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Overall Review of Digital Technologies

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 8th April 2019]

Week 10 ~ Outdoor Learning and QR Codes

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: 12th 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 12th March 2019]

Week 9 ~ Games Based Learning

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: 5th 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: 5TH 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: 5th March 2019].

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 7 and 8 ~ Animation

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 : 19th February 2019]

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

Week 6 ~ Movie Making

Today’s blog brings us on to week 6 of our digital technologies module and I can’t believe we are half way through it already!! As you can see from the image above this weeks blog is based on the new topic of movie making. Movie making was not something I had personally came across before so this session really gave me the opportunity to challenge myself in something new.

According to the Scottish Government, it has been show than all forms of digital resources used within the classroom can help to raise the rate of which the pupils work at in certain areas of the curriculum such as maths or science for example (Scottish Government,2015). It has also been proven that digital technologies as a whole can benefit ways of teaching as these technologies have created new ways to raise attainment for pupils within your classroom.

When looking at digital technologies as a whole again we need to be aware and recognise that not everyone within the class is used to having all this technology within their homes. Sometimes we have to consider the possible barriers we could create within the classroom by depending on digital technology for a lot of the resources we use as a class.

As teachers we need to be aware of the consequences pupils can come across when using online games for a certain period of time. It is our job to ensure that pupils are aware of these consequences and how to deal with situations they have came across whilst playing these games.

Our focus for our movie making project was to create a short movie including all the positive and negatives of online resources or online games. This week is all to do with E-safety and how we protect our younger generations from these kinds of dangers.

Agreeing with Beauchamp, in the case that we shouldn’t completely disagree with online resources and games and stop children from using such things, it is our job to be able to educate them into doing what is right and how to deal with situations they aren’t comfortable in (Beauchamp,2012,p.58).

Imovie is a great opportunity for groups  of pupils to work together within a group to create a finished project of a certain topic area. Imovie can benefit children in numerous way, for example, they can gain:

  • Digital technology skills
  • Literacy skills
  • Problem solving skills
  • Teamwork
  • Creativity
  • Health and wellbeing

Going back to my view earlier on, I do believe that todays generation is getting sucked into all this gaming and online use of resources. As a student teacher I am aware of what dangers there are online for our pupils and I feel like it is absolutely necessary that we as teachers are able to identify these dangers and be able to send a message across to the pupils of our classroom about how dangerous these online dangers actually can be. Online games such as Fortnite can be both positive and negative for pupils learning.

After doing some further research after todays session I have came across some disadvantages that online gaming and online resources can create for our pupils. It has been established that the use of the internet can affect our social skills and we are becoming used to talking to everyone online rather than in a real life situation. It is also affecting our pupils health and wellbeing as they are just online playing games on their playstations or xboxs rather than playing outside with their friends (Bridges of Hope, 2017).

This is why my group decided to stream our focus on the advantages and disadvantages of the online game “Fortnite”. Our Imovie was based on the dangers Fortnite can have for younger generations. Our main ideas that we focused on were:

  • Gaming
  • Speaking to people you possibly don’t know
  • No personal information- all you have is an avatar as a picture
  • “Internet Friends”
  • How do we actually block people we don’t know
  • Age restrictions
  • Banking issues (Vbucks)

We created the video to show pupils the negatives of online gaming followed by how we can turn these negatives into positives. The video was created as if someone was actually playing Fortnite and we identified certain things that could make the players came more safe and beneficial. It was hard working in a group for this task as I personally felt that more people worked harder than others. Myself included in that as I felt at certain times I felt quite unsure of the whole Fortnite game as I have never used before therefore it was quite hard for me to put my ideas across of a topic I didn’t really have much knowledge on.

The Imovie allowed us to show pupils how to keep themselves right whilst playing online. It showed them how to keep themselves safe by ensuring their passwords weren’t personal and kept it private, to only accept friend requests from people they knew, how to block people and to ensure to ask an adult first before buying any online merchandise. Here is my groups video posted below. You can have a look at how Imovie allowed us to bring our creativity together and create a great movie on how to be safer on the internet!

