This week in digital technology, we were studying animation. We looked at the different ways animation could be used within the classroom and also where the benefits of animation lie within the curriculum.

The animation applications we studied today were on an iPad and they were; Puppet Pals, iMovie and iStop Motion. I have briefly used some of these apps in the past and having the opportunity to revisit them reassures me that my confidence is growing with this kind of technology. Which makes me think of the positive impact that these types of technologies can bring to young learners for example; confidence, communication, expression and collaboration. Moving Image Education state that when making mini movies or trailers there different skills involved which means that the full class can participate. Everyone will have something to contribute therefor, making a film creates an opportunity to extend talents and empower the young learners mean while it is working on team spirit.

Today our task while working in pairs was to create a short and simple animation piece, there were many resources available to us such as toy cars, toy characters, lego and soft toys, along with pens and paper.  We decided to use lego as we felt the scene would be fairly easy to build and also that we could move the characters with ease throughout the short animation piece. This however proved us quite wrong as the lego figures often fell over and were quite delicate. We had to keep them exactly where they were in order for each still to move in order as we were using the iStop Motion app.

The iStop Motion app runs a series of still pictures together at a speed selected by the creator, the app also allows for sound to be added to the pictures when they are moving. We also struggled to secure our iPad in one position as we couldn’t find the right objects to help us prop it up, this resulted in our animation piece being quite jumpy and not as precise as we would have liked.

In result of the above I feel this will help me to guide young learners through an animation lesson as I understand how tricky it can be and also why simple is better, to start off with anyway. For me having the opportunity once more means, I have more confidence in this activity and I will certainly try my best not show any sort of fear towards digital technology.

Beauchamp (2012) believes that fear can transmit over to young children’s minds and then you are faced with the risk that a fear of technology or applications is then imbedded in them. Jarvis (2015) states that children should have these technologies involved in their everyday lives and not just timetables visits to a computer room, however the lessons and the outcomes must be relevant in order for firstly the children to engage their interest and also for them to be curious and to get creative with it.

If you incorporate what we covered in class today in a class lesson, there are many possible links to the CFE Experiences and Outcomes. Such as Literacy, Health and Wellbeing, Technology and many more, some possible links to the CFE Experiences and Outcomes  could be as followed;

References

• Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary School. [Online] Available: dawsonera.com/readonline/9781408251379 [Accessed: 25 February 2018].

• Education Scotland. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence; Experiences and Outcomes. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers [Accessed: 25 February 2018].
• Jarvis, M. (2015) Brilliant Ideas for Using ICT in the Classroom: A Very Practical Guide for Teachers and Lecturers. Routledge.
• Moving Image Education. [Online] Available: https://movingimageeducation.org/create-films/animation [Accessed: 25 February 2018].

Today in digital technology we were learning about ‘movie making’ and why movie making has links to many areas of the curriculum.  The first area of the curriculum that we link to movie making could be Literacy, for a child to work within a team to create a movie they must be able to communicate well and to take onboard other classmates ideas which can be a difficult skill.  “Film-making is a collaborative process often requiring an ‘army’ of people to bring a final movie into reality.” according to Porter (2004, p.38).  A CFE learning experience and outcome for this would be:

LT 2 – 02a When I engage with others, I can respond in ways appropriate to my role, show that I value others’ contributions and use these to build on thinking.

Numeracy can also be linked to movie making as the said activity involves critical thinking and problem solving skills for example, in the movie trailer app on the ipad the app tells the movie makers how many seconds there are to work with.  The children then need to decide which slides are to be still images and other slides that will be moving images. This was a common problem that we came across today while making our movie trailer, we over came it by working together and allowing the editors to work on it while the others completed various parts of the trailer.  An experience and outcome used here could be:

MNU 2 – 10b I can carry out practical tasks and investigations involving timed events and can explain which unit of time would be most appropriate to use.

