Shirley Warren, Week 1

The use of technology and media in the local Primary school both surprised and challenged me. The school had fantastic opportunities for learning and integrated ICT across the curriculum (Beauchamp, 2012). As children are growing up in a digital culture, it is important that ICT is used across the curriculum, rather than as an added extra onto topics (Simpson & Toyn, 2012). It was clear that ICT was a main part of the children’s school day, which was fantastic to see. This meant children were gaining the most from the opportunities provided, from technology such as iPads and, most impressively, a professional radio station.

The apps that were presented to us were fantastic and I was impressed with the potential that they posses. The opportunities they provide highlight how ICT can be used across the curriculum. The app I particularly liked was ‘I Can Animate’ as it was so simple to use, yet it produced effective results.

My previous school experiences did not use ICT to it’s fullest potential and the most modern technology used was an interactive whiteboard. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised when the significance of ICT was highlighted throughout the school. The children are introduced to technology from Reception, which is fantastic as it reveals how the school is aware that pupils need to be prepared to live in the future digital world (Blake, Winsor & Allen, 2012).

My biggest challenge will be teaching children how to use an app that I have only used for a small period of time. I do not feel confident with the apps that will be used during our sessions so I believe it’ll be difficult to teach children how to use it. The children that we will be undertaking our project with are already familiar with the iPads so we shouldn’t have to teach them the basic functions of the iPad, which means we can focus on the content of the videos and using specific apps.

Another challenge will be working efficiently with the children as we have been given a short period of time to produce high quality work with children we do not have professional relationships with. Therefore, a part of our time will be spent forming a professional relationship with the children and assessing how familiar they are with the iPads.

Questions that have been raised are:

-      Do the children feel confident with the basic functions of the iPad?

-      Have the children used the specific ‘digital literacy’ apps before?

-      How will the children feel using our ideas, rather than their own?

Beauchamp, G (2012) ICT in the Primary School, From Pedagogy to Practice. Oxon: Routledge

Blake, S. Winsor, D. & Allen, L (2012) Technology and Young Children: Bridging the Communication-Generation Gap. Hershey: Information Science Reference

Simpson, D and Toyn, M (2012) Primary ICT Across the Curriculum. London: Learning Matters

Internet Safety in the Classroom

E-Safety is an important aspect to consider whilst using the Internet in the Primary classroom. The Internet can provide a variety of opportunities for learning, however there are also many risks that are presented to children. By teaching children about the risks, they can be aware of the dangers and understand how to stay safe on the Internet. The National Curriculum (2013) highlights the significance of e-safety, stating that in Key Stage 1 children need to understand how to ‘use technology safely and respectfully, keeping personal information private’ (2013:179) and in Key Stage 2, children need to understand how to ‘use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly; recognise acceptable/unacceptable behaviour; identify a range of ways to report concerns about content and contact’ (2013:179). Therefore, the significance of e-safety is highlighted as children need to be taught how the dangers of the Internet and how to stay safe.

The NSPCC (2013) claim that 93% of children aged between 5-15 years have used the internet in 2013 and 29% of those children had been in contact with a stranger (NSPCC, 2013) (Online).  These high statistics reveal the importance of teaching children about e-safety, however 23% of 1300 teachers felt they had not had enough training in e-safety and the risks in using the internet (Aston & Brzyska, 2012). Therefore, for children to be aware of how to behave on the Internet, teachers must be given adequate training to ensure the class are not presented with a dangerous situation on the Internet.

The Byron Review Action Plan (2008) was created to address concerns over e-safety in the classroom. Dr Byron suggests that ‘schools and other services for children and families have a key role in helping equip and empower children… to stay safe online’ (The Byron Review Action Plan, 2008:14). The Staying Safe Action plan was launched in 2011 and it presented a number of requirements to keep children safe on the Internet, such as a safeguarding unit and ensuring teachers are adequately trained.  The three C’s of e-safety are ‘content, contact and conduct’ (The Byron Review Action Plan, 2008:146) helps teachers to focus activities and identify the purpose of resources that can be used.

E-safety is an important element of the use of technology across the curriculum to all ages (Woollard, 2007, 16).  Children are increasingly using technology independently so by teaching children how to be aware of dangers they are more likely to stay safe (Purcell, 2012). The world is increasingly becoming digitalised so children must be taught e-safety from an early age, to ensure they are aware of the dangers and how to stay safe when using the internet independently once leaving school (Younie & Leask, 2013).

