Autumn 2004

Talking English

Online learning objects: lifting literacy

MARGERY HORNIBROOK outlines online learning objects developed by The Learning Federation as part of the Literacy 1 Project.

Background to the Literacy Project

The Australian Federal, State and Territory Governments, together with New Zealand, have jointly funded The Learning Federation to support the development of online curriculum content for schools. This is in recognition of the important role that high quality online content tailored for the purposes of teaching and learning will have on the takeup of ICT in schools.

The approach being used by The Learning Federation to develop the online content is the learning object model. This model has been selected because if provides great flexibility as it is reusable in multiple contexts and for multiple purposes. The learning object approach has the potential to deliver a more engaging, exciting and enjoyable learning process that encourages better learning outcomes. It affords teachers the opportunity to provide a wider range of resources that can be organised to suit the individual learning needs of their students, while simplifying preparation and enriching the delivery of lessons. You can find out more about learning objects and their application by visiting www.thelearningfederation.edu.au

Online content in literacy for students at risk of not achieving the Literacy Benchmarks in the middle years 5–9 is a priority area for development. There are three phases in this priority area over the five years of the initiative. In the first phase the focus has been on reception of literacy. Material from this phase has now been released to all education sectors.

The second phase, which has just commenced, will focus on literacy production. This entails an emphasis on the construction of various types of electronic texts. Clearly, receptionrelated tasks will be involved in this second phase, but the major emphasis will be developing students’ abilities to produce relevant textual materials. The third phase will focus on ‘new ICT literacy skills’, in particular the reception and production of multimodal textual materials.

Literacy 1 Project overview

The Literacy 1 Project focusses on the reception of textual material encompassing reading, viewing and listening capabilities, but not to the exclusion of other relevant areas of literacy performance. The organising pedagogical framework for the objects is the widely recognised Four Roles of the Reader (Four Resources) model developed by Freebody and Luke (1990). To develop as effective literacy receivers, students must learn to take on a set of roles, or ways of interacting with different types of text, to understand and use those texts on several levels for a variety of purposes.

The learning objects employ a range of rich contexts, which include interactive narrative structures and ‘game play’ devices to promote engagement for a diverse range of learners.

Scaffolding, that is, explication of the instructional demands and ongoing feedback to students about their responses, is an integral part of the design of the learning objects. Many objects readily link to a range of curriculum areas as well as reallife social contexts. Overall, distinctive opportunities are provided for students to access studentfocussed materials that provide multiple opportunities for progression in the area of reception.

The learning objects released are grouped into series. Each series contains a number of learning objects with levels of increasing complexity. Some examples follow.

Letters to the editor series

In this series of learning objects, students join the staff of a local newspaper and investigate plans to allow development in a local park. Students decode and consider a range of oral, written and visual texts, which state a position on the issue. Students identify an author’s point of view or bias in the texts and use the process of logical reasoning to match an author with a particular text.

Different learning objects in this series allow students to conduct interviews, interpret survey results, and construct, with guidance, a feature article and editorial about the proposed development.

Rap machine series

In these learning objects students mix their own rap music. They start with model lyrics and beats, and then change each line to make a new rap with a selected beat. Students are encouraged to get a rapper to perform their song. In this series students are able to identify standard and nonstandard English and are able to select appropriate text to make or change meaning.

Rainforest series

In this comprehensive series of learning objects, students are invited to volunteer to help protect a rainforest in southeast Australia during the tourist season. They prepare for the trip by reading a brochure, booking a flight using 24-hour time and choosing clothing suitable for the climate froma sales catalogue. They explore three layers of the rainforest: canopy, understorey and forest floor, and choose symbols to represent rainforest features. They use grid references and compass points to find positions on amap and to construct a new walking track. Students also make informative signs about places of interest in the rainforest. This series encourages students to relate a text to their own growing knowledge and experiences; understand how illustrations, including diagrams, tables, maps and graphs contribute to the meaning of a text; understand the literal and inferential meanings found in texts; and use texts as a basis for action.

catalogue. They explore three use the ‘Picture in your head’ visualisation strategy to decode and interpret descriptive texts in spoken and written form.

Visualisation series

The learning objects in the visualisation series require students to use the ‘Picture in your head’ visualisation strategy to decode and interpret descriptive texts in spoken and written form. In the ‘Picture this’ group of learning objects, students relate the spoken and written texts to their own knowledge and experience and view animated visual representations of their interpretations. They understand that texts can be interpreted in a range of different ways by a listener/ reader. In the ‘Make a movie’ group, students also use the ‘Picture in your head’ visualisation strategy to turn an adventure, mystery or science fiction script into an animated movie.

Who to contact

If you are keen to access the literacy learning objects in particular or, are interested in learning objects from other curriculum priority areas, please make contact with The Learning Federation Contact Liaison Officer in your State, Territory, school sector or New Zealand. You will find their contact details on the website under the Education banner at www.thelearningfederation.edu.au

Reference

Freebody, P & Luke, A (199O). Literacies programs: Debates and demands in cultural context, Prospect, 5, pp. 716.

Margery Hornibrook is manager of communications for The Le@rning Federation, responsible for the facilitation, coordination and implementation associated with all communication activity.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au