Tag: Computing Specialism Y2

Session 11: Reflection Blog for Seminar Presentation (Blog 13)

This blog is to share the seminar presentation I did on how Discord could be used for opening the line of communication between parents/carers and their school.

Discord is free voice and text chat software which can be used through a browser, you can download the desktop app or there is an app for iOS and android smartphones and tablets.

Released in March 2015 and by December 2016 it has accumulated over 25 million users. Predominately used by gamers, the CEO and founder, Jason Citron was a gamer himself and was sick of out-of-date software like Skype. Also there are some privacy issues with Skype, by which hackers can uncover your IP address.

For information on why Discord is so good – http://lifehacker.com/discord-is-the-voice-chat-app-i-ve-always-wanted-1785403197

My Presentation:

[embeddoc url=”https://eportfolios.roehampton.ac.uk/linfootj/files/2017/05/Discord-for-Education-2io74q7.pptx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft” ]

Link to presentation – https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11n5m4qyuhyjEN5coDEZEU78-iyvsvRu1PvbdowUfBq8/edit?usp=sharing

Setting up your own Private Server (Seminar Handout)

[embeddoc url=”https://eportfolios.roehampton.ac.uk/linfootj/files/2017/05/Discord-Tutorial-Handout-1o6g2mn.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

Session 9: Reflection Blog (Blog 14)

For this blog I am reflecting on the talk from visiting lecturer Darren Savage, “The Future of the Web”. The main points of the whole presentation is how fast the world’s new technologies are advancing.

“The Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn’t understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had.” – Eric Schmidt: Google CEO

Predictions indicate how much the world of technology is advancing shown here:

A couple of ideas I could see from an educational standpoint:

Nest – 

This technology is currently being used in homes to monitor energy consumption and the house temperature as a thermostat. Similar to Hive and other companies, there is an app that can be used to turn the heating on or off from wherever you are. For example, you are out at work and want your home to be warm when you get in so on the commute home from work, you open the app and turn the heating on.

For potential use in the classroom, a similar product that monitors light levels in the classroom to turn up or down the lights, open/close windows based on classroom temperature and the heating being controlled automatically based on temperature sensors through the school and classroom.

Estimote Beacons – 

These bluetooth-activated stickers can be used by a smart device to scan and transfer the data from the sticker. Practical uses at the moment are HUGE! However, the technology is still very new so not many practical uses are happening yet. In the real world Barcelona’s football stadium uses them to send information to tourists visiting, restaurants could use them to send menus and offers to people walking near the restaurant and shops could also use them to send offers to potential customers.

For potential uses in the classroom, teachers could use them to send reminders to parents as they drop their children off to school; almost like a daily newsletter. Advertising school events to the local community like a cake sale or school play could use beacons for people walking past the school.

Session 8: Horizon Report Reflection Blog (Blog 10)

[embeddoc url=”https://eportfolios.roehampton.ac.uk/linfootj/files/2017/04/Students-as-Creators-203vam7.pptx” download=”logged” viewer=”microsoft” ]

Transcript:

Slide 1 –

The topic of my presentation is about students having the opportunity to use a range of technologies to create things in the classroom as their learning journey.

Slide 2 –

The whole debate of it is best to have a child-centred approach or a teacher-led approach.

Due to the rise of mobile apps like Snapchat and Instagram, students have the chance to be frequently creating photos and short videos.

If teachers were to hone these creative skills in the classroom environment then it could lead to deeply engaging learning experiences through investigation, storytelling and production.

The use of game development to nurture learners as inventors by them making and programming.

With pupils being more likely to be active producers, the topic of fair use needs to be addressed by the schools. This I will explain later in the presentation.

Slide 3 – 

Ourselves as practitioners can design creative environments with the support of the school leadership team, so we can experiment, improvise and innovate.

When students see teachers taking risks in the classroom, students themselves are more likely to take creative risks themselves.

However, the current National Curriculum is very knowledge focused so making time for creative projects may be challenging.

To support students taking an active role in their learning and setting personal learning goals, some teachers are working with their class to co-develop their lesson plans.

An elementary school in Arkansas believed this approach promoted creativity and engagement.

Kahoot, Nearpod, Google Forms, just to name a few platforms that can be used to capture and store evidence of learning progress with the option of allowing feedback from teachers to refine a student’s ideas.

The National Science Foundation promotes a 3D view on learning and includes both summative and ongoing formative assessment.

Informal assessment could be the students self-reflecting and self-evaluating their work.

Slide 4 – 

Even though the ease of access to internet technologies makes it easy to create media and products and then share them to the world, there can be heavy lawsuits associated to fair use.

Educating staff and students is very important for schools.

More than 40 countries’ copyright laws have fair use or fair dealing provisions; however, only eight have a flexible fair use limitation on copyright infringement and the rest rely on fair dealing, where an action is fair only if it is directed toward a predetermined list of purposes.

To raise awareness #FairUseWeek2016 was used on social media.

There are organisations that can be partnered with such as Big Picture Learning. They have developed a network of more than 60 schools across the US where self-directed learnings can allow children to gain experience managing a yearlong project like producing a film.

There is a wealth of information out there so teaching students as creators to properly evaluate and take advantage of credible sources to support their projects and goals.

For example, some students used Minecraft to create visual representations and simulations of concepts they are studying while learning problem-solving skills.

As a final point, creative tasks can empower students as they gain confidence in applying knowledge toward real life scenarios.

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

Session 6: Prep Reading – Buckingham (2007) Blog 9

In this blog I will be reflecting on the Buckingham (2007) reading before visiting BETT next week. From reading Chapter 1 it is clear there are two sides to BETT: the great opportunity to support and progress learning on for the benefit of the children using technology and the darker side that unless you pay big money for the latest educational tool, your children are going to suffer.

Advantages (The Light Side of BETT):

After this reading it is so inspiring to hear how far technology has come and the standard of teaching may be hugely improved from spending money. This might not be the full truth but take a child with EAL needs; being able to use technology to support and communicate with them is such a huge advantage.

Government spending to support schools get more tech-friendly is another good thing. Over the last decade the government is betting extra technology will have a positive impact on children’s test results. True figures and studies will need to be done before this claim can be proven fully.

Companies are investing a lot of money to fund educational tools and certain hardware and software is being created that we could not even dreamed of in the past is now becoming a reality.

Disadvantages (The Dark Side of BETT):

The main disadvantage I can see already is the sales pitch of how if I do not spend all the ICT budget on the right piece of equipment, the children’s learning in my school will suffer or stagnate. This is a lot of responsibility for ICT Coordinators or whomever is at BETT looking to spend money. It highlights how much pressure there is to impact our pupils in the right way and how important a career in teaching really is. Tell that to the office workers who believe we work so little from 9am until 3pm!

Education was solidly in the public sector, times are changing and the amount of money going round and through profitable companies needs to be focused on. Unfortunately, call it human nature or whatever you like, if money can be made from something like education, or the NHS at the moment, then there are always going to be profit made from these kinds of companies. Some people call it paranoia when others say Google is spying on us and collecting our information. But one look on a shopping website, next thing you see when you open facebook is that same product being advertised and you realise how much of a footprint your internet history leaves.

The loud hustle of bustle of BETT is not something I believe I will not enjoy, but an open mind is what I am focusing on and at least I want to look to see what type of technologies could be inside the classroom when I am teaching myself in the near future.

I have a feeling as I am a student walking into BETT the sales teams will look at me and ask how much money I have to spend. The raw fact I am not there to spend money is likely to result in an abrupt end to our conversation. Time will tell…

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!