In groups, we had to create an animation which either recreates a historical event, represents a geographical process (e.g. glaciation, volcanic eruption), recreates a real-life scenario (e.g. going to the dentist, shopping) or explains a mathematical principle. As a group, we decided to ‘explain a mathematical principle’ through our animation. As we had already made a clear, detailed plan and storyboard it allowed us to start creating or animation as soon as we got in to class.

To create our animation, we used the iStopmotion application, on the iPads, which helped us understand how to use movement, audio and adjust the characters whilst inserting it into a story. Initially, I found the application fairly easy to use and that it was going to create a good product overall, however, the more we used it the more frustrating it became as it was not an advanced app and therefore did not have a lot of features. This meant that, when it came to us wanting to add text that was being said by the character, we had to write it on a piece of paper and stick it to the background. The animations consisted of lots of images of individual movements, also known as, frames.

Our animation was based on the mathematical principle of using fractions which were represented by Lego bricks. We believe that this will be an effective way for fractions to be taught in the classroom as it is incorporating ICT as well as toys that are likely used by the children. As explained by Beauchamp (2012, p. 66) “ICT equipment is part of pupils’ everyday life, so should be part of their everyday play.” Overall, with the aim that ICT will help enhance a child’s learning and understanding of different curricular areas. For our fractions, we focused on the equivalent fractions in 12 which we broke down and showed how it could be represented in a fraction wall. Overall, we had the fractions: 1 whole, 1/3, 1/6 and 1/12, with different size Lego bricks representing different size fractions and explained how they can be equal even with different numbers. This would be a main aim of the teacher to focus on that the fractions shown are all equal.

When we went in at first, we began setting up our scene. Initially, we set up our main background which was a construction background, however, there was too much surrounding light and the camera was picking up parts of the classroom. Therefore, we began placing large sheets of black and white card around our set to allow us to make extensive use of the area and be able to film our animation efficiently. We also arranged our Lego blocks so that we were able to place them in shot when we needed instead of trying to find blocks whilst filming.

As I previously discussed, Animation is described as “Animation involves the stringing together a sequence of static images, generally so that they appear to move.” (Jarvis, 2015, p89). Animation is sub-section of ICT but still holds significant importance, as explained by Jarvis (2015, p. 92), Bertrancourt (2005) suggests three ways in which animation can be used to enhance learning:

1. “To enhance learners’ visual representations.
2. To illustrate processes.
3. To provide an interactive element.”

However, animation is well-known to be a rather time-consuming and lengthy process for a minimal length outcome. Whilst working on our animation today I realised how true this fact is, as we were working on our animation for 3 hours with only 30 seconds worth of footage. However, I feel that it would still be effective in a lesson and help enhance a lesson to which the teacher can expand their lesson from the animation. I think it is debatable whether animation is worth the time or not, and to a certain extent I think it can be worth it if the end product is successful. But overall as a student teacher, I find it too time consuming, especially with the amount of other work that is involved with lesson planning, and in general.

Overall, I felt that our process was fairly successful. Due to our plan and prep week (last week) ensured that we were organised for today and were able to get our animation completed to a good standard with minimal issues. Additionally, we were successful in presenting a useful and effective lesson starter and ensured that our animation could be understood by the viewers. Therefore, our plan and prep week was very helpful and it allowed us, in our groups, to create a detailed plan to stick to but make changes as we went along, if we desired.

Our animation was based on a construction site, we had a worker drive in in a digger which held Lego bricks in the front and he went through a barrier, stopped and jumped down with a sign behind which read ‘Construction Beware’ with an inserted piece which read ‘Today we are going to be learning about equivalent fractions’. We then had the digger reverse out and a 12-piece Lego block move into shot with a ‘1’ on the background to show that this piece of Lego represented one whole, two six-piece Lego blocks then moved onto frame with a ½ shown on the background. This was continued with 1/3, 1/6 and 1/12 with the different sized blocks (as can be seen in the video at the end of this blog post). All the blocks are then placed on top of each other and create a fraction wall, which the worker then climbed and held up a sign which read ‘These are equal’ which the teacher would be able to expand upon. Another piece of paper moved into the background which showed each fraction again with a diagram of the different size blocks, as a form of recall. The worker then jumps off the wall and another worker drives the digger into the Lego block fraction wall causing it to all fall apart and the last few frames were of the camera getting closer to the Lego pile before it went to a blackout.

Our first level animation was well-suited with a number of the Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes;

• Through taking part in practical activities including use of pictorial representations, I can demonstrate my understanding of simple fractions which are equivalent.

MTH 1-07

• Using digital technologies responsibly I can access, retrieve and use information to support, enrich or extend learning in different contexts.