The Technology link to the curriculum when movie making is a little more obvious, as we plan to use iPads, iPhones, Macs and smart boards.  However what we see again is the use of ‘Multimodal’ which we have seen in previous weeks in our digital technology class.  When you use a combination of two or more of the 5 semiotic systems a movie/trailer becomes multimodal, which we know can reach out to our young learners in many different ways, ensuring we can keep there attention and make learning relevant. The Scottish Government believe that when these kind of tools are used effectively they will speed up learning and increase the depth of the learning in the classroom which contributes to raising attainment, The Scottish Government (2015).

Health and Wellbeing is very much an area of the curriculum that can be found in movie making that we were studying today.  When you plan, create and complete a movie with your class mates, there comes a great sense of achievement which I experienced today.  The satisfaction, laughter, fun and confidence boost you feel can only be a positive thing when learning and is something I wish to take with me into a classroom.  It also gives children/adults alike to get creative and experience movie making for themselves and that it’s not only the rich and famous that get the opportunity to make a movie, according to Porter (2004).

One particular and very important area of health and wellbeing we covered in class today was ‘Online Safety’, we discussed how to go about educating children about online safety and how important it is for our children to know what is wrong and how to report if something is wrong or unsafe, Beauchamp (2012) states that the best schools will not restrict children online but will educate children about online safety, the best schools will also help the children understand what is wrong and how to report it.  As part of our own awareness we carried out an online quiz with our class lecturer which we can share/discuss with children in the future and we were set a task as an assessment to create our own movie or trailer based on staying safe online.

The assessment was to be a group task, so we promptly started to plan our movie trailer and collected resources and props that we needed as we had a set time to complete the task.  The topic we decided to base our trailer on was ‘People are not who they sat they are’.  For this we followed similar story lines of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, where a young girl was in contact with her gran, believing that she was indeed speaking to her gran when really it was the ‘Big Bad Wolf’ which in our case was a character out to cause fear and upset, similar to the big bad wolf in the classical storybook.

I feel the movie trailer we created sends a clear message out about the importance of online safety.  The trailer was delivered in such a way that children can relate to the story line as they know the classic story and by using various semiotic systems we can ensure it reaches out to it’s viewers in various ways.  Also included at the end of the trailer, we gave useful details for viewers that wanted to seek further information or confidential assistance regarding online safety.

References

• ›Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary Classroom: From Pedagogy top Practice. Pearson.
• Education Scotland. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence; Experiences and Outcomes. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers [Accessed: 13 February 2018].
• ›Porter, B. (2004) Digi Tales: The Art of Telling Digital Stories. Bernajean Porter Publication.
• ›The Scottish Government. (2015) Literature Review on the Impact of Digital Technology on Learning and Teaching. [Online] Available: http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/24843/1/00489224.pdf [Accessed: 13 February 2018].

Today, class was quite different as we were out of class for a short time. We were walking around the university campus taking photographs and videos on an iPad in order to create an ebook brochure about life at UWS.  This was simply just a practice for us in preparation for our ebook assessment later in class. Some other ways that we prepared for our ebook assessment was watching youtube videos and tutorials about how to create an ebook using the ‘Book-Creator’ app on the iPad. The videos were easily accessible and it was fairly easy to follow the step by step instructions.

So why are we learning about ebooks? When a teacher plans a lesson, they will try to include many different kinds of text and as a trainee teacher it is important that I keep up to date with recent technologies. The reason for doing this is, we must ‘future proof’ our young learners because if we as educators do not keep up to date and teach young learners about new digital technologies we a basically short changing young learners in the classroom, according to Naughton (2012).

The variation of text now a days are pretty much endless, for example text books, white boards, short movies, comics, interactive smart boards and of course ebooks.  There are various benefits of an ebook, such as they can be interactive, personalised, interesting, space saving, reduces carbon foot print and they give young learners the opportunity to work and learn independently.

The ebook that I was creating today had to fall into the category of ‘multimodal’. For an ebook to be multimodal it must have two out of the five semiotic systems which are linguistic, visual, audio, gestural and spatial.  Beauchamp (2012) suggests that young learners need to be around digital technology in order to understand ‘metamode language’ this enables them to understand the meanings of the many different ways in which we can read and understand such as texts, images, sounds and information.

