The Future of Technology

Being a big apple fan myself and the proud owner of an Iphone and Ipad, I would love to see more apple products being used in the classroom. 

http://www.apple.com/education/

 As you can see from the apple website, the Ipad goes way beyond any learning experience given from a simple textbook. With audio, videos, interactive activities and more, it can bring learning to life! 

In his book, The Rational Optimist, Matt Ridley describes how the Ipad will transfrom teaching and learning in the classroom:

1. Larger learning communities. The Internet is an almost limitless space for the creation of communities with common interests. Learners, teachers, schools and universities, and just plain entrepreneurs, are exchanging course content, ideas, learning systems, and other resources using a variety of media. A search for “French verbs” on google finds 653,000 pages.

2. Differentiation. The web is not only large, but it enables people of different cultures, with different perspectives, different skills,  and different ideas, to interact. This creates a dynamic market place where people can learn from from each other and influence each other. This exchange of differences is at the core of the unplanned and spontaneous development that the world has experienced over thousands of years.

3. Accessibility. With handheld devices like the iPhone/iPad or Android, learning communities are more accessible. This will bring in more participants. People are now able to connect anytime and anywhere,  while waiting for the doctor, reclining on a sofa, or lying in bed. Traditional concepts of time and space related to learning are being turned upside down.

4. Rich content. The distinctions between radio, TV, Internet, telephone, school, university, entertainment, education, are becoming blurred. Education is the acquisition of information, and the variety of ways in which information can be presented is constantly being expanded. All of this rich information content is accessible from an iPad. Entrepreneurs are creating applications for the iPhone and iPad, 1,000 two years ago, and 200,000 today, many of them of educational value. Only the best survive.

5. Cost and speed. India plans to produce a $35 iPad equivalent. In many countries, companies are competing to develop faster and more powerful processors and higher speed wireless connectivity. This will further accelerate the pace of interaction and change, and bring in more participants with more diverse perspectives.

6. Customization. All learning depends on the motivation of the learner. Our brains learn all the time, on their own timetable. Traditional learning has been top-down, one size fits all, seeking to impose a curriculum. The Roman school child had a wax tablet to write down the lessons dictated by the master. Nothing much changed for 2,000 years. Now with the iPad, the learner can be in control, choosing what to do, where, and when. The teacher’s role will increasingly be to coach, helping learners find what they need and what suits their interests. 

I feel that apple technology is the way forward and I would love to use it in my future classroom!

References

Ridley, M. cited by Kaufmann, S. (undated) How the Ipad Will Change Education. Available online at:

http://www.thechangeblog.com/how-the-ipad-will-change-education/

[Accessed 27.02.12]

Games Based Learning

Last week we had a visit from a class of primary 6 pupils. In groups our task was to create a context using a game. Our group chose to use Mario Kart as we felt most children would be familiar with the game and would know how to play it. We started off with four controllers with four wheels however minutes before the children arrived we could not get one of the controllers to work and had to abandon it and only use three. This showed me how prepared we have to be if we are using technology in the classroom and to always have a back up plan ready in case the technology fails. 

Once we had introduced the game to the children and played it a few times, the children moved on to the computers where we had the programme 'Purple mash' running. This programme allowed the children too create their own 3D car and they could design it any way the wanted to. This allowed for personalisation and choice as the children could make the car any shape, size or pattern and it could be as crazy as they liked! Once they had finished designing the cars, the children then printed out the net of their car and built it up into a 3D model. The children were given some ideas from playing Mario Kart and this aided some of the children who might have been struggling for ideas. I had never used purple mash before this but I would definitely consider using it in the classroom. The children were all extremely motivated and worked hard to create their cars. I think using Mario Kart as a stimulus and then linking it to Purple mash was a great success and this was shown in the feedback comments from the children. We asked the children to put a post-it note on each of these questions: "What did I learn?" "What did you like?" "What could have been better?". 

The responses were really positive as most children said they had learned how to design a car and how to make the model, and also said that they liked doing this. This was a surprise to us as we presumed they would say that they mainly enjoyed playing Mario Kart. This proved to us how beneficial using games is the classroom can be and how it can really motivate children and engage them in learning.  

The only comments we received on "what could have been better?" were that the children would have liked more time to play the game and more time to create their cars. We also felt this as we only had half hour slots with the children however if we were using these activities with our own class then we would obviously have more time to spend on each activity.

I really enjoyed working with the children and creating our own games based learning context as it showed me how effective and motivating games can be. It was a great experience to put theory into practice and it has boosted my confidence in using games technology in my own classroom in the future. 

