Week 5: Part 2

Summarise and reflect on your own significant learning from this module. Identify its implications for your future role as an English or IT subject leader

The module has completely enlightened my understanding of just how much technology is rapidly changing our lifestyle, and the potential of technology in education. As a future English specialist, the most significant and important learning for me has been how English and technology can be combined to ensure children are developing both standard literacy skills ,and digital literacy to establish a well-rounded education that prepares children, ‘digital natives’ for increasingly technological world we live in today.

Perhaps the most enlightening part of the module was the visit to Shirley Warren, where I got a first-hand view at just how digitally advanced children are today. Observing their independence, speed and competence in using the iPads to create a truly multimodal presentation was something I’ve never seen children so young be able to do. I saw how using technology engaged and motivated the children; they were keen to add as much to the task as they could, and they never lost focus or behaved inappropriately. This is not the first time I have seen children so engaged by technology; even very young children (Year R) are motivated by technology as I have observed on two occasions of phonics. However, for me the lesson I attended to at SW would only have been successful if they could operate the iPads as well as they could carry out the maths tasks. Because they had already done the calculations for their statistical data, I wasn’t able to compare their mathematical abilities with their technological abilities. This reflection has informed my future practice that I will only implement digital technologies in the classroom if it does not hinder their progress/ development in their ‘main’ learning (which I consider to be the National Curriculum subjects), or it supports learning in those other areas.

In terms of how I have seen ways digital literacy and standard literacy being equally developed using technology, I have observed this mostly through using apps; both at Shirley Warren, and in our seminars. The app I would most likely use in teaching is ‘Book Creator’;  the user is required to consider many different semiotic resources to create a story which go further than can be found in a normal, hardcopy book, for example, the user can add sound, so this is the ‘digital literacy’, multimodal element of the learning. The process of imagining a story line, and typing it out supports the more traditional elements of literacy. My only concern with apps in literacy, no matter how many different skills they develop, is that everything needs to be typed. If I had the time, I would ask children to write out their story first and then type it out on the app, to ensure they are still developing writing skills.

Exploration of the module has definitely made me view digital technologies in a much more positive way. As an English specialist, I have always held value over more traditional ways of learning literacy as this is how I was taught, and English has always been a strong subject of mine. However, in order to make the learning relevant to the children, teachers must consider the rapid advancements in technology which has a huge place in the lives of these ‘digital natives’ to ensure that they possess ‘the skills to navigate this complicated, hybrid world’ (NFER, 2010) and ‘take a full and active part in social, cultural, civic and intellectual life now and in the future’ (Palfrey and Gasser, 2008).

Bibliography 

Palfrey, J and Gasser, U (2008) Born digital: understanding the first generation of digital natives. New York: Basic Books

NFER (2010) Futurelab. Available at http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/digital-literacy-across-curriculum-handbook accessed 31/10/14 

Summarising my learning from this module.

During this mini module, I feel that I have learnt a great deal about popular cultural, digital literacy and advertising, in particular I have learned a lot about the use of iPads within the classroom and seen how effective they are at our visit to Shirley Warren School.  I also enjoyed our workshops with Pam and now have a bank of websites to use in school. On school placement I would like to observe and teach and IT lesson to try out some of the things I have learnt, and to see how much IT is used within the school.

McCluskey, 20011 and Turvey, 2006 say ‘The idea that interaction between individual and collective experience leads to deeper learning – learning which is more reflective and transferrable’ I completely agree with this quote, as in my future practice, technology will just continue to grow and digital literacy will play more of a part in schools. Palfrey and Gasser (2008) ‘young people around the world are spending an increasing amount of time connected to the internet’. I do not like that this is how the world is developing, children are becoming so engrossed in technology, during one of our sessions my table discussed how as children we went out and played in the street. However, now children sit and play on the xbox or on computers. Technology is taking over childhood memories. ‘And they’ve never known any other way of life.’ (Palfrey and Gasser, 2008) This is a fear that I have when in class, that the children will not be engaged in what is being taught because it is not up to date enough or interactive enough.

From this module I have a deeper understand with a wide variety of technology and how these can be used within every topic in the classroom. What I have learnt I feel will help me progress when becoming a subject leader in IT. However, one fear I will always carry is the children becoming more knowledgeable than myself in new technologies, and will end up teaching me rather than the other way around.

Palfrey, J. and Gasser, U. (2008) Born digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives. New York: Basic books.

Younie, S. and Leask, M. and Burden, K. (2015) Teaching and Learning with ICT in the Primary School. Abingdon: Routledge.

Summarise your own significant learning from this module. Identify its implications for your future role as an English or IT subject leader.

Throughout this module, I feel that I have learnt a significant amount about the positive use of technologies within classrooms as well as the exposure children face through the use of technology. I have learned a lot about the use of comics and graphic novels within classrooms, and would not have thought they would have ever been involved within the learning of children’s reading, due to them not being deemed ‘educational’. I have enjoyed the sessions in which we were hands on and learned different ways to incorporate iPads and different apps into the classroom learning, and feel I benefited hugely from these sessions. After reflecting back on my time within school, I am keen to become more familiar with newer technologies that are being introduced within school and try to incorporate more technology within my planning, as I feel now that there are so many more ways to interact children within their learning than just using an interactive whiteboard.

