Digital Technology Week 8- 27/02/2018 (Mobile devices)

Today’s lesson was focused on mobile devices and their use in the classroom. We began by reading various online articles and subsequently answering a forum question as to whether mobile devices should be used in the classroom.Upon reading the various articles one of the areas which really resonated with me is the Guardian article by […]

Today’s lesson was focused on mobile devices and their use in the classroom. We began by reading various online articles and subsequently answering a forum question as to whether mobile devices should be used in the classroom.Upon reading the various articles one of the areas which really resonated with me is the Guardian article by David Andrews, a class teacher; ‘I want the children in my class to create content, not necessarily always accessing it.’ (David andrews, 2012) During both my own time in schools and extended reading I have found that often if children are creating their own learning and learning from each other this can be extremely beneficial to the children retaining the information rather than forgetting most of the lesson by the time they go home. Another aspect I believe is important to take into account is ‘Children now entering school are fully fledged digital natives.’ (Curtis, S.2014) and as such we need to reevaluate our school system in accordance with this new digital way of life. I believe mobile devices can play a crucial role in schooling today, if used well, by a teacher confident in their own knowledge of the technology.

Sophie Curtis, the author or the article ‘Digital learning: how technology is reshaping teaching’ also took part in an experiment during which an English lesson was taught the ‘traditional’ way, with a teacher explaining the main themes of a play and the class then writing their own analysis using only pen and paper. The second lesson video clips and using the internet to research and then type up an analysis. After the experiment Sophie Curtis detailed how the ‘traditional’ lesson ‘required intense and sustained concentration’ whilst she said of the lesson using technology ‘at no point during the second lesson did I find my mind wandering, which is half the battle teachers fight every day’ (Curtis, S.2014). In my opinion, from what I have learned, researched and witnessed it is important for children to be engaged in their learning and enjoy the lessons through various aspects digital technology can offer. However, the ‘sustained concentration’ Sophie Curtis discussed in her analysis of her first lesson is also an important skill children need to learn and so digital technology and more traditional methods need to be used in conjunction with each other for the children to get the most out of their schooling. Digital technology is vital and can add so much to a lesson however it should not be used all the time.

 

The benefits of using mobile devices arriving to Beauchamp are:

  • Flexibility and portability – as devices are relatively small, portable and usable anywhere, they allow the learner freedom to learn on the move
  • Multi-functionality – mobile devices bring together more than one function that would previously needed separate devices: for instance, viewing web pages and viewing images
  • Multimodality – they allow users to create multimodal texts
  • Interactivity and communicative potential – communication between a large number of users can be achieved through text and speech.

(Beauchamp, 2012)

 

However, although there are so many advantages to using mobile devices and the crucial role they play in allowing all children in the classroom to engage in lessons, in a poll of 500 teachers it has been found that over a third of teachers are unsure as to how to integrate mobile devices into everyday lessons. Lack of training has been raised as a cause for this. This means that expensive technology is in schools unused or not being used to it’s full advantage and so hundreds of children are not receiving the benefits this technology can bring to their learning (Curtis 2014).

Today we were exploring the Talking Tin and Easi Speak microphones. Our task was to create a powerpoint showcasing an ‘I Am Poem…’ which we were also to create. Each slide had to be a different line of our ‘I Am poem’ featuring an imagine and a voice recording. To record sound, we used an Easispeak microphone. This a small handheld device that can be used to record your voice which can be simply connected to a computer and the file is then accessed from powerpoint. As a learner this was a simple yet fun addition to the poem. At first I found ti really difficult to record it and hear my own voice however the repetition of the poem forced me to overcome this which is another useful tool for building children’s self-confidence. If they are used to recording and hearing their own voice this can be a really useful tool for their education. The poem could be used as a great health and wellbeing lesson to encourage children to think about their feelings as well as the feelings of others in their class and if I was to use a similar lesson in the future it could cover many Experiences and Outcomes from the Curriculum for Excelling including:

  • I am aware of and able to express my feelings and am developing the ability to talk about them. HWB 0-01a/1-01a/2-01a/3-01a/4-01a
  • Within real and imaginary situations, I share experiences and feelings, ideas and information in a way that communicates my message. LIT 0-09a
  • I can explore digital technologies and use what I learn to solve problems, share ideas and thoughts. TCH 0-01a
  • I enjoy exploring and playing with the patterns and sounds of language, and can use what I learn. LIT 0-01a / LIT 0-11a /LIT 0-20a

(Education Scotland 2004).

