Advances in Technology...

The futures bright, the futures.....Apple? A few thoughts on modern technology.....

This week we have discussed how quickly technology advances and how some of the concepts that companies are coming up with could be used in the future. iCare found a very interesting video on how touch screen technology is advancing and the various formats and settings it can be used in. Some of the technology in this video is truly spectacular and I really can imaging it being used in the classroom as iCare suggested. I do wonder however, if we become to reliant on technology, what happens when it fails? I have personal experience of IWB software, internet and computers not functioning as expected while I have been delivering a lesson, despite testing it all before hand. When this happens it causes disruption to the class while the problem is fixed. I'm sure teachers taught successful lessons before the technology came into the classroom - otherwise people wouldn't be out there coming up with the new technology in the first place, they had to have learned stuff at school to get where they are now. I think we need to be careful about how much we rely on technology and maybe it should only be used as a resource rather than a method of teaching as is suggested in the video. It is very nice to have an IWB in the classroom, but should we not have a backup for when there is a problem? I know how easy it is to rely on technology, I am completely hooked on my iPad and would be lost without it. It has everything on it, course notes, lesson plans, books, notes, music, photos, internet and more. But, if i didn't back up regularly to my computer and I lost my iPad, I would literally have lost all my 2nd year notes, 5000 music tracks, 2500 photos, 23 books and my 'anytime' internet. Is it really worth the risk?

I do think modern technology has its place in the classroom, but I think its use has to be carefully planned, tried and tested before it is used with the children. Technology, when used appropriately can be an invaluable resource and also makes learning relevant to our children who are growing up with it. I have mentioned in an earlier post why making learning relevant is so important.

The above video shows the Samsung flexible screen in action. I can see something like this in school as it would not be as easy to break as a Nintendo DS, iPad or iPod. Maybe the future iPod will come in this form?

Linking back to my original statement the future is certainly bright, when the use of technology is well implemented and planned in the classroom.

Learning Gains from Using Games Consoles in the Classroom

This weeks post is going to focus on using  Dr Kawashima's Brain Training in the primary classroom. I chose this topic following this weeks input in which three University of Dundee lecturers came and spoke to us about the use of games consoles in the primary classroom. David Miller explained his research project on Dr Kawashima's Brain Training and its results, Divya Jindal-Snape discussed her research on using Guitar Hero during the transition between Primary and Secondary School. Finally, Jill Shimi presented her research on the use of Nintendogs in the lower primary classroom, and the games advantages.

Games Consoles have not traditionally been used in the classroom, however they are becoming a more common feature now. I wonder if in the future they will be in every classroom? According to Buckingham (2007) researchers are now excited about the potential and benefit of using commercial games in the classroom. The games I mentioned above are commercial games, known as COTS games (Commercial Off The Shelf games).

David Miller and Derek Robertson conducted a research project on using Brain Training, for the Nintendo DS, in the primary classroom. An Initial, small scale study was carried out using three primary 6 classes, with two classes using the DS and one control class. The 'DS' classes completed a 100 sum arithmetic test when they came in to school in the morning, they would then play Brain Training for 20 minutes and then complete another identical arithmetic test. This initial study showed that the children's accuracy had improved and the time it took the children to complete the test had decreased. This in turn, boosted self esteem in the class as a whole.

This study however could not prove that using Brain Training was beneficial to every pupil in Scotland as it was only done on a small scale using 3 classes. Miller and Robertson then embarked on a much larger study over 9 weeks, using 634 P6 children from 32 schools and 4 education authorities. These schools were chosen at random although they were all mostly in deprived areas. The classes were randomly selected to be either the Nintendo group, where the children would use the DS first thing in the morning for 20 minutes, 5 days a week, with one 'Brain Age' check each week, or a control group, where there was no change to the children's daily routine. Training sessions were provided for teachers in the Nintendo groups

The findings of this study were similar the small scale study but on a larger scale. Although accuracy and speed had increased over the 9 weeks in both groups, the Nintendo groups accuracy had increased by 50% more than the control group. The Nintendo groups speed had improved by up to 4 minutes in comparison to the control group. The teachers of the Nintendo groups also reported an improvement in the truancy rate and that children were arriving at school more punctually. I believe that this is because children were more motivated to come to school, I mean hoe many children don't want to play a computer game! It was reported that children had a greater sense of responsibility as it was up to the pupils to make sure that the consoles were charged and stored correctly. They also took responsibility for handing them out and collecting them in each day. Surprisingly, there was also an improvement in the pupils handwriting. Teachers believed this was because the if handwriting wasn't neat when a child was answering a question, the DS would not accept the answer. This gave the children a purpose to write neatly.

