This is my final blog of digital technologies and I cannot believe how quickly it has flown by! In today’s post I will be providing information on what I have gained from this fantastic module and how I will continue to use these courses throughout my future classroom.

When looking back on my very first day in Digital Technology I was a lot more nervous and apprehensive than I am now. At the time I was very unsure of how the course was going to be actually laid out and what we would be doing from week to week but now I wish I could do it all over again. I found this module very beneficial as it really proved to me how much technology is practically taking over education and is more used within the classroom than ever before.

Digital Technology was an area that I have never been comfortable or great at but I feel this module has really opened up my eyes to new learning areas and brought me completely out my comfort zone. From this module I have been able to understand that although you might not have a particular expertise in a certain topic area, eventually after a little hard work you will manage to complete it if you try hard enough to do so.

Digital Technology was a fantastic opportunity to visualise what technological activities you could use in your classroom and also how to make them beneficial.I think that all teachers should be trained in digital technologies as we are in the 21st century and practically everything is done electronically and is basically becoming a necessary tool to keep children engaged so therefore it is important that teachers are fully trained in this area as they need to become aware of all the different forms of technology that they could come across within the classroom (Wantulok,2015) .

I feel like I have grown more strengths than weaknesses during my 12 weeks on this module. One strength I would take away from this course and feel quite proud of would be the animation session. This is a strength for me as I had never used animation at all before and although it was quite complex, as you had to move the image just slightly every take,I managed to get my head around it and finish with a fantastic final product of our astronaut landing on the moon.

One weakness I would take away from the module would be that because I had less experience in Digital Technology I tended to struggle in certain areas. For example, QR codes was a session I just could not get my head around therefore it made it harder for me to complete the task and I felt quite disadvantaged because I wasn’t technically up to scratch with technology as the rest of my peers.

Overall, I really did enjoy Digital Technologies as it opened my eyes to many new opportunities and options to use within my future classroom. It was an important module to take in my first year at University as it really allowed me to see how much technology is changing in our society and how it is benefiting or changing education for our younger generations. I would highly recommend taking this module to other year groups as it was a new experience and I enjoyed taking part in all the tasks and activities!

REFERENCE LIST 

Wantulok, T. (2015) How Important is Technology in Education. [Online] Available: https://marketing.pinecc.com/blog/the-importance-of-technology-in-education-pine-coves-top-10-reasons [Accessed 8^th April 2019]

Today is now week 10 and is the final blog of my Digital Technologies module! The session today was a collaboration of both outdoor learning and qr codes. This session was particularly exciting as QR codes was a whole new topic for me and although I have seen them around in local places, I was excited to be able to make my own and use it in an educational manner.

Focusing on outdoor learning to begin with is a great thing for pupils. It allows them to be learning whilst keeping active. Using outdoor learning allows pupils to feel less restless and can also remind children that education can be fun! (JCA, 2018). Outdoor learning is an opportunity for pupils to work alongside their classmates in a different environment than the classroom and it is also a learning opportunity to see how education can be linked with physical activity.

There are many advantages that come with outdoor learning as it can develop many new skills that pupils can then re-use in later life. These advantages could include:

1. Critical thinking skills
2. Personal development
3. Inclusion
4. A better physical lifestyle

Outdoor learning allows teachers to link pupils learning to different subject areas such as health and wellbeing, science and social studies. Due to a lot of online gaming etc coming into place, outdoor learning opens up a whole new experience for children to keep active while learning at school. I personally agree that outdoor learning is a new experience that all pupils should be able to have in school and also have the time outside the classroom to be a bit more free and relaxed.

QR codes are a fantastic class activity which can be done both in the classroom and outside giving pupils the full freedom of their learning. QR codes are simply an image based hypertext link and in basic terms QR stands for quick response. They are a two-dimensional barcode and each barcode can hold up to 7089 numbers. They can also link a lot of things together such as audio, an email address and a map location for example.

