Final reflections...

If you had asked me six months ago about my opinion on blogging, my response would have included the phrases time-wasting, and self obsessed. I used to think that blogging was only for teenagers with too much time on their hands.

Over the past few months I have learnt a lot about the use of ICT in the Primary classroom, and I believe that blogging can play an important role in schools.

In my very first post I spoke about my skepticism about writing for an unknown audience online. I didn't think I would be able to write my thoughts and opinions for anyone and everyone to read. I certainly didn't think I would enjoy it! However once I had given in to the necessity of writing these blogs, I found it quite fun. Perhaps it was the way I could define my own style of writing; or maybe the pressure of people actually being able to read my work made me think more carefully about what I was writing... Whatever it was, it has changed my mind.

I was also concerned about whether this type of activity could be used with Primary aged children. When I was on placement in Key Stage 1 I realised how limited the children's ICT ability was. However, I do not think that this should restrict the types of ICT activities used as a class. By introducing children to more interactive ways of presenting and communicating their work, teachers will inspire children to use technology in a more creative way. I think that a class blog would be a great way of involving all children in a more complex ICT activity, even though it might be beyond their individual capabilities. My next placement is with years 3 and 4, and I hope that I will be able to engage the children in ICT a bit better than I did in SBT1. I will certainly consider blogging as an option.

As well as blogging, I have seen excellent use of digital cameras in lessons and I aim to continue to do this as I know the positive impact it can have on children's engagement and enjoyment. I think that the selective use of video and interactive games work well too; in lessons or as a treat for the children.

From a teacher's perspective, ICT has enabled us to share ideas, plans and resources so that lessons can be planned more efficiently, in more depth, and using the brain power of many teachers, not just one. There are countless websites dedicated to teaching ideas, it is just a case of finding the right ones, and then finding activities that suit you and your class. I think that this is fantastic, but there is always going to be the problem of people relying completely on this kind of provision. I am sure that most of the people on this course have had the dreaded experience of technology failing them, and then being completely stuck as to what to do. This is my only criticism of ICT... It is only great when it works.

This is an important lesson to teach our pupils. Find as many ways as you possibly can to enhance your learning and to communicate it in different ways, but do not rely on it to do your work for you. Until technology becomes faultless, I think that this will always be the case.

ICT in SBT 1

Now that I have completed my first school placement, I can see clearly how difficult it can be to teach and use ICT in a Key Stage 1 classroom. The resources available in your school, and the time you are allowed to access these determines how engaging and productive the ICT is in your classroom.

Here are some reflections on the ICT I have seen, and implemented in my time at school.

ICT Lessons

Most of the ICT lessons that I have since seen in my school have consisted of very basic tasks, where children are quickly expected to produce some kind of evidence of learning. One session they were asked to draw a picture of a famous person in Dazzle. Although I cannot really see how this might develop the children’s ICT skills, I can sympathise with a teacher who sets these kinds of tasks. The children are simply not at the level that they need to be in order to complete many of the more challenging tasks in the ICT suite.

I only taught one ICT lesson by myself during my placement. This lesson was very short, and the class teacher wanted the children to explore using a word processor. I asked the children to type up some sentences about a famous person who they had been learning about. I gave them the sentences to copy, so that they didn’t spend the whole session thinking about what to type, but actually typing. They then played around with changing the size, font, and colour of their sentences. This was fine, but I still felt that the children didn’t make much progress at all, and I know that some of them didn’t get a go at all.

I struggled to think of an activity which children with such little experience on computers could do in such a short time frame. Thinking back, I now wonder if the mixed ability pairs (one year 1, and one year 2) was not the best way to organise the children. Separate tasks for the different year groups might work better and might allow all of the children to work on a task that is suited more realistically to them.

ICT in my teaching

I definitely feel more confident in using ICT to improve the quality of my teaching. I have witnessed the sudden difference in behaviour when some element of technology is being used in an input. I have shown children a website as a starting point in a few of my topic lessons (Beatrix Potter - peterrabbit.com, Christopher Columbus – BBC Website, Big Ben – Big Ben website). If ever I have used a video or some pictures from the internet to inspire the children they seem to automatically concentrate harder, and they become more interested.

One major problem I have experienced with this however is that many websites are blocked by the Hampshire child protection software. I can completely understand that this needs to be in place, however it is frustrating when you cannot search on google images, or use videos from youtube.

I have also attempted to integrate ICT into other subject lessons. I was shown an interactive phonics programme to use on the Interactive Whiteboard with the children. This allowed them to listen to the words being sounded out properly, and they can then talk along with the computer. This activity provided an opportunity to vary the teaching method during the phonics sessions, making the learning more interesting for the children. It also made sure that the children were pronouncing the sounds correctly, and that the teacher couldn’t accidentally pronounce the sounds incorrectly.

In one of my final sessions at the school, the children were making up their own famous people in a topic session which was incorporating art, literacy and drama in one morning session. I thought it would add a fun touch to the lesson if we took photos of the children so that we could print them out and stick the photo of their own faces onto their paintings. Although the ICT element of this task was not something that allowed the children to develop their own skills, it certainly encouraged them to think about their work carefully. They were also very excited about seeing the finished work.

I saw another great use of digital cameras in a maths lesson, taken by a Maths advisor. The children were sorting shapes in maths, and then laid them out on the tables, before taking photos of their work. This was great as it allowed the children to spend their precious time actually developing their maths skills, not writing their results down (which often takes the longest time!). I think that this use of technology in the classroom is a really positive change, and will allow children to focus their time on the learning that they actually need to do. As long as the evidence is used and not left on the memory stick, I can see how this way of working could allow teachers to be more creative with the tasks that they set in all subjects.

This placement has enabled me to develop my own ICT skills to improve my teaching. However I still do not feel confident in teaching young children (KS1) ICT. I look forward to teaching in KS2 where the children may be more independent when working on the computers. However the success of ICT lessons really does depend on the resources available and the time dedicated to ICT in the school week.

I hope that in my next placement I will be able to use ICT to enable children to develop their work in all subject areas, as well as teach some exciting and valuable ICT lessons.

The constraints of time...

I have now been at my placement school for 2 weeks. Each week my Year 1/2 class is entitled to one 45 minute session in the school's ICT suite. In week one, ICT was forgotten as the class needed to complete other tasks in the time slot. In week two I saw exactly why my Class Teacher dreads this session more than any other during the week.

Image taken from here

There are 16 computers in the ICT suite, meaning of course that the children must share a computer with a partner. This is not too much of a problem. Generally the pairs are made up of one year one and one year two. However by the time the children are in the suite, on a chair, quiet, and logged on to a computer, nearly 15 minutes has passed. The next task was to get the children to search for a website on google. I am not convinced that this is the best way to do this, surely there must be a way of putting a link on the system for the children to use. The children first had to get on to google - this was not too difficult. The next problem was to get everyone to search for the same search term, and then to get everyone to click on to the correct link. In the end, the Class Teacher and I had to go around all of the computers and do it for many of the children. Of course this is not allowing the children to develop their basic ICT skills, yet if we hadn't done this they would not have actually reached their final task.

Finally, once the children were on task, all they were actually doing was flicking through a slideshow about a book that they had been reading. Not many of them could read any of the text on the screen, and they all simply wanted to know where the games were.

My challenge for the rest of my placement is to try to think of an activity the children can do in this short session which is suitable to their age and ability but also allows them to learn something. As well as this, the basic skills of logging on, and typing need to be incorporated into the learning objectives of the lesson, and these are skills that these children still need to master.

This is expected of all other subjects in primary schools, so why does ICT seem to be the exception?