Author: George Milliken

use apps

Use apps – learner digital skills toolkit

Learners should understand that apps allow computers and digital technology to perform specific functions. They should be able to use apps that are appropriate to their context, whether at home or in school. These might be apps on the device or on the web.

This learning covers Experience and Outcome x-01a. 

back to digital literacy

child holding an ipad and filming another who is building with blocks

Where to start

BBC Bitesize has useful information on how technology can be used to create media and how the computer stores this, making it easy to edit and share.

Go to BBC Bitesize

This section focuses on the basic knowledge and skills required to use the most common office productivity and collaboration software.

Barclays Digital Wings

Getting started with Emails

Learn Microsoft Outlook

Video conferencing basics

Explore Google Workspace

Explore Google Meet

 

Learn Microsoft OneDrive: File storage and collaboration

Learn Microsoft Word

Learn Microsoft PowerPoint

Learn Microsoft Excel

Learn Microsoft Teams

GCF Global has a range of tutorials on using the Microsoft O365 and Google Workspace productivity suites which can be used to create a range of documents.

Go to GCF Global

Learning with Digital

Learning with Digital – learner digital literacy theme

 

This page outlines some of the key digital literacy skills and knowledge that learners could make effective use of in the classroom. This ranges from being able to upload, share and collaborate on platforms like Teams and Classroom to using platforms like SeeSaw and Showbie to journal and share their learning.

Back to learner digital literacy 

Digital Learner diagram (landscape)

 

Where to start

Learners should be able to:

  • use digital devices and platforms to communicate, collaborate and share information online
  • find, manage and store digital information and content securely

See more information on this in the accordion menus below (click to expand the blue bars):

Using Glow to communicate, collobarate and store information

Glow provides access to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace productivity suites allowing learners to practice and develop the skills and knowledge required to use these for learning, life and work.

Support for teachers with the fundamentals of these platforms can be found on the Teacher Digital Skills page:
go to Teacher Digital Skills page

What skills and knowledge should I start with?

Teachers should consider creating a ‘pencil case’ of essential tools they expect learners to use in the daily or weekly course of learning. This will reduce the choice overload (Baymer and Thomson, 2015) of apps and the cognitive load (TES/EEF, 2023) of content knowledge on learners. An example of this might be:

  • Teams for distributing learning
  • Whiteboard to collaborate and share ideas with peers
  • Stream to screen record a demonstration of a skill for teacher feedback or self-assessment
  • OneDrive to create and store documents, such as Word or PowerPoint
  • Immersive Reader screen read-aloud feature to support learners with reading on screen

What next?

There are further examples and contexts in the accordion menus below (click to expand the blue bars):

Communication

bbc bitesize

The first aspect to consider is how learners can use Glow and other online platforms to connect, contact and communicate with each other. Are they using email, direct messaging or video calls? How are these skills useful in learning, life and work?

What are digital communication systems? – BBC Bitesize

go to Cyber Toolkit for advice and guidance on communication

Collaboration

tech she can

 

 

 

 

 

Using cloud drives, such as OneDrive (Microsoft) and Drive (Google), learners can create and share content with peers, teachers and even learners in other schools or countries. Not only can they be shared, they can be co-created and edited at the same time on multiple computers at once! How is this useful for life, learning and work?

Collaborating using IT – BBC Bitesize

Tech She Can has a short video explaining how cloud computing works for younger learners:

Tech for Katie and Tex explore the cloud (techshecan.org)

Literacy & English

When planning learning around the functional tools in Glow, it is worth considering their purpose and application. Text-based documents, such as Word, Docs, PowerPoint and Slides might lend themselves to Literacy & English Es and Os:

  • When creating documents (writing a text) consider the impact of layout and presentation 
  • Make use of lettering, graphics and other features to engage readers

Typing is a useful, but not essential, skill in modern digital literacy. Teachers might plan some typing practice as part of this functional suite of learning in order to enable learners to use them more effectively:

Dance Mat Typing for 7 – 11 year olds – BBC Bitesize

go to the Literacy Trust website for more examples and information

Numeracy & mathematics

numeracy and maths experiences and outcomes

When planning learning around the functional tools in Glow, it is worth considering their purpose and application. Text-based documents, such as Excel and Sheets might lend themselves to numeracy & Mathematics: 

