Month: February 2017

BETT Show Visit 27/1/17

 

 

 

 

 

On Friday 27th January 2017 I visited the BETT Show for the first time at ExCel London, reputed to be the largest educational trade fair in the world (Buckingham, 2011). Straight away from registering at the computers in the entrance, it was clear how much technology being used in the classroom has moved on from myself being a student in a primary school classroom. There is considerably more money invested into classrooms becoming digital classrooms. “According to BESA, around one-third of UK schools send teachers to the show each year” (Buckingham, 2011:2).

For instance, I read this news article (King, 2016) in which a school in Gateshead was backed by Samsung in which they invested extra technology into this school. “Andrew Riley, a key stage 2 teacher at the school, said: “At Bede we feel there is a very clear relationship between academic achievement and the digital classroom, with every pupil who has taken part in lessons in the classroom progressing by at least two levels.” On the other side of the argument, Selwyn (2011) states despite the beneficial claims of technology in the classroom, we must develop a critical and questioning approach, as none of these claims are necessarily accurate of the realities of technology use in education.

As a Computing Specialist it was immensely valuable to see in real life how many Primary School ICT Coordinators go around and choose what software, hardware etc. they are interested for using in their classrooms. Whilst looking around BETT I saw many companies that I would say have already succeeded and are commonly found in many primary schools. For example, SMART or CTOUCH for frequently used for their interactive whiteboards. Also from my BSE2 placement, I saw 2Simple being used to share work and achievements with parents of the Year One classroom I am based in. As stated by a Clevertouch report (2016) “Today, 51% of teachers and lecturers feel their employment is dedicating sufficient budget to digital tools. However, a third (33%) still feel their establishment isn’t putting enough resources into educational technology.” Therefore as a reflective teacher, it is important to recognise the perception schools have on funding into technology for education.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many big companies were present at BETT with multiple talks going on throughout and even before 2017’s was over, advertisement for 2018 had already started…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my personal opinion and in response to my previous blog about my predictions to BETT, it was very similar to what I thought. It was brilliant and it is so inspiring to see how much support there is out there for a huge range of needs that can be found in the classroom. However, it was the conversation of “HI THERE!” “Hi, I’m a student interested in possibly using your product in future. What can you tell me about it?” “Oh, well look in this brochure and have a nice day…”. The stands of sales people ranged from obsequious and fawning so you would buy something to overzealous sycophants who expect you to NEED their product! I can see myself returning in future, but I need to keep my wits about me or I’ll go and spend money just for the sake of it. I believe my experience is not seldom as Buckingham describes sale pitches as varying “from the minimalist to the hyperactive, although the latter are much in evidence” (2011:3).

Video URL – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIcJo23lnrc

References:

Buckingham, D. (2011) Beyond Technology, Cambridge: Policy Press

Clevertouch (2016) The rise of the digital classroom, Clevertouch news report, accessible here: https://www.clevertouch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Clevertouch-mini-market-report.pdf

King, S.L. (2016) Bede Community Primary School reports increased attainment through the use of technology in the classroom, SchoolsWeek news article, accessible here: http://schoolsweek.co.uk/bede-community-primary-school-sees-attainment-soar-through-the-use-of-technology-in-the-classroom/

Selwyn, N. (2011) Education and Technology, London: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd

YouTube Video (2017) The Bett Show 2017, accessible here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIcJo23lnrc

Rutherford House School Visit (VLE Feedback) Blog 8

In this blog entry I shall be discussing the visit to Rutherford House School and the feedback gathered for Sian and I from the class teacher who was the school’s English Coordinator.

In preparation for this meeting, Sian and I worked first on creating the basics of the Google Classroom, like naming it and adding an appropriate photo header. Google Classroom allows for limit customisation so changing the colour scheme and more importantly adding folders for ease of navigation of the classroom. To add these folders on Google Classroom, they are called topics and means children/parents can find which week’s work instead of scrolling through all the posts. A parent’s area was included to inform to parents/carers how they can support their children through the phonics work at home. We then added the basic lesson resources from the plan we created to show to the school what Google Classroom would look like when posts/homework/this week’s work are shown.

