Today, week four of digital technology we got to learn and explore the coding program Scratch Jrn. Scratch Jrn is one of the few coding programs I was familiar with before today as it is a tool which I used at secondary school. However, I still had a lot of learning to do despite this knowledge beforehand.
Scratch Jrn is a starting point and more an introductory coding program where children aged around five and onwards can design their own creative stories and games. Scratch Jrn can be beneficial to a child’s learning in several ways. It teaches children how to ”write computer programs” and not only this but ”They are learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively – essential skills for success and happiness in today’s world.” (The Leads Project 2014) Scratch is important for the younger children of this generation as it is setting them up with life skills needed in the 21st Century. Scratch is an interactive program which allows children to socialise creating discussion and is an example of ”hands on learning” (Prandstatter, 2014)
Today we used Scratch Jrn to design a story which would aid a literacy lesson in the classroom. However, Scratch does not only aid Literacy lessons but can be used to ”aid teachers in subjects like mathematics, English, music, art, design and information technology.” (The Leads Project 2014) Today we were working individually to create our own stories on Scratch Jrn as part of our assessment. I chose to create a story about a young boy who had a dream he went to the moon. The reason behind making this story for a lesson was children could then carry on the story to what they felt happened next. The first part of the story gets their imagination going before they go to create the ending independently. When creating my story I learned how to use almost all the tools on Scratch Jrn. I was able to add backgrounds and spirits. I then went on to make each spirit move, speak to one another, Have things come in order and add sound to the short story. I was impressed with myself by how quickly I understood and learned how to work the program.
Once I completed my story on Scratch. I began to think about the experiences and outcomes that would relate to a lesson of this style. I felt the most appropriate experience and outcomes were ”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. ” (Tch 1-04a Tch2-04a)
” I can create, capture and manipulate sounds, text and images to communicate experiences, ideas and information in creative and engaging ways.” (TCH 1-04b TCH 2-04b)
Overall after today’s session I feel so much more confident and at ease with the coding program Scratch Jrn. I feel like it is something that will benefit me as a teacher and the children in the classroom. I really enjoyed experimenting with this tool and think children would have a lot of fun exploring it in a variety of ways to enhance many skills. Lastly, I find it interesting that there are so many ways to incorporate technology into lessons which will aid many other subjects.

Some pictures from my story:

References 

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

Curriculum for Excellence (2004) Experiences and Outcomes
[Online]
Available at: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf
[Accessed: 30th January 2018]

Prandstatter, J. (2014). Interactive Displays in Early Years Classes.
[Blog: Online]. Available: http://connectlearningtoday.com/interactive-displays-early-years-classes/
[Accessed on 24th of January 2018]

During Digital Technology this week we were exploring multimodal texts. Multimodal text is something which I have heard of before today however the program we were using to create our own multimodal text (activinspire) is something which was new to me.
Throughout the lecture/tutorial we firstly discussed the semiotic systems. There are five semiotic systems all together; Linguistic, Visual, Audio, Gestural and spatial. In order to create a multimodal text, it has to include two or more of the semiotic systems.
Multimodal has many benefits to its use. As technology vastly improves presenting something that has multimodality allows new and creative ways to teach. This also allows us as teachers to ”present an idea in a variety of different ways to help the pupils understand it.” (Beauchamp, 2012, pg.8) Children don’t often learn the same way as their peers so using multimodality presentations when appropriate it covers all or most of the children needs to provide a fuller understand of the information we are teaching.
For the last hour or so of our tutorial today we were given the opportunity to familiarise ourselves with the program Activinspire and were able to create our own mini lesson. In my group we decided to make the theme about animals. Each different slide had its own environment as the background to give the children a clue as to the animal that would be revelled at the end. However, this was a mini lesson on the children’s spelling. We chose an animal for each page. We wrote the word at the top and took away various letters. There was a letter bank at the bottom of the page which included the missing letters as well as a few random letters. The children can then come out and chose the missing letters of the word to finally spell out the animal names.
After exploring Activinspire myself and expanding my own knowledge on the program I was surprised by how interactive this toll could be in a classroom environment. Avtivinspire would allow all children to get involved hands on and form discussions about their learning. “Touch displays can become a social learning tool encouraging hands-on experiences, thereby helping children to learn by doing.” (Pranstatter, 2014.) From my own experience I think it is important to be able to do the learning rather than just be told. It makes the information make more sense and becomes easier to fully understand.

Overall I am looking forward to explore this tool in further depth and use my knowledge when in the classroom.

References

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

Prandstatter, J. (2014). Interactive Displays in Early Years Classes.
[Blog: Online]. Available: http://connectlearningtoday.com/interactive-displays-early-years-classes/
[Accessed on 24th of January 2018]

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]