Miller and Robertson (2010) full research paper can be found here

I found this input from David Miller both interesting and thought provoking. I do believe Brain Training would be an excellent teaching resource, however I do wonder how readily available it is in schools at the moment. The schools that I have been at for placements certainly did not have Nintendo DS's available for the children. I think this may be because of the cost of the consoles themselves. I think this could be overcome in schools if classes shared consoles, for example, If the school bought 30 units, they could be used at different point throughout the day by each year group.

Children are now born into a digital world, where technology is used daily. According to Prensky (2006) this makes children of today 'Digital Natives' where as many teachers would be classed as 'Digital Immigrants'. I wonder if this is why some teachers are apprehensive about using technology such as the DS in their classrooms, are they scared of the unknown?

Missy Mack cites Prensky (2006) "Today's average college grads have spent fewer than 5000 hours of their lives reading, but often more than 10,000 hours playing video games" (p27). I agree with her point that if children are spending so much time playing games, teachers should be using these games to engage their learners.

Computer games engage children because they know how to play them and they enjoy playing them. As a student teacher there is nothing I want more than to engage my pupils as I believe that when children are engaged, behaviour management can be less of an issue. Prensky states that playing computer games is an "activity they [the pupils] want to do"(p5). This can be linked to Curriculum for Excellence (2010) principles. Relevance is one of these principles. Pupils need to understand why they are doing an activity, it needs to have a purpose. This was exemplified in Miller's (2010) study, when he referred to the improvement in the pupils handwriting. Using Brain Training also gives opportunities for Personalisation and Choice. Children can work at their ability level and complete various activities, depending on what interests them. It also provides Challenge and Enjoyment. Children can challenge themselves when completing weekly brain age checks, trying to beat their score from the previous week in an enjoyable way. Missy Mack states that "children need to learn that life is not about competing with others; building your own knowledge and skills so that you can achieve a higher score next time to benefit yourself is more important." I agree with this as children will often compete to be the best, but they need to understand that challenging themselves is equally important.

Brain Training game can also track a childs progress on a graph, although, if consoles were being shared between classes this may not be possible. I think If i were to use Brain Training with a class, I would give each pupil a 'Brain Book' where they could note their scores and any problems they may be having with the game. This could also be taken home to show parents, maybe the parents could get involved and do a brain age check themselves!

I do hope that I have the chance to use Nintendo DS's in the classroom in the future, even though 30 children with games consoles at one time sounds pretty daunting! I believe that games based learning is going to be a massive part of our future as technology is continuously advancing, however I don't think that it should ever completely take over the classroom as there are other learning strategies and methods that are more appropriate to certain situations. It seems there is no escaping technology now, even books are turning digital, through devices such as iPad, Kindle and Kobo. Apple are now launching

iBook Textbook, a paper free textbook for iPad. Is our future going to be completely paper free? 

Reference

Buckingham, D (2007)  Beyond Technology Children's learning in the age of digital culture. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Prensky, M (2006)  Don't bother me mom - I'm learning. Oakcrest Avenue: Paragon House

Scottish Government (2010) Principles for Curricular Design. Available: http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/understandingthecurriculum/howisthecurriculumstructured/principles/index.asp

Making Our Movie

This week we started making our movie at the RRS Discovery. I have to admit that I wasn't excited about it. I am however aware that this task is important as film is an integral part of literacy. According to Bazalgette (2010)  “film alongside other textual forms helps children to understand the place of print literacy within the wider world of communications, and to understand the different kinds of texts." I believe that by allowing children to create their own film, their learning and understanding is deepened and it allows them to take their learning to the next level.   

We were prepared for filming by making props (a map, a boat and some informations cards), creating a basic script and developing a simple storyboard. Just like the animations we did in first year we kept our story simple to help us create a well put together, complete end product. The movie was to be a group effort, which in itself was a challenge as people were absent, or had to leave early while we were planning and filming so we did not have some of the information we needed on the day of filming.  If I were to do this with a class I would collect in all the work at the end of each lesson so that if someone was off nothing would be lost. 

Filming was quick and easy. as we had planned each scene before we arrived at the RRS Discovery. We did need to do a few takes of most of the scenes due to unforeseen noise at the ship or because we forgot our lines! We used digital camcorders to record the movie which were easy to use and the footage we got was good. I think using technology like this could also have negatives though. I know another group from the elective group had problems with the camera freezing. I think if I was to undertake a task like this in the classroom I would need to make sure I had a back up plan for situations like this. The group that this happened to from the elective used their iPods and iPhones instead, but this may not be possible in the classroom. 

