IWB activities using SMART Notebook

SMART Notebook can be used to create a range of interactive learning activities. The activities that have been shown in the screen shots have been differentiated and also differ in the nature of the tasks and the responses required from the children. These two activities demonstrate a few of the different ways this software can be used to engage and involve the children in a more participate and interactive way in whole-class discussions/learning opportunities.

Tux Paint

I thought Tux Paint was a much better version of paint, with many more features and much better results possible. This would be ideal for children of all ages though the obvious initial guidance and practise is required, but very quickly, even the youngest of children will get used to this easy to navigate programme, comprising of large, clear buttons, and a variety of tools to support the children e.g. stamps, backgrounds, paintbrushes etc. Most importantly, this programme is also free to download and install, and the number of downloads are unlimited, therefore schools have no excuse to not having this software installed on all their computers!

Can texttease be used effectively in the classroom?

Textease Publisher CT is the award-winning, word processing, desktop publishing package with multimedia capabilities all in one.

Texttease consists of 9 core software tools. The one I trialled and used to create various nature themed pages was Textease Publisher CT.
Features of this programme include:

• curriculum mapped resources - thousands of items
including clipart, digital photos and videos
• natural sounding speech with different voices to
choose from
• highlighter and table tool
• toolbars that can flip to the bottom of the screen -
great for whiteboard use
• cross-curricular examples
• templates including a birthday card, book review,
newspaper, heraldry shield and postcard

Publisher CT can be used within all curriculum subjects for every writing and publishing task. Menus and buttons can be configured and customised for pupils with different educational needs allowing them to continue working at the peak of their ability. It is an ideal tool for encouraging creativity and motivation.

However, I did not find this tool that easy to use. This may largely be due to the fact that it is new and unfamiliar software to me. I found it difficult to navigate and familiarise myself with; this, I'm sure, is a similar feeling that children feel when they are learning to use a new bit of software that I now use very confidently, e.g. microsoft office. Despite my unfamiliarity with this program, I feel that other programs do a similar job and are easier to use e.g. Promethian.

Clickr as a tool to support pupils

Clickr is a writing support and multimedia tool for children of all abilities and people with special needs. It consists primarily of two main components:
- Clickr Writer: a talking word processor, which can be used with or without pictures.

- Clickr Grids: A clickr grid usually fits into the bottom of the screen. It is made up of cells which can contain letters, words, phrases, pictues and sounds.

This tool is great for aiding children with weak literacy skills and also all young children that require guidance structuring sentences. The tool incorporates strong visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learning styles.

The children can use this tool to create story boards or even longer passages of writing over time.

Computer Games, School and Young People

A number of relevant publications show that games are a pursuasive medium with the capacity to influence players' thoughts and actions. Games are constructionist technologies for learning; as believed in constructivist views of teaching, children learn best through constructing ideas and knowledge though activities alongside others. Games are viewed as ideal platforms for trying out ideas, making decisions, communicating with others and of exploring and making new games rather than by receiving knowledge passively from others. Games are also ideal environments for practising skills.

The learning involved through games:
- can be considered to be social as it involved interactions with objects/figures within the game/on screen.
- is active and participative rather than passive and merely receptive.
- and involves the constant construction of meaning and knowledge.

Most teacher's agree that computer games can support children's cognitive development and ICT development and higher order thinking skills (e.e. logical thinking, planning and strategising.)

Developing Ideas Through Images

A digital camera can be used in a variety of ways for a variety of purposes that can stimulate and engage the children in a novel manner.

A digital camera can be used to capture the right image for just the right visual stimulus that can kick start a disucssion on a new topic, e.g. an image from nature/buildings/settings to stimulate discussion in geography/RE/PSHCE etc.

Digital cameras are an excellent way of supporting children with EAL (English as an Additional Language), learning difficulties, poor written and or communication skills, when out on school trips or when carrying out investigations. They can be used to record and communicate observations made, or to take a picture of equipment used, as alternatives to making written and drawn records.

Again, if a video feature is available on the digital cameras then children can be encouraged to make videos of their thoughts, feelings and discussions about a given topic. Still photos can also support children's communication of ideas.

Giving different children responsibility of the camera will boost their self-esteem, through giving them a valued, prime role. It will also give them a boost to see their handiwork used and appreciated.

Digital cameras can be used to capture freeze-frames; this can make links across a number of subjects, e.g. ICT, drama, literacy, RE, PSHCE etc.
Children can be encouraged to act out a scene studied/which they think best portrays a situation/emotion. This whole process will involve a number of skills including the development of team work, negotiation skills, ICT skills.

