So far, I have used the IWB for maths (unsuccessful, mostly - the number line was a bit confusing and was more a hindrance than a help!) and handwriting (surprisingly, this worked!). In other ICT related news, I've been able to use video, digital photography and CD-roms in my lesssons. It's all going well! The children do respond well to using ICT in lessons, and all are fairly confident using it.
Plans for next week are to have the children photographing different 2D shapes around the school in a maths lesson, and putting together a table of results for a science experiment. They have no experience of using databases yet, so this will be the whole class and the IWB. However, I'm hoping to introduce this as they begin to learn to plan and carry out fair tests.
Today, I spent at least 2 hours trawling the internet for teaching resources, of which there are hundreds. It is really quite stressful. Still, I think I really would be under stress if I was having to desgin all my own resources and IWB activties! So, it's back to the web of delights for me.
Wednesday, 23 January 2008
Thursday, 17 January 2008
Discussion Boards...
I am not an avid user of discussion boards, though I have been in the past. Therefore, my experience of them has been distinctly music/movie/celebrity/craft related; I was discussing interests and hobbies, and it was a choice. The thought of using a discussion board in Primary education is, to me, an interesting one. I don't know how I'd react to being asked by a teacher to spend my own web-surfing time to post some thoughts a subject of their choosing. But then, I cam to university and had to do just that.
In education, the discussion board can be used effectively when tutor-student-peer communication is not very regular, as at university. However, in 5-day week primary timetable, I don't know how efficient setting up a discussion board would be. The teacher would have to moderate it frequently and carefully and that's just making more work for the teacher! Also, I can see problems for children who do not have easy access to high-speed internet at home and would therefore have to take time out of their breaks at school to visit the boards.
All this considered, I can see discussion boards, like wikis, being a very useful tool for larger-scale projects involving more than one class or school. But I don't see how it might be necessary for one class. Children would be better improving their speaking and listening skills in school and learning to use discussion boards to communicate with other people, all over the world, about subjects that really interest them.
In education, the discussion board can be used effectively when tutor-student-peer communication is not very regular, as at university. However, in 5-day week primary timetable, I don't know how efficient setting up a discussion board would be. The teacher would have to moderate it frequently and carefully and that's just making more work for the teacher! Also, I can see problems for children who do not have easy access to high-speed internet at home and would therefore have to take time out of their breaks at school to visit the boards.
All this considered, I can see discussion boards, like wikis, being a very useful tool for larger-scale projects involving more than one class or school. But I don't see how it might be necessary for one class. Children would be better improving their speaking and listening skills in school and learning to use discussion boards to communicate with other people, all over the world, about subjects that really interest them.
Thursday, 3 January 2008
A glimmer of hope...
The 'ICT' sections on all of my SBT1 lesson plans so far have been looking pretty pathetic. I've pencilled in non-committal 'some to use computers' and 'digital camera' left, right and centre. However, as I returned to the school today, I found that a shiny IWB had appeared in my classroom. Jubilation! Tomorrow I get to play with it! So, I've spent the evening trawling through pages of maths IWB resources for my lessons and I can't wait to give it a try.
In other news; the blank plans that we have been given to fill in neither lend themselves to being completed on the computer or by hand. They don't print out properly, and they have been created using such basic knowledge of tables etc that it's virtually impossible to plan without shunting various boxes down the page. Frustrating. Roll on the days when paperwork is no longer so necessary and they trust me to teach without individual lesson plans!
In other news; the blank plans that we have been given to fill in neither lend themselves to being completed on the computer or by hand. They don't print out properly, and they have been created using such basic knowledge of tables etc that it's virtually impossible to plan without shunting various boxes down the page. Frustrating. Roll on the days when paperwork is no longer so necessary and they trust me to teach without individual lesson plans!
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