TCH 1-02a

• I can use exploration and imagination to solve design problems related to real-life situations.

EXA 1-06a

One of the main aims with our animation was to identify and establish what skills would be learned or developed for both the children and the teacher. A skill is generally, something which is learned and practiced over and over again to be able to use it in different contexts and have the ability to do it well. Some of the skills my group identified was;

• Patience
• Negotiation
• Teamwork
• ICT ability
• Communication
• Time management
• Leadership
• Problem solving

For the children, these skills will be important lifelong qualities to pick up which will be useful to them in the future in life, learning and eventually work. Additionally, animation involves use of ‘play’ to a certain extent which would be useful to them and help the complete their animation whilst having fun, as discussed; “ICT equipment is part of pupils’ everyday life, so should be part of their everyday play.”(Beauchamp, 2012, p.66). With the children’s disposition and capability to develop skills old and new whilst working in their small groups. These skills listed above, along with others are definitely skills that I would want to flourish in the children in my class and will be developed through being taught how these skills will be effective with this task and also be developed naturally as they grow older. For the teacher, these skills are important recaps and can help them in their work life as these skills are all important for a teacher, especially, patience and teamwork.

For teachers, there can be the knock of confidence when carrying out a task, like this, when working in groups as it could lead to many issues which can be worrying for the teacher, as explained by Beauchamp (2012, p.66) “Although teachers may be worried by new technologies… we need to be sure that this is not transmitted to young children, or that other obstacles are not put in the way of their natural curiosity and willingness to explore new technologies.” This is where the skills take effect.

To improve our animation, I suggest that we include more examples of different fractions. The reason we only broke down the one fractions into the equivalent fractions was due to the time as we felt that it would be too rushed and would not make a difference to the outcome of our animation and would not be necessary to the lesson. Our animation was an introductory tool to a lesson that the teacher can use to further a lesson. Additionally, it would give the children an initial idea of how to break down fractions, identify equivalent fractions and make fraction walls. Another improvement could be for us to focus on our text for a long period of time to allow the viewer(s) to read it easily. Another issue we had (which was easily resolvable) was lack of certain Lego blocks, however, the ones that we did have access to were useful and allowed us to adapt our fractions to the blocks. In hindsight, we should have ensured we had the exact blocks we needed as it meant that we were only one short of what we needed.

We also decided to add audio to our end product to help make it more intriguing and interesting to watch. This was one change which we made to our initial plan as we did not plan to do this, however, we feel that it was beneficial for our end product. We added an upbeat song which was royalty free.

Last week, I posed some questions that we thought of whilst planning our animation;

• What skills will our animation help the children develop?                                                A number of skills have been developed or discovered (as listed above), such as: patience, teamworking, leadership, etc.
• Will our end product be effective?                                                                             Personally, I would say that yes, our end product was effective as it is an interesting lesson starter that holds a lot of useful information and can be easily understood.
• Does our animation enhance the learning in the class?                                             Again, I think that it would be an effective tool in the classroom that would help enhance the learning as it is a fun, interesting way to make a lesson come to life.
• Is animation worth it even though it is time consuming?                                 Personally, I am 50/50 with this question as I feel that although animation can have a really effective outcome and can be a very useful tool, I do not feel that it would be an effective use of time in a classroom, mainly due to the large amount of work that has to be done. However, I feel that I would use it as a fun lesson finisher task.
• Will animation be useful and lead to an effective lesson that will help the children learn?                                                                                                                                         I think that the animation is very useful as it teaches the lesson as well as helps the children learn the topic in a fun, interactive way.
• Will it make the lesson more enjoyable?                                                                                      I feel that use of our animation or any animation wold help make a lesson more enjoyable for both the children and the teacher as it is a creative way for a topic to be taught, explained and developed upon.

Whilst working on our animation I thought of another question; ‘will children nowadays find making an animation easier as they are ‘digital natives’?’. ‘Digital Natives’ as explained; “Our students today are all “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.” (Prensky, 2001, p. 1). Ultimately, I think that children being ‘digital natives’ would definitely be of benefit for them when working with animation or ICT in general as they have to ability to grasp topics and gain a good understanding of them with minimal issues.

In conclusion, I rather enjoyed this task and felt that we carried it out well and created an animation successfully which would be beneficial for the children to enhance their understanding. I feel that I would possibly use this in school. I feel that it would be a task that I would more so do towards the end of a topic to allow the children to create their own animation on what they had learned and also help use their skills. This end task would help include animation as a finalisation to a topic to help secure the children’s learning and understanding whilst using ICT. This would be with use of ICT throughout the topic also. Once our end product was complete, we were really proud of it and were glad that we were able to do the task successfully and have a useful and effective lesson add-on, to help enhance a lesson. For children, this feeling is important to them when completing a task like this as children will always remember how you made them feel as a teacher and how that helped them learn well.

