Reflections on ICT in SBT1

SBT1 is over now (boohoo) and I am back at uni. I have had a very enjoyable time at school in the Year 1 class and it is time to bring together my thoughts on the use of ICT. This post continues on from what I observed during my serial days in school.

One initial point - I have been used to having Internet access readily available where I live for many years. My placement was on the Isle of Wight and I was staying in a holiday flat which did not have Internet access. I thought this would be highly problematic as when I had planned lessons before I could search the Internet for hours looking for ideas. In some ways, not having the Internet was probably quite a time saver. I did go to the local library on a couple of occasions at the weekend to search for maths resources. I could use the Internet in the ICT suite at school if needed and time allowed. It will be interesting to see how my planning changes for my next placement back on the mainland.


Having had some discussions with other PGCE students, I feel that overall the use of ICT at this school was not as high as at others. All lessons were not focused around the IWB (left) and as much use was made of the 'ordinary' white board (right!).








Maths games on IWB

My most frequent use of the IWB was probably in maths lessons - usually as a mental starter, for example in a doubling lesson. I did find that different maths games had different sensitivities to finger dragging across the board. It became problematic when one child kept 'dropping' the rosette and the computer let out a loud failure noise. On some occasions I would offer to drag simultaneously with the child which seemed to work. One teacher had also given her children the trick of using the back of their finger nail to move objects.

IWB Dice

I had one interesting IWB consideration in a maths lesson when I was wanting to use dice. I had been scouring the school looking for suitable dice when another PGCE student told me that there was a dice tool on the Smartboard. Brilliant, I thought. A great opportunity to use the IWB and the next morning I found this software and the different ways to use it. I thought it would be useful to use in the introduction for the whole class to be able to see at once. But then I considered it further and realised that surely a real dice would be better to use. I had found approx. 15cm square coloured foam dice and thought the children would get a better understanding of the work they were going to do if I used this to start with. I felt it would have been using the IWB for technologies sake and I was pleased with the outcome of the lesson after the reality check.

Meg and Mog


I was wanting to do some shared reading with the children with focused work on the text. I am not sure if this was the most effective method, but I took photos of the pages of the book and then put them up on a powerpoint. It worked well and we were able to write our improvements on the 'book'. I also made storyboards using cropped pictures from the book in a similar manner which some of the other teachers commented on as being a good idea. Still feel there would probably have been something more efficient to do and if I was teaching full time I may not have thought the time was worth it.

Worksheets on IWB

Generally whenever I had made a worksheet on the computer for the children to work through, I would have it up on the IWB as I was explaining it through to the children. I felt it helped to show it on a big scale and I would write on the board as I would want them to use it.

2simple

Throughout the school I saw a fair bit of the 2Simple Education Software. In particular I saw 2Simulate where the children had to discuss as a group how to solve various problems as astronauts travelled to the planet Elpmis (took me a while to discover that was Simple backwards!); and I used the science simulation as part of a lesson based on growing plants. I used the simulation with a group of about 10 children each day. We started the lesson by watching the plant growing cartoon and then sequencing the pictures whilst discussing the changes seen. We also used the plant labelling activity, before going out into the school gardens to see the changes in their own vegetable patches. It happened to be the week it snowed while I was teaching this topic and so some days it was not possible to go out into the gardens. Fortunately the programme had enough other activities that I could use during the additional time. One of the activities was about what to wear during different weather conditions so it fitted in well with the day (though not so sure what it had to do with growing plants!).

Boogie Beebies

This was one occasion when I realised how much lessons had changed since I was a pupil. For half of one PE lesson, the tables and chairs were pushed to the side of the classroom and a boogie beebies DVD was put on the IWB for the children to follow along to. They all loved it and meant this class could still do PE even when there was snow outside and the parallel class were using the hall.

Register

As I had seen during serial week, the register is done electronically when the school system is logged onto. This became one thing I would try to set-up most mornings. I wrote down the various steps needed and which things you had to log on to first as initially it seemed a rather complicated procedure to me! I always had to start with realigning the board up - I never understood how it could get misaligned each day! I was impressed to see that the whole class would sit silently on the carpet and get up in turn to tick their presence on the register on the IWB. I wondered if it was maybe not a very efficient use of time, but I liked that they had the time to all sit quietly and were actively indicating their attendance in school.