Palfrey and Gasser (2008:82) discuss the lives of ‘digital natives, who live so much of their lives in networked publics’ and how they ‘are unlikely to come to see privacy in the same terms that previous generations have’. I feel that within my own future practice, I will struggle to be accepting of the fact that children I may teach, will potentially be using the same social networks as myself, and therefore will mean that unless I remove myself from the online world, I will never be able to keep aspects of my online networking private from children more than half my age. Palfrey and Gasser (2008:85) highlighted that ‘young people around the world are spending an increasing amount of their free time connected to the internet’. As well as my own privacy online, it is also a struggle to come to terms with the fact that children are not protected from the exposure of online ‘nasties’. Popadopoulos (2010) discusses the notion of children being able to access everything on the internet, and depending on their parents, will continue to be exposed to content that is way above their levels of understanding and maturity, and will damage them in many ways. Due to this factor, I feel that if I were to use aspects of the internet and online social media, such as blogging or emailing with my children, I would not feel comfortable with allowing them to roam these sites freely, due to the fear of exposure or inappropriate behaviour around certain subjects.

Overall, my learning throughout this module has been positive and there are many aspects that I can take away and try to incorporate into my classroom practices within the future. Despite the increasing use of technology in schools, to which I am personally a supporter of, I do worry about the implications that come with using technology within the classroom, and the impacts inappropriate content exposure has on children of such young ages.

Bibliography:

Papadopoulos, L. (2010) Sexualisation of Young People Review Home Office (Executive Summary – link on LN)http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100418065544/http://homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/Sexualisation-young-people2835.pdf?view=Binary (accessed 31/10/14)

Palfrey, J and Gasser, U. (2008) Born Digital: Understanding the first generation of Digital Natives. New York: Basic Books. 

Part 1 - Why should teachers care about digital literacy?

The article I was assigned for this week’s post was the review of Sexualisation of Young People by Papadopoulos (2010). Within this review, she discusses different aspects of the online world and sexualisation and how these things are increasingly having a bad impact on children and young people of today’s society. Sexualisation is ‘the imposition of adult sexuality on to children and young people before they are capable of dealing with it, mentally, emotionally or physically’ (Papadopoulos 2010: 23). Throughout the review, she highlights each area in which sexualisation is present and how that is affecting the young people who gain access to this content. She explains how ‘sexualised images are visible to everyone, including children and young people who may not have the maturity to rationalise and put what they’re seeing into context” (Papadopoulos 2010:24).

Papadopoulos (2010) highlights the areas in which sexualisation appears and the form in which it appears in. For example, in magazines and advertising, they airbrush images to ‘unobtainable perfection’ (Papadopoulos 2010:36) and allow children to pose/act inappropriately. She also mentions how in television programmes, women are sometimes dressed sexually and are spoken inappropriately by men. Within clothing, there are now push up bras for young teens and heeled shoes for children as young as four years old. On the internet, young people can easily access pornography sites through pop ups and search engines being easily unblocked. There is also an increasing issue of young girls posting and sending inappropriate pictures to male peers and social networking being a mixing bowl for issues exposure. Papadopoulos (2010) also discusses the issues surrounding computer games, mobile devices and music videos/lyrics being other factors that lead to exposure of inappropriate content.

The impacts of sexualisation and exposure to content includes body image issues, plastic surgery, mental health, eating disorders, gender stereotypes, sexual objectification, lap dancing and glamour modelling (Papadopoulos 2010:55). Due to these impacts, within primary schools, teachers are now having to increasingly be aware of issues regarding bullying, name calling and sexual harassment, all of which are caused by sexualisation and its exposure to anyone and everyone.

Teachers should care about digital literacy because we need to be aware and confident in that allowing our children to be independently going online, will not result in harmful material being inflicted upon them. Papadopoulos (2010:30) highlights that ‘cultural, religious, and class backgrounds will influence the family’s role in mediating sexualised media content as well as what is deemed appropriate and acceptable’. To follow this, I feel that if parents are not mediating their children’s content intake, then it is up to us as teachers, to be aware and try to monitor exactly what the children see within school. It is also vital to ensure our children of the risks and dangers of online and apply the ‘Every Child Matters Agenda’ that we need to ‘be healthy, be safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and achieve economic wellbeing when online’ (Papadopoulos 2010:19).

Bibliography:

Papadopoulos, L. (2010) Sexualisation of Young People Review Home Office (Executive Summary – link on LN)http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100418065544/http://homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/Sexualisation-young-people2835.pdf?view=Binary (accessed 31/10/14)

Having been in school, share your observations and reflections in terms of the use of technology/new literacies.

