Working in practice

It is important for a teacher to find ways to develop, encourage but most of all to raise standards for the children in her classroom. Research shows that the use of ICT can have a dramatic effect on this. Dominic Wyse and Russell Jones state that ‘ICT should be viewed as useful tools which, with the appropriate pedagogy, can enhance learning and teaching’ (Wyse et al., 2008:238). By using ICT in a proper way, meaning focusing on how teachers can use ICT as a learning resource in their classroom, and how it can affect the children’s literacy skills, it could be a way for raising standards.

Before we went to visit the school SW, I was a little sceptical on how iPads could be a tool for learning. I have always believed that iPads could be a good resource to bring into the classroom, but was not quite sure on how it could contribute to learning and develop literacy skills. After working with the children and actually seeing how motivated and dedicated they were to their work, and seeing how well they worked together as a team, it has really opened my eyes, and it is something I definitely would like to use and take with me in my classroom in the future.
It was interesting to see how much knowledge they had and how good they were using the techniques required for an iPad, but also how supportive they were in helping each other when someone in the group struggled. This leads me to a challenge there might be when using iPads and all technology in general. It is crucial that teachers have the knowledge and skills for working with e.g. iPads. Most children have a greater knowledge of ICT that is far beyond their teachers’ (Wyse et al., 2008). If educators are not confident in using ICT, they need to be given the opportunity to attend courses which will develop their skills and their understanding (Dannemand, 2003).
Another thing to consider when using iPads is that it can be very time-consuming. In the group I was in, we had some problems with sharing/sending the products the children had made, the connection between the three iPads we had was slow and did not work. We ended up using the last 30 minutes on trying to get it to work. In Denmark a lesson last 45 minutes, so if we had to use 30 of does minutes having technical problems, it would take away valuable time. But after seeing how motivated they were, and how much they learned, it would still be something I would use in my classroom, because not only did they learn new ICT skills, they also learned how to communicate through the technology, by writing and recording their script etc., and by that they achieved an understanding of how a multimodal text can work. Another thing that impressed me was how well they worked together as a team. Even though they all had different tasks, they still managed to help each other if someone was struggling. Teamwork is a strength that all children need to learn, since teamwork is such a crucial element in the society we live in.  People working in teams also tend to learn more by their interactions with each other, by working in teams they get to view the given task from different perspectives and together achieve the best solution (Illiris, 2006).

Bibliography
Dannemand H. (2003) En god lærer brænder for sagen. Berlingske Avalible at http://www.b.dk/danmark/en-god-laerer-braender-sagen [Accessed 5 August 2003].

Illeris K. (2006) Læring. Denmark:Roskilde Universitetsforlag.

Wyse D. & Jones R. (2008) Teaching English, Language and Literacy 2nd edn Abingdon:Routledge