Today was our last class for this module and I had been speaking to others about my growing anticipation to find a connection between digital technologies and outdoor learning. When I was at school, there was never any digital technology involved in outdoor play, just simply a pair of wellies and some waterproof clothes.

I was very excited to know what the learning intentions would be for the day and this is when we were introduced to ‘Quick Response Codes’ (QR Codes). A QR code is a type of bar code that is made up of black modules on a white background, unlike a normal barcode that has 20 alphanumeric character limit, a QR code can hold thousands of characters. QR codes were created in 1994 and are used mainly on smartphones and tablets however you may see them on signs, business cards and when sharing multimedia content such as an ebook (techopedia) and by downloading a QR reader App will allow you to scan any QR codes.

The QR codes that we used today were set up in the style of a treasure hunt and this is when I had the chance to see the connections between digital technology and outdoor learning. Our lecturer had placed many QR codes around the gardens of the university campus, we then had to seek out and scan each QR code using our mobile devices, which were iPads. Each QR code held a question with a multiple choice answer, when all the questions were answered correctly there was a jumbled up word to guess, then lastly we had to scan the final QR code and the team first to complete this were the winners. When we met back at the classroom, we created a ‘Pic Collage’ on an iPad, which was fairly simple and would be great tool for children in a classroom as the app allows for creativity and design.

Being outside was brilliant and memorable which the Scottish Government believe is part of the outdoor learning experience. I myself certainly remember my own childhood school trips and outings, as they were so much fun. I can only imagine how excited primary school children would be if they had the same oppertunity.

As a student teacher, it is important for me to experience as many different approaches to teaching as I can, as not all children will and can learn in a set typical environment. In order for this to happen we had an in-depth class discussion about  ‘GIRFEC’ (Getting it right for every child).  GIRFEC is a policy that is used in Scotland to ensure the wellbeing of our children and by using this we can put the differentiated needs of children and young people first (Scottish Government). GIRFEC is broken down into 8 areas of the SHANARRI Wellbeing Wheel which we related today to outdoor learning:

1. Active – Getting outside and exercising.
2. Respected – Looking after the environment.
3. Responsible – Behaving in different surroundings.
4. Included – Opportunities for children to shine.
5. Safe – Developing risk management skills.
6. Healthy – Promotes a healthy lifestyle.
7. Achieving – Personal development such as problem solving.
8. Nurtured – Building positive relationships.

I had my own oppertunity to create a lesson using the iPad and QR codes. The lesson was based on modern languages and for this I created a Spanish quiz. The quiz worked very similar to the treasure hunt and I can clearly see how easily adaptable lessons like these can be. While planning my lesson, I was aware of advice from my lecturer to ‘bundle’ CFE experiences and outcomes. I found that with activities like this bundling was happening by it’s self as ‘Digital Technology’ has so many positive outcomes, such as health and wellbeing, technology, numeracy and literacy etc.

Below are the areas of the CFE I have chosen for my lesson:

MLAN 2-11c I experiment with new language, working out the meaning of words and phrases using vocabulary I have learned so far.

TCH 2-04a I explore and experiment with the features and functions of computer technology and I can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts.

HWB 2-11a I make full use of and value the opportunities I am given to improve and manage my learning, in turn, I can help to encourage learning and confidence in others.

As you can see there is a wide range of experiences and outcomes, this has been the case throughout the digital technology module.

I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, that today was our last class, so I would like to conclude that I am so grateful for what this module has taught me. It has really opened my eyes to the world of technology and it’s many uses within education.

During this module, our class had opportunities to work in groups, this has meant that we have been communicating and collaborating throughout the module. Having the oppertunity to experience this, has helped us to understand what it may feel like, feelings such as confidence barriers and communication difficulties that some children may experience.

Our class lecturer has repeatedly explained to us how important it is to make things relevant, as it captures and holds a learners attention. I have experienced this for myself during my short time at university and college last year and I will ensure that relevance is something that I will take with me into the classroom as a future teacher.

The module has been so beneficial to me as my confidence in technology has increased, I know this because of the questionnaire I completed at the beginning and at the end of the module. This has shown a great increase in my confidence and knowledge. I will most definitely be getting involved with technologies in the future, my aim is to continue to build on my knowledge and also my confidence, this will benefit me as a student and as a teacher.