 

‘I want the children in my class to create content, not necessarily always accessing it’ (Andrews, D. 2012)  David Andrews discusses his journey introducing iPads into his school, the positives and negatives. This quote from him is one of the main reasons I think technology is so important to education. A child creating their own learning, resources, materials and accessing these themselves is far more valuable to their own learning, problem solving and self-confidence. The powerpoint we created during today’s lesson is attached below. This is one of many examples of what children could create themselves, allowing them to access technology, work collaboratively, improve their own self-belief, self confidence and covers many literacy outcomes. I think this is another valuable resource which can be used in an array of creative ways.

Emma Robertson & Shannon Scott I am Poem powerpoint

 

 

 

References

Andrews, D. (2012) An apple for the teacher: are iPad the future in class? [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2012/aug/13/schools-secondary-schools

Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary Classroom: From Pedagogy, top Practice. Pearson.

Curtis, S. (2014)  Digital learning: how technology is reshaping teaching [Online] Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/11051228/Digital-learning-how-technology-is-reshaping-teaching.html

Education Scotland (2004) – Curriculum for Excellence; Experiences and Outcomes [Online] https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-(building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5)/Experiences%20and%20outcomes [Accessed on 27th February 2018]

Digital Technologies Week 7 (Animation) 20/2/18

This lesson increased my knowledge on animations including what they are and the various types that exist as well as the benefits of using them in education. The lesson began with introducing us to tutorial videos to heighten our understanding then allowing us to explore the animation app Puppet Pals. This app allowed us to […]

This lesson increased my knowledge on animations including what they are and the various types that exist as well as the benefits of using them in education. The lesson began with introducing us to tutorial videos to heighten our understanding then allowing us to explore the animation app Puppet Pals. This app allowed us to play around with voice recording, character movement, altering the size of characters and creating a story line with multiple backgrounds and themes including fairy tale princesses and dragons. Once comfortable with what was being asked of us, we progressed onto the app iStop Motion.

Animation is defined as involving “the stringing together of a sequence of static images, generally so that they appear to move” (Jarvis, 2015, p89). Moving Image Education believes there to be five chief types of animation: cutout, stop-motion, pixilation, drawn and computer. The app iStop Motion, as the name suggests, focused solely on improving our stop-motion abilities. This type of animation involves taking pictures of inanimate objects and slightly adjusting their position each picture resulting in the object appearing to move when the pictures are played back. Whilst considering the props we had on offer, my partner and I began discussing possible story lines for our animation. We included our own drawings, a toy man and toy cars. Our story displayed the event of a fire spreading in a house and showed the man running out of his house and hailing down our toy fire engine. The story began by setting the scene displaying our drawn house and road alone followed by a car driving past. This illusion was created by us moving the car very slightly each picture we took. We then began inserting the drawn images of fire which we altered each picture to create the impression that the fire was crackling. Next, the man was shown running out of the house as we moved his legs and lifted his arms in a panicked motion. Our short story ended with the fire engine pulling up to save the situation. Although we had more ideas that could have been put in to practice with less time restraints, we were overall impressed and content with the work we produced. As a student teacher, this helped me recognise the importance of allowing children enough time to complete tasks so that they get the greatest fulfilment possible.

I personally found iStop Motion very enjoyable as a learner and believe children would experience a mutual feeling. This app challenged my concentration and determination as staying focused throughout the piece of work was essential to ensure no mistakes were made and when the pictures were played back the animation appeared realistic and believable. The skills of concentration and motivation in children are important therefore this would be an effective task for them to participate in.

This week familiarised me to the many benefits that come with introducing animation in the classroom. I believe animation to be beneficial to young minds as it can improve their imagination and let their ideas come to life since animation breathes new life into something that wouldn’t normally move (Moving Image Education). Bertrancourt (2005) suggests three ways animation enriches learning: to enhance learner’s visual representations, to illustrate processes and to provide an interactive element (Jarvis, 2015, p92). This session also brought to my attention that using sound and video enhances the quality of information processing and therefore also learning resulting in animation allowing children to find it easier to understand and remember a lesson (Jarvis, 2015, p93).

Digital technologies and using animation as an alternative way to convey a story line can be used across many aspects of the curriculum. This particular lesson fitted in with the outcomes:

“I can explore and experiment with sketching, manually or digitally, to represent ideas in different learning contexts.” TCH 1-11a.
“I can convey information, describe events, explain processes or combine ideas in different ways.” LIT 2-28a.

Overall, I found this class very beneficial in developing my own skills with animation and having an understanding of how it works and how it would bring advantages to a classroom. It was also beneficial in enhancing my confidence when presenting this type of lesson in future classroom environments. I will now understand how it is enhancing the learners’ experiences and how it can be used across the curriculum.

