3.4 Professional Reflection and Communication – Page 5

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 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)

Personal Reflection Digital Technologies – Mobile Devices 27/02/18

In todays class I learned about the use of mobile devices to enhance learning. After having a tutorial around mobile devices through digital literacy within my first trimester I found the use of Easi-Speak microphones beneficial and easy to use, therefore I was excited to spend time using them to create a poem and recording it. At first I did some further reading from teaching times and found that “39 per cent of teachers stated that children should not have access out of school to mobile phones, while another 29 per cent of teachers said the ideal situation would be if all pupils had access to a mobile.Schools also believe that children’s preference for technology both at home and at school is evolving quickly, just as technology is continuing to change at a rapid pace” (Scottish Government 2016).

Majority of schools that were surveyed schools identify that home computers are used as a personal revision tool with 64% of schools providing directed homework by teachers that required access to computers at home. Only a quarter of schools believe that the majority of pupils use computers for entertainment and social networking exclusively and not for educational activities. (Scottish Government 2016).

I also read an article on the telegraph about how technology is reshaping teaching it stated that ” Over four in 10 households now have a tablet, meaning that children are becoming computer-literate before they’ve even started primary school – and we’ve all heard about the techno-babies who can handle an iPad before they have learnt how to tie their own shoelaces”. I think this is relevant because my two year old niece is in nursery and she is able to use educational games on my IPad where there are a range of shapes with different size and colour and they have to be moved to the specific space where they would fit and she was able to move the shapes around the screen to the space they fit in. She also used the IPad to listen to the songs/nursery rhymes that she learns in nursery and is able to choose the song from the list allocated under the video she is watching. This shows that she is already using an IPad before she has learnt to get her self dressed and tie her lace.

We were to answer a question “Should mobile devices be used in the classroom?” To this I answered yes I think that mobile devices are effective because children can create their own short story or poem and be able to act as the main characters through use of devices such as IPad’s, laptops, Easi-speak Microphones and talking tins. These are both tools used to record speech. They have memory on them that can easily be transferred to computers. It also allows the children to record their CVC words such at CAT, MAT, DOG and FROG and then spell them. This may help the children learn because they are saying it out loud and then spelling it so that they can play it back to themselves. This will help children who do not take information in when writing it with pen and paper. It could also benefit children who have additional support needs and struggle with spelling of their words if they work in partners their partner could spell it out and the child is able to play it back.

Today we explored Talking Tin and Easi Speak microphones. We were to create and “I am…” poem using the Easi-Speak Microphone. We were given sentence starters and were asked to finish the sentence. To do this we were to work in pairs and create our poem. At first we wrote down the ending of the sentences so that we could then record it. Once it was recorded we were to use Microsoft Powerpoint to put each line of our poem on to a slide and then add a picture using an online resource called Pixabay.

Emma Robertson & Shannon Scott I am Poem powerpoint

I found this as a learner easy to get my head around and straight forward. I enjoyed taking part in the task. As a teacher I think because the use of mobile devices such as Easi-speak microphones are straightforward and easy to use children would be able to understand it and learn a lot from it. I think that children would be keen to get involved and enjoy the use of it as a tool for learning. It is also beneficial for teachers because it is easy to transfer onto a computer/memory stick so that they have evidence of child’s progression and it isn’t all pen to paper work.

We then explored Talking Tins, talking tins are the similar to easi-speak microphones it is another tool used for recording items. With this we recorded a short paragraph of our poem. I didn’t find this as useful as the easi-speak microphones when we recorded a line it seemed to cut out although there could have been a short memory fault within the talking tin. Although it can be a beneficial tool for children to record CVC words within a literacy lesson or the times tables within a maths lesson to help the children learn effectively.

I think that the use of mobile devices is effective within the classroom as it influences children to learn in a range of ways. It allows teaching to become flexible and interactive. It allows children with additional support needs to progress in ways that they may not always achieve through pen and paper. It encourages children to be comfortable with themselves along with hearing their own voice.