Aston, H. and Brzyska, B. (2012) Protecting children online: teachers' perspectives on e-safety. Slough: National Foundation for Educational Research

DCSF (2008) The Byron Review Action Plan [online] http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/Byron_Review_Action_Plan.pdf(accessed 8^th March 2014)

DfE (2013) The National Curriculum in England 2013 [online] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/244223/PRIMARY_national_curriculum3.pdf (accessed 8th March 2014)

NSPCC (2013) Statistics on Online Safety. [online] http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/resourcesforprofessionals/onlinesafety/statistics-online-safety_wda93975.html (accessed 8th March 2014)

Purcell, M (2012) The Networked Library. California: Linworth

Woollard, J (2007) Learning and Teaching Using ICT in Secondary Schools. Exeter: Learning Matters Ltd

Younie, S. and Leask, M. (2013) Teaching with Technologies. Berkshire: Open University Press

Using social media as a professional

The use of social media has expanded over the last years, and I think every teenager is engaged to some kind of social network, it could be Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Flickr or MySpace to mention a few. To list some common structure all the social medias share I quoted ‘Get whith it!’:

• ‘Identity: creating an identity or a personality online

• Communication: with friends online

• Sharing: photographs, videos, music, information on hobbies and interests’

The digital skills that they get online will be more – not less engaging with social media (Get with it!) And they are engaging parents to gain knowledge too because that is the way you keep your children safe. Would you be able to keep them safe in traffic if you didn’t know how to behave there? One of the great ways to keep some privacy on your social media is to keep your profile only available for friends and not public, and ‘Get with it!’ strongly advice parents with teenagers under 18 to do so.

Teenagers need to learn how to use the social media critically, to ask themselves if certain information is necessary for the world to know. They need to be thought how to act privately on the social media and how their profile presents themselves. Maybe when you are 15 a picture in bikini or underwear seems like a good profile picture, but that picture could, if the private settings hasn’t been done, be open for the whole world and later when you’re applying for a job a bikini picture isn’t the best first meeting with a future boss. And that is what people do today, when they are meeting new people they Google them to see who they really are – so stay close to who you really are also online.

A thing to be aware of is that private conversations online, aren’t always private, a good thing to keep in mind (Get with it!). Another important thing is to keep your password private (Get with it!) I don’t know have many times I have seen a ‘Face rape’ on Facebook and been wondering which ‘friends’ does that? Sometimes teenagers find it easier to humiliate only, because in the moment you’re not face to face with the person. A lot of bullying is done that way.

All the same privacy goes out for us – the student teachers. We have to keep our information’s private and only post appropriate pictures and status updates (Victoria Briggs, 2013). We need to pay extra attention to be a role model in using social media for the children.

I hear a lot of parents or teachers who doesn’t want to be a part of social media but my opinion is that it is extremely important to know what’s going on in that world. It’s hard to defeat bullying, when you don’t know how it is done online, or to know how your teenagers present their profile when you don’t follow them.

Bibliography

http://learn2.winchester.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/315525/mod_resource/content/1/get%20with%20it.pdf

Victoria Briggs (2013) New teachers [Online] Available at http://newteachers.tes.co.uk/content/be-smart-when-it-comes-using-social-media [Accessed 04 March 2014]

Multimodal Texts

Multimodal texts communicate with the reader in more than one way, such as the using the reader’s senses, which can be done with and without technology. However, Medwell, Moore, Wray and Griffiths (2012) suggest that this type of literacy needs to be expanded ‘to include the reading and writing not only of printed texts but of electronic texts’ (2012:197).  Supporting this both The National Curriculum (2013) and the Primary National Strategy (2007) state that reading and writing should be taught through the use of ICT-based information texts (Medwell et al, 2012). Therefore, it is important children have opportunities to experience multimodal texts as they have become an essential part of the digital world and children need to be prepared for this (Walsh, 2010). 

