upload five or six pictures on a theme that you are working on at the moment. Four Gallery video help files
Learning Objective Lesson 6	Lesson Plan eLocker
· To know how to manage your eLocker · To know how to upload and download to and from your eLocker	· Explain the concept of an eLocker. An online storage facility which can be accessed on any computer that is attached to the internet. · I would suggest that you now work through the skills list on the left splitting the session into three parts o Folder creation and manipulation o Work upload and download o Working with a purpose § Younger pupils can upload work from the school system to show their parents at home. § Older pupils can upload exemplar work that they could use in a portfolio in the future and work that is unfinished to work on at home. · Questions you will need to cover o Should we upload all our work to the eLocker? Answer No. Transferring work across the internet is slower than saving work on a network. So save the eLocker for files that you want to use in Studywiz and files you want to access at home. You also have an eLocker limit of 50mb so it wouldn’t hold all your work. o What folders should I make? Answer, you will need to think this through before hand. Some like subjects or topics. Some like Home and School. There are so many possibilities. o When I download a piece of work to my documents folder it says do I want to replace the original? Answer No you need to rename it with a different number after the original name as it is a later version.
ICT Skills	Able Extension	KS2 SEN Ideas & possible adaptations for KS1 pupils	Teacher Preparation
Managing your eLocker · Creating new folders · Deleting folders · Re-naming folders · Opening folders Operating an eLocker · Uploading documents · Downloading documents · Moving documents to an eLocker from other places on Studywiz · Understanding Storage limits		The eLocker tool can be a great way of sharing work with parents at home. Children can upload work done in school and then download it at home to show their parents or guardians.	eLocker video help files