Summary of the module identifying the implications for my future role as an ICT subject leader.

I have found this module hugely inspiring and very valuable to my future practice as a teacher, and an ICT subject leader. It has very much deepened my passion for ICT and my beliefs that the methods in which we teach in schools is outdated and inappropriate to the generation we are teaching.

Although before this module I was aware that there were barriers that teachers needed to overcome to ensure we were teaching appropriately for the 21^st century, (Dean 2010) I hadn’t fully appreciated the ease in which it is to just incorporate 21^st century technologies into our classrooms by adapting our current practice. The 21^st Century Fluency project states that these adjustments should be made immediately “if we ever hope to re-connect and communicate with the digital generation” (21^st CFP:4) and prepare them for life in the 21^st century.

McDougall concludes that the use of technology meets the needs to learners of this generation; “It delivers engaged, inquisitive children in place of the passive,

disinterested children of years past.” (McDougall) By not recognising this we are failing as teachers. We are targeting our teaching at learners from another age. Our children are being educated about a world that is out of synch. (21^st CFP) It is important that we are preparing Digital Natives to navigate themselves into the very different future they are growing up in – the digital age. (Palfrey & Gasser 2008)

This module has also made me appreciate, and experience, the worry teachers face when they are unsure they have the knowledge to access the technologies they would like to use within their classroom. As Prensky (2001) highlights –“the differences between our Digital Native students and their Digital Immigrant teachers lie at the root of a great many of today’s educational problems.” Prensky 2001:1) Therefore I appreciate, as ICT leader, it will be an important role of mine to ensure all staff are confident and comfortable enough to use these technologies, and will need to support and guide them in doing so. Hopefully I will be able to allow them to understand that we don’t necessarily need more functional knowledge within technologies than our learners, as we are more equipped with knowledge and higher order critical thinking. (FutureLab 2010)

I will also aim to ensure that there is a balance between incorporating the traditional teaching methods still and updating our pedagogy.  Dean (2010) states that it is still the universal rights of a child to be taught conventional means of reading and writing (Dean 2010) As The 21^st Century Fluency Project outlines, “the digital tools enhance traditional learning.” (21^st CFP:10) They go on to highlight that it is still very relevant that children receive the traditional curriculum. It just needs to be adapted with the culture from one generation to the next. (21^st CFP)

As much as this module has excited me about my future career, it has also alerted me to the huge role ICT leaders will be playing within primary schools in years to come. This is an exciting opportunity and challenge I look forward to embracing.

Bibliography

Dean, G. ‘Rethinking Literacy’ in Bazalgette, C. (ed) (2010) Teaching Media in Primary Classrooms London:Sage

FutureLab (2010) Digital Literacy Across the Curriculum:

McDougall,S. One tablet or two? Opportunities for change in educational provision in the next 20 years. Futurelab:

Palfrey, J. & Gasser, U. (2008) Born Digital: Understanding The First Generation of Digital Natives New York: Basic Books

Prensky, M. (2001) ‘Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Part  II: Do They Really Think Differently?’ in On the Horizon 9 (6)

The 21^st Century Fluency Project (2013) Understanding Digital Kids II

After working with children in school, share your observations and reflections.

During the planning stages of our video project at Shirley Warren School I was nervous and unsure as to how the experience would be. My main barrier was my confidence – what if I was unsure of how to use the technology? Would this impact on my session with the children? I hadn’t met these children before, what would their opinions be if they see I am unable to engage with the technology? The 21^st Century Fluency Project acknowledge this fear in teachers, saying that we will never have the level of technical skills digital learners have. (21^st CFP) FutureLab (2010) reassure this worry stating that even if their functional skills are not as developed they are still more equipped, with higher order critical thinking and also subject knowledge. (FutureLab 2010)

I later realised that this was unnecessary worrying. All the children were engaged and on task. They enjoyed the process of actively making something and all having a role to play. This motivated the children far more, I feel, than any activity in the classroom would have done. FutureLab (2010) recognised “increased levels of motivation where children’s own cultural knowledge is acknowledged in school settings” (FutureLab 2010:11) and I certainly noticed this too.