I would definitely use movie making within my classroom as this was such a fun session to do today and it also allows pupils to come together as a group and come up with some great ideas and test their creativity. It is an opportunity for children to do something fun as a team but develop new skills and learn at the same time!

REFERENCE LIST

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

How the Internet Affects Students Performance and Behaviour (2017). [Online] Available: http://bridgesofhope.com.ph/index.php/internet-affects-student-performance-behavior/  [Accessed: 26 March 2019]

The Scottish Government (2015) Literature Review on the impact of Digital Technology on Learning and Teaching.

Week 5 ~ Ebooks

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Week 5 now of our digital technologies module and our session introduced a new topic to me which are known as Ebooks.

The Oxford Dictionary defines ebooks as “an electronic version of a printed book which can be read on a computer of a specifically designed handheld device”(BBC,2012).

Ebooks is a great opportunity for pupils to engage with literacy through a wider range of different texts.

This texts may include:

~ novels, short stories, plays,poems

~ CVs, letter and emails

~ labels, signs and posters

~ text messages, blogs and web pages

According to Jarvis, eBooks have so many more technological features that media such as newspapers or books will never have (Jarvis,2015,p.146-7). Ebooks are a great idea as for pupils they are small and easy to move around as the devices they have been created on are portable. From a teachers point of view Ebooks would be beneficial in the classroom as they would be able to use in a variety of different areas and environments.

Ebooks link closely with Beauchamps point of view on personalisation. ICT gives pupils an opportunity to express their feelings in a different range of ways. Ebooks gives pupils the opportunity to jot down new ideas and add sounds or music to bring it more to life(Beauchamp,2012,p.101).

Ebooks allows pupil a chance to change a text up by adding different pictures or how the pages go in order and how the text is set out(Jones and Hafner,2012,p.12).

In comparison to multimodal texts, Ebooks falls under the category of a multimodal text which can be digital.

Todays task was to recreate a children’s book and bring it to life putting your own spin on it. We had to use the book creator app and was a very simple way to make our very own ebook from scratch using the iPad.

We focussed on the book we’re going on a bear hunt. We thought this was a great book to focus on as a lot of children would be familiar with the book and also there were so many adventures to go on so it gave us more scope for creating our pages and gave us so many ideas!

Using book creator we :

~ Kept the original characters by adding images from online

~ Made the background dyslexic friendly

~ Kept original text

~ Recorded sounds from YouTube and had a good catchy song repeated all the way through

Our Ebook allowed children to be interactive as throughout the book we were asking children to join in and do the actions along the way on the adventures. At the very end of the book we gave the pupils an opportunity to create their own obstacle for the family to go through and create their own action and sound to go along with it! This allowed pupils to gain the skill of teamwork as they would have to come together to create a new page for the book.

Difficulties that I came across through using  Ebooks were that when recording any sounds the classroom was too noisy. So for future use of using ebooks, I will find a quieter area before recording any sounds.

Benefits I came across on Ebooks were that they were easy to use and the pupils had an opportunity to make it their own giving them the chance to gain new skills such as creativity and problem solving.

I would definitely use ebooks within the classroom as it encourages pupils to keep reading rather than focusing on games and internet usage. It also allows them to use their imagination and come up with their own thoughts and ideas rather than just reading books which are already finished. This would give them an opportunity to test their own creativity. Ebooks are also a more engaging form of reading as they allow to add sounds which engages the pupils to find out what’s going to happen next!

I cant wait to use Ebooks in the future classroom!

REFERENCE LIST

BBC Webwise article [Online] Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/website/guides/about-ebooks [Accessed: 5 February 2019]

Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary School: 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

Jones, R.H. and Hafner, C.A. (2012) Understanding Digital Literacies: A Practical Introduction. Routledge.

 

 

Week 4 ~ Coding

We are now on week 4 of our digital technologies module and today we were beginning to develop and understand the benefits of Coding for younger pupils and how this will enhance their academic learning within the class.

Coding can bring many benefits for pupils in a classroom and these benefits are things such as gaining new important strategies such as problem solving when creating codes and making sure that they work together and also communicating their ideas to one another when creating their stories or the programming for the characters.