Digital Technologies Week 8 – Mobile Devices – Easi-Speak Microphones

In this week of Digital Technologies we looked at how mobile devices could be used to enhance learning in the primary classroom. It would be easy to dismiss mobile devices as a tool in the classroom and consider them little more than a distraction. It could be argued, however, that today’s children are constantly exposed … Continue reading “Digital Technologies Week 8 – Mobile Devices – Easi-Speak Microphones”

In this week of Digital Technologies we looked at how mobile devices could be used to enhance learning in the primary classroom. It would be easy to dismiss mobile devices as a tool in the classroom and consider them little more than a distraction. It could be argued, however, that today’s children are constantly exposed to a huge range of mobile devices from a very young age in the home and therefore the use of mobile devices in the classroom could be a helpful way to make the children more comfortable. I think it could be a very useful way to overcome hesitation in children who are far more used to, for instance, using a tablet than putting pen to paper.

It could be argued that affordability is the main issue in bringing mobile devices into the classroom. It would not be viable for most schools to buy every student an iPad, for instance, which is what I think of immediately when I consider mobile devices in the classroom. However, today we used Easi-Speak microphones to create a performance poem that would be quite at home in a literacy lesson in either key stage one or two:

“By considering the type of text I am creating, I can select ideas and relevant information, organise these in a logical sequence and use words which will be interesting and/or useful for others.” LIT 1-26a

“By considering the type of text I am crating, I can select ideas and relevant information, organise these in an appropriate way for my purpose and use suitable vocabulary for my audience.” LIT 2-26a (Scottish Executive, 2004).

We created an “I am…” poem using a template with simple instructions. We then created a PowerPoint with a slide for every line and recorded each line of the poem using the Easi-Speak microphone and then embedding these in the PowerPoint.

The Easi-Speak microphones were very simple to use, with just two buttons on the side. No cables were needed, the microphone plugs directly into the USB port of a computer and the sound files were simple to insert into the presentation.

This was a fun activity which was reasonably flexible. Some individuals in the class wrote a silly poem, others wrote something more imaginative from the perspective of a character and some wrote a poem which was slightly more personal. I think that this model of lesson involving the Easi-Speak microphones could be used for a huge variety of topics and my perception of using mobile devices in the classroom has been widened. I think that the ‘digital native’ students in the primary school classroom today would engage well with this as opposed to creating their poem on paper alone.

There is also scope in this lesson for children with their own devices to use them to make the presentation, which they may be more comfortable with. Scotland’s Children’s Parliament (2016) carried out a survey of primary school children and the results showed that the children used a huge range of mobile devices at home. There is no need to equip an entire classroom of children with a mobile device, nor to make every single lesson include technology – this could instead be detrimental to the learning. However, when the lesson lends itself to flexibility across mobile devices, I see no reason to entirely exclude the mobile devices that children are comfortable using from the primary school classroom.

 

References

Children’s Parliament (2016). A Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland: The Views of Children. [Online] http://www.childrensparliament.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/REPORT_digital-learning-consultation_Childrens-Parliament-1.pdf [Accessed: 09.03.18].

Scottish Executive (2004). Curriculum for Excellence. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive.

Digital Technologies-Game Based Learning (Week 9)

In today’s session we focused on finding out more about using games to develop learning. It has a lot of benefits as through using digital games to support learning it increases the children’s attention span and makes it more engaging. It gives the children an opportunity to play and have fun while still developing crucial … Continue reading “Digital Technologies-Game Based Learning (Week 9)”

In today’s session we focused on finding out more about using games to develop learning. It has a lot of benefits as through using digital games to support learning it increases the children’s attention span and makes it more engaging. It gives the children an opportunity to play and have fun while still developing crucial skills from the curriculum. It helps with developing children’s team-working skills as well as their ability to concur problem solving. (Higher Education Academy, 2017).

‘Theorists Jean Piaget and Leonard Vygotsky have argued that play is a crucial component of cognitive development from birth and through adulthood’ (Higher Education Academy, 2017).

Games based learning is another source like movies, books and digital technology that when used correctly, has a great advantage for the children in their learning. Games can also be easily incorporated through-out the curriculum and most activities (Matthew Farber, 2016)

‘Although game-based learning has had a ‘difficult history’ with teachers who may have felt threatened by children becoming more expert in technology than they are, there is no denying that such platforms offer them a way to engage the pupils in a way they understand and can relate to’ (Stephen Reid, 2016)

A challenge that might arise is using a suitable game to target all the needs so that it isn’t a waste of time (Stephen Reid, 2016).

