When I was first introduced to the idea of blogging, I was unsure about how it would help me to become a 'reflective practitioner'. I was already quite used to reflecting on my experiences, and honestly, I could not really see how this blog would help me to build upon this.
Having read through my posts however, I can see a dialogue has emerged, as I reflect on the uses of ICT within the primary curriculum. I hadn't even realised this is what I had been doing! So from having not a lot to say about how ICT can impact upon the work in the classroom, I have a long, and often interesting list of my own developed thoughts and feelings toward s the subject.
This blog has been a space where I can say what I feel, I can admit to uncertainty and I can question anything. They are questions that may not be answered (as who in fact am I asking?), but they are questions that allow me to progress to the next stage in my thinking. Teachers always hark on about key questions for pupils, but to become effect practitioners surely we need to ask ourselves some key questions too? By posing questions and admitting uncertainties we are being honest, we can hold up our hands up and say, 'what is that about?' or 'I'm not sure I understand'. Again, these are things we encourage children to do in our classrooms, surely we should learn from what we teach.
Having mentioned that a blog has been a good place for me to do this, it would then suggest that it is a good way for a child to also do the same. I have mentioned in a previous blog that I wanted to use one for the children to reflect on what they learned in their practical maths lesson, sadly however, the resources were not available.
I have begun to realise how effective and instrumental ICT can be in teaching and learning. For some children, 'computer' or 'ninendo' are such bizz words, that you will command their attention immediately. If this is the case, why not use these things in your teaching. the children will instantly be interested, and they will put time and effort into the learning. Afterall, what is more engaging and exciting, 30 mintues writing the answers to maths word problems in a book, or 30 minutes maths training on the nintendo DS? Of course, there are implications on cost and resources in this example, but it needn't be as extreme. Children, as I did here, respond to ICT and we should be giving them every opportunity to do so.
And, to answer a previous question posed in a blog of mine, to blog is definately the answer.
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Once upon a time, in a school not so far away...
The first time I visited my school, I made a judgement. I assumed that not many children would have computer access at home, and I was right. I then assumed that this would affect their computer proficiency in school. Here however, is where I was wrong.
In my first ICT with the children, they were all seemingly confident users of the computers in the designated ICT suite. It was on a serial day, so I spent the majority of the lesson observing. The children were learning how to use the Softease programme 'Branch' to create a branch database. The data involved mini beasts - a direct link with their current geography and science topics. The lesson began in the classroom. The children gathered around the IWB and the teacher modelled how to access and run the programme. She then explained how it worked, and showed an example. The children watched, and then had a go together, telling the teaching what to press and when, to make the programme work. They had taken in the step by step process that she had modelled. We then wrote a set on instructions as to how to open and run the programme - the children told me what to do, and I wrote them up on the flip chart. They had told me correctly, and so we took the instructions and class to the ICT suite. The lesson went really well and the children were extremely proficient in using the new programme. They then used Word to insert some text art, printed their final product, and saved it to a designated folder.
So, the children were confident users of ICT within school. My teacher mentor was also, incidentally, the ICT co-ordinator. I decided it was a great opportunity to get to grips within not only teaching ICT, but in using ICT to support my teaching, in other areas of the curriculum.
Initially, I did not feel as though I was incorporating much ICT into my teaching. As a start, I was planning each lesson, and series of lessons on the computer, and then saving them to the school's teacher network. this meant that every teacher in the school would have access to my plans. I also used existing plans, that were saved on the network, to inform my planning. This was a fantastic use of ICT within the school, and one that I would encourage other schools to develop and use. I know that other students did not have this facility in their schools, and it is s shame because it is an excellent space for sharing resources, ideas, and planning. It is also the place where attainment and progress levels are kept. This means that any teacher can access his information at any time, meaning that progress, learning and achievement can be tracked between and across year groups.
