Monthly Archives: January 2017

Reflective

Start from Scratch šŸ±

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Hi guys!Ā  This weekā€™s post is going to give you an insight into what we were doing in todayā€™s Digital Technologies class.Ā  This week we were working with ScratchJr and the task was to individually create a step by step guide for teachers who had never used ScratchJr before so that they could create short but educational games or tasks for their pupils.Ā  My task was based around topic work, in this case the class had been doing African Savannah as their topic.Ā  The task saw four different animals that are found in the African Savannah saying hello to the children and asking them to identify what kind on animal they are.Ā  There was a Giraffe called Maverick, an African Bush Elephant called Eleanor, a Spotted Sandveld Lizard called Scully and a Zebra called Penny.Ā  Each animal said hello and asked the children to identify what kind of animal they were, the animals then congratulated the children and then walked out of the screen.

Personally, I think that these kinds of activities are great for in a classroom as it gives the children another platform on which to learn.Ā  In this case the task was already created for them but if they were giving free reign on the programme their imaginations would run wild and also their coding skills would be developed too. Also their imagination skills will be developed as they get to decide what happens in their game/activity. Ā Problem solving skills are also greatly developed as the children have to work through the issues in their code through trial and error processes.

Golpin (2014) say, “being able to follow programming logic trains the mind to think in more analytical ways. I believe that debugging a program leads to better problem solving skills. I also believe these skills can be taught using programs like Scratch, Gamemaker, Kodu, and others, without emphasizing the need to learn ā€œhard core ā€ programming languages like C++ or PHP.” Ā Seymour Papert (Schwarz, 1999), one of the best known advocates for teaching computer science and programming in schools, sums this up well, “anyone who has witnessed a toddler using a computer has probably experienced a sense of awe at that child’s facility with what for adults can be an infinitely frustrating gadget. It’s one thing for a child to play a computer game; it’s another thing altogether for a child to build his or her own game.” Ā And this, according to Papert, 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. It is this very drive, Papert contends, that is squelched by our current educational system.

Here are a few pictures of the first slide of my ScratchJr task, I will upload the full step by step tutorial soon as a separate post.

Until the next time

Chloe x

Reflective

What’s The Buzz About šŸ

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Hi guys!Ā  This weekā€™s post is going to give you an insight into what we were doing in todayā€™s Digital Technologies class.Ā  This week was really good fun and was one of those opportunities, rarely seen in other subjects, where our imaginations were able to run wild and we could spend the whole 4 hours constructing our creations.Ā  This week we were working with Bee-Bot and our task was to create an educational game that could be used in a classroom.Ā  My group chose to base our game around a book called ā€˜Small Bear Lostā€™ which was the story of a small bear who was left on a train and struggled to find his way home.Ā  The first thing he did was finish his journey on the train and get off at the next train station which we called ā€˜Paddington Stationā€™.Ā  He then walked to a bus stop and got on a bus which took him to the entrance of a park where he found some balloons and floated away.Ā  He eventually got stuck on a gate which burst the balloons, luckily, he was right across the street from where is house was.Ā  Our game had a train track/tunnel that the renamed Bear-Bot had to navigate through from ā€˜Bearverly Stationā€™ to ā€˜Paddington stationā€™, then he had to navigate his way to the bus stop and onto the bus.Ā  Then he travelled to the park where he floated off and was eventually stopped by a gate that was right across the street from his house.Ā  The aim of the game was for the children to decide which area of the map the bear had to go to next by going over the facts they remembered from reading the story in class.Ā  For example, when the bear got off the train where did he go next?Ā  Did he go to the park or to the bus stop?Ā  The children had to decide which area the bear went to and navigate the Bear-Bot around the map and to the correct area.Ā  To make the navigation part a little more complicated than going in straight lines we used 3D objects to create barriers that the children had to go around.

I think that these kinds of activities are really useful in the classroom as it is not just getting the children to advance their technological skills but the cross curricular aspect of it means that they are learning two things in one activity.Ā  This, in theory, should make your life and their lives a little more fun and interesting, not to mention easier for you too!

The Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST) says that programmable toys allow pupils to learn about control and directional language through play while learning about a variety of different subjects. Ā In their paper ‘Floor Robots – focus on literacy and numeracy (Primary)’ they have four benefits of using floor robots in the classroom.

  1. They provide a vehicle for the introduction of key concepts in an easy and friendly way.
  2. They help with the development of skills such as logical sequencing, measuring, comparing lengths, space orientation and expressing concepts in words.
  3. They encourage group interaction, conversation and collaboration.
  4. They are visually very appealing to young pupils, with clear, bright buttons and a robust design.

The paper also gives you a couple of examples for a literacy and a numeracy activity, you can have a look for yourself at the link below.

http://www.pdsttechnologyineducation.ie/en/Training/ICT-in-Classroom-PDFs/ICT-in-the-Classroom-PDFs/Floor-Robots-focus-on-literacy-and-numeracy-Primary-13-06.pdf