In groups we created a mind-map based on Mario Kart and what lessons you could do with the game to target several experiences and outcomes, this is what we came up with;

  • Literacy-
  • Pupils can write own storyline, this will explore punctuation and grammar as well as developing their creative skills.
  • Pupils can describe their Mario character.
  • Experience and outcome:

    I can use my notes and other types of writing to help me understand information and ideas, explore problems, make decisions, generate and develop ideas or create new text.I recognise the need to acknowledge my sources and can do this appropriately. LIT 2-25a

  • Maths-
  • Pupils can make price lists for tickets and merchandise for the Mario Kart event
  • Decide on promotion deals, this would target money work
  • Calculate if they made a profit of the event
  • Experience and Outcome:

    I can use the terms profit and loss in buying and selling activities and can make simple calculations for this. MNU 2-09c

  • Art-
  • Pupils can design their character, kart, tickets and merchandise.
  • Experiences and outcomes: I can create and present work that shows developing skill in using the visual elements and concepts. EXA 2-03a,
  • Through observing and recording from my experiences across the curriculum, I can create images and objects which show my awareness and recognition of detail. EXA 2-04a

 

  • Music-
  • Re-create  the Mario Kart theme song and make their own version
  • Make their own sound effects
  • Experiences and Outcomes:

    I can sing and play music from a range of styles and cultures, showing skill and using performance directions, and/or musical notation. EXA 2-16a

Through my own use of the game I found that there is so many ways you can incorporate games into learning, I believe it is a lot more fun and interesting that the usual way of teaching and could be a great tool to use in the classroom to aid learning even children with ASN.

References-

Higher Education Academy (2017) Gamification and Games-Based Learning [online] https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/gamification-and-games-based-learning [Accessed-6.3.18]

Matthew Farber (2016) Three ways to use game based learning [online] https://www.edutopia.org/article/3-ways-use-game-based-learning-matthew-farber [Accessed-6.3.18]

Stephen Reid (2016) Teachers Experience Games-Based Learning at Minecraft Launch [online] http://futurescot.com/educators-encouraged-open-minds-possibilities-games-based-learning/  [Accessed- 6.3.18]

 

Games-Based Learning (06/03/2018)

Today in digital technologies (06/03/2018) we were investigating games-based learning within the classroom. I was apprehensive in the beginning as to how this would in fact benefit and enhance a child’s learning within school. However, it was brought to my attention how flexible the capacities of various games were and how easily adaptable they were … Continue reading Games-Based Learning (06/03/2018)

Today in digital technologies (06/03/2018) we were investigating games-based learning within the classroom. I was apprehensive in the beginning as to how this would in fact benefit and enhance a child’s learning within school. However, it was brought to my attention how flexible the capacities of various games were and how easily adaptable they were to cross curricular areas. According to the Edutopia website the term games-based learning means “like novels, films, plays and other media, games can be high quality materials a teacher uses to enable students to access the curriculum”.

With this type of learning however, Learning Scotland also identified a variety of different problems that may arise through this form of teaching in the classroom such as the cost, identifying a suitable game, integrating the game – time/structure of the day and also teacher confidence/skills. Although these are huge issues, I believe with more awareness in schools many of these can be overcome and can in fact benefit pupils in a huge way within modern society.

We were given the opportunity within the class to create a mind-map surrounding reasons why games-based learning may be incorporated into a lesson and how it may benefit a child. At the beginning of the session we came up with ideas such as it is interactive, engaging, there’s a connection between home and school life, and it can also be used as a cross curricular activity over a variety of different lessons. After further investigation and thought, we discovered it also reinforced knowledge, it was stress free and also useful for children who have additional support needs.

During this session we were also given the opportunity to create an Interdisciplinary Learning Plan (IDL), based on the game Super Mario Kart. We chose six CfE areas to base our lessons upon, alongside the Es and Os that would be covered. We created lesson ideas for literacy, IT, numeracy, health and wellbeing, art and expressive arts (music).

I found this activity very fun as we could be creative, however also realistic within designing these activities. It was good to also share lessons with other groups as it was interesting to hear a variety of different ideas all based upon the one original features of Mario Kart.

Overall, I found the first input of games-based learning very interesting as I was surprised to see how wide one idea can be covered over different CfE areas whilst still remaining informational and beneficial for the children. I was apprehensive to begin with at the thought of this being used within the classroom, however after further investigation this is definitely something that I believe should be incorporated into more schools in modern day society, and in the future for when I hopefully become a primary teacher too.