In addition to these plans, I was also creating Smart notebooks for each lesson I taught. I would create a notebook with key questions, concepts and interactive activities to work through with the class in the input to the lesson. I would then keep the learning objective and success criteria displayed on the IWB throughout the lesson. Children would then use this to assess how they were working at points during the lesson, and before the plenary. As I become more confident in my teaching, and as I got to know the children better I began to incorporate more interactive activities on the IWB. I would get the children up to rearrange decimal numbers in size order, to use a number grid to multiply and divide by 10, 100 and 1000 by having the numbers to the left or to the right on the grid.
Without really realising, I had been incorporating ICT into my teaching. I had come naturally, I did not really see how I could have progressed so far without the use of ICT! I was e-mailing my teacher mentor on a daily basis, I was using the teacher network every day, and the children were using ICT in almost every lesson. A great start, I thought. I wanted to do more however. I think that using ICT to support teaching and learning is more than using the IWB each lesson. It is second nature to the children to use it and to learn from it. I wanted to help them consolidate their learning in new and effective ways.
As a progression on from the interactive smart board activities, I planned in games and quizzes on interactive websites. In the learning zone on the BBC, there were many activities which helped to develop the children's knowledge and understanding of the Victorians. They took part in investigating a Victorian classroom, a day in the life of a child chimney sweep, what a rich Victorian home looked like, all from their own classroom in 2009! The children were really enthusiastic during the lessons, and they said themselves that they learnt far more than they had been learning from books about the Victorians. The children applied this learning in writing diaries, letters and posters, which gave me an opportunity to see what they had taken in. The whole thing was really successful.
I did similar activities in science, where the children could test components of circuits on the computer. These activities made really useful plenaries to science lessons. During the lesson, the children would learn the science, and in the plenary I would use the interactive games and quizzes to assess their knowledge and understanding. The children enjoyed it too!
I was still very aware of the fact that my use of ICT within lessons was based around the computer, when there is in fact far more to ICT than the IWB. In a practical maths lesson my teacher asked me whether I wanted the children to write anything down in their books (I was collecting evidence for Assessing Pupils' Progress). I thought about it for a while, and decided that yes I did want some evidence of this learning. I found the cameras at the back of the classroom and gave them out to the children. They spent time taking photos of each other doing their maths tasks, and they enjoyed taking responsibility for recording the work they were doing. I then sent two children to collect the photos from the printer, and asked the children what we were going to do with all their pictures. Their first response was that they wanted to take them home. After a little prompting from me, they decided that they could write captions beneath the photos to describe what they had been doing in the lesson, and what they had learned. Ideally, here I would have liked the children to add captions to their photos on a Word programme, as they proficient in doing this, however there was no access to computers in the classroom, and the ICT suite was in use. Another activity that would have worked well here, would have been to upload the photos onto a blog, and to write about their learning experiences there.
This was the one factor I felt really limited mine and the children's use of ICT. There were a selection of laptops available to use in the classroom, however they were old and they were slow, and my mentor suggested that they were not really worth the hassle. This gave me the challenge however, as I've described above, of using ICT without computers, which can be just as, if not more useful an effective, than using computers directly.
I feel confident and ready to take what I have learnt from this placement into other school, in other placements and on into my career. I know that many other schools will have more computer access, and I feel that I now have a good grounding on which to stand, and can develop on in such a school.
Having found out my next placement school is such a school, I am anxious and excited to develop my use of ICT to help children learn.
In my first ICT with the children, they were all seemingly confident users of the computers in the designated ICT suite. It was on a serial day, so I spent the majority of the lesson observing. The children were learning how to use the Softease programme 'Branch' to create a branch database. The data involved mini beasts - a direct link with their current geography and science topics. The lesson began in the classroom. The children gathered around the IWB and the teacher modelled how to access and run the programme. She then explained how it worked, and showed an example. The children watched, and then had a go together, telling the teaching what to press and when, to make the programme work. They had taken in the step by step process that she had modelled. We then wrote a set on instructions as to how to open and run the programme - the children told me what to do, and I wrote them up on the flip chart. They had told me correctly, and so we took the instructions and class to the ICT suite. The lesson went really well and the children were extremely proficient in using the new programme. They then used Word to insert some text art, printed their final product, and saved it to a designated folder.