As an adult my partner and I both hated our own voices and through use of a range of technology I have become more confident with putting my own voice into lesson plans/projects that I have created throughout my digital technology sessions.

References.

Curtis, S. (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: 27th February 2018]

Scottish Government (2016) Teaching Times – Games Consoles Benefit Children’s Education [Online] – https://www.teachingtimes.com/articles/games-consoles-education.htm [Accessed 27th February 2018]

Pixabay (2018) https://pixabay.com/en/photos/?q=student&hp=&image_type=all&order=popular&cat=&min_width=&min_height=

Digital Technologies – 20/02/18 Animation

This week in Digital Technologies, we were looking at animation. At the beginning of the session, we were asked to explore the Puppet Pals app on the iPads and create […]

This week in Digital Technologies, we were looking at animation. At the beginning of the session, we were asked to explore the Puppet Pals app on the iPads and create a short animation that was based on a fairy tale. We were to include; voice recording, movement, to change the size of the characters and include a beginning, middle and end. Our lecturer then used the AiFL teaching strategy of fist to 5 to gage our progress.

Animation is the process of the stringing together of a sequence of static images so that they appear to move (Jarvis, 2015).There are 5 main types of animation, according to Moving Image Education, including cutout, stop motion, pixillation, drawn and computer. Moving Image Education also states that animation breathes new life into something that normally doesn’t move. Animation is a form of technology that I am familiar with through films and television, however I have never created an animation and it is an element I am not confident with. Beauchamp (2012) highlights that although teachers might be worried about new technologies, we need to ensure that this fear is not transferred to the children or that any obstacles are put in the way of their curiosity or willingness to learn about new technologies. Whilst animation can be used to enhance learning through enhancing learner’s visual representations, illustrating processes and provide an interactive element (Betrancourt, 2005), Jarvis (2015) argues that while it can enhance the quality of information processing and learning, it can be very time consuming. Some examples of how to combat timing and confidence problems can consist of; getting equipment set up before the children arrive in the classroom, use the word explore often, as the teacher have a level of understanding yourself and be willing to engage within technologies that are new to you.

The rest of the session was used to create our own animation through an app on the iPad. We first watched a couple of tutorial videos to allow us to gain a deeper understanding of how the app worked before starting to work on our own. Using the technique of onion… I found it easier to create my animation as I could see where the last still image was. My video was based on Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, who went for a walk in the woods and found an Irn Bru bottle. Having completed the process, I was able to realise how time consuming making an animation can be. During a classroom setting, it could take up quite a few lessons. Beauchamp (2012) explains that ICT is not viewed as a separate ‘subject’ but something that contributes to all areas of learning. This is extremely useful when planning lessons as it means that a range of CfE experiences and outcomes can be covered within one lesson. A quote which I feel would be useful in explaining animation to pupils comes from John Challis on Moving Image Education website, ” Good animation is like a raisin sponge cake; you can get away with a lot of minimalism (sponge) as long as you reward your audience occasionally with tasty dynamic bits (raisins).”

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: 20.2.18]

Digital Technologies – iMovie Making – 13/2/18

Internet safety is an incredibly important issue, especially in today’s society with technology developing everyday. According to Beauchamp (2012), most primary schools have some sort of policy in place regarding […]

Internet safety is an incredibly important issue, especially in today’s society with technology developing everyday.

According to Beauchamp (2012), most primary schools have some sort of policy in place regarding internet safety, but they are more likely to refer to official policies rather than the pupils everyday lives. Schools are finding it difficult to keep up with apps/social media that children are using despite the age restrictions that are already in place for these apps. It is therefore vital that teachers provide support for e-safety. “The key idea is that e-safety is not about restricting children, but about educating them” (Beauchamp, 2012, p58). Beauchamp (2012) goes further and highlights that when regarding e-safety, the most successful schools establish that pupils know what to do when things to go wrong. Helping children develop an understanding of the dangers of the internet can allow teachers to support internet use at home rather than interfering in their personal lives.

