I challenge you to a dance off! (Week six)

In this session we carried on looking into ‘M learning’. We looked at Kodu again as many of us found it difficult to use last week. We had another go at editing pre-loaded worlds to create games and understood how it worked a little better than we did last week thankfully!

As we were looking at games-based learning in the classroom we mainly looked at Dance to advance which is a dance mat game. We were shown how the game can be made educational by using questions and answers to inform the player where to place their feet. We were shown an example where in the middle the player was shown animal noises and the animal names were listed around the outside, when the animal noise is shown for example ‘quack’ the player has to put their foot on the circle for ‘duck’. Dance to advance allows you to create your own games (questions and answers) and so it means it can be used for any topic which makes it cost effective for schools as they can be used for all subjects. We were given the opportunity to create our own game and I chose to create one where the player has to correctly identify the flags of different countries. A picture of a flag is shown in the middle and the countries are listed around and the player has to place their foot on the correct country name to match the picture of the flag they are shown. As this programme allows you to create your own games it means it can be used for younger or different ability pupils as you can make the level of the questions easier, it also means it can be used for older pupils by changing the questions. However, as it was fairly simple to use it means that older pupils can use it to create their own games and play games made by their peers, by creating the questions and answers themselves it will also give teachers an opportunity to assess pupils understanding of the topic. I really enjoyed using Dance to advance to create games and watching others play it and I would definitely use this when teaching if the resource is available to me and if not I would make a suggestion that the school invest in it.

We discussed other uses for technology in classrooms, for example using sat navs for mapping or orienteering lessons. We discussed that many games played by children at home have educational links that you could use in the classroom to engage pupils, such as Nintendogs and cats which allows children to simulate interacting with ‘pets’ in 3D teaching them how to care for and look after ‘their pet’. Endless Ocean on Wii can teach children about aquatic life and simulate interacting with underwater animals. Professor Layton also on Nintendo 3DS is popular as it is all about puzzles and mental challenges.

 

 

  

Another game that is being used in primary schools is ‘Myst’. Myst is being used in schools to inspire creativity in children. It has been used in literacy and teachers have found that it is helping to raise standards in writing and motivating children to want to write. Machinarium is another popular game amongst children that also has an educational benefit as it helps to develop the player’s problem-solving skills.

Games and simulation software is increasingly being used in schools as teachers realise the educational benefits and the opportunity to develop children’s skills in a fun way.

Do you scratch?? (Week five)

This session was all about computer programming and games based learning.

First we were taught about modelling software. In ICT the term ‘modelling’ refers to activities where children have to look at ‘what happens if…’ scenarios. This software gives children the chance to try out decisions and then seeing what happens, this is good for developing pupil’s decision making skills and their thinking skills. There are a number of different software programmes for these activities and many schools will have some of these on their computers for children to use. For example, 2simulate, my modelling toolkit and my world are some of the popular programmes used. Modelling is part of the National Curriculum and states children should be taught to explore what happens in real and imaginary situations and to use simulations to answer ‘what if’ questions. ‘2simulate is good for this and contains different types of games or scenarios including one called ‘locked out’ which would be good to use for a PSHE lesson.

Children should also be taught computer programming in primary schools by using programmable toys as discussed in an earlier post but also by using programming software and sites. Some popular ones being used by children a school and at home are Logo, Scratch and Kodu. All of these are free to download and so are cost effective for both schools and parents.

Logo is a programme where commands are written in the command window by pupils to control the on screen ‘turtle’. Simple instructions include ‘FD’ for forward, ‘RT’ for right and ‘PU’ for pen up. Children can type commands in a sequence to get the turtle to create different shapes. Logo has a very obvious cross curricular link to maths as it involves shapes and also angles, as when creating shapes you need to include the angle when you command the turtle to turn. This can be progressed for more able pupils by introducing the ‘repeat’ command and using this to create more complicated shapes.

 

We also looked at Scratch which is free to download and good for children to practice programming by creating interactive stories, games and animations. Children choose a character or ‘Sprite’ and then choose from a range of motions and other instructions to control the Sprite. This would be a good programme to use to assess children’s understanding as you could give pupils a set of directions to execute and assess how well they were able to carry them out.

