The 6th Irish Community of Practice took place on 24th October 2024.  The CoP members met just before the October Halloween Mid-term break and it was decided to have the meeting on Zoom as it was more convenient.

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The participants were invited to present with the AdAPPtive team at the Literacy Association of Ireland's conference on 9th Nov at the Marino Institute of Education.  One of the teachers volunteered if she was free on that day.

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It is very difficult to find a time when all the Irish CoP participants are free and the CoP members discussed possible dates for the next few meetings.  There was suggestions for meetings in December and February and the CoP participants will be in touch electronically to finalise these dates.

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The 2nd international CoP will take place in Dublin on the St Pat’s campus of DCU and the participants were asked to hold the 3rd and 4th of April in their calendars.  

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There was a discussion about a possible trip to Amsterdam by the Irish CoP, with dates in early May being mentioned.  This would give the Irish CoP teachers a chance to learn from the international colleagues and see their school contexts.

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The AdAPPtive team members reminded the teachers about collecting pre-intervention data for this school year, with the intention of doing pre- and post-analysis in late March or early April.  The AdAPPtive team re-send the instruments for data collection, along with instructions, to the CoP teachers.  These instruments are not difficult to administer and should not be very time-consuming.  The AdAPPtive will also check in with each school to see if they would like help collecting ‘pre-intervention’ data.

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The participants were reminded that the project activities will continue until June 2025 and that the project report will be mainly ready (with minor modifications) by the end of August 2025.

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Each teacher provided an overview of their AdAPPtive context, with information on the number of students, the apps they plan on using, how they plan on using them and the overall classroom setting.  It transpired that all the teachers will use Lexia.  Some teachers will use iPads with earphones in class, while others will use chromebooks.  The teachers reported that they have good support from Lexia.

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In terms of issues and concerns, the teachers reiterated that due to teacher shortages, it is very difficult to get substitute teachers to cover for them to attend AdAPPtive CoPs for a full day.  Some support teachers are pulled out of support to cover general classroom duties.  Despite some issues with Lexia (e.g. logging in), the teachers have positive feedback on Lexia.  It is helpful for target-based learning when the teacher is absent and provides evidence for the efficacy of technology by providing evidence of progression).  Some older classes were getting boring and one hour may be too much.  The Printed Certs were effective for learner esteem.  They reported that the support from Lexia was very good and they may continue to use it after the project finishes.

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The AdAPPtive also shared the data sharing agreement with the teachers.

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Overall, it was a full and informative meeting.

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Reference

Halloween image Photo by David Menidrey on Unsplash

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