Genee Vision Evaluation
Overview
This evaluation has been produced by MirandaNet for Interactive Education Ltd. The aim of the evaluation was to gauge the views of teacher and pupil users of its Genee Vision Visualiser, and the ways in which it has impacted on their teaching, learning and work practice.
This research collected data from the Genee Vision user base provided by Interactive Education to investigate the perceptions of teachers of the impact of the visualiser on learning, teaching and workflow.
Data was collected through email contact, online questionnaires and personal interviews.
Terms of Reference
This report uses evidence collected from the data to determine the perceptions of teachers and students.
Key benefits for both of these groups from the use of the Genee visualiser are analysed in terms of teaching, learning and work practice.
Of particular interest are the ways in which teachers maximise the impact of the visualiser, whether through CPD, resources, ways in which they share any newly developed ‘best practice’, the impact of training versus non-training and work in different Key Stages.
The evaluation includes a number of comments from teachers on the impact of the Genee Vision visualiser on teaching and how it has changed their lessons.
Executive summary
During July and September 2008 a number of schools across England were surveyed to investigate the ways in which they use the Genee Vision visualiser, and the ways in which it has impacted on their teaching, learning and work management.
Key Stage Coverage
All Key Stages were represented in participant schools: the majority, however, were in Key Stages 1 & 2.
Curriculum subjects for which Genee Vision is used
Curriculum uses in the primary phase spanned the curriculum. In the Secondary phase the predominant use was for Science (64%) Other subjects in which Genee Vision was used were Maths, Design Technology and ICT (27%), Art and English (18%) and MFL and Citizenship (9% each).
Genee Vision effectiveness: Teacher ratings.
Teachers were asked to rate the effectiveness of the Genee Vision visualiser for a range of tasks:
- For demonstrating processes,
- Showing detail to the whole class,
- Presenting pupil work,
- Integrating with other display technologies (IWB etc.)
- Bringing creativity into the class.
Responses were overwhelmingly positive.
- 100% of teachers found it valuable or invaluable for showing detail to the whole class or demonstrating pupil work.
- 94% of respondents found it invaluable or valuable for demonstrating processes.
- 87% gave the same rating for integration with other display technologies such as interactive whiteboards.
- 84% of respondents reported it as invaluable or valuable for bringing creativity into the class.
Range of tasks for which visualisers are used
Teachers were asked to identify all the ways in which they used the Genee visualiser. In addition to projecting images to the whole class (97%), teachers identified a number of other uses to which the visualisers were put. Many teachers recorded images for future use (48%), for creating curriculum materials (42%) and for individual- and small-group pupil use (32%). Teachers also used them for distributing images for school use (19%), for pupil use (19%) and for creating animations (6%).
Other uses cited were bringing the curriculum to life; direct microscopy (“i.e., look down it!”); analysing and editing pupils’ work; assemblies; soldering demonstrations and showing a demo (although the respondent commented that it “gets blurry”); for practical demonstrations, and fault finding.
Ease of use
94% of Primary teachers and 71% of Secondary teachers said that it took less than half a day to become familiar with and use Genee Vision. Not only that, 24% of Primary and 82% of Secondary teachers were able to use it without any training. They found the program intuitive. However, the website user guide was of importance, as was support from the company. Indeed, 53% of primary teachers felt that the demonstration by Interactive Education was important.
Impact on teaching
100% of Primary teachers found the visualiser ‘invaluable’ or ‘valuable’.
91% of Secondary teachers found the visualiser ‘invaluable’ or ‘valuable’.
Whole-class display was considered to be of most use by 58% of respondents; sharing pupil work by 26%. Other teachers found that the split-screen facility and the zoom facility were of use.
Impact on learning
One special school pupil commented that it was used in “lots of lessons – we like it”. He went on to say that “we would like one in our room all day” because “it shows us just what it is or what to do”. He commented that “you can see things clearly” and repeated “we would like one in our room all the time”.
Recommendations
Schools that use demonstrations and support from the company with all of the staff are more likely to find that the visualiser is used effectively than those where the responsibility for learning is devolved to individual teachers.
Evaluation Report
Data analysis
Between June 16 and September 1 2008 some institutions identified as purchasers of the Genee Vision visualiser were invited to provide feedback on their uses of the equipment and software. Online questionnaires for teachers and their colleagues were hosted on the MirandaNet website. There were thirty-one respondents. 254 email addresses were provided by Interactive Education. 119 of these were returned as invalid or undeliverable.
In real terms, therefore, the response rate, therefore, was 23%.
School profiles
Key Stage(s) in which the Genee Vision visualiser is used.
