Games and learning

Hello!

Another ICT workshop, so of course another blog entry. This week....games!

Most technology these days have apps or opportunities for learning and education. For example, the Nintendo DS is brilliant for games such as brain training, and activities to keep you thinking. It is a way to engage children in their learning through a platform that appeals to them. Most children these days have access to an Ipad, laptop or phone which can be used for all kinds of games - some of which can be really beneficial upon learning.

In the session we looked at a particular game that could be an educational tool which was.....THE DANCE MAT! Yes, a dance mat can actually promote learning across all subject areas (not just PE!) and here's how....

Dance to Advance

This is a special piece of software which is used alongside a dance mat. Sadly this can be a bit pricey and for the mat and the software I think it costs roughly £150, which must be taken into considerations as not all schools will be able to afford it.

The software works by assigning something to each location on the dance mat and then creating a prompt which will come down on the screen and then you must choose the correct answer through making the right movement on the mat. For example here is the one I made during the workshop. I decided to do capital cities. So to do this I inputted various different countries to drop down into the middle, and around the edges were all the possible capital cities. I made sure each country was correctly combined with the right capital city. And so here France is in the middle, and so pupils must look for the right capital city (Paris) which is at the top right hand corner. Once they press this with their feet on the dance mat they will get a point. It is possible to do this activitiy with virtually any topic - maths, literacy, history or even general knowledge! As well as supporting all these subject areas it is also obviously beneficial in PE and develops skills such as co-ordination and spacial awareness when thinking about positioning and movement on the mat.  It is brilliant as it appeals to all learners - visual, auditory and kinesthetic (RM Education). I would definitely love to have this in the classroom!

As well as having fun on dance mats we also looked at other online games to support learning. I looked at a specific one where you build your own roller coaster. On first sight the games may appear to be unrelated to learning but through playing with it I found that playing it involved a number of skills. Skills such as problem solving, logical thinking, and planning were all apparent within this simple idea of building a roller coaster.

"The strategies for successful game playing are increasingly complex, sophisticated, challenging and cerebral. This edges games towards the very heart of where learning is headed" (Heppell, 2006).


This quote sums up how good games can be for learning! And of course children love them.

Another two things to note which are great learning tools:

1. Wordle
2. Voki

Wordle is basically a way of mind mapping online through inputting various ideas and words and it generates it into a big mind map in which you can change the layout, font and size. I'd recommend it for good literacy links and vocabulary.

Voki is an online avatar that children can create for themselves which also helps protect children on the internet but is also really enjoyable for them.

Overall this session has taught me about the power of gaming. Before the workshop I never would have contemplated something like a dance mat supporting learning, but I have been proved wrong! I am going to try my best to use lots of the technology I have learnt about over the past few weeks in my classroom.

References

 

Modelling & Computer Programming

Last week was directed study week and so I didn't update my blog, although on my study week I spent time in my placement school where I actually got to see some of these ICT resources being used which was brilliant to see and the children really enjoyed them!

This week's session focused upon modelling and computer programming.

What is Modelling?

The idea of modelling involves children questioning ideas such as asking ‘what happens if’ before doing something, to develop their thinking skills.

Modelling allows children to:

• Persist at something and keep trying
• To be active learners
• To explore
• To be creative and use their own ideas
• To problem solve
• To make predictions on what will happen
• To make decisions on how to approach a task.

I would recommend the purple mash website as this has endless amounts of interactive games and activities.  2Simple & 2Simulate are two programs to check out! I was also lucky enough to see 2Simple being used during one of my placement visits, in which children made pictures for Art, but it can be used for other subjects aswell such as Maths.

Computer Programming

Computer Programming is great as it has lots of opportunities for modelling and allows children to develop their problem solving skills and other skills mentioned above! This idea of programming has already been introduced during the ICT workshops where we looked at programmable toys such as the Beebots (see earlier blog post). This idea of programming goes beyond the programmable toys however and can progress to various software packages such as Logo, Scratch and Kodu. These are FREE to download.

Logo

This software introduces the basic concepts of computer programming and allows children to input simple commands such as ‘FD 10’ and ‘RT 10’ to create shapes and patterns. It is a great software for developing thinking skills as it gets children to anticipate the commands needed to reach a desired outcome. As well as entering commands individually, they can be inputted as a repeated instruction to save time, which encourages children to think about every individual move needed to create their particular shape, and if it involves repetition. This can then speed up their thinking & enable them to complete tasks quickly. It links perfectly with maths for learning about shape and space and about angles when considering how far to turn to create a particular shape. It is a simple programme but very effective!