  • When displaying data, consider the use of spreadsheets, graphs or tables to create clear visual representations 

Creating and understanding charts and graphs – BBC Bitesize

 go to the Joint Mathematical Council report on digital tools for maths

Microsoft and Google app tutorials

These two collections of tutorials may support teachers develop skills with the Microsoft and Google suites of apps:

go to the free Microsoft Office Tutorials at GCFGlobal

 

go to the free Google Tutorials at GCFGlobal

operate devices

Operate devices – learner digital skills toolkit

Learners should have a basic understanding of how computers and digital technology works. They should be able to operate common devices, making use of inputs, such as keyboards, mice and touchscreens. Learners should know about accessibility devices that can make devices easier to use.

This learning covers Experience and Outcome x-01a. 

back to digital literacy

four children using laptops in a classroom

Where to start

 

This section focuses on the knowledge and skills that learners need to use devices and apps.

BBC Bitesize has useful information on how computers work, including how to categorise inputs and outputs.

Go to BBC Bitesize

Visit the Barclays Digital Wings site to view tutorials and learning resources for fundamental digital skills. This requires a login with email, name and password – teachers should check their data protection policy before registering learners.

Go to Barclays Digital Wings

How to use a computer

Android essentials

Explore accessible technology

learn my way

Learn My Way is a website of free online learning for beginners, helping you develop digital skills to make the most of the online world. Some aspects of this page may require a login – teachers should check their data protection policy before registering learners.

go to Learn My Way site

tech she can

After learning about what computers and digital technology is, and how they work, learners could investigate how technology is used in a range of industries. These resources from Tech She Can are free to use and easily adapted to suit different ages and stages:

Lesson packs – TechSheCan

 

CALL Scotland has resources and information to support accessibility and how to use a device’s settings to make it easier to use.

Go to CALL Scotland

digital pencil case webinar 11 may 4pm

11 May 16:00, Developing Your Learners’ Digital ‘Pencil Case’

This professional learning will help teachers identify the Learning with Digital skills and knowledge of functional apps that learners will use to access, undertake and evidence learning. Having the skills and confidence to use these apps regularly will empower learners to apply this learning across other curricular areas.

Sign up with this link to EventBrite: Sign up now!

Digital Learner diagram (landscape)

 

Attendees will get an overview of the revised digital literacy planning support and its themes and focusing on the Learning with Digital theme. They will identify the digital literacy skills, and the corresponding apps, that they will require learners to use across the school year.

As a result teachers will have a clear picture of the skills they will require learners to have, examples of planning and resources for teaching these skills and then be able to embed these across the curriculum.

15 December 15:45, Private and Personal Information with Maddie is Online

As part of this free online session, Maria Bell from Mesomorphic will offer an overview of the 5th and final theme of our new series of “Maddie is Online: ethics of online safety and security” on “Private and Personal Information”. We are going to review Series 5 ‘Maddie is Online’ toolkit, pp. 65-79. The toolkit for series 4 can be found here. You can also download it as PDF. Please have the toolkit open for the session.

The concepts that will be explored include ethical considerations regarding:

  • The benefits and the potential risks of sharing personal information online addressing ethical considerations.
  • Collecting and/or sharing data about users with or without their knowledge or awareness.
  • Protecting passwords. The benefits of two factor and biometric authentication.
  • Choices and strategies to control the personal data that online services hold. Whose responsibility is it?
  • What to do if your passwords get hacked. Educating ourselves and others.

We have created two imaginative stories for that theme and one of them is titled ‘Dinner for three’. The other story is attached below.

Michael was issued with a school dinner card that needs to be topped up with money online. One day a friend of Michael asks for the card because they have forgotten their own lunch and have no money with them to buy lunch at school. Michael is happy to share his card and give his pin access number.

A few days later, however, the friend returns to Michael to say that the card was lost. Michael and his friend discuss the importance of keeping personal information private. Was it right for Michael to give his card and pin? Or should he had just ignored that his friend was hungry and offered no help? Was there anything that Michael or his friend could have done to protect their personal information or keep their personal information private?

Join us for this session to discuss what would be best for Michael and his friend, thinking about the ethics of online safety!