So, the children were confident users of ICT within school. My teacher mentor was also, incidentally, the ICT co-ordinator. I decided it was a great opportunity to get to grips within not only teaching ICT, but in using ICT to support my teaching, in other areas of the curriculum.Initially, I did not feel as though I was incorporating much ICT into my teaching. As a start, I was planning each lesson, and series of lessons on the computer, and then saving them to the school's teacher network. this meant that every teacher in the school would have access to my plans. I also used existing plans, that were saved on the network, to inform my planning. This was a fantastic use of ICT within the school, and one that I would encourage other schools to develop and use. I know that other students did not have this facility in their schools, and it is s shame because it is an excellent space for sharing resources, ideas, and planning. It is also the place where attainment and progress levels are kept. This means that any teacher can access his information at any time, meaning that progress, learning and achievement can be tracked between and across year groups.
In addition to these plans, I was also creating Smart notebooks for each lesson I taught. I would create a notebook with key questions, concepts and interactive activities to work through with the class in the input to the lesson. I would then keep the learning objective and success criteria displayed on the IWB throughout the lesson. Children would then use this to assess how they were working at points during the lesson, and before the plenary. As I become more confident in my teaching, and as I got to know the children better I began to incorporate more interactive activities on the IWB. I would get the children up to rearrange decimal numbers in size order, to use a number grid to multiply and divide by 10, 100 and 1000 by having the numbers to the left or to the right on the grid.
Without really realising, I had been incorporating ICT into my teaching. I had come naturally, I did not really see how I could have progressed so far without the use of ICT! I was e-mailing my teacher mentor on a daily basis, I was using the teacher network every day, and the children were using ICT in almost every lesson. A great start, I thought. I wanted to do more however. I think that using ICT to support teaching and learning is more than using the IWB each lesson. It is second nature to the children to use it and to learn from it. I wanted to help them consolidate their learning in new and effective ways.
As a progression on from the interactive smart board activities, I planned in games and quizzes on interactive websites. In the learning zone on the BBC, there were many activities which helped to develop the children's knowledge and understanding of the Victorians. They took part in investigating a Victorian classroom, a day in the life of a child chimney sweep, what a rich Victorian home looked like, all from their own classroom in 2009! The children were really enthusiastic during the lessons, and they said themselves that they learnt far more than they had been learning from books about the Victorians. The children applied this learning in writing diaries, letters and posters, which gave me an opportunity to see what they had taken in. The whole thing was really successful.I did similar activities in science, where the children could test components of circuits on the computer. These activities made really useful plenaries to science lessons. During the lesson, the children would learn the science, and in the plenary I would use the interactive games and quizzes to assess their knowledge and understanding. The children enjoyed it too!
I was still very aware of the fact that my use of ICT within lessons was based around the computer, when there is in fact far more to ICT than the IWB. In a practical maths lesson my teacher asked me whether I wanted the children to write anything down in their books (I was collecting evidence for Assessing Pupils' Progress). I thought about it for a while, and decided that yes I did want some evidence of this learning. I found the cameras at the back of the classroom and gave them out to the children. They spent time taking photos of each other doing their maths tasks, and they enjoyed taking responsibility for recording the work they were doing. I then sent two children to collect the photos from the printer, and asked the children what we were going to do with all their pictures. Their first response was that they wanted to take them home. After a little prompting from me, they decided that they could write captions beneath the photos to describe what they had been doing in the lesson, and what they had learned. Ideally, here I would have liked the children to add captions to their photos on a Word programme, as they proficient in doing this, however there was no access to computers in the classroom, and the ICT suite was in use. Another activity that would have worked well here, would have been to upload the photos onto a blog, and to write about their learning experiences there.