References

https://education.gov.scot/ [Accessed 08/03/2018]https://www.edutopia.org/article/3-ways-use-game-based-learning-matthew-farber [Accessed 08/03/2018]

Digital Technology- Mobile Devices (Week 8)

The British Education Suppliers Association (BESA)  believe that schools rely on mobile devices as useful and crucial tool within younger children. Through their research they found that 406 schools acknowledge internet availability at both school and home to be the most useful technology. 75% of teachers also believe that game consoles are beneficial for child … Continue reading “Digital Technology- Mobile Devices (Week 8)”

The British Education Suppliers Association (BESA)  believe that schools rely on mobile devices as useful and crucial tool within younger children. Through their research they found that 406 schools acknowledge internet availability at both school and home to be the most useful technology. 75% of teachers also believe that game consoles are beneficial for child development. Ray Barker for BESA stated that the belief to use of mobile phones by young children at home is split between teachers. 39% believe children should have no access to smartphones while 29% think it would be the best option. Up to 69% of pupils would rather use iPads within the classroom an d at home but only 4% of schools supply them. Most schools believe that children use at home laptops and PCs to do online homework (as 64% of schools give homework that can only be done on a computer) and entertainment (Teaching Times,2008)

A large variety of technology is used by children some include; Amazon fire stick, computers, camera’s, Nintendo’s, iPad’s, iPod’s, laptops, mobile phones, Wii and X-box. (Children’s Parliament, 2016)

‘The use of mobile digital technologies in the classroom might be largely unfamiliar to parents, but the benefits can be huge’, stated Drew Buddie, senior vice chair at Naace, he association for the UK’s education technology community ( The Telegraph, 2014)

Today in class we wrote an ‘I am’ poem and recored ourselves reading it using a speaker, we then made a powerpoint presentation based on it. I had a lot of fun working on my partner on this so I can only imagine how much the children would enjoy the task. It was creative but still involved a lot of teaching for the pupils. I think this is a great resource to use in the classroom and hope to try out this lesson in my 2nd year placement!

References-

Children’s Parliament (2016) A Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland: The View’s of Children
[Online] http://www.childrensparliament.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/REPORT_digital-learning-consultation_Childrens-Parliament-1.pdf [Accessed-1.3.18]

Teaching Times (2008) Games Consoles Benefit Children’s Education [online] https://www.teachingtimes.com/articles/games-consoles-education.htm [Accessed-1.3.18]

The Telegraph (2014) Digital Learning: how technology is reshaping teaching [online] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/11051228/Digital-learning-how-technology-is-reshaping-teaching.html [Accessed-1.3.18]

Digital Technologies-Animation (Week 7)

Today we had the opportunity to explore the use of animation within the classroom. ICT let’s pupils explore a large range of possibilities that would not be possible without it. ICT is used and incorporated throughout the curriculum and subjects, also children don’t divide their learning into sections but rather see it as one area. E-inclusion … Continue reading “Digital Technologies-Animation (Week 7)”

Today we had the opportunity to explore the use of animation within the classroom. ICT let’s pupils explore a large range of possibilities that would not be possible without it. ICT is used and incorporated throughout the curriculum and subjects, also children don’t divide their learning into sections but rather see it as one area. E-inclusion has the ability to improve the experience of learning through the use of digital technology for ASN children. (Beauchamp, 2012). Beauchamp (2012) also states that due to the increasing use of ICT in pupils within the school in their daily lives, it should also be used for them to play with.

‘Although teachers may be worried by new technologies… we need to be sure that this is not transmitted to young children, or that other obstacles are not put in the way of their natural curiosity and willingness to explore new technologies’ (Beauchamp, 2012, p.66).

Animation is beneficial in the following three ways:

  1. To develop the visual awareness of the learners
  2. To show the process of something
  3. To make the learning interesting and interactive

Although animation (the visuals and sound) help to further emphasise what is taught and has a positive impact on how the children handle information it can take up more time to teach the children. Animation is when a large number of images are played one after the other to give the impression of movement (Jarvis, 2015).

The 5 types of animation  are-

  1. Cutout: simple and fast
  2. Stop-motion: large variety of materials can be used such as clay
  3. Pixilation- people are recorded
  4. Drawn- most Disney films are made with this method
  5. Computer- movies and games are made this way (Moving Image Education).

Through my own experience of stop motion I found that it was a really easy and quick way to create my own story, I noticed I used my literacy and art skills and I drew them on paper therefore I think this can be a really engaging and interesting way to reinforce these subjects. If used well I believe that this can be a very useful tool and can be open in an app on an iPad which is also usually easily accessible in schools.

 

References-

Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary Classroom: From Pedagogy top Practice. Pearson.

Jarvis, M. (2015) Brilliant Ideas for Using ICT in the Classroom: A Very practical Guide for Teachers and Lecturers. Routledge.

