And so the elective ends...

Now that our presentations, wikis and assignments are finished, it's time to finish off my series of blog posts on the elective.

We started this elective in January and at the time I wasn't so sure about my competence with technologies in the classroom. But through practice and a lot of trial and error I believe I have learnt a few new things.

The main changes I have noted however were my opinions of technology. For me technology was something I used at home and on the move but something I never noticed at school. I think that was mainly due to the way in which computer games and mobile phones were treated at my school. I remember Game Boy consoles, PSPs, iPods and mobile phones were confiscated if the teacher saw them.

I now see the importance of how we relate to technology. It's something, that as educators, we should embrace and use to our advantage. There's been a grey area for too long about how technology should be used in the classroom, usually due to head teachers' opinion of the dangers of video games and mobile technology.

"It's the menace that everyone loves to hate but can't seem to live without".

Paddy Chayefsky, said this about television. I believe it to be true to technology as a whole in this digital age.

 Dazzle 

Life's just fun and games

This week we visited Learning and Teaching Scotland's Consolarium in Dundee, where we got the opportunity to try our hand at the latest video games they believe can be used in the classroom.

It was a great way to further our knowledge on what Sharon Tonner had shown us in a previous lesson using the Nintento Wii and some games she had used with classes previously.

I believe that making our lessons more applicable to the digital natives we teach can only benefit their learning as they will be able to associate with what they are doing in the classroom as they have done it before at home.

Some of the games we looked at were:

• Eye Pet (Playstation 3)
• Mario Kart (Nintendo Wii)
• Nintendogs (Nintendo DS)

We also looked at the potential for using software development tools in the classroom. This would give children the opportunity to create their own games in the classroom and at home. One toolkit I have looked at since our visit is the Unreal Development Kit. It is a free download, and after a period of adjusting yourself with how it works it becomes quite easy to use. I wouldn't recommend it for younger classes though, this is a great tool to use in the upper stages of primary school, through to secondary.

Best of all, it's a free download, so you can try it out for yourself.

 Dazzle 

Week 7: Collaborative Working

As part of this elective we worked in small groups to create wikis, short movies and an animation. This involved using various software and tech.

I believe that the developments in technology facilitate the ability to work collaboratively without having to meet face to face. In particular the ability to communicate with others via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter has enabled me to contact my peers to discuss academic matters. We also made use of Google docs and Etherpad in order to share information with one another. This meant we could all work on our own in our homes but we were collaboratively working by the magic of Web 2.0.

However I must, as always, be critical of this.

I personally believe that it benefits the process of collaborative working to physically get together and work in the same place, it means that everyone is fully interacting with the task in hand, rather than updating their Facebook update or tending to their online farm.

The use of Etherpad was effective for our group as we were able to arrange times to meet up on the pad and discuss how we would create our Wiki and short movies. There were, however, some problems when some of us lost connection, couldn't make times due to other commitments or had to leave during an online session. These tools work effectively, but everyday life does get in the way. I believe that had we met up at a location to work together then we wouldn't have had some of these problems.

A good point was that we could contribute to the pad and the other members of the group would receive our contribution the next time they logged in.

Another programme I have discovered is Google Wave. Google have been marketing it heavily as a collaborative learning tool for the classroom.

So, would I use the internet as a resource to enable collaborative working in the classroom?

Of course.

The children, as digital natives, know about this technology. They use it to interact with one another everyday, so it would be foolish to discard it from the classroom. The class teacher needs to research and think thoroughly about how the web can be used in this way and eliminate any potential threats before it is used.

 Dazzle 

Week 6: Animation

This week we were looking at bringing the magic of animation to the classroom by using a piece of simple software called Digital Blue.

We started by thinking of simple stories we could animate using plasticine models and simple backdrops and decided on re-creating the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk by using simple plasticine animation.

The process in creating a plasticine animation requires five frames of each still image which is altered slightly every time to give the characters movement. We worked in our group with two people moving the models, one person photographed each frame and another directed what was to be moved and by how much.

This software we were using facilitated the process as it had a simple layout that was user friendly and would be simple to use in the classroom with a tutorial from the class teacher. The process also promotes creativity as the children will be in control of how their characters move and how their short movie will look when it is finished.

Animation can also be used to reinforce other areas of the curriculum as you can see here, where a primary school in Edinburgh uses animation to promote their "Health Week".

The only problem I can see with animation being used as a lesson in the primary school is that it could take a few lessons to create a video and this could affect the quality of the work the children do as they would have to set their characters and scenery in the correct position to continue filming. Despite this, I still believe it is a valuable learning experience and would be incredibly fun if it is taught effectively.

 Dazzle 

Week 5: Games Based Learning

This week we turned our classroom into our very own games arcade, but this wasn't simply for fun. It was to look at how we, as teachers, could use these resources in the classroom as effective learning tools.

I was sceptical at first as I have grown up playing video games and I always remember my parents grimacing over the amount of time I "wasted" by sitting in front of the television or on my 8-bit Game Boy playing Mario as a small child.

It's no surprise however that video games are now being used in the classroom as a learning tool when you consider the appeal and influence they have in youth culture. In recent years the most desired Christmas gifts by children were Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and DS and X-Box 360 consoles as well as games, to simply ignore their enthusiasm for these products would be foolish.

