Cambridge House Grammar School Ballymena Business Studies teacher Arlene Proctor has used LearningNI (LNI) – Northern Ireland’s schools’ online learning environment - to encourage innovation and introduce Year 10 pupils to the cut and thrust of the world of business.
As part of their Year 10 Business Studies ‘taster’ programme, pupils took part in their own special variation of the popular television programmes Dragon’s Den and Beat the Boss. They were all shown the same prototype product - a CD case - and were asked to consider ways in which it could be improved and developed.
Working in groups, the pupils completed a series of business related tasks including market research and how to price and promote their end product. The final stage was to present their findings to a panel of experts which included representatives from Ballymena Business Education Partnership, C2K, ICT and Technology staff from the NEELB, InvestNI and Young Enterprise, as well as local business people.
Although the students were all in the same year group and some of them even in the same class, they were encouraged to use LNI’s online discussion forums to bounce ideas off each other when they were carrying out the project. The online course was developed in such a way to allow the pupils to ask the experts questions online.
As teacher in charge of the project, Mrs Proctor admits that at first she was a bit sceptical about how well it would work. “There were a number of issues I was apprehensive about. For example, the pupils had to log on to LNI and comment on different aspects of the project so I was concerned about the possibility of cyber bullying. Both Linda Archer of the NEELB and Eleanore Thomas of C2K, who helped develop the LNI online course were able to reassure me about the security of website.”
“I suppose the overriding issue was that pupils would simply not engage with the project because of the virtual nature of the course. This was not the case and after some initial caution pupils started to interact, discuss ideas and solve problems online.”
Mrs Proctor says that once she got over her initial concerns, she found the online course very beneficial, in particular the way it allows pupils to get ‘hands on’ business experience.
“When students start studying Business, they can find it difficult to see the practical application of theory and this is where our own Dragon’s Den/Beat the Boss project scored very highly.”
“It helped reinforce learning and this will stand to the pupils when they study Business Studies at GCSE. A good understanding of the practical application of theory is a key skill that they all have to learn but it can be very difficult to grasp.”
“The project was beneficial in a number of ways as they developed other transferable skills such as communication, numeracy and ICT which will all help in other subject areas.”
The winning team, The Professionals consisted of Nicola Garrett, Ross Campbell, Steven Houston, Mark Lamont and Christopher Livingston. They say they thoroughly enjoyed their first on-line learning experience and would recommend it.
As the only girl in the group, Nicola Garrett emerged as the undisputed team leader. She thought the online course was not only great fun but also a great learning experience.
“I had no previous knowledge of an online course but I found this one very useful. It made Business Studies very interesting and fun to learn. We found that we worked very well as a team and learnt other skills as well, like communication skills.”
Ross Campbell agreed and said he was surprised at how much they learnt during the project.
“We worked very well as a team so it certainly helped our negotiation, communication and ICT skills. We thought the final presentation would be a lot more daunting than it actually was but because we had prepared so well for it, we felt a lot more confident when it came to doing the presentation.”
Their hard work certainly paid off when they received individual trophies and an iPod shuffle (sponsored by InvestNI) each for the Best Presentation and Best Overall Project. You could say it was a good day in the office for The Professionals!
The course was supported by Donal O’Donnell Head of Technology and Design Department in school, Linda Archer, ICT Assistant Advisor and Willie McKeown, Technology and Design Assistant Advisor, both from the NEELB.