Unfortunately, our complete animation was rather large in size and therefore I have inserted a link to our video, to allow you to watch the end product. If you click on the link, a small image will appear, if you click on that the video will expand to full size and should allow you to press play and be able to view the animation. Enjoy!    A4AF456F-9A11-4F07-951A-198BBEB197EC

 

Beginning of our animation

Corresponding fraction cards

Making our animation

Making our animation

Our fractions

iStopmotion

End of our animation

References

• Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary Classroom: From Pedagogy top Practice. Pearson.

 

• Education Scotland () Experiences and outcomes. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-(building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5)/Experiences%20and%20outcomes[Accessed 26thFebruary 2019]

 

• Jarvis, M. (2015) Brilliant Ideas for Using ICT in the Classroom: A Very practical Guide for Teachers and Lecturers.

 

• Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives Digital Immigrants

This week we were given the task to begin prepping and preparing for creating an animation. We made a clear, detailed plan which will help us next week when creating our animation. Having this week will be useful to us as a group and allow us to collect objects that we will need and make any changes to our initial plan that we feel might be necessary.

Initially, we were given some tasks to help us get used to animation. We practiced using the applications ‘Puppet pals’ and ‘iStopmotion’ which helped us understand how to use movement, audio, adjust the characters whilst inserting it into a story with a beginning, middle and an ending which can be easily understood. Practicing these applications this week will allow us to be more time efficient next week when it comes to creating our end product. We also explored the website ‘Moving Image Education’ which had examples of the different types of animation: cutout, stop-motion model, pixilation, drawn and computer. We decided, as a group, that we were going to use stop-motion model. Additionally, we practice using different objects in our animations such as bendy figures, clay and Lego figures. However the bendy figures were rather hard to use and manipulate as their heads were too heavy for them to be able stand alone, therefore, we were not able to create our practice movie effectively as we were having to hold the characters which meant our fingers were in the shots or our bendy figures were leaning against other objects. My group decided that we are going to use Lego next week as we found it the easiest and most effective to use. We then researched how to make the Lego characters look like they are moving, walking and running. In groups, we had to create an animation which either recreates a historical event, represents a geographical process (e.g. glaciation, volcanic eruption), recreates a real-life scenario (e.g. going to the dentist, shopping)or explains a mathematical principle.

We decided that the most effective topic in our animation would be to explain a mathematical principle. Therefore, we decided that our animation was going to be all about fractions which will be represented by Lego bricks. We believe that this will be an effective way for fractions to be taught in the classroom as it is incorporating ICT as well as toys that are likely used by the children. We then researched which experiences and outcomes would be useful for our animations’ aim.

ICT is a useful tool in the classroom. As explained by Beauchamp (2012, p.54) ICT allows pupils to ”achieve something that would be very difficult or even impossible to achieve in any other way.” With ICT being an important tool, which is incorporated into all curricular areas not just being a stand-alone subject. As further explained by Beauchamp (2012, p. 66) “ICT equipment is part of pupils’ everyday life, so should be part of their everyday play.” Overall, with the aim that ICT will help enhance a child’s learning and understanding of different curricular areas.

Animation is described as “Animation involves the stringing together a sequence of static images, generally so that they appear to move.”(Jarvis, 2015, p. 89). Animation is sub-section of ICT but still holds significant importance, as explained by Jarvis (2015, p. 92), Bertrancourt (2005) suggests three ways in which animation can be used to enhance learning:

1. “To enhance learners’ visual representations.
2. To illustrate processes.
3. To provide an interactive element.”

However, animation is well-known to be a rather time-consuming and lengthy process. The outcome could be effective just not be of great length. Nevertheless, it can help children develop skills of perseverance when they are creating an animation of their own, which is a useful skill to have for the future.

Once we had finalised our plan, we made a basic storyboard with a general outline of how our animation was going to be broken down and had to ensure we had everything we needed to include in it, in it. This again, will help us be more time efficient next week when creating our animation.

I am looking forward to creating our animation next week and assessing if it will be a useful process which I can use in the future in the classroom.

Whilst planning this week, we have been asking questions such as;

• What skills will our animation help the children develop?
• Will our end product be effective?
• Does our animation enhance the learning in the class?
• Is animation worth it even though it is time consuming?
• Will animation be useful and lead to an effective lesson that will help the children learn?
• Will it make the lesson more enjoyable?

Bendy Figure

Researching fractions and Fraction walls

Our general storyboard

References

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

Jarvis, M. (2015) Brilliant Ideas for Using ICT in the Classroom: A Very practical Guide for Teachers and Lecturers.