The biggest challenge of using multimodal texts in school is ensuring the children have the skills to access the software. To learn about multimodal texts, we used PowerPoint and I feel confident with this piece of software. However, there were new features and tools that needed to learnt before I could start creating my multimodal text. Therefore, if children are not confident with their ICT skills then this needs to be resolved before multimodal texts are used. However, teachers and teaching assistants will also need a wealth of knowledge before creating multimodal texts to use with the class so this is a barrier for all users. Once I understood, I found it extremely simple to create a PowerPoint that used different strategies to engage the reader. The text was engaging and extremely interactive because the text could respond to the reader, which would not happen if a printed text were used (Medwell et al, 2012). Furthermore, multimodal texts are academically valuable to children as Reinking and Schreiner (Cited in Medwell et al, 2012:199) found that ‘readers’ comprehension of texts increases when they read electronic texts’ as definitions can quickly be provided which are more likely to be remembered’. Talking and listening and writing skills can also be developed as more aspects can be included through multimodal texts, such as colour and sound (Walsh, 2010) meaning the text becomes more engaging and motivating.

Finally, multimodal texts are naturally embedded within children’s learning (Walsh, 2010) as teachers instinctively use ICT across the curriculum. In my own practise, I will definitely embed multimodal texts into subjects, as it is another way to teach literacy skills. If both the teachers and children have the skills to access the software needed for multimodal texts, then it can be extremely effective yet simple. By teaching children with multimodal texts, they will be prepared for the future digital world.

Bibliography

DfE (2013) The National Curriculum in England 2013 [online] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/244223/PRIMARY_national_curriculum3.pdf (accessed 25th February 2014)

DfES, (2007) Primary National Strategy, London

Medwell, J., Moore, G., Wray, D., Griffiths, V. (2012) Primary English Knowledge and Understanding London: Learning Matters

Walsh, M. (2010) Multi-modal literacy: What does it mean for classroom practice? Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 33 (3)

As Palfrey and Gasser very well claims, we live in a world where we have the feeling that we know

people because we follow them on social media like facebook or twitter. We know what they look

like and what they do. We know their taste in music and know what movies they see. All this only

because we have an online friendship.

They've got another good point where an 8 year old girl makes her own movies and shares them

on YouTube accessible to all. What is appropriate to share with "everyone" and what happens to

the things that we share online and later might regret?

The children that we encounter in today’s schools are digital natives and that we cannot

change! The digital age provides innovative opportunities in communications and multimodal

presentations. It is important that we do not let our fear of the digital world destroy the learning

opportunities that are present.

“How do we take effective steps to protect our children, as well as the interests of others, while

allowing those same kids enough room to figure things out on their own?”

Palfrey and Gasser are saying that if we overcome our fear of the digital media and reflect over the

problems we think are following them, such as bullying, stalking and Copyright violations then it

actually is problems that we have been dealing with for decades. To get a good ethic surrounding

in the use of web 2.0 Palfrey and Gasser highlights that it is primarily the inner core - the parents

who have responsibility, just as they would have it under "older" ethical guidelines. The use of

digital media is already introduced when kids are attending school. I think that the parents have

obligations to the way their kids get along with other people - also digitally. The teacher can build

a code of conduct for the Internet use. Below are the copyright as well as it would be if you read in

a book, where you also cannot just copy the text or images without ensuring that it is legal.

The important thing to teach children must be how they present themselves on the internet. We

would have done the same thing about how they are acting in the classroom and how specific

behavior works. The thing is with the internet, that you have to know how to use it safely.

Think about what your pictures are saying about you. Maybe a future boss will Google you and

something inappropriate will appear. You need to know the consequences of your online image.


Bibliography

Multimodal text

In this seminar we practiced to create multimodal texts with PowerPoint. My definition of a multimodal text I have found in the “Curriculum and Leader Journal”. A text is multimodal when it combines two or more semiotic systems and the five semiotic system is language, still and moving images, audio, gestures and spatial. Therefore a multimodal text is an excellent response to the acquisition of digital literacy skills in education.

As I said, we used PowerPoint to produce today's multimodal text, which I think for all of us were a new way to use this program. At my university back home in Denmark we always use a program called Notebook which I have linked to in my bibliography. I am not accustomed to using power point so it took me a while to find my way around, but I 'm sure that with a few more sessions it’s easier to navigate. It was a fun way to create text and I must say that creativity is your limit. The software offered a huge amount of options in design. Some examples would be images, design, text in different shapes, colors, shadows, video, audio etc.

