During my placement on BSE1 I was in Year 3. Sadly I did not see that much computing in action! The class I was in was lucky enough to have three laptops in the classroom, and so technology was often used during lessons to differentiate the learning. The children were all very computer literate, but this is of course not the same as teaching the computing curriculum.

The lesson that I did observe was supposed to be straight after lunch, as all core subjects were taught in the morning, but that day also happened to be spelling tests, and so by the time the spelling tests had been done, the scores collected and we had made our way to the Computer Room, the class had less than 45 minutes left, which included the time for the Class Teacher to explain the task and model his own. The lack of time given to computing did strike me as a problem. I also feel that the Class Teacher did not need to model the task in as much detail as he did, as it was very time consuming and I feel that the children would have gained just as much, if not more, from exploring the programme by themselves, with more time.

The task was to create a poster about Egypt (they were studying Egypt in Geography and History) using a simple programme. Lots of the children found this interesting and enjoyed designing the layout and showcasing their knowledge, and I think that it is important that children can see the ways in which technology can be used in real life. The children created good posters, and made good use of the programme they were using. I particularly liked the social aspect of this lesson; the children would frequently see something that they liked that another child had done, and then ask how they had achieved it. In this way, children were constructing their own knowledge with their peers.

Although a successful lesson as a whole, I was disappointed that there was not more opportunities for Computing during my time on BSE1. Of course, Christmas begins to take over and normal timetables are not adhered to due to play practices etc, but I would have liked to have seen more Computing lessons, particularly as the curriculum is so new. The problem that teachers face is, of course, limited time in an increasingly full curriculum, and how to make sure that every subject is given time.

It would be difficult these days to find a mainstream British classroom that does not use Interactive Whiteboards, and it is therefore of course crucial that teachers know how to use them.

In my second Computing session we learnt how to use the SMART programme on the Interactive Whiteboards, embedding videos and links onto pages, trying to use the pen and having a general explore. We then moved onto to thinking about how we could best utilise the Whiteboard to create interesting and engaging lessons.

We played around on the SMART programme in groups and planned a small starter activity. We thought about a KS1 maths lesson investigating odd and even numbers; the SMART programme allows users to create a box that ‘accept’ and ‘reject’ certain numbers by dragging and dropping them. When a child uses the pen to drag ’42’ into the ‘Even’ box the number disappears because the child has got the answer right. If they were to drag ’42’ into the ‘Odd’ box, the number would bounce back into its original place because the child needs to try again. This is a fun and affective recall of a previous lesson on Odd and Even numbers.

In today’s classroom e-safety is just as important as other aspects of safeguarding, and so it must be asked how we can best keep children safe online.

Many schools heavily block and restrict internet access in order to keep their pupils safe online, and yet it does not seem enough to simply deny children access to the internet; the internet will inevitably be a vital part of our children’s future and therefore we must allow children experience online, whilst providing online safety, and without making the internet seem such a terrifying place that children become uncomfortable online.

How is this to be done? I think that the internet needs to be an accessible place for children (within limits, of course) in order that they may learn to become responsible members of the online community. If the internet is reasonably accessible to children within the classroom it also becomes a place that they will not fear, thus preparing them for the adult world. Moreover, if the internet is accessible within a learning environment children can learn to keep themselves safe (zip it, block it, flag it etc) rather than the teacher providing a blanket safety, and then leaving children unprepared once they do face the online world.

Welcome to your brand new blog at University of Roehampton ePortfolios.

To get started, simply log in, edit or delete this post and check out all the other options available to you.