Coding also allows teachers to combine subjects such as math and literacy together into one lesson. This is beneficial as students who might not particularly enjoy maths for example could be doing maths by using coding apps but actually enjoying it and being fully engaged in it as the coding activity is more engaging and enjoyable than a normal maths lesson (Williams,2017). This is a positive aspect of coding as it allows teachers to continue to enhance children’s learning through a variety of different resources and the pupils are also benefiting for this as well as they are being introduced to new skills which could be of use in the future world of work.

In this weeks session, we had a key focus on operating Scratch Jr. Scratch Jr allows pupils aged 5 and up to create their own coding stories and games. The programme allows children to do thing such as:

  • Select a background
  • Add a character
  • Change the colour of the character
  • Move the character
  • Add audio
  • Add new slides

Scratch alongside coding is very beneficial for pupils as it allows their academic learning to expand.It gives them the opportunity to engage with new forms of technology and be involved in a new experience of learning as it is not just written text that pupils are involved with now. Scratch allows pupils to be very hands on as creating new codes and activities allows them to think outside the box, develop their creativity and take part in an activity they have not particularly been introduced to (Lucas,2017). This app is also beneficial for teachers to introduce to their classes as it encourages teamwork and communication skills as pupils are able to work with other people within the class.

From my own personal experience , I have only came across scratch within high school ICT lessons. At the time I wasn’t a big fan of scratch as it was quite technological and required a lot of patience in order to make your programme work properly. After this weeks session my opinion of scratch has changed dramatically as I was able to identify and analyse how scratch is very beneficial for pupils to encounter a new form of learning.

Working with scratch Jnr I was able to test my own creativity skills and develop my very own scratch story based on a classroom adventure. I started with 4 basic backgrounds such as a classroom, a city, a farm and a beach. This gave me an opportunity to take the children through different recognisable areas of town.

 

Image result for cartoon city                                                            Image result for cartoon classroom

The whole aim of the scratch project was for pupils to go through all four areas and identify familiar sounds that they could see within the area they were in. For example, within the city background I had added a car for the pupils to identify the sound of C-A-R. I had researched some Experiences and Outcomes from the Curriculum for Excellence which I though tied in quite nicely with my project.

I paid close attention to two literacy ones for early level of learning. These were :

LIT 0-11B ~ I enjoy exploring and choosing stories and other texts to watch, read or listen to, and can share my likes  and dislikes

LIT 0-21A~ I explore sounds, letters and words,discovering how they work together and I can use what I learn to        help me as I read or write

However, one weakness I had been struggling with in regards to scratch was that it was quite fidgety and was hard to work around with. I  especially found this when using the classroom background as it was hard to get all the characters to move at the same time as each other and was becoming quite frustrating.

If I am going to continue to use scratch within the classroom, this would definitely be area I would need to continue to develop as I found it difficult to make it all go in time.

REFERENCE LIST  

 

Lucas, J. (2017) Coding in the primary classroom.[Online] Available: https://www.educationalappstore.com/blog/coding-primary-classroom-scratch/ [Accessed: 29 January 2019]

 

Williams, J. (2017) 10 Surprising skills kids learn in the classroom.[Online]Available: https://www.weareteachers.com/skills-learn-coding/ [Accessed: 5 February 2019]

Week 3 ~ Multimodality

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So lets begin on this weeks session based on Multimodality. The experiences today were great as I got to analyse how technology can enhance teaching and learning within your very own classroom! At first I had some confusion over what multimodality actually meant. In today’s session, I recently discovered that multimodality is when two or more semiotic systems are combined. A lot of knowledge and understanding had to go in to this session as there was new terminology such as semiotic systems.

In total there are five main semiotic systems which we use, these are known as :

  • Linguistic
  • Visual
  • Audio
  • Gestural
  • Spatial

The session today allowed me to understand in great depth that these five main semiotic systems can create Multimodality when they are combined with another.

