The use and importance of mobile devices in schools is rising significantly as these devices can offer a variety of ways for children to learn. The British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) discovered that “schools see technology such as games consoles and smartphones as playing an important role in primary- aged children’s education”. After carrying out research they found that “While the majority of schools indicated internet access at home and at school as the most beneficial technology for pupils, three quarters identify home access to educational games consoles like Nintendo DS as being helpful to children’s educational development”. This makes learning more enjoyable for pupils knowing they can use these devices in the classroom as well as at home.
Technology is constantly changing and advancing, therefore schools need to do the same. In today’s society it is vital for schools to keep up to date with the latest changes in technology as the pupils will most definitely be aware of these changes. This is important to ensure that children will not be bored when learning. By using these devices that they are familiar with it will make learning more enjoyable. Furthermore, children will be more likely to play these devices at home.
At first, I thought games consoles, such as Nintendo DSi’s would be a distraction to have in the classroom. However, through learning more about it in this module I have realised how much potential it has. We explored games such as Flipnote: we used this to play a game “Guess the nursery rhyme”. By using Flipnote we created a mini animated cartoon about a scene from a nursery rhyme. For example, an animation from a cow jumping over the moon from the nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle”, then your partner must guess what the rhyme is. Flipnote can also be used to play a game of charades. All members of the group choose a card from the pile and have 5 minutes to create an animation to explain this. Pictochat is also a great game on the Nintendo and can be used to play a number of games. My personal favourite was “The Chase Challenge”. This game involves 3 roles, the teacher- who calls out the questions, the chaser- single person who tries to score 10 correct questions first and finally the hunted- the other members of the group. The teacher calls out 10 questions based on a particular theme such as maths, eg multiplication, the hunted must try to correctly answer 10 questions before the chaser in order to win. The camera can also be used to practice symmetry. By taking a photograph of an object, press EDIT button, then click on the MIRROR icon and create a series of symmetrical images.
Therefore through exploring these games and doing further reading on the use of games consoles in the classroom I have realised how beneficial and important technology is for learning in today’s society.
