In my opinion, I found this week’s visit to Shirley Warren
really useful for my own teaching practice as it enabled me to really think
about different ways to incorporate the use of technology in the classroom and
using different technologies with younger children.
Initially, from the discussions during last week’s visit, I was
under the impression that the children use the different technologies during
most of their lessons and would be well equip to carry out the task. On the
other hand, I was a bit concerned when I realised the children we would be
working with would be in Year One, as I felt they would be too young to use
these different technologies appropriately. Therefore, I felt that, although
this task would be challenging, I wouldn’t know how challenging until I met the
children. I was pleasantly surprised when I met the children and during the
task as they seemed very confident in using the apps and we comfortable in
using the iPads and recording. Dean (2010) demonstrates this by conveying that
the society children live in today is surrounded by technology that they need
to develop these skills at school in order to function in their future society.
In addition to this, the task of creating a talking book engaged the children
thoroughly as they all had lots of ideas and were able to access their learning.
For example, instead of writing sentences children are able to record themselves
speaking, therefore, the children who have difficulty writing are able to take
an active role in their education. This is conveyed by Evans (2004) who highlights
the importance of supporting children in their learning this way in order to
develop a positive attitude towards their education.
There are a few concerns that I do have from this visit and
working with the children. I found that although the children had lots of
ideas, we were unable to incorporate many of them due to time limitations. This
relates to my other concern, that although we had clear learning goals for the
children, there wasn’t enough time to ensure that they all made progress and to
actually assess the learning which had taken place. In addition to this,
although the children were confident in using the apps, there were times when
they needed help and extra support or only had a vague knowledge of what they
were doing. Therefore, in order to combat this, assuming I had more time, I
would ensure that the children had lessons beforehand to practice and develop
their skills to move their learning forward and enhance their confidence.
Overall, I learnt that the children were confident in using
the different apps and were thoroughly engaged in the learning process. I feel
that I would definitely use this type of task and these different technologies in
the classroom. However, I would ensure that the children have had some lessons
beforehand to practice and develop their ideas.
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Dean, G.
(2010) ‘Rethinking Literacy’ in Bazalgette, C. (ed) (2010) Teaching Media in Primary Classrooms. London: Sage
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Evans, J. (2004) Literacy moves on: Using popular culture,
new technologies and critical literacy in the primary classroom. David
Fulton Publishing LTD.
I enjoyed it lo and found it really helpful. But I was disappointed over the time frame, because it influenced how much we needed to help the children in our group. It would have been an even better experience if we have had some more time there.
ReplyDeleteI think the time limit is an aspect that everyone found tricky. I am anxious that the children did not have ownership over their learning as I feel that they were just doing what we told them, rather than them impacting on their own learning. This is an implication for my future practice. However, had time been on our side, I am confident that the children would have engaged more with the Ipad and its apps.
ReplyDeleteI am sure the children really enjoyed themselves! We found, in our group, that we found ourselves using almost circle time and a lot of discussion to discuss ideas or how to used an app. We also gave a quick demonstration on iMovie but was not sure if this was helpful or not due to not knowing the children's previous knowledge - and everything had to be fast paced!
ReplyDeleteI felt exactly the same as you when we were told the children would be in Year 1. I was really worried because I wanted to spend more time on filming the videos and editing the book rather than teaching the basic skills of the ipad. However, I was also too surprised with the amount they knew and it meant we could teach them more complex skills.
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