This was the one factor I felt really limited mine and the children's use of ICT. There were a selection of laptops available to use in the classroom, however they were old and they were slow, and my mentor suggested that they were not really worth the hassle. This gave me the challenge however, as I've described above, of using ICT without computers, which can be just as, if not more useful an effective, than using computers directly.
I feel confident and ready to take what I have learnt from this placement into other school, in other placements and on into my career. I know that many other schools will have more computer access, and I feel that I now have a good grounding on which to stand, and can develop on in such a school.
Having found out my next placement school is such a school, I am anxious and excited to develop my use of ICT to help children learn.
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Thursday, 13 November 2008
'Game theory'
An article published in the Guardian today explores 'what we can learn about learning from video games'. Click here to read the article.
Keith Stuart poses the question, are all games about education? On the surface, things like Brain Training and Big Brain Academy on the Nintendo DS sell themselves as educational learning tools. Stuart explains that games such as SimCity are 'quietly didactic experiences', yet he asks whether we are overlooking the educational value of all games. Stuart explains,
"At the GameCity festival in Nottingham, Jonathan Smith, head of production at UK publisher TT Games, spoke about how he sees games as supportive learning environments."
This is all well and good, however i believe it is up to us, as teachers and/or parents to investigate this further. If indeed the claim is true, then fantastic news. I am sure there is nothing an eight year old boy would love more than to come home from school and settle into his homewrok task of playing videogames for 30 minutes. He would probably willingly play for longer. And what a success, children actively wanting to be part of that supportive learning environment. What skills is he really learning though?
"In a report published by the Primary Review [...] children describe what makes a good teacher, saying that one "explains things clearly", "turns teaching into problem-solving rather than just giving information" and "makes sure it's not too big steps". Smith realises that every point applies to good game design as much as good teaching."
So are games a learning environment in which children are simply taught about games? Or are they in fact a valuable educational resource that have been somewhat overlooked up until now? Smith suggests "that all games, like schools, can teach us about our place in the world, but only by providing a supportive framework to creativity and fun." So then, video games will not as such make children better at numeracy or literacy, but he kind of education they do provide is also valuable. There is little time in the Curriculum for teaching children extensively about their place in the world, so perhaps this is a way around that?
I am sceptical. Not about the value video games can have in a child's learning, but about what learning really goes on when they are engaged in something such as Mario Cart.
References
Keith Stuart poses the question, are all games about education? On the surface, things like Brain Training and Big Brain Academy on the Nintendo DS sell themselves as educational learning tools. Stuart explains that games such as SimCity are 'quietly didactic experiences', yet he asks whether we are overlooking the educational value of all games. Stuart explains,
"At the GameCity festival in Nottingham, Jonathan Smith, head of production at UK publisher TT Games, spoke about how he sees games as supportive learning environments."
This is all well and good, however i believe it is up to us, as teachers and/or parents to investigate this further. If indeed the claim is true, then fantastic news. I am sure there is nothing an eight year old boy would love more than to come home from school and settle into his homewrok task of playing videogames for 30 minutes. He would probably willingly play for longer. And what a success, children actively wanting to be part of that supportive learning environment. What skills is he really learning though?
"In a report published by the Primary Review [...] children describe what makes a good teacher, saying that one "explains things clearly", "turns teaching into problem-solving rather than just giving information" and "makes sure it's not too big steps". Smith realises that every point applies to good game design as much as good teaching."
So are games a learning environment in which children are simply taught about games? Or are they in fact a valuable educational resource that have been somewhat overlooked up until now? Smith suggests "that all games, like schools, can teach us about our place in the world, but only by providing a supportive framework to creativity and fun." So then, video games will not as such make children better at numeracy or literacy, but he kind of education they do provide is also valuable. There is little time in the Curriculum for teaching children extensively about their place in the world, so perhaps this is a way around that?
I am sceptical. Not about the value video games can have in a child's learning, but about what learning really goes on when they are engaged in something such as Mario Cart.
