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Innovation Session at the British Educational Conference (BERA) 2016 – Leeds, UK

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A workshop that introduces Talkwall will take place at the BERA Annual Conference 2016 to be held at the University of Leeds.

BERA Innovation Sessions are intended to give both presenters and participants an opportunity to do things ‘differently’. As one of the accepted ‘innovation sessions’ at this year’s conference, participants will take part in a workshop to experience using Talkwall from the perspective of both teachers and students. Specifically, this interactive session will explore how Talkwall:

  • Expands the ‘dialogic space’ for learning as it represents an interface for students to make their thinking visible;
  • Enables groups to share, evaluate and develop knowledge together in a manner that promotes active participation;
  • Encourages instant visualization, and the comparison of ideas, as posts can be interactively arranged on the wall and organised in relation to each other;
  • Supports innovative teacher-student engagement, and flipped learning classrooms, by creating a space where students can collectively respond to teacher input;
  • Fosters the development of 21st century competences, such as critical thinking and collaboration skills.

There will be opportunity during the session for participants to learn about, and discuss, the on-going educational research that has guided the design of Talkwall. Potential discussion topics include considering how Talkwall can be integrated to support a range of academic subjects most effectively, in addition to how the system may best promote the inclusion of all students. Details of associated teacher and student support materials, developed to promote Talkwall-supported dialogic classroom pedagogy, will also be presented. Please note, this session does not require participants to sign up to be able to use Talkwall. Additionally, there is no need for participants to install any software as the system is accessible through standard web browsers available on PCs, smartphones and tablets.