THe Future Of ICT

The Scottish Government (2004) state in the experiences and outcomes of ICT, “This area of specialist study has particular relevance in preparing children and young people for the challenges of rapidly changing digital technologies. It will enable learners to prepare for more advanced specialised study and careers within computing science.” (no page given).

This reflects how quickly technologies develop and change and as teacher we must prepare pupils for the advances. One way of achieving this is, the teaching of transferable skills through ICT should be highlighted to learners, so that pupils should see the relevance and purpose of ICT in the classroom. Buckingham (2007) explains the importance of this, “By building connections between classroom uses of technology and children’s out-of-school experiences, they have been regarded as a way of capitalizing on the benefits of ‘informal’ learning, and of validating the diverse ‘learning styles’ of different students.” (p.117). To do this, a practitioner must be aware of what is available to support them and current technology ‘trends’ which interest learners. In my past experiences I have used thinking this in my lessons, by getting the children to create their own Facebook pages on their hero and this was a successful lesson as the class were motivated as it was relevant to them.

                                                  Is this a classroom of the future?

 However, the effect of technology could have adverse effects on the children of today’s society too. There is the potential for pupils to become too engrossed in ICT and become disengaged with ‘typical’ classroom exercise involving textbooks. ‘Digital Natives’ are also exposed to more material than previous generations and Watson (2010) highlights the prospective effects of this, “What children get taught at school, and the values they are given by their parents outside school, is diluted by the information and attitudes disseminated by technology, especially by mobile devices over which parents and teachers can exercise very little control.” (p.29)

Muirhead, Hicks and Bishop as cited in Wheeler (2005) discuss the possibilities of technology in schools. They say how it is almost impossible to predict what future technology will be, they talk about how maximise the use of it, “Without visionary leadership, new technologies are unlikely to be widely promoted among teachers, but with insightful and creative head teachers adopting and championing ICT, success is more probable.” (p.161). Overall, I believe a teacher must instil enthusiasm and confidence in the children in order to engage pupils and achieve success in the teaching by creating ICT competent learners, ready to adapt and use new technologies successfully.

References
Buckingham, D. (2007). Beyond Technology. Polity Press: Cambridge
The Scottish Government (2004). Curriculum For Excellence, Experiences and Outcomes. Available at: www.ltscotland.org.uk/.../technologies_principles_practice_tcm4-540...  [Last accessed 23/02/12]
Watson, R. (2010). Future Minds. Nicholas Brealey Publishing: London
Wheeler, S. (2005). Transforming Primary ICT. Learning Matters Ltd: Exeter

Games Based Learning

This week the topic of focus was Games Based Learning (GBL) within the primary school classroom. I had some previous knowledge to build from as we had had a lecture on this earlier in the year and we also had a guest speaker, a fourth year student, come to tell us about her experiences of using GBL on her placement. The games which the speakers informed us about were ‘Dr Kawashima’s Brian Training’- used to improve maths skills, ‘Nintendogs’- which taught younger pupils about caring, and ‘Guitar Hero’- which was used to ease transition from P7 to S1. The software which I have chosen to elaborate on is Brian Training, presented to us by David Miller. Click the link to go to Report:

Brain Training In Schools

‘Dr Kawashima’s Brian Training’ is known as a COTS game, which is created for commercial use but as a teacher we must have the knowledge to manipulate the game so it is suitable to enhance the learning in schools. The research carried out by Robertson and Miller (2011) and it involved 634 primary 6 pupils in 32 schools. The aim was to find out if the Brain Training would improve their number skills and to carry out this the participating pupils did a number test at the beginning of the 9 weeks. The pupils then played the Nintendo DS for 20 minutes every morning with one brain age check a week. At the end of the term the pupils retook the same number test which they sat at the start, and the Nintendo group scored 50% higher than the control group. This demonstrates how using an electronic game can improve children’s academic skills significantly. Here is a video clip which was used to introduce the key concepts of the game to us:

The prospect of using games in class would be beneficial to children as it offers a multisensory, engaging experience. Solomon and Schrum (2007) suggest reasons for this in their book, “Players get feedback throughout the game letting them know whether the strategies used are helping to achieve the objects. Games are built on one or more challenges and have an engaging sequence that keeps the player interested.” (p.90). This instant feedback has the potential to improve pupils self-esteem because they are getting more competent as they improve. Throughout the lectures the concept of Social Constructivism in relation to GBL was discussed, as children who were skilled in the game were beginning to teach other children how to play it. Learning and Teaching Scotland (undated) promote GBL and the elaborate on this on their website, “This framework requires the active involvement of the children in the construction of their own meaning, understanding and developing skill set. Inherent and fundamental to social constructivism is the idea that we also must appreciate that the learner does not operate in a dry theoretical vacuum but within a complex and dynamic social framework.” (no page given). This also interlinks with Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956) which focuses on creating higher order thinking through activities and questions. This can be carried out in the class through creating follow activities to extend the knowledge on the software. Therefore, it is vital to have the GBL contextualised and embedded in the curriculum and this will also aid the children to develop transferable skills. Prensky (2006) refers to this notion as situational awareness “Game players get good at taking in information from many sources, pulling together date from many places into a coherent picture of the world, and making good decisions quickly” (p.6). This demonstrates how using GBL can establish lifelong skills for pupils which can be applied in other areas of the curriculum.

