G Morrison – Connected Falkirk

At some point in the last ten years, the number of devices on planet earth surpassed the number of people. This exponential rise in devices has brought with it an increased awareness of how technology affects our world, our society and our brain. Concerns around these complex issues are commonly addressed by reference to one simple phrase: screen time.

Our developing awareness of the importance of screen time and how it can affect our lives is best evidenced by the fact that I now have an app on my phone called ‘Screen Time’. This app allows me to: view weekly reports; access app limits; restrict content and analyse my own usage. These features can help me to manage my screen time and make sure I am using technology responsibly. There is a clear irony here of course. Relying on technology to solve the problem of using too much technology is a bit like when Homer Simpson described alcohol as: “the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems”. But this does illustrate the crucial point that screen time will never just be one thing. There can be pros and cons to technology. If used irresponsibly it will create problems; when used constructively it can be the solution.

As educators we are always mindful of getting the balance right for our learners. We try to offer variety in lessons to maximise engagement and are mindful of the health and wellbeing of young people in all that we do. We are experts in making decisions about how best to deliver learning amid a myriad of options. Increasingly we will have to consider the role digital tools can play in our teaching. Reading is an important activity that takes place in all classrooms. Personally, I love the sensory experience of reading a paper book but there is also a lot to be said for being able to touch a word and have it read aloud or check the dictionary definition.

Nobody is suggesting all learning should take place on a screen but where there are clear educational advantages then let’s not hesitate to embrace them. And let’s make sure that when we do decide to support learning with digital technology, we make it the best experience possible for our young people.

I’ve always believed the tasks we set to help young people consolidate or show their learning are more important than the mode in which they are completed. A bad task using a pen and paper doesn’t suddenly become great because it’s done on a screen instead. If I give a student a pen and paper and ask them to write one word over and over until the page is full there would clearly be no learning benefit to this activity. It is mindless repetition. However, if I ask them to write a story or diary entry then I encourage imagination, creativity and self-expression. The task is more important than the medium. The same is true of screen-based activities. We are either asking students to mindlessly consume screen-based content or we are engaging them in something more meaningful. Access to digital technology opens up the types of tasks that we can set and increases opportunities to include collaboration, creativity and real-world engagement.

When considering the question “Is screen time bad for children?” we need to analyse whether we are asking students to be consumers or creators. The main fears I’ve heard around students using devices in school are about time spent watching vacuous YouTube videos, playing mind-numbing flash games and accessing harmful content online. These are of course legitimate concerns, and they all relate to students as consumers of content. Instead, why not give young people the skills to make their own YouTube videos and code their own games from a device which has internet safety filters while teaching them best practice for staying safe online.

Modern devices allow us to walk around with so many amazing tools in our pocket: a word processor, graphics package, video-editing suite and recording studio. And that’s before you add internet access. We might as well teach people how to use these tools as the opportunities to be creative, collaborative and engage in critical thinking have never been greater. Far from being a vehicle that encourages a passive, detached response we should be seeing students make their own films, write their own songs, create animations, posters and graphics, write stories and comics, take photos and code their own apps. They should be creators.

With the rise of devices in the modern world it is inevitable that our students are going to spend time on screens. It is important that we make that time as productive as possible. If we give young people the chance to be creators in school then they are more likely to spend time as creators in their leisure time – thus reducing time spent as consumers. Hopefully, the phrase ‘screen time’ becomes less of a negative term as we move forward and embrace the benefits of what digital technology can do for learning and teaching.

Music is a powerful and flexible tool in influencing our emotions – it can calm us down and lower stress levels or stimulate and inspire us to action. As well as this socio-emotional impact, music has long been linked to cognitive skills and recall. Have you ever sung along to a song you didn’t think you knew the words to? Music can be a powerful tool in the classroom and one way of harnessing its potential from your Connected Falkirk device is the GarageBand app.

GarageBand allows you to record voices using the built-in microphone on the iPad. Voice recording is something that’s already been happening for years in classrooms but the benefit of using GarageBand is that the recordings can easily be edited and shared. You could airdrop the file to another iPad or upload it directly to Teams, Google Classroom or any other virtual learning environment you might be using. Further benefits that open up new possibilities are the ability to play and record musical instruments. For the first time since I started teaching I can now realistically ask students to create their own piece of music as part of a classroom task. This opportunity to encourage creativity is something I find genuinely exciting as an educator.

If you are interested in trying some of the features of GarageBand, you may find these Connected Falkirk tutorial videos helpful in getting started.

Garage Band has obvious benefits for students and teachers of music but how can it be used in other curricular areas?

Below are some examples of how Falkirk teachers are currently using audio in the classroom. We would love to add more examples of the amazing things Falkirk teachers are doing, so please contact us with details of how you are using audio in your classroom using the comments below or Tweet us @ConnectedFalk

Ideas For Using Audio in the Classroom

Benefits of Recording Presentations and Discussions

Discussion is a key part of learning and it happens organically in classrooms all the time. It’s not practical to always record pupil discussions but what benefit is there to recording some specific discussions?

A voice recording is useful for assessment or just evidence of a pupil progress. The recording gives the teacher and pupil something tangible to refer to for feedback. Pupils can listen back to a recording to help them understand how to improve. Teachers have evidence of pupils’ learning and don’t have to assess as the discussion is happening. If pupils are taking voice recordings and adding music or visuals, they are developing creative skills alongside the curricular content of the recording. This puts their learning into a real-world context as they take on the role of producer or podcast creator.

The recordings can also be used as a teaching resource. If appropriate, a voice recording might be played to others in the class to aid their learning on the topic covered in the recording.

Create Your Own Music

Using the Audio Recorder to record pupil voices is a great way to start with using audio in the classroom. The music-making features open up even more exciting possibilities. You may want a backing track to go underneath your voice recording or you might ask students to create a piece of music as part of a different task. Here are some examples of how to incorporate this into lessons.

Audiobook Example

Here is an example of how to use the features of GarageBand as part of a poetry lesson on the National 5 and Higher Scottish Text “Visiting Hour” by Norman MacCaig.