Game Consoles in the Classroom

This week we have been learning about effective ways in which game consoles can be used in the primary classroom. We had an input from three university lecturers who all have carried out research into the effects of  using games in the primary classroom. All the games discussed are known as 'COTS' - 'commercial off the shelf' games which means they are not written or devised to be used in schools. David Miller and his colleague carried out a trial in 32 schools using the game Dr Kawashima's Brain Training. MissyMack at http://missymack12.blogspot.com/ explains fully the benefits of using this game. Divya Jindal-Snape discussed the use of Guitar Hero at the stage of transition from primary 7 to S1. IFarm at http://ifarm8.blogspot.com/ reflects on how effective this project was. Finally Jill Shimi talked to us about using Nintendogs in the early years classroom, which is what I am going to reflect on in this post. 

The main aim of Jill and her colleagues research was to investigate the personal, social and learning gains from children's project work based on the game Nintendogs. The research was carried out using primary 1 and 2 children in four different schools in Aberdeenshire. The teachers of the classes were given free reign to select their own activities and could focus on the project as often or as little as they saw fit. 

One of the main benefits that became apparent was increased social interaction in the classroom, especially noticeable in less confident pupils. Children chatted and helped one another whilst playing the game and this inevitably led to enlarged friendship groups and a leveling of hierarchies. Jill gave an example that one child who was always top of the class in all areas was not able to do something on the game and was given advice by a child who was of much lower ability. This shows evidence of increased PAL (peer assisted learning) skills, which are commended by LTScotland who state that peer learning'has a strong emphasis on personal development and can be particularly effective in allowing low achieving pupils to fully participate and succeed in a wider range of educational activities.' I feel that by using this game in the classroom it offers a wide range of activities which can in turn offer success for those who may struggle in other areas of the curriculum.

Another benefit of using Nintendogs was that there was high levels of motivation, enthusiasm and engagement from the pupils involved. I believe this was due to the project being challenging  but enjoyable, a founding principle of Curriculum for Excellence.  Children had to work hard and persist in training their dog before they could experience success, however the project was exciting and different to the usual day-to-day work in the classroom. The project was also very relevant to the children's lives, with many owning their own pet and having played a Nintendo DS before. The research carried out also showed an improvement in written language, with one class writing a 'doggy diary' documenting the life of their dog. 

Overall, I feel this project offered huge benefits to the classes involved, and has shown me how effective the use of 'COTS' games can be. LTScotland list a number of benefits from games based learning:

• motivating learners to succeed and to continually improve
• fostering self-esteem, self-determination and enhancing self-image
• facilitating collaborative learning
• implicitly developing learners ability to observe, question, hypothesise and test
• facilitating metacognitive reflection
• developing complex problem-solving skills
• making school an exciting place to be
• offering inroads into other curricular areas.

I believe that this project encompassed all of these benefits in the early years classroom. I feel I now have a greater understanding of using games in the classroom and have been shown how effective they can be.

References:

Scottish Government (2010) About Game Based Learning. Available online at:

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/usingglowandict/gamesbasedlearning/about/understanding.asp

Scottish Government (2010) Peer Education. Available online at:

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/learningteachingandassessment/approaches/peereducation/index.asp

Game Technology

On Thursday 2nd February we had a visit from four ICT education specialists from Fife. They talked to us about a number of different ways ICT can be used to support the curriculum, including Comic Life, Pivot, Sequel and games based technology. I have chosen to discuss and reflect on games based learning as I found this to be very interesting. 

On my placement in first year, I had my first experience of seeing computer and console games being used in the classroom. My teacher had a system whereby if the children had finished their work, they could play brain training on the computer or sports games on the Nintendo Wii. However, after the input on Thursday, I believe these games should not be used as a reward for finishing work, instead they should be used to enhance the children's learning.

Games can be used in the classroom to create meaningful contexts, drawing on the pupil's own personal experiences and can be used across the whole curriculum. Games based learning is not about teaching ICT skills but instead they can be used as a learning tool. One example of this is Supertux which is a multi-platform penguin game. This can be used as a stimulus for writing as children can describe how they would create their own level after playing the game. 

Another Supertux game is Supertux Kart - similar to a game which many children may have played called Mario Kart. We were told of how this was used in one primary school as a behaviour management policy. The children all had to apply for driving licenses and these had to be approved by the class teacher. If a child misbehaved they would be given points on their license and if they reached the maximum number set then their licence was ripped up and they had to then reapply for another one. This was only approved by the teacher when she saw fit. I thought this was an excellent way to motivate children and would definitely consider using a strategy like this in the future!

Using games based learning in the classroom is so relevant to children as many will be playing these games at home on a regular basis. As stated by the Scottish Government 'Research is beginning to suggest that computer games can help to stimulate a successful learning environment and provide motivational learning contexts that suit many learners' (Scottish Government, undated).  Games can be used in the classroom individually or as a whole class on the interactive whiteboard. I think that they are an excellent learning tool and can motivate and enthuse all learners of all ages.

To find out more information on the other software packages and games discussed by the Fife specialists please visit:
http://ifarm8.blogspot.com/

Scottish Government (undated) Game Based Learning. Available online at:

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/usingglowandict/gamesbasedlearning/index.asp