Supporting internet safety is also crucial as The Scottish Government (2015) found that there is evidence to believe that using digital equipment, tools and resources can where effectively used, raise the speed and depth of learning in science and maths for both primary and secondary learners. Also, that digital technology would appear to be an appropriate means to improve basic literacy and numeracy skills, especially in primary settings. As this can help raise attainment levels it means having events such as Safer Internet Day and providing a full range of resources about internet safety is essential support for teachers in explaining to pupils the dangers of the internet.

This week in Digital Technologies, we were asked to create an iMovie or trailer based on internet safety as an assessment task. We worked in groups to produce these. My group chose to do a trailer based on Little Red Riding Hood, in which we changed the plot line so that Gran was coming to visit Red and they had arranged this meeting through the internet. We each played a key role during this session, whether it was acting, filming or setting the scene. We alternated between using both video and pictures to create the movie and we also used text to highlight key points of internet safety and websites that may be of use to whoever was watching. According to Porter (2004), digital storytelling is sharing your story in variety of mediums of digital imagery, text, voice, music, video and animation. I have attached our finished video in which it can be seen that we used many of these mediums to illustrate our story.

iMovie is an app that I would use in my own classroom whether it would be for a similar reason, talking about internet safety, or for many other topics. By using this kind of digital technology and getting the children to either act or create scenes for their movie, I would be able to cover a range of experiences and outcomes over different curriculum areas, for example, literacy, technology and expressive arts. This would allow pupils to maybe move our of their comfort zone and use their imagination.

References

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

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

The Scottish Government (2015) Literature Review on the Impact of Digital Technology on Learning and Teaching. [Online] http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/24843/1/00489224.pdf [Accessed: 13.2.18]

http://moodle.uws.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=252577

Digital Technologies Week 7 – Animation

According to the Moving Image Education website, “Animation ‘breathes life into something that wouldn’t normally move’.” Today we were challenged with creating a stop-motion animation to tell part of a story. I was soon inspired with thoughts of Wallace and Gromit-style plasticine models. My expectations were quickly altered as I watched a series of tutorials … Continue reading “Digital Technologies Week 7 – Animation”

I was soon inspired with thoughts of Wallace and Gromit-style plasticine models. My expectations were quickly altered as I watched a series of tutorials and discovered the time and skill that it takes to produce something of the sort.

Rather than simply being a beginners’ sort of movie-making, animation is an art in its own right. There are five different types of animation, which serve different purposes: cutout, stop-motion model, pixillation, drawn and computer animations (Moving Image Education).

We found that the simplest to create was cutout animation and My partner and I were lucky enough to have had experience with the iStop Motion app on placement where we created a scene for their Viking topic with small groups of primary three children.

We decided to challenge ourselves with creating a scene in the plasticine stop motion style. We had an hour and a half to fully familiarise ourselves with the app and create our scene. We began by animating the process of creating one plasticine character, with little details such as the character picking up his second arm and ‘putting it on’ by himself. It was a very fun and engaging session and as we went we were further inspired, which culminated in a 14 second sequence where another character came along and jumped on the original and made a ‘splash.’

This was a fun activity with the potential to form a basis of a very engaging lesson. Besides the obvious development of Technology skills that takes place when creating an animation, asking children to do a task like this gives them an opportunity to “communicate clearly when engaging with others within and beyond my place of learning, using selected resources as required,” meeting the Literacy outcome LIT 1-10a (Scottish Government, 2004). A lesson creating animation is yet another opportunity to use Technology in the classroom in a way that promotes inclusion for those students with additional support needs, who may not be able to tell their story as well by putting pen to paper as they can by designing a model and ‘bringing it to life.’

The only limitation I could see with this in a lesson is that it took us the full hour and a half to create 14 seconds of footage. However, this could be useful in the classroom to promote groupwork – with small groups of children each creating one snippet of a story.