Moving Image Education website: [Online] https://movingimageeducation.org/create-films/animation [Accessed: 25.2.18]

Digital Technologies – Game-based Learning 06/03/18

Today in Digital Technologies we focused on Game-based Learning, which is when games are used as a stimulus as they often act as a starting point for other activities to follow. In class we started by creating a mind-map to discuss why game-based learning is an effective tool to use in education.  This was very […]

Today in Digital Technologies we focused on Game-based Learning, which is when games are used as a stimulus as they often act as a starting point for other activities to follow. In class we started by creating a mind-map to discuss why game-based learning is an effective tool to use in education.  This was very beneficial as it got me thinking of the benefits Game-based Learning has before I created an interdisciplinary plan as part of a group.  The interdisciplinary plan was focused on Mario Kart and we had to create lesson plans in different curricular areas and make links to Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes.

As we created a mind-map at the start of the class on why game-based learning is an effective tool to use in education, we also went back to it at the end and wrote down more on what we had learned throughout the class (picture attached below, pink pen – start/orange pen-end).  At the start of the class we wrote down things such as it is fun, interactive and engaging.  However, by the end of the class our understanding of the benefits Game-based Learning has had been increased massively and we wrote down things such as it has a positive impact on social skills due to children being able to work together, it allows for knowledge to be reinforced, it is stress free and pleasurable and it grabs attention.  I enjoyed creating the mind-map as I find it very rewarding to look back on and see how my understanding has been developed through watching different videos, reading the power point and researching what people such as Marc Prensky say about Game-based Learning.  Along with the benefits we also looked at the challenges Game-based Learning has, such as how it is often difficult to select a suitable game to carry out.  Game-based Learning can also be seen as time consuming, and some schools may not have the resources or budget to allow it. (Learning and Teaching Scotland).  However, after looking at both sides, I fully believe that the advantages outweigh the challenges.

Marc Prensky believes that Game-based Learning makes curricular areas and lessons more motivating and engaging to children (Prensky, 2007). I agree with this fully as during today’s class we had to create a character, using the characters in Mario Kart as inspiration.  Usually I would be apprehensive about drawing but because I knew it was based around a game, I felt more at ease.  Due to this I am excited to plan lessons in the future such as creating characters to feature in a game as it allows for children to use their imagination while learning.

When we started the interdisciplinary plan I became fully aware of the wide range of lessons and curricular areas Game-based Learning fits into.  The curricular areas we focused on were Literacy, Technologies, Numeracy, Expressive Arts and Health and Wellbeing; however, many different lesson plans can be covered for all ages as we had an unlimited amount of ideas just focused around Mario Kart ranging from relatively easy to more difficult.  This is backed up by (Porter, 2004, p.35) when he states “The digital environment provides a unique opportunity to empower people of all ages”.  Some of our ideas were:

During literacy children could write a diary entry based on being in the audience and watching the different races, during this they would need to include adjectives and descriptive words about the setting.  – I can spell the most commonly-used words, using my knowledge of letter patterns and spelling rules and use resources to help me spell tricky or unfamiliar words. – LIT 1-21a

The lesson we planned for Technologies was to draw cars and other things included in Mario Kart to create an iStop Motion animation. – I can extend and enhance my design skills to solve problems and can construct models. – TCH 2-09a

For numeracy our lesson plan was to give the children a set budget, from this they would have to work out what they can afford to repair a race car and buy to make them go faster etc. – I can manage money, compare costs from different retailers, and determine what I can afford to buy. – MNU 2-09a

The Expressive Arts lesson we planned was for the children to create their own cars to stand in by painting and decorating cardboard boxes.  After they have completed their cars they could then preform races in front of their peers.  – I have experienced the energy and excitement of presenting/performing for audiences and being part of an audience for other people’s presentations/performances. – EXA 0-01a / EXA 1-01a / EXA 2-01a

This Expressive Arts lesson could then lead onto a Health and Wellbeing lesson as the children could then use their cars to create roads.  This would then be a perfect opportunity to learn children about or reinforce their knowledge on road safety by creating traffic lights, crossings etc. – I know and can demonstrate how to travel safely. – HWB 0-18a / HWB 1-18a / HWB 2-18a

After learning about the wide range of benefits Game-based Learning has and how many lessons within the curriculum it fits in, I think that it is essential I am confident in carrying it out to children in future years to come.  During classes like this my confidence increases as I get to think of lesson plans and also get to enjoy carrying out activities such as creating our own characters, this making me aware that children will too!  I also try my best to keep up to latest games that come out as I know how quickly children learn to play them, therefore I hope in the future I am always aware what games may be best to use in certain lessons.  I feel as though this is important so that children’s learning in school is connected with their home life.

Overall, todays class made me aware of how important it is to carry out Game-based Learning within the classroom.  This is due to the benefits it has which I mentioned previously, along with the huge amount of lessons that can be created through one game.  I am thankful that this module is increasing my confidence in aspects such as this, as I know how much children will both enjoy and learn from lessons inspired by a game.  Therefore, if I can teach Game-based Learning to the best of my ability in the future then children will get the most out of their lessons that I plan and carry out.

