Blog 3 – 22/01/19

Today we have been learning about multimodality and designing our own flip chat through ActivInspire. A text may be described as multimodal when it combines two or more semiotic systems. There are five systems in total; linguistic, visual, audio, gestural and spatial. We use multimodal presentations as they can be captivating, motivating, interactive, personalised, dynamic, memorable and engaging. Before this class I didn’t have much knowledge about multimodality and I certainly had no practical experience designing an interactive activity to enhance teaching and learning. I did prepare for the class by reading the recommended pre reading “ICT in the primary school”.  Beauchamp (2012) stated “things can now be done quicker from an ever-expanding range of sources and in better quality” I believe this to be true with the ActivInspire software I was using. However, I feel my lack of knowledge using this software proved stressful and frustrating at times as I didn’t feel I was using it to its full potential. This I believe could be a wider spread problem amongst teachers and I feel if teachers had more appropriate training about multimodal software used in their schools then this would ultimately enhance teaching and learning. Multimodal software has the potential to be an excellent tool within the classroom if used correctly. Today’s generation are digitally native and as a digital immigrant I need to change to become a successful educator (Prensky, 2001).

 

This week the curricular area I decided to concentrate on was Numeracy. My experience and outcomes for the curriculum for excellence was 1-03a “I can use addition and subtraction when solving problems, making the best use of the mental strategies and written skills I have developed. After about an hour of tinkering with the software I decided to use the a 15cm ruler image with inches on the opposite side. This image was my main theme running through the flip chart. The idea of this was to allow the children to visually see numbers on the ruler thus helping them to solve the numeracy problems they were asked. There was a mixture of addition and subtraction questions (Please see images attached below) and these were all aimed for first level children. Some of the questions could simply be answered by using mental strategies but the ruler was also a help for some children that needed it.

 

I feel that I struggled with this activity as I didn’t use the tools available in the software to its full potential. Reflecting on this, I should have taken more time and not worried about my younger peers ploughing through ahead of me. Prensky (2001, P1) states “They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age’’. I think this is very true and as a digital immigrant I need to take the time to equant myself with a diverse range of digital technologies. Highlighting these areas for improvements so early on in my teacher training is only a good thing as I can gain more knowledge and understanding if I put the time and effort in.

 

Having had the opportunity to use ActivInspire, I can see it has great potential to enhance teaching and learning. There are various different tools accessible on the software to design creative and interactive activities for children. I believe multimodal activities as a tool can enhance the curriculum for excellence. Scottish Government (2016, P3) states “Digital technologies can make a substantial contribution to this improvement agenda by enriching education across all areas of curriculum for excellence. If used effectively and appropriately, digital technology can enhance learning and teaching”

 

Therefore, the importance of equipping we with the correct knowledge and understanding of multimodal texts I believe is paramount in today’s generation to become a successful teacher. Reflecting on my experiences today with ActivInspire I have learnt a lot and I still have more to learn. Moving forward I will take the necessary time and steps to gain more knowledge in multimodal texts and digital technology as a whole.

 

 

 

References

 

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

 

Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Native, Digital Immigrants Part 1. On the Horizon. [Online} Vol. 9(5), Available: https://doi.org/10.1108/10748120110424816[Accessed: 22 January 2019]

 

Scottish Governement (2016) Enhancing Teaching and Learning through the use of Digital Technologies: A Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland. [Online] Available: https://beta.-gov.s-cot/publications/enhancing-learning-teaching-through -use-digital-technologies/[accessed:22 January 2019]

 

 

 

 

 

 

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