One key finding of the Digital Literacy Impact Review (Scottish Government, 2015) was that while there is evidence that digital tools and resources can help to close the attainment gap, it is just as important that teachers are equipped with the skills to use it; it is not enough simply that the technology is available for use in the classroom, teachers must be familiar with it and competent when using it. After this session, I am confident in my ability to use the iStop Motion app to create animations and quite excited to hopefully see it used, or use it myself, in the classroom again on my next placement.

References

Moving Image Education: [Online] https ://movingimageeducation.org/create-films/animation [Accessed: 21 February 2018].

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

Scottish Government. 2015. Digital Literacy Impact Review. [Online] Edinburgh: APS. [Accessed: 21 February 2018].

Digital Technologies Week 5 – eBooks

The Oxford English Dictionary defines an eBook as “an electronic version of a printed book which can be read on a computer or a specifically designed handheld device.” Today in Digital Technologies we designed our own eBooks and examined how they could be useful in the classroom. First of all, we were given a task … Continue reading “Digital Technologies Week 5 – eBooks”

First of all, we were given a task in groups to create a brochure for UWS with prospective students in mind. We used the Book Creator app on an iPad. To make the University seem appealing to new applicants, we fully utilised the features of the app. It was very easy to customise the book by selecting appropriate colours and fonts for our purpose. It was also simple to insert videos and images taken or saved on the iPad. In less than half an hour we had managed to familiarise ourselves with the app and create an effective multimodal text which made use of a number of semiotic systems through the inclusion of text, sound and video. Another group took a look at our UWS brochure and said that it was engaging and attractive. This made clear to me how useful it could be in the classroom to be able to create a small eBook in such a short space of time.

With this experience of the book creator app, we were then tasked with creating either a summary of a well-known book or a small eBook to help someone engage with the book. I chose “Matilda” by Roald Dahl. As it is such a long book, I chose to create a short close reading exercise for Key Stage 2 which would encourage reflection on personal relationships. The eBook asks questions about where Matilda likes to spend time and how that relates to the way the people around her treat her. It then goes on to ask for a comparison of how Miss Honey treats her and how her parents treat her, which is an activity which links to LIT 2-14a: “I can make notes, organise them under suitable headings and use them to understand information, develop my thinking, explore problems and create new texts, using my own words as appropriate.” (Scottish Executive, 2004). The last page of the eBook asks for reflection on how different people in their life make them feel through their actions, and how they can affect the feelings of others with their own actions. This links a literacy lesson to Health and Wellbeing outcome HWB 2-05a (“I know that friendship, caring, sharing, fairness, equality and love are important in building positive relationships. As I develop and value relationships, I care and show respect for myself and others.” (Scottish Executive, 2004).). These exercises were not simply written down on paper. I believe that being able to use an iPad to flick through the exercise makes it more effective for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was multimodal as I used a number of Quentin Blake’s illustrations from relevant parts of the book to help prompt the answers to close reading questions that I both wrote in text on the page and inserted as voice clips. As we know, multimodal texts encourage accessibility in the classroom and are a useful way to close a gap in higher order thinking for individuals who may find it more difficult to follow along with reading text. Beauchamp (2012, p.88) further suggests that children who are reading from tablets in the house will be more inclined to use the same mobile devices in their learning than they may be, perhaps, to use physical books.

For myself as a prospective teacher, this was an interesting tool to learn to use. I did not realise how quickly an eBook could be created or that they could include video or voice clips – it was my own misconception that eBooks were simply novels in digital form. It is particularly relevant to me as a budding teacher in Scotland as our Digital Teaching and Learning Strategy specifically aims to develop the skills of our educators (Scottish Government, 2016). While I consider myself relatively competent and experienced with using computers the creation of eBooks for a purpose like this had never occurred to me as a way to embed technology in the classroom. An eBook like this can be created quickly, edited easily for different levels and distributed to students efficiently using Apple AirDrop – as long as iPads are available in the classroom. While this may seem like an unrealistic expectation in the classroom, tablets are getting cheaper all the time and there is motivation in particular by Education Scotland to ensure there are handheld devices available in school to enhance learning (BBC, 2012).

