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.
Tag: Reflection on previous learning
How what I learned in the lecture/workshop has allowed me to reflect upon previous learning and what it is that I am reflecting on as a whole
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.
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.
French week one 9/1/17
Today we started a new topic in French which was to do with new topic about professions and the many different types of professions, and it allowed me to reflect upon how far we had come as a class. This was due to the fact that we had started at the beginning of the year and how quickly we have managed to progress through the course as the weeks have went on.
Society and Lifestyles week one 9/1/17
Today was started our new module which is all about how society and lifestyles and how we view its impact. This allowed me to reflect upon how we view religion in society and how it can be viewed as both as a good thing and a negative thing, as it depends on how it affects us in our everyday lives. I felt that i could research the theorists views further as I was not as clear upon their aspect of the lecture as i was on the other areas of it. I will continue to read further into the theories and try and interpret them to gain a better understanding of what it is that I am being asked.
Digital technologies Week one 9/1/17
We began the new module Digital Technologies earlier today, and started off by asking what did the term really represent. This allowed me to reflect upon the many different forms that we use not only around a classroom when teaching, but in everyday aspects of life and how we take most of them for granted. In the first half of the lesson we began to establish the reflective glow blogs which I feel are an effective way to allow us to communicate how we feel about the progress we are making as we continue to work through the weeks. It is also important to comment on the fact that literacy is not all about deciphering the lines and scribbles that we can make on a page, but rather about the social acts of meaning, where meanings and practices vary extremely depending on the circumstances in which they take place (Barton and Hamilton 1998, Local literacies: reading and writing in one community). In the second half of the lesson we moved on to practicing using the active inspire. This was a good way for me to think about how it was used when i was in primary school’s not only as a child, but as a volunteer and on my own placement, and how I can use this to plan for future lessons that I will be participating in. It also allows us to think about how we can move away from older ideologies and focus more upon the idea that technology can be used as a different form of teaching the same lesson, rather than it being a visual aid for a child’s learning.