Moving Image Education Website: [Online] Available: https://movingimageeducation.org/create-films/animation[Accessed: 20^thFebruary 2019]

Today, we were given the task of creating an internet safety video using the editing software iMovie. This was an assessment task where our end product was evaluated by our lecturer. iMovie allows you to combine clips and pictures, to which you can then add audio, filters and adjust the different elements in the clips. It was recommended that we work in groups with a minimum of three, therefore, I worked with two other people as this task required a lot of work and people to do different tasks such as filming another person.

Movie making in education has been shown as effective and a very useful tool in the classroom. As explained, “The use of video to enable pupils to reflect on both their work and their learning has been used in research and is labelled video stimulated reflective dialogue (VSRD), or variations of this.” (Beauchamp, 2012, p. 135). Therefore, once the children have watched some internet safety videos, they would be able to take what they learned from the videos and reflect upon it to make their own videos about internet safety which will help them with their learning and show the importance about being safe online. This can help the children develop their knowledge about internet safety and how it applies to them.

Internet safety is a very important topic in schools that should be reiterated constantly as it is relevant in today’s society, as explained by the Scottish Government (2017) “The internet is central to the lives of the majority of children and young people. We want children and young people to be protected, safe and supported in the online world and for them to be able to enjoy the internet, show resilience and take advantage of the opportunities it has to offer”. This applies to me as a developing student teacher as it is my responsibility to ensure that the children in my class and throughout the school are safe online; and they know not to trust others online especially if you do not know them personally and understand that actions have consequences. The children need to know that they can trust teachers if they do have a problem with online safety and that their teachers are not trying to restrict their fun but instead help them as stated by Beauchamp (2012, P.58) “…the key idea [is] that e-safety is not about restrictingchildren, but about educatingthem.” It is important that children are aware of this.

Thankfully, one benefit of bad previous internet safety, is that it has led to many schools nowadays introducing policies that help children be safe online. As explained by Beauchamp (2012, p. 58) “Most primary schools will have in place a policy regarding e-safety, but they are likely to reflect official policies and perhaps not the reality of pupils’ lives…”. Additionally, Safer Internet Day was introduced in 2004 and it is now embraced by 140 countries worldwide. Introduction of these policies and events have allowed children to be able to identify where people have gone wrong, when children are able to identify these areas it results in successful e-safety (Beauchamp, 2012, p. 60).

ICT is a useful tool within education and helps incorporate digital literacy into the classroom.  “ICT can offer a range of unique features to teachers and learners which are not available using other means.” (Beauchamp, 2012, p. 3). Digital literacy is having the skills in order to engage in a knowledgeable, technology driven, society (Weiss, 2017). Nowadays, a majority of schools utilise computers, interactive whiteboards, laptops, tablets and even smartphones. This technology is used by the teachers and the children. This can also help pupils with communication, expression, collaboration and advocacy (Weiss, 2017).

Effective learning and teaching of digital technology can have many benefits on the core curricular areas; Health & Wellbeing, Literacy and Numeracy. Health & wellbeing; use a variety of approaches including active, cooperative and peer learning along with effective use of technology.  Literacy; develop and extend literacy skills when they have opportunities to communicate and collaborate, engage with and create a wide range of texts in different media, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by ICT as well as examples of texts: blogs, web pages, emails, and games. Numeracy; use technology in appropriate and effective ways, development of problem-solving capabilities and active learning. Additionally, there are some curriculum for excellence experiences and outcomes which relate well with my iMovie on internet safety. We decided that our iMovie about internet safety would be most effective at fourth level as we felt that it would be most relevant to their age group and their activity on social media. These experiences and outcomes are shown below:

I am learning to assess and manage risk, to protect myself and others, and to reduce the potential for harm when possible.

HWB 0-16a / HWB 1-16a / HWB 2-16a / HWB 3-16a / HWB 4-16a

As I listen or watch, I can:

• clearly state the purpose and main concerns of a text and make inferences from key statements
• compare and contrast different types of text
• gather, link and use information from different sources and use this for different purposes.

LIT 4-04a

I can show my understanding of what I listen to or watch by giving detailed, evaluative comments, with evidence, about the content and form of short and extended texts.

LIT 4-07a

To help me develop an informed view, I can identify some of the techniques used to influence or persuade and can assess the value of my sources.

LIT 4-08a

Having investigated the practical impact of inaccuracy and error, I can use my knowledge of tolerance when choosing the required degree of accuracy to make real-life calculations.

