Ned Kelly Learning Object

A year 9 Society and Environment class recently used a Curriculum Corporation learning object called “Patrick Brennan: the legend of Ned Kelly” (This URL is to the SA Education Department BELTS server and requires a login) The object description is as follows:

Play the role of a reporter in 1881. Produce a feature article for a newspaper about the life of Ned Kelly. Review a brief history. Interview his friends and enemies. Gather evidence of social and political influences that affected Ned Kelly’s life. Compile an article that explores the myth and decide whether Ned Kelly was a hero, villain or something in between.

Jonas, student teacher, ran the project and I had the opportunity today of spending a bit of time with the class reflecting on the exercise. Students felt that the

• audio as well as text resources were useful and that the materials were relatively easy for them to comprehend.

• exercise was fun

• scenario was realistic

There were a few technical hurdles to over come

• couldn't save the report and work on it later (fortunately Jonas was technically savvy and got the students to copy and paste into a word processor to store and spell check)

• the link to the history and background pages would have been more obvious

We then compared using resources like the Internet and library to get materials and then to produce the report. Students and teacher felt that they were able to produce a report that was of better quality using the learning object. Students stated that the structural support for the report with in the object was very useful.

Conclusion: - Very successful exercise but requires the teacher to be a bit IT savvy.