Just when you thought it was all over.....here's one last blog and some more personal reflections on my learning.
In the final ICT module session, I presented my multi-media presentation and received feedback on it from two colleagues (Stuart and Robin) on the course. I also reviewed their presentations and gave them constructive feedback.
I chose to do my presentation on bones and skeletons. It is a Year 4 Science lesson supporting key elements of the National Curriculum (Sc1 KS2 2b, Sc2 KS2 2e) and the Scientific Attitudes of curiosity, critical reflection and co-operation with others. The presentation also supports cross-curricular links with history, geography, music and mathematics.
I developed a plan, making full use of thr IWB, for a whole lesson covering:
- A starter
- Direct Teaching Input
- Main Activity - Group investigations
- Plenary
- Assessment of Learning
I also provided effective differentation, taking account of SEND, EAL and G&T children.
I made use of a range of IWB applications that I had learned about on the ICT module, including:
- Balloon Pop
- Click to Reveal
- Click to Erase
- Magnifier Glass
- Activity Builder
- Inserting Web links
- Pull Down to Reveal
I also included a Photostory 3 video (to the music of the Lion King's "The Circle of Life") that I created on my own visit to the Natural History Museum in London to take photos of skeletons and bones.
At end of the presentation, I included a short interactive quiz.
I received some very positive feedback on my presentation, reflecting the effort and thought that I had put into it. Both Robin and Stuart felt that it was engaging and would stimulate a Year 4 class and really support their learning. They recognised, as do I, that some elements of it need to be tidied up a bit and this will come with my greater learning from, and use of, the IWB on my SBT placements. For example, my Activity Build did not function exactly as I wanted it to.
I will also take time to look at all of the multi-media presentations from other students on the PGCE course via the excellent 'Dropbox' facility (another new piece of learning for me from this ICT module - thanks Lorraine!). I am sure I will learn a lot from the way in which they have chosen to present material and make use of IWB functionality. They also give me some ready-made material as a starter for ten to adapt to my particular class and children should I need to teach any of the topics that other students have covered in their multi-media presentations.
Six weeks have flown by and it is almost the end of the ICT module part of our PGCE Primary course. It has been a steep learning curve for me but an exciting and rewarding journey into lots of new areas of learning. Not least, creating a weekly blog which I hope you will have enjoyed reading (especially Lorraine!) and which will be good enough to meet the criteria to help me pass the ICT module. As with most new learning, the first couple of blogs took me hours and hours to produce and left me with a negative impression of blogging as I felt that I could have achieved the same result in powerpoint in half an hour.
However, as the course has progressed and I have
stuck with it, I have learned more about how to compile a blog much more
quickly, including adding pictures, links and video clips. So now I can see the benefits of such a method of
communication. There are loads of ways in which I can incorporate blogging into my teaching practice across all areas of the National Curriculum. It will help to make the
learning experience for children in my classrooms really engaging,
memorable and relevant to them. It might also help me with the task of assessing children.
This week's final teaching session focused on games based learning, including playful learning (using dance mats) in the primary classroom. It also looked at mLearning (mobile learning). We considered the developments in mobile technologies and the implications for teaching and learning. My blog will cover my learning from the session and the implications for my teaching practice. As this is the last of my weekly blogs, I will also reflect on my learning across the whole module and briefly discuss my thoughts on the use of ICT to support children's learning in primary schools.
Research has suggested that UK children are amongst the most unhappy and least engaged in their learning in the world. A report in 2007 by Unicef provided a comprehensive assessment of the lives and well-being of children and young people in 21 nations of the industrialized world. They created a Report Card, ranking each nation by looking at six factors affecting children and young people: material well-being; health and safety; educational well-being; family and peer relationships; behaviours and risks and subjective-well-being. The UK was bottom or close to bottom of the league table in five of the six dimensions, including educational well-being.
The full Unicef report (An overview of child well-being in rich countires) is available at:
- A greater understanding of how games based learning (e.g. KODU, Myst Exile, Machinarium and Dance to Advance) can support primary education
- The value of simulations in teaching about things like Citizenship and Environmental issues
- How computer games can develop children's imagination, problem solving, resiliance and communication skills
- The increasing use of mobile technology such as iPads in primary school classrooms
KODU is a computer package that enables children to create games via a simple visual programming language. It can be used to teach creativity and storytelling as well as programming. It can help children with critical thinking, breaking a complex goal into manageable steps by introducing the logic and problem solving of programming. It introduces conditions, which teaches cause and effect.
In the session we also got to use the Dance to Advance software, which links programmable questions to a dance mat. You answer each question by stepping on the appropriate part of the dance mat. This has lots of opportunities for testing understanding of learning right across the National Curriculum in the core subjects of Maths, English and Science but also in Foundation subjects like History, Geography and Modern Foreign Languages. This could also be a fun and involving way for children with disabilities to learn e.g. if children do not have use of their hands and arms.
