Week 1 - First Informal Blog Post

Week 1 - First Informal Blog Post

From the point of view of an ICT specialist, it can be argued that an increase in the use of technology within the classroom is a positive step forward. However, that does not imply that traditional methods should be side-lined nor should they remain the sole approaches implemented by practitioners.

Having thought further into this I have begun to question whether a mid-ground; one that allows for traditional methods to be enhanced through the use of new styles of teaching; would be the way forward in ensuring that our young learners not only progress but also have a way in which to express their innate curiosity across a plethora of forms. (Dean, 2010)

Personally, I feel that as teachers, we have a responsibility to the children we teach to ensure that there is a smooth transition between home and school as well as preparing pupils for situations later in life. (DfE, 2013) Part of this could be aided through allowing children access to technology they are familiar with as well as giving them the chance to try out new things and take risks in an environment where they feel safe to do so. Using technology across the curriculum gives us the chance to embed digital methods into our practice for example as a stimulus for questioning or as a demonstrative tool to aid children who may require a bit of additional support to grasp a concept.

I have seen an example of an IWB being used as a demonstrative tool when I worked with a Year R class in a session where the children were beginning to gain a conceptual understanding of the similarities between coins. The IWB was used to allow the children to come up to the board and move the coins around themselves to encourage one to one correspondence. This activity was left up for the entirety of the maths session so that children could refer to it if they were not sure.

The use of a blog to assess our learning gives us as trainee teachers the opportunity to have first-hand experience of how the use of technology develops our understanding of our own practice as well as communicate our thoughts in a way that encourages meaningful and informed responses from our peers. Could this then be transferred into the classroom, perhaps in the form of a blog used to communicate with other classes in the school or on a wider scale, with other schools that share a catchment area?

Alternatively this module could have involved a written task from which we would receive spoken feedback. Though I cannot perceive an issue with this, the permanence of written feedback as a part of the blog, in my view, seems as if it would be more beneficial as it would aid my understanding of reflective practice and allow me to more effectively contribute to other blogs.

I feel that an obstacle I may meet during this module is that I have a limited experience of writing a blog so my first few weeks of writing will not be as academic as I would like. To try to overcome this I will first draft my blog entries and annotate/edit them so that I am happy with them before they are published.

Bibliography:

Dean,G. ‘Rethinking Literacy’ in Bazalgette, C. (ed) (2010) Teaching Media in Primary Classrooms London:Sage

DfE, (2013) The National Curriculum in England:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335133/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_220714.pdf  (accessed 25/09/2014 at 10:30 pm)