The ebook I created today was based around ‘Room on the Broom’ by Julia Donaldson. The reason I picked this book is because it is one of my daughters favourite books and I know it well, I knew I could create a good multimodal ebook based around the story. To ensure it would be multimodal the semiotic systems I included in the ebook were:

• Visual – Using a variety of colourful illistrations to attract attention.
• Audio – I recorded my voice and sound effects to play throughout the ebook for interaction.
• Spatial – I strategically placed the illustrations and text to ensure the ebook was easy to follow.

Before I created the ebook I looked at the curriculum for excellence experiences and outcomes and in order for me to decided which level I was creating the text for. I am aiming for level one, which is roughly p2-p4 children aged 5 – 8 years old, however I also feel that the text can be easily adjusted to suit lower or higher levels in primary school if need be. The experiences and outcomes chosen are listed below:

LIT 1-04a: As I listen or watch, I can identify and discuss the purpose, the key words and main ideas of the text, and use this information for a specific purpose.

TCH 1-01a: I can explore and experiment with digital technologies and can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different context.

Looking over todays activities and assessment it has opened my eyes up to the potential that is out there with in digital technology across the curriculum. As each week passes in this module I am delighted with the wealth of knowledge that I gain each week. To think this morning I hadn’t read an ebook before and now I have created one, it goes to show how fast technology is moving. Some say that they love nothing more than buying a brand new book, they like the smell and the feeling of pages however when you list these benefits next to ebook benefits the ebook will most certainly win each time.

References

• Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary School. [Online] Available: dawsonera.com/readonline/9781408251379 [Accessed: 7 February 2018].
• Education Scotland. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence; Experiences and Outcomes. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers [Accessed: 7 February 2018].
• Naughton, J. (2012) Why all our kids should be taught how to code. [Online] 31 March. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/mar/31/why-kids-should-be-taught-code [Accessed: 7 February 2018].

This week in the Digital Technology we were introduced to ‘coding’.  To be successful in coding, means you must have the ability to input ‘communicate’ information in a specific sequence, which will lead you to an end result, a finished product.  I think coding is similar to building a jigsaw, each piece plays a part in creating the finished jigsaw and with a piece missing the jigsaw is incomplete, in other words, it is unsuccessful.  Coding works in a similar way, therefor in order for young learners to do this successfully they need to challenge their problem solving and communication skills.

It is crucial that young learners today learn about coding and also most importantly that they understand coding, this is because technology is ever changing, ScratchJr (n.d).  Education must keep up to date with digital technology on the same level that they keep up to date with mathematics, literacy and science.  It is vital for future generations that this is understanding is actioned now, “The reason is that there’s no better way of helping someone to understand ideas such as recursion or algorithms than by getting them to write the code that will implement those concepts”, according to Naughton (2012, p.3).

The application we were using today was ScratchJr, which is used by educators and children across education.  ScratchJr is an introductory programming language that enables young children from 5 years old to create their own interactive stories and games.  Skills developed while using ScratchJr include:

• Creative thinking skills
• Logical reasoning skills
• Problem solving skills
• Collaboration skills

As part of class today we were asked to create an interactive story for a literacy lesson using ScratchJr.  Some thing that would promote literacy skills such as missing out the end to a story in order for children to predict an ending.  By doing this children can then explore their thoughts and ideas, get creative!  The lesson I planned today will be aimed at for around early level, which is roughly nursery aged 3 yrs – primary 1 aged 5yrs.  The literature is based around a mission to space, traveling through the solar system which includes a moon landing and the potential to explore the moon.

LIT 0 – 19a: I enjoy exploring events and characters in stories and other text, sharing my thoughts in different ways.

TCH 0 – 01a: I can explore digital technologies and use what I learn to solve problems and share ideas and thoughts.

SCN 0 – 20a: I can talk about science stories to develop my understanding of science and the world around me.

Looking back over class today and having the opportunity to use the iPad and ScratchJr I can see how beneficial this type of technology is to young learners.  It really engages your creativeness and it also allows you to correct any mistakes you have made therefor there is an opportunity to learn and progress further from making mistakes and fixing them.  I am happy that I am being introduced to yet another coding device that I can use in the classroom, in this case the device was assisting mostly with literacy where as before I used coding with the Bee Bot for mathematics.