Multimodality can benefit teachers greatly within a classroom environment. Multimodality benefits teachers when they are presenting infront of pupils and this links in with Beauchamps view as teachers are able to use multimodality to put forward different types of strategies to help children learn new things but in order to do so it is important for the teacher to know themselves how multimodality works and how it can be put into place within the classroom (Beauchamp,2012,p100). This statement is why I decided to do Digital Technologies as my optional module as I wanted to have the opportunity to analyse how technology can be such an important factor within a classroom.

We especially put focus on to the ActivInspire whiteboards which are placed in nearly every classroom. These boards allow teachers to bring their lessons alive and allow pupils the opportunity to get involved and interact with their own learning. ActivInspire allows teachers to create more personalised and engaging lesson plans as pupils are keen to use the whiteboards to enhance their own learning. They allow pupils to be involved in hands on learning as they are getting involved with the whiteboards allowing them to learn whilst practising their understanding of how the whiteboards can enhance their current lesson and make it more engaging (Prandstatter,2014).

Unfortunately, I was unable to be at this session so I was automatically at a disadvantage from the rest of the students as I never got the opportunity to work ActivInspire. However, I downloaded it from home and was able to have a look at the features which where present and how they all worked. ActiveInspire is a create form of technology as it has endless amounts of features which teachers can benefit from on a daily basis.

They have features such as :

  • Add annotations
  • Highlight texts
  • Save your slides
  • Show pictures or videos
  • Label images

When doing some online research of ActivInspire I discovered how incredible they are in terms with helping children get a better understanding of their learning. There are endless amounts of excellent features within ActivInspire but what I really loved the most about this programme was that it allowed teachers to save the work they had done in class just like a powerpoint or a word document and this really linked with Patricia Deubel’s idea that pupils are benefiting from this as if they are absent from that lesson or they aren’t grasping it straight away, the teacher is then able to either go back to the slide that she saved or print it out for the pupil to allow their learning to continue with the rest of the class (Deubel,2010).

I hope to continue learning about Multimodality and how it all can be present within a contemporary classroom. I am keen to further understand how ActivInspire will help the pupils in my class therefore I am keen to keep practising with my ActivInspire at home and continue to develop new things and learn how I can I can improve my future lessons.

REFERENCE LIST

 

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

Deubel, P. (2010) Interactive whiteboards: truths and consequences.[Online] Available:https://thejournal.com/Articles/2010/08/04/Interactive-Whiteboards-Truths-and-Consequences.aspx?Page=1 [Accessed : 22 January 2019]

Prandstatter, J. (2014) Interactive Displays in Early Years Classes. [Online]Available: http://connectlearningtoday.com/interactive-displays-early-years-classes/ [Accessed:28 January 2019]

Week 2 ~ Programmable Toys

Now we are on week 2 and today’s sessions was all based on the use of programmable toys within a classroom environment. In today’s society, our classrooms are very much contemporary and programmable toys allows pupils to gain an understanding of how programming can come in to place in the young workforce ( Janka, 2008). Within the session, we used the programmable toys named “Bee-Bot” and these  allowed myself to notice how they can be used in a classroom environment for cross-curricular activities and how you can make it all link together by programming.

While  in primary education, Bee-Bot was used quite often and was used mostly in mathematical activities. This links with National Council for Teachers Education view on the use of programmable toys as from my own experience Bee-Bot was something that I really loved doing in class and the whole class was involved in programming the toy which was a great thing because the teacher found a way to make sure that there was no specific person or group excluded from the activity (NCTE,2012).

Bee-Bot has many benefits to it that will impact how our classrooms will continue to be contemporary. There are many benefits such as :

  • Interactive responsive learning
  • Problem solving skills are developed
  • the learners have full control of the toys
  • cross- curricular links

As the session continued, we were given the task to create our own Bee-Bot map that developed learning from a technology point of view and also from another curricular subject. Working alongside my small group, we decided to make a map based on how to use money to buy items within a supermarket. We wanted to make sure that we could make our map suitable for all learners, so we made sure that the map was able to be equipped for all learning levels.

