Shirley Warren Week 2

During our second visit to Shirley Warren we worked as a group to create a ‘talking book,’ using the app book creator. Our goal was to produce a double page spread incorporating a range of digital media, about children’s rights. Our group contained five children and three adults, providing substantial support for the task in hand. Using our planning from the previous session we focused on encouraging the children to work collaboratively to maintain the desired outcome, as well as taking into account learning objectives we wanted the children to cover. Due to our chosen article and theme for the task, ‘all children have a right to privacy,’ we were able to ask the group suitable questions to suggest the right to privacy when being online. This made a good quality link towards to the new National Curriculums learning intention for Key Stage 1 to learn using ‘technology safely and respectfully’ (DfE, 2013: 179).

Throughout the day we included a lot of discussion within the group to enable the inclusion of ideas and for the children to feel in charge of their work and learning. I was surprised at how well the children participated within the group and contributed to the task. Considering they were participating and experiencing a new learning experience shared with adults they had not met before. I found that I had underestimated the age group and their ability to use, in this case ipads, so sufficiently. The children’s responses and contributions throughout the session demonstrated their ability to think completely independently but to bring their ideas together as a group. For example, as a group we were trying to work out how to crop a video using the app imovie, one of the children contributed and said, “Maybe if you drag this” whilst carrying out the corresponding movement with his fingers. This demonstrated the child’s creative thinking in order to solve the problem. Cennamo, Ross and Ertmer (2014: 55) argue that creative thinking is higher order thinking, which can promote deep learning once teachers put real problems into context. This example of the child’s contribution has modelled the child engaged with the learning whilst demonstrating higher order thinking to independently provide a solution to the problem.

Using a range of media and therefore different apps throughout the task was challenging due to different questions and barriers that arose for each app. Thankfully we could turn the minor hiccups into problem solving tasks. However the day would have run more smoothly if I had felt completely confident using the different apps with the children. An implication for my future practice would be to always associate myself fully with a new piece of technology or app before carrying out a lesson, which will allow me to plan for the best learning opportunities for that lesson. Brooks-Young (2007:34) suggests the importance of feeling prepared to use technology in the classroom and the positive effect it can have on teaching, ‘as your level of confidence with technology grows, your ability to make adjustments in technology use will also increase’.

Overall the ability of all the individuals within the group went beyond my expectations and in fact I learnt a lot from them!  It answered many of my questions (found in the previous blog) and allowed me to practice communicating to the children using the relevant vocabulary - which I had not much previous experience in. Also a note to say the children's reactions and focus was excellent therefore we finished the task in hand with time to spare! This experience has set implications for my future practice, that I should not underestimate a young child’s experience and confidence when using different digital devices and media. Thus demonstrating the profound ideology of Palfrey and Gassers ‘Digital Natives’ and the impressive effect growing up in a digital world can have on a child’s knowledge and experience when using digital devices.

Brooks-Young, S. (2007) Digital-Age Literacy for Teachers: Applying Technology Standards to Everyday Practice Washington: ISTE Publications

Cennamo, K. Ross, J. and Ertmer, P. (2014) Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards Based Approach, 2^nd edition, Wadsworth: Cenage Learning

DfE (2013) The National Curriculum in England 2014 [online] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/244223/PRIMARY_national_curriculum3.pdf (Accessed 23rd March 2014)

http://www.unicef.org/rightsite/files/rights_leaflet.pdf (Accessed 23rd March 2014)