This week will bring to a close my ICT blog, at least for the moment as we have just completed our final ICT lesson. The session was a continuation on last week’s session on computer programming, this time we looked at Simulations, Modelling and M learning.

Simulations
Computer simulations provide a great chance to engage in an activity that a book or playground could never create. Simulations in the classroom allow the children to engage in a fantasy world or situation where they can predict the outcome without fear of causing any real world damage to themselves or their surrounding.

There are some great examples of games on this website.

http://www.kenttrustweb.org.uk

In today’s lesson we focused on a game called Myst. The game is used widely in schools by a teacher cum consultant Tim Rylands (charging £1000 a day apparently) to bring a touch of creativity to English Literacy lessons and help children with their story writing.

Find out more about Tim here - http://www.timrylands.com/

In the next part of the lesson we looked at modelling. Modelling is a great way for children to get engage with a simulation and change the outcome. If this can be tied in with another subject the children have worked on, the changes in the simulation  will have more potential for helping the children with their learning.

Mobile Learning or M Learning is the use of handheld devices for learning outside the classroom. Thing such as Ipads and other tablets can now be used by children on the move. Places such as museums have taken note of this and often you will find a huge amount of learning support materials to be used on mobile learning devices at these establishments.

A couple of other websites that we looked at -

www.voki.com – a site on which children can create speaking avatars – a great addition to an English lesson.

www.wordle.net – this site takes a block of text and makes word clouds! I tried to enter part of today’s blog into it however as always seems to be the case, something went wrong! I will update once I can get it to work!

Thanks everyone for reading! Who know when the next entry will be!

Computer Programming & Games For Learning

Following on from last week’s session we went on to look at some of the computer programming software used in Primary School.  All the software was easy to use and by the end of the first session our whole class had started to produce some work interesting work! 

Logo

The first piece of software we looked at was called Logo. This program is the most commonly used piece of programming software used in schools. Although fairly basic in look it allows you to create shapes by inputting direction and length. Once I had grasped the idea of how it work I was able to create some fairly complex shapes!

This would be a perfect tool to use as part of as maths lesson as not only does it rely on children using their numbers skills, but also direction and shape skills. 

 Here's a great example of what you can create on logo! Unfortunately not created by me!

Scratch

This program was designed for education with the aim of children learning design and problem-solving skills, learning how to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.

The manufactures say the program is designed for 8-16 year old's however, it’s so simple to use I think even a reception class could use it given the right amount of teacher guidance.

This program always children to program their own stories, animation, games, music and art and from there you can go on to post this on the internet.

I think this would be a perfect tool for children to create their own stories with pictures English lessons.

Speaking and Listening

Another great hands on practical session today, looking at the great speaking and listening opportunities ICT lets us experience in the classroom.

I’ve put some pictures below of some of the pieces of equipment we used – most of which I’ll be recommending the school I eventually end up working in to buy! 

Talking Tins were originally created for blind people as a way of them working out what was in a tin. Having recorded a word, all they would have to do is press the button on top of the tin and the talking tin would say the word outl-oud for them. In a classroom these would be great for a child would was struggling with a certain word so they could hear as many times as they liked the word. They could also be used in phonics. A teacher might also see potential for using them in assessment.

The Easi speak microphone in a similar way to the talking tins allows children to record their voices, but offers extended recording time,  giving even more possibilities for what it can be used for. For example children could record their own stories or songs in music which could be kept and played back as evidence of work completed.

We also looked at some of video recording software which would be good for children creating video’s. It is worth looking at the health and safety aspects of this – for example if the video’s were going to be put on the general internet rather than the schools intranet, it would very important children didn’t give out any information that some could identify them from. 

 

 Digi Movie Camera                                                                          Flip Camera

The children could use the videos in every subject to create presentations to show the rest of the class.

The last piece of software we looked at was audacity – which could be used in the same way as the video’s but for audio podcasts.

We also looked at a great website that tells stories http://storynory.com/

That’s all for this week! On with the assignments!

Digital Media and Computer Control Across the Curriculum

This week we looked at how technology can be fully integrated into the classroom. I’d used all of the equipment before as a pupil or as a classroom assistant, but this was the first chance I’d had to have a real go on everything without the fear of getting told off by the teacher!

Here’s what we looked at.

Dataloggers - devices that help you to capture data such as light, temperature and sound. Robust set designed for smaller hands.

