Session Four - 13th November 2012: Speaking and Listening

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 and would 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 to record their 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.

Podcasts
Podcasts are spoken word broadcasts, similar to radio shows.  They are being used more and more in schools as they can build confidence, develop group working skills and give chidren a voice.  Some examples of school podcasts can be found at:
http://www.radioanywhere.co.uk/stations.php 
http://recap.ltd.uk/podcasting/schools/index.php 

This link provides some useful tips on how to create a professional podcast:

http://www.howtomakepodcastslikeapro.com/15-fast-tips-to-a-better-podcast/ 

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 KS2 classes 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.