I was hugely impressed by the knowledge of the children when it came to using the equipment. When they were slightly unsure with an aspect of the technology they worked alongside one another, which Marsh et al (2005) discuss as being a huge advantage to incorporating technologies within our teaching – it is a very social way of learning. (Marsh et al 2005) They then went about figuring out how best to fix it; as the 21^st Century Fluency Project state “effective learners make a series of attachments or relationships between their existing knowledge and new information.” (21^st CFP:8)

Overall, from this experience, I learnt that technology can be very beneficial to the engagement and motivation within a classroom. It can also enable children to use their expert knowledge and produce a piece of work they are very proud of, which has just as much, if not more, thinking and work behind. From what I saw it most definitely delivered “engaged, inquisitive children” (McDougall). And not only was it a very successful session for the children – I also hugely enjoyed it! I think Tom has shown us there are definitely huge benefits behind acknowledging their culture. (21^st CFP)

Bibliography

FutureLab (2010) Digital Literacy Across the Curriculum:

Marsh, J. Brooks,G. Hughes,J. Ritchie, L. Roberts, S. Wright, K (2005) Digital beginnings: Young children’s use of popular culture, media and new Technologies University of Sheffield

McDougall,S. One tablet or two? Opportunities for change in educational provision in the next 20 years. Futurelab:

The 21^st Century Fluency Project (2013) Understanding Digital Kids II

week 10 blog

Module Evaluation

This module has developed my understanding of the importance of including media and popular culture in the primary classroom. It has been argued that children of this generation are different to previous generations due to their exposure and knowledge of digital media (21 st CFP). Palfrey and Gasser (2008:1) describe children of this generation as ‘digital natives’. It has been suggested that teachers need to prepare children for now rather than adulthood due to the rapid change in technology and media being part of children’s childhood (Marsh, 2005, Millard and Marsh, 2000b and Palfrey and Gasser). One advantage which has been apparent during the course of this module is that using new technology, media and popular culture in the classroom can foster and maintain children’s interest and motivation (Medwell, Moore, Wray and Griffiths, 2012 and Milliard & Marsh, 2001a). As a future subject leader of English these theories have highlighted the importance of making teachers aware of preparing children for now rather than adulthood, and sharing the advantages which media, new technology and popular culture can offer may encourage teachers to include these in their planning.

This module has developed my confidence of including media, new technology and popular culture within my planning.  The 21^st Century Fluency Project stated that teachers need to become learners themselves when using technology. At the beginning of this module I did not feel confident to include technology and media in my planning. However, from experience of becoming a learner myself when working with children, this emphasised the importance of teachers experimenting with technology to gain confidence and knowledge. As a future subject leader I may experience colleagues who experience the same confidence issues which I experienced at the start of this module. This module has highlighted to overcome this issue I need to encourage fellow teachers to become learners themselves and offer support and training to enable teachers to feel confident to include new technology and media within their planning.

An issue which arose in this module was time constraints in the classroom which could be seen as a limitation of using new technology and media in the classroom. My experience at Shirley Warren highlighted that media can be used cross-curricular which provides a suitable amount of time for media based projects to be finished. Cross-curricular links need to be shown to teachers from the subject leader to encourage teachers to include media in their planning.

Overall this module has given me confidence to include Multimedia and Multiliteracies in my planning as I now have a range of resources and skills to use in the primary classroom.

The 21^st century Fluency Project Understanding Digital

Palfrey, J. & Gasser, U. (2008) Born Digital: Understanding The First Generation of Digital Natives New York: Basic Books

Medwell, J. Moore, G. Wray, D. Griffiths, V. (2012) Primary English Knowledge and Understanding London: Learning Matters (Ch 14 Electronic Texts pp196 – 202)

Marsh, J (2005) Popular Culture, New Media and Digital Literacy in Early Childhood Oxon:RoutledgeFalmer

Millard, E. and Marsh, J. (2001a) ‘Sending Minnie the Minx Home: comics and reading choices’ Cambridge Journal of Education, 31:1, 25 – 38

Millard, E. and Marsh, J. (2000b) Literacy and Popular Culture London: Sage

Summary of the module identifying the implications for my future role as an English subject leader.

Summary of the module identifying the implications for my future role as an English subject leader.

This module has broadened my view on using digital literacies, media and technologies within work in English. It has begun to increase my confidence to try and use different contexts and mediums to enrich 

children’s learning of literacy.

From the literature I have read I think I now see two sides of the debate; for and against. However, I do now believe that digital literacies and technology should be used in conjunction with and integrated with the traditional literacy resources and texts we are used to in teaching literacy.

As a result of this module, I would like to, if I become an English subject leader, to increase awareness, skills and confidence in using a range of resources. This may include resources like visual and audio technologies, and texts such as comic books, graphic novels and advertising to enhance and enrich children’s reading, writing and speaking and listening. Concerns for the safety and hindrances these may cause within school, for both staff and pupils, but these should not completely prohibit their use. Teachers need to be aware of these, and plan effectively to use them for their beneficial purposes.