Linking QR codes with education is very creative. It can create many tasks for pupils to take part in,for example, educational scavenger hunts (Marquis,2012). This links in with our task that we were given today. Our task was to work in small groups and create a QR code scavenger hunt outside. The only disadvantage we had whilst doing so was that the weather outside wasn’t appropriate so we then had to move the activity inside.

Our group decided to focus our QR scavenger hunt on a shopping list which then linked in with mathematics. We decided that each code would be a different calculation for a different item and the answer to the given calculation would be the number of the room with the next QR code on it. You then had record the price of your first given item and then once you had worked out and recorded all the items on the list you then had to work out the total cost of your shopping list and then return to your starting location.

We kept it very simple and basic as the Qr codes were new to us all so it took us a little longer to try and figure out how they actually worked first before even beginning the task. Our QR code was plain and dynamic keeping it very simple for us beginners. As we linked our activity to mathematics we came across an experience and outcome which we found to tie in nicely with our activity. This was :

MNU~1=09A ~ I can use money to pay for items and can work out how much change I would receive

When doing the activity in the session other groups had to complete our task. Our group got quite sufficient feedback from our peers and we were quite pleased by this. Some peers had stated that our task was easy to follow, lasted a reasonable amount of time(20 minutes), they felt challenged as it had them thinking and it was fun and exciting as the codes were all around different places.

I felt that this session today would be classed as a weakness for me as I felt it quite hard to understand it all and be able to work it all out before actually beginning with the given task we had. I personally wouldn’t use this activity in the classroom as I feel it has a lot more disadvantages than benefits for pupils.

One being that it is pretty time consuming and it takes a lot of time to actually sit and figure out what it is you’re actually going to do with the QR code therefore you would need to split up how much time you actually have to complete the task. This can become pretty frustrating for some pupils as they would have to sit for a long period of time trying to figure it all out.

The only benefit I would take from QR codes is that it opens up to a perfect opportunity to use outdoor learning and allow them to hide their codes outside making it more adventurous. However, it can all be down to the weather on the day,as we came across ourselves, and can become quite frustrating that they can’t complete the task as they wanted to.

REFERENCE LIST 

JCA. (2018).What are the Benefits of Outdoor Learning. [Online] Available: https://www.jca-adventure.co.uk/blogs/news/what-are-benefits-outdoor-learning?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIluj6qLzA4QIV7Z3tCh31MwHMEAAYASAAEgJV5PD_BwE. [Accessed: 12^th March 2019]

Marquis, J. (2012) Making Use of QR Codes in Education. [Online] Available: https://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2012/08/learning-make-use-qr-codes-education/ [Accessed 12^th March 2019]

Week 9 of our Digital Technologies module and the session today introduced the topic of game based learning and how this affects younger generations. At the moment online gaming is the most popular thing for younger people to be involved in so this session was very important as it showed us many ways in how we could protect our younger people from the dangers presented online. This can be backed up by the Ofcom Report as it states there are high amounts of pupils from both 5-7 and 8-11 years old that use any one form of gaming on a daily basis (Ofcom Report,2011).

Game based learning in a classroom environment can be used for many different things. It allows teachers to engage with pupils in a form that they are fully aware of. Game based learning allows pupils to be more motivated and engaged with tasks given by their teacher as it is a hands on activity which allows them to think of possible strategies they will use in order to conclude the task (Shan, 2015).

At this current time, teachers use games as a reward for pupils in the classroom for when they have completed a certain task for example. Bray disagrees with this method as games based learning should be used a new way of learning within the classroom and should begin to involve it in education as it opens up to so many new skills and opportunities for the younger generation whilst doing something that they actually enjoy (Bray,2012).

Many benefits come alongside game based learning. They allow teachers or parents to be in full control of which games they want their pupils or children to be involved with in regards to education. It is important that we as teachers are fully aware of how these games actually work and also come to terms with how we actually want younger generations to use these games (Beauchamp,2012).

Online gaming comes with many online dangers and as a teacher it is important that although pupils are engaged in your activity and are enjoying it, it is our responsibility that pupils are fully aware of the dangers that could be involved and also how to report an issue that they are not comfortable with.