References
- 'What we can learn about learning from video games' by Keith Stuart in The Guardian Thursday 13th November 2008
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
IWB
Click here. Something slightly cheesy, but perhaps a worthwhile read on the benefits of the IWB.
From my own perspective, here is a short list of my initial thoughts on the benefits of IWBs.
For the teacher:
15/12/2008
An Guardian article, dated 2005 explains the cautions that should be taken with the use if IWBs. I think it is interesting to compare what we now know.
The article describes how IWBs will be used for teaching ICT, as a 'glorified power point'. What I have seen in classrooms tell a different story. In core curriculum subjects alone, IWBs have been used to enhance children's learning. The learning is interactive, it is within their reach -- they can come up to the front of the classroom and touch it. The children are handed back some of the control.
It is quoted that 'integrating ICT into the curriculum should be a full-time responsibility for an expert member of staff.' If, in 2005 this was not the case, it certainly is now. The majority of teachers, I would suggest, are aware of the benefits that ICT can have in creative an effective learning environment, and they are trained to provide this sort of learning. I do think that three years on, a relatively long period of time in technology terms, some teachers are not reaping the benefits.
I cannot name a single classroom where I have not seen the IWB in full use, to the benefit of the learners. The are a great resource to teachers, and I think we have come a long way, as teachers and users of ICT since that 2005 article. It shows, the older generation are becoming integrated in a digital society, slowly, but nevertheless, surely.
From my own perspective, here is a short list of my initial thoughts on the benefits of IWBs.
For the teacher:
- Resources are easily accessed -- once a resource has been created on Smartboard software is is easily to access and transport as it is all electronic.
- Resources are easily adapted -- once a resource has been made it can be kept, tweaked and changed to use again.
- Resources can be shared easily amongst colleagues -- teachers can share their ideas and presentations and they can be used again and again by whoever you wish to share them with.
- Smartboard presentations can be easily changed within lessons -- giving you and your class freedom for interpretation and adaptation within your lesson. These adaptations can then be saved for reviewing or re-using.
- Interactivity - learning is two sided and it is two way -- it gives children an instant result or output to their work.
- Interesting learning -- when the IWB is not overused.
- It brings learning, teachers and the classroom into the 21st century. It is something technological that children can relate to and it brings the teacher who can use the IWB (successfully) to a place where he or she will be considered modern (to an extent, perhaps).
- Children can put their own work onto the IWB thus giving them an easy way to share things they are proud.
15/12/2008
An Guardian article, dated 2005 explains the cautions that should be taken with the use if IWBs. I think it is interesting to compare what we now know.
The article describes how IWBs will be used for teaching ICT, as a 'glorified power point'. What I have seen in classrooms tell a different story. In core curriculum subjects alone, IWBs have been used to enhance children's learning. The learning is interactive, it is within their reach -- they can come up to the front of the classroom and touch it. The children are handed back some of the control.
It is quoted that 'integrating ICT into the curriculum should be a full-time responsibility for an expert member of staff.' If, in 2005 this was not the case, it certainly is now. The majority of teachers, I would suggest, are aware of the benefits that ICT can have in creative an effective learning environment, and they are trained to provide this sort of learning. I do think that three years on, a relatively long period of time in technology terms, some teachers are not reaping the benefits.
I cannot name a single classroom where I have not seen the IWB in full use, to the benefit of the learners. The are a great resource to teachers, and I think we have come a long way, as teachers and users of ICT since that 2005 article. It shows, the older generation are becoming integrated in a digital society, slowly, but nevertheless, surely.
Friday, 7 November 2008
To blog or not to blog?
See video about a blog.
'And so to blogging', he says as my fingers curl up with the fear of revealing the inner-most workings of my brain to the world wide web. Fair enough, it is something I plod on with for means of assessment and published reflection, but what does it mean for a class, for my class? How will, or could, this impact them. How can it help?