Programmable toys - simple and child friendly layout is a perfect starting point for teaching control, directional language and programming to young children.

Digital Microscopes - Works in the same way a normal Microscope however the images it seen through it are sent to a computer monitor and can be recorded.

The Interactive Whiteboard

We certainly didn’t have these in my day….

What an incredible resource! When I was at primary school in the 90’s, the closest we came to using anything other than the blackboard was when the television would be wheeled in once a month. Then the ultimate challenge of man v machine would begin. If the teacher could remember how to turn the VCR on we would see the intended film, however more often than not machine won and we’d end up getting an extra PE lesson!

Today we got to experience some of the fantastic ways the interactive white board can support a lesson. From providing a huge range of pictures and games, to a ‘magic’ pen which can be used to write directly on the screen it was impossible not to appreciate benefits!

I can’t wait to be in a school and using this on a daily basis.

Here’s a video of some of the things you can do with it.

Health and Safety

Health and Safety

One of the topics we looked at in lectures this week was Health and Safety in ICT. I’ll admit it wasn’t one of the things I spent much time reading up on before starting this course – checking I could still do my times tables took priority! However having now looked at the issues surrounding health and safety I can see its importance is on a par with anything else that goes on in a school.

Listed below in bold are the questions we were left to consider at the conclusion of the lecture and I’ve answered them along with plenty of great links to use both and then hopefully after my pgce when I am working in a school.

Who is responsible for safety in schools and what are the key issues?

In school it is the responsibility of the teacher to ensure the health and safety of every child.

Education.gov gives some great pointers as to what a teachers and schools responsibility is in regards to safety and also tells you the key issues to consider

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/pastoralcare/b00198456/principles-of-e-safety

A teacher needs to make sure any websites intended to be used with the class have been checked for inappropriate material before use.

• keep personal information private
• consider the long-term implications of any content posted online
• do not upload or post inappropriate, offensive or illegal content to their own or other online spaces
• read and adhere to any website’s terms of conditions of use – including those around age restrictions.

In addition to providing this information the website offers some great resource websites a teacher can use with a class and these are listed below (all of the websites have copyright permissions for educational use and are child friendly).

• ARKive Education: This provides wildlife videos, images and fact files for classroom use on a wide range of science, ICT and literacy projects
• Living Library: This subscription based website provides access to art, clipart, sound and video clips, categorised by primary or secondary education.
• Pics4Learning: This copyright-friendly image library consists of thousands of images donated by teachers, students and amateur photographers.
• VADS (Visual Arts Data Service) online resource: This online resource for visual arts provides over 100,000 digital images, free for use in education.

I’ve also found a great safe search engine website for children to use -
http://www.wisekids.org.uk/Kids_safe_search_engines.htm

How are parents and carers informed about eSafety? Where can parents find out about health and safety issues regarding their children’s use of the internet?

A group of companies have come together led by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) so they can provide consistent internet safety messages for parents and children on their services. Companies include Sky, BT, BBC, ITV, Facebook, TES, Beatbullying and childnet.

http://www.education.gov.uk/ukccis/groups/a0076219/understanding-and-awareness-of-internet-safety-for-parents-and-children

Another website with advice for children, parents and teachers concerning using the internet safely is http://www.childnet.com/

Here's a nice little video I found that would be great for a parent to watch with a child.

What are the rules about photos of children on a school website?

If you wish to take photos of a child to put on the school website that is fine, however you must make sure the children and the parents or guardians are aware of the photo and the reason why it has been taken.  Further information and clarification of what is allowed can be found on the following website –

www.ico.gov.uk

http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/sector_guides/~/media/documents/library/Data_Protection/Practical_application/TAKING_PHOTOS_V3.ashx

How long should you allow a child to work on a pc (in health and safety terms!)

Children shouldn’t use the computer for more than 30 minutes at a time without a break. This should help prevent problems such as eyestrain.

http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/keeping-children-safe-online

This post turned to be a bit longer than planned! But well worth a read! 

The start of things to come…

 This will be my first time writing a blog so expect an improvement in blog entry quality and readability as the week’s progress!
The closest I’ve come to do anything like this in the past, I suppose would have been the twitter account I was tasked with updating at my previous job… this lasted all of 2 weeks (the twitter account, not the job).
I think keeping a record of how the course is progressing will be a fantastic thing to look back on a year from now and hopefully alongside the key components of the ICT module I will be required to include I will be able to inject some of my own thoughts and views on the course as a whole!