Part 2 week 10/11

 

This week we went back to a Shirley Warren primary school in order to work with year one on creating digital books to teach and inform about children’s rights. The right our group chose to focus on was Article 15: Every child has the right to meet with other children and join groups and organisations (UNICEF, online). We stated planning without the children and discussed our expectations of both the children and ourselves as well as the assessment criteria.

 

We found it difficult to set targets based on the success criteria as we did not know the children in our group or any of their previous experiences or work. If we were to do this again we would have asked the teacher for more background knowledge on our children for this would have made the task easier.

 

On meeting the children, we realised that they knew how to use the iPads to a level we needed them too. They understood the concept of how to film, what and who should be in the shot and the concept of making a digital book. It was clear that they were indeed digital natives (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008). This saved a lot of time in the beginning for we immediately started coming up with ideas. The group had previously come up with some ideas but we wanted to get the children’s input so they could have a sense of ownership on every level of the project.

 

Working all together we went and filmed our material all over the school. The children were initially nervous about being filmed but as they got used to us and the situation their confidence grew and the came out with some great ideas of how to do things differently. They showed great enthusiasm throughout the project and were very interested when we went back to the ICT sweet and started editing. Using apple TV, we were able to put what we were doing on the big board. This was great as all the children could see what was happening and give their feedback as the process was going on. One issue, as in all classrooms, was time management but considering this the children did very well and were able to keep focused. Unfortunately the children had to leave before the whole editing process was complete so we finished the final touches. One positive of this is that the children didn’t see the finished item so would get to see it next week at the Oscar type event which would be very exciting for them.

 

I have learnt so much from this activity including not underestimating children’s knowledge of technology. I have really enjoyed it and would defiantly conduct a similar activity in my classroom. I would make sure to leave lots of time for planning as without a lot of adult helpers, children would need the time to be creative. I am really looking forward to seeing all the finished products in week 12.

 

 

Palfrey, J. & Gasser, U. (2008). Born digital : understanding the first generation of digital natives. New York : Basic Books

UNICEF (2012) Children’s rights. [online] available at:https://www.unicef.org.uk/Documents/Publication-pdfs/betterlifeleaflet2012_press.pdf