Friday, November 23rd, 2012
My Vision Statement
We live in a world that is increasingly dependent on technology. Mobile phones, computers, iPads, online banking, the internet and many more. Children are in a unique position…they were born into this technological world. Children, of schooling age, have been brought up in a society focussed around the advances of technology, so does it equip them to be experts in the field? In my experience, i’m not so sure. Some children will have access to many forms of technology and will bring their knowledge into the classroom, whereas others will have limited access and will feel under confident when it comes to using ICT. I find teaching ICT fairly challenging because of the above issue. There will be those children who understand exactly what to do, who want to get started straight away and will finish first, producing an outstanding piece of work. But then there’ll be the children who will not understand how to open the programme, who will become disengaged because they ‘don’t get it’ and will have only written the title at the end of the lesson. A challenge? I think so.
The new Draft Curriculum by Naace (2012) outlines the future of ICT teaching with the focus being on 5 specific areas: Digital Literacy, Skills, Technology in the World, Technical Understanding and Safe and Responsible Use. It’s nice to see that children will now be learning about the role of ICT in their lives and the impact that it has had on the world, but most importantly, it’s good to see that there is still a focus on keeping safe, both online and offline. It’s vital that in this ‘technology boom’ that children are reminded about how to stay safe, particularly when using the internet and this is covered in the ‘safe and responsible use’ section of the framework.
This brings me onto my next topic: Social Media. Social networking is useful but as i’ve highlighted in a previous post it can be a very dangerous place to be. Children especially need to be aware of what they say on do on the internet, but regarding schools, it’s not just the children that need to be wary. In May of this year and article appeared on the BBC Newsbeat website about a teacher who was forced out of teaching due to cyberbullying. This teacher had been subject to abuse from her students via Twitter and Facebook and was forced to leave her job and became physically ill and on medication. So, do we teachers need to be associated with social media? Is it worth it? Personally, i’m no longer on Facebook, I found it a waste of time and wanted to make sure that I was rid of it before I got my first teaching job.
Below is a very powerful video about the dangers of cyberbullying and how that it can affect people’s lives. It was created by Childnet, a charity devoted to “help make the internet a great and safe place for children”.
So, how can ICT specifically be used in schools to support children’s development?
My last placement was in a special school, teaching a Key Stage 1 class. There were 10 children in my class, of which 80% of them regularly used technology to help them communicate. Without these pieces of equipment the chance to communicate with those children would have been poor which would have significantly hampered their learning. Within special schools, Information COMMUNICATIONS Technology is essential and in some cases it has been the difference in allowing children the ability to communicate with their teachers but more importantly their families.
Within mainstream schools ICT is used in a slightly different way but a way that is equally necessary. Most classrooms will be equipped with an interactive whiteboard, will have access to computers and laptops, will have a digital camera and other pieces of technology. Meadows (2010) explains that teachers use ICT to produces resources and the organise their planning. With access to these resources, teacher’s will be able to plan more efficiently to suit all children’s learning styles. The use of ICT across the curriculum is another strength of the new ICT framework Naace (2012) and I believe that ICT can be used in every subject.
PE: video analysis, dance projects etc. – When teaching I used a video camera to film my pupils rehearsing their dance routine. This routine had been developed during the course of the half term and was eventually performed to the whole school. As a class we watched back the footage and talked about the positives and the areas that we could improve upon. It was a really valuable resource to have. Dimitriadi et al (2006, p.146) state that by using digital video to make a group video, it ‘offered the children opportunities to work in role, engage in real-time situations’ and that it is ‘an example of multimedia opportunities offered by the availability of more inexpensive and easy to use digital cameras, camcorders and video editing software’.
English: Used video cameras to film the children presenting a news item about the plague that started in Eyam. We also produced a newspaper article detailing the ‘breaking news’.
Maths: beebots with a reception class to enhance their directional language, computer programmes designed to support children, in mathematics, with special needs.
The list goes on and so do the opportunities to use ICT within the primary classroom.
So my thoughts on ICT in schools? Well I think the range of opportunities to use ICT is immense and it can be used to support and develop children in their learning. If used correctly and effectively then children most certainly develop in their learning. My only worry is that with the increase in technology, children may start to loosing the skills that are essential to life: speaking, listening, reading and writing. If the emphasis is on developing all of these skills and using ICT to supplement them, then I think that the children of today will be looking forward to a bright future.
Aaron
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/17956218
Dimitriadi, Y. and Hodson, P. and Ludhra, G. (2006) Emphasising the ‘c’ in ICT: speaking, listening and communication. In: Jones, D. and Hodson, P. (eds.) Unlocking speaking and listening. London: David fulton. pp.146-161.
Meadows, J. (2010) E-learning. In: Arthur, J. and Cremin, T. (eds.) Learning to Teach in the Primary School. 2nd ed. London: Routledge. pp. 402-411.
http://www.naace.co.uk/naacecurriculum