As I drive to my first meeting with my new class, the school appears behind an imposing, run down block of flats, graffitied, with a number of boarded up windows. It seems as though my class will not have much experience with blogging It may sound stereotypical, but as it turns out, very few of the children have computer access at home. This goes against everything I seem to have heard so far regarding today's children and ICT.
Blogging, it seems, will not have entered the consciousness of many of these children. How do you then introduce blogging to the class, and how do you tackle the inevitable feedback from parents who cannot provide access to these blogs at home?
"In 1997 Jorn Barger coined the phrase Weblog to describe a site that combined links, commentaries, and personal thoughts and essays from the perspective of the Weblog author." (Blogs: A Disruptive Technology Coming of Age? 9/26/2002, By Phillip D. Long)
Blogging is a way of sharing news and information with a whole range of people. A class blog would be a fantastic way of sharing news from the class with parents, carers and other teachers, but how do I enable parents to see it without computer or internet access at home? The class can access the blog during their limited use of the ICT suite, yet the question still remains, to blog, or not to blog?
The media suggests that blogging is in my favour. I can share ideas, news, view responses all in one place, which does sound like a good idea. But can the children use this kind of medium effectively? They can type, yes, but they are so used to forming ideas on paper before even sitting at a computer that I feel they would struggle with using a blog as a learning tool., to begin with at least. I know that many children in the class own a games console of some shape or description, proving that they can adapt and learn in a new way, if only they practice it enough. Linking, very usefully to the reflections on Prensky and the Digital Natives Part II (see below), in which he discusses how a persons brain can change and adapt in different circumstances.
Therefore if I can begin to model how blogging works, and the ways in which it benefits its users, surely a class on 24 children can take it on board and will soon enough become effective bloggers themselves.
I am delighted when I hear that the school will be opening up its new ICT suite to parents and children at the end of each school day, turning the idea of a class blog into something that is possible and worthwhile.
The answer it seems is to blog. Lets see how it works in reality shall we?
References
'And so to blogging', he says as my fingers curl up with the fear of revealing the inner-most workings of my brain to the world wide web. Fair enough, it is something I plod on with for means of assessment and published reflection, but what does it mean for a class, for my class? How will, or could, this impact them. How can it help?
As I drive to my first meeting with my new class, the school appears behind an imposing, run down block of flats, graffitied, with a number of boarded up windows. It seems as though my class will not have much experience with blogging It may sound stereotypical, but as it turns out, very few of the children have computer access at home. This goes against everything I seem to have heard so far regarding today's children and ICT.
Blogging, it seems, will not have entered the consciousness of many of these children. How do you then introduce blogging to the class, and how do you tackle the inevitable feedback from parents who cannot provide access to these blogs at home?
"In 1997 Jorn Barger coined the phrase Weblog to describe a site that combined links, commentaries, and personal thoughts and essays from the perspective of the Weblog author." (Blogs: A Disruptive Technology Coming of Age? 9/26/2002, By Phillip D. Long)
Blogging is a way of sharing news and information with a whole range of people. A class blog would be a fantastic way of sharing news from the class with parents, carers and other teachers, but how do I enable parents to see it without computer or internet access at home? The class can access the blog during their limited use of the ICT suite, yet the question still remains, to blog, or not to blog?
The media suggests that blogging is in my favour. I can share ideas, news, view responses all in one place, which does sound like a good idea. But can the children use this kind of medium effectively? They can type, yes, but they are so used to forming ideas on paper before even sitting at a computer that I feel they would struggle with using a blog as a learning tool., to begin with at least. I know that many children in the class own a games console of some shape or description, proving that they can adapt and learn in a new way, if only they practice it enough. Linking, very usefully to the reflections on Prensky and the Digital Natives Part II (see below), in which he discusses how a persons brain can change and adapt in different circumstances.
Therefore if I can begin to model how blogging works, and the ways in which it benefits its users, surely a class on 24 children can take it on board and will soon enough become effective bloggers themselves.
I am delighted when I hear that the school will be opening up its new ICT suite to parents and children at the end of each school day, turning the idea of a class blog into something that is possible and worthwhile.