The problem with using devices such as iPods save footage as an MP4 file which then needs to be converted into a WMP file. A website such as ZamZar can be used to do this, however, It takes time to convert multiple files and they can sometimes become corrupt after the conversion. A different program then needs to be found and downloaded to convert the files again. This sort of setback would show that as teachers we must be prepared and have the correct tools for the job. Although this would have been a fairly big setback for the other ICT group, it would be an even bigger problem in the primary classroom. Fortunately the group used a Mac laptop and iMovie to edit their movie.

We used Windows Movie Maker Live to edit our movie. I found this really easy and fast to use. I would have no worries using this in middle and upper stages of the primary but would stick to Digital Blue for the younger children. We were pleased with our edited images but did find it challenging to add music to our movie. We discovered that sound files need to be MP3's and could be added directly from the computer if they were in the correct format. I think we could use other formats if we used a program such as Audacity to convert them, however I will need to seek further advice on this. 

Although we didn't quite finish editing our movie, I feel that we are on the right path. It was simple to put the images in order and our group are very happy with what we have achieved so far. I have to admit, I am looking forward to seeing the finished product!

References

Bazalgette, C (2010) Teaching Media in the Primary School. London: Sage Publications Ltd

Wiki's

Last week we looked at wiki's in more detail. A wiki is an online space that can be used individually, in the form of a blog, or collaboratively, for sharing ideas working on projects. Green, Brown and Robinson (2008) describe a wiki as "a web page or site that can be modified by anyone who visits the site." I have added a video below which demonstrates how this is possible.

We have set up a Wiki in our ICT group that will be used to share information and ideas and also allow us to communicate asynchronously. At the end of our project we should have an online space that shows all the work we have done individually and as a group. We plan to use the space for tasks we have to complete, for planning the video we are going to shoot and organising who is going to take on the research for various areas of our discovery project. We will the display what we have done on the wiki, this could then be used as an educational resource that could be used in the classroom.

I was reminded during this ICT session that to be able to use a wiki effectively each group member will need their own page if we are wanting to work on it at the same time. This prevents the previous persons work being deleted, which would be the case is multiple people accessed and edited one page at the same time.

I feel this input gave me more confidence in using a wiki. We briefly looked at wikis in first year, but not in much depth. I am now familiar with the features of a wiki and how they can be used to our groups advantage. I can see how they could be used in the classroom for collaborative projects, where children have individual tasks that will be put together and presented as a whole. I do feel however, that children would have to be fully familiarised with using and creating a wiki before using it for a task like this. This could be taught in a separate ICT input before they start their project.

There are many ways other ways in which a wiki can be used.The pie chart above shows the results of a survey which asked people how they used wiki's.

References

Green, T., Brown, A. &Robinson, L. (2008) Making the Most of the Web in your Classroom: A Techer's Guide to Blogs, Podcasts, Wikis, Pages and Sites. London: Corwin Press, Inc.

Moving Image Education

 Last week we looked at moving image education, what it is and how it can be used in the primary classroom. According to creative scotland (2009) "Moving Image Education is about helping our young people to question, analyse, explore and understand meaning of what they are watching and hearing." Through further reading I have discovered that Moving Image Education includes learning through films, cartoons and adverts. We discussed how influential TV, films and cartoons can be to children during an RME input this week and many of us think that media can be more influential than a childs home life in certain cases. This can sometimes have a negative impact as some programs on tv bring up issues such as racism, sexuality and culture. I do believe however that using Moving Image Education can also have a positive impact on a child. It can be used to develop a childs understanding of every day situations, giving opportunities for discussion about what they see an hear and to open up new ideas. Coming back to my point earlier about race and sexuality, Moving Image Education could be used to educate children, and give them an understanding of the complexity of these issues. I think allowing children to make short films or animations also develops a childs understanding of moving images whilst giving children the ability to express themselves.

The diagrams  show the '3Cs' of media literacy: Cultural, Creative and Critical. Through these children should be able to analyse, create, explore and appreciate moving images. Many people believe that the 3C's are "overlapping parts of a whole" with each aspect "enriching and supporting the development of the other aspects" (Creative Scotland, 2009) instead of separating learning activities. These ideas are at the heart of moving image education.

The Scottish Executive (2006) also support the use of Moving Image Education and links it to Curriculum for excellence. Their document on Moving Image Education argues that by teaching moving image education children are able to select features of a moving image text, learning vocabulary for it and then using what they have learned and put it into practice by making their own moving images, using technology such as cameras, iPods and digital blue. This can then be used as a context for learning, incorporating different curricular areas giving breadth and depth of learning. It also makes the learning relevant as children can link their learning to make it relevant to the context and often every day life. Relevand, Breadth and Depth are 3 of the main principles of Curriculum for Excellence. Moving Image Education can also be linked to the four capacities of Curriculum for Excellence. The document suggests that through using Moving Image Education children become successful learners as they are able 

to use the appropriate technology efficiently and effectively. 