References

• Scottish Government. (2008) The Curriculum for Excellence. [Online] Available: http://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed: 27 March 2018].
• Scottish Government. (2010) The Curriculum for Excellence Through Outdoor Learning. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/cfe-through-outdoor-learning.pdf [Accessed: 27 March 2018].
• Scottish Government. (2017) What is GIRFEC? [Online] Available: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Young-People/gettingitright/what-is-girfec [Accessed: 27 March 2018].
• Techopedia. [Online] Available: https://www.techopedia.com/definition/2915/quick-response-code-qr-code [Accessed: 27 March 2018].

This week we continued looking at Game based learning and the game we covered today was ‘Minecraft’. When I asked P6 school pupils what Minecraft was, I was told “it is just like playing with Lego but you will never run out of bricks”. The global phenomenon that is Minecraft was designed in 2011 by a Swedish game designer called Markus Persson, who has since sold Minecraft to Microsoft and it has an estimated value is $2.5 billion, according to Hern and Stuart (2014).

I had the opportunity to play the game today as our class lecturer had arranged for a group of local P6 school pupils to visit us and help us to discover more about Minecraft. The pupils were very enthusiastic about the game and they all had a great wealth of knowledge. They lead us through worlds that they had created and explained how worlds were made and edited, they explained the process of visiting other worlds created by friends and that it was possible to interact with friends online whilst playing the game.

I must admit that I was completely out of my depth and I was so overwhelmed to see them race through the app on the iPad, it was second nature to them. Here I witnessed great communication skills between the children, problem solving, collaboration and creativity. The teacher mentioned to us that some children gave up play time to come into class and work on the worlds, which is realistically class work however the children see it as fun.

It is easy to see how Minecraft can be linked to many areas of the curriculum such as literacy and technology, some Experiences and Outcomes could be;

LIT 1-09a – When listening and talking with others for different purposes, I can exchange information, experiences, explanations, ideas and opinions, and clarify points by asking questions or by asking others to say more.

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 contexts.

MTH 1-13a – I can continue and devise more involved repeating patterns or designs, using a variety of media.

In class, we read an ebook called ‘Playful Learning: Computer Games in Education’ by Ollie Brays, a national development officer in his profession. Here he discusses ideas such as play based learning and its advantages, some of which teachers have always used for example, board games or reading games. However the use of technologies in play can simply be seen as a natural progression. It is the action of doing, playing and experiencing that engages children and the learning flourishes from there, according to Bray (2012). Theorists such as Piaget also agree by doing, there will be an increase of knowledge, Higher Education Academy (2017).

As 21st century learning increases in the classroom, it is import that teachers and educators can stay upto date on the games that are available. It is not critical that we all know how to play a game however it is critical they we are aware of the games content. For this we can use the (Pan European Games Information) PEGI rating. Similar to gauging movie content we can use the PEGI rating to quickly choose which games are suitable for what ages and stages using the labelling system. The labelling system can inform the class teacher what the game contains and reasons they might not want to use it such as violent content or bad language, according to Bray (2012).

Beauchamp (2012), constructed a list of skills that young learners could develop by simply having the opportunities to use digital technologies in the classroom. Included in the list below, are two common themes that I have identified throughout my blogs for this module;

• Strategic Thinking
• Planning
• Communication
• Application of numbers
• Negotiating Skills
• Group decision-making
• Data Handling Skills.

Beauchamp (2012, p.10).

Throughout my blogs, I have noticed common themes developing, these are; collaboration and communication. These skills are part of a skill set that we can build upon throughout our lives. If we can include such skills across the curriculum, we will enable young learners to better prepare for transitions such as, early years on to primary education, then on to secondary education. Thinking even further ahead, preparing them for the realities of the outside working world.

References

• Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary School. [Online] Available: dawsonera.com/readonline/9781408251379 [Accessed: 17 March 2018].
• Bray, O. (2012) Playful Learning: Computer Games in Education. [Online] Available: https://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/playful-learning-computer-games-in-education [Accessed: 17 March 2018].
• Hern, A and Stuart, K. (2014) Minecraft Sold: Microsoft buys Mojang for $2.5bn. [Online] 15 September. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/15/microsoft-buys-minecraft-creator-mojang-for-25bn [Accessed 17 March 2018].
• Higher Education Academy. [Online] Available: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/gamification-and-games-based-learning [Accessed: 17 March 2018].
• Image Source: [Online] Available: https://pixabay.com [Accessed: 17 March 2018].
• Scottish Government. (2008) The Curriculum for Excellence. [Online] Available:  http://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed: 17 March 2018].