KS1 |
KS2 |
KS3 |
KS4 |
Post-16 |
|
14 |
19 |
11 |
13 |
9 |
(n = 31)
Reponses to the questionnaire were received from thirty-one schools. Some schools covered a number of Key Stages.
Eighteen respondents were from the Primary sector. One school, with more than 21 visualisers, was an infant school. Thirteen schools were Primary and covered both Key Stage One and Two: the visualiser was used in both these Stages. Five schools only used the visualiser in Key Stage Two. There were ten respondents from the secondary sector: nine used the visualiser at Key Stage Three, ten used it at Key Stage Four and six in the Post-16 phase.
Three schools (one independent, two special schools) contained a number of key stages that extended across the conventional KS2/3 divide.
How many Genee Vision visualisers does your school have?
|
No. of visualisers |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
10 – 15 |
16 – 20 |
21+ |
|
No. of schools |
4 |
8 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
These figures become more significant in terms of pedagogical implications and impact when they are seen as representative of the different Key Stages in schools.
Distribution within school types
Number of visualisers in use |
||||||||||||
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10-15 |
16-20 |
21+ |
|
KS1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
| KS1&2 |
|
3 |
2 |
2 |
|
1 |
|
1 |
|
4 |
2 |
|
| KS3+ |
1 |
3 |
5 |
|
|
1 |
|
1 |
|
|
|
|
Almost half of Primary Schools respondents have between 8 and more than 21 Genee Visualisers in their school – 47% of all respondents. This figure would suggest that, in those schools, the majority of classes and teachers have access to a visualiser all the time. The range in the other Primary Schools was between 2 and 6 visualisers.
In Secondary Schools the pattern was rather different. The maximum number of visualisers in a Secondary School was 8 (9%). 9% had six visualisers: 45% had three visualisers, 27% had two and 9% had one. In the secondary sector, therefore, use (and ownership) was seen as shared, located within departments and focused on specific areas of the curriculum.
All of the respondents in the Primary phase used Genee visualisers. Secondary users reported other visualisers in use.
How many other visualisers does your school have?
|
No. of visualisers |
1 |
3 |
5 |
|
No. of responses |
1 |
2 |
1 |
Where the visualiser is used:
|
In my classroom |
In a colleague’s room |
In the ICT room |
When it is booked |
When it is timetabled |
|
94% |
23% |
15% |
16% |
0 |
All of the respondents in Primary Schools report that the visualiser is used in their classroom. This would suggest that the range of uses to which the equipment is put is directly related to the ease of classroom application – as can be seen from the following table.
Curriculum subjects for which the visualiser is used
|
|
English |
Maths |
Science |
DT |
ICT |
History |
Geography |
MFL |
Art |
Citizenship |
PE |
Careers |
SRE |
RE |
Other |
| All respondents | 61% | 55% | 81% | 48% | 15 | 55% | 55% | 26% | 52% | 23% | 13% | 0 | 10% | 45% | 10% |
| Primary | 100% | 88% | 100% | 71% | 71% | 100% | 100% | 23% | 45% | 23% | 13% | 18% | 41% | 10% | |
| Secondary | 27% | 27% | 82% | 27% | 27% | 9% | 18% | 9% | 9% |
Curriculum uses in the primary phase spanned the curriculum. Indeed, the majority of uses of the visualiser in Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) were by Primary School teachers.
In the Secondary phase the range of uses could be directly related to the number of visualisers in use, the predominant use of which was for Science (64%). Other subjects in which the Genee Vision was used were Maths, Design Technology and ICT (27%), Art and English (18%) and MFL and Citizenship (9% each). Other uses cited by schools were in cross-curricular topics and special days; assemblies and specific occasions when it could be booked for use by others.
How effective do you find the visualiser?
The majority of teachers who used the Genee Vision visualiser found it highly effective
| Invaluable | Valuable | Of some impact | Of little impact | Of no impact | |
| For demonstrating processes |
52% |
42% |
3% |
3% |
0 |
| Showing detail to the whole class |
58% |
42% |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Presenting pupil work |
52% |
48% |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Integrating with other display technologies (IWB etc.) |
32% |
55% |
9% |
6% |
0 |
| Bringing creativity into the class |
29% |
55% |
9% |
6% |
0 |
(All responses as %)
|
I use the Genee Vision Visualiser for: |
|||||||
| Creating curriculum materials | Projecting images to the whole class | Recording images for future use | Distributing images for school use | Distributing images for pupil use | Individual- and small-group pupil use | Creating animations | Other |
|
42% |
97% |
48% |
19% |
19% |
32% |
6% |
10% |
The predominant use of the visualiser, therefore was as a tool for whole-class display, although a significant number used it for recording images and creating curriculum materials. Almost a third of teachers used the visualiser with pupils’ – either individuals or small groups.