MNU 4-01a

We started with a fairly detailed plan on how we wanted our iMovie to go and what we wanted to be included in it to ensure we used our time efficiently. Our story was based around the well-known story of an older man pretending to be a young boy and using it to talk to a young girl and using it as an excuse to be able to talk to her. Even though this is a fairly general story that has been used for years in internet safety videos, it is still relevant and happens regularly even with different policies being introduced. We are first introduced to a young 11-year-old girl, Sophie, who had her Snapchat user name on her Instagram bio and therefore can be seen by people whether they follow each other or not. Which leads to ‘Harry’ adding her on Snapchat, to which Sophie has her initial doubts and so messaged her friend to ask if she should add him. Sophie ends up adding him as she never heard back from her friend. Sophie and Harry talk about how they go to the same school and live around the same area and they exchange ages. It then cuts to a clip of Harry using a feature on Snapchat called ‘Snapmaps’ which allows your friends to see where you are. Harry then asks for a selfie picture of Sophie to see what she looks like, to which she is hesitant about but sends one anyways, she then asks for one back. We then see Harry go onto Google and find a picture of a young boy and edit it slightly to send to Sophie and pretend that it is a picture of himself. Harry then asks if they could meet up at a river near the school and constantly insists that it must only be the two of them and that she can not tell anyone. By this point, Sophie’s friend has replied. Her friend is smart and tells Sophie not to meet up with him and to tell her mum. Sophie then tells Harry that she is going to tell her mum as she does not feel safe and screenshots the messages so that she has them to show her mum and the police. Harry begins shouting at Sophie and telling her to stop doing what she is doing and that she should not tell her mum. However, Sophie has made the smart decision and we see her then blocking Harry as a friend. Gladly Sophie never met up with ‘Harry’ but the children should be aware of the consequences of meeting up with him. This should be an area for discussion from the teacher. We decided that we were going to make our iMovie interactive, therefore, we included questions throughout. For example, ‘what are the red flags?’ which would allow the children to identify the bad points to look out for, ‘Should Sophie meet Harry, or should she listen to her friend and tell an adult?’ and the children will identify the correct thing to do.

Additionally, we had a few slides dedicated to ‘what to do if this happens…’, 1. Tell a responsible adult, 2. Block and report them and do not put your personal details online. Do not accept people you do not know. At the end of our iMovie there is a slide which states ‘Visit ‘thinkuknow’ website for further information.

Initially, we uploaded all our videos onto iMovie and then edited them from there and adjusting them to our liking. Personally, I find that working with iMovie is fairly straight forward and easy to use, however, this is due to experience of working with it whilst I studied media at school. Therefore, this allowed us to be able to edit our piece together fairly quickly but to a good standard.

Overall, we were happy with our iMovie, however, we have some improvements that could be made. Our first improvement is the length of our iMovie, once fully edited it was between five minutes thirty seconds and six minutes, which I felt was fairly lengthy, although we ensured that we had everything included in it that we wanted. On the other hand, I researched other internet safety videos, most of which are between two and ten minutes long. Our second improvement is that we should have used a different way of messaging. We decided that we were going to use snapchat as a means of communication and do a screen recording of the conversation as the messages developed. However, snapchat has a feature that tells you if the person you are talking to is screenshotting or screen recording the messages. Therefore, we could no longer screen record the messages as we initially planned to do (I also feel that this would have increased the production value and made the messages easier to read). To fix this, we could have used another app, but by this point we had already set up the accounts to new names and would take too long to adapt this, so we decided that we would use an iPad and film the phone receiving the messages.

I would say the main problem we had using iMovie was the limited amount of music provided on the app and if there was a song or a sound effect we wanted, we would have had to buy it.

In conclusion, I feel that we have carried out this task successfully and have created an effective internet safety movie which can be a useful tool to be shown in schools to help prevent anything like this happening to the pupils and ensure that they are aware of situations like these and how they should be dealt with.

‘What to do if this happens’ information slide 1

‘What to do if this happens’ information slide 2

‘What to do if this happens’ information slide 3

‘What to do if this happens’ information slide 4

‘Thinkuknow’ information site

Editing our iMovie

Editing our iMovie

Editing our iMovie

Editing our iMovie

Editing our iMovie

References

• Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary Classroom: From Pedagogy top Practice. Pearson.

 

• Education Scotland () Experiences and outcomes. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-(building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5)/Experiences%20and%20outcomes[Accessed 13^th February 2019]

 

•  Scottish Government (2017)Internet safety for children and young people: national action plan. [Online] Available: https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-action-plan-internet-safety-children-young-people/pages/2/[Accessed: 14^thFebruary 2019]

 

• Weiss, D. (2017) Time to Know blog [Online] Available:  https://www.timetoknow.com/blog/essential-digital-literacy-skills-for-the-21st-century-worker/[Accessed: 14^thFebruary 2019]

 

Today, we were given the task to use a child’s book and create an e-book of said book which is interactive and can be used to enhance a lesson. This was an assessment task where our end product was evaluated by our lecturer. I worked in a pair for this task, we decided that we were going to use the story ‘Room on the Broom in Scots’. Therefore, this could be incorporated into a literacy lesson where the children would be able to develop their knowledge of different languages. Additionally, there are elements of rhyming which can be developed into another lesson in the future.