Images collected by digital cameras can be a very important and welcome link with school and home. Parents can get a better insight into what the children have been involved with and how they may have participated. This again will be particularly useful when communicating to adults with EAL.

The general production, handling and manipulation of the images requires the children to develop a number of skills including: opening, inserting, rotating, cropping, copying, pasting and so on. This will lead on to the development of higher level skills which the children will continue to build upon throughout their education and own experiences of ICT.

Problem-Solving with Spreadsheets

Children can use spreadsheets to probleme-solve. They should be encouraged to devise calculations to deduce the answers for problems set. The questions/problems can be differentiated for the children in the class depending on their ICT/spreadsheet competency. Juniorviewpoint may be more child-friendly but Excel Spreadsheets are what usually becomes used in secondary schools/as adults so it would be beneficial to make the transition to using Excel Spreadsheets as children get older, i.e. in late key stage 2 (years 5-6).

A reflection on Multiple Intelligences

As a group we used a Flipvideo, which is a very simple device for making videos that has a connection that can be flicked out and inserted straight into a computer USB port to be set up, ready to upload a video within moments. The Flipvideo was used to record our reflections of Multiple Intelligences, rather than writing about it etc. This is a fun and alternative way of recording findings made instead of writing.

Sock Puppet Re-enactment of "Under the Sea" from the Little Mermaid

Creating videos can be a great way of getting children to write stories/scripts and think creatively, e.g. about lighting, camera focus, settings etc. without making the task a simple writing exercise. Children can link this video making exercise with a storyboard/simple plan, which again will strengthen their literacy skills in a more creative, visual, auditory and kinaesthetic way.

The Ease of Creating a Podcast

Following a quick demonstration, our group, (Alan, Sam, Angela and myself) put together and "performed" an amended ending to "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves"....which was more suitably named "Snow White and the Special Dwarf". Using the Podium software we were able to write up a quick script, assigning a part to each person, insert a mini-microphone into the computer and record the podcast. The program also allowed us to edit some music into the recordning of the script within moments. The resulting podcast can be accessed below.

http://www.podiumpodcasting.com/~183336/AlanAngelaPa250110164432/rss.xml

Databases

Using the simplified database software, JuniorViewpoint, the data was analysed using the tools available, e.g. most, least, average. Graphs were also created to compare and contrast different variables, to help identify any trends.

Classifying pets

Using the Textease software and utilising the Branch application within it, I created a classification tree to help classify four distinct animals. An activity/tool like this would be very useful for providing opportunities for children to use a number of thinking skills, including sorting, counting and grouping items. This could be useful across a number of subjects, e.g. sorting shapes (in maths), sorting animals/plants (science).

Exploring Child-Friendly Search Engines

The internet is a vast resource, though it holds a number of benefits, such as the quantity of data you have at your fingertips, it can be particularly hard for novices to sift through and filter the most appropriate information. It is our responsibility as adults to ensure that children are taught safe and responsible behaviours as soon as they are old enough to start using digital technology. Teachers are required, as part of their wider duty of care, to raise the awareness of the risks associated with inappropriate contact via new technologies and inappropriate online content and commerce; additionally, teachers using technology in the classroom have to ensure that children are aware of appropriatwe online behaviour on a regular basis.

To help children surf the internet in a safer environment child-friendly search engines are available and specially designed for children, e.g. http://www.yahooligans.com/ and www.askkids.com . It is common in schools for children to asked to investigate a chosen topic area. Using the example of a project on pets, I have compared the use of yahooligans with google to reasearch the topic area.

A child is likely to type in "pets" into the search bar. With both search engines I used this as my key search term, but both produced slightly different results.

Below can be seen the searches elicited by the yahooligans search engine. It retrieved 8530 results that it filtered down for the children and displayed them in a simplified format, with further child-friendly/child-directed filter options e.g. in movies, in jokes.

From these results I then quickly found this site: http://www.petoftheday.com/

Using Google as a search engine (www.google.com) , and with the same key word ("pets") I was faced with approximately 167 000 000 results, many of which were retailers and advertisements aimed at adults.
















I feel, with the vast amount of results recovered, from this search engine in particular, that children will definately need skills on refining their search and on staying safe and aware of risks that they may be faced when searching independently. Schools, organisations and homes can put filters in place to restrict and reduce these threats.