Other:
A number of other uses were cited by respondents. These were: “bringing the curriculum to life; direct microscopy (i.e., look down it!); analysing or editing pupils work; assemblies; soldering demonstrations; show a demo (but gets blurry!); practical demonstrations and fault finding.”
It is clear that teachers see the visualiser as a tool that has multiple applications, whilst at the same time projecting images to a large audience – whether it be a group, the class, or a number of classes in an assembly.
| How long did it take to learn how to use the Genee Vision Visualiser? | An hour or less | Less than half a day | About a day | More than a day | I still haven’t learned to use it properly. |
Primary |
53% |
41% |
|
6% |
|
Secondary |
64% |
9% |
|
18% |
9% |
Most teachers found it easy to master the visualisers, and in a short period of time. The majority of teachers – 94% of Primary teachers and 71% of Secondary teachers – found that it took less than half a day. Why is there a difference between the sectors? The reason becomes clear we look at questions that focus on the ways in which teachers learned to use the visualiser, and the resources they used to support their learning.
How did you learn how to use and apply the Genee Vision Visualiser?: |
|||||
|
|
It’s an intuitive system that tells you how to use it |
I worked it out myself |
I used the Genee Vision website |
Interactive Education gave us a demonstration |
We had a demonstration in a CPD session |
|
Primary |
6% |
18% |
6% |
53% |
18% |
|
Secondary |
9% |
73% |
|
18% |
|
Whilst 82% of Secondary teachers felt that the system was intuitive and that they were able to work it out themselves, 71% of Primary teachers learned how to use and apply the visualiser as a result of a demonstration, either from Interactive Education or in a CPD session. In this context learning how to use the visualiser, and apply it across the curriculum, is more likely to result in a collaborative, whole-school approach that reinforces both user skills and pedagogical approaches.
Schools that use demonstrations and support from the company with all of the staff are more likely to find that the visualiser is used effectively than those where the responsibility for learning is devolved to individual teachers.
Which of the following resources did you use to assist your understanding of the Genee Vision Visualiser? |
|||||
|
|
Training |
Manual |
The Genee Vision user guide on the website |
Interactive Education Support |
Online case studies |
|
Primary |
59% |
18% |
29% |
18% |
|
|
Secondary |
18% |
45% |
|
9% |
|
Teachers were able to select a number of options from the choices available: it is clear that, as a group, Primary teachers used a wider range of resources to support their understanding of the uses of the visualiser than did Secondary teachers, the majority of whom relied on the manual.
Neither group specifically cited the use of the online case studies to assist their understanding, although almost a third of Primary respondents reported visiting the website to use the Genee Vision user guide. The case studies have a Primary focus, and the examples of ways in which the visualiser can be used to support the curriculum encourage classroom use for all subjects.
| Now that I am using it I find it | Invaluable | Valuable | Of some impact | Of little impact | Of no impact |
|
55% |
42% |
3% |
0 |
0 |
100% of Primary teachers found the visualiser ‘invaluable’ or ‘valuable’.
91% of Secondary teachers found the visualiser ‘invaluable’ or ‘valuable’.
| The thing I find most useful is | Whole class display | Sharing pupil work | The storyboard software | The split screen | The zoom facility |
|
58% |
29% |
0 |
3% |
10% |
Whole class display, and sharing pupil work with the whole class, account for 87% of the total responses. Although few respondents mention the split-screen and zoom facilities it may well be that they see these as being integral to the way in which the visualiser is used for whole-class display.
Conclusions
The predominant use of the Genee Vision is for displaying images and work to the whole class.
Within that there are a number of uses, many of which involve individuals or groups within the class.
“The ability to link computer and whiteboard and switch between each easily is good …”
Many teachers see the visualiser as ideally suited to spontaneous uses – this enhances creativity and involvement for both the teacher and pupils.
“It gives opportunities that no other ICT provision can, enabling teachers to enhance their teaching very easily and effectively …”
“Easy to adapt teaching and resources. Brilliant for pupil self and peer evaluation. Good for modelling and demonstration …”
Visualisers have their greatest impact where the school has invested in a critical mass and involved all the staff in a familiarisation programme.
“The visualiser has had a huge impact on teaching. It is a highly powerful teaching tool that provides the opportunity for immediate and effective feedback to pupils via peer and teacher evaluation of their work displayed on the visualiser. Texts can be shared and analysed more readily. The need for photocopying is greatly reduced and there is no longer a need to scan items ready for sharing. The zoom and freeze facilities are enormously valuable in areas such as Science e.g. the parts of a flower, seed dispersal. The split screen and mirror functions are also highly valuable in areas such as Maths and Art and Design.”
