SUPPORTING CHILDREN'S

LEARNING WITH ICT

Ruksana Kadir

INTRODUCTIONThe school that I attend for my placement has numerous technologies available for

the children. This includes computers, laptops, Ipads and smart boards. By using these technologies the children develop their knowledge and skills such as, improve language skills, promotes school readiness and cognitive development, enhances social interaction skills and develop problem solving skills.

I am based in year 3 my position in the school is to support a group of lower ability children and to support a child one to one when needed. I listen to the children reading to be aware how the child is doing so I can note a record down for the parents and the teachers to be aware of how the child is doing if she/he is progressing or needs extra support. I support the children in all areas of learning such as numeracy, literature and ICT. I also support the teacher in managing class behaviour. I give advice and guidance to the children when they need support. On Tuesday I support a child one to one, who has English as a second language. I support her by going on the Ipad to allow her to explore the apps which link to her education to allow her to gain more knowledge and help her with her reading and numeracy. I provide her with numerous websites which allows her to explore and gain knowledge on all areas of learning.

My intentions for this activity is for the children to be able to find, explore, analyse, exchange and present information. I also want to focus on developing the skills necessary for children to be able to use information in a discriminating and effective way. I want the children to be familiar with wordfoto app and be able to describe their friends. To be able to spell correctly using electronics. ICT skills are a major factor in enabling children to be confident, creative and independent learners.

LEARNING OBJECTIVESThe aims of the activity are to enable children: to develop ICT capability in finding, selecting and using information; to use ICT for effective and appropriate communication; to monitor and control events both real and imaginary; to apply apps and software to creative and appropriate uses of

information; to apply their ICT skills and knowledge to their learning in other areas; to use their ICT skills to develop their language and communication

skills;.

It is important that the children have knowledge of ICT so that they know how to use the wordfoto app. The children will be able to describe their friends by inserting the relevant words on the app which then creates the children's photographs and turning them into artworks made up from layers of words. The children will have lots of fun working on this app! Wegerief and Dawes (2004) states “ Creativity is often described as a thinking skill or at least as an important aspect of thinking that can and should be fostered” (p.57).

CLASS DYNAMICSIn my class we have 25 children with different levels of ability. I am currently working with year three children. The children in my class are aged between 8/9 years old. All children are at different levels and stages, we have the higher ability children in one group and the lower ability in another group. This helps the children to work at their right level of knowledge and put them at the appropriate level of work. To help the children I showed a sample of my artwork from wordfoto app to give them an idea of how a completed work looks like, explaining to them what I wanted from the activity. Some children were already familiar with wordfoto app as they have used it at home with their parents. I did however help some of the lower ability children to put their user name and password in to the computer to access the app. In my lesson plan I followed the National Curriculum in Wales (2008) framework to see if the child is meeting the right curriculum at their stage or level, this guided me to see what the curriculum required to meet the right criteria for my lesson .

LESSON/ACTIVITY OUTLINE

In my ICT lesson I firstly organised the classroom for the children , I arranged the seating and tables for the children to be able to have a clear view of me demonstrating what needs to be done for the lesson. I put the resources ready out on the table which were markers and A3 paper for the children to use for brainstorming words in groups to describe their friends . For this activity my main aim is for the children to be able to use wordfoto app and to be able to describe how they feel about their friends by using technology. I started off by telling the children to go in to groups of fives and to brainstorm some words of how they feel about their friends. By putting them in to groups it allowed the children to share ideas , words and it allowed them to work as a group to support each other. I then used the smart board to show them a sample of my artwork I created by using wordfoto app which we will be using for the activity. I then introduced the children to wordfoto app and showed them how to use it and what needs to be done for the lesson. After that I took the children to the ICT room and gave them the opportunity to use the Ipad, laptops and computers to be able to do their work on. The wordfoto app we used for the lesson was for the children to be able to create a artwork this involved the children to describe their friends by inserting the relevant words on the app which then creates the children's photographs and turning them into artworks made up from layers of words. The children's oral skills were developed by talking and presenting their work to the group. The children had fun making their art work and were excited to show it to their parents. The main objective was achieved by children being involved heavily with ICT work. In my lesson plan I have referred to the National Curriculum (2008) document.

RESOURCESThe resources I used for my lesson were the Ipad, computers and laptops in the ICT room. For my ICT lesson we used wordfoto app which is an app that creates artwork of pictures which can be edited with words. This app enables children to be creative and enhance their knowledge in a enjoyable and creative way. The wordfoto app is used a lot in my school for all ages of children to create an individual artwork in a creative and fun way. The wordfoto app can be used in school and at home by downloading the app on your Ipad, laptops or mobile phones. The wordfoto app I chose enables the children to concentrate on their literacy skills and their ICT skills, for example taking a photo, adding pictures from the web, changing the font size or style. The children had to insert words in to the text boxes to describe their friends by using computers to do this activity it helped the children to spell check and to be able to edit their font or delete words that is not needed. In the classroom I used the smart board to show the sample of my artwork to all the children. I also put markers and A3 paper for the children to brainstorm some words in groups to help describe their friends when doing on the computers for the lesson.

Date 08/05/2015 Class Year 3Subject ICT Focus Wordfoto app

Age Range 8/9 Years oldLearning Objectives To use ICT to begin to organise items. To use technology to combine text with

photograph, graphics and drawings. To use the skills and techniques learnt to

organise, recognise and communicate ideas for a specific purpose in different contexts.

To begin to develop typing speed and accuracy to enable independence access of a computer.

Differentiation Teaching assistant support Peer support Level of understanding and communication Able and less able child Extra support

Resources IpadComputerLaptop Smart board Markers A3 sheets

LNF. Thinking & ICT Skills across the Curriculum Extract information from variety of sources, including ICT. Become aware that ICT can be used to communicate ideas. Use given ICT resources to help create, present and safely share their ideas including text, word – banks and images.