‘Room on the Broom’ is about a witch and her cat that are flying on her broom when suddenly her hat flies off her head. She then flies to the ground to collect it where she finds a dog who asks if there is room for him on the broom. They then continue to fly and lose a bow which is found by a bird who then joins them. Finally, she drops her wand which is found by a frog who joins them on the broom. The broom then breaks in two and everyone falls off except the witch who keeps flying into a storm. She then hears a loud roar which is a dragon that is trying to eat her, it is scared off by the other animals and the witch and the other animals use the witch’s cauldron to create “the most fantoosh, fabulous broom” with space for everyone. In the Scots version there are some words replaced including; broom becomes bizzum, frog becomes puddock and most becomes maist, along with many more.

There are many reasons to teach Scots in Scottish primary schools, for example, it can help children gain a better understanding of the world around them as it is likely that they will hear people using different Scots words, it is also highly likely, that they will use some Scots themselves and not realise. This will, in turn, help their communication skills and language skills develop. Additionally, it can help them realise the importance of learning about different languages as explained by Reid, “More and more parents want their children to learn English from a young age…speaking English will help their child ‘get ahead in a globalised world’” (Reid, 2015).

An e-book is defined by Collins (2012), an electronic version of a printed book which can be read electronically. Nowadays digital technology is very important as recently stated by the Scottish Government, “Digital technology can enrich the learning experience for all of our children and young people.” (Scottish Government, 2016, p. 8) Additionally, A Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland (2016) is structured around four essential objectives: Develop the skills and confidence of teachers, improve access to digital technology for all learners; ensure that digital technology is a central consideration in all areas of curriculum and assessment delivery and empower leaders of change to drive innovation and investment in digital technology for learning and teaching. Therefore, the use of e-books can be very useful and effective in the classroom.

Research shows that there are many benefits of the use of iPads in the classroom. One trial that was carried out by the University of Hull (2012) reported that;

• “Many teachers and students wish to have access to the iPad after the end of the trial and are convinced it has changed learning for the better.” (p. 11)
• “Over 90 per cent of students believe that the iPad has helped them to learn more and to learn more difficult concepts and ideas better” (p. 10)
• “Parents say that greater motivation, interest and engagement of their child with learning have been the single largest benefits” (p. 10)

To create our e-books, we were to use the Book creator app which is ideal for making all kinds of books, such as: children’s picture books, comic books, photo books, journals, textbooks and more. We were using it to create a children’s picture book. Initially, we were given instructions on how to manoeuvre around the application and we were given the opportunity to practice using it before creating our e-book. I felt that this application was fairly easy to use especially once I got used to where everything was. This shows that it would be a useful tool in the classroom as it can be accessed by teachers and pupils with ease.

As we were to make a summary of our chosen book, our e-book was 10 pages long with a cover page. We decided to keep the cover page simple and include the original cover of ‘Room on the Broom in Scots’. I have included pictures at the end of this blog post.

Our second page was an introduction to the witch and her cat with a few sentences lifted from the book along with a picture of the witch and her cat on the bizzum. As this is a Scots version of this book, we considered that many of the children wouldn’t understand some of the words. We, therefore, included a link to a Scot dictionary where the children would be able to search for the definitions of certain words. We also placed audio over the hyperlinked picture of a dictionary, which said “click here to look up Scot words if you get stuck”.

Our third page also included some sentences from the book about how a dog finds her hat. The dog then asks if there is room on the broom for it. At the bottom of the page, we included a task for the children which asked them if they could record how to say ‘dug’. Therefore, the children would be able to use the application and record themselves and insert it into the e-book and make it interactive. Beside this task, there is a picture of the witch and the dog which was hyperlinked, and the children would be able to click to hear how to pronounce the word ‘dug’. Page four is similar to three but it has a bird instead of a dog.

Throughout this e-book there are numerous pages with a red circle at the bottom of the page, this indicates that there is an interactive task for the children to complete.

Page five then includes a picture of everyone on the broom and it discusses how they were going through the storm which causes the witch to drop her wand. We decided to include a storm sound effect to enhance the story even more. Page six is again the same as page three and four and the animal is a frog, however, the children are asked what they think ‘puddock’ means and they can then pronounce it.

