Tag: Digital Technology

Digital Technology Week – Animation

This weeks lesson was based around animation and its uses in the class room. ICT allows pupils to” achieve something that would be very difficult or even impossible to achieve in any other way.” (Beauchamp, 2012, p.54). We discussed about how the importance of teaching children to use technology in this modern-day world. We first learnt about what ways animation making could be used in the classroom to make lessons and then we learnt how to make our own and did.

The way we learnt how to introduce animation in the classroom lessons was through stop motion animation. We did this through an app on the iPad which may be available in classroom for the children to use. We learnt about what animation is and how it can be defined. “Animation involves the stringing together a sequence of static images, generally so that they appear to move.” (Jarvis, 2015, p89). Children should be given experiences with all sorts of technology as it can open doors and their imagination which could help them discover what carer path they would like to go down and it may open jobs that don’t currently exist. animation in the classroom doesn’t have to be with plasticine models – cut out animation is by far the easiest technique to start on. (Moving Image Education). Children won’t be making masterpiece movies, but they will do their best and will be able to imagine up ideas with what they are provided with in the classroom. The most obvious example of stop motion animation is Wallace and Grommet which is made using plasticine models. It works by taking a picture and then moving the model a tiny bit then take another picture this is repeated several times and when all the pictures are played in sequence quickly it looks as though the models etc are moving themselves.

I as in a pair to make our animation. We went with the simple idea of drawing on paper and it would look as though the paper was drawing the picture itself. Our short story line was of the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. We took hundreds of photos that when put together illustrated the simple story. This would be simple to do in the class as all that is required is paper and pens. We learnt quickly that a key point that needs to be taught is that the pad must stay in the exact same position for the animation to look real and not jumpy.

This can be seen in the curriculum in the experiences and outcomes. one of which is “I can explore and experiment with digital technologies and can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts.” TCH 1-01a. Which relates to the use of the technology and the child enhancing and extending their knowledge of how to use technology to the best of its ability. It also relates to experiences about their literacy if it can be applied to their animation. It could also extend to experiences referring to them working in groups, using their imagination and sharing their ideas and outcomes, all depending on what relates to the lesson you as the teacher sets them.

Overall, I really enjoyed learning about and making a stop motion animation. I feel like this would be a great set of lessons to teach a primary class and to allow the children to use their imagination. I will use this in my classroom if I get the chance and if the resources are available to use.

References

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

·         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 26th February 2018]

·         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 on 26th February 2018]

This week in digital technology, we were studying animation. We looked at the different ways animation could be used within the classroom and also where the benefits of animation lie within the curriculum.

The animation applications we studied today were on an iPad and they were; Puppet Pals, iMovie and iStop Motion. I have briefly used some of these apps in the past and having the opportunity to revisit them reassures me that my confidence is growing with this kind of technology. Which makes me think of the positive impact that these types of technologies can bring to young learners for example; confidence, communication, expression and collaboration. Moving Image Education state that when making mini movies or trailers there different skills involved which means that the full class can participate. Everyone will have something to contribute therefor, making a film creates an opportunity to extend talents and empower the young learners mean while it is working on team spirit.

Today our task while working in pairs was to create a short and simple animation piece, there were many resources available to us such as toy cars, toy characters, lego and soft toys, along with pens and paper.  We decided to use lego as we felt the scene would be fairly easy to build and also that we could move the characters with ease throughout the short animation piece. This however proved us quite wrong as the lego figures often fell over and were quite delicate. We had to keep them exactly where they were in order for each still to move in order as we were using the iStop Motion app.

The iStop Motion app runs a series of still pictures together at a speed selected by the creator, the app also allows for sound to be added to the pictures when they are moving. We also struggled to secure our iPad in one position as we couldn’t find the right objects to help us prop it up, this resulted in our animation piece being quite jumpy and not as precise as we would have liked.

In result of the above I feel this will help me to guide young learners through an animation lesson as I understand how tricky it can be and also why simple is better, to start off with anyway. For me having the opportunity once more means, I have more confidence in this activity and I will certainly try my best not show any sort of fear towards digital technology.