Today we were introduced to the term ‘Game Based Learning’. Here young learners have the oppertunity to play gaming devices in class, such as a Nintendo Wii or Xbox. “Digital Games-based Learning is the integration of gaming into learning experiences to increase engagement and motivation”, Higher Education Academy (2017).

The actually playing of the game however is a very small part of the term game based learning and this is because the majority of the learning stems from lessons and activities based around said game.

I discovered this for myself today in class, as the class were set a task of designing our very own ‘Super Mario Kart’. The design we decided to move forward with was one of the students in our small group, he had created a Kart that had pizza as wheels.

This lead to the start of our ‘Interdisciplinary Planning’ (IDL). By reading through the CFE we soon realised there were going to be an endless amount of E’s & O’s that we could link to the little pizza wheeled Kart. All these ideas were coming from a simple task that we were set to design our own Super Mario Kart. The areas of the curriculum that we decided to move forward with were Maths, Literacy, Technology and Health and Wellbeing all of which would develop learning and enhance understanding.

Note by this point we hadn’t even touched a gaming device yet the idea was allowing us to plan a full topic for a class of young learners. Below is a draft of our IDL and some examples of the E’s & O’s we decided to use.

MNU 1-07B – Through exploring how groups of items can be shared equally, I can find a fraction of an amount by applying my knowledge of division.

LIT 1-24a – I can present my writing in a way that will make it legible and attractive for my reader combining words, images and other features,

TCH 0-02a – I can use digital technologies to explore how to search and find information.

HWB 1-29a – I enjoy eating a diversity of foods in a range of social situations.

When directed to a website called ‘Edutopia’ I found an article by Miller (2012), he explains about the ‘top three 21st century skills’, two of which are collaboration and communication, which we covered in class. He refers to ‘utilising a team’ to achieve goals which I experienced today in class and also ‘generating effective team directions’ which again we had to do in class today in order to choose a design to use and to decide which areas of the curriculum that we were going to use in our IDL.

These 21st century skills can be related to the following theorists Piaget and Vygotsky as they studied the social groups and were ‘Constructivists’, which believe by doing, playing and adopting roles in groups such as collaboration and cooperation is a vital part of learning and brain development, Higher Education (2017).

In conclusion, I found this very fascinating! Previous to this lesson I would have been quite against game based learning. I thought it would have involved hours of class time playing games and I would not have seen the immediate benefits. Having the oppertunity to speak to our class lecturer and for him tell us of his own reflections of how game based learning works in a classroom has completely changed my views on game based learning. “One of the biggest misunderstandings about games, and people who play them, is that games don’t “teach” anything. It’s assumed that there is no value in the experience”, according to Miller (2012).

I look forward to using similar ideas in the future with my class of young learners.

References

• Higher Education Academy. [Online] Available: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/gamification-and-games-based-learning [Accessed: 10 March 2018].
• Miller, A. (2012) Game-Based Learning to Teach and Assess 21st-Century Skills. [Online] Available: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/game-learning-21st-century-skills-andrew-miller [Accessed: 10 March 2018].
• Scottish Government. (2008) The Curriculum for Excellence. [Online] Available: http://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed: 10 March 2018].

This week in digital technology we were looking at mobile devices and discussing, ‘should mobile devices be used in primary schools?’. Our class lecturer posted this question on the digital technology moodle forum allowing us to post our own thoughts on the discussion. To gain further knowledge or opinion on the matter we were directed to some online articles about technology in the classroom.

After reading a few of the articles, particularly ‘The Telegraph’ article, I understand there has been a lot of money invested in technology. There seemed to be a common trend, that many teachers agree that technology is useful in the classroom, as it engages the young learners. However due to a lack of training, many teachers were fearful of technology and also that they struggle to place it within the curriculum, according to Curtis (2014).