Teacher collaboration maximises the impact of the technology within the classroom and across the curriculum.
Genee Vision visualisers are at their most effective when embedded within the full range of teacher pedagogy and practice, and are seen as integral to the work done by pupils.
“Pupils easily and quickly learn the different functions and use them for pupil led presentations. It has had a big impact on the standard of pupil presentations. Pupils are provided with the opportunity to view and evaluate their peers’ work and compare it to their own and the success criteria during a lesson – something they couldn’t do before.”
“Opens up new opportunities for learning … it allows interactivity and encourages spontaneity …”
When the visualiser is used with an interactive whiteboard the resource that is created can be used for subsequent lessons, or shared with colleagues.
The interactions between the work that is displayed – the image – the curriculum context and the individuals in the class produce a more objective cognitive response. The relationship between the concepts under discussion, the language that is used for this, peer comments and the visual reinforcement create a more lasting learning experience than one without the visual element.
Case studies
Radipole Primary School in Dorset has six Genee Vision visualisers that it uses across the KS1 and KS2 curriculum. Teachers use them to support and enhance learning in the core subjects: English, Maths, Science, Design and Technology, History, Geography and Art, as well as RE.
Like almost every other school that uses a visualiser the teachers have noted the impact of the whole-class display facilities on pupil understanding and learning. Teachers say that techniques can be clearly demonstrated – then saved, re-played and used later. This is particularly effective for art and handwriting. It is also a very useful way of showing a picture from a book to the whole class. The impact is even greater than when pupils have the book itself – or, as was previously the case, a scanned version of the picture.
Philip Bowden, a class teacher at Radipole, comments that, in addition to the whole-class display facilities the visualiser has had a real impact on motivation.
The visualisers have been very motivating for the children – they work very hard to be chosen to show their work under the visualiser at the end of a lesson.
Phillip Bowden, Radipole Primary School. Class teacher
Many schools have noticed a real impact on the ways in which processes and techniques in Science and Design and Technology can be demonstrated – and captured to use in other contexts.
It has modernised demonstrations and there is no longer a need for a huddle around the teacher’s desk. Therefore pupils are not tempted to be off task.
Stuart Wattley, Bristnall Hall Technology College. Director of Design and Technology
A Valuable resource, we can manage without it but it makes presentations and lessons easier and more exciting.
David Dunlop, Rivington and Blackrod High School. AST and Head of Technology
My children can now look at the screen and see in detail what we are doing in the lesson and understand certain concepts.
Louise Emerson, Yarnfield Primary. Class Teacher
An overhead projector with so much more functionality. Fantastic and so easy to use.
Jenny Griffiths, Northwick Park Primary School. IT Manager/ICT Teacher
Bordesley Village Children’s Services have a significant number of Genee Vision visualisers, that are used in most subjects and classroom: in English, Maths, Science, Design and Technology, ICT, History, Geography, MFL, Art, Music, PE and RE. It’s not only the whole-class display facilities that are valuable. The school also finds them extremely useful for self-assessment and assessment for learning. The visualisers
Add a new dimension, especially for giving instant feedback to pupils to help them with their self-assessment.
commented Kenny Levack, a teacher at the school.
Using the visualisers for self-assessment.
We use the visualisers regularly, especially with our Writing lessons. As a habit now, our pupils assess their own work at the end of a lesson – simply by saying they are pleased with what they have done and have met their objectives – or that they are aware they could have done better. They also are given some short-term targets for literacy that were noticed in their last piece of independent written work. We remind them of their targets at the start and sometimes get the pupils themselves to ‘present’ their work up on the visualiser and show that they have now started meeting their new target.
The visualiser can also act as a timely stimulus.
As a reward / threat, we sometimes say we’ll be putting your work on the visualiser in 5 minutes…! (For some, it can have a great effect on output especially!)
Collaborative work and evaluation is also supported by the use of visualisers.
For example, if the pupils have a target for their self assessment to remember to use capital letters and full stops, we will put their work up and then ask them what their target is and the good thing is that they can see instantly, along with the rest of the class how they are getting on with meeting that target.
Depending on what interactive whiteboard board you use, you could even call upon the pupils to annotate or ‘correct’ the work they can see up on the screen.
This does work for all the pupils, they do all become more aware, (especially by seeing their own work and that of their peers regularly,) where their weaknesses lie – i.e. Punctuation missing – not enough adventurous vocabulary, capital letters missing, spelling mistakes etc!
