Speaking and Listening - ICT in Literacy

This week we were looking at the use of ICT resources to facilitate the development of children’s Speaking and Listening skills.

Rationale

Speaking – the ability to communicate confidently and effectively using the spoken word is the entitlement of each child. Confidence in communication generates successful outcomes in a range of situations.

Listening - The ability to be an effective and reflective listener is a fundamental skill, underpinning most successful learning.

ICT offers many opportunities for children to explore and record their ideas, helping to build their literacy skills. Indeed, as suggest by Leask and Meadows:

“The conception of literacy is evolving to accommodate new forms of communication. A fully literate person might now be expected to be fluent in the uses of electronic communication. This new dimension to literacy is called ‘network literacy’” (Leask & Meadows. 2000:41)

 Leask, M. Meadows, J. 2000. Teaching and Learning Using ICT in the Primary School. London: RoutledgeFalmer

The Department for Education  and Employment (DfEE) define Network Literacy as “the capacity to use computers to access resources, create resources, and communicate with others” (1997: 10). There are many benefits to using ICT to teach literacy. ICT allows the teacher to produce and modify resources quickly and easily, and allows access to a wide range of information in various formats. Computers, software, MP3/4 recorders, cameras and a range of ICT devices can all make teaching more effective and more fun for the pupils. I will now have a look at some of these resources.

Talking photo album

These allow words to be recorded on each separate page of the album. Students can then listen back to the recording by simply pressing the photo on that page. Making the connections between text on a page and text as it sounds is critically important in literacy development. The integration of sound into a project makes it immediately more exciting to the pupils, and allows the development of communication skills. These talking photo albums can be used for a number of activities: 

• Associating words and sounds with images (pictures of animals accompanied by facts/animal noises)
• Self-written stories (Pupils can record their own creative writing)
• Interviews
• Phonics (Useful, considering the recent renewed interest in phonics teaching. Through the use of ICT-based phonics books, clear connections can be made between sounds and letters on a page. increasing concentration and attention time is a key advantage to ICT
• Presentations/Displays (School trips could be displayed through photos, each one accompanied by sounds recorded from the trip)
• SEN children (provides a different and interactive war of recording. For example, they could take a photo of their science work, and record an explanation over the top of it.

Interactive dictionaries

Instead of directing children to the large, weighty and confusing dictionaries or thesaurus’ in the corner of the room, children can now access interactive dictionaries. The development of pupils vocabulary vocabulary is made easier through interactive resources. This type of learning is also more exciting to use for children, acting to motivate students in literacy.

Talking Tins

Talking Tin in action

These are simple, small, circular tins that allow children or teachers to record their voices and listen back. These talking tins can be used in similar ways to the talking photo albums, but can also be used for the following and many more activities in and around school:

• Instructions (by recording instructions on a talking tin, children may listen back if they get lost or confused about their activity)
• Extension (similarly, the teacher may record an extension activity on a talking tin, providing them with more time to help others while those that have finished can gain instructions from the pre-recorded message)
• Display Boards (Talking Tins can be attached almost anywhere, on any surface around the school, helping to enhance the interactivity of display boards, whiteboards etc…
• Treasure hunts (Talking Tins can be placed around the school, and when found provide a clue for children to find the next hidden clue)
• Listening to work (children can read their work back to themselves by using Talking Tins. This can help them to think about their diction, intonation, expression etc…)

Video

Video is a powerful teaching and learning resource. When learning, children find multimedia, still images, sound and video more interesting than the traditional use of 'chalk and talk'. Making films is an exciting and challenging activity for classrooms, and provides opportunities for higher level thinking when children are allowed to produce their own video clips.

These clips can be based around a number of things, depending on which part of the curriculum the activity is set. For example, for literacy, children may use video to perform traditional stories, read poems, act out scenes from plays, films or books, bring persuasive writing to life (making an advert) etc... For numeracy children could create and film their own real life mathematical problems, helping to contextualize mathematical concepts (using & applying). Children could also film lessons, record class discussions, gather evidence for non-fiction reports or conduct interviews - the opportunities are endless. 

