digital technologies week beginning 21/3/17

Today we explored the benefits of how we can use the outdoors in order to explore our environment and how we can plan other lessons relating to the surroundings that we have. According to curriculum for excellence “all children and young people are participating in a range of progressive and creative outdoor learning experiences which are clearly part of the curriculum”. It also states that working outside can allow children to transfer skills that they have already acquired in the classroom, in different contexts that they are not used to. It can also help with class topic lessons such as science, as they could explore their local environments and write down what they find, and as a smaller group, present what you find with others and compare your results. It also encourages more practical lessons as according to a parent council member “They understand what they’re doing a lot more – it’s all very well looking at books and speaking about things but if they’re outside doing it”. It also allows you to explore the environment and use objects such as leaves to reinforce basic counting, for example: counting the number of petals on a flower, the number of trees on a river bank. We used apps such as photo booth and pic collage in order to take photos of what our surroundings were and effects such as mirror, in order to show symmetry. Also, pic collage allowed us to create a mini group of pictures and allowed for us to explain what it was that we had seen and taken photos of. These apps can be used effectively in lessons as you can get the children to take photos and then get them to label the different objects and animals that the discover, or even use it in maths by getting them to write how many of a type of animal or object they encountered.

digital technologies week beginning 14/03/17

Today we began to explore how we can use video games in the classroom in order to help aid learning in the classroom. After playing Mario Kart we used the characters as inspiration in how we could get a child to create their own character through a literacy lesson. We also began to plan other lessons with included, maths, geography, problem solving and health and well being. It must be commented that children of this generation are seen as digital natives as they grow up being taught how to use basic technology, and games such as Minecraft are hugely influential in aiding this process. These games allow for children to use their imaginations and can be used to create anything that they can put their minds to, as it is an infinite world for them to explore and build on. It can also be used alongside another lesson as you can get the children to write and create a story in a literacy lesson, then create the characters, settings and backgrounds in the game and show off their ideas. It would be best to keep them to a smaller group of individuals as this would allow for you to be able to control the activity and prevent their minds from wandering off and doing their own thing. It is also easily accessible and multiple worlds can be created, should more than one class actually need to use it. It also allows them to be able to explore the software they are using effectively and be able to manipulate classroom situations to their benefit. Also unlike most games consoles, the wii can be used as a way of getting children to be more active when playing video games, as games like wii fit and wii sports get children to move around as they play. It also can be used for other educational games such as African safari (teaches science and geography) and brain training (to teach areas such as maths and English).

Digital technologies week 7/3/17

Today we continued to use mobile devices in the classroom and how it can be implemented into a literacy or a maths lesson. We began to explore the many different features of the Nintendo DSi and how the apps on the console can be used to effectively contribute towards an overall lesson. For example Pictochat can be used to discuss questions with other members in a classroom and can even be used to answer questions as part of a game. It can also be sued as a way of making sure that children have understood what they are being taught and it also allows them to be able to explore software and use what they learn to present solutions to problems they come across, as well as being able to organise and manage informaiton that they gather to apply them to different scenarios they are presented with (TCH-0-03a/1-03a). It also can provide a more effective and fun way to allow for them to develop their communication skills as well as other areas of their knowledge, as they can work together in group chats to discuss the answers. They can also be reused from class to class as they can be applied to many different subjects and many different age groups. For example, apps such as pictochat can be used to get a group of pupils to answer questions in a chatroom and discuss their answers and why they think there one is correct, and then reveal the answer. The only problem with this is that the teacher may have to potentially monitor the activity to make sure that they don’t go off from the set task and become distracted by something else.

Digital Technologies week 28/02/2017

Today we began to work on how we can use ebooks and how the influence of ipads in the classroom can be beneficial to aiding their learning. We began by creating our own ebooks which was a summary about the Roald Dahl book “George’s marvelous medicine”. This allowed us to become familiar with the apps and how simple it was to create our own ebooks. This could be used effectively in the classroom as more and more schools are introducing them. It supports all three types of learning as kids can watch videos and hear how to use the app, and then practice using the app for themselves. Also it could potentially be cheaper in the long term as you would not have to buy as many physical copies of the books if they were downloaded onto the ibooks apps and could be used over a number of years. They also have educational apps that could aid young children’s further learning. Education secretary Mike Russell is a big fan of the use of technology in the classroom and even stated “I want to drive forward a culture change in Scottish education and ensure new technologies can be embedded into learning.” I personally feel that technology through the use of ipads could be really beneficial as it would allow for pupils to be more imaginative with their ideas, especially when it comes to the likes of creating their own stories in relation to lessons. It may also allow for them to develop other skills such as communication and working with others as these are important areas in learning.

