Monthly Archives: January 2017

Religion, Society and Diversity

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In our first week of society and lifestyles we were introduced to the topic of religion and society. This involved studying religion in social context. In our first week we discussed religion from both the ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’. Religion from the ‘inside’ is the believers approach and religion from the ‘outside’ is the scholarly approach. There are also different types of religion. A established religion is a religion that has established roots and been around for a long time. A sect is a group which depends on voluntary membership and personal commitment. A cult is a group with more radical ideas and practices and usually has deviant and novel beliefs and is known for mind- control and manipulation of its members. We also discussed the functions of religion such as; life crisis, social relations, peace in the community and basic needs.

The independent study task included me researching the anthropologist, Bronislaw Malinowski. I found that Malinowski believed that there were scientific laws of culture that could also be applied to religion.  He said that magic was useful because it brought one individual into a leadership position during times of crisis in society. For Malinowski, religion was an institution that fulfils people’s biological and psychological needs.

In the tutorial, we discussed different aspects of religious diversity in groups. Again, my group was asked to focus on Bronislaw Malinowski. I felt that working in groups for this task was very beneficial, as everyone could share their ideas and views on the topic. Religious diversity is an area that I am still unsure of and I intend to do further reading on this area to improve my knowledge.

I now have a better understanding of the different functions of religion. However, I feel like I need to do further research on the other scholars such as Emile Durkheim as most of my research in today’s tasks was based on Bronislaw Malinowski.

This lecture and tutorial group was a great introduction to religion. It has left me keen to look in to the topics of religious diversity, scholars and the different ways that culture influences religion. I intend to do further reading in all of these areas.

Coding Assessment Task- Rachel Wallace 07.02.2017

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What is Scratch Jr?

Scratch Jr is an introductory programming language that enables young children (ages 5 and up) to create their own interactive stories and games. Children put together graphical programming blocks to make characters move, jump and sing. Activities and games can be created for the children to play to develop their skills in cross curricular areas including mathematics and literacy. A variety of characters and backgrounds can be selected. Therefore, the activity can be designed specifically to the child’s interests as this may encourage them more to take part in this learning activity. Furthermore, you could also link the activity to your class topic or reading book, making it a cross curricular activity. Scratch Jr allows you to add as many slides to your activity as you like, therefore, you can make it as long or as short as you would like.

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CFE Experiences and outcomes:

MNU 0-01a: I am developing a sense of size and amount by observing, exploring, using and communicating with others about things in the world around me.

TCH 0-03a: I explore software and use what I learn to solve problems and present my ideas, thoughts or information.

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My Scratch Jr Activity

My activity is for early years and is for children to develop their mathematics skills. The game is space themed to keep the children engaged and is a number counting activity, there are different slides and a varied number of aliens for the children to count. The first slide includes 3 aliens. When the pupil clicks on the alien it asks them “How many aliens can you see?”. The second slide has one alien and when the pupil clicks on the alien it asks “How many legs do I have?” (six legs). This is a great exercise for the children, it is an interactive and fun game for them to develop their mathematical skills. They will be much more motivated to play a game like this than they would doing an exercise out of a textbook.

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How to get started

Firstly click on the app and select the home icon on the left-hand side of the screen.

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How to create a new project:

To create a new project, click on the icon on the top left of the screen with the blue plus sign. Once you have done this you are now ready to create your own Scratch Jr activity.

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How to add a background:

The initial step of creating your own activity is giving it a background! To do this click on the icon at the top middle of your screen with an image of a landscape. There will be a variety of backgrounds to choose from. For my activity I selected the space themed background. As I said before, it would be a great idea to select a background that will be to your students interest, as they may be more motivated to play the activity if this is the case.img_0859 How to add characters:

On your screen there should be a cat character, to remove this locate the cat on the left- hand side of your screen. Hold in the button and click on the red ‘X’ to delete it. To then add new characters, click on the blue plus sign on the right- hand side of the screen. For my activity I selected the pink alien like character named “Toc”. To add new slides to your activity, click on the blue plus icon on the right hand side of the screen. If you need to delete any slides repeat the same process as you did when deleting characters- hold in the slide and click on the red ‘X’.

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How to navigate your character:

There are 6 coloured icons on the bottom of the screen.

The yellow icon gives you different options to where you want your character to start. The blue icon has different options within it to be able to move your character around the screen. The pink icon allows you to change the size of your character and has a speech bubble that you can add your own message within- this can be used to give the children instructions. The green icon is for adding sound. The orange icon is for stopping, speeding up and repeating movement. The red icon is for ending, repeating and navigating between slides. This may take some practice to get used to using these icons, however, once you have got the hang of it, you will be able to create an amazing Scratch Jr activity.picture3

Why use Scratch Jr?

Scratch Jr is a form of coding. Some people believe that coding is the new literacy. If children are introduced to coding programmes such as Scratch Jr, they will learn important strategies for problem solving, designing projects and communicating their ideas. Scratch Jr allows children make their abstract thought processes visible on the screen. The ability to code computer programs is an important part of literacy in today’s society. Therefore, in my opinion, programmes such as Scratch Jr are great to bring to the classroom. The idea of a fun and interactive approach to learning is exciting to children and they will even enjoy doing subjects such as maths!

“Why every child should learn to code”, an article by Dan Crow in The Guardia highlights the fact that we are already living in a world dominated by technology and that “the next generations world will be even more online and digital”. Therefore, these are the reasons why we need to teach children how to code and use today’s technology to their advantage. Although every job in the future will not involve programming it is important that children learn to code as it promotes computational thinking. This way of thinking combines mathematics, logic and algorithms and teaches a new way to think about the world. “The aim is to ensure that every British school child learns to code; not in a decade from now, but next school year”, with the rise in technology there is no time to wait and we need to start teaching the next generations these skills now to give them more opportunities in their future lives.