By the time I am a fully qualified teacher, if handheld devices are as widely available as this, I think that the ability to quickly create an eBook will be a useful skill to have.

References

BBC (2012). Education Scotland looks to expand use of tablets in schools. BBC News. [Online] 16 May. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-18081005 [Accessed: 9 February 2018].

Beauchamp, G. (2012). ICT in the Primary School: From Pedagogy to Practice. Harlow: Pearson. p.88.

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

Scottish Government (2016) Enhancing Teaching and Learning through the use of Digital Technology: A Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland. [Online] Available: https://beta.gov.scot/publications/enhancing-learning-teaching-through-use-digital-technology/ [Accessed: 8 January 2017].

Digital Technologies – ActivInspire 23/1/18

One of the reasons for using multimodal texts is to make learning memorable and this is just one of the many ways that using multimodal presentations can enhance pupils’ learning, […]

One of the reasons for using multimodal texts is to make learning memorable and this is just one of the many ways that using multimodal presentations can enhance pupils’ learning, but only if the teacher has reasonable knowledge of the subject area. Technology also being so multimodal is another of the main reasons to use it because it allows teachers to present their lessons in a range of ways to help pupil’s understanding (Beauchamp, 2012). Multimodal texts are made by combining two or more semiotic systems. There are five semiotic systems all together including: linguistic, visual, audio, gestural and spatial. Multimodal texts also encourage hands-on learning as Prandstatter (2014) found that touch screens can become a social learning tool encouraging hands-on experiences thereby helping children to learn by doing.

Today during Digital Technologies we were learning about the different kinds of multimodal presentations, but focusing on ActivInspire. We were to create flipcharts using ActivInspire Primary. Our flipchart was based around the outcome MNU 1-10a; I can tell the time using 12 hour clocks, realising there is a link with 24 hour notation, explain how it impacts on my daily routine and ensure that I am organised and ready for events throughout my day. We used a selection of clocks, both analogue and digital, in which the children would try to make the connection between the two and then progress further to the teacher asking the children what time was on the clock and getting them write their answers on the flipchart, promoting hands-on experience. The next couple of pages were dedicated to the second part of the outcome; getting the children to focus on their own daily routines as each child may do things at different times of the day. The teacher would ask what time the pupil does a certain activity and get the to come up and write their answer in one of the three forms, either digital, analogue or in words.

As time progresses, technology will develop more as well. Technology and interactive learning have become such a big part of everyday teaching, so being able to use multimodal texts is something I feel is extremely important. Multimodal texts are a key element that I will use in my own lesson planning as it will allow children to gain a deeper understanding of the subject being taught.

References

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

Interactive Displays in Early Years Classes

Programmable Toys – 161/18

In today’s class we were looking at programmable toys and the benefits they have. We were using Bee-Bot to design a map based on a numeracy outcome. Doing this task […]

In today’s class we were looking at programmable toys and the benefits they have. We were using Bee-Bot to design a map based on a numeracy outcome. Doing this task was extremely useful for me as I was able to gain ideas for when I am teaching how to sometimes cover multiple outcomes during the same lesson.

There are many benefits of using programmable floor toys in the classroom including teaching the children the concepts in a fun manner and helping with developing knowledge and an understanding of the modern world (Janka, 2008). Numeracy is a subject in particular that benefits as children can describe simple journeys made by the programmable toy which will help the pupil’s develop positional language and estimation (Janka, 2008). The National Centre for Technology in Education (2012), found that programmable toys also encourage the building of skills such as logical sequencing, measuring, space orientation and comparing lengths.

We worked in groups to create an activity using Bee-Bot. We picked a mathematical outcome from Curriculum for Excellence and created a game based on flags of the world. The children would get question cards and have to use positional language to answer the questions. They would also be asked to move to certain locations without going through certain landmarks.

In the future, I would use Bee-Bot in my classroom as it has many benefits and allows children to enjoy activities for outcomes that may not necessarily have been too engaging. It also spreads across many different areas of the curriculum from literacy to technology.