The answer it seems is to blog. Lets see how it works in reality shall we?
References
- Blogs: A Disruptive Technology Coming of Age? 9/26/2002, By Phillip D. Long at http://campustechnology.com/articles/39247_1/
- Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Part II: Do They Really Think Differently? By Marc Prensky at http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part2.pdf
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
'In Class, I have to power down'
'In Class, I have to power down' (view Guardian article here.)
Indeed, many of today's primary school children will have had a lot more experience with ICT than that which they will come across in school. Spreadsheets, databases and word documents prompt yawns and a rolling of the eyes from these such children. I admit, they know far more than I do about what is out there in the world of Information and Communication Technology, so why do we not credit this and give way for them to develop and expand within school. If they were musically talented their skills and talent would most likely be nurtured and built upon by a school or outside agency. So why is ICT so limited?
I could speculate for hours about what makes us, as teachers, react in such a way to ICT. I stifled laughter as a teacher told me that the classes first ICT lesson on the half term would not be in the ICT suite. 'They are learning this today, and then they can put it onto the computer next week'. I hope the teacher does not notice my raised eyebrows in response to what I have heard. In school, children have to 'power down':
Both quotes taken from 'In class, I have to power down' by David Puttnam at guardian.co.uk, Tuesday May 8 2007.
The question then, how do we make ICT interesting and exciting within school? There are limitations, it seems, in the amount of freedom and control you can give a class of children in an ICT lesson. There are plans to keep to and things to be learnt, in theory anyway. What is often forgotten, I think, is how much ICT can filter into other areas of the curriculum in interesting and exciting ways. Google Earth, podcasts, blogs and Wikis can all feature in ICT, however they would be of much more use in geography, literacy and science etc. as an enrichment to the curriculum. ICT needs to be taken from the ICT suite and filtered into other areas of education. It will be of much more value to children when they use it in an appropriate context. Then perhaps they may get interesting and exciting.
Indeed, many of today's primary school children will have had a lot more experience with ICT than that which they will come across in school. Spreadsheets, databases and word documents prompt yawns and a rolling of the eyes from these such children. I admit, they know far more than I do about what is out there in the world of Information and Communication Technology, so why do we not credit this and give way for them to develop and expand within school. If they were musically talented their skills and talent would most likely be nurtured and built upon by a school or outside agency. So why is ICT so limited?
I could speculate for hours about what makes us, as teachers, react in such a way to ICT. I stifled laughter as a teacher told me that the classes first ICT lesson on the half term would not be in the ICT suite. 'They are learning this today, and then they can put it onto the computer next week'. I hope the teacher does not notice my raised eyebrows in response to what I have heard. In school, children have to 'power down':
What I do with digital technology outside school - at home, in my own free time - is on a completely different level to what I'm able to do at school. Outside school, I'm using much more advanced skills, doing many more interesting things, operating in a far more sophisticated way. School takes little notice of this and seems not to care.One child explains how ICT lessons only get exciting when you leave the classroom and take what you have back to your own computer:
At school, you do all this boring stuff, really basic stuff, PowerPoint and spreadsheets and things. It only gets interesting and exciting when you come home and really use your computer. You're free, you're in control, it's your own world.
Both quotes taken from 'In class, I have to power down' by David Puttnam at guardian.co.uk, Tuesday May 8 2007.
The question then, how do we make ICT interesting and exciting within school? There are limitations, it seems, in the amount of freedom and control you can give a class of children in an ICT lesson. There are plans to keep to and things to be learnt, in theory anyway. What is often forgotten, I think, is how much ICT can filter into other areas of the curriculum in interesting and exciting ways. Google Earth, podcasts, blogs and Wikis can all feature in ICT, however they would be of much more use in geography, literacy and science etc. as an enrichment to the curriculum. ICT needs to be taken from the ICT suite and filtered into other areas of education. It will be of much more value to children when they use it in an appropriate context. Then perhaps they may get interesting and exciting.
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