Category Archives: Digital skills

Transforming Learning

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“Digital technology can enhance learning and teaching across the curriculum and equip all of our learners with the essential digital skills they need to succeed in life, learning and work.” – Angela Constance, MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning.

The world we live in is surrounded by digital tools and spaces that everyone is consuming and using within everyday life. It is important that, within primary schools, we are improving the access children have to digital technology and enhancing the use of it in our classrooms. From my point of view, I think it is clear that we have a rapidly growing set of digital tools that can be used but the question is, how are we going to use these as educators to enhance the learning spaces we have?

“We define digital literacies as the capabilities which fit someone for living, learning and working in a digital society.” – Jisc

I think it is fair to say we are most definitely seeing children grow up in a digital society: social media has exploded over the years and the resources available to use online has become unlimited. Therefore, it would be wise to think about how to utilise some of these iterms within the modern classroom.

The Scottish Government have taken a major step forward with the development and recognition of the ever advancing digital tools and spaces we have. September of 2015 marked the consultation on the development of the Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland. When it ended in December, Angela Constrance stated: “The Scottish Government will now work with key partners across education and IT to develop a Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland to be published in summer 2016.” 

This is a sign that the government recognise he potentials of digital tools and spaces and realise how important it is to get it embedded within Curriculum for Excellence.

Let’s think about Mozilla. They have a mission statement which is all about allowing everyone to own the Internet. They have a strong belief in web literacy which is the basis of how we are able to “read, write and contribute effectively on the web.”

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Mozilla are a company that believe web literacy is about exploring, building and connecting. Under each heading are a set of skills that were discussed during a consultation and these are the skills that Mozilla believe are the most important ones to be developed.

But, how can we ensure that digital tools and spaces are understood and used effectively to ensure that a COLLEGIATE, COLLABORATIVE and SHARED learning culture is established?

Mozilla Webmaker provides many resources that have the potential to be used within the classroom. However, there are three main tools offered by the company: X-Ray Goggles, Thimble and Webmaker. During our input yesterday we looked at X-Ray Goggles and I believe this a tool that you could easily bring into your teaching and learning.

Teaching: X-Ray Goggles is an excellent resource to use at the beginning of a topic. As a teacher you can remix some web pages to captivate your learners from the start.

Learning:
“There’s no better way to learn the mechanics and culture of the web than by playing around and hacking it in a safe, fun environment.” – Unknown

I completely agree with the quote above. Using X-Ray Goggles is a great way to bring in the learning experience of getting to know how the web really works. Mozilla have brought out a tool that can teach children the mechanics of the web just as they would need taught the mechanics of a car.
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How The Cat Stole The Fish

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ICT and Animation

I believe that implementing animation within the classroom is a relatively easy task and should be something that teachers aren’t afraid to do. I will admit that without the input that we had in relation to ICT, I would have been worried to give access to this within a classroom but the lecture made me realise that you shouldn’t hold back because you are unsure.

The movie above demonstrates something that we came up with as a group after following steps previously. I think it is quite simple to have children get to this point. Starting with a software such as the ‘Pivot Animator’ you can build up the skills that the children will need. For me personally, I would have it set into steps, starting with Pivot and then building up to the finished product.

Pivot Animator is a great way to introduce the kids to animation using technology. It allows them to explore different ways to move an object and how it takes time to make it look as realistic as possible when you play the animation. This means introducing the children to the importance of only slight movements in each frame.

Once you have let them explore how animation works, you could have them create a story individually or within a group. Using Pivot again, you will be able to allow the children to create their stories using a software before you move on to introducing 3D objects.

Zu3D is also a simple and effective software which we used to create our movie above. It shows the children how you can take the same things learned through Pivot and implement them in real life using objects made out of Plasticine for example.

However, there may be barriers to doing this with your class. You might not have the software available to introduce you pupils to ways which could enhance their creativity or you may not be able to book the IT suite or you may even not have the time to give to go back and forward to complete the task.

I think that these are barriers that are easily overcome. Pivot is a software which even can download at home. Even if you can’t download it yourself, you could ask a technician to look into it and make it available on the computers in the IT suite. If you can’t get access to the IT suite but have use of a computer within the classroom then it may be an idea to change it to a whole class effort. Assigning different groups to think of different parts of the story is a good way to start it off. If they create their ideas on paper first you can then get them to upload each group part to the computer which will finally lead to one big story created by the story.

There are always ways of getting round things but sometimes you just have to be a little more creative. After this input, I do feel a little more confident that I could introduce this into the classroom and not avoid it. I think it is a great way to encourage the children’s creative skills and I believe that it something that could be linked to literacy and imaginative writing.