From my time is school during my self-directed placement in the summer, I found that the use of technology was strong but basic within my chosen school. I observed within each classroom and learned that the use of Interactive Whiteboards within the classrooms were strong and the main resource within each lesson. Hague and Payton (2010:44) discuss that ‘supporting young people to become competent, discerning users of technology is about helping them to develop their skills that allow them to critically question their own and others’ technology use’. I feel that the use of interactive whiteboards is positive and generally keeps the children engaged throughout each lesson. Children are actively involved within the use of the whiteboards and are all well educated in how to use them safely and to help engage their learning. The resources that are available through using Interactive whiteboards are endless and can cater for any child’s individual needs. Allen et al (2007:197) highlight that the use of Interactive whiteboards ‘increases the pace of lessons’. Throughout my observations, this became apparent and the children were very responsive throughout the input of the lessons.

In terms of facing challenges with the use of Interactive whiteboards, I would be concerned about becoming firstly, too reliant on the use of the whiteboard itself, and secondly, too reliant on using online resources and therefore wasting time when I could make them myself. Allen et al (2007) discuss that although it is useful and efficient to have access to a world of resources and sharing, it also takes a lot of time and careful examination of resources to make sure that they are suitable and well differentiated for your children. To overcome my challenges when using interactive whiteboards, I will try to use differentiated resources within my classroom so that if they were to be a system failure or error, I will always have a ‘plan B’ so that my lessons will never become too technology heavy. I also will attempt to create my own resources, as well as using online ones, to ensure that I don’t waste time and make life more difficult for myself.

The school also has portable laptops on offer for every year group. They are widely used across the curriculum and make a change to the children’s learning. Hague and Payton (2010:44) highlight that ‘developing students’ digital literacies means supporting them to think critically about why certain practices are unsafe and how they can be made safer’. Through using the laptops across the curriculum, the children are able to make sensible decisions about what will impact on their learning, and are given an independent responsibility to use the laptops with care and always think about their online safety. I found the use of the portable laptops a great resource to allow the children some responsibility for their learning, but feel that within a potential class of 30 children, I would feel a little uneasy about letting them use the laptops freely; if I wasn’t sure about the extent to which they know of online safety.

Questions that have arisen for me within this reflection of learning, is that firstly, how will I ever know if my children are going to be fully aware of the dangers online? And secondly, how do I incorporate different technologies safely and effectively, if I were to be within a schools who uses a wider range of technology? 

Bibliography:

Hague, C and Payton, S (2010) Digital Literacy Across the Curriculum. Futurelab

Allen, J. Potter, J. Sharp, J. Turvey, K. (2007) ‘Interactive Whiteboards’. Achieving QTS. Primary ICT: Knowledge, Understanding and Practice. (3^rd edn) Exeter. Learning Matters. 

Why should teachers care about digital literacy?

I have been focusing on ‘Digital literacy across the curriculum’ by Futurelab. This is a handbook about the importance of digital literacy, and digital literacy in practice. They see digital literacy as an important entitlement for all children in an increasingly digital culture, as technology plays a growing role in the lives of children in today’s society.

Having grown up with technology, children have accumulated a wealth of technology especially digital technology skills. Unlike some parents and teacher who would consider themselves ‘digital immigrants’. Due to this children are seen to be very confident when using a wide range of technologies, they are able to operate unfamiliar hardware and software very quickly. In my opinion this puts a bigger emphasis on teachers incorporating digital literacy in the class. Focusing on digital literacy in the classroom can help children to expand and extend their use of technology for creativity and self expression, also to develop a greater understand of the complexities of what they are doing. Digital literacy also supports subject knowledge and can ensure that technology enhances teaching and learning, and that it is not just an add on to the curriculum.

Davies and Merchant (2009) discuss how digital literacy facilitates processes of interaction and participation within the classroom; from my previous experience I have seen this. The whole class was all engaged and willing to learn, as they were interested and fascinated by the use of the iPad and Apple TV. Having seen the impact the use of the iPads had on the class, I see the benefits of using digital literacy; it gave the children a range of new opportunities. Futurelab also talk about how these processes allow the children to become active rather than passive in social contexts.

“Over the past 20 years there has been a significant increase in the difference between young people’s digital technology use outside and inside school” (Buckingham, 2007. P11).

Teachers should care about digital literacy as it plays a massive part in children’s lives, children are critically engaged with technology and therefore, it should be continued at school as well as at home. They should plan teaching activities aimed at developing digital literacy alongside subject knowledge. Myself and my peers suggested in our seminar group, it may be useful for teachers to educate children on what is not trustworthy as the world wide web is vast with so much information out there. Smith (1999) stresses the importance for teachers to educate children on how to access and use the Internet safely and provide them with the knowledge on how to navigate correctly.

This increase of significance in ICT is an explicit recognition of the increasing digitisation of the world in which children are being born into. I feel this stresses the importance of digital literacy in today’s day and age, and how teachers should be including digital literacy in all subject lessons.

Bibliography:

NFER (2010) Futurelab. Available at http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/digital-literacy-across-curriculum-handbook [Online] Assessed 27/10/14