Mairi Flood, one of Scottish Screens practitioners, gives examples of how Moving Image Education could be used in the early years classroom. One of these is 'A mermaids bedroom' where the class design and make puppets from their favourite TV characters, built a puppet theatre and make the backdrops. Children also brought in puppets from home. The teacher created a context which resulted in a search for lost puppets, which subsequently found on a desert island. Within this context the children also made 'LOST' posters, wrote postcards and created an island within the classroom.

Having had the opportunity to reflect on this, I believe that by using Moving Image Education children will be motivated to learn. The majority of children will watch TV on a regular basis, or go to the cinema to see a film, so on this basis I think it is also something children relate to and is relevant to them. There are, as I mentioned earlier, some problems that may arise from using certain films and TV programs therefore the choice of moving image text is important. I think it may be challenging to find films etc that the children are interested in that are also relevant to what you are wanting them to learn about. I have used Moving Image Education on placement and found it challenging, but I hope with a little more practice, I will be able to use it more effectively.

References

Creative Scotland and D fi foe. (2009) Moving Image Education. Available:   http://www.movingimageeducation.org/ [Accessed 30/01/12]

Scottish Executive (2006) Moving Image Education and A Curriculum for Excellence. http://www.scottishscreen.com/images/documents/MIE_ACfE_for_ScottishScreen_email.pdf [Accessed 30/01/12]

Scottish Government (2009) Curriculum for Excellence: Principles for Curriculum Design. Available:

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/understandingthecurriculum/howisthecurriculumstructured/principles/index.asp [Accessed 29/01/12]

This is my first 'official' blog entry. During the course of the ICT elective we are required to keep a weekly blog on each input. This blog will review and reflect on what we have learned through the weeks.

During yesterdays ICT input we looked at and discussed social media tools and how we all used these. We discussed which of these tools were asynchronous or synchronous.  Asynchronous tools can be used by multiple participants giving a common area and source of contact at any point in time. An example of this is google docs. There are however disadvantages to this as response times may be slow and you are not necessarily notified when someone uses the space. I can see how this could be used for a variety of purposes in the primary classroom. For example, to display children's work, for peer assessment, collaborative projects. It could also allow parents access to their children's work which in some cases may show how their child is progressing. Synchronous social media tools are useful in a different way to asynchronous tools. With synchronous tools it is possible to respond to another communicator instantaneously. This means that you can acquire the information you need in a fast, efficient way. Examples of synchronous social media would be Facebook Chat, Skype or FaceTime. A messaging system such as these may be a useful tool in the classroom as pupils could communicate with the teacher or their peers without having to wait in queues or shouting across the classroom. Another way in which it could be used is to share photos, videos or ideas with other class members.

We also discussed Communities of Practice. A community of practice is "formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor: a tribe learning to survive, a band of artists seeking new forms of expression, a group of engineers working on similar problems, a clique of pupils defining their identity in the school." Wenger (2006, no page) If this is the case, then I believe that a classroom is a community of practice as well, where pupils are working towards common goals and often working together to achieve these. Within schools there may also be a community of practice with regards to pupil welfare. There may be a social worker, a community learning development worker, the schools child protection officer and the class teacher all working together to work out the best course of action for a child that is having problems at home and at school. This collaboration between different professionals working towards a common cause is a community of practice and something that we looked at in depth in 1CM3.

This short interview with Etienne Wenger describes briefly what a community of practice is and how social media tools such as blogs and wiki's can aid a community of practice, however the tools in themselves are not communities of practice.

Another important part of yesterdays input was Belbins Team Roles, It was interesting to see how this could be implemented in our ICT Elective group "iCan". I often find myself co-ordinating a group and implementing ideas, wondering if I am being bossy. I also like to motivate a group and make sure people are 'on task'! I, for this reason believe I would have an 'Action' role! According to Belbin (no date) this role is for someone who  We thought about this within the group, each identifying which role we thought we would adopt throughout the elective, it will be interesting to see if we feel we chose the right role at the end of this elective. 

This is a table that shows Dr Meredith Belbin and his 9 Team Roles. The table shows the strengths you would need to fill each role. 

This input has made me think about how I could use social media tools in the classroom, how and when I may be part of a community of practice and how the roles people take on can influence how a team/group will work together. I hope that throughout the first part of this elective i will learn more about social media tools and gain ideas about how to implement them within the classroom. I will also look into it more myself through professional reading.

References

Belbin, M (no date given). Belbin Team Role Theory. Available at http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/dmg/tools/process/belbin.html (Accessed 17.01.12)

Wenger, E. (2006). Communities of Practice. Available at http://www.ewenger.com/theory/  (accessed 17.01.12)

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