Kodu is another programme that’s free to download and designed for children and adults to use to create games. Kodu games can also be downloaded and played on the Xbox if children own one so Kodu is flexible. In order to make games users can either create their own world or use pre-loaded worlds and adapt them to create a game that works the way the user wants it to. For example you can use the pre-loaded world ‘Shooting Fish’ and then programme the character to move using the keyboard, mouse or controller and shoot at the fish using missiles or other weapon options.

Some others are ‘Purple Mash’ which has creative tools that children can use and ‘Prezi’ is good for both pupils and teachers to create interesting and creative presentations.

Podcasts, talking tins and more... (Week four)

This session we learnt about speaking, listening and digital imaging. ICT can be used in subjects such as literacy for speaking and listening.

Schools are increasingly using Podcasts and other forms of ICT to engage pupils. Podcasts are audio radio or videos that are recorded and can then be downloaded or streamed, they are also seen as verbal or video blogs. "There is a great deal of educational potential with this technology. Teachers might consider creating their own educational podcasts or children themselves could create a podcast" (Allen, J. Potter, J. Sharp, J & Turvey, K 2007 p.221) Pupils can create podcasts for their school and their family and friends can listen to them. The children can create shows on anything they want (school policy permitting) and often spend a lot of time putting a show together. It is a good way to reinforce literacy skills as the children have to think about the same things that they would for a piece of writing such as, who is their audience and what language and content would be appropriate for that audience. For example, although many of the shows may be for their peers or family, they may be asked to create a show specifically to teach younger pupils about a specific topic. Another bonus about podcasting is that the children can get feedback on them from peers, teachers, family and friends. Feedback is important for pupils for confidence and self assessment. Some podcasts however, are better than others so it is always a good idea to show pupils examples of a good podcast and effects that can be used so they know what is possible with theirs. Podcasts can be used to support pupils with dyslexia or other SEN as it allows them to express themselves without the need to write.

There are a number of ‘talking’ equipment such as talking photo albums, talking tins and talk time cards. These are all similar in that it allows you to record your voice or sounds and they are all good for developing and supporting speaking and listening skills. The talking photo albums can be used in classrooms to create photo sequences and presentations and can be used by the teacher for activities such as word recognition. A voice or sound recording can be made for each page and as a result, these are sometimes used to help pupils with their letters and sounds as it enables pupils to see letters alongside hearing their sound without requiring a teacher/TA to repeat it for them. They are also good for SEN pupils when visual or audible information is wanted for regular reference for example, daily routines.

Similarly talking tins also allow children or teachers to record and playback their own voice or messages and so can be used to record short instructions. These were initially created to help the visually impaired identify the contents of their tinned food! As a result these have limited recording time of either 10 seconds or 40 seconds. Although these are also re-recordable some models have a ‘lock’ feature so that if you want to keep a recording for an amount of time this will make sure it is not recorded over until you want it to be. These can be attached to various surfaces around the school and as a result have been used as part of display boards to make displays interactive.

Talk time cards allow children to either insert a picture or draw on it using dry wipe pens and make a recording to go with the picture or image. These are available in different sizes so can be used for a variety of activities. These are not only used in literacy but can also be used in maths for topics such as number bonding, art, drama and D&T.

All of these are good for pupils with visual or hearing impairments. All are re-recordable so affordable for schools and all can be used for not only literacy but other subjects such as modern foreign languages will be able to benefit from these.

We also looked at digital imaging and video in this session and programmes that can be used in schools. We looked at photo story where children can take pictures using a digital camera and save them on the computer, then they can use the pictures to create a story using photo story. This can be used as another method that children can use to create story boards. Web cams and video cameras are also increasingly being used in schools, these can take pictures but can also record video. They can easily be used in science lessons for various topics and investigations such as to monitor and capture the growth of plants.

We also looked at digital blue which is a programme that allows children to create movies and moving animations. They can record themselves acting or make characters using play dough and by recording them using a digital blue camera they can put the clips together to create a moving scene.

Reference:
Allen, J. Potter, J. Sharp, J. & Turver, K (2007) Primary ICT: Knowledge, Understanding and Practice 3rd Edition Exeter: Learning Matters.