It is easy to get hooked on computer games as you try to reach the next level etc. Even in our short session, adventure games like Myst Exile and Machinarium had that effect on some people (our tutor included!).
Here is a youtube clip which talks about how research has shown that playing computer games can support learning and development, from an early age:
Towards the end of the last session there was just enough time for us to learn about two other very useful applications for the primary school setting. The first is WORDLE (www.wordle.net) which allows the user to create their own wordcloud and the second is VOKI (www.voki.com) which allows the user to create their own speaking Avatar.
Well, not quite. As it's the end of the module, here are my reflections from my learning over the last six weeks on how ICT can support children's learning and development....
The course has strengthened my thinking that ICT can have a profound impact on learning and teaching. It was largely non-existent in primary schools before 1983 and since then advances have been relatively rapid, especially following the Stevenson Report (1997) which informed the new Labour Government's education policy at that time. Schools need to keep up with the technological world in which today's children live. ICT can motivate and engage children by providing a tool for investigative and collaborative learning. It supports a dynamic, creative and interactive teaching style.
In order for ICT to be used most effectively, children need to be using it in an interactive and dynamic way. Automation without a teacher cannot and will not do this. A computer cannot ask open questions, not can it respond to children's questions safely and securely in a way that moves the children's learning forward in a planned and structured way. The key pedagogical reasons for using ICT seem to me to be:
1. Interactivity - it encourages children to make decisons, see the consequences and act on the feedback. It encourages children to explore, learn from dead ends and frustrations and develop perseverance in trying out ideas and learning from things that work and things that don't work.
2. Provisionality - it enables children to keep track of development ideas as they try out alternatives and make changes. Work can be edited, redrafted and developed at any point and can be worked on by many different children.
3. Capacity and range - computers can handle a vast amount of data and informaion very quickly. Information can be in many forms e.g. text, visual images, sound etc.
4. Speed and automation - as the tasks of storing, changing and displaying information are carried out by technology, users are able to read, observe, interrogate and analyse information and higher levels. ICT gives children time to think and ask questions about the meaning of the information. Pupils can access higher levels of learning and understanding because the technology is doing the often time consuming manual and menial tasks for them.
ICT can be a significant time saver for both children and teachers. Time saved by ICT can then be spent more effectively on the other aspects of learning, For example, children might collect data from a traffic survey and then put it into a data-handling application so that they can interpret and use the results rather than spending hours drawing bar charts. For teachers, it is a time saver not only in the provision of material for lessons but also for assessment for learning.
It is important to select ICT packages carefully as many can be fun and engaging but have little educational content. It is also important that children are in control of the computer and not the other way around. ICT can be of great benefit in supporting differentiation in lessons and helping SEN and EAL pupils. It can also be used very effectively to stretch Gifted and Talented pupils.
Some schools are also making good use of ICT to develop stronger home-school links through virtual learning environments. A school I have worked in made good use of this facility for its Year 6 class by setting all homework via the virtual learning environment. They used the commercially available 'I am learning' software (www.iamlearning.co.uk) which is a really good, but expensive, tool that uses games to motivate learners. It facilitates effective homework, revision and exam practice whilst promoting independent learning. Children can submit homework on line and parents/carers are encouraged to take part in on-line chat sessions. Teachers can get meaningful reports with detailed gap analysis to identify weaknesses, monitor progress and help improve learning outcomes.
In December 2011, Ofsted produced their report 'ICT in schools : 2008-11'. It is an interesting read. Key recommendations for primary schools included: - Toimprove
the use of assessment of pupils’ progress in ICT, ensuring that pupils know how
well they are doing and what they should do to move on to the next level
- Toensure
that pupils receive their complete entitlement to all areas of the ICT curriculum
and that the ICT curriculum is engaging and relevant to pupils’ needs within
and beyond the classroom
- Toprovide
subject-specific support and professional development to improve teachers’
confidence and expertise, enabling them to teach ICT more effectively
- Toevaluate
the costs and benefits of establishing collaborative specialist services for
ICT commissioning and procurement
- Tocontinue
to make e-safety a priority in the curriculum, in staff training and in support
for parents.
The place of ICT in the primary school curriculum will continue to change as does the technological world in which we live. It will be interesting to see what the new 2014 Primary National Curriculum has to say about this important aspect of children's learning and development and teaching pedagaogy.
After a short break for Directed Tasks week, our ICT sessions resumed this week with the first of a two part focus on modelling software and computer programming. Thankfully, the session was not all about theory and we had time to try out some of the software and reflect on how we might use it in our teaching practice.