We decided  to make our map like this as we thought that supermarkets and money was a very well used topic within first level learning. Supermarkets are used quite often as a chance of role play within the classroom and also to allow pupils to understand how money works and how to use it. Our basic Bee-Bot map was made by creating four squares by four squares of 15cm. We then decided which items would be more beneficial and understandable for pupils within first level learning. The yellow shopping lists indicates which items we would like the pupils to pick up and where we like them to programme  Bee-Bot to go. The little baskets at the bottom of the map was for the pupils to evaluate if they have summed up all their money properly and inside the baskets are receipts for pupils to check if they are correct.

When linking with Curriculum for Excellence, we focused on 2 main experiences and outcomes which we thought linked best with our own Bee-Bot map. These were :

  • MNU 1-09a ~ I can use money to pay for items and work out what change I should receive
  • TCH 1-05a ~ I can demonstrate a range of basic problem solving skills by building simple programmes to carry out a given task using an appropriate language.

When experimenting with the toy, I agree with Lydon’s discussion about how pupils can physically get involved with the programmable toy and touch it by pressing down the buttons to make it work (Lydon,2008). This is very valid view as pupils are fully in control of their learning and they are doing something which is easy and fun to use. One weakness I am hoping to overcome in the upcoming weeks is to remember to clear the Bee-Bot programme in order for it to work as if you do not erase the pattern from the toy it will continue to repeat the same pattern as before.

I hope to continue to find ways in how to involve programmable toys within education in order to expand the pupils learning and teach them things they have possibly not experienced before relating to programmable toys.

Reference List 

Janka, P. (2008) Using a Programmable Toy at Preschool Age: Why and How? [Online]Available: http://www.terecop.eu/downloads/simbar2008/pekarova.pdf [Accessed: 17 January 2019].

Lydon, A. (2008) Robots in Early Education. [Online]Available:https://oponoa-programmeertalen.wikispaces.com/file/view/BeeBot_article.pdf.  [Accessed: 17 January 2019]

National Council For Teaching Education (2012) Floor Robots – focus on literacy and numeracy(primary) [online] Available:https://www.pdsttechnologyineducation.ie/en/Training/ICT-in-Classroom-PDFs/ICT-in-the-Classroom-PDFs/Floor-Robots-focus-on-literacy-and-numeracy-Primary-13-06.pdf. [Accessed: 20 January 2019].

 

Week 1

Hi, I am excited to be starting this new blog all about my experiences and improvements throughout the digital technologies module. At first I was  bit apprehensive as to what the course would actually be about however after today’s session I feel a lot more relieved and excited for the weeks ahead. Digital technologies was an optional module for me and I chose it because it was something I had never thought on doing before and I wanted to identify my areas of strengths and weaknesses that I would need to improve on in order to take them into the classroom. When referring to digital technology key topics such as programmable toys for example, there are some topics which I have some experiences in but there are also some fresh ones which I am keen to start developing on.

As a whole, digital technology is described as a term which digital applications and resources use in order to do certain tasks such as find a website in which your topic is based upon and then analyse the reliability of the source and how effective it would be for our learning for example. As a teacher it is important that I am able to gather the knowledge on how to do certain aspects of digital technologies such as this in order to be able to demonstrate it to pupils in the future to enhance their learning.

In this generation, digital technology is practically at the center of every day life. Within Scotland, the government are keen to improve the use of digital technologies within our schools.  The government have emphasised how digital technology can slightly impact a pupils education. They have 4 main objectives revolving around digital technologies. One key objective they have is to improve access to technology within the class. In my opinion I think the government are keen on placing such a big emphasis on technology within schools because they want to make every child equal at school and by using technology within class time it allows those pupils from a poorer background to have the same opportunity as everyone else by having a chance to use technology which they may or may not have had the chance to use or have at home (Scottish Government, 2016).

It is important that throughout these 12 weeks I am able to reflect upon my weaknesses when using digital technology and focus on some new improvements on how I can change these weaknesses into strengths to use within the classroom. I am also looking forward to starting something totally out of my comfort zone and become a learner myself. I hope you will continue to follow my journey throughout these 12 weeks and see how well i have developed!

References

Scottish Government (2016) Enhancing Teaching and Learning through the use of Digital Technologies: A Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland. [Online] Available: https://beta.-gov.scot/publications/enhancing-learning-teaching-through-use-digital-technologies/ [Accessed: 10 January 2019].