In relation to Curriculum For Excellence GLB marries up with the Principle of relevance as ‘digital native’ children of today are bombarded with computer games. The Scottish Government (2004) explain this, “They should see the value of what they are learning and its relevance to their lives, present and future.” (no page given). In addition, as it is so relevant to the learners’ lives they would become more engaged and motivated by the learning taking place. This is then backed up by Buckingham (2007) in his book, “By building connections between classroom uses of technology and children’s out-of-school experiences, they have been regarded as a way of capitalizing on the benefits of ‘informal’ learning, and of validating the diverse ‘learning styles’ of different students.” (p.117). Buckingham (2007) also discusses GBL in his book and explains how the game would meet the Principle of ‘Personalisation and Choice, “Yes games also appear to permit more personalized forms of learning and to accommodate different learning styles; and they are often seen to embody the more ‘informal’ approach that educators are keen to co-opt.” (p.102). In addition, the use of games met the capacities of the Curriculum too. For example the Curriculum should enable learners to become ‘Successful Learners’ as metacognitive awareness, a higher order thinking, is developed which allows them to consider their role in the teaching and learning process.

On the contrary to this, there are obstacles which would limit the use of GBL in the primary classroom. A principal issue is cost; it is incredibly money consuming to provide a game and console of a class of pupils. Freitas (2006) lists the barriers of using this method in education and one of which is, “access to the correct hardware including PCs with high end graphics video cards…” (p.16). I believe, however, it is possible to overcome these hurdles with the correct management of the devices, for example giving classes time slots for use and the correct support and training days for staff.

To conclude, I am excited about the prospecting of using GBL my career and I believe it is an motivating way for children to gain and improve on numerous skills. It is also very relevant to current education as it meets the principles of the Curriculum.

For an reflection on the ‘Guitar Hero’ project see Ashley's Blog

References

Buckingham, D. (2007). Beyond Technology. Cambridge: Polity Press

J, Freitas (2006). Learning in Immersive Worlds: A review of game-based learning. Available at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/elearninginnovation/gamingreport_v3.pdf [Last accessed 07/02/12]

Prensky, M. (2006).  Don’t Bother Me Mom- I’m Learning. St. Paul: Paragon House.

The Scottish Government (2004). How is the Curriculum Structured? Available at: http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/understandingthecurriculum/howisthecurriculumstructured/principles/index.asp [Last accessed 07/02/12]

Solomon, G. and Schrum, L.  (2007).  Web 2.0: New tools, new schools.  Washington: ISTE.

Learning in Immersive worlds

  

Fife Council Visits UoD

We had a visit from numerous ICT specialists from Fife council who demonstrated to us, how the used ICT in the primary schools to develop learning. We got to use software like Comic Life, Pivot and Skoog and it was very insightful to see how I could potential use these as a teaching tool to enhance the learning of pupils. Birney (2012) discussed the aim of teaching ICT in schools as, “Not using ICT as just a skill but making it relevant to Curriculum For Excellence and the experiences and outcomes”. (no page given).

Buckingham (2007) discusses how much computer technology has advanced in recent years, “The possibility of ‘digitizing’ a whole range of different forms of communication (not just writing, but visual and moving images music, sound and speech) transforms the computer into much more than a calculator or a typewriter with memory. It becomes a ,eams pf delivering and producing not just written texts, but texts in a variety of media, and, as a result, the digital screen has become the focus of a whole range of entertainment, information and communication options.” (p.79). With this in mind, the area which I have chosen to look at and reflect on is using music with ICT. We were introduced to the software which was called ‘Sequel’ and it allowed you create your own music. There were an extensive library of instruments, genres and the user has the opportunity to change keys and balance the volume. 


Below is a picture of the Sequel editing screen.

I think the software would be a useful tool to use in the primary classroom because it would allow children’s creativity to flourish as there are so many different tracks and instruments to choose from. This could come as a hurdle in the classroom as pupils may be overwhelmed by the choice but to overcome this as a teacher you could narrow the options down by stating exactly which style of music you wanted them to create. I believe it would also encourage children, who are not competent at music as a subject, to take risks because the instruments you chose automatically blend in together. This relates to Curriculum For Excellence as it covers the ‘Personalisation and Choice’ principle as The Scottish Government (2004) state, “The curriculum should respond to individual needs and support particular aptitudes and talents. It should give each young person increasing opportunities for exercising responsible personal choice as they move through their school career.” (no page given). This software reflects this as, alongside supportive teaching, there are so many opportunities for individuals to develop their skills through using more complex functions; adding instruments at different times, introducing different beats and the chance to record a play a live instrument. Another useful tool was the ability to match a picture to the instrument and this would really appeal to visual learners as it allows them to easily identify what they are choosing and would therefore relate the sound to picture. A negative point about the software is that it looked complicated to use and I feel that if I was to use it as a teaching tool there would have to be a lot of teaching on how to use the software first before children would create their own pieces of music.

Overall, I would feel confident about using the above software in a classroom as it provides a motivating and engaging way to create music. I would probably group the children accordingly so that I would have a range of learners in one group and they would develop each other’s skills and this is known as social constructivism.

From another interesting analyse of using Sequel software see:

Chloe's Blog

And for wider overview of the Fife Council visit see:

Ashley's Blog

References

Birney, J. (2012).   Information and Communication Technology Elective. School of Education, Social Work and Community Education, University of Dundee  

Buckingham, D. (2007). Beyond Technology. Cambridge: Polity Press

The Scottish Government (2004). Curriculum for Excellence: Principles for Curriculum Design. Available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/11/20178/45862 [Last accessed 05/02/2010]