ICT lessons - touch typing
I got to see some of the ICT lessons in action this time. As mentioned in the Serial Days post, the school has a dedicated ICT teacher who takes each class for 2 hours a week while the class teacher has their PPA time. There are 19 computers in the suite and so about half the class would have to share. There is carpet space in front of the IWB where the children sit to see the teacher work through what they'll be doing in the lesson. All aspects were explicitly talked through, such as clicking start with the left hand button on the mouse. Each lesson starts with 10 minutes of touch typing. My class (Year 1) have been focusing on the home row keys. They demonstrated during the input that they knew which fingers to use for which key, but watching them in practice it was not always consistent. The programme they use (2Simple) keeps a score of the number of keys they get right. They set the timing for 5 minutes and see if they can beat their score on the second time through. The first scores are recorded on post-its and stuck on their screens. I like the personal challenge of this and that they have something to work towards - much better than just typing for 10 minutes straight. When they had done their two sets of 5 minutes, they could play the touch typing game of falling letters until everyone was ready for the main part of the lesson. The ICT teacher joined our year group for their planning meetings so that the ICT lessons would complement the weekly theme.

Other computers in the classroom.

I mentioned during the Serial Days post that I had seen a computer in the classroom and one out in the wet area but had not seen them used. Well, the wet area computer was 'given away' to other years as it was apparently never used and the teachers would rather have the space. The children generally seemed keen to use the classroom one, but I only saw it in use during wet play times.

Digital camera - photos and videos

One of the biggest and most successful uses I made of ICT during my lessons was with the digital camera and video. One thing I learnt was that it was most meaningful when the photos or video was shown back to the children at the soonest opportunity. In one poetry lesson, we studies the poem and made up actions to it. The performance was then recorded and we watched it straight back on the IWB. The children were very excited about this but did tend to go very quiet in front of the camera. I think it would have been interesting to repeat and see if having watched one performance, their behaviour in front of camera changed.
Using digital photos as a means of recording the children's use of observation in the science lesson on growing plants.

Visualiser

Whilst trying to plug in various cables to sort the laptop and IWB out, I discovered that there was a visualiser in the classroom. I don't think I had come across these before and it took a while for it to click with me what it was for as my teacher tried to explain. The teacher said she didn't really use it though she thought she should, and indeed I never saw it in use in the classroom. But at the end of my placement when I was doing a subject specialist observation lesson in another classroom, I saw the visualiser used in full force. The teacher used it while she was describing the sheets they would be able to make use of during the lesson. As she was explaining them, the children were able to see them clearly up on the IWB. She also demonstrated the use of a calculator by operating it under the visualiser. At the end of the lesson when they were discussing the work they'd done, the teacher held one of the children's pieces of work under the visualiser for all to see. I think a visualiser is a really useful piece of equipment for the classroom and I feel I would have made a lot of use of it if it had been ore available for use in my classroom. Could have been a good solution for my Meg and Mog problem. I wonder how common these are in schools now. One thing I did note, was that it seemed odd that while the teacher was talking and explaining, the children were not looking at her but at the IWB as they were not quite adjacent. I wonder if this makes listening and understanding any harder?

CD player

Another frequent use of ICT was through the CD player to play music, or sometimes played through the computer. The class had a tidy up song (Cosmic Girl, Jamiroquai) that was very effective and something I will definitely take into my own practice. One problem I encountered was when I tried to use some CDs I had burnt myself for the Scottish Country Dancing lessons. The CD player in the classroom would not recognise them, and although I found this out in the morning when I tested them, I did not find an opportunity to find an alternative before the lesson in the afternoon. We initially tried taking the laptop down but it was nearly loud enough to be heard in the hall. Fortunately the TA managed to procure another player from another class which did recognise the CDs and the lesson turned out quite successful.

Reports and Virus - The evils and frustrations of computers!!

On my last day at placement, the day before half-term, the classes reports were due to be handed in to the Headteacher. The class teacher took her laptop home the night before to finish off writing the reports. When she turned the laptop on (her only form of computer), she discovered a virus and was therefore unable to complete the reports. What a nightmare and just the time you want to kick the computer and run screaming round the room!!

- Annoying and perplexing point - why is what I see when I click the preview button not the same as when I then publish the post?? Also, is there any easy way to move photos to relevant parts of the post. I seem to spend half my time gradually moving them down from the top where they arrive when added.

Educational Software

We started off today's ICT class looking at Inspiration, the latest version 8. We had previously used Inspiration Data as a graphing tool and I had been a big fan. This software seems equally user friendly. There are plenty of templates to use in a wide variety of lessons. We looked at the outline for a persuasive essay.