With increasingly easy access to digital and video cameras, it is now simple to produce digital media. As discussed above, this resource provides huge, powerful opportunities for learning within school, and lends itself well to global collaboration, promoting children's work to a wider audience. Keith Lightbody's Technology in Education Web Site  provides good resources, ides, links and information for the use of video and photography in the class.

 Podcasting

 Did you know that the word podcasting is derived from Apples I'pod' - and broad'casting', because most podcasts are not dissimilar to chunks of radio broadcasts. Podcasting has become a bit of a big deal in the internet world, making the production and dissemination of audio available to everyone. For schools, it offers the chance to provide lessons and learning opportunities in a way more likely to engage students than more traditional methods. Podcasts are (relatively) simple and easy to create and don't require high-priced equipment, allowing teachers to record without a large investment of time or money by the school.

How do children benefit from making a podcast I hear you skeptics ask? Well...

• It gives them a potential audience of thousands for their work.
• It's great for developing literacy skills, allows children to develop and practice their speaking and listening skills, and they also learn some amazing ICT skills.
• Podcasts are interactive, and a wide audience can send their comments, providing valuable, and speedy feedback to the children about their work.
• Making a podcast also requires the development of teamwork skills, encouraging children to work together to produce a great podcast.

The Guardian recently wrote an article , named "why every school should be podcasting", which can be read on the following link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2007/sep/18/link.link16 

Ideas for the content of childrens podcasts can range from school news, children's work, school songs, interview, music, jokes, and whatever else (providing it supports learning and is appropriate).

To create Podcasts, Audacity is a good, simple and free piece of software, While schools often produce a whole website dedicated solely to podcasting. For example Downs FM.

Right. Thats yer lot!

Yet another stunningly inciteful blog for you. Enjoy

Robots... that can teach!?

Bee bot cruising

Don't be silly, of course robots can't teach... but in today's blog I will be exploring  programmable toys that can be used for a number of learning experiences.




Programmable toys

Bee bot

The Bee bot is a programmable toy/bee. By putting in a sequence of instructions or commands on the arrow buttons, the Bee bot moves where you want. This toy is incredibly useful for a range of cross-curricular activities. From literacy, to numeracy, to ICT, to... general fun??

There are endless 'mats' that can be used, showing different themes. This link shows a treasure island map, and suggests different games you could play with children. Similarly you could get your children to plan out their own Bee bot maps based on a particular theme. The video below shows how Bee bot could be used to teach literacy. 

PIPPIN

A similar programmable toy (albeit less cute) is PIPPIN. This toy is slightly more advanced than Bee bot. Instead of simple directional arrow keys, PIPPIN requires the user to type in a certain amount of units to move forward, and the number of degrees required to turn. PIPPIN can have a pen dropped through it's middle, making it possible to draw wherever he moves. 

Cross-curricular activities.
In particular, the robot lends itself well to numeracy.  PIPPIN could be used to:

• Draw shapes - "how would we make PIPPIN draw a square?" 
• Negotiate a course - "can you get PIPPIN around these obstacles - what angles would you need to think about"
• Follow instructions - using instruction cards in a sequence "go forward; turn left 37 degrees"...
• Estimate distance 
• Count - "Where would we land if we moved PIPPIN x metres"

Key vocabulary could involve units (cm, m,), directions (forwards, backwards, left, right), compass instructions (North, East, South, West), angles (acute, obtuse)... among others.

Extension work for more able/older children can be set. This could include introducing obstacles to navigate around, longer/more complicated sequences to follow, further distances, wider variety of angles, introduction of harder units...

Differentiation for those children less able/younger could similarly be achieved by following the opposite of extensions. 

Assessment. PIPPIN provides children with a great way to consolidate their learning, and in turn allows teachers to assess what the children have learnt. This could be for literacy, numeracy, or ICT. 

Data Logger

The data logger is a measuring tool that can record information about environmental changes over a period of time. The resulting information can be examined in a table or as a graph. The information recorded includes sound, temperature and light. This link  provides a variety of scientific resources and experiments teachers could use with their class. 

My favourite experiment they suggest is "Why do animals huddle?", using the data logger to record the temperature of different locations. As well as looking at animal adaptation the investigation re-enforces work on temperature measurement, how heat energy is lost, insulation and that objects cool or warm to the temperature of their surroundings.

