Listening to Learn: Reflections on Creating an Effective Learning Environment – Sarah Younie

www.mirandanet.ac.uk Thought leaders in ICT

Listening to Learn: Reflections on Creating an Effective Learning

Environment – LightSpeedTechnologies

Dr Sarah YounieDirector of Research & Innovation at MirandaNet

Reader in Education, Innovation & Technology at De Montfort University, UK

http://www.mirandanet.ac.uk


An Evaluation of Classroom Audio Distribution Technology for Teaching and Learning

• Lightspeed - associate of the MirandaNetFellowship of Educators (www.mirandanet.ac.uk)

• Professional network founded in 1992 –– has 1,000 members in 80 countries

• Collaborative research MirandaNet & Lightspeed

• Roger Turner -Lightspeed Technologies education consultant draw on advice from the MirandaNetFellowship




• Research - impact of Lightspeed Technology’s Redcat and Flexcat CAD (classroom audio distribution) systems

• in schools in England between 2008-2014• First phase: school-based action research in 2008-09 to

investigate the impact Redcat soundfield system on teaching & learning.

• Redcat system represented the first evolution of Lightspeedtechnology in this area.

• This was followed up with the development of the Flexcatsystem, which was implemented in schools in 2013 and led to the next stage of research.




• Methodology - multi site case study approach

• 14 schools, seven primary and seven secondary

• four west London boroughs & Devon

• initial Redcat research in 2008-09

• Data collection methods:– Classroom observations

– Questionnaires – pupils and teachers

– Teacher interviews




• Research issues:

• Generalisability, reliability and validity

• Triangulation

• Findings: – phase 1 and 2

• questionnaires returned from:

• 58 teachers and 554 pupils




• The main findings demonstrated:• improved hearing and understanding of teacher

instructions;• improved on-task behaviour;• improved attention and engagement in

discussion activities;• improved ability to follow directions;• improved self-confidence of pupils when

speaking to the whole class.




• For teachers, the key benefits of the system were judged to have been:

• less repetition of instructions;

• less vocal fatigue and tiredness;

• improved ability to control and manage the class; leading to better behaviour;

• more time to support individual and small groups of learners.




• Summary of Lightspeed research findings:

• strongly support those of previous research

• show that 90 percent of teachers agree that

• their pupils were able to hear and understand them better when using the technology– > importance of learning environment in promoting

learning & equipping classrooms with appropriate technology




• Researcher: Roger Turner, Director RDT Consultancy

• Academic Evaluators: Prof Christina Preston, Director of MirandaNet

• Dr Sarah Younie, Director of Research and Innovation at MirandaNet and Reader in Education, Innovation and Technology at De Montfort University, UK


Listening to Learn: Reflections on Creating an Effective Learning Environment – Sarah Younie

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