AreaClassroom and ICT room

Time 10:00am – 11:00am

Evaluation

Children’s LearningThe children stayed engaged and motivated while being on the IPads as they enjoy using them for learning. The activity gave the children the opportunity to work together or independently. The learning objectivise that were gained through this activity helped the children gain more knowledge about using ICT and to be able to use it confidently.

My Learning From this activity I learnt that children need to be given more opportunities to work on the IPads the children gain more knowledge and improve their ICT skills. I learnt children work better in pairs or groups as they can share ideas and learn from each other.I have also learnt that some of the lower ability children have great skills on the ICT, some are better than the more capable children. This helped the lower ability children to show off their skills and be confident.

Lesso

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THE EVALUATIONThe purpose of the activity was to help the children use the wordfoto app. I initially

took a class of 25 and put them into groups. Altogether I made 5 groups. As stated in Senior (1989) “When a group of children sit together around a keyboard, share ideas and takes turns to type, they interact and discuss. The written language then draws naturally upon the spoken language. The finished copy is truly representative of the group as it is independent of any groups' hand writing style” (p.194). I demonstrated and gave information to all the children about the activity we were going to do. The children were very excited about it. In the class the groups were given markers and A3 papers to brainstorm some descriptive words in order to describe their friends. The children were engaged doing their brain storming. Thereafter, I showed the children on the smart board an example of my artwork that I created from the wordfoto app. The children became very keen to do one for themselves. Once the brainstorming and showing the example of the artwork the children then went to the ICT room. In the ICT room the children were no longer in groups and worked individually. Each children received an Ipad and Laptop or Computer. The children logged into their own accounts and downloaded the wordfoto app. Through out the process I supported and supervised the children. The children had to capture a photos from their devices of their friends in order to create their artwork. The children then upload the photos of their friends on the app. The app then creates word boxes for the children to insert their words. The words on the app which then creates the children's photographs and turning them into artworks made up from layers of words. The children then had the opportunity to explore the app in more details. They could edit their pictures by changing the font , colour, style, backgrounds, brightness and contrasts. The children printed out their pieces of work and too it home to show to their family.

By doing this activity the children learnt descriptive words when brainstorming in their groups and they learnt to be able to log on to their accounts and to be able to use wordfoto app with little bit of support at the beginning by me and their peers and then gradually they learnt how to do it independently. Higgins and Packard (2004) states, “When considering the use of ICT in the teaching of literacy and National Literacy Strategy, there is a range of opportunities to consider. Given access to the right equipment, using ICT in the whole class teaching elements of the strategy can be very powerful” (p.65). They developed ICT skills by exploring on wordfoto app by learning to be able to enlarge text and experiment with different font, backgrounds, editing and style. By experimenting with the wordfoto app it helped the children gain knowledge on ICT and enhanced their learning on the artwork they produced at the end of the lesson. When doing the group work with the children , the children learnt how to work in a team and share ideas. The children developed their social skills by communicating with each other and enjoying themselves.

The ICT supported the learning by doing their activity quicker, it gave the children the opportunity to explore and be creative using technology. In my class some lower ability children have difficulty spelling words and by using ICT it corrected their spelling by using the spell check tool. By using ICT they were able to look up words and see other words they could use as an alternative. This helped the lower ability children to feel confident in their spelling as the ICT corrected the words for them.

I supported the learning by deciding to do the wordfoto app. This is a easy app to use and the children did not find it difficult to use. I explained to the children what the app is about and they looked forward to using it. I initially provided the children with the necessary resources and showed them how to use it. I helped the children to get started and running. With the lower ability children I helped them log in to their accounts. When the children asked questions I provided them with adequate answers.

The ICT activity was amazing to use with the children it helped me learn how important the use of ICT is in peoples lives and how much the children enjoy using technology. Before using wordfoto app with the children I had to explore and get familiar with the app to be more confident and to provide the right information to the children. With this experience and knowledge I have gained I will use it in the future and develop it further and continue supporting the children’s learning.

If I were to carry out this activity again I would look for a similar app which could be better and have more functions where it could enhance the children’s learning further. I enjoyed the ICT module as it gave me the opportunity to explore and gain more ICT skills using technology. I was also introduced to blogging and it was a fun experience using it. The ICT module has improved my teaching in school using ICT with the children as I feel more confident using technology. I really had fun doing this activity and I am sure the children did as well as they were excited to take their work home and show it to their family. As Higgins, Packard and Race states (1999) “IT can find it’s inspiration and context within the rest of the curriculum. It can support, enhance and extend learning in many other subject areas. It can also be an excellent source of inspiration and motivation, but often ICT computers are used primarily as a source of ‘Drill and practice’ (sometimes referred to as “Drill and Kill”) activities. This situation can cause stagnation and does not promote IT or ICT skills in any useful way” (p.33).

THE EVIDENCE

REFERENCES

DCELLS (2008). Key stage 1 and 2 of the National Curriculum for Wales. Cardiff:WAG

Higgins and Packard (2004). Meeting the standards in primary ICT. Aguide to ITT NC. Routledge Falmer.

Higgins, Packard and Race (1999). 500 ICT Tips. For primary Teachers: Kogan Page Limited

Wordfoto App (2015) “Taking your photographs and turning them into artworks made up from layers of words.” (ONLINE - http://www.knowyourapps.com/reviews/wordfoto/) Accessed:08/05/15

Senior. S (1989). Using IT across the National Curriculum: Owelet Books.

Wegerif.R and Dawes. L (2004). Thinking and learning with ICT. Raising achievement in primary classrooms. Routledge Falmer.