It really is everywhere...

This week I have been looking on the BBC News website and the Guardian website an awful lot... perhaps there has been a lot of interesting things in the news, or perhaps I am procrastinating.

Anyway, I came across this article about Barack Obama and how he is using Youtube to communicate his weekly updates to his public.

The article states; 'Obama's use of YouTube is the tip of a technological iceberg that is transforming politics in the US.' Obama is praised for already showing the world he intends to move the USA forward, and technology is one way in which he intends to do this!

Of course this is not a use of ICT in education, however this modern approach to politics is likely to encourage more and more young people to become interested in, and aware of world politics. This could have a great influence on their enthusiasm about their education, particularly perhaps in history.


Another interesting article I found was one from the BBC News website on virtual classrooms. The teacher from the college featured in this video is quoted as saying: "The world is changing, and we need to respond in how we're educating our young people today."
I think this article makes a valid point in that it shows how technology can be used to encourage young people who are perhaps uninterested in or struggling with education to become more involved.

In our most recent Science lesson we studied Earth and Beyond and therefore had to discuss the problems of having to teach things that you cannot demonstrate realistically in the classroom. This kind of virtual world is great for these kinds of demonstrations, as long as the pupils realise that what they are seeing is a simulation.


Finally, I have also been having a look at Teachertube. I found this site to be comprised of many humorous video clips as well as some very good teaching tools. However the first video I watched really struck me. It is called 'Pay Attention' and is simply words and music. I had heard a lot of the facts before, but it was only when I watched them in sequence on this video that they actually sunk in and I gave myself time to think about them. They became real. One of the most thought provoking quotes from this video is as follows.

Do any of your students use Google?

Did you know that there are over 2.7 billion searches performed on Google each month?

To whom were these questions addressed B.G? (before Google)

This highlighted to me the importance of the internet in education - Google really is an educational tool, as it encourages people to ask questions. Arguably the best way to learn.

The Bean Blog

In Science we have been asked to plan and carry out an investigation involving beans. My group has decided to investigate the different effects salt water, sugar water and normal water have on the growth of beans.

The task requires us to 'write up [our] bean growth investigation in a manner appropriate to Key Stage 1 or 2'. We have therefore decided to use a blog to record our investigation and our findings. I think that blogging is a great way of recording this kind of experiment for the following reasons.

• The writing involved with science experiments is often the part dreaded by children. By making it interactive it automatically becomes more fun and accessible.

• A blog can be added to at different stages of the experiment and will follow the chronological order of the experiment.

• Photo facilities allow multiple photos to be uploaded (and possibly shown in a slide show) and used as evidence of results.

• Children can view others' blogs and see how other people's experiments are going. They could be encouraged to comment on other experiments perhaps making predications about what will happen. On our blog, we have a vote feature where people can guess which bean they think will grow the fastest.

• If working in groups, the work will always be accessible for each child (not in one of their books) and it can also be accessed by a teacher easily for it to be marked/assessed.

• The blog creates cross-curricular links as it of course incorporates ICT skills into Science!

Check out The Bean Diary!

ICT in Schools - Serial Week

After having spent a week in the classroom, I have made a few observations about how ICT is used within my school.

The school has one ICT suite which is shared between all of its ten classes. The children all have a log-in and are able to use the computers during lunch-time if they have permission. In a survey carried out last week throughout the classes, the Year 1-2 class in which I am based claimed that they used the computers 'sometimes but not enough'. They did not use the suite once when I was there.

The teachers have all been well trained to use their interactive white boards, however I can't help but feel that the use of these whiteboards is used as an excuse not to incorporate other types of technology into lessons. The school use Promethean whiteboards, and compared to the other brands I have seen/used before, they seem quite easy to use and they have plenty of features to create interesting and interactive pages for teaching.

The school appears to have invested a lot of money into its ICT provision, as there is also a 'laptop trolley' which holds about 12 laptops for use throughout the school. The main focus of the school budget now is to update the literature in the library, therefore this would suggest that they do not plan to invest in more technology in the near future. I think that if this is the case then the school certainly needs to be more creative with the technology it already has.

My class teacher often plays music in the classroom as a treat for the children. She asks the children to come up to write on the IWB and move items around for her. It would be beneficial for the children to have more hands on experience with computers, especially as there is a current focus on the 'perfection' of display work. Allowing the children to type their work gives them the opportunity to see when they have spelt a word incorrectly and lets them change it themselves. As well as the use of computers, there is an important place for cameras in the classroom. Children can take photos of science experiments instead of drawing pictures. They can take photos of scenes to then write about in literacy, or photos of people to then discuss in PSHE. There is so much more to education than writing things in exercise books. It is time that children were allowed some freedom in their expression.

How much do I rely on technology?

7.00am - The alarm on my mobile phone wakes me up.

7.30am - I listen to Chris Moyles on my digital radio.

7.45am - I turn on my laptop. See the weather forecast for Southampton on my IGoogle homepage. Check my e-mails, have a look at Facebook. Read the news on the Guardian website.

8.00am - I speak on MSN to my friends who have moved away from Southampton.

8.30am - I walk to University listening to my Ipod.

9.00am - I sit in a lesson watching an Interactive whiteboard. The teacher communicates with me via e-mails and Blackboard.