References

Janka, P. (2008) Using a Programmable Toy at Preschool Age: Why and How?

[Online] http://www.terecop.eu/downloads/simbar2008/pekarova.pdf

[Access: 16th January 2018]

NCTE (National centre for Technology in Education) (2012) NCTE Floor Robots – Focus on Literacy & Numeracy.

[Online] http ://www.ncte.ie/media/NCTE_Floor_robots_focus_on_literacy_numeracy_primary_12-06.pdf [Accessed: 16th January 2018]

Digital Technologies Week 3 – Multimodal Texts

We have looked at how multimodal texts can enhance literacy lessons before but in this week of Digital Technologies we took a closer look and created our own multimodal texts using the Promethean ActivInspire app. Multimodal is a term that refers to any text that combines two or more semiotic systems. These are visual, gestural, … Continue reading “Digital Technologies Week 3 – Multimodal Texts”

Multimodal is a term that refers to any text that combines two or more semiotic systems. These are visual, gestural, spatial, linguistic and aural. The children of today are bombarded with multimodal texts more than any generation before them due to the rise of technology. “The increased use of multimodal texts, digital communication, social networking and the other forms of electronic communication encountered by children and young people in their daily lives,” is reflected in the Curriculum for Excellence (Scottish Government, n.d., p.4) with the active inclusion of these multimodal texts.

Multimodal texts have been shown to be effective in classrooms because they allow a text to be understood and engaged with by more individuals. A child who struggles with reading as quickly as their peers may benefit from audio to support the text and vice versa. Multimodal texts in the classroom are a way to present ideas in “a variety of different ways to help pupils understand [them].” (Beauchamp, 2012, p.8).

With a group of other students, I used ActivInspire to create a multimodal text that would be suitable in an Early Years setting. It took the form of a ‘fill in the gap’ exercise. The background of each slide in the presentation was a place such as the jungle, the sea or a house. It asked who lives here, accompanied with an animal name in the form “c_ab,” for “crab” for instance, with a selection of letters underneath to be dragged and dropped into the space to complete the word. In the classroom, children could be asked what animal it is likely to be and what letter is missing from the word. Once the children have worked out the word, or if they are really stuck, there is a picture of the animal beside the word which can be revealed; this reminded me of ‘lift the flap’ books and struck me as very likely to keep children engaged. And of course, with an Interactive White Board, children would likely enjoy being invited up to drag and drop the letters or reveal the animal themselves, creating a “hands-on experience,” (Prandstatter, 2014). If I were to do this task again and able to invest more time in creating, I would include animal noises to increase the multimodality of the text.

Before this session, if asked to create a presentation to support a lesson, I would have instinctively used Microsoft PowerPoint, however a lot of the functions that make ActivInspire particularly engaging for children are not as easy to achieve with PowerPoint. ActivInspire is an accessible app. It is free and quick to download on both Microsoft and Apple computers. My group and I created our presentation on an Apple Mac and I expected to run into formatting issues when opening the file on my Microsoft laptop, but I did not experience any. There was a learning curve with the app when working out how to do more advanced operations but there is an abundance of tutorials available on YouTube to assist with this. My group was able to create our presentation within around an hour of being introduced to the app.

In my opinion, for these reasons, ActivInspire is a very useful tool in the classroom. It is easy to use, accessible and, if you know your way around the app, it can be to create an engaging, multimodal text to support a lesson in a matter of minutes. Following this week of Digital Technologies, I will definitely consider using ActivInspire before Microsoft PowerPoint in the primary classroom setting.

References

Beauchamp, G. (2012). ICT in the Primary School: From Pedagogy to Practice. Harlow: Pearson. p.8.

Prandstatter, J. (2014). Interactive Displays in Early Years Classes. [Blog: Online]. Available: http://connectlearningtoday.com/interactive-displays-early-years-classes/ [Accessed: 26 January 2018].

Scottish Government (n.d.). Curriculum for Excellence: Literacy and English Principles and Practice. Edinburgh: Scottish Government. p.4.