Bee Bot

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In today’s class we were introduced to Bee Bot. Firstly we were give the iPads and about ten minutes to explore the Bee Bot app. My first thought was that it was just a children’s game and would be easy and straight forward to work out how to play. It looked like a garden with a path that led to a pink flower and the aim of the game was to direct Bee Bot to the flower. However, it was much more confusing than it looked as it took all of us a while to work out how to play the game correctly. After we had worked out the app game, we were given the physical Bee Bot programmable toy and shown many different ways it could be used and how it could be used in cross- curricular activities.

By then splitting in to small groups of three we were given the task to create our own Bee Bot mat and choose a curricular area to teach. We needed to make sure we included both the Learning Intentions, Success Criteria and Experiences and outcomes (E’s and O’s).  My group decided to make the Bee Bot mat for the Early Stages. It was a cross-curricular area being including Health and Well-being and literacy as we based the activity on the children’s book ‘This is the Bear and the Picnic Lunch’. The mat was in the style of a picnic mat and o the squares was a mixture of healthy and unhealthy foods. We included the foods that were in the book but also had the idea of doing a class survey, by asking the children what type of food that they liked taking on a picnic and also including them on the mat. This shows the children that their opinions are valued and also makes the activity more personal to them. The children were expected to navigate Bee-Bot to each of the healthy foods on the mat, starting on the start square and finishing on the square with the picnic basket. To round up the lesson we would discuss why the children choose the healthy foods such as the apple instead of the unhealthy foods such as the chocolate bar. Then discussing the importance of a healthy diet.

After each group had finished creating their Bee Bot mat, they presented it to the class. Sharing their learning intentions, success criteria, experiences and outcomes. I really enjoyed this activity and will definitely look in to using Bee Bot in the future and when on placement. There are many benefits of using programmable toys in the classroom, such as, interactive responsive learning, instant feedback received by the learner, it is both challenging and enjoyable and it has effective cross- curricular links. According to Pekarova Janka”The curriculum introduces programmable toys as a good example for developing knowledge and understanding of the contemporary world”.

John Naughton’s article “Why all our kids should be taught to code” (2012) highlights many points as to why learning to code is important.  Naugton states that “Starting in primary school, children from all backgrounds and every part of the UK should have the opportunity to: learn some of the key ideas of computer science; understand computational thinking; learn to program; and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of excellence in these activities”. He believes that ICT in schools has become a “toxic brand” and that there is a need to replace it with a more relevant subject- he suggests naming it “computer science”. It is important that children learn and understand the networked world they are growing up in that involves a new and more abstract way of problem solving. There is no better time to reveal this world to children than in primary school, as if there is no action taken now “we will be short- changing our children”. Technology plays such a vital role in today’s society and is improving everyday therefore, children need to become a part of this world as well and make use of all its amazing programs.

 

Glow Blogs

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In our first week of digital technologies, we each set up our own Glow blog, calling it our ‘reflective journal’. We were given the time to customise our own blog. Having a blog allows us to reflect and then record our experiences and the things that we have learned over the past week. Furthermore, you are able to create your own ‘launch pad’, adding tiles that you find most useful or use most often. Updating our blog regularly will benefit us in the future as we can look back and read over things that we have done in the past. For example, when on placement and are planning lessons, you are able to look back at your blog as it may contain ideas for you to use. In my opinion, having a blog is a great idea, as you are analysing your week and experiences as you experience them. It is a fantastic thing to encourage in schools as it practices both children’s literacy and technology skills.

Through glow, we were also introduced to the software, Yammer. Again, this is a software that was new to me. It is a social media site that can be used for educational purposes. Unlike other social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook, Yammer only allows members to connect with other members who belong to the same email domain. This means that only relevant information will be seen. Furthermore, you can create private groups within the site, meaning only the people within the group will be able to see this. We made one within our Digital Technologies class and this helped us to get used to the site, by experimenting through uploading media files and posts. This is a great idea as if you choose to use Yammer in your class, it will be private and safe for the pupils to use. Yammer is a great way of communicating and sharing ideas with your co-workers and others within your profession.

ActivInspire

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209079667_1280x800The first week of our Digital Technologies module introduced us to a new software, ActivInspire. ActivInspire is an interactive software that can be used in classrooms for both teaching and learning. Through individually watching a video on how to navigate this software, it allowed us to see an example of it being used. Therefore, making it easier for us to work for the first time. In small groups of two or three, we made an interactive slideshow on shape that could be used to teach in the classroom.

Although it was difficult to work at first, it was a great opportunity to see all the different things that the software had to offer. This also allowed us to practice using this software and by working in a group it meant that ideas could be shared. After each group had created their interactive slideshow, we were given the opportunity to go round the classroom and see what each of the other groups had created. I feel as though this was a great method, as there was such a variety of ideas throughout the class and nobody had the same thing. Therefore, this allowed us to see things that we wouldn’t have thought of ourselves.

ActivInspire is a fantastic software and something that the children would enjoy and be interested in. It would perhaps make learning more fun for them as they are actively involved in it, making them more motivated and eager to learn. I really enjoyed this exercise and I will definitely practice using ActivInspire in order to develop my skills and knowledge in this area. As it is a software that will be useful in the future and perhaps in future placements.