Beauchamp (2012) believes that fear can transmit over to young children’s minds and then you are faced with the risk that a fear of technology or applications is then imbedded in them. Jarvis (2015) states that children should have these technologies involved in their everyday lives and not just timetables visits to a computer room, however the lessons and the outcomes must be relevant in order for firstly the children to engage their interest and also for them to be curious and to get creative with it.

If you incorporate what we covered in class today in a class lesson, there are many possible links to the CFE Experiences and Outcomes. Such as Literacy, Health and Wellbeing, Technology and many more, some possible links to the CFE Experiences and Outcomes  could be as followed;

References

• Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary Classroom: From Pedagogy to 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] Available: https://movingimageeducation.org/create-films/animation [Accessed: 25th February 2018].
• Education Scotland (2004) Curriculum for Excellence; Experiences and Outcomes [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers [Accessed: 25th February 2018].

Animation can be used in schools to portray lessons across the curricular, varying from mathematics to art and design. Beauchamp states that ‘young children do not seperate experiences into different compartments. ICT  is not viewed as a seperate ‘subject’ but something that contributed to all areas of learning’ (2015).

Teachers confidence is a key essential when portraying a lesson in front of a classroom of children. ‘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 2015). Technology is key in schools now due to society changing, teachers that dont have an understanding or a background with technology, they can panic and begin to loose confidence. To be able to conquer this we should ensure that we have the computer or other devices set up before the children enter the classroom therefore we are prepared. Also ensuring that we have different plans if that doesn’t work.

To enhance learning for children there is a suggested three ways in how we can achieve this:

• to enhance learners’ visual representation
• To illustrate processes.
• To provide an interactive element. (Beauchamp 2015)

Different types of animations:

• Cut-out
• Stop-motion model
• Pixallation
• Drawn
• Computer

Today in digital technology we were learning about ‘movie making’ and why movie making has links to many areas of the curriculum.  The first area of the curriculum that we link to movie making could be Literacy, for a child to work within a team to create a movie they must be able to communicate well and to take onboard other classmates ideas which can be a difficult skill.  “Film-making is a collaborative process often requiring an ‘army’ of people to bring a final movie into reality.” (Porter, p38. 2004).  A CFE learning experience and outcome for this would be:

LT 2 – 02a When I engage with others, I can respond in ways appropriate to my role, show that I value others’ contributions and use these to build on thinking.

Numeracy can also be linked to movie making as the said activity involves critical thinking and problem solving skills for example, in the movie trailer app on the ipad the app tells the movie makers how many seconds there are to work with.  The children then need to decide which slides are to be still images and other slides that will be moving images. This was a common problem that we came across today while making our movie trailer, we over came it by working together and allowing the editors to work on it while the others completed various parts of the trailer.  An experience and outcome used here could be:

MNU 2 – 10b I can carry out practical tasks and investigations involving timed events and can explain which unit of time would be most appropriate to use.

The Technology link to the curriculum when movie making is a little more obvious, as we plan to use iPads, iPhones, Macs and smart boards.  However what we see again is the use of ‘Multimodal’ which we have seen in previous weeks in our digital technology class.  When you use a combination of two or more of the 5 semiotic systems a movie/trailer becomes multimodal, which we know can reach out to our young learners in many different ways, ensuring we can keep there attention and make learning relevant. The Scottish Government believe that when these kind of tools are used effectively they will speed up learning and increase the depth of the learning in the classroom which contributes to raising attainment (The Scottish Government, 2015).

Health and Wellbeing is very much an area of the curriculum that can be found in movie making that we were studying today.  When you plan, create and complete a movie with your class mates, there comes a great sense of achievement which I experienced today.  The satisfaction, laughter, fun and confidence boost you feel can only be a positive thing when learning and is something I wish to take with me into a classroom.  It also gives children/adults alike to get creative and experience movie making for themselves and that it’s not only the rich and famous that get the opportunity to make a movie. (Porter, 2004).

One particular and very important area of health and wellbeing we covered in class today was ‘Online Safety’, we discussed how to go about educating children about online safety and how important it is for our children to know what is wrong and how to report if something is wrong or unsafe, Beauchamp (2012) states that the best schools will not restrict children online but will educate children about online safety, the best schools will also help the children understand what is wrong and how to report it.  As part of our own awareness we carried out an online quiz with our class lecturer which we can share/discuss with children in the future and we were set a task as an assessment to create our own movie or trailer based on staying safe online.

