This blog entry will discuss my observations and
reflections regarding my second visit to a local primary school. On
arriving at the school I felt slightly concerned about the lack of time that we
would have with the children in relation to completing the task expected of us.
I also felt apprehensive using apps such as ‘book creator’ and ‘I can animate’
with the children, as despite practising using them the previous week in school
and during university seminars, I was unsure as to whether I would remember how
to use all the apps efficiently myself, let alone to assist Year 1 children in
using them. These concerns reflect what is stated by Future Lab (2010. pp. 10) in
that teachers view themselves as being less technologically able than children,
subscribing to the notion that children are ‘digital natives’ and therefore
unrecognising ways in which they are able to support children’s digital
literacy.
However, I soon realised that these concerns were
unnecessary. My first surprise came when the children arrived, as I was
expecting the task to be made more difficult by the fact that I would be
working in unfamiliar settings with children that I had never met before. I was
immediately put at ease by the children’s confidence and willingness to use the
apps; offering their ideas and participating enthusiastically. The children
were able to operate the software very quickly (Future Lab, 2010), remembering the
steps I had shown them to use the apps meaning time was saved on repeating this
process, overcoming the challenge of the limited time constraints.
Nevertheless, it can be argued that ‘young people’s
confidence about their use of technology can be misleading’ (Future Lab, 2010. pp.
9), suggesting caution should still be held when using technology with young
children. This was evident when working with particularly confident children as
when asked a question such as “Can anybody remember what we need to do next?” these
children would often be the first to provide an answer, however the answer was
not always correct which was misleading for their peers as when the wrong
answer was shouted out, they were then convinced that the answer must be
correct. In order to overcome this potential barrier questions were distributed
evenly amongst the children in the group so they were all able to have a go at
operating the software, and any misconceptions were addressed and explained in
a positive and encouraging way.
Due to the short amount of allocated time the
sessions were very intense and I was surprised as to how well the children
maintained their high level of focus and enthusiasm. This demonstrated to me
how ‘learners are motivated and purposefully engaged in the learning process
when concepts and skills are underpinned with technology and sound pedagogy’
(Education Scotland), bringing to light particular theories regarding the motivation
and engagement provided by technology in the primary curriculum, some of which
are included in my past blog entries (Higgins, Xiao and Katsipataki, 2012; Marsh
and Millard, 2006; Prensky, 2001; Waller, 2008).
Although Prensky (2001) argues that the increased
use of technology in the curriculum has led to less time for reflection, my time
at this local primary school so far has enabled me to reflect on the module as a
whole, considering all the different theoretical viewpoints relating to digital
literacy and linking them to practise. My visits there have provided me with
first-hand experiences and encounters of using and incorporating technologies into
children’s learning in the classroom. I definitely feel more confident and
competent to use this software in my future practise and I now have some idea
as to how children respond and react when using it. I have thoroughly enjoyed
working with both the children and the teachers at this school and I very much
look forward to my final visit during which we will be viewing our ‘talking
books’.
To round-up my reflections, I would like to record
in this blog some advice that I will intend to follow during my future practise,
to ensure that I do not forget it. My advice is as follows: it is important not
to shy away from using more technology within lessons as the children enjoy
helping the teacher figure things out if they are unsure of something, and they
pick up using technologies more quickly and easily than you would imagine. In
light of this I will always try to use digital literacies and ICT within my
classroom in order to ‘enrich or bolt onto traditional literacy practices’
(Knobel and Lankshear, 2007; Marsh, 2007 cited in Waller, 2008. pp. 197-198),
and hopefully I will hold fewer concerns about doing so than I did previously
to this invaluable experience.
Education Scotland ‘Role of ICT in Learning’ [online]
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/usingglowandict/roleofictinlearning.asp
FutureLab (2010) Digital Literacy
Across the Curriculum (Sections 3.1-3.4 Digital Literacy in Practice) http://www2.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/handbooks/digital_literacy.pdf
Higgins, S. Xiao, Z. and Katsipataki, M. (2012) The Impact of Digital Technology on
Learning: A Summary for the Education Endowment Foundation [online] http://learn2.winchester.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/286045/mod_resource/content/1/Higgins%20et%20al%20Impact%20of%20Digital%20Technology%20on%20Learning.pdf
(accessed 25/02/14)
Marsh, J. and Millard, E. (2006) Popular Literacies, Childhood and Schooling Oxon:
Routledge
Prensky,
M. (2001) ‘Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Part II: Do They Really Think
Differently?’ in On the Horizon 9 (6)
Waller, T. (2008) ‘ICT and Literacy’ in: Marsh and
Hallet (eds) Desirable Literacies:
Approaches to Language and Literacy in the Early Years London: SAGE
Publications Ltd
From reading this entry it is evident that you believe that digital literacy is an important entitlement for all young people in an increasingly digital culture. I also agree with how you will use what you have learnt from this module in practice. Particularly how you stated you will use digital literacy to extend/ enrich traditional literacy. I also feel this is important.
ReplyDeleteLeu (2000) also emphasises that ‘the literacy of yesterday is not the literacy of today, and it will not be the literacy of tomorrow’ (pp744). Arguably she claims that new technologies and the use of multimedia has an impact on children learning, despite not being seen explicitly. I had found that some pupils would just observe what I was doing without me even realising, then repeating the technique seen during the session. Did you have any experience of this during this the task?
Ultimately I agree that children will inevitably bring their knowledge as a digital native into the classroom. Therefore it is the teacher’s responsibility to have confidence with their ability to harness that knowledge.
Yes I did experience that during my visit too- your question has highlighted something that I had not explicitly noticed myself but now reflecting on my experience I realise that did happen. I was always expecting to have to re-explain to the children how to navigate around the apps but to my surprise they already seemed quite capable having watched me access it just once. I find it very impressive how easily the children picked up on using the software.
ReplyDeleteI too was nervous about the amount of time we would have with the children on the visit; my concern, was that we required a large amount of concentration and work from them in such a small amount of time. Nonetheless, I too was pleasantly surprised by the level of concentration most of the children maintained and, if anything, many of the children in our group were finishing early or on time. Despite this, there was one particular child who needed encouragement and often needed his attention re-focused to the task at hand. However, this is an aspect we are all familiar with when working with children and a few positive prompts allowed him to fully engage in the task.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, I also noticed the ease of which many of the children accessed the apps and followed the task, despite only watching a brief demonstration on an iPad as a group. Arguably, this could be because their class teacher has introduced the apps to them on numerous occasions. Accordingly, as the new National Curriculum (DfE, 2013) outlines, the children at this school are able to interact with a variety of technological devices and develop their ICT skills in a cross curricular approach (Medwell, Moore, Wray and Griffiths, 2012). It seems our similar beliefs suggest that the issues raised are common when children are engaging in digital literacy, as well as the challenges that many student teachers face.