Two key tools are diagrams and mind maps. We had a play around with diagrams. They are like brain storms and a way of arranging ideas. There are plenty of ways to personalise your diagrams: colour, shape, pictures, line effects. 'Notes' can be added to individual items where more information is desired. These can be hidden or shown as required. The sub-headings can also be hidden which lends the Inspiration Diagram for use as a presentation tool. When each item is discussed it can be opened. Intriguing - I really felt powerpoint had the monopoly on presentations. I can see Inspiration as being a useful tool for me in teaching and planning, and also for the pupils to use for their own learning, particularly for allowing personal choice. It would particularly apply to visual learners. It always for careful structure and organisation in planning. Files can be saved as inspiration documents (.isf) or can be exported as a multitude of other types of file for word processing, powerpoints, graphics, web based. Sadly I don't believe my diagram is up to scratch to post on this blog!

We next moved onto looking at Textease Studio: a word processing tool but designed for school children - particularly suited for KS1 and early KS2. You can start typing anywhere on the blank page - not just the top left corner! A very cool tool is that it will read back to you what you have typed! - just click on the lips A-Z button at the top. You can also record your own sound if you had a microphone. Sadly I can't find a way to upload it onto the blog :-( A shame as I think my posts would be more interesting if there were more pictures in them. You can create branching trees that would be useful for classification. I have seen a pretty dry classification lesson in Year 6 - this would have made it more interesting, I believe. There are other features such as spreadsheets and flow charts, but they aren't as sophisticated as Excel or Inspiration.

My Use of ICT - Part 4: Everything else

I wanted to have a go at completing this set of blogs on My Use of ICT (part 1, 2, 3). hmmm, wonder if there is an easy way to link previous posts into this one. I am sure I have seen it done on other blogs. EDIT - I did not find an easy way to hyperlink to the posts. I published this post and then went back to copy the page for each of the others and linked them in turn, does not seem a very efficient way of doing it. Monty has said we don't need to write any more blogs till we are at our school placement in January, but I hope he doesn't mind that I am continuing - I have been enjoying keeping track of my ICT use.

Again I think this is a post that will be edited plenty as I think of more things to include. Although I do know otherwise, my first thought when thinking of ICT is still COMPUTERS, and it takes a while to think beyond that - hence the delay of this post. I have referred back to Monty's initial lecture for this.

I will start is MOBILE PHONES. Now, this post would have been very different if written in September. I had a phone that was capable of making calls and texts, but had no camera, Internet, music capabilities... But since then, I have very generously been given an iPhone 3G. I was quite in awe for a while never having been as technologically advanced as this and it took me quite a few weeks to begin to use it effectively. But now I must say, I love it and it's hard to think back to not having it. Some features that i really like (these aren't necessarily specific to the iPhone, but are new to me):

• being able to easily refer back to previous text conversations.
• being able to check my emails while out and about - though I have not been able to link my University email to it...
• having an ipod! never had one before but still think it's great to just have to carry my phone round with me and to have a crazy amount of music to listen to - and podcasts too! recently I had been using a diskman or walkman to listen to music or the radio on long journeys or if walking somewhere. That is something i would like to have on the iPhone - an ability to listen to the radio.
  
• keeping my photos on it, to be able to show people.
• being able to look up train times - i have just got an app that allows me to look at departure screens. I seem to do a fair bit of train travel so that will be useful. not generally got the hang of apps - any recommendations appreciated!
• i used the maps/GPS facility on my first trip into Southampton to find the bank. And on my first trip to the Isle of Wight, it was very useful in finding my school and exploring the island - when there was someone in the passenger seat to read it! As you can probably tell, I don't have a SatNav. I have seen them used and borrowed one on an occasion, but I guess it seems too expensive when I generally consider myself a good map reader/general follow my nose person and I print off the aarouteplanner directions if necessary.
• And I like the two finger zoom!
  

So, that covers the phone and ipod aspect of my ICT use. I think the rest will be pretty limited.

