This week we had to participate in the challenge
at the School. We worked in a team, 3 adults and 6 Year One children, to create
a ‘Talking Book’ on the iPad. We were exploring the Rights of the Child and choosing
one particular right to explore in further detail. The right my group chose was
Article 15: The right to meet with friends and to join clubs and groups. We
used a variety of apps and media on the iPads; video, sound recorder, I Can
Animate, pictures, Book Creator as well as using AirDrop and AirPlay to
collaborate work from three iPad onto one. The new National Curriculum (DfE,
2013) states that children should engage in a variety of technology and media
across the curriculum; although we were solely using iPads, it can be argued
that we were meeting this objective, from the Curriculum, through using a range
of apps. Moreover, we were integrating the Literacy Curriculum within the ICT
Curriculum whilst teaching the topic of PSHE; a cross-curricular lesson at its
best. This links to Medwell, Moore, Wray and Griffiths (2012) belief that ICT
should support childrens learning across all subjects where possible.
The time keeping of our group and the children
surprised me; usually, when working with young Key Stage One children I often
have to allow plenty of time for tasks to be completed. As well as this, I
often find the task is best complete when the children are scaffolded. However,
the children in our group were in brilliant time keeping and often finished the
task early; this surprised me. It could be argued, that this was as a result of
the lesson being well planned by my team of adults, as well as the level of
scaffolding we gave the children. Vygotsky, cited in Pound (2006), implores
teachers to scaffold childrens activities; through this, children can achieve
the learning objective, sometimes, independently whilst still having support
and guidance from the teacher. It also surprised me how the children seemed to
almost forget a lot of their literacy skills in regards to phonics and spelling
due to the nature of the task; it was as if their focus was on the ICT element
instead. I noticed that children struggled to write due to the keyboard
displaying the alphabet in capitals; this through them off entirely suggesting
that they have not yet fully consolidated their knowledge of capital letters.
Admittedly, I found it rather hard to ‘let go’ and
allow the children to have complete control over the font, colour, placement of
the text and the talking book. It was as if I was afraid for them to make
mistakes; however, it surprised me how the children knew so much about the iPads
and several of them were able to navigate around the iPad with ease. This has
opened my eyes to how ICT is deeply embedded in the primary curriculum and modern
day society; as Byron states many children have access to computers, and other
technology at home.
Correspondingly, Palfrey and Gasser stipulate that
children are ‘digital natives’ because they are growing up in a technology
filled digital society and are taught the skills of ICT from a very early age.
Future Lab (2010) state that digital literacy “involves critically engaging with technology and developing a social awareness
of how a number of factors including commercial agendas and cultural understandings
can shape the ways in which technology is used to convey information and
meaning.” (Future Lab, 2010; sec 1:3, p5). Therefore, children need to be
digitally literate in order to function in society (Dean, 2010). I also learnt
how to use several apps and feel my own ICT subject knowledge has improved as a
result of it, with a little help of Duffy (2006) and Potter and Darbyshire (2005)
along the way!
Bibliography:
Byron, T. (2008). Safer children in a digital
world: the report of the Byron Review: be safe, be aware, have fun. [Online]
Available athttp://dera.ioe.ac.uk/7332/1/Final%20Report%20Bookmarked.pdf.
(Accessed 06/03/2014)
Dean, G. ‘Rethinking Literacy’ in Bazalgette, C.
(ed) (2010) Teaching Media in Primary Classrooms London: SAGE.
Department for Education (2013) Primary National
Curriculum. [Online]
Available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-primary-curriculum
[Accessed 17/1/2014].
Duffy, J. (2006) Extending Knowledge in Practice:
Primary ICT. Exeter: Learning Matters LTD
FutureLab (2010) Digital Literacy Across the
Curriculum: (Sections 3.5 – 3.6 Digital Literacy in Practice)
Medwell, J. Moore, G. Wray, D. Griffiths, V.
(2012) Primary English Knowledge and Understanding London: Learning Matters (Ch
14 Electronic Texts pp196 – 202)
Palfrey, J. & Gasser, U. (2008) Born Digital:
Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives New York: Basic Books (Introduction p. 1 – 15)
(pdf on LN)
Potter, F., & Darbyshire, C. (2005)
Understanding and Teaching the ICT National Curriculum. London: David Fulton
LTD
Pound, L. (2006) How Children Learn. London:
Practical Pre-School Books
It seems we shared the same concerns, I can really relate to how you felt about 'letting go' and allowing the children to work independently on the ipads. I too was surprised at how knowledgeable they were when it came to navigating the software, but also at how resilient they were as they were not afraid to try things and get something wrong! I think that by allowing them to make mistakes they are being provided with great opportunities to learn as well as to work collaboratively when offering their peers advice.
ReplyDeleteIt seems it is a common concern among student teachers; the ability to 'let go' and allow children to make mistakes. I too agree with you, if we relate the childrens experiences to our own adult life we realize that it is through mistakes that we learn valuable life lessons. Therefore, arguably, children need to make mistakes to learn from them and adapt their developing skills accordingly,
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