Fantastic!
Kenny Levack, Bordesley Village Children’s Services. TLR manager Upper Key Stage 2
The ability to link computer and whiteboard and switch between each easily is good …
Jason Hazrati, Heathlands at Townsend Asst. Headteacher
The ease of use of Genee Vision visualisers was commented on by a number of respondents.
It gives opportunities that no other ICT provision can, enabling teachers to enhance their teaching very easily and effectively …
Opens up new opportunities for learning – comparable to when we first got a projector. It allows interactivity and encourages spontaneity …
It is plugged into a projector or IWB to produce a large image on screen: essentially a document camera with some enhanced features. Resolution is good enough to make even the tiniest print on a leaflet readable at the back of a classroom.
Supporting sharing and spontaneity
King Edward VI Grammar School has six visualisers in use across the Science, ICT and Modern Foreign Languages departments. The spontaneous use of visualisers is particularly prized: they can be used to respond to a question, suggestion or material produced by a pupil, a group or the whole class. In a Science class, for example, a pupil can bring in a picture or an article and share it with the whole class: scientific specimens can be brought in and displayed. Pupils also use the visualiser for their own presentations to the class.
In fact, materials can be displayed to the whole group for a number of purposes: exemplars of pupil work, the marking of sample work by the whole class, examination papers and answers on screen – the interactions between the work that is displayed, and the individuals in the class, produce a more objective response and supports learning.
Ray Le Couteur, Head of ICT, feels that
The essence is speed – you can switch between a pupil poster and a scientific sample in 10 seconds. So you can do things on the spur of the moment – e.g. quickly display a particularly good piece of work.
Interactivity/spontaneity is via what you do with the displayed material – the images themselves are passive (no difference between using just a projector and an IWB).
Ray Le Couteur, King Edward VI Grammar School. Head of ICT
An American teacher comments:
I’ve … found that visualisers are extremely beneficial for students with a wide range of skills (i.e. special needs and gifted). Multimodal learning and visualization are so important for every child. I particularly loved using the Proscope microscope with my students for science experiments.
Mechelle
Easy to adapt teaching and resources. Brilliant for pupil self and peer evaluation. Good for modelling and demonstration.
Sharon Campbell, Slade Junior and Infant School. ICT Coordinator
The William Read Primary School uses visualisers in every classroom, in KS1 and 2. Teachers use them for English, Maths, Science, Design and Technology, History, Geography, Art and RE.
The visualiser has had a huge impact on teaching. It is a highly powerful teaching tool that provides the opportunity for immediate and effective feedback to pupils via peer and teacher evaluation of their work displayed on the visualiser. Texts can be shared and analysed more readily. The need for photocopying is greatly reduced and there is no longer a need to scan items ready for sharing. The zoom and freeze facilities are enormously valuable in areas such as Science e.g. the parts of a flower, seed dispersal. The split screen and mirror functions are also highly valuable in areas such as Maths and Art and Design.
Pupils easily and quickly learn the different functions and use them for pupil led presentations. It has had a big impact on the standard of pupil presentations. Pupils are provided with the opportunity to view and evaluate their peers’ work and compare it to their own and the success criteria during a lesson – something they couldn’t do before.
Helen Ferguson, William Read Primary School. Advanced Skills Teacher
Our students need the visual to learn and this gives enormous impact straight away without having to pass round objects etc. Great idea.
Vannessa Moore, The Shrubberies Special School. Assistant Head
(The Genee Vision visualiser) has made the IWB an even more powerful tool
Beryl Lishman, Inglehurst Junior School. ICT Coordinator/SENCo
This is a great tool that impresses the kids. It is simple and easy to use without loads of training. We have used them very much more than interactive whiteboards. It is brilliant for showing pupils how to plot graphs or construct ray diagrams. In this role it saves a lot of walking around showing pupils the same thing on an individual basis.
Gareth Williams, Woodhouse Grove. Head of Science
Allows detail to be shown via IWB clearly to the whole class. This includes samples, small-scale science experiments and the sharing of pupils’ work.
The whole class can observe small-scale demonstrations and individuals can show the class how they are performing operations. (Genee Vision is) A powerful visual tool to assist non-verbal students.
Supporting individual needs
The Beverley School for Autism caters for pupils from Key Stage One to post-16.