From the session today, our focus was on the use of minecraft and how it could actually be beneficial for younger people. Minecraft was introduced in 2009 and since then it completely grasped the attention of all the younger people. It gave them the opportunity to build things such as a house or a town etc. Minecraft was a game I had never came across in my younger years so I took it upon myself to investigate if it actually was beneficial.

In educational purposes minecraft can allow pupils to gain a large variety of new skills. These may include:

1. Creativity
2. Problem solving
3. Enhances life skills
4. Collaboration
5. Self direction             (Aurora, 2016)

Our task in the session was to create and complete an IDL project that could be used within the classroom. We decided to go with landmarks all around the world. It allowed us to focus on second level learning. Areas to look at whilst doing the project would be architecture, landmarks, history and geography.

This project would cover 4 different subject areas such as expressive arts, literacy, maths and social studies.Linking it with Curriculum for Excellence there were a few Experiences and outcomes that we linked together with our IDL project. These included for example:

SOC 2-16C ~ I can discuss issues of the diversity and cultures, values and customs in our society.

LIT 2-06A ~ I can select ideas and relevant information, organise them in appropriate ways for my purpose and use suitable vocab for my audience.

We decided to do this type of project as we wanted pupils to research the given landmarks and find information on them and discover when they were made and where they are etc. The next step would be to create a factfile and then choose 1 out the 6 buildings to then create the building on minecraft allowing them to put their own spin on how the building looks. This would then give them an opportunity to practise their presentation skills as they would then present their ideas to the rest of their peers demonstrating their factfiles and also their version of the building they had created on minecraft.

Shown below is the lesson plan we had used in order to make sure all areas were covered and that we used the correct experiences and outcomes for the pupils to be a part of.

I would continue to use games based learning in the classroom as it is a great opportunity to allow teachers to use learning but in a different format and it is an area that pupils are fully engaged with. It is also a great idea for bigger projects to be created and completed in a more fun and engaging format. I thoroughly enjoyed planning and working on this session today as although it was something I had never used before, I did become fully interacted with it and I enjoyed sitting and planning out a possible lesson that could be completed with the use of game based learning.

One thing I really enjoyed from this session was that once everyone had concluded their task we were given the opportunity to present our final ideas to the rest of our peers. This was really useful as it allowed us to have a look at what other groups had completed and what ideas they had used.

REFERENCE LIST

Aurora (2016). The Educational Benefits of Minecraft.[Online] Available: https://www.idtech.com/blog/educational-benefits-minecraft. [Accessed: 5^th March 2019]

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

Bray, O. (2012) Playful Learning: Computer Games in Education. [Online] https://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/playful-learning-computer-games-in-education [Accessed: 5^TH March 2019]

Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes, Ofcom (2001) [Online] Available: https://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/playful-learning-computer-games-in-education.[Accessed: 5^th March 2019].

Gen Shan, L. (2015) The Benefits of Game Based Learning.[Online] Available: https://leaderonomics.com/functional/benefits-of-gbl [Accessed: 8^th April 2019]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The session this week in Digital Technologies was animation and how this can impact pupils learning within your future classroom. Animation was something that I had never came across before up until this session today. In this session our task was to create and complete a short animation based on a historic event. This was a great opportunity to work as a team and bring our creativity to life.

Looking at animation alone is a huge topic which can create many new opportunities for young people to gain skills that they possibly haven’t came across before. Jarvis mentions that animation is made up of piecing together frozen pictures and making it look like the pictures are moving by the slight movements you make between each take of the video you’re creating (Jarvis, 2015,p89).

Animation falls under many terms. In total there are five main types of animation. These may include:

1. Cut out ~ Quickest and easiest to use
2. Stop-motion ~ Plasticine models
3. Pixillation ~ Humans become the puppets
4. Drawn
5. Computer~ Also can be known as CGI and can be found in games or movies

In relation to teaching animation within the classroom, it can be seen as a very good opportunity for pupils to try something new. Animation would teach pupils how to work together in order to work as a team and be able to establish what their animation would look like by putting all their creative ideas together in order to end up with a completed animation.