Scratch

I spent a lot of the session playing about with the Scratch software and it proved to be a lot of fun, and I know children absolutely love it! It still uses programming but does so through allowing children to produce cartoons, storyboards and art pieces. Children can choose a sprite (character) and can program them to move in a certain direction or do certain things. You can incorporate sounds as well, have costumes, background settings – theres so much to do, you could play on it for hours. Which is great as children can be engaged at school and at home. Scratch supports literacy really well and children can create story boards and sequences based upon stories they have read for instance. To the side is an example of what I managed to make in the lesson. I know the children would make things a lot better than this, it took me a while to get to grips with it! But it is really captivating and it exposes children to the language of ICT and programming through using words such as sprite, control, and mathematical terms also when thinking about angles, directions and timings. In an ICT Ofsted report, Scratch was seen being used effectively within a classroom. It was noted that 'The choice of task and software motivated pupils who were enabled to make good progress' (Ofsted, 2011: 15). 

Kodu

This is similar to Scratch, however it is purely for the designing of games.  The language within it is very simple and uses a lot of pictures which means it is really beneficial for EAL students. I did not get much time to experience this software though so will have to look at it again when I have some free time.

Why not go and test them out for yourselves? Bye for now!

 

References

OFSTED (2011) ICT in Schools 2008 - 2011. Available at: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/ict-schools-2008-11 [Accessed December 2012]

Speaking & Listening and Digital Imagery

Hello Bloggers!

In my last post I said I would be learning about even more digital equipment for the classroom, and I did! So here I am to share my new wisdom on the technologies I have been exposed to this week...

1. Podcasts
2. Talking tins
3. Talking photos & cards
4. Digital Cameras
5. Digital Videos
6. Webcams

Podcast - What is it?!

For those of you who are unsure what a podcast is, it’s basically a recording of a person’s thoughts or ideas that can be uploaded onto the internet and listened to by various people – a bit like a radio programme, but it can be listened to at any time. You can listen to podcasts on websites directly where people post them, or they can be downloaded onto devices such as Ipod's and Iphones and listened to whenever! Podcasts therefore enable learning to happen at anytime in any environment - This means that learning can also be repeated and consolidated outside of the classroom.

Here is a great quote from a Journal from Ormand (2008) which describes a key benefit of the podcasts:
 

"Students have different learning styles, whether disabled, cultural differences, language barriers, sight learners, oral learners, etc. Podcasts allow students the flexibility to repeat a concept until learned."

Podcasts therefore are beneficial to all types of learners. I think they are especially useful for pupils that struggle with reading and writing, as they could create a podcast or listen to a podcast which would be a quicker, more effective method for them to learn by. Podcasts have a speed playback option which means that if a pupil is struggling to understand the audio (perhaps an EAL learner) then the podcast can be replayed slower. Podcasts allow children to learn at a pace that suits them.

   

To create our own podcasts we used a piece of software called 'Audacity'. The software was really straightforward to use. Simply press record and then speak into the microphone and express yourself! Then once you have finished press the stop button. You can then play back and listen to what you have recorded. You can put effects over the top, or change the speed in which you are talking which can make it a really fun activity. You can even add a piece of music before or after you speak, exactly like the radio! Once you are happy with your recording, you can upload it and listen whenever!

If children are creating podcasts it encourages them to think about their target audience and the purpose which develops skills or form and register, and general communication and varying this when talking to different people.

Talking tins

These are ideal for short recordings (they do not record for much longer than a minute). These would be useful for EAL learners or pupils with a hearing impairment, as you could record instructions hich they can play back if they didn’t understand. What is even better about them is that they can be attached around the classrooms to whiteboards or desks!

Buy talking tins! < Here is a link to a website where you could buy them to use for your classroom. Another benefit of them - they are really cheap!

I found this video which summaries the main benefits of the talking tins and how they are wonderful resources for the different types of learners. It says it all better than I do!

Talking photos & postcards

Again, these talking photos and postcards are useful for speaking and listening skills but appeal to different types of learners as they combine auditory learning with visual learning! I particulary liked the talking cards as they were like a mini whiteboard that you can write on with the recording to accompany it. I loved the fact it was a whiteboard as it means they can be reused numerous times for different lessons and purposes. Research also shows that children prefer writing on whiteboards as it allows them to erase if they get it wrong, therefore making them feel more confident.

I would love to use these in a phonics lesson! It would be a great way of learning the different phonemes, if the children could hear it being said, and was accompanied by a drawing of something beginning with that phoneme for instance. There can be a variety of games incorporated through that and also a good assessment tool!

This picture shows the talking photo album with pictures of animals on, and when you press the picture it could have the sound that the animal makes, which is great for younger children.

Digital cameras & digital photos

We used digital cameras in the workshop and then uploaded our pictures on the computer to some software called 'photostory' which was really fun to use (children would love it!) Using the still images, you can produce your own photo story in any sequence you like! You can also add captions and special effects to the picture such as sepia or black and white. This would be ideal for Literacy lessons, and can be a fun way of encouraging children to write creative stories. They could take pictures and act out a story and use the pictures to help them write.