I work with Autistic Spectrum students, several of whom have complex and quite profound learning difficulties. Some are non- verbal and non-numerate and yet with appropriate communication aids can demonstrate skills in matching, sorting, selecting and sequencing. Frequently they show these skills using TEACCH materials, which allow them to move and organise photographs, pictures or symbols. Often, acquiring skills requires repetition. The Visualiser provides a unique opportunity to allow these students to demonstrate their skills with these materials publicly to each other. There is benefit from seeing others on a similar task (normally these are individual operations): accuracy of response increases as they watch each other perform. They also select and use scientific apparatus or assist in small-scale experiments that are then visible to the rest of the class (e.g. floating and sinking in a tank, constructing electric circuits).
The Visualiser has further value in that we can capture images of familiar ‘real’ objects and insert them into other resources. Obviously, there is no rocket science here. However, using the Visualiser in this way seems to be a powerful reinforcement of learning and allows students to ‘perform’ in front of their peers – which is important to their social agenda, too.
Peter Ryles, Beverley School for Autism. Science Teacher
An OHP with much more functionality – fantastic teaching tool!
Jenny Griffiths, Northwick Primary School. IT Manager/Instructor
Teaching Technology through Technology
Leyland St. Mary’s CTC use two Genee Vision visualisers in teaching Design and Technology. They have found them particularly useful in the teaching of electronics, engineering and graphics, enabling all the pupils in the class to focus on processes and their products. The visualisers have had a great impact on peer assessment and assessment for learning.
The visualisers have allowed processes to be demonstrated to whole classes. This has been of particular use in electronics, engineering and in graphics. The visualisers have also been of great value in sharing pupils’ work with each other. This has been done effectively during whole school events, such as enterprise days etc. The visualisers are used to aid peer assessment where classes or year groups can comment on or view examples of individual or team work. This may be in the form of a product or design as well as written work.
On the enterprise event, for example, pupils worked in teams and one of the tasks was for each team to create a team name and design a logo for their team. The pupils were in tutor groups, which were then split into smaller teams. The tutor groups evaluated the designs within their tutor group and voted the best through to the final. The year group was then brought together where all the finalist designs were shown to the entire year group via the visualiser. A similar method is used in lessons to facilitate AFL (Assessment For Learning) and in particular peer assessment.
Travall Towriess, Leyland St Mary’s CTC. Director of Specialism
It allows me to share instantly with the class work they have been doing – allowing for instant feedback. (Anonymous)
The overall impact of the Genee Vision visualiser on teaching and learning: feedback from teachers
Seventy seven percent of respondents commented on the impact of the Genee Visualiser on their teaching and their pupils’ learning.
Radipole Junior School has six Genee Vision visualisers that it uses across the KS1 and KS2 curriculum. It uses them for English, Maths, Science, Design and Technology, History, Geography and Art, as well as RE. Philip Bowden, a class teacher at Radipole, comments that, in addition to the whole-class display facilities the visualiser has had a real impact on motivation.
It has been very valuable in demonstrating techniques in art, handwriting and so on, as well as in looking at pictures in books – which would otherwise have to be scanned. The visualisers have been very motivating for the children – they work very hard to be chosen to show their work under the visualiser at the end of a lesson.
Phillip Bowden, Radipole Primary School. Class teacher
Many schools have noticed a real impact on the ways in which processes and techniques in Science and Design and Technology can be demonstrated – and captured to use in other contexts.
It has modernised demonstrations and there is no longer a need for a huddle around the teacher’s desk. Therefore pupils are not tempted to be off task.
Stuart Wattley, Bristnall Hall Technology College. Director of Design and Technology
Excellent use in sourcing close up work/ product evaluation. Worksheets shared without photocopying. A Valuable resource, we can manage without it but it makes presentations and lessons easier and more exciting.
David Dunlop, Rivington and Blackrod High School. AST and Head of Technology
My children can now look at the screen and see in detail what we are doing in the lesson and understand certain concepts.
Louise Emerson, Yarnfield Primary. Class Teacher
An overhead projector with so much more functionality. Fantastic and so easy to use.
Jenny Griffiths, Northwick Park Primary School. IT Manager/ICT Teacher
Bordesley Village Children’s Services have a significant number of Genee Vision visualisers, that are used in most subjects and classroom: in English, Maths, Science, Design and Technology, ICT, History, Geography, MFL, Art, Music, PE and RE. They find them extremely useful for self-assessment and assessment for learning. Kenny Levack, a teacher at the school, commented that they
Add a new dimension, especially for giving instant feedback to pupils to help them with their self-assessment.
We use the visualisers regularly, especially with our Writing lessons. As a habit now, our pupils assess their own work at the end of a lesson – simply by saying they are pleased with what they have done and have met their objectives – or that they are aware they could have done better. They also are given some short-term targets for literacy that were noticed in their last piece of independent written work. We remind them of their targets at the start and sometimes get the pupils themselves to ‘present’ their work up on the visualiser and show that they have now started meeting their new target.