Jarvis again highlights that animation is a great form of technology that allows pupils to test their imagination and creativity. Benefits mentioned by Jarvis are things such as to allow learners to have a better visual representation, to be able to demonstrate how they got to the completed version of their animation and to be able to get involved with other class mates whilst concluding the task (Jarvis, 2015,p92)

When doing some further research on the possible benefits and disadvantages animation could have on pupils if I were to use it in my classroom I came across an article which indicated to me that there are more benefits for animation than there are disadvantages. One benefit that stood out most for me was how animation could enhance pupils communication skills within the classroom. This is due to the fact that pupils would need to sit down together and negotiate their animations and figure out how it would all work out and which image would go first etc. It also allows pupils with a strong dislike for a subject such as literacy, for example, to be fully engaged in the task without even having to think about writing or being grammatically correct (Bates, 2017)

In my opinion, I believe that if young people were to use this form of technology it could also cause some disadvantages. Due to how animation works and how you can complete the final version can take a long period of time and can be quite time consuming within a classroom. This can be quite difficult for certain pupils as they can become quite frustrated by how long the task will actually take to complete and also if they run out of class time they then become frustrated that they have not had the opportunity to finalise their tasks. Animation could also create arguments with pupils working in a small group as some peoples ideas may not be taken on board and used and also some people may sit back and allow the others to do their work for them.

During week 7 our task was to complete a story board based on a historic event and decide which type of animation our group would like to use. Our chosen historic event was the “Moon landing”. We started planning our story board out and decided which type of animation was best to use in this particular event. Our group decided to go with cut out after doing some research on the different types of animation and we chose the one which was recommended to beginners as none of us had actually came across animation nor had we used it before. According to Moving Image Education,  cut out was the easiest of the five types of animation to begin with (Moving Image Education Website).

Our story board consisted of the astronaut getting on the rocket, landing on the moon, getting back on the rocket and then landing back down again. Using the storyboard to plan our animation was a great idea as it allowed our group to talk about what exactly we wanted to do and how to go about it. It allowed us to split the animation into sections and tackle which bit was easier to do first etc and it also allowed use to see which materials we were going to need to use in the following week.

On week 8 we managed to pull our animation of the astronaut landing on the moon together and we were very pleased by the final product! We managed to add sound to our animation and it made it even more effective as it just gave that little something more making it more engaging for our peers. Here is our groups short animation below!

Whilst working on our animation it was great to work as a team because it allowed you to use all our creativity and imagination rather than working individual and getting a poorer end result as I’m not the artistic type! Working in a group really allowed us to sit back and take in everyones ideas and opinions into account before going ahead with the final product. It gave us a chance to see which parts of the animation could work together and which couldn’t.

There was only two disadvantages that our group came across throughout the whole animation making session. One was that there were difficulties with camera angles and the lighting we used as they weren’t always the same depending on which way the person with camera was standing at the time. Another difficulty we faced was that due to animation being all based on still pictures we had to slow the speed right down so they we could make out what the astronaut was actually doing at certain times.

I would definitely use animation within the classroom as I really enjoyed the session and I felt as the sessions went on I was getting a better understanding of it as a whole and was beginning to understand how it all worked and came together in the end. At times it did become quite frustrating because it took a long while to complete but it was a great opportunity to test something new and come out at the end actually to enjoy it and wanting to do it all over again! Animation is an outstanding form of technology that can get everyone and of all ages involved and engaged as it is a fun activity to do but alongside it comes a lot of educational skills that pupils can learn for the future lives.

REFERENCE LIST

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 : 19^th February 2019]

Bates, L. (2017) 5 Real Benefits of Animation in the Classroom. [Online] Available: https://www.fractuslearning.com/animation-in-the-classroom/. [Accessed: 7^th April 2019]