Monthly Archives: January 2018

Curriculum, Education Systems and Professional Responsibilities, Teaching and Learning

Digital Technology- Week two

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Today was my second week in digital technology. After an introduction to the module last week this week was when the work began. Today we were introduced to programable toys, in particular bee-bots. This is something which I have never came across before coming to university. As the bee-bot can be used effectively in teaching from early years up until secondary I was eager to experiment and come to terms with the programable toy myself.
We arranged ourselves into small groups before planning our own creative activity with the bee-bot. My group decided on a super market theme. We felt this was useful for the counting and handling of money as well as how money it used. After completing our bee-bot mat we recognised we cooperated three different outcomes from curriculum for excellence. Each outcome being TCH 0-09a, MNU 0-09a and MTH 0-17a. Due to the large quantity of outcomes throughout the levels teachers are under pressure to complete them all. I feel personally bee-bots benefit this as they allow an opportunity to cover more than one outcome at a time.
Personally, I feel programmable toys teach children in school’s important life skills, for example how to be independent. After reading ‘Sharing Good Practice’ I noticed this was a theory made by others, ”All children learnt how to use Bee-Bot about as quickly as I expected, but they gained independence faster than I anticipated. Twelve children out of the 28 were able to use the Bee-Bot without any adult help after the initial instructions.” (Lydon, 2008, Pg. 2) Now I have experienced bee-bot first hand I am aware that it’s a light weight toy with very clear buttons on the top for directions. This makes the toy accessible and easy for the children to work, which improves independence.
As my group decided to produce a mat which explores the mathematical outcomes I am aware the bee-bot can be altered and created to cover certain literacy outcomes. ‘Floor Robots-focus on Literacy and numeracy (primary)’ Article gave me a range of ideas for the future. I like the idea of reading a book which includes journeys and getting the children to create a bee-bots mat which relates to the story. (National Centre for Technology in Education, 2012, Pg. 1).
After today’s lecture I am knowledgeable about programable toys and understand how to use them. I am also aware of the benefits programable toys have in a classroom environment. Now that I am enlightened and have created a bee-bot mat myself this is something I will take forward and put into practice in my teaching career.

 

Reference List:

ICTopus Article (2008) Sharing Good Practice: Robots in Early Education by Alison Lydon.
[Online]
https://oponoa- programmeertalen.wikispaces.com/file/view/BeeBot_article.pdf
[Accessed: 16th January 2018]

NCTE (National centre for Technology in Education) (2012) NCTE Floor Robots – Focus on Literacy & Numeracy.
[Online]
http://www.ncte.ie/media/NCTE_Floor_robots_focus_on_literacy_numeracy_primary_12-06.pdf
[Accessed: 16th January 2018]

Curriculum for Excellence (2004) Experiences and Outcomes
[Online]
Available at: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf
[Accessed: 16th January 2018]

Curriculum, Teaching and Learning

Digital Technology Week 1- 9th January

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Tuesday the 9th of January was my first day in my personal choice module; Digital Technology. I decided to pick this module as I felt my own knowledge on technology could be explored further. Today was mostly an introduction to the module however, we covered a lot. We were able to take part in a discussion about what we thought technology was, after listening to an introduction then exploring different studies on Moodle about technology in the classroom environment.
The term Digital technology intrigued me. I understood technology and have a reasonable understanding of technology although I never understood how much we could use it or the different environments we could use it in. After browsing Moodle I read the document ‘Enhancing Learning and Teaching Through the use of Digital Technology.’ I grasped from the document as a whole that children had more knowledge than teachers about digital technology and they wanted to instil this knowledge into teachers in order to use this effectively within the classroom. It was suggested in this document that technology could benefit learning and teaching, ”If used effectively and appropriately digital technology can enhance learning and teaching.” (Scottish Government 2016, page 3) I thought it was interesting that when the ”Children parliament consulted with 92 children, they thought that access to digital technology in school is constrained by the lack of digital equipment and limitations in the skills of their teachers in using digital technology” (Scottish Government 2016, page 8) This stood out to me as it reminded of my experience within school. Computer’s and technology were always fun to use however, we did not use these resources often in our learning as the teacher lacked Knowledge in this area.
Later in the day we accessed glow and spent time looking around and adding new tiles to our launch pad we thought would be of use, not only for this module but for future use in the teaching career. Glow is something I have been familiar with since primary school but was always unsure how to use it correctly. It was not until today I realised how glow is a useful tool and the resources it carried that would and can help me throughout this journey. ‘Primary Resources’ and ‘BBC Languages’ are so far the tiles I like most. I explored both and feel these are the two which will help me in the years to come when on new placements.
Overall, my first experience of Digital Technology was exciting and enjoyable. Although this first lesson was primarily about familiarising ourselves with the content of the course and what to expect I know it is something I will enjoy. After today it has also become clear my knowledge in technology is not what I thought, I have a long way to come to be able to be fully confident in all aspects of digital technology. I look forward to exploring new things and being challenged along the way in this course.

References

Scottish Government (2016) Enhancing Teaching and Learning through the use of Digital Technology: A Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland.

[Online] Available at: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0050/00505855.pdf

[ Accessed: 9th January 2018]