In class we used the Nintendo Wii console along with Guitar Hero and Cyberbike and talked about the educational benefit of these games.

I have played Guitar Hero before so I found it easy enough to get back into the flow of playing it again. I could see how children would be interested in playing this game as it is a bright and visually attractive game that gives the impression of Brian May-esque guitar skills without the years of practice.

The concept of the game gives me split thoughts though. I can remember my music lessons at school using keyboards and recorders and how, despite the hours of practice, it never sounded musically pleasing and I always hated music in school because of this reason. This game allows for children to work on basic music theory by looking at the symbols on the screen and converting this to the guitar controller they are using. It also provides a fun experience whilst doing so as it gives you the sense you are performing in front of a crowd with a band, playing popular songs.

I think the game also gives a false sense of your musical ability. You might be able to please the crowds with your riffs and solos but if you were to try and apply this to an actual guitar then it's not going to sound anything like the sweet licks you performed on stage.

I also had the opportunity to play Wii Music for a short while. It had a bell ringing game which was played by watching the notes on the screen and ringing your bell (Wii Remote) at the appropriate time. I found this game musically educational as it required timing and rhythm.

 Dazzle 

Week 4: Creativity, Collaboration and Sharing

This week we have been looking at creativity, collaboration and sharing. This covers a wide range of software and projects available through websites, applications and programs. I shall look at two of them and discuss the uses in and outside of the classroom.

Wallwisher
I have discussed the uses of Wallwisher in a previous post after having a brief look at it in university. In this post I have added my own Wallwisher wall which we can interact with. If you have any ideas of how this tool could be utilised for educational benefit then let me know by leaving a sticky.




Project: iCanRead
We were shown this literacy development project in our class. It uses the iPod classic and microphone accessory to record the children reading and allows them to listen back to their reading and assess their own development. This style of learning in the classroom will appeal to the children as they will gain confidence as they are able to make mistakes and realise this on their own before reading aloud in front of their peers and their classteacher. This kind of practice also eliminates the "reading groups" scenario in which children gather in groups to read a page each. I have seen this in many classrooms and it is clear that children become disengaged and do not pay attention to the reading as they don't find it relevant as they are not reading at the time and they can find it difficult to listen to other children reading, especially if they are struggling with reading aloud. The recorded files also allow the children to archive their progress and listen back to see how they have progressed. This is a great idea as the children will be able to self assess their own reading and this will help to build confident individuals in the classroom.

 Dazzle 

So I bought an iPhone....

So the desk in my student flat is starting to look a lot more like a display case in an electronics shop. But the problem lies therein.

I never seem to use a lot of the gadgets I worked hard for and dreamt of owning for a very long time. For example, when I bought my Nintendo Wii I thought it was incredible and I played with it for days and days on end. I probably shouldn't have done that to be honest but it was a revolutionary device in my eyes and I had never experienced anything close to what it was capable of. I spent hours of the summer and many hard earned pounds buying games and accessories for the Wii so I could discover it's full potential. It was incredible and I had never found a gaming experience so enthralling.

Until yesterday.

I was enjoying a coffee in my local coffee shop and I decided to take full advantage of the free WiFi on offer to browse through the App Store on my iPhone. I found a game called DoodleJump and decided to download it.

In my opinion, I feel as though technology had kept a horrible secret from me. I felt as though I had wasted hundreds of pounds on games I would never play again because of a little yellow man who would happily bounce up my screen with the occasional boost from a spring, a jet pack or a propellor hat. The last of which made my friend smile from ear to ear with enjoyment, yet he never wants to play the Wii. And all of this enjoyment for £0.59. It makes me wonder if I'll ever want to buy another games console again.

Also I have a, now redundant, iPod which gathers dust on my table. I remember in 2001 when Steve Jobs announced the iPod I couldn't believe it. "One thousand songs in your pocket", he said and my jaw hit the floor. For me this was the most revolutionary device I had ever heard of, I immediately wanted one and felt sour for my, at the time, 3 month old portable CD player as it wouldn't ever travel with me again, eating up AA batteries and skipping every time the bus went over anything uneven.

But the saddest thing of all, for me, is my poor laptop computer. It gets switched on when I want to write anything in great length, such as this blog post or an essay. Anything else and I hit Safari, or Mail or even Facebook and it's right there in my hand. No need for the clumpy, heavy MacBook.

It makes me look back at my "technological timeline" and think of how quickly the Mega Drive went out of the living room and the PlayStation came in. It left soon after and was replaced by something else which meant I needed a bigger TV and then an HD ready TV and it continued.

But is everything going to be in the palms of our hands now?

Why do we need to buy a TV that the whole family can watch when we can give everyone their own device to watch whatever they like?

Is the iPad going to make anything else I own redundant?

Such is the way of life I'm afraid. People come and go and so does technology. The other day I was complaining that my email doesn't get pushed straight to my phone, even though I can search for it on the same device. A few years ago I would have been stunned to hear I could get email when I'm not plugged in to the wall.

How reliant have we all become on technology?

What is next?

If we keep demanding it, then someone keeps making it. If we want something improved, someone will do it. Most of the things in your house today will be replaced and upgraded before you fully appreciate them.

This is technology, I'm afraid. It is a beautiful thing, but also a force none of us can control.

 Dazzle 