References:

Porter, B. (2004) Digi Tales: The Art of Telling Digital Stories. United States: Bernajean Porter Publication.

Prensky, M. (2007) Digital Game-Based Learning. United States: Paragon House.

Learning and Teaching Scotland. (2010) The impact of console games in the classroom: [online] Available: https://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/FUTL25/FUTL25.pdf [Accessed 6 March 2018]

 

 

Animation

I was a little intimidated when I first set eyes upon the WILF (What I am looking for) Success Criteria for the weeks task.  Beauchamp suggests that educators should not reveal their worries about new technologies to young children (Beauchamp, … Continue reading

I was a little intimidated when I first set eyes upon the WILF (What I am looking for) Success Criteria for the weeks task.  Beauchamp suggests that educators should not reveal their worries about new technologies to young children (Beauchamp, 2017) and his point is proven because I need not have been nervous as both the Puppet Pals Application (App) and iStop Motion App used in the tutorial today were user friendly and easy to navigate.

One of the advantages of integrating an App such as iStop Motion into a lesson is the inclusiveness it offers to those who do not always engage with a traditional teaching style.  Internet and Computer Technologies (ICT) allows pupils to engage with something that they would find difficult to achieve by other means (Beauchamp, 2017).  What I have found interesting about this is that when I reflect upon my own learning, I enjoy storytelling and have a flair for expressing my ideas in traditional formats.  Yet, I fully engaged with the Apps used in the workshop, this suggests that pupils with additional support needs are not limited to those who struggle but also encompasses those who are over achieving in certain areas of the curriculum.  The benefits of cross curricular learning are also evident as creating the iStop Motion animation really tested my limited artistic skills.  My own reflections are supported by evidence cited in the Scottish Government Document Literature Review on the Impact of Digital Technology on Learning and Teaching which states:

“There is conclusive evidence that digital equipment, tools and resources can, where effectively used, raise the speed and depth of learning… for primary and secondary age learners. There is indicative evidence that the same can be said for some aspects of literacy, especially writing and comprehension. Digital technologies appear to be appropriate means to improve basic literacy… especially in primary settings.” (Scottish Government, 2015. P.16).

 

Including animation as part of a lesson plan will help to achieve the following experiences and outcomes from the Curriculum for Excellence:

I can create, capture and manipulate sounds, text and images to communicate experiences, ideas and information in creative and engaging ways.  TCH 1-0b/2-04b

I am developing an interest, confidence and enjoyment in using drawing and colour techniques, manually or electronically, to represent ideas in different learning situations.  TCH 1-15

(Scottish Government, 2008)

Jarvis Suggests that although there are benefits to integrating the use of sound and video into a lesson it can be time consuming (Jarvis, 2015).  When reflecting on my use of the App, I found that as part of a team were able to create a short animation within an hour and this also included drawing up the background.  Although Jarvis may have a point that it can be time consuming the animation being integrated into a lesson could be a final step after weeks of other lessons which build to the final animation for example, Art lessons creating backgrounds or Literacy lessons writing story boards.  If this was integrated into topic/project learning the animation would only be a small part of the overall time and in my opinion well worth the effort as I really enjoyed viewing the video we made and setting it to music.  Additionally, animating does not have to be with models, cut-out animation is the easiest technique to start (Moving Image Education).

I have already downloaded an App and have made a second Animation with my son!

References:

Beauchamp, G (2017) Computing and ICT in the Primary School From Pedagogy to Practice 2nd ed. London: Routledge.

Jarvis, M (2015) Brilliant Ideas for using ICT in the Classroom London: Routledge.

Moving Image Education Website; (Online) https://movingimageeducation.org/create-films.animation [Accessed 05 March 2018]

Scottish Government (2015) Literature Review on the Impact of Digital Technology on Learning and Teaching. Edinburgh: Scottish Government

Scottish Government (2008) The Curriculum for Excellence [Online] http://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed 05 March 2018]

Personal Reflection Game Based Learning – 06/02/18

Today within digital technologies we explored games based learning. With Games-based learning “students are provided with a game filled experience driven by play” (Farber, M 2016)   At first we created a mind map in a small group of what … Continue reading

Today within digital technologies we explored games based learning. With Games-based learning “students are provided with a game filled experience driven by play” (Farber, M 2016)   At first we created a mind map in a small group of what we thought the positives and negatives of games based learning was. Some examples we put down were; links to the curriculum, engagement with others, creativity is involved and is relevant to children’s lives.