The visualiser can also act as a timely stimulus.
As a reward / threat, we sometimes say we’ll be putting your work on the visualiser in 5 minutes…! (For some, it can have a great effect on output especially!)
Collaborative work and evaluation is also supported by the use of visualisers.
If say for example the pupils have a target for their self assessment to remember to use capital letters and full stops, we will put their work up and then ask them what their target is and the good thing is that they can see instantly, along with the rest of the class how they are getting on with meeting that target.
Depending on what interactive whiteboard board you use, you could even call upon the pupils to annotate or ‘correct’ the work they can see up on the screen.
This does work for all the pupils, they do all become more aware, (especially by seeing their own work and that of their peers regularly,) where their weaknesses lie – i.e. Punctuation missing – not enough adventurous vocabulary, capital letters missing, spelling mistakes etc…!
Fantastic!
Kenny Levack, Bordesley Village Children’s Services. TLR manager Upper Key Stage 2
The ability to link computer and whiteboard and switch between each easily is good… What would be even better would be to be able to use the glass mode of the Easiteach software so to be able to write on the display projected by the visualiser on the IWB
Jason Hazrati, Heathlands at Townsend Asst. Headteacher
The ease of use of Genee Vision visualisers was commented on by a number of respondents.
It gives opportunities that no other ICT provision can, enabling teachers to enhance their teaching very easily and effectively. (Anonymous)
Opens up new opportunities for learning – comparable to when we first got a projector. It allows interactivity and encourages spontaneity.
It is plugged into a projector or IWB to produce a large image on screen: essentially a document camera with some enhanced features. Resolution is good enough to make even the tiniest print on a leaflet readable at the back of a classroom.
King Edward VI Grammar School has six visualisers in use across the Science, ICT and Modern Foreign Languages departments. The spontaneous use of visualisers is particularly prized: they can be used to respond to a question, suggestion or material produced by a pupil, a group or the whole class. In a Science class, for example, a pupil can bring in a picture or an article and share it with the whole class: scientific specimens can be brought in and displayed. Pupils also use the visualiser for their own presentations to the class.
In fact, materials can be displayed to the whole group for a number of purposes: exemplars of pupil work, the marking of sample work by the whole class, examination papers and answers on screen – the interactions between the work that is displayed, and the individuals in the class, produce a more objective response and supports learning.
Ray Le Couteur, Head of ICT, feels that
The essence is speed – you can switch between a pupil poster and a scientific sample in 10 seconds. So you can do things on the spur of the moment – e.g. quickly display a particularly good piece of work.
Interactivity/spontaneity is via what you do with the displayed material – the images themselves are passive (no difference between using just a projector and an IWB).
I intend to promote the visualiser on one of our training days and give examples of how they are used by me and get a few other enthusiasts to join in. I am sure we’ll gain a few new converts. Gradually the word will spread. (My two great enthusiasms at the moment are visualisers and mindmaps!)
Ray Le Couteur, King Edward VI Grammar School. Head of ICT
I’ve used many types of visualizers and found that they are extremely beneficial for students with a wide range of skills (i.e. special needs and gifted). Multimodal learning and visualization are so important for every child. I particularly loved using the Proscope microscope with my students for science experiments.
Mechelle
Easy to adapt teaching and resources. Brilliant for pupil self and peer evaluation. Good for modelling and demonstration.
Sharon Campbell, Slade Junior and Infant School. ICT Coordinator
I didn’t realise you could split the screen with a visualiser; or did you mean the whiteboard?
Margaret O’Brien, Thomas Deacon Academy. Lead Teacher ICT
The William Read Primary School uses visualisers in every classroom, in KS1 and 2. Teachers use them for English, Maths, Science, Design and Technology, History, Geography, Art and RE.
The visualiser has had a huge impact on teaching. It is a highly powerful teaching tool that provides the opportunity for immediate and effective feedback to pupils via peer and teacher evaluation of their work displayed on the visualiser. Texts can be shared and analysed more readily. The need for photocopying is greatly reduced and there is no longer a need to scan items ready for sharing. The zoom and freeze facilities are enormously valuable in areas such as Science e.g. the parts of a flower, seed dispersal. The split screen and mirror functions are also highly valuable in areas such as Maths and Art and Design.
Pupils easily and quickly learn the different functions and use them for pupil led presentations. It has had a big impact on the standard of pupil presentations. Pupils are provided with the opportunity to view and evaluate their peers’ work and compare it to their own and the success criteria during a lesson – something they couldn’t do before.
