I have been researching ideas for my ICT enriched Unit Plan and have found really good sites that have plenty of resources.
Scholastic has a great page Teach with technology that has a collection of tips, ideas, and activities for facilitating learning through the use of interactive whiteboards, computers, and other technologies in your classroom.
I have been reading blogs for years and never knew. Through my face book page I liked dozens of educational page, read thousands of articles about teaching, art, maths the lot I save them to a folder copy and paste.
EDC3100 has taught me that all of these articles are blogs. And further investigation they are usually teachers blogging about their experiences and now I am investigation their blogs and finding more information. And now with Freedly I have easy access.
Monique share a blog about “should teachers blog”. Hell Yes. These blog have given me a great starting tool belt.
My favorite teacher bloggers
I now work at a preschool that is trialing a second language program. Our students are learning Japanese via a iPad program Early Learning Languages Australia.(ELLA)
ELLA is a child-centred programme specifically aimed at children in the year before school. Ella provides 5 iPads for the classroom and through interactive games and songs the students are exploring the Japanese language and culture.
With out this ICT in the classroom these students would not have such an advanced opportunity to explore this language and culture in such detail.
I agree with Nicole’s blog on ICT in early Childhood , I am against students being overexpose to ICT at such young ages. I believe that hands on learning can be more meaningful then an app. For example lets learning to count by counting how many birds are sitting on that fence.
I do believe that if ICT is used in moderation and if the use of ICT is relevant and beneficial to a students learning then I will be taking full advantage of the new learning technologies available.
Safe children search engines. Kiddle Vs Google Junior.
I was reading a fellow students blog “Are You Kiddling Me?”. I had only heard of Kiddle in the last couple of months and haven’t really looked at it and only after reading the above blog did I learn about Google Junior.
To me I do not really care that Kiddle is referred to as the kids version of Google or who created what or who claims to be the creator of who. To me its how well it can work for me. So I put on my investigation cap on and opened up a Kiddle page and a Google Junior page and being the grown up I am I typed in “boobs”.
Kiddle screen shot
“Oops, try again!” could not go any further.
Google Junior screen shot
End result, I was able to find boobs
I was able to get into both “Local Naughty Girls”and “Sexy Women”pages with ease. To top it off these 2 pages are “Adds by Google related to: boobs”.
Further research suggests that there are problems with both search engines. Nothing on the internet can be totally Adult content free. So I will suggest to monitor closely what children are searching for or do a pre search before a lesson to see what content comes up.
My son age 6 tried to Google search “the best boy toy in the world”. I was right beside him and adjusted the search.
Hello Literacy shares that Bouncy Balls it’s a clever, attractive and sure to engage your students in self-regulating their volume. Because the application utilizes the microphone on your laptop, students must work together to collectively bring the noise level down.
I absolutely love this behaviour management strategies Bouncy Balls and had to share. Even if it doesn’t work in the classroom its a great visual demonstration of noise. I had fun screaming at my computer.
Reference
Bouncy balls [online image]. Retreived March 10, 2016 from https://bouncyballs.org/
I have recently moved from a small country town in Northern Queensland to the capital city Darwin. Yes, my small country school (that my kids attended and I worked part time at) had all ICT perks but I have discovered that the new school my kids and I attend utilizes there ICT much more and thus I have discovered some more tools for my tool belt.
Katty Brad’s Blog “The Life Cycle of a Teacher”has a wonderful explanation of Class Dojo.
My preschool classrooms do not use it so I haven’t been able to use it first hand but my experience with it is as a parent. My oldest son is 9, at the end of his school day I ask “What did you do today?” and I get a half hour conversation of his lunch time soccer matches and list of everyone who has scored a goal.
His class has now started using Class Dojo. So once I downloaded the app on my phone I get a text message style update a couple of times a week from the teacher. Now my son asks me did you see the Dojo post today and begins to tell me about classroom life. I can write back comments on any Dojo post and I feel like part of the class.
Great, quick and easy as a parent and as an upcoming teacher I am loving this.
– D
Setting: Foundation Class
Content Descriptor: Recognise how capital letters are used for names, and that capital letters and full stops signal the beginning and end of sentences (ACELA1432).
Learning to recognise the properties of capital letters and full stops in a play based environment.
Learning Experience: Modified game of Red Light, Green Light.
My signs
Capital letter means – Go Full stop – stop
I also added in a comma’s (crab crawl) and exclamation point (jumping up and down while clapping hands) signs. During the game each child was asked the meaning of the sign in a sentence.
Before starting my Bachelor of Education, I was an early childhood educator for more than 10 years. Every Learning experience I created was play based and I have seen the value of play based learning for years.
Typically, this lesson could be done with all children sitting at their desk or on the mat looking at the whiteboard whilst the teacher explained the concepts while writing a sentence. So adding “outside and active” to this literacy lesson I have turned this learning experience into a play base, fun, learning game.
I think this is my best learning experience so far and because it was an outside, active, literacy learning experience.
– D
“ICT (information and communications technology – or technologies) is an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning”.
I think that the above quote sums it up quite nicely. I has never really thought about how big the umbrella actually was. I think I just put it down to computers, email and phones. In reality I use almost everything on the list quite frequently.
How do I learn new ICT?
In the past 5 years I have had to learn a lot of new ICT. Studying online has thrown a lot my way as well as a distant relationship. I did I learn to use them? Well once I discovered the new ICT I had a go. I am a hands on learner and I seem to pick up new ICT rather quickly this way. I do get stuck and when this happens online tutorial usually help me solve any of my uncertainties. A google search would be my go to.
Reference
So I just did the What is an ICT quiz 6/10. Yay a pass. I think that a common mistake I made was not knowing what the items were or not looking closely at the picture. Maybe I should of googled them to see what they actually were. I saw a light bulb not the Wemo Link brand and I just saw rain gauge didn’t further investigate. I was unsure of number 3 the overhead projector. I thought that because it was mention in the previous statistics that it would be a trick question so I guess that it was an ancient form of presenting information technology. I got number 10 wrong the analog TV. I just didn’t realise that analog was not a form of ICT.
– D
Welcome to my first ever blog!!
Well already there has been a few bumps in the road and the semester is yet to officially begin. Hopefully all the bumps have passed and the semester will be smooth sailing from here on in.
I am looking forward to an technology filled semester
EDC3100 - Preservice Teachers' ICT Discoveries 