After working with children in school, share your observations and reflections. What surprises you? What were the challenges and how might you overcome these? What have you learnt?

Whilst reading literature about using digital literacy and resources in the classroom for this module, it is interesting to see that what they say about the benefits, restrictions and concerns of using them can be seen in the real-life contexts of my reflections of my previous school experiences.

As Paffrey and Gasser (2008) mention, I have seen what they note as teachers being concerned about using digital literacies and different technologies, in an attempt to enhance learning of a certain subject, and seen the detrimental effect it can have on children (Dean, 2010) (for example distraction and confusion of using the technologies). However, it has always been, in my experience, that the concerns were futile as they have successfully been used to enhance and extend thinking beyond what, maybe, traditional literature could do.

Whilst on school experience, I have also realised that the main issue that arises are those that concern classroom organisation and accessing and using the technologies correctly. However, these concerns should not stop us as teachers from using them as they do have such beneficial value within the classroom, not just to extend but to be the main basis of teaching and learning.

Dean, G. ‘Rethinking Literacy’ in Bazalgette, C (2010) Teaching Media in Primary Classrooms London: SAGE

Paffrey, J. & Gasser, U. (2008) ‘Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives’ New York: Basic Books

Week 10 - summary

Summary of the module identifying the implications for my future role as an English subject leader.

 

This module has providing me with an insight into how media and technology can have educational purposes in the classroom, and has also broadened my knowledge of the resources available.  It has strengthened my confidence to provide innovative ideas and cross curricular links as a future English subject leader to inspire and support other teachers to apply it to the curriculum (QCA/UKLA, 2004); this was strengthened through the opportunity of applying our knowledge in the school context at Shirley Warren. The ICT Leader there enlightened us with cost effective ways of applying media and technology in future schools which are less fortunate to have the advanced technologies Shirley Warren have. One main thing I have learnt is that we as teachers can use upcoming resources to learn alongside the children in an engaging way which also gives them ownership of their work, and engages children through the new digital world they are growing up in (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008).

 

QCA/UKLA (2004) More than words: Multimodal texts in the classroom London: QCA.

Palfrey, J. & Gasser, U. (2008) Born Digital: Understanding The First Generation of Digital Natives New York: Basic Books.

Summary of the module identifying the implications for my future role as an English subject leader.

This module has been inspiring and relevant to current educational issues. It has allowed me to explore with my own anxieties on teaching media, language and technology, in a classroom where I am likely to find that the children know more about it than I would as the teacher (Palfrey and Gasser, 2008). The practical seminars have allowed me to gain a first-hand experience with the types of software I may use on my future practice, whilst the theory-based seminars have metaphorically opened my eyes into the advantages of integrating popular culture into the classroom.

I particularly found the debate on advertisement inspiring. This is because, on reflection, I now understand that my stance had changed due to a deeper understanding, through discussion and reading the relevant literature. I now appreciate that there are benefits and negatives to teaching children about advertising, however the underlying factor which determines the effectiveness is the teacher’s commitment and willingness to experiment (FutureLab, 2010). This is an implication that has been continuously highlighted throughout the blogs, which suggests that in order to achieve a classroom that welcomes popular culture I should, as a future teacher, improve my own knowledge so that I feel comfortable in using it with children.

The school experience, at Shirley Warren Primary school, has been effective in concluding the module and allowing us to put to practice what we have learned. The teacher’s passion for media has inspired me to be creative, within my own practice. The ideas that were put forward have provided me with a bank of resources, to use in my future practice. I particularly found the idea that media needs to be cross-curricula and not surplus to curricular useful. This view is echoed by the UKLA (2004), who further explain that using technology, to make links with various subjects, enforces the skills employed by technology and allow children to frequently become engaged in the technical process whilst applying the theory of other subjects. On reflection, I can understand how this is achievable, and look forward to “discover the digital world” (21^stCFP).

Bibliography

FutureLab. (2010) Digital Literacy across the curriculum: (sections3.1-3.4 Digital literacy in practice) (See online). 

The 21^st century Fluency Project Understanding Digital.

Palfrey, J. & Gasser, U. (2008) Born Digital: Understanding The First Generation of Digital Natives New York: Basic Books.

QCA/UKLA (2004) More than words: Multimodal texts in the classroom London: QCA.