Digital Microscope

In 2002 the UK government provided every school with a digital microscope. By connecting it to the IWB, the microscope suddenly changes from an individual, to a whole class resource. Similarly the digital microscope allows students to take photographs of what they are seeing. this can then be used as evidence in science, as a recap to jog children's memory, or as a photo for a class/school display. 

The digital microscope:

• allows children to view magnified objects easily
• has uses beyond that of an ordinary micrscope
• extends children's ICT skill
• is portable and durable
• is fun to use and is particularly motivating
• has a presentational element, allowing children to create videos with special effects etc...

Thats about that for programmable toys. Hope you had a blast

Interactive Whiteboards (IWB)

Over the past decade, Interactive Whiteboards have become increasingly popular as a tool to assist teaching practice and learning. It has been suggested that these Interactive Whiteboards promote numerous benefits to primary school classrooms, including increased student motivation and higher teacher enthusiasm.

Much research has been conducted into the relevance, benefits, and issues associated with IWBs. One researcher, Robert Marzano, suggested that the use of Interactive technology in the classroom leads to immediate and sustainable improvements in student achievement, citing the IWB as an effective tool to help tackle and reduce the gap between child achievement. 

“I think the advent of this new technology… will change the face of teaching in terms of how we interact with students and what we use as content. I think this technology will help add a whole new set of strategies that were never available before” 

Robert Marzano, 2008 

The benefits

• The interactive element means children can learn in a fun and stimulating way. This is otherwise known as 'edutainment'.
• By providing a stimulus for discussion on the whiteboard (key questions, videos, games, etc...) children's discussion skills may be developed.
• Allows for a multisensory approach to teaching and learning (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic).
• Acts as a supportive tool for SEN and ESL children, providing stimulating visual learning cues.
• Helps develop children's ICT skills.
• Encompasses a large variety of resources. Pre-existing resources on-line can be used or adapted to personalise it for a class. Similarly teachers can make their own resources at low cost and l with less time constraints. 

 video showcasing the endless possibilities of the Interactive Whiteboard

The negatives

While interactive whiteboards have been shown to have numerous positive impacts on teaching and learning, there have been some concerns regarding its impact in classrooms. These concerns are outlined below:

• Interactive whiteboards may promote a more teacher-centred style of learning where students sit facing forward, passively watching the teacher at the front.
• This may result in an increase in TTT (Teacher Talking Time) and thus, a decrease in STT (Student Talking Time).
• 'Bored of board' - if an interactive whiteboard is used too extensively, children may become uninterested, less engaged and bored.
• Loss of 'the personal touch'. Teachers may give more focus to the whiteboard than to the class, removing the face-to-face, personal relationship teachers should have with their pupils.

However, I would argue that these concerns are not directly the fault of the whiteboard, rather they stem from the ways in which teachers interact and use the whiteboards as a resource. If the interactive whiteboard is used to directly assist purposeful learning, and is valued as one of a number of teaching resources, used to interact with the children rather than for rope learning, then these concerns may be rendered invalid.


Applications of the IWB

During the IWB workshop the class was split into groups. Each group was asked to create a teaching resource based on certain applications available on the Interactive Whiteboards. These applications included the following:

• Balloon pop
• Checker tool
• Erase to reveal
• Magnifying glass
• Pull tabs
• Click to reveal
• Magic tunnel
• Page recorder
• Random number generator

My group was lucky enough to be allocated the random number generator, an application which does pretty much what it says; generates random numbers.

The random number generator allows the user to customize the range of numbers it can pick from. By clicking the edit arrow in the bottom-right corner of the tool, you can input a minimum and maximum range value you want the tool to generate numbers between. 

My group decided to use this tool to create a useful numeracy tool. By creating empty sums (as seen below) the random number generator can be used as a fun way to complete sums:

This tool enables teachers to quickly generate different values rather than writing them out individually. It similarly enables students to gain interest by interacting with the SMART Board interactive whiteboard.

Similarly there are other random generator tools, including random domino generator, random letter generator, random cards generator... In this sense the random generator tool is vastly flexible and can be utilised in numerous cross-curricular contexts.