At the school we went through each week and explained what each week included and how/why we came up with each idea. The teacher asked questions throughout to fully understand our thinking and see how it could work in practice. She seemed intrigued how homework tasks could be set with a due date and how she could then mark the work online, therefore saving paperwork being carried home. The advantage of having all the resources online would be very beneficial to her class as the number of worksheets that were printed out every week were very high and costly to the school. Social constructivism was a focus for her classroom so encouraging the children to work collaboratively on homework tasks and sharing work would be something the teacher said she would be striving for. The teacher stated how for some families one parent is working, so keeping in touch with work online was a great tool to keep both parents in the loop.

Overall she liked how our Google Classroom worked and how VLE’s in general could be used in the classroom. More colour, images and videos could be added to make it more child-friendly when reading which Sian and I both agreed would be beneficial. Another suggested improvement is the explanation of each of the tasks as children are learning to read and need to have the video to support them in fully understanding the task. Ideally, parents/carers are going to be there to support their children with using such a resource and a clear explanation like a video would benefit them too. Finally, the need to add a resource to explain correct pronunciation of all GPCs would be very beneficial to parents/carers as well as the children so the learning of these GPCs are consistent at school and home. Personally, I know from my younger sibling how consistency is vital for good progress. My family are constantly asking me how phonemes are said correctly!

The VLE Planning Process

In this blog I will be explaining the thoughts and ideas of Sian and I within the planning process of the Systematic Synthetic Phonics Virtual Learning Environment.

At the beginning we chose to focus on the Phase Two section within Letters and Sounds just like a teacher would do in the classroom for a half-term (6 weeks). We wanted to create a resource that would promote social constructivism between the children and a method of allowing parents/carers to have an active participation in their child’s phonics learning. The first week we used as a recap and an elicitation to gain an understanding of how confident the children are on Phase One as we asked the children to record environmental sounds, focus on what they can hear and comment on each other’s what they had heard.

Throughout the planning process Sian and I became aware writing instructions would mean the parents/carers would have to read them out for the children to complete homework tasks as the children are still only learning to read. To support the children we had the idea of recording our voices to explain the tasks or using videos to demonstrate the homework tasks which the children could use instead of reading the text. Another potential issue we had in our minds is the need for the homework tasks to be quick and as engaging as possible so the children enjoy doing them and it is also a great opportunity for parents/carers to show an interest in their child’s school work. For any parents/carers we added a section for them to have a read of the purpose of phonics and how best to support the children throughout the half-term. Because of this, some of the writing for the homework tasks is more for the parents than the children.

The basic plan we had looked like this:

Week 1:

H/W- Recap Phase 1, Video what they can hear and comment on each others.

Lesson- Environmental Sounds Flip Cards, what is making that sound?

Week 2:

H/W-  s a t p: Crazy stir fry/ silly soup. How many things can the children find around the house beginning with the selected letter?

Lesson: Rhyming Cards, which of the words rhyme and do you know why?

Week 3:

H/W- i n m d: Treasure hunt/ collecting objects.

Lesson: Geraldine the Giraffe, can the children name something that has that grapheme in?

Week 4: 

H/W- o g c k: Wordsearch of words containing these graphemes and then creating a drawing/song/poem based on the words that they have found.

Lesson: Bingo with VC, CVC and tricky words.

Week 5:

H/W- ck e u r: Image recall of words containing these graphemes. Children will see a collection of objects, they will need to use their phonetic knowledge to know if the images contain the sounds that they are looking for.

Lesson: Phonics Bug/ Game (Spelling)

Week 6:

H/W- h b f ff: Assessment/ quiz

Lesson: Creating a shared story using words that the children have learnt overall in the unit.

From this plan we split the work and both did three week’s resources. For example, the assessment/quiz at the end of the half-term’s work we wanted to use as a “How much have the children learnt from Phase Two”. Intervention could then be implemented to support any children with gaps in their knowledge. At this stage before the school meeting we have almost a skeleton of the VLE resource and things are still to be added or adapted. So at the moment it’s quite exciting to see how it will turn out in the end!