Learning about how to navigate Activinspire was a new experience for me and forced me to delve outside my comfort zone within technology. Working alongside my peers to create a game-based lesson for pupils allowed me to see the wide range off possibilities for lesson plans that Activinspire offers and allowed me to practise creating a lesson based on a first-level learning outcome and to consider what the pupils would already know and what they would be focussed on learning. By watching videos and viewing the games made by the other students in my class, I could see that this programme can be used for all types of lessons and all subjects, providing opportunities for pupils to take part in their own learning and to remain engaged through participation. As discussed in the Scottish Government Literature Review on the Impact of Digital Technology on Learning and Teaching, research shows that effective use of an interactive whiteboard in primary schools – incorporating it into all aspects of teaching and learning – has a positive impact on attainment throughout time spent in school.

I found myself to enjoy working with this programme and the practise that I got allowed me to become aware of a lot of its functions. However, I will need more practise with this as I want to be able to navigate it quickly and as effectively as possible, using all of its features. I struggled to remember where to find certain symbols to create a new page and to duplicate a page. Although with more practice and by watching tutorial videos I will become used to this and will become more and more effective in my use of the programme, hopefully before my next placement as this is definitely a programme I would like to use when teaching.

As well as learning about Activinspire, I became more confident in my ability to use Glow effectively. I navigated through different programmes within Glow such as TigTag, Twig and Glow TV. These are fantastic resources for teaching lessons of all subjects and can be used to link different subjects together through cross-curricular learning. TigTag and Twig were mostly science based but as all sciences relate to different subjects, these resources provide an interesting and active lesson for pupils and would allow me to begin or break up a lesson in an engaging way. While Glow TV provides numerous opportunities for pupils to get in touch with others from all over the country and to learn from them from a live video. There is also the option to re-watch all of the videos. I felt that these programmes were relatively easy to use but with more practise I would be able to build up a range of specific lessons from these that I find particularly relevant, especially when I am on placement.