Tuesday 5th February 2019
In today’s class we were looking into the use of iPads within the classroom. Having seen iPads being used in schools when on placement and volunteering, I have seen them in my opinion being used both positively and negatively. I believe there are some great educational apps available, both my daughters have iPads and enjoy using these apps on a regular basis. However, when I have been in school, I have felt sometimes the use of iPads has been unnecessary, repetitive and tedious. One specific class which had a lot of behavioural issues used the same app on the iPads for every lesson, even the teacher admitted herself that she felt the children were on the iPads a lot. However, she did have her reasons for doing this, she felt it appealed to their interests, allowed her to move around the class and work with all the children . I feel this may be the case in a lot of schools and technology is not executed to its full potential, but merely as rewards for good behaviour or the easy option. This in turn could be down to some teachers not being confident in the use of technology or having full understanding of how certain apps can benefit and expand a child’s knowledge. Thus, giving me another reason as to why I have chosen this module, I want to be able to execute technology to the best of my ability.
As education secretary Mike Russell states, “The range of mobile devices that are now available and the promise of what they can bring to teaching and learning is very exciting and something that must be embraced,” (BBC News, 2012). With the help of the Scottish Government’s digital learning strategy (Scottish Government, 2016), hopefully teacher’s reservations will become less apparent, they gain the confidence to work with all types of technology and enjoy the new avenue of opportunities it can open up within their classroom. In a recent investigation by the University of Hull, which had schools from across Scotland piloting an iPad scheme to see if iPads within schools would benefit children’s learning. The findings are really interesting and show that access to tablets encourages success in the main areas of the CfE framework (Burden et al., 2012). Results likewise showed that parents were pleased with the results from the project, they noticed that the project changed their child’s attitude towards school and learning and even felt more engaged with their child’s learning(Burden et al., 2012). As a student teacher and a parent these findings can only support the promotion of iPads within schools because in my opinion anything that keeps children interested and improves their learning should be encouraged by everyone.
Conversely, there will always be people who will present an argument against the use of digital technologies. I have recently read an article by Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, ‘It’s ‘digital heroin: How screens turn kids into psychotic junkies’, albeit the title seems a little far-fetched. Nonetheless, it was a very eye-opening read, doctors in America have studied people with what is known as a tech addiction and can compare the reactions in their brain to be of similar and in some cases worse than those craving heroin or cocaine. (Kardaras, Dr N. 2016). The argument is there for people to say children who may be in front of some sort of screen at least two to three hours a day in school and then have screen time at home would be too much. Therefore, forcing the question of is the use of iPads in school really necessary or are we just encouraging children to be addicted to screens. Where do teachers draw that line of children actually gaining knowledge and skills from using technology, in comparison to it being just merely another game in front of a screen.
Today’s class was assessment task 3 of 4 and the aim was to summarise a well-known children’s book in the ‘Book Creator’ app on the iPads. Thankfully and for the first time so far in this module, ‘Book Creator’ is an app I have not only heard of but used before, with thanks to my children. ‘Book Creator’ is one of my oldest daughter’s favourite apps, she loves to read and enjoys making up book reviews within the app. Before class we were asked to pick a children’s book, now, my daughters have hundreds of books and what was meant to be a two minute job of picking a book ended up in the three of us with a pile each of our favourite books, reading each one resulting in a very late bedtime and me with a bag full of books to take to university with me. I eventually settled on the book ‘Peace at Last’ by Jill Murphy, (Murphy, J) this is one of my favourite books and I love reading it to my children, both of them enjoy it when I change the tone and depth of my voice throughout the story and then they join in with making the sounds.
The reason I chose this book to summarise was for the same reasons why I love this book, the involvement you can get from children is phenomenal, from doing actions, making up different voices that suit the different characters to making sounds that you hear around the house and garden. Every child has different ideas of how things sound, or act and it is interesting to see their ideas being brought to life especially early years children, the level I feel this task would suit most. My aim was to make the book more interactive and allow the children to think about the surroundings of their home and what is essential to help you get to sleep. Although it is a summary of the book, I have added in questions throughout such as ‘what other noises would hear in certain rooms of the house and garden?’ Children would then have to make the sounds and discuss with each other if they think this is correct. There is also a page with lots of animals around ‘Mr Bear’ and it asks, ‘what sounds from the certain animals would keep ‘Mr Bear’ awake?’ Towards the end of the book, I have included a page asking the children ‘What they think happens next?’, I done this so it would allow the children to be able to invent their own ending, hearing there ideas of a different ending would open up another area of discussion as well as encouraging them to listen to other people’s ideas. The areas of the curriculum that this lesson would cover are:
TCH 0-11a
I explore and discover different ways of representing ideas in imaginative ways.
(Education Scotland n.d. P310)
LIT 0-09b
I enjoy exploring events and characters in stories and other texts and I use what I learn to invent my own, sharing these with others in imaginative ways.
(Education Scotland n.d. P29)
ENG 0-12a
I explore sounds, letters and words, discovering how they work together, and I can use what I learn to help me as I read and write.
(Education Scotland n.d. P30)
Lastly, today’s lesson has been another brilliant class, with lots of great new ideas and information for me to reflect upon. Every week I am developing more and more ideas of how I can take digital technologies into the classroom and hopefully make my lessons fun and enjoyable for children. I am now understanding how much of an impact digital technology has within education and I am so glad I picked this module, the knowledge I am building from investigating different apps and software available to me is amazing and truly interesting. I cannot believe I am now five weeks into my digital technologies journey, the module is flying by and I am excited with what I have learned so far and intrigued to find out what has still to come.
Deborah ♥
References
BBC News. (2012) Education Scotland looks to expand use of tablets computers in schools.[Online] Available: file:///Users/Deborah/Desktop/Digital%20Technologies/Education%20Scotland%20looks%20to%20expand%20use%20of%20tablets%20computers%20in%20schools%20-%20BBC%20News.webarchive [Accessed: 5 February 2019].
Burden, K., Hopkins, P., Male, DrT., Martin, DrS., Trala,C. (2012) University of Hull iPad Scotland Evaluation. [Online] Available: https://moodle1819.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/39914/mod_resource/content/2/Scotland-iPad-Evaluation.pdf [Accessed: 3 February 2019].
Education Scotland. (n.d.) Curriculum for Excellence. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/documents/All-experiencesoutcomes18.pdf [Accessed:8 January 2019].
Kardaras, Dr N. (2016) It’s ‘digital heroin’: How screens turn kids into psychotic junkies. [Online] Available: https://nypost.com/2016/08/27/its-digital-heroin-how-screens-turn-kids-into-psychotic-junkies/ [Accessed: November 2018].
Murphy, J. (1985) Peace at Last. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Children’s Books.
Scottish Government. (2016) A Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland. Edinburgh: Scottish Government. [Online] Available: https://www.gov.scot/publications/enhancing-learning-teaching-through-use-digital-technology/pages/2/. [Accessed: 05 January 2019].