Helen Ferguson, William Read Primary School. Advanced Skills Teacher
Our students need the visual to learn and this gives enormous impact straight away without having to pass round objects etc. Great idea.
Vannessa Moore, The Shrubberies Special School. Assistant Head
Has made the IWB an even more powerful tool
Beryl Lishman, Inglehurst Junior School. ICT Coordinator/SENCo
Very positive impact: great motivator, children love showing their work, and can be done quickly & easily. Capturing images isn’t as good as I’d hoped – quality not good enough. And whole-class images always limited by projector – we’ve had lots of different projectors, the image of them all degrade very quickly, and they’re so costly to replace. We’ve also had problems with the Geneevision USB connection interacting with other USB devices (e.g. Promethean’s ActiVote – we can’t get them both to work on the same PC at the same time and it seems to be the Genevision which causes the problem.) But overall a visualiser is a great teaching tool.
Marion Shuttleworth, Waverley Abbey Junior School. ICT Coordinator
This is a great tool that impresses the kids. It is simple and easy to use without loads of training. We have used them very much more than interactive whiteboards. It is brilliant for showing pupils how to plot graphs or construct ray diagrams. In this role it saves a lot of walking around showing pupils the same thing on an individual basis.
Gareth Williams, Woodhouse Grove. Head of Science
I cannot say it has had a great impact yet as I don’t know how to use all the functions. I am awaiting a the training persons to come in and do a training session with myself and other staff on how to use it.
Allows detail to be shown via IWB to be shown to whole class clearly. This includes samples, small scale science experiments and sharing of pupils’ work.
I think it would have more impact if it were shipped with legible setup instructions and software with more functions.
This comment was from a teacher who had received no support in using the equipment.
The whole class can observe small scale demonstrations and individuals can show the class how they are performing operations. A powerful visual tool to assist non-verbal students.
The Beverley School for Autism caters for pupils from Key Stage One to post-16.
I work with Autistic Spectrum students, several of whom have complex and quite profound learning difficulties. Some are non- verbal and non-numerate and yet with appropriate communication aids can demonstrate skills in matching, sorting, selecting and sequencing. Frequently they show these skills using TEACCH materials, which allow them to move and organise photographs, pictures or symbols. Often, acquiring skills requires repetition. The Visualiser provides a unique opportunity to allow these students to demonstrate their skills with these materials publicly to each other. There is benefit from seeing others on a similar task (normally these are individual operations): accuracy of response increases as they watch each other perform. They also select and use scientific apparatus or assist in small-scale experiments that are then visible to the rest of the class (e.g. floating and sinking in a tank, constructing electric circuits).
The Visualiser has further value in that we can capture images of familiar ‘real’ objects and insert them into other resources. Obviously, there is no rocket science here. However, using the Visualiser in this way seems to be a powerful reinforcer of learning and allows students to ‘perform’ in front of their peers – which is important to their social agenda, too.
Peter Ryles, Beverley School for Autism. Science Teacher
An OHP with much more functionality – fantastic teaching tool!
Jenny Griffiths, Northwick Primary School. IT Manager/Instructor
Leyland St. Mary’s CTC use two Genee Vision visualisers in teaching Design and Technology. They have found them particularly useful in the teaching of electronics, engineering and graphics, enabling all the pupils in the class to focus on processes and their products. The visualisers have had a great impact on peer assessment and assessment for learning.
The visualisers have allowed processes to be demonstrated to whole classes. This has been of particular use in electronics, engineering and in graphics. The visualisers have also been of great value in sharing pupils’ work with each other. This has been done effectively during whole school events, such as enterprise days etc. The visualisers are used to aid peer assessment where classes or year groups can comment on or view examples of individual or team work. This may be in the form of a product or design as well as written work.
On the enterprise event for example, pupils worked in teams and one of the tasks was for each team to create a team name and design a logo for their team. The pupils were in tutor groups, which were then split into smaller teams. The tutor groups evaluated the designs within their tutor group and voted the best through to the final. The year group was then brought together where all the finalist designs were shown to the entire year group via the visualiser. A similar method is used in lessons to facilitate AFL (Assessment For Learning) and in particular peer assessment.
Travall Towriess, Leyland St Mary’s CTC. Director of Specialism
It allows me to share instantly with the class work they have been doing – allowing for instant feedback. (Anonymous)
Pupil Response
Is there anything else you would like to say about the visualiser?
We use it for lots of lessons – we like it we would like one in our room all day. It shows us just what it is or what to do. You can see things clearly. We would like one in our room all the time.
John Cuthell
MirandaNet
