Having been in
school, share your observations and reflections in terms of the use of
technology/new literacies. What surprises you? What were the challenges and how
might you overcome these? What questions arise for you? What have you learnt?
On 14th October we were invited to Shirley
Warren Primary School in Southampton, where we visited their excellent IT
department, gaining valuable tools and resources for teaching and integrating
digital literacy through the use of iPads. We worked with their year six
children who were set the task of creating a book which compared the community
of Shirley Warren to the village of the world. The task combined their
mathematics topic of representing data with the use of IT and digital literacy.
For the task, the children were split into pairs within groups of six, each group
having three iPad’s, using different apps to represent various different types
of data, which would then be combined together to create a 2 page spread using
the app ‘Book Creator’.
I have never really seen iPad’s used within the
classroom, so was really looking forward to seeing how they would be utilised
and integrated into the curriculum at Shirley Warren. I was also interested to
see the children’s ability and expertise on the iPad’s, as after discovering
that the school are fully supportive towards using technology alongside the
curriculum and allowing their pupils to become confident with using the iPad’s,
I had high expectations of the children’s individual ability. I was surprised
to see how efficient, confident and competent the children were at using the
apps: I Can Animate, Book Creator and iMovie. I think the children were so
competent because the school have embraced technology and have been using a
variety of different technologies parallel to the curriculum, moulding the
children to become digitally literate and technologically gifted.
I feel my personal challenges whilst visiting Shirley
Warren and completing this digital literacy task; was that I had no confidence
or experience using any of the apps we used during the task. Although we did
get a small window of opportunity to try out the apps before using them with
the children, I did not feel completely comfortable with specific aspects of
the I Can Animate app or Book Creator. However, I put these inhabitations
behind me and supported the children wherever I could. During the task the
children were using aspects of animation, video and ‘voice soundbites’ or voice
recording to represent their data and information to create their collaborative
two page information spread. In order to compile this page, they had to utilise
certain tools such as editing video clips and voice recordings so that the
information portrayed sounded and looked as professional as it could. In order
for the pairs within the groups of six to collaboratively combine all of their data,
we used Airdrop which allowed us to combine all the different variations of
data onto one iPad to create the groups two pages. After all the groups had
finalised their two pages, the class teacher gathered all groups work via
Airdrop again which was then accumulated into one book using the app ‘Book
Creator’. This book was then uploaded onto the schools blog which offers a
platform for the children’s work, whilst providing parents with the opportunity
to see the work their children have produced.
On reflection, I really enjoyed my time spent at Shirley
Warren and I have felt I have learnt a lot from the class teachers on how to
use IT and technology alongside the current curriculum. I feel after this
visit, I am more confident with incorporating IT and technology within my
planning for the whole of the curriculum, not just the computing curriculum.
I really agree with you that by allowing the children to experience technology from being very young in the school it has made a big impact on their ability now. Have you seen anything similar in your previous schools, and would this be something you would try and implement when you qualify?
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