I understand ways in which these technologies can be used across the curriculum and that they will develop over the years, allowing our young learners to be confident in the future when dealing with digital technology in various context.

References

• Education Scotland. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence; Experiences and Outcomes. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers [Accessed: 3 February 2018].
• Naughton, J. (2012) Why all our kids should be taught how to code. [Online] Available: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/mar/31/why-kids-should-be-taught-code [Accessed: 3 February 2018].
• ScratchJr. (n.d) [Online] Available: https://www.scratchjr.org/about/info [Accessed: 3 February 2018].

Today in class we were learning about multimodal text.  This wasn’t the first time that we had discussed this topic, as we studied multimodal text last year during a literacy lecture.  I was very interested to learn more as I already knew what some of the benefits that multimodal text bring to children in the classroom and their learning experiences.  Benefits such as interaction, collaboration, memorable and engaging, some of which will be discussed during this blog.

So what is a multimodal text? A multimodal text is is a piece of text that includes two or more semiotic systems.  Here are the five semiotic systems; linguistic, visual, audio, gestural or spatial, so by using two or more of these features you instantly have a multimodal text. Enabling you to create text for lessons that will have positive impact on young learners.  As studied by the Scottish Government (2015), digital technologies is an appropriate way to improve most literacy and numeracy skills, this has been seen particularly in primary school settings.

The application we were using today was called ‘Activinspire’, this is an interactive application that is both user friendly for children and teacher.  Like ‘Power Point’, it allows you to create and design your own slides, thus meaning you have complete control when it comes to adapting text for each level throughout education.  “The multimodality of technology…allows teachers to present an idea in a variety of different ways to help pupils understand it” according to Beauchamp (2012, p.8).

Together in pairs we looked at which area and level of the curriculum we would like to focus on and we brainstormed our thoughts and ideas.  We decided we would create a lesson for first level, the lesson would cover numeracy and mathematics experiences and outcomes and the subject would be ‘time’.  We chose time as we agreed that young learners could relate with time, therefor they would be engaged during the lesson and they could discuss outside activities which would contribute to the lesson. Below is the curriculum experiences and outcomes that we though would best fit our multimodal text.

MNU 1 – 10a:  I can tell time using 12 hour clocks realising there is a link with 24 hour notation, explain how it impacts on my daily routine and ensure that I am organised and ready for events throughout my day.

Activinspire is as I mentioned before, is both teacher and pupil friendly, as it can be changed to a studio format which is more formal and less likely to be used by children and more by the teacher. The application that the children use is also interactive by touch, for example on a smart board the children can write an answer or use a dragging motion to move images on the screen, depending on the text and task set. “Touch displays can become a social learning tool encouraging hands-on experiences, thereby helping children to learn by doing.” according to Prandstatter (2014).  This is a great oppertunity for communication in class as not all children actively speak out but are more than happy to participate with interactive technology which you may not have seen from the child if the task included a text book, reading book or worksheet.

I have witnessed this type of activity in a classroom environment and it does create great interaction within the children, as they all are so keen to participate and use the technology.  It is hard to explain the sheer excitement in the classroom when this type of activity is happening, children you thought were timid or shy are now desperate to participate and the children also laugh as they collaborate with their peers .  As stated by Beauchamp “There has been much research in recent years in the United Kingdom (UK) that explores how ICT contributes towards talk in the classroom.  This is particularly true when using the interactive white board, especially in the context of whole class teaching.” (2012, p.81).

I think it is of great importantance to have such a high mood in the class room, as it has huge positive impact on a child’s day and on what was learned that day.  I know that it works as I have witnessed it for myself while out on school placement and as I gain confidence with digital technology through my digital technology module, I will almost certainly be looking into using applications like this for interactive lessons in my future career.

References

• Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary School. [Online] Available: dawsonera.com/readonline/9781408251379 [Accessed: 25 January 2018].
• Education Scotland. (2004) Curriculum for Excellence; Experiences and Outcomes. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers [Accessed: 25 January 2018].