I only made three pages because it took me quite a while to get comfortable with the software but I will definitely go back and explore it. I asked questions in the text in order to make the reader think about the story. Different words were on the page to fill in the questions. I think you have here a great opportunity to engage the readers in your story and the readers need to raise interest because they need to think about how they will shape the story. On another page I played with the opportunity to write one word at a time until all of the text is on your page. That will also cause the readers to pay more attention when only one word is being released at a time.

The question is what children do get out of the creating and reading of multimodal text? I think children are developing digital literacy skills on any level of working with multimodal text. At the early stage you could let them work with pictures, chunks of film and sound. Here It is important to have a digital picture bank and to make it easier also digital sound chunks. Later you could let the children use words and let them make histories.

A good task to do could be a multimodal self portrait to get the children started on working in PowerPoint or maybe to present their family.

  

Bibliography

http://www.curriculum.edu.au/leader/helping_teachers_to_explore_multimodal_texts,31522.html?issueID=12141 (2010)

http://smartnotebook.com/

Why should teachers care about digital literacy and childhood in the digital age?

As teachers, it is seen as our responsibility, as well as parents/guardian’s, to educate children about the issues and dangers, as well as the uses and benefits, of technology in the digital age. However, this blog aims to focus on why teachers should care about digital literacy and children in the digital age. As we know, the society we live in is largely based upon the growing knowledge, understanding and use of technology; therefore, children are surrounded by many different forms of technology in their everyday lives which is readily available to them.

The Sexualisation of Young People Review (2010) highlights some important key issues surrounding children in the digital age. The main focus of these issues is that children being exposed to media, ie: images, films, adverts etc., which is not age-appropriate and links to unrealistic stereotypes of both men, women, boys and girls. The article states that as there is an increase in these images and adverts in the media there is an increase in the potential danger to children who are readily exposed to these. Palfrey and Gasser (2008) further develops this idea by claiming that there is a high risk of psychological harm for children, who are exposed to things they are not ready to witness yet it suggesting that it is essential for parents and educators to address these topics and issues with children to protect them.  

Papadopoulos (2010) conveys how boys and girls and being influenced by these messages and images from the internet and adverts which influence their culture norms and change children’s ideals about what they think they are and who they should be. From these images and messages, children gain new expectations, values and ideals which they feel pressured to conform to (Papadopoulos, 2010). In addition to this, the article goes on further to state that these images then create pressures for children, leading to a lack of confidence and poor self-esteem, as women are hyper-sexualised and objectified and men are hyper-masculinised blurring the lines between reality and fiction. This then links to children not being old enough or having developed the initial cognitive skills to deal with these types of media.

Papadopoulos (2010) suggests that it is the role of teachers and educators as well as parents to educate children and provide opportunities to ask questions about the things the witness and access. Nevertheless, it is impossible to restrict and control all the images available online and in the media that children witness. Arthur (2004) suggests that children are exposed to content that is not meant for them inadvertently, for example by watching television with their parents etc. Therefore, children need to be given opportunities to discuss and explore the internet and media in a safe environment where they feel supported. Similarly, this relates to the use of digital literacies, meaning children need to be taught how use media safely, such as the internet.

Therefore, as teachers, it is highly important that we take an interest in what children are being exposed to and are exposing themselves to, as it is our job to educate them. Children need to understand the truth behind this type of media, being taught to understand that what they are shown is not what is true. As teachers, we need to ensure that children aspire to be who they are not what they think the media wants them to be. In conclusion, children need to be exposed to these types of material when they can cognitively comprehend and understand the truth behind what they are observing and not be harmed by this. Although, this is an optimistic view, it is clear we cannot control and restrict everything children see, which is why teachers need to take the responsibility in educating children about this.

Bibliography:

-          Arthur, L. (2004) Popular Culture: Views of parents and educators. Routledge Falmer Oxon.

-          Palfrey, J. and Gasser, U. (2008) Born Digital: understanding the first generation of digital natives. Basics Books. New York

-          Papadopoulos , L. (2010) Sexualisation of Young People Review Home Office (Executive Summary – link on LN)http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100418065544/http://homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/Sexualisation-young-people2835.pdf?view=Binary