Until the next time

Chloe x

Reflective

ā€œI need a one driveā€ šŸŽ¶šŸŽ¶šŸŽ¶

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Hi guys!Ā  This weekā€™s blog was written around the same time as last weeks because Iā€™m a week behind, but that doesnā€™t matter because Iā€™m all caught up now so here goes.Ā  This week we started off by finishing off the personalisation of our new blogs (I hope you like mine J) and began writing some posts (thatā€™s why all of my posts so far have been published on the same day).Ā  After the break, we moved on to OneDrive and got to know it a little bit better than we did before, we had a go at creating multi-author files and sharing documents between each other.Ā  Then we moved on to yammer, where we set up a group for the people in our Digital Technologies class and a private friend group called ā€˜blog squadā€™ which we are going to use to discuss ideas for new blog posts and get help with any issues we have with Glow.Ā  Finally, we moved on to Wiki and created our own private pages, we can use these as practise for when we are qualified teachers.Ā  Wiki is a great thing to use as teachers as the pages can be made private so only the people who are added can access or view the information posted.Ā  It also has a feature that allows you to track when your pupils have logged on and viewed the information, also you can set calendar events, praise people and create polls.Ā  This could be particularly useful for homework as it would be something different to giving out a paper copy of homework all the time.Ā  You could also use it as a discussion board for topic work as you can put the members into separate groups.Ā  The only thing you would have to make sure you do is have an internet safety and internet etiquette talk with your class to make sure that they donā€™t misuse the page or mistreat each other.Ā  Yammer is also quite good as it is similar to Facebook but you as teachers can view everything that is posted, you can also create private groups with your pupils so they are ā€˜protectedā€™ from any other people on the site (even though only pupils and teachers can access the site).Ā  Personally, I think that using these online resources will add to the childrenā€™s learning and may even make them more eager to learn because they get the chance to show it by using such resources as yammer and wiki.Ā  Also, I bet that it will make you even more popular with your students, youā€™ll be the coolest teacher around, which is a title that any teacher would be pleased to go by!

According to the National Math and Science Initiative Blog, using digital technologies in the classroom Ā makes the students more excited to learn. When technology is integrated into school lessons, learners are more likely to be interested in, focused on, and excited about the subjects they are studying. Subjects that might be boring for some ā€“ like math and science ā€“ can be much more engaging with virtual lessons, tutoring, and the streaming of educational videos.

Before I go, I have attached a link for my friend Sean’s blog and if you visit his site you’ll see the link between our posts about Yammer and OneDrive. Ā Hint, look at the titlesĀ šŸ˜‚

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/reflectivejournalsm/

Until the next time

Chloe x

Reflective

Three Little Pigs šŸ·šŸ·šŸ·

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Hi guys!Ā  This weeks post focuses on my very first Digital Technologies class.

So, this week we created a new Glow Blog page, which you are on right now, and then we had a look at some of the resources that can be found on the Glow Launchpad.Ā  We looked at Twig, TigTag and Glow TV, which are all quite useful; I personally really like Twig and TigTag because they have really good resources for STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).

Then, after the break we moved on and began working with ActivInspire.Ā  For this exercise, we watched a short video about the different features of ActivInspire with the use of an early level maths game based on shape.Ā  We then followed in the videos steps and created our own maths games for whichever level we wanted.Ā  My group and I created a maths ā€˜storyā€™ game in which we followed the tale of the ā€˜Three Little Pigsā€™.Ā  The pigs were admiring their new house when the Big Bad Wolf appeared and blew it down, the game factor was that the children were asked by the pigs to rebuild their house and were congratulated when this task was completed.Ā  I have attached pictures of the game created for you to enjoy and take inspiration from if you choose to.Ā  Our group chose to focus on early level maths just like in the video, this meant that the house was made up of very big and simple shapes making it perfect for the younger end of the school to enjoy.Ā  These kinds of activities are great for children as there is an aspect that they already have knowledge of, in this example they already know the story of the three little pigs, and this can make the maths element less daunting and boring for children, also by adding in sound effects (which we had) it can make maths even more fun and comical.Ā  This particular game can be used for more than just maths though, it is also useful for cross-curriculum activities such as a literacy exercise. Ā The children could be given a choice of three sentence structures and they have to choose the correct format (this would probably be for second level), or they use the beginning of the story of the three little pigs and write their own alternative ending to the tale.

There are multiple different ways in which you can use these types of activities across the curriculum and with a little time and effort on your part you can make an occasionally boring day a little bit brighter.

These multi-modal programs are very useful to use in a classroom, in his book ‘ICT in the Primary School From Pedagogy to Practice’ Gary Beauchamp says that “… it allows teachers to present an idea in a variety of different ways to help pupils understand it. Ā It can also Ā make work more interesting or motivating.” Ā .I think that this is very accurate and I believe that the statement is true, technology can allow you to present an idea in different ways and by doing this it can make the learning more interesting for the children, thus increasing their engagement and knowledge.

 

Until the next time

Chloe x

Reflective

Introduction

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Hi guys! My name is Chloe McNeill and I am an undergraduate student at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) currently studying Primary Teaching. When I was still at high school, becoming a primary teacher wasnā€™t my first career choice. I originally wanted to be a paediatrician (childrenā€™s doctor) but when I was in fourth year and work experience was round the corner a problem arose with my first choice. There were two of us going for the same placement at the local hospital and the only other option available was at the local primary school. I always knew that I wanted to work with children and because of this I dropped out of the hospital placement and went to the primary school instead as I knew I would do better in that setting than the other person. At first I was a little disappointed, as I really wanted to experience the hospital in a professional capacity rather than as a patient, but after my first day of work experience at the primary school I knew that that was what I wanted to do and paediatrics was a distant memory.

So, now you know a little about my background and why I got into teaching in the first place.

I am currently taking a module called ā€˜Digital Technologiesā€™ and this blog will mainly focus on what I do throughout this module. Iā€™m hoping to write a weekly blog about what this module consists of and how it will help me in my future career as a teacher.