My learning from today's session included: - The term modelling in ICT is about exploring 'what if?' scenarios - There are a range of computer modelling programmes, many of them free to download, which can be used in schools - Programmes can be used across all age ranges: EYFS; KS1; KS2and are especially useful for EAL and SENDlearners
Computer modelling is very useful as it allows us to try things out on screen before we commit ourselves to the real thing. Examples of everyday uses are: developing new technology; architecture (Computer Aided Design); aircraft simulations. It is fascinating and thought provoking and develops children's spatial awareness skills, which are very important for subjects such as mathematics and design and technology. It also develops children's ICT skills by building their understanding of how computer games are designed. The computer games market is huge and growing and so it is important that we nurture the potential computer programmers of the future through strong primary school educational provision. Computer modelling is specified in the National Curriculum at EYFS, KS1 and KS2:
Early Years Foundation Stage: This focuses on experiences which support children: finding out and exploring; being willing to have a go; keeping on trying; enjoying achieving what they set out to do; having their own ideas; testing predications and choosing ways to do things.
Key Stage One: 2d - Developing ideas and making things happen Pupils should be taught to try things out and explore what happens in real and imaginary situations. For example, trying out different colours on an image and using an adventure game or simulation.
Key Stage Two: 2c - Developing ideas and making things happen Pupils should be taught to use simulations and explore models to answer 'what if?' questions. Also to investigate the effect of changing values and to identify patters & relationships. For example, simulation software and spreadsheet models.
In the ICT session today, we looked at some of the excellent modelling programs that are available for use in schools. These included: My Modelling Toolkit, Tizzy's First Tools (especially popular in EYFS and KS1) and Purple Mash.
These programs are easy to use and very child-friendly. They also have different levels of challenge built in, which will be useful for stretching gifted and able pupils. One way in which pupils could use 'Purple Mash' would be to design a new classroom. They would need to think about what would be needed in the classroom and perhaps model different layouts and then compare and contrast them before deciding on the optimum layout.
People laughed at professor Seymour Papert in the sixties when he talked about children using computers as instrucments for learning and for enhancing creativity. The idea of an inexpensive personal computer was, at that time, just science fiction. However, Papert was conducting important research which would lead to the developlement of LOGO computer programming language, allowing children to use computers to write and to make graphics. He also developedthe first children's toys with built-in computation. Today Papert is considered the world's foremost expert on how technology can provide new ways to learn. He is a participant in developing the most cutting-edge opportunities for children to participate in the digital world.
Scratch is the next step along from LOGO. It is a programming language for everyone. In today's ICT session we explored how the program can be used to create patterns. In schools it could be used by pupils to create interactive stories and games. It can also support music and art lessons.
Finally, here is a link to an interesting article on how computer games potentially motivate pupils and support their learning. The article claims that a third of teachers are using computer games in the classroom and a majority believe they improve pupils' skills and knowledge. In a survey, 91% of teachers thought they developed motor and cognitive skills, and 60% believed they would develop thinking skills and acquire specific knowledge. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4608942.stm
This week's ICT module session was the second part of our leanring about different types of digital media used in schools. It concentrated on the opportunities that ICT can provide to develop children's speaking and listening skills. ICT is an excellent tool for this because it: promotes interaction and discussion; encourages children to ask and answer questions; allows for instant feedback and reflection; develops children's thinking skills.
My learning from today's session included: - An understanding of the part ICT can play in developing children's speaking and listening skills. - A broader knowledge of specific types of ICT that can be be used in school to develop children's speaking and listening skills. - Developing my skills in using the devices and exploring the opportunities for using them in the classroom.
Implications for my teaching practice
Today's session improved my understanding of these seven ICT tools which I can consider using in my teaching practice:
Talking Photo Album These are relatively cheap and still quite new and innovative, so many pupils may not have used them and will find them exciting. They are a great resource to use for things like:
* Pictures and events from school trips * A record of pupil or whole-class progress * A visual story book (perhaps created in a group to develop teamworking) * A visual representation of the school timetable
Talk Time Cards These are very easy for children to use andwould be excellent to develop thinking and problem solving skills in a creative and memorable way. On one side, children can pose a question (perhaps for a talk partner) and then the card is turned over and played to reveal the answer.
Talking Tins
These low cost devices are especially popular in EYFS and KS1. They allow a child or adult torecordtheir voice saying a phrase or word. By pressing a different button, the phrase or word can then be repeatedly played back. I could use this in a number of ways, such as: supporting children with systematic synthetic phonics, providing the instructions for a part of a lesson or an investigation in a more interesting and different way, running a treasure hunt with different talking tins/different clues across parts of the school, and making a talking display of children's work for a parents' evening.