maths for understanding week 13/2/17

Today we finished off the theory part of the module as we continued on to discuss probability and the second part of fractions and decimal numbers. Looking back over the extent of the module it has really made me reflect on mu own education growing up and also how much i take for granted when trying to teach such basic concepts. It has also given me the knowledge that i will require to effectively help teach across the main ways in which i would need to teach these concepts to the pupils.

digital technologies week 20/2/17

Today we continued on developing our animation on internet safety and how important it is to emphasise the importance of being safer online, especially in an age when it is becoming more and more relevant as time goes on. In 2015 the education secretary Nicky Morgan commented that “we must do everything we can to help children stay safe online – at school and at home.” Online Safer awareness day is a huge factor in this as it helps to raise awareness in how we can help pupils to understand the many different forms of harm can appear on the internet and what we must do in order to prevent such harm from affecting their future. Our animation was targeted towards this and under the cfe, TCH (1-008a), this area allows us to develop our own knowledge and safe use of conduct when interacting and sharing experiences, ideologies and information with other individuals on certain platforms. It also allows for us to try help spread the message that being safer on the internet, in a more creative and imaginative way rather than just talking about it out-loud off of a piece of paper for an hour. It will also help to keep the attention of the pupils that you are trying to teach. Seeing what other people had created as well was really refreshing as it allowed me to see how we managed to take the same concept and yet come up with so many different and creative results for the outcomes, as each one had their own personal touch on the matter.

maths for understanding week 8/2/17

Today we began to work on decimal fractions and how we would teach it within a lesson. It allowed me to realise how basic things such as number lines and meter sticks. This is due to the fact that you can divide them up and teach them how each section represents a fraction of something much larger. It also allowed for me to understand how I was taught how to use my basic understanding of multiples and division to first of all understand how much each fraction represented and then convert them to a decimal number, but making sure not to make the mistakes of putting a number in the hundredths column instead of the tenths column.

Digital technologies week 7/2/17

Today we finished off the work from last week and discussed how this could be used effectively in a lesson. It really helped me to understand how i can use this program to allow pupils to develop not only a sense of learning of a particular subject such as maths or English, but also it allows them to develop a basic understanding of coding and the skills that can come with it. For example in TCH-0-09a the outcome is for the pupils to be able to develop a sense of problem solving skills through playing an electronic game. In the second half of the lesson, we began to discuss how we would teach internet safety to pupils in a primary school. This is an area which i feel has become much more important since i left primary school as more and more kids are beginning to activate and create their own social media accounts at a much younger age and being safe online is a crucial aspect for someone that age. We currently live in an age where technology is thriving and being safer on the internet has never been more crucial. As a result we began to research further into how to teach children from a young age how to be safer on the internet and next week, we are beginning to tie in animation with this topic as it is an effective way to help get across these important points.

Digital Technologies week 30/01/2017

Today, we began to work with a new coding program called Scratch. I had some previous experience back in high school when i did my computing higher in sixth year. It was quite amazing to see how much a simple coding program can be used so effectively and so efficiently in a lesson such as maths or literacy. It is also fun and interactive as well as being very user friendly meaning that kids can understand how to use it from a very young age and start to be creative in what they choose to make from it. As i began to plan my own lesson for how a teacher could use it in a lesson for a wide range of ages ( but more specifically the early and first levels.) For example, you can use the character models (in this case animals) to teach the basic concepts of addition and subtraction which in turn can lead to more complex areas such as multiplication and division. Or even in literacy as they can use the characters and storyboards can be used to create their own stories from their imagination. Scratch can definitely be used as a tool in helping to develop the learning process at a younger age in my opinion, especially in a generation which thrives on digital learning.  According to Papert , programmig for young children is where the computer’s true power as an educational medium lies — in the ability to facilitate and extend children’s awesome natural ability and drive to construct, hypothesize, explore, experiment, evaluate, draw conclusions — in short to learn — all by themselves.

 

https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/coded-success-benefits-learning-program (source for papert quote)

 

Maths week beginning 23/1/17

Today we started to learn about the ways in which we could teach algebra in the classroom, and I must admit, this was an area that had surprised me at first as I had not expected this to come up until at least secondary school as it had for me. However, the methods we were being taught gave me a fresh insight into how maths has developed in primary schools since i left it 8 years ago and how it continues to branch out at a younger age, showing the progress made. In the workshop, we also did symmetry which I must admit was never a strong point of my own when I was growing up and is an area that I still struggle with to some extent today. However I plan to go away and research the topic so I can have a better understanding of what it is that I will be going out and teaching, as it remains a key area in the curriculum today.

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