Page seven, eight and nine includes more text and pictures from the book. Page seven is of the animals falling and the dragon breathing fire, again, we included a sound effect of a dragon roaring to enhance the story. Page eight is the other animals scaring off the dragon as they disguise as a beast with the children being asked if they can roar like the beast. Page nine is the dragon flying away with a sound effect of this action. There is then a picture of the witch standing over her cauldron creating a new broom with her spell beside the image to which the children are asked if they can help her say the spell. Page ten, is the final image of everyone on the new amazing broom flying off happily.

The final page says, ‘Now write how you felt about this book and include some Scots language you have learned today!’. This allows the lesson to be continued and solidify their learning and understanding of the Scots words and language.

There are many experiences and outcomes that relate well with my e-book. There are ones for literacy, technology and ones for languages as there is the use of scots in my e-book.

• ‘I can use digital technologies to search, access and retrieve information and am aware that not all of this information will be credible.’ -TCH 02-02a
• ‘I understand the operation of a process and its outcome. I can structure related items of information.’-TCH 2-13a
• ‘I can recognise how the features of spoken language can help in communication, and I can use what I learn. I can recognise different features of my own and others’ spoken language.’ ENG 2-03a

• ‘I work on my own and with others to understand text using appropriate resources, demonstrating my understanding by matching written words to pictures and by reconstructing the text in a logical sequence, for example.’ -MLAN 2-08a
• ‘I can read and demonstrate understanding of words, signs, phrases and simple texts containing mainly familiar language.’ – MLAN 2-08b

During my recent time on placement in a primary school, I saw this book being used in a primary one class. I felt that it was slightly too hard for them to handle as they were able to use the Scots words, however, they were unable to complete further learning as they would forget what certain words meant or how to use them. Therefore, I decided that my e-book was going to be aimed more towards a primary three or four age group which is roughly second level. I feel that the older children would gain more from this lesson and would be able to work individually and complete the task on the final page successfully as they would be able to do their own research such as; looking up different word’s meanings. There are also different tasks throughout the e-book that enables the children to use the book creator app. This allows the teacher to evaluate the children’s understanding of different areas such as how successfully they can use this application (TCH 02-02a) and learn from it as well as analyse their understanding of Scots (MLAN 2-08a and MLAN 2-08b) and incorporate their literacy writing skills (ENG 2-03a). Overall this would equate to a very successful and useful lesson.

In conclusion, I found today’s lesson very important as it emphasises the importance of digital technology in the classroom, specifically, the use of interactive tablets which allows individuals to download this application known as ‘book creator’ app and it can be used successfully to enhance their learning in literacy. However, digital technology such as tablets and other mobile devices are important in developing and enhancing the learning in most curricular areas as there are many applications that can be downloaded with the same successful outcome. Therefore, the impute was also useful as it helps me see the true importance of digital technology in the classroom as well as gain experience of working with this application and how it will help me in the future with lessons. I felt that my partner and I successfully carried out the given task as our e-book summaries ‘Room on the Broom in Scots’ well with many interactive elements which can be enjoyable and engaging for the children.

 

Creating our E-book

Cover Page

Page two

Page three

Page Four

Page five

Page six

Page Seven

Page Eight

Page Nine

Page Ten

End Slide with task

References

• Burden K., Hopkins P., Male T., Martin S., Trala C. (2012) iPad Scotland Evaluation. University of Hull. [Online] Available:http://www.janhylen.se/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Skottland.pdf[Accessed: 7^thFebruary 2019]

 

• Collins Dictionary(2012), HarperCollins, London. [Online] Availiable: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/e-book[Accessed: 7^thFebruary 2019]

 

• Education Scotland () Experiences and outcomes. [Online] https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-(building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5)/Experiences%20and%20outcomes[Accessed 6^thFebruary 2019]

 

• Reid, S. (2015).Ten ways to support your child’s English-learning at home. [Online]Available: https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/ten-ways-support-your-childs-english-learning-home[Accessed: 29^thNovember 2018]

 

• Scottish Government (2016)Enhancing learning and teaching through
  the use of digital technology, A digital learning and teaching strategy for Scotland.[Online] Available:https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/publication/2016/09/enhancing-learning-teaching-through-use-digital-technology/documents/00505855-pdf/00505855-pdf/govscot:document/?inline=true/ [Accessed: 6^thFebruary 2019]

Today, we were given the task to work with Scratch Jr to create a coding that could be useful in a literacy lesson. This was an assessment task where our end product was evaluated by our lecturer. Scratch Jr is commonly used with children in early, first and sometimes second level. We began practicing with Scratch Jr on the tablets to ensure we were comfortable with it before attempting the task. We were given small activities to complete, such as: making three characters run in a race, make them dance, etc. Additionally, as I knew we were going to be using this application today, I downloaded it to practice with it and be prepared for class.