Here is a short photo film we made in the workshop whilst playing about with equipment. This gives you a brief insight into how you can use the photostory software to create great films and stories (obviously better than this one!)

Digital Videos

Digital videos are a great tool for learning in the classroom whether its children creating their own videos or simply watching a video clip by hooking it up to a television. I think it is a lovely idea to get children to create their own videos though. This could be as part of a literacy lesson or part of a larger class project. Children could act out something they had learned from another subject. History would be a fun way to use it by may be acting out a historic event or scene to help learning and also make it fun! It would be good to use digital videos as part of PSHE as well and children could act out scenarios of sharing and anti-bullying and other topics which may be difficult to talk about, so they could express their thoughts through drama. I didn't actually get a chance to use these in the workshop but according to others who did, they do take a bit of time to get used to. A report from Ofsted (2011) described a good quality successful ICT lesson and this lesson involved the use of digital videos to create an interview. This is a really nice idea that I'd love to try in a class.

Which one was my favourite?

I would have to say overall, in terms of supporting different types of learners and being fun and enjoyable for pupils I would say the podcast. You could have a whole class podcast updating people on what they have been doing at school, which relates to my first post on blogging. It can keep families up to date with their school. This is also a way of encouraging pupils to do extra curricular activities, to get involved in learning even after the school day finishes.

   

That’s all for this week J I won’t be posting next week as I am on directed study week (don’t miss me too much!) but I will be back to inform you on more cool technology very soon….

References

Ofsted (2011) ICT in Schools 2008-2011. Available at: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/ict-schools-2008-11 [Accessed November 2012]

Ormand, P. (2008) Podcasts Enhances Learning. Journal of Computer Sciences in Colleges. Volume 24 Issue 1, pages 232-238.

Digital Media & Computer Control

This week was our 3rd ICT workshop and we were introduced to digital media and computer control.

Digital media is an electronic way of storing information such as cameras, videos etc.

Computer control is giving a set of instructions to a machine to programme it to act in a specific way. This is seen all the time in our society inside the home in equipment such as microwaves, cookers, burgalar alarms. It is also frequently used in the outside environment in traffic lights, CCTV cameras and barcode scanners.

Computer control is an efficent way of getting things done because they never get tired, they do not make mistakes, can repeat the same instructions over and over, and they are cheaper to employ than humans! So basically technology has become our slave to do all the jobs we don't want to do!

In the workshop we looked specifically at:

1) Programmable toys
2) Dataloggers
3) Digital Microscopes.

We got given time to simply play with these technologies and consider how they could be used in the classroom and the benefits of using them. I will explain in detail about the programmable toys and then briefly give an overview of dataloggers and digital microscopes as well. 

Programmable toys

There are various programmable toys available such as Bee-bot, Pippin & Pixie but in the workshop I looked at specifically at the Bee-bot. It works by inputting simple instructions such as move forward, left, or right to get the Bee-bot to move to certain places / do certain things. This is a handy tool for many areas of the curriculum, especially Maths. For instance - using the Beebot to support learning of shapes and angles. The Bee-bots come with mats as well which can be used for Geography. For instance, you could programme the Bee-bot to reach a particular destination (given on the mat) or use it for co-ordinate work. You can also get mats with letters which is good for Literacy and learning to spell words and some mats have shapes on them which can help children practice making shapes.  This makes it a useful piece of equipment to have in the classroom as it can be used for so many different purposes. 

The Beebot develops thinking skills when deciding on how it should be programmed to get the desired outcome, and this can consequently develop discussion skills with other children when working with the beebot in groups. It also develops skills for particular subjects areas too depending on what context it is being used for. These programmable toys can be used for mixed abilities with the work extended or simplified depending on the child's level. For example to challenge pupils working with the Beebot it is possible to limit the amount of directions inputted to reach a particular place / make a certain shape. On the other hand, to make things easier children could focus on giving the Beebot simple directions and trying to get the Beebot to reach a close destination. The beebot is a great way to assess subject knowledge and understanding, as the children can apply their knowledge of particular topics when using the Beebot.

These videos show how the Beebot can be used effectively for Numeracy and Literacy!

 However, like anything there are points to consider before investing. The average price of the Beebot is around £50 and therefore it may be difficult for schools to afford enough for each child which would mean it would work as a bigger activity. There may not necessarily be enough room in the classroom for large group activities with the beebot and so it may be beneficial to take it outside or rearrange furniture to have adequate space when working with it.