The Talking Tins would also be good for recording sounds outside of the classroom, perhaps as part of a science field-trip. Also, children with Special Educational Needs that have difficutly with written work could benefit from them by recording their thoughts and answers to questions. In this way, I would be able to better assess their level of understanding and the progress being made and, therefore, I would be able to take this into account in my lesson planning and approach to differentiation.
Digital Cameras These devices are robust, easy to use and inexpensive. They are suitable for for all years in the primary school. They can be used really effectively with Photostory 3 (a free to download piece of software). This allows pupils to import images and create a storybook, adding music and effects.
Digital Video Like digital cameras, these devices are very easy to use. Many schools use "Tuff-Cams" (which look like the picture shown opposite). These are extremely robust and incorporate USB plug and play so, with guidance, they can be used in both KS1 and KS2classes to support lessons across the National Curriculum.They would be really good for use on school trips. Pupils might also build a reflective diary of their learning and progress during the year.
Webcams I have seen webcams used very effectively in a school to support a cross-curricular project on learning about India. As part of the scheme of work, pupils wrote letters to fellow pupils in a school in India. They received replies from the pupils which were discussed in class. ICT was then used very creatively through the use of web cams so that the children were able to have a conversation with pupils from the school in India and ask them questions about what it was like to live there, go to school there etc. In this way, they developed their understanding of Indian culture and were able to debate similarities and differences between primary education in the UK and primary education in India.
We've nearly reached the half way point of our ICT module aready! How time flies when you're having so much fun learning and blogging!
The third session of the module was the first of a two parter on Digital Media and Computer Control. It was even busier than the first two sessions. We got to play with some great gadgets and, as always, I learnt a lot.
My learning from today's session included:
Understanding the term 'Computer Control', which is about the computer being in control through its set of instructionsthat cause a machine to operate in a pre-determined way.
Computer Contol is all around us- in machines such as microwaves, central heating systems, washing machines, traffic lights, barcode scanners and CCTV cameras.
Thinking more about the reasons we use computers to control things: they don't get tired or lose oncentration, they don't make mistakes, they don't get bored by repeating the same thing over and over again and, of course, they are much cheaper than humans!
How programmable toys can support children's learning, especially devices like Beebots and Data Loggers.
Understanding the term 'Computer Monitoring', which is about using sensors to take readings of the environment and to provide feedback for a control system.
The National Curriculum (2000) for ICT is no longer statutory for schools. At the time it was written, it had this to say about Computer Control and Computer Monitoring:
At Key Stage 1 pupils should recognise that control is integral to many everyday devices. They should be taught how to plan and give instructions to make things happen, and describe the effects of their actions.
By the end of Key Stage 2 pupils will have been taught how to create, test, improve and refine sequences of instructions to make things happen and to monitor events and respond to them.
The best part of today's ICT session was when we got to play with the toys!
There were lots of devices to try out and reflect upon. These included:
- Beebots - Pippins - Data loggers - Digital microscopes
Here are some videos I have uploaded from youtube to show you someof these devices in action:
Also, here are two pictures we took in the session today when we used the digital microscope:
Reflections on implications for my teaching practice: These devices are great for providing an exciting, memorable and multi-sensory learning experience for all year groups in a primary school. I will make optimum use of them in my teaching practice. As an example of my reflections on how I could make use of the devices in my classroom, let's take the Beebot as an example:
In which parts of the National Curriculum could this device be used? The Beebot provides lots of cross-curricular opportunities. It can develop counting, estimating, addition and subtraction skills in Mathematics. It can introduce children to maps in Geography. It can develop literacy skills and an understanding of words and the alphabet. It can also develop children's social development skills through practice at taking turns and team working, for example. Finally, and not to be forgotten, it develops children's ICT skills!
What is the key vocabulary that can be re-inforced through use of the Beebot? These include: backwards, forwards, right, left, right, clear, program, memory, control etc
How could you differentiate the activity for less/more able children? Less able children would need to focus on simple comands like making the Beebot move forwards and backwards, right and left. They might then progress to counting by making it move forwards two steps, then three etc. For more able pupils, children could be tasked to get the Beebiot to make a shape eg a pentagon or to build a maze which it then has to be programmed to get out of. I have worked with KS1 children on some of these tasks and the were very engaged, although struggled to take turns as team working does not come naturally to most six year olds! What opportunities are there to assess children's learning? There are considerable opportunties to assess learning in core curriculum areas such as Mathematics and Literacy through the sorts of activities already outlined. The devices are also an excellent means of developing and testing children's spatial awareness.
A more detailed lesson plan for the use of Beebots can be viewed at: Beebot Lesson Plan
One last thing that I learnt in the ICT module today, which will please Anne - our Science tutor - as we're studying Light in our Science module soon. I found out that Lux is a measure of light - aunit of measurement I've never heard of before. As an example of brightness, sunrise or sunset on a clear day would give a reading of about 400 Lux.