After further reading we then added to our mind map of  the positives of games based learning this included; it not always teacher led, it can links to cross curricular activities such as literacy, maths and art. We also included that it encourages children to look at things differently.

Learning Teaching Scotland (2010 pg. 12) say that “Over the past decade, the use of digital gaming in education has prompted considerable attention in exploring how and why games might be powerful tools in the classroom. As a result of this interest, there is a considerable body of literature available on game-based learning in the classroom and the potential benefits of this for education and learning.”

When developing my knowledge I found that there is a history behind games based learning “The link between learning and playing is longstanding and predates the digital era by thousands of years (Higher Education Academy 2015).  Theorists Jean Piaget and Leonard Vygotsky have argued that play is a an important part of brain development from birth and throughout adulthood (Higher Education Academy 2015). I think that play stimulates childrens minds as it encourages them to think actively instead of being at a desk writing on a piece of paper and play is interactive so it allows children to interact with their peers. Higher Education Academy (2015) says that the advent of computing (1980) and the internet (1990) created many opportunities for ‘play’ in the form of video and computer games. It also says that “Games-based learning is the integration of going into learning experiences to increase engagement and motivation” (Higher Education Academy 2015).

For today’s session we were to explore the Nintendo Wii and experience the game of Mario Kart although the lecturer was unable to find the wire to connect the WII so instead we watched a video of Mario Kart and then created our own Character and car to replace the exploration of the Wii. I already had previous experience with the Wii therefore I had an idea of what Mario Kart looked like and had the opportunity to explore the Wii when I was younger. The character I drew was Mickey Mouse, Mickey had a red an white convertible that had great speed and handling with a poor acceleration rate.

We then worked within a small group to create an Interdisciplinary Learning plan (IDL) to show the number of curricular areas that game-based learning can cross. The plan was based on Mario Kart. The ideas we came up with linked to the Curriculum for Excellence through Art, Drama, Numeracy, Literacy and Technology. Our art ideas included creating a garage, race track, tickets, the car and the character who was racing. The outcome this linked to; “I have the opportunity to choose and explore an extended range of media and technologies to create images and objects, comparing and combining them for tasks (EXA 2-02a)”(Education Scotland 2004) . The technology idea that we came up with was to create an iMovie trailer to introduce the race and the characters. The outcome this linked to; “I can explore and experiment with digital technologies and can use what I learn to support and enhance leaning in different contexts (TCH 1-01a)” (Education Scotland 2004) . The idea for literacy was to create a description of characters and the cars that were used through use of adjectives. The outcome this linked to; “By considering the type of text I am creating I can select ideas and relevant information and organise these in a logical sequence and use words which will be interesting and/or useful to others (LIT 1-26a)” (Education Scotland 2004).

I was surprised when I considered how many areas across the curriculum that Games-Based learning can fit in to. This made me consider using it within my future teaching career as a topic of the children’s learning.

The benefits of Games-Based Learning are; increase of motivation, attention grabbing. recall of information, reinforcing knowledge and that it is stress free and pleasurable. The potential challenges for teachers are: it could be challenging identifying a suitable game or part of a game, integrating the game into time and structure of daily planning. The teachers confidence and skills on computers and the use of resources. The school budget may also be a challenge. A potential challenge could also be linking the game to a specific area within the curriculum (Learning and Teaching Scotland 2010, pg. 20)

As role models teachers must ensure that game based learning has a positive impact on social skills, that it supports and enhances learning, it develops skills and provides opportunities to apply skills.

I think that games based learning is a tool worth taking into my future career as it would engage children in many different ways and it links to consoles that they may play at home such as the Xbox, Wii and Playstation. The children may have more knowledge of the game than me but it is nothing to be embarrassed about because I could learn more about the game from them and then include it in a range of areas within the curriculum. It enables children to interact with each other and allows them to increase in depth knowledge of what a game could add to their learning. It also encourages children to be interactive, working in teams and collaborating a range of ideas into one. It allows the children to use their imagination.

References

Education Scotland (2004) – Curriculum for Excellence; Experiences and Outcomes [Online] https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-(building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5)/Experiences%20and%20outcomes [Accessed on 6th February 2018]

Farber, M (2016) Edutopia – 3 Ways to use Game-Based Learning [Online] https://www.edutopia.org/article/3-ways-use-game-based-learning-matthew-farber [Accessed on 6th February 2018]

Higher Education Academy (2015) – Gamification and Games-Based Learning [Online] https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/gamification-and-games-based-learning [Accessed on 6th February 2018]

Learning, Teaching Scotland (2010) – FutureLab – The Impact of Console Games in the Classroom [Online] https://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/FUTL25/FUTL25.pdf [Accessed on 6th February 2018)

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