• I've never had a Nintendo, wii, game boy - any of those sorts of things. I have never massively craved them though i have played on friends' ones. But i don't think I've ever played enough to become good at them. I wonder how out of touch this will put me with my school children. Not enough out of touch to make me want to buy one though! i will just make the most of opportunities when i visit friends!
• TV - don't have one at uni. And as mentioned before, I don't make much use of iplayer and the like. At home we do have digital video recorder/personal video recorder - i don't understand what the technical term is, but it records to the hard disk, not onto individual DVDs or anything, and it has freeview. I love it and think it's invaluable - one of the best bits of technology and I'd recommend to everyone.
• programmable robots - not come across yet!
• digital radio. my mum won one in a raffle which she let me have. it did sound better than the analogue one i was using that i tended to have to put on its side to be able to listen to half-decently. But now the volume function seems to have gone and it only comes out pretty loud, so i have been listening to radio online instead.
  

Well, that's all i can think of for now - do suggest anything else I could mention.

CD Rom and DVD Software

The subject of today's ICT lesson was history and looking at the ways to use various forms of ICT. While working through the powerpoint presentation there was mention of Microsoft's Ancient Lands CD Rom. This is something I had at home when I was at Primary School and I do seem to remember enjoying using it. There were three sections on it: Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt - Ancient Greece was my favourite!! Each had pages on different aspects of life in that era. I suppose it was essentially like an encyclopedia but there were some sound effect buttons as well which were an exciting aspect.

I am pleased, yet surprised that these 'old' resources are still being recommended for use in schools today. I think that our copy of Ancient Lands is still in the study at home. I will have to have a look over Christmas. We also had Art Gallery, Dangerous Animals, a music one, and a few science related ones but I never really used those much (athough it didn't seem to stop me doing a chemistry degree!). What a feast of resources I may find at home! I'll have to look at them and have a play with them to decide how they might be used in today's classrooms. Stay tuned...

We also looked at some databases today. Pinpoint and viewpoint are both apparently common in schools, but neither are particularly user friendly. Monty recommends using InspireData instead. We used this for creating graphs in science and I found it excellent and very easy to use. Having used Excel and Origin for my science project last year which took a long time to learn, it was like a breath of fresh air to be able to use Inspire Data. The one-click ability to switch between graph types or data input, and the visual transformation between these was ideal.

The wealth of information that can be gathered from graveyards was highlighted today. I have been intrigued by graveyards for quite some time, loving the feast of info that can be found there. I was delighted to stumble across the Old Southampton Graveyard when walking through the common after starting uni here.

Logo Spider

This morning's ICT lesson was an introduction to the programming software, Logo. This is the spider in a web that Will, Lucy and I were very proud to create! Logo is an ideal constructivist learning tool as it provides the opportunity for trial and error. I'm intrigued as to which age this program will best suit, seeing as our group spend a long time on some of the tasks! I imagine it would be most suitable for KS2 children. Apparently it's free to download, but I haven't found where to do that yet. There is a detailed wikipedia page though!

Today's lesson did remind me of one aspect of teaching and learning that I want to reflect on. I do not do well under time pressure when 'competing' against other people. When told to create a square, or a triangle etc, I would immediately go into panic mode and my mind would just be thinking 'you've got to work it out, do it now', without thinking through the ways in which to achieve the task. I had confidence in my ability to be able to draw the triangle given the calm time work through it. But knowing that others would be working it out quicker, froze my brain. I guess I am just a competitive person. A logical conclusion I feel would be when setting tasks, to give a list of them to be worked through gradually at the learner's own pace, moving onto the next one when they were ready. But what about the theory of breaking down the tasks and not over-facing the learner at the start. A long list of activities can put anyone off even attempting in the first place. And what about the time issue element. You don't want children dawdling and not getting on with the task if they know there is no time limit. Surely there still has to be an incentive to get the job done?

One other thing we looked at in this lesson: EPS - Electronic Portfolio System. Another place that work can be saved. Also useful to have one more backup, especially at assignment time!

"In class, I have to power down"

I read this article by David Puttnam from the Guardian online website as suggested in our ICT classes. It was published in May 2007 and discusses the current situation for school children in relation to ICT provision. While outside school they are using digital technology at a much higher level and doing more interesting things, this completely changes on entering the classroom. I agree that this is clearly evident in the current experience of primary schools I have. There just appears to be a different culture on views of education compared to the rest of modern society. I was surprised and impressed the first time I saw electronic registration in a school, but when compared with 'the outside world' it is so insignificant with now such commonplace events as online check-in.

Children's use of ICT outside school is often considered by both the children themselves and society at large, as play. The learning that is occurring through such activities as computer games, setting up websites, is ignored. Hence, according to the article, the need and opportunity for schools. The education system can build on this interest and enjoyment experienced by children and develop curriculum and life skills knowledge.