 

Dataloggers

I did not get to spend much time with the dataloggers so would have to research them further before I used them in schools, but it would definitely be worthwhile to have in the classroom. They work by taking readings of light, sound and temperature and this can then be logged and recorded onto a computer with the results presented in tables and graphs. This would be great for scientific experiments. It makes it simple for children to collect their own data and also interpret it accordingly. By using data loggers, data can be inputted quickly, it can also be entered into spread sheets electronically saving even more time, they have lots of memory to store lots of data and data can be logged over long periods of time (Allen et al., 2007: 144). As data can be stored over a long period of time, this lends itself to longtitudanal studies and long term projects!



Digital Microscopes & Flexiscopes

Both the digital microscopes and the flexiscopes are great tools to use especially for subjects such as Science - we certainly had a lot of fun playing with them! (maybe too much fun?!) However I thought that the flexiscope was slightly better than the digital microscope as it has the ability to move around quite easily which would be more beneficial if you were examining minibeasts for example. By using the flexiscope you would be able to follow their movements, whereas this wouldn't be possible with a digital microscope. However the digital microscope is still brilliant for focusing on small items and would be excellent for working with different types of materials. All schools should have their own digital microscope given to them as part of a Government scheme from 2002 which means there is no excuse not to use one! (Go and dig them out!)

It has been insightful looking at these forms of digital media and programming as there is so much that you can do with each one within the primary classroom. They can be used across the curriculum and the activities can be varied depending on which age group you were working with. Next week I will be looking at even more types of digital medias and I look forward to informing you all about equipment such as webcams and digital cameras.

References

Allen, J., Potter, J., Sharp, J., Turvey, K. (2007) Primary ICT. Knowledge, Understanding & Practice. Exeter: Learning Matters LTD.

Interactive White Boards

Hello, I'm back again!
 

This weeks ICT workshop focused upon Interactive White Boards (IWB) – the benefits of using them, points to consider when using them, and the various tools available to use for creating teaching resources. Interactive Whiteboards are becoming more and more prevelant within schools to teach across all subject areas (Allen et al., 2007: 14). It creates a new dimension for learning, where almost anything is possible!

Benefits of IWB:

·         They can significantly increase attainment levels (Providing they are actually used interactively and not just displaying information)

·         Appeal to all types of learners

·         Can be beneficial to EAL pupils

·         Can aid SEN pupils

·         They can be used for virtually any curriculum subject

·         The resources used can be referred back to and updated

·         They can make lessons stimulating and enjoyable


However it is important to consider things such as positioning, lighting, and font size otherwise the IWBs could have a negative impact rather than a positive impact.
 

In the workshop we also worked in groups to look at specific tools that can be used to create teaching resources. We explored the tool and then created a resource using that tool that we would be able to use in the classroom and presented this back to the rest of the class.

Tools:

• Click to reveal
• Erase to reveal
• Pull tab
• Magic tunnel
• Balloon pop
• Magnifying glass effect
• Checker tool
• Random Generator tool

My group focused upon the Random Generator tool and I will now briefly explain how to use it.

Random Generator Tool

This tool can be used for various subjects as there are many generators available on the smart software such as name generators, word generators and number generators.

It works around a question normally, whereby many answers are inputted into the generator, and they can then appear ‘randomly’ on screen. For instance, we tested this out with the number generator. We used a sum ’10 + ___ = ?’ We then inputted a selection of numbers into the generator. Then if the number ‘20’ appears, the pupils would have the opportunity to come up to the board and decide what other number with 10 would add up to make 20. By using a random generator, it can incorporate mixed abilities, for example using numbers you can input easy numbers and then harder numbers to challenge pupils.
You can decide which numbers to add in, so if your class was concentrating on number bonds to 10, you could input those numbers in order to test their knowledge.
This is possible for all other subjects too by using a different type of generator depending upon the topic. I would definitely use this tool for mental starters to get pupils thinking.
As we explored this tool we decided the name generator could be useful in the classroom also. You can input pupil's names and when you click on the board individual names will appear in random orders. This is a good technique to encourage pupils to come up to the board or answer questions, and becomes a fair way of getting all pupils involved instead of only asking certain pupils.

The other tools presented from the groups looked really interesting too. I definitely want to incorporate them into future lessons (I just need to learn how to use them properly first!) These tools are a great way of motivating pupils to get involved and participate in class. The possibilities with an Interactive White Board are endless! And i'll leave you with a video that demonstrates just how amazing the IWB's can be!

 

     Enjoy!

References

Allen, J., Potter, J., Sharp, J. & Turvey, K. (2007) Primary ICT. Knowledge, Understanding & Practice. Exeter: Learning Matters LTD

 Cogill, J. (2002) How is the Interactive Whiteboard being used in Primary Schools and how does this affect teachers and teaching? Available at: http://www.activewhiteboards.co.uk/ifs_interactive_whiteboards_in_the_primary_school.pdf [Accessed November 2012]