11.30am - I send a text to my friends to organise meeting for lunch.

4.30pm - I get home and order a course book online on Amazon.

5.00pm - I watch Neighbours online.

7.30pm - I upload some photos from my digital camera of our current Bean Project that will eventually be uploaded onto our Bean Blog.

8.00pm - I search Webcat for a book that I need for my assignment. I place a hold on it, and know that I will receive an e-mail when it is ready for me.

What does this tell me?

If I am awake, and at home, my computer is ON. I use it to communicate, research, play, work, create. In one day I use numerous types of technology. I know how they all work, and I know how to manipulate them and what to do if one goes wrong. If I had to live without technology I would struggle, and I would be extremely frustrated.

If I rely on technology as much as I do, throughout every day of my life then why should this change when I enter the teaching profession? Already I can see how ICT is being used in the classroom, to great benefit of the teacher and the children. Plans will be constructed on the computer. Many resources will have had some kind of technological input. Interactive whiteboards will be used to communicate to the class. Monitoring of children's progress will no doubt be recorded on a computer.

This leads me to consider why children are expected to go their whole school days (most of the time) with no contact with technology at all. It is not realistic! The problem with providing children wide access to computers/cameras and other technology is MONEY.

Many schools have brand new computer suites fitted with the latest technology, yet these must still be shared between numerous classes. It is up to us to think of imaginative ways of including technology into every day lessons, without having to make a planned trip to the computer suite. Laptops are more commonly used in classrooms now, as they have the obvious benefit of being transportable. I have also witnessed some KS1 teachers photographing some of the children's work (organising shapes) or filming some role-play (hot-seating) so that the children do not need to spend time writing work up in neat, when they should be focusing on the content not the display.

It is so important to incorporate different forms of ICT into all different subject lessons, to demonstrate to children how technology can help them and enhance their knowledge and understanding of what they are learning.

Am I really a Digital Native?

Marc Prensky's Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants argues that 'digital natives' were born into a society of computers and high speed technology. 'Digital immigrants' however, have had to learn to adapt to this use of technology alongside their understanding of the world without it.

Prensky suggests that the thinking processes involved in the understanding of information technology are 'fundamentally different from their predecessors'. Essentially, young people have evolved to have an innate comprehension of how technology works, and are predisposed to working with computers.

In education, the application of the digital natives, digital immigrants theory presents a problem. Currently, most, if not all teachers are digital immigrants whilst the children they are teaching are of course digital natives. Does this mean that teachers are unable to teach their classes about ICT in a challenging and stimulating way? Are teachers too far behind their pupils in their grasp of ICT? Does the introduction of digital native teachers (i.e. Teachers currently in training or recently trained) mean that ICT will be revolutionised in schools?

Photo taken from here

I think the key thing to remember when considering this problem is that of course some children are computer whizzes, however not all families can afford computers and games consoles. Not all children spend hours on end staring at a computer screen. As well as this, i'm sure that many teachers have been thoroughly trained and are more than able to teach children beyond what they already know about computers.

My main concern regarding Prensky's argument is that it focuses on the idea that children (digital natives) should not be made to regress into understanding the world without technology, but adults (digital immigrants) should be made to progress into understanding the world with technology. Although I agree that this is logical, I also worry that children (and some adults) will become too reliant on technology. Most people who work with technology will agree that technology always has the potential to go wrong.This is why I think it is essential that children are always taught an alternative way.

What interests me most about this article is applying it to myself, and others that I know. It amuses me when I consider my family in relation to these ideas. A few years ago my Dad gave my Grandad a computer. We set it up in his dining room and he was taught how to turn it on, and connect to the internet. He used it for a few months to e-mail an old relative in Canada. Of course, he forgot how to turn it on one day and hasn't bothered to try again. My mother cannot grasp how to upload her holiday photos from her digital camera. Every time I go home, we go through it, and she makes notes. Then I get a phone call telling me that she's lost the notes, and can't remember. However, my mother works on a computer for seven hours a day when she is at work. She understands certain elements of technology; those that she is taught and uses frequently enough to remember, yet has no clue as to how these things work. Perhaps this is what Prensky is talking about. Young people have a desire to understand how and why things work in the way they do. This backs up their knowledge with understanding.

I am a digital native. I was born in 1987 and have always been surrounded by computers. As a child I played on our family computer and searched for hours on Encarta Encyclopedia. I played Lemmings with my older brothers and I remember many of the computer games we owned being on computer disks. We had hundreds of them because each game required about seven disks each. My father is a computer genius. I think it is this that has given me the confidence to play around with computers and figure out what to do if something is wrong. However, he is a digital immigrant. How does this fit in with Prensky's argument? There must be a certain amount of digital immigrants who are computer experts, otherwise we couldn't possibly have computers in the first place!

Back to me... I have always been comfortable with technology. I was the first in my family to own a digital camera. I was the first to own a DVD player, an Ipod and a laptop. All of this would suggest that I am a secure digital native. However I have my doubts. Prensky highlights some traits of digital immigrants which illustrate their poor understanding of how technology should be used. One of these is printing out e-mails, or work to edit them by hand. I often print off articles and my own essays to read on paper. I much prefer reading from paper than from a screen. Does this jeopardise my digital native status?