ICT in schools - in practice.

Having spent my first few days in school on teaching practice, I was really keen to explore what ICT was available to children in schools and how it was being utilised.

I was very pleased to see a wealth of resources at my placement school; in the form of, mutliple computer suites, standalone PC'S, IWB's and more...

I observed my first taught ICT lesson here today and was very impressed with how familiar the children seemed to be with computers... I keep forgetting how I felt when I was their age, and how alien they were to me. Computers really do form part of children's daily lives in today's society and I think what and how they are taught about ICT in schools needs to reflect that.

Since the taught sessions a few weeks back, I was also really keen to find out more about how blogs and wiki's get used in schools. The realities of mobile phone cameras and ICT in that form, are that they aren't allowed in school or in the classroom. In addition, in practice I have discovered that schools have personal intranet sites with useful links, resources and ideas on them, and also topical blogs and subject led blogs that form very creative tools to communicate with the wider school community. They are however, staff led in this case, therefore the children do not actively engage with the process of creating the blog. That said, there are facilities for the children to post comments on the different areas of the blog and to get involved with its content.

WIKIS in Primary Schools

Having just finished the class input on this subject, I am greatly impressed with this ICT tool and its potential in the primary classroom.

Much the same as blogs, I can see that there may be some issues over privacy and child protection laws, but provided the appropriate security measures are put in place, I would consider these to be a fantastic tool for the classroom environment.

I feel that wikis are an exciting method for encouraging collaborative working from children in school. Group wikis, class wikis, parent wikis and staff wikis could all be compiled and have their own place within this environment. In addition, the potential to use this medium across the curriculum is vast, and with a little creativity, could turn some 'not quite so' exciting subjects into really good ones.

Today's lesson was my first encounter with a wiki - with the exception of wikipedia, although up until the lesson I did not know the full extent of how it worked. I think I picked it up fairly easily and found the video clip of the camping trip wiki very useful to understand the concept. I would be keen to use this medium in school upon taking up an NQT post.

ICT Influencing the Curriculum

Perhaps, quite naively, I was rather taken aback by the idea that major computer software companies can have such a big influence on what gets taught in schools.

Rodrigo Davies, in his article, 'Keeping Computers in their Place' raises the idea that what software companies produce for schools, is what gets taught, because of the lack of ICT skills amongst teachers. (No further expansion on lessons done, teachers reliant on the software itself for lessons, widely available online lesson plans and resources used, etc) In addition, the idea was raised that some software manufacturers may be able to exploit this lack of knowledge within the teaching community, which in turn could give them a great deal of control over what actually goes into the curriculum.

Such ideas have made me consider my own abilities within ICT -

I want to be an effective teacher and use ICT to its full potential within the classroom. This was also highlighted to me on observational placements in schools, where I have seen Interactive Whiteboards used as little more that glorified pin boards because the teachers are unable to work them properly.

But I also dont want to use ICT resources in blind faith that they are the most appropriate for the task. This article has made me somewhat cautious about the online resources that are available. At my current stage of learning in this PGCE course, I am not overly familiar with the many teaching resource websites yet - it is something that I will endeavour to expand my knowledge of. But, having read this article, I will most certainly review sites like Curriculum Online and Espresso with my eyes wide open to the input that software manufactureres may have had regarding their content and construction.

Just because software manufacturers have the expert knowledge of software that can be used in education; it doesn't mean thay are experts in creating an educational curriculum.

ICT and Literacy

From my reading this week, it has become clear that ICT most definitely has a place within the Literacy curriculum in schools and as a newly qualified teacher I hope to be able to encorporate it into my lessons.

Janet Evans, in her article, The Changing Nature of Literacy in the 21st Century, looks at the gap between modern technology and the way literacy is taught in school. She identifies the variety of technologies and literary texts that children utilise on a daily basis, and argues that by integrating the interests of children with the curriculum, it is possible to make them part of the teaching and learning process. My thoughts on this are that if children are interested in what they are learning, then surely there is far greater potential for that learning, and ultimately it can be more effective.

Evans also discusses the multimodal nature of 'texts,' and how it is possible to encourage critical thinking in children by exposing them to a wide variety of these texts and exploring their social standpoint or hertitage. I think this is a really interesting point and something that I hope to refer to in my future teaching also. I hope to use a wide range of texts in Literacy with the children I teach, for example, emails, blogs, web pages, and visual images also. I also think it is important for children to recognise that a 'text' is not simply a passage of writing, but that it takes on many forms. I believe that using ICT would greatly assist this idea.

Furthermore, I believe it is very important as a teacher to understand the world of the children I teach. What I have to keep reminding myself is that children today are different to when I was a child - therefore, keeping up with the new technologies and popular culture that is important to them, will be crucial to effectively teaching Literacy with ICT.

Blogs in Primary Schools

I'd like to explore my thoughts further on some of the issues raised in today's lesson about how Blogs can be used in Primary Schools. It was suggested that they can be a good ICT tool for children and can be used in a variety of ways. Children can be encouraged to create 'Class' blogs, 'Sports' blogs, 'News' blogs or 'Outing' blogs, for example. And in doing so, the pupils become responsible for their own blogs, and in turn, developing their own learning in ICT and the relevant cross curricular subjects. However, so early on in my learning and understanding of blogs, there are aspects of this that I find problematic; the main one being, that what gets posted on a blog is 'out there' for anyone to access. Although, in the case of a school, the target audience of such blogs would be parents, peers, teachers and friends, there is still the danger that people you don't want accessing the information, can. As a newly qualified teacher in my first school, I would have reservations about using this technology with my children without seeking a better understanding of the privacy and child protection laws that exist. Or, alternatively, I would look to use the media in a safe environment that was password protected or within a secure firewall.

Learning already!

As you can see, I have now successfully managed to add a picture of myself onto a post and also into my profile. It didn't take that long, honest!! That's one thing that I've learnt about myself in the last few weeks, especially with regard to ICT - It sometimes takes me a little bit longer to work out what I'm doing, but I get there in the end.

I'm quite pleased with this now. Today's lesson was my first exposure to blogs - up until then I had no idea what they were, how to create them or what relevance they had to Primary Education. However, I have come away from the lesson equipped with a bit more knowledge and the beginnings of a new skill. I am a little apprehensive about this new technology... learning about this makes me feel a little out of touch with the modern world, especially as I thought I had a fairly good understanding of ICT prior to the course beginning. I also feel a little uneasy that, in essence, anyone can read what I write on this blog, as it is just 'out there' on the web. I am hoping that in time, as my confidence with this media grows, and I develop a better understanding of it, I will feel more comfortable using it.

Here we go!! This is me... I've managed to work out how to do it... now all I need to do is figure out how to get the image into my profile and I'll be all set!! Wish me luck!!

My First Blog...

Hello all!

I'm completely new to this and at the moment am not quite sure what I'm doing... I think it'll be a case of learning as I go!! I've also just spent the last ten minutes trying to add a picture to my page... unsuccessfully as you can see. I'll try again in a minute and see if I can work out how to do it, otherwise I'll find someone who can show me...