SIGN UP WITH THIS LINK: EventBrite sign up

 

 

About the work

“Maddie is Online: a creative learning path to ethics of online safety and security for young people” is a project funded by the Scottish Government and supported by Digital Xtra Fund.

Our purpose is to engage schools with the concepts of an Ethical Digital Nation:

“Growing as an ethical digital nation and developing trust in the way we use data and apply digital technology is a collective responsibility” (Scottish Government Ethical Digital Nation).

Why focus on ethics?

Children and young people can benefit from a greater exposure to online ideas, opportunities for learning, creativity and connectivity, but there are also causes for concern, abound in modern discussions of data ethics: they are equally vulnerable to the pitfalls and harms that can befall anyone, who is unfamiliar with safeguarding their own rights.

You can also find other previous projects via the ‘Maddie is Online’ bookshelf.

12 December 16:00, **COMPETITION** Me, Myself and AI: How does artificial intelligence impact your life **COMPETITION**

The Scottish AI Alliance have recently launched their first-ever competition for schools and are looking for schools to take part!

The Scottish AI Alliance is a partnership between The Data Lab, Scotland’s innovation centre for data science & AI, and The Scottish Government. They are tasked with the delivery of Scotland’s AI Strategy.

Scotland’s future lies with children and young people and they believe it is fundamental to include their voices in creating a better awareness of what Artificial Intelligence (AI) is and shaping AI’s future in Scotland.

It is in this spirit that they have launched ‘Me, Myself & AI’ – a competition where children and young people are challenged to investigate how AI impacts their lives and share their findings for a chance to win prizes for their class. Any output from the investigation, as long as it can be displayed on a screen, will be considered by the panel of judges. The grand prize is a class visit from their competition partners, The National Robotarium!

With competition categories for P5-P7, S1-S4, and S4+, they would love to see submissions from across the year groups and across subjects. They are happy to talk to teachers to explore how we can best support their taking part but have also prepared a Teacher Pack with background information on what AI is, how it is used and how to investigate further.

 

You can register & find the Teacher Pack using this link: https://www.scottishai.com/schools-competition

Or get in contact with them via aialliance@thedatalab.com

The competition is open until Friday 24 February. We hope you have fun investigating, and can’t wait to see the creative responses to “How does AI impact your life?”

Scottish AI Alliance (@Scottish_AI) / Twitter

Additional Teaching Qualification in Computing Studies CPD Award (2023) at University of Highlands and Islands

The course is designed to allow you to teach computing within secondary schools as it has the required numbers of credits stated by the GTCS. The programme is designed to be a roll on roll off programme as each of the units are separate although designed to encompass what is involved in the computing curriculum by the end of the course.

The module, Web Design and Development will be delivered over 14 weeks and the semester will start week beginning 23rd January 2023 with an online induction and initial lecture.

The courses are open to any teachers with the relevant entry qualifications (degree and existing teaching qualification) who have an interest in computing or cyber security.

There is normally a weekly lecture and support session that lasts for approx. an hour, or more if required, with further e mail support available. The sessions are certainly beneficial as they allow you to ask questions there and then. However, the course is designed to be taught when is convenient for all the students and all lectures and tutorial session are recorded for viewing at your leisure.

There is only one module delivered each semester with no time off required during the school day. The lectures are recorded for students unable to attend in person. All activity is carried out online the majority of which happens asynchronously. The modules have a notional 200 hours per module over the semester. It would depend on your previous experience on whether you needed all that time. If you were able to set aside a day at the weekend or a couple of evenings for study, you would not be far off what is required for achieving the award.

To gain accreditation with the GTCS you need to teach a certain number of hours in computing, and you would need to discuss that with your local head teacher, as we only provide the academic requirement. This equates to 0.42 teaching or 100 teaching days.

The price is £215 per module, and this can be paid on a module-by-module basis. As the modules are 20 credits each if you were to do two in an academic year you may be eligible for SAAS funding. It is suggested contacting SAAS directly if you are planning to start next semester and confirm whether you would be eligible for funding.

 

You can apply through the university web site located using this link or searching for the Additional Teaching Qualification in Computing Studies CPD award at https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/ under courses.

Please get in touch if you have any further questions with this email: Gordon.macpherson.ic@uhi.ac.uk