Today saw the formal launch of the Making the News project formal evaluation report "Transforming learning through online storytelling". The evaluation team, lead by Dr Fiona Brooks of the University of Hertfordshire presented the findings of their independent evaluation study. According to their work, the MTN project had a significant impact on learning, particularly with respect to collaborative working, personalized learning, e-safety and self-esteem. Jeff Howson, project manager described how the project has developed from an initially very simple core idea about syndicating RSS.
Chris Kastel, CEO of E2BN, and Ceris Bergen, Head of Content Development at BECTA (the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) discussed how to support and extend this work. The E2BN regional broadband consortium host the MTN server and have promoted it to all the other Regional Broadband Consortia in the country.
Meanwhile, pupils from Priory School wrote and published stories in and around the Knowledge Media Institute. Dr Peter Whalley showed them how to record podcasts using Apple’s GarageBand software, and Chris Valentine (who leads the MTN work in KMi) showed them how to attach them to MTN stories.
MTN is an outreach spin-off from ROSTRA, a generic KMi technology that supports the web-based news dissemination system you are now reading, and is in use by over 600 schools around the United Kingdom.
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