The assessment was to be a group task, so we promptly started to plan our movie trailer and collected resources and props that we needed as we had a set time to complete the task.  The topic we decided to base our trailer on was ‘People are not who they sat they are’.  For this we followed similar story lines of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, where a young girl was in contact with her gran, believing that she was indeed speaking to her gran when really it was the ‘Big Bad Wolf’ which in our case was a character out to cause fear and upset, similar to the big bad wolf in the classical storybook.

I feel the movie trailer we created sends a clear message out about the importance of online safety.  The trailer was delivered in such a way that children can relate to the story line as they know the classic story and by using various semiotic systems we can ensure it reaches out to it’s viewers in various ways.  Also included at the end of the trailer, we gave useful details for viewers that wanted to seek further information or confidential assistance regarding online safety.

References

• ›Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary Classroom: From Pedagogy top Practice. Pearson.
• Education Scotland (2004) Curriculum for Excellence; Experiences and Outcomes [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers [Accessed: 13th February 2018].
• ›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: 13th February 2018].

Digital Technology Week 6 – Movie Making

This week the input was focussed on movie making to help be able to put across the dangers of internet safety. We first learnt about how internet safety is taught in the classroom and what it looks like in the curriculum. Then we watched a few short movies and trailers that people had made that showed the dangers of he internet. And finally, we made our own movie in groups to display our take on internet safety.

We learnt about how to teach internet safety to children, so they don’t feel like they are being belittled by you and that you aren’t trying to lecture them about how to behave online outside of school. You shouldn’t tell them they shouldn’t be on social media because they will do it anyways, rather you must teach them how to work and behave while on them. “…the key idea [is] that e-safety is not about restricting children, but about educating them.” (Beauchamp, 2012, p.58). We as teachers must know what to say to children in terms of being online because they are exposed to it daily and are going to be immersed in it, so they must know what to share and not to share and what they need to do of things don’t seem right and if things for some reason go wrong. “The most successful schools… in terms of e-safety ensured that pupils knew what to do when things went wrong.” (Beauchamp, 2012, p.60). I know that when I become a teacher I want to make sure I teach the children in my class how to deal with situations online and what they should and should share/do when online with people they don’t know.

The technology we learnt hoe to use this week was to do with movie making. We did this using iMovie on the iPad. We first watched a few sample movies so that we could get ideas of what the theme of our movie would be. W also watched a few videos on YouTube t learn how to work the app and how to make the movies. We then had to get into groups and decide whether we were going to make a trailer or a short movie. I was in a group of five and we decided we would make a trailer in the theme of snow white. The theme of our movie was that the evil queen message snow white online and asked her to meet to buy some apples then snow white shared her address and agreed to meet where it turned out the sweet old lady was the evil queen who now knew where she lived, and the apples turned out to be poisoned and snow white was now cursed. The message of our video was very clear that you must be safe online and don’t share personal information with people that you don’t know.

According to Porter (2004), digital storytelling begins with the notion that in the not too distant future, sharing one’s story through the multiple mediums of digital imagery, text, voice, sound, music, video and animation will be the principle hobby of the world’s people. The task that we did could be done with a class of able children either in the theme of internet safety and their own take on it or on another topic. Or the video we made could be shown to a class to start a discussion and lesson on the importance of internet safety.

There are quite a few experiences and outcome that I feel can relate to the lessons that could be set using iMovie, two of which relate to the safety side of the lesson and another three that can relate to the child making their own movie. Taken from Education Scotland (2004). “I can extend my knowledge of how to use digital technology to communicate with others and I am aware of ways to keep safe and secure.” TCH 1-03a. This is the min one that relates to the internet safety and how to be safe using technology. “I understand that there are people I can talk to and that there are a number of ways in which I can gain access to practical and emotional support to help me and others in a range of circumstances.” HWB 0-03a/1-03a/2-03a/3-03a/4-03a. This also relates to the child being able to understand being safe and secure in everyday life and makes sure they understand that if they don’t there is places they can go and people they can talk to to help them. “I enjoy creating texts of my choice and I regularly select subject, purpose, format and resources to suit the needs of my audience.” LIT 1-20a/2-20a. And “I can explore digital technologies and use what I learn to solve problems and share ideas and thoughts” TCH 0-01a. And “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/1-01a/2-01z. All relate to the learning and experiences the child is getting from working to create a movie and to be able to work in a group and then share their work.
Overall, I think that internet safety is essential in young people and I feel that it is a teacher’s job to make sure that children understand the dangers that come along with going online and what they can and should do if any dangers occur. I felt like the use of movie maker was very interesting as it was easy to use and gave you a great outcome that you can be proud of. I think this would shows very clearly a child’s understanding of using technology if they are able to produce and edit a movie that can be shared in the classroom or further. Finally, I am sure that if the resources are available to me that I will use iMovie in my lessons.