A key issue that struck me was: "How do we maximise the educational benefits of that passion, without, of course, killing it stone dead?" If this question could easily be answered, teaching would become a much more straight forward profession! I feel there is a psyche to overcome that something that is educational is just not fun. I am reminded of reluctant trips to museums with the mentality that it was going to be boring because it was to do with learning. Fortunately I was often proved wrong but I think the negative expectation was still always there.

I think it shows the progress of my ICT education that this article does not seem to say anything new to me - it is merely confirming all I have been hearing and reading on the subject. Puttnam concludes "There have been millions of words spoken and written on the subject over the past decade. But the big leap forward still has not happened." If we are aware of this theory of the benefits of increasing ICT in classes, why isn't it happening. I am led to the same conclusion that it is down to teachers' attitudes. Having been educated in a predominantly pre-computer asystem, they are reluctant to make the changes. But one generation will have to make the change, and of course, that is our job as current PGCE students and the purpose of this ICT course. I best keep working on it then.

My Use of ICT - Part 3: Internet

edit - 14/12/08 - podcasts, amazon, YouTube.

I have decided to try record some more general uses I make of the Internet as a general record which I can refer back to in the future to hopefully note the advances I have made.

• I use a laptop and have a wi-fi hard disk and printer/photocopier/scanner
• I use Mozilla Firefox which I enjoy because of the Bookmarks Toolbar with the drop down RSS feeds and because typing into the address bar (not sure of the lingo) takes you to the first google result (it unreasonably irritates me that i have to type www and remember the address when I am back on Internet explorer.) And I love tabs - i know that's no longer exclusive to Firefox (was it ever?) but I feel it's an essential part of using the Internet.
  
• I check my Gmail emails using Mozilla Thunderbird on my laptop. I like having emails from certain addresses going straight to certain folders. Since getting a Gmail address this summer I have barely used it as a web-based function and so haven't got to grips with the user friendly features I have heard about. Disappointed that I am so far unable to access my Southampton emails using Thunderbird - anyone got any suggestions?!
  
• I often listen to the radio via the Internet as unfortunately my radio is somewhat broken with frequently just one volume level - loud!
• Podcasts. I have only started downloading podcasts since I got my macbook and had iTunes which I had not previously used. The first podcast I subscribed to was Mark Kermode's film reviews. Previously I had listened live or used the listen again facility online. Now that I have an iPhone (see My Use of ICT - Part 4, for more info) I have tried to subscribe to a few more to entertain me when I am out and about.
  
• I haven't really used BBC iplayer or the like much yet. Last year at college the Internet usage agreement didn't allow it. This term in Southampton I just haven't got into the habit yet. Although I watch a lot of TV at home, I have never had one at university, and don't appear to miss it too much (DVD box sets manage to occupy my time sufficiently!)
• iGoogle - I was introduced to this last year on an ICT course at university and I did set my own one up, and although I would look at it occasionally, I did not use it much and now not at all. I found my bookmarks toolbar had everything I needed to get at quickly enough.
• Wikipedia - this is a website i absolutely love and can spend a long time getting distracted on! It is my first place to look for any bit of information I might be after and of course then I find out so much I never knew I never knew by following the many many hyper-links! I went to a talk earlier in the year by Jimmy Wales, co-/founder of Wikipedia. It was an interesting insight into the whole wikimedia organisation. I was one of the few people in the room who had not edited a wikipedia page - and I still never have. Maybe someday soon I will reach that milestone!
• amazon - very useful! I bought the PGCE course books from there using the 'buy used' facility. I also recently bought ink cartridges through amazon and frustratingly what arrived was not what i ordered. But I did find the return system efficient and the correct one arrived pretty quickly.
• YouTube - not a huge user. Think i have uploaded one video onto there, before I learn about facebook's ability to do videos. I will use it if there is a song I want to listen to that i don't own. I have been impressed how often it has been used in our university classes, and I am excited by the prospect of doing similar in my classroom. also, something I would like to get to know - TeacherTube.
• I have been doing Internet banking for quite a few years.
  

Future Internet use: there are a few aspects of the Internet that I hope to start using.

• delicious - we were introduced to this in an ICT class. I really like the idea of it and hope to start using it soon - just need to practice and get into the habit I think.
• skype - phoning people using computers? I don't fully understand yet but I know friends around the world who use it and it would be great to be in touch with them!
  

Well, those are my initial thoughts - I will come back to this post in time as I think of more.