Initially, I expected that working with Scratch was going to be fairly complex as I did not realise that we would be working with scratch Jr until I was preparing for this week. I felt that working with Scratch was going to be fairly difficult as the previous experience I had with it was in secondary school when I used it for the first time and we used the general Scratch which is available online. However, Scratch Jr has been simplified to ease children into coding. Once I began working with Scratch Jr today, I soon realised that it was fairly easy to use once I got my head around it and learned the different tricks and features.

As we were given the task to base our Scratch Jr creation around a literacy lesson, I decided that I was going to focus on phonemes as they are a big part of early, first and second education. When starting our task, I planned to include a couple of phonemes, such as, ‘sh’, ‘oa’, ‘ll’, etc. but when we began our task, I soon realised that I was only able to do four slides and I would not be able to talk about each one sufficiently. Therefore, I decided to pick one phoneme and focus my whole Scratch Jr presentation on it. I decided to go with the phoneme ‘sh’ as I felt it was the most prominent phoneme and a rather important one too.

My first slide was set with a classroom background to give the impression that we are going to learn something whilst watching this Scratch Jr. creation. Scratch then explains that the children are going to be learning about phonemes, specifically, the phoneme ‘sh’ and he then breaks down the phoneme into the two letters.

My second slide introduced four objects, two of which had the phoneme ‘sh’ in them and two did not. Scratch asks the children to identify which ones do and do not have ‘sh’ in them. There is then a two-minute time gap which would allow discussion in the classroom. Scratch then reveals which objects include ‘sh’ which is a shop and a fish. This introduces that ‘sh’ can be at the beginning and at the end of a word.

My third slide included a rocketship and a mushroom. This is to help establish that ‘sh’ can also be found in the middle of a word. This will help the children learn how to identify ‘sh’, how and where it can be used.

My last slide was Scratch standing on his own and he jumps up and down with a pop sound effect with each jump. He then congratulates and encourages the children for their hard work and explains how the children are now going to be completing a worksheet on the phoneme ‘sh’, this shows that the use of this Scratch Jr. is only an introduction and it will now lead onto a full lesson.

My Scratch Jr. creation linked well with a second level literacy experience and outcome (E&O). ‘I can recognise how the features of spoken language can help in communication and I can use what I learn. I can recognise different features of my own and others’ spoken language.’ (ENG 2-03a). My Scratch Jr. creation incorporates this E&O as by the end of the lesson they would hopefully be able to identify the phoneme ‘sh’, as a feature of the English language, in different words and how it can be positioned throughout a word. My Scratch Jr. creation also linked well with a second level technology experience and outcome. ‘I can create, develop and evaluate computing solutions in response to a design challenge.’ (TCH 2-15a)

This E&O links well with my Scratch Jr. presentation as it shows that learning has been enhanced through by the use of technology. The children will also be able to learn how to code and create a similar presentation about what they learned about ‘sh’. Therefore, this leads onto a future lesson.

I feel that to improve my presentation I would have it be more interactive for the children and have them be able to make Scratch/other objects move by touching them on the screen or to have the children insert code throughout the lesson. Therefore, clearly incorporating two curricular areas in one lesson instead of subtly which is how it currently stands with my presentation.

Slowly, the importance of coding is becoming more evident and the need for it to be taught in schools from young age is more apparent. Coding is now being seen as holding a lot of importance in this modern society, with many organisations such as: universities, gaming companies, the government, manufacturers and even head teachers. These different groups all have their own reasoning for how coding will help them develop and keep up with our futuristic society which is being run by technology (Naughton, 2012)

Nowadays, technology comes naturally for children as explained by Prensky (2001, p. 1) “Our students today are all ‘native speakers’ of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.” This can benefit children in the classroom as it can improve their learning in other curricular areas as well as help them develop their understanding of technology, which is important in this forever-changing technological world.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed working with the Scratch Jr. application and found it easy to work with once I got my head around it. Therefore, I personally think that I completed the given task successfully and created a useful literacy lesson. I feel that this application is very useful in the classroom to gently introduce coding into the classroom from an early stage and can be developed over time. Thus, I plan on using this application in future in the classroom.

Slide one

Slide one continued

Slide two

Slide two continued

Slide three

Slide four

Slide four continued

References

• Education Scotland () Experiences and outcomes. [Online] https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-(building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5)/Experiences%20and%20outcomes[Accessed 29th January 2019]

 

• Naughton, J. (2012) Why all our kids should be taught how to code. The Guardian. [Online] 31 March. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/mar/31/why-kids-should-be-taught-code [Accessed: 29 January 2019].

 

• Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives Digital Immigrants