References

• Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary Classroom: From Pedagogy top Practice. Pearson.
• 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 19th February 2018]
• Porter, B. (2004) Digi Tales: The Art of Telling Digital Stories. Bernajean Porter Publication.

Movies can be beneficial for classrooms, and as the Scottish government states ‘There is conclusive evidence that digital equipment, tools and resources can, where effectively used, raise the speed and depth of learning in science and mathematics for primary ad secondary age learners’ (Scottish Government, 2015).

This effective learning and teaching in the core curricular areas, such as Health and Wellbeing, Numeracy and Literacy. In Health and Wellbeing the use of variety of approaches including active, cooperative, and peer learning and effective use of technology. In Numeracy, the use of technology in appropriate and effective ways, development of problem-solving capabilities and active learning. Finally, Literacy will develop and extend literacy skills when I have opportunities to communicate and collaborate, also to engage with and create a wide range of texts in different media and taking advantage of the opportunities offered by ICT.

Digital Literacy helps to develop childrens:

• Practical and Functional Skills
• Critical Thinking Skills
• Awareness of e-Safety
• Collaboration Skills
• Ability to find and select information
• Effective Communication
• Creativity

Digital Technology Week 5 – Mobile Devices

This week’s focus was based on mobile devices and hoe they could be used in the classroom to benefit the learning of the children. This week we looked at the use of eBooks in the class. These can be used either for the children to read then do activities based on them or as a lesson for the children to make their own eBooks using the iPads to then be shared with the others in the class.

The first thing we did was made a mind map of what we thought eBooks were and how we thought they could be used in the classroom. At the end of the PowerPoint lecture we went back to these and filled them in with a different colour to show how our understanding had widened after learning about them further. The oxford dictionary defines eBooks as “An electronic version of a printed book which can be read on a computer or a specifically designed handheld device.” This is a very simple definition as now after having experience making eBooks they can do a lot of different advanced things that paper book can’t do such as have videos included in the book to make instructions or the story clearer.

We did our tasks for this tutorial using movie maker on the iPads as these are mobile devices and were easy to use and to be able to move about the university campus to take pictures and videos to support our book. The first task we were to do was in groups we were to create an eBook that showed what life at UWS is like. This was to get us used to using the apps and to try out the different things you can add to your book to make it more interesting and interactive. In my group we focussed on the specific things UWS has to offer such as the library and the gym. We added videos, pictures, text, handwriting and sound effects to our book to explore all the different options the movie maker has to offer.

The second task was individual, and we were to either create a book that could be used in a lesson with story and questions to go along and be answered. The second option was to summarise a well-known children’s story as this is a lesson you would instruct pupils to do. I chose to summarise the children’s book little red riding hood. I identified the key parts of the story that needed to be included for the story to still make sense. I used YouTube to get consistent pictures of the same characters and back grounds as there was no paper book available to me. I used text and writing in alternating black and red colours to go either the books colour theme. I added sound to make the book more interactive. also, this can help children who struggle with reading or have additional support needed this means they can stull enjoy the book as much as the children who can easily read the words. This is one of many benefits of using mobile devices such as movie maker on the iPad in the classroom. Beauchamp sums up using technology in the classroom as “The first, and perhaps most important, reason for using ICT in the classroom is that it can have a positive effect on attainment” I feel like this clearly explains why technology should be used more in the classroom.
There are two experiences and outcome I would connect with this lesson the first being the technology one refers to the use of the iPads and learning how to use the movie maker app.” I can explore and experiment with digital technologies and can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts.” TCH 1-01a. the other refers to the making of the book or the answering of the questions in connection with literacy. This Experience and outcome refers to the identification of the key points of a story to be able o summarise it with it sill making sense. ” As I listen or watch, I can identify and discuss the purpose, key words and main ideas of the text, and use this information for a specific purpose.” LIT 1-04a.