Personal Reflection Multimodality – Day 3 of Digital Technologies 23/01/18

Today I took part in making a multi-modal presentation. A text can be described as multi-modal when it combines two or more semiotic systems. There are five semiotic systems that can be involved in a multi-modal text these are; Linguistic, Visual, Audio, Gestural and Spatial. A linguistic text has aspects of vocabulary and grammar of oral and written language, A visual text has aspects such as colour, moving images and still images. An audio text features such as volume, pitch, music and sound effects, A gestural text comprises aspects of movement – speed, still and slow – with facial expression and body language. Spatial is seen in texts with the direction and position of images/writing on the screen and the organisation of objects within a text (Anstey and Bull, 2010). Anstey and Bull ( 2010) give examples of multi-modal texts being a picture book, webpage and live ballet performance. They can also be things like power points, flip charts (ACTIV-Inspire), word documents but also use through a range of different resources. Multi-modal texts can encourage hands-on learning it can encourage children to become interactive with Smart boards that are in some classrooms within school.

Beauchamp (2012, p8) states that “the multi-modality of technology is an other reason to use it, as it allows teachers to present an idea in a variety of ways to help pupils understand it” I felt that this quote that was in the lecturers power point was accurate because teachers need to test ways in which the children in their class learn. Teachers need to make sure that the apps and programmes that they use are not distracting to some children in the class . Teachers can use power points and other programmes as back-up to what they are teaching. “We must challenge the implicit assumption that speech and writing are always central and sufficient for learning” (Beauchamp 2012, p8) Teachers are at the centre of children’s learning and have to have ideas in which they can put across the main message of a lesson or book that children are reading not necessarily with plain words on a page but include images, movement and sound.

In today’s workshop our aim was to create a flip chart lesson with the use of the app ACTIV-Inspire on the mac computer. ACTIV-Inspire can be used to empower teachers to bring their lessons to life and as a student teacher I had an opportunity to bring a lesson to life. In my pair we both decided to make a flip-chart with aquatic animals. With our flip-chart that we created children were able to describe the colour of each aquatic animal and have the opportunity to answer what the animal is named in English and then learn the animals name in Spanish. We aimed the activity at level 2 children who had prior learning of describing words in Spanish. The modern languages outcome from the Curriculum for Excellence (Education Scotland 2004) that my partner and I chose was “I experiment with new language, working out the meaning of words and phrases using vocabulary I have learned so far” [MLAN 2-11c]. With our multi-modal text we had a range of visuals to help the children guess the topic that we were learning about, It also had a sound effect of Under the Sea from the little mermaid to get the children’s mind’s thinking about what we could be learning about. It had written word in both English and Spanish of the animals names and also the colours. At the end of the lesson we had two interactive games where the children were to match the animals to their Spanish name and also to their Spanish colours.

In my opinion I think that ACTIV-Inspire is a a good resource for teachers and student teachers to use to create a lesson for children to learn. Although I found it difficult to get my head around I think if I had more experience using the programme and watch step by step tutorials more than once that I would get the hang of it. It allows children to become interactive in their learning environment and encourages communication of lessons in a different way. It adds variety and choice to lesson plans. Multi-modal texts can be used alongside the Curriculum for Excellence in a range of ways.

Multi-modal texts in my opinion can help student teachers and teachers in a variety of ways because it can allow them to see what children are benefiting from seeing the text in a different perspective. It changes learning from being teacher led to child led as the children can get involved in the activities that the teachers have set throughout programmes on a computer/IPad. Multi-modal texts can add a variety of different techniques into learning for example; if the children are reading a book in the classroom teachers can make the book into their own and add in parts of the book so that children can use adjectives to describe specific scenes in the book.

References

Anstey, M. and Bull, G. (June 2010) Curriculum & Leadership Journal – An electronic journal for leaders in education – Helping Teachers to explore multi-modal texts. [Online] http://www.curriculum.edu.au/leader/helping_teachers_to_explore_multimodal_texts,31522.html?issueID=12141 [Accessed 23 January 2018 ]

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