I personally feel after seeing technology being used while I was out on school placement that is really does engage the children. Technology doesn’t need to be over the top or complicated for teacher or pupil for example having that class registered on the smartboard allowing the children to register their attendance or for the teacher to play a ‘you tube’ video that may promote Health and Wellbeing etc.

I also believe that technology can engage some children a little too much as I saw on placement that it seemed to be the same individuals interacting with the technology and falling behind on their other written work or scencery work. To over come this, I motitored them over the day/week and encouraged them to prioritise their work load.

Our task today using the Easispeak Microphone was really fun and I look forward to using the main ideas in the future. Working in pairs we wrote a short poem using a template given to us by our class lecturer. We made a Microsoft Power Point presentation where each slide contained; a line from our poem, a picture inspired by the particular line of the poem and a voice recording of us from the easispeak microphone.

This task was very enjoyable as it allowed us to be completely free with our ideas and because we were working in pairs it also involved us working together and deciding as a pair who was doing what and what our poem would read like, sound like and look like. In a classroom with young learners, some may find that collaborating with classmates quite difficult at first, which again makes this a good challenging lesson and part of the CFE experiences and outcomes;

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

I consider the impact that layout and presentation will have and can combine lettering, graphics and other features to engage my reader. LIT 2-24a

I can create, capture and manipulate sounds, texts and images to communicate experiences, ideas and information creative and engaging ways. TCH 1-04b/TCH 2-04b

References

• Curtis, S. (2014) Digital Learning: How technology is reshaping teaching. [Online] Available: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/11051228/Digital-learning-how-technology-is-reshaping-teaching.html [Accessed: 28 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: 28 February 2018].

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].

In the Digital Technology class today we were looking at the use of programmable toys in a classroom. We discussed their function in education, focusing mainly on early years and how they can be used in relation to the various areas of the curriculum including literacy and numeracy.

The toy chosen for us to work with was the Bee-Bot, ‘The programmable toy Bee-Bot4 was awarded as the most impressive hardware for kindergarten and lower primary school children on the world educational technology market BETT 2006’ according to Janka (2008, p.3).

I have been lucky enough to work with Bee-Bot in the past both in university and while out on school placement.  I would say that I am fairly confident using the Bee-Bot however when I was asked to try the Bee-Bot downloadable app on the iPad I found it quite difficult.  I am assuming it was teething problems and I will be ok with it next time.

In our small groups we brought together our ideas and we designed a lesson plan that would include a Bee-Bot and a Bee-Bot mat. The lesson would make clear links to the Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes across all levels to ensure we could use the lesson through out the school.

The group decided that a number grid would be good as numbers are used across all levels and also that greater numbers could be added allowing the children to challenge themselves. We made a mixture of flash cards which included addition and subtraction questions, we also used a mixture of symbols and words within the questions.  The children would work on a points based system and record their answers and scores, first to reach five points was the winner. Most questions were worth one point however in-order to encourage the children to challenge their own abilities we awarded slightly more challenging questions with two points.  There was also a discussion in the group about the lesson moving to higher levels and in that case, the children can be in control of the activity and make flash cards for their peers that they thought to be more challenging.

All of this supports development in the ‘four capacities’ which are:

• Confident individuals
• Effective contributors
• Responsible citizens
• Successful learns

I say this because, as a class we discussed what the benefits are of programmable toys.  Some of the benefits included were; concentration, estimation, communication, problem solving, interactive learning and instant feedback. All of which are crutial for development, according to Janka (2008).  When taking into consideration the benefits, the small group decided which learning experiences and outcomes would link to our lesson plan. The E’s and O’s best related were Mathematics and Technologies:

• 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: 16 January 2018].
• Janka, P. (2008) Using a Programmable Toy at Preschool Age: Why and How? [Online] Available: http://www.terecop.eu/downloads/simbar2008/pekarova.pdf  [Access: 16 January 2018].
• Lydon, A. ( 2007) Let’s Go With Bee-Bot: Using your Bee-Bot across the curriculum. TTS Group Ltd.
• NCTE (National centre for Technology in Education). (2012) NCTE Floor Robots – Focus on Literacy & Numeracy. [Online] Available: http://www.ncte.ie/media/NCTE_Floor_robots_focus_on_literacy_numeracy_primary_12-06.pdf [Accessed: 16 January 2018].