Overall, I really enjoyed using the eBooks they are interesting and give a whole new dimension to the original paper books. I find them a real benefit as it can hep certain children who need different questions or who need a book rad to them instead of left to read themselves, so this allows the teacher to read the book to them without having to sit with that child and take their attention away from the rest of the class. When I am in a classroom I would love to do this activity with the children if the resources are available to do so.

References

• Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary School: From Pedagogy to Practice. Pearson.
• 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 12th February 2018]
• Oxford Dictionary (2018) – E-Book Definition[Online] https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/e-book Author: Oxford University [Accessed on 12th February 2018]

eBooks can be beneficial throughout a learning environment, they are defined as ‘an electronic version of a printed book which can be read on a computer or a specifically designed handheld devices’ (Oxford Dictionary).

Texts can be more than just books and printed, as listed below these are examples of texts that are stated from the curriculum for excellence: Novels, short stories, plays, poems, spoken word, charts, maps, graphs, newspapers, CV’s, letters, emails, films, games, TV programmes, labels, recipes, text messages, social networking sites, web pages and directions. These are the most popular forms of texts in the 21st century.

Knowing the five semiotic systems, enables to reach to children in a different way, that could aid them to a deeper understanding by allowing them to visualise, audoise, being gestural, linguistic and finally enabling them to learn from spatial. For a multimodal text to be given in front of the children they must have at least two semiotic systems in the powerpoint, or the form of learning.

There are many advantages to using ebooks in the classroom and it can also benefit the children as well as it is more interactive and be used through many different devices such as computers, iPads and mobile devices and also that it will allow the children to stay engaged for a longer period of time as they are participating by using different applications such as book creator. This will allow the children to make their own eBooks on the iPads and devices.

Today, class was quite different as we were out of class for a short time. We were walking around the university campus taking photographs and videos on an iPad in order to create an ebook brochure about life at UWS.  This was simply just a practice for us in preparation for our ebook assessment later in class. Some other ways that we prepared for our ebook assessment was watching youtube videos and tutorials about how to create an ebook using the ‘Book-Creator’ app on the iPad. The videos were easily accessible and it was fairly easy to follow the step by step instructions.

So why are we learning about ebooks? When a teacher plans a lesson, they will try to include many different kinds of text and as a trainee teacher it is important that I keep up to date with recent technologies. The reason for doing this is, we must ‘future proof’ our young learners because if we as educators do not keep up to date and teach young learners about new digital technologies we a basically short changing young learners in the classroom Naughton (2012).

The variation of text now a days are pretty much endless, for example text books, white boards, short movies, comics, interactive smart boards and of course ebooks.  There are various benefits of an ebook, such as they can be interactive, personalised, interesting, space saving, reduces carbon foot print and they give young learners the opportunity to work and learn independently.

The ebook that I was creating today had to fall into the category of ‘multimodal’. For an ebook to be multimodal it must have two out of the five semiotic systems which are linguistic, visual, audio, gestural and spatial.  Beauchamp (2012) suggests that young learners need to be around digital technology in order to understand ‘metamode language’ this enables them to understand the meanings of the many different ways in which we can read and understand such as texts, images, sounds and information.

The ebook I created today was based around ‘Room on the Broom’ by Julia Donaldson. The reason I picked this book is because it is one of my daughters favourite books and I know it well, I knew I could create a good multimodal ebook based around the story. To ensure it would be multimodal the semiotic systems I included in the ebook were:

• Visual – Using a variety of colourful illistrations to attract attention.
• Audio – I recorded my voice and sound effects to play throughout the ebook for interaction.
• Spatial – I strategically placed the illustrations and text to ensure the ebook was easy to follow.

Before I created the ebook I looked at the curriculum for excellence experiences and outcomes and in order for me to decided which level I was creating the text for. I am aiming for level one, which is roughly p2-p4 children aged 5 – 8 years old, however I also feel that the text can be easily adjusted to suit lower or higher levels in primary school if need be. The experiences and outcomes chosen are listed below:

LIT 1-04a: As I listen or watch, I can identify and discuss the purpose, the key words and main ideas of the text, and use this information for a specific purpose.

TCH 1-01a: I can explore and experiment with digital technologies and can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different context.

Looking over todays activities and assessment it has opened my eyes up to the potential that is out there with in digital technology across the curriculum. As each week passes in this module I am delighted with the wealth of knowledge that I gain each week. To think this morning I hadn’t read an ebook before and now I have created one, it goes to show how fast technology is moving. Some say that they love nothing more than buying a brand new book, they like the smell and the feeling of pages however when you list these benefits next to ebook benefits the ebook will most certainly win each time.

References

• Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary School. [Online] Available: dawsonera.com/readonline/9781408251379 [Accessed: 7th February 2018].
• Education Scotland (2004) Curriculum for Excellence; Experiences and Outcomes [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers [Accessed: 7th February 2018].
• Naughton, J. (2012) Why all our kids should be taught how to code. [Online] Available: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/mar/31/why-kids-should-be-taught-code [Accessed: 7th February 2018].

This week in the Digital Technology we were introduced to ‘coding’.  To be successful in coding, means you must have the ability to input ‘communicate’ information in a specific sequence, which will lead you to an end result, a finished product.  I think coding is similar to building a jigsaw, each piece plays a part in creating the finished jigsaw and with a piece missing the jigsaw is incomplete, in other words, it is unsuccessful.  Coding works in a similar way, therefor in order for young learners to do this successfully they need to challenge their problem solving and communication skills.

It is crucial that young learners today learn about coding and also most importantly that they understand coding, this is because technology is ever changing, ScratchJr (n.d).  Education must keep up to date with digital technology on the same level that they keep up to date with mathematics, literacy and science.  It is vital for future generations that this is understanding is actioned now, “The reason is that there’s no better way of helping someone to understand ideas such as recursion or algorithms than by getting them to write the code that will implement those concepts”. (Naughton, J. p.3).

The application we were using today was ScratchJr, which is used by educators and children across education.  ScratchJr is an introductory programming language that enables young children from 5 years old to create their own interactive stories and games.  Skills developed while using ScratchJr include:

• Creative thinking skills
• Logical reasoning skills
• Problem solving skills
• Collaboration skills

As part of class today we were asked to create an interactive story for a literacy lesson using ScratchJr.  Some thing that would promote literacy skills such as missing out the end to a story in order for children to predict an ending.  By doing this children can then explore their thoughts and ideas, get creative!  The lesson I planned today will be aimed at for around early level, which is roughly nursery aged 3 yrs – primary 1 aged 5yrs.  The literature is based around a mission to space, traveling through the solar system which includes a moon landing and the potential to explore the moon.

LIT 0 – 19a: I enjoy exploring events and characters in stories and other text, sharing my thoughts in different ways.

TCH 0 – 01a: I can explore digital technologies and use what I learn to solve problems and share ideas and thoughts.

SCN 0 – 20a: I can talk about science stories to develop my understanding of science and the world around me.

Looking back over class today and having the opportunity to use the iPad and ScratchJr I can see how beneficial this type of technology is to young learners.  It really engages your creativeness and it also allows you to correct any mistakes you have made therefor there is an opportunity to learn and progress further from making mistakes and fixing them.  I am happy that I am being introduced to yet another coding device that I can use in the classroom, in this case the device was assisting mostly with literacy where as before I used coding with the Bee Bot for mathematics.

I understand ways in which these technologies can be used across the curriculum and that they will develop over the years, allowing our young learners to be confident in the future when dealing with digital technology in various context.

References

• Education Scotland (2004) Curriculum for Excellence; Experiences and Outcomes. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers [Accessed: 3rd February 2018].
• Naughton, J. (2012) Why all our kids should be taught how to code. [Online] Available: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/mar/31/why-kids-should-be-taught-code [Accessed: 3rd February 2018].
• ScratchJr. (n.d) [Online] Available: https://www.scratchjr.org/about/info [Accessed: 3rd February 2018].