Informal blog task - After working with children in school, share your observations and reflections.

This blog post is going to share my observations and reflections with working with children in a year one class, using different technologies on the iPad such as animation, audio recording and green screening. What surprised me, challenges that occurred and how as a group we overcame them and what we learnt from this experience will also be deliberated.

At the start of the day of working with children I felt very anxious and quite nervous with how as a team member I was going to contribute to my group to enable children to use the technology. Before even getting into school I was apprehensive about how we were going to allow year 1 children to use the technology as they were young. As an ICT specialist myself, I am confident with technology, however when it comes to using iPad apps that is where my downfall is. BBC Active (2010) states that interactive technology makes learning more engaging and memorable, which I 100% agree with. However, not being an iPad user myself, all these apps we used at school such as Book Creator, the green screening app and iMovie I was not very confident at and perhaps in the future before taking on a task I would become more familiar with the technology and not have to rely on a confident person in my group.

There were many challenges that individually and also as a group we faced. The first challenge was to get the children to understand the Rights Act 30: The right to be able to use your own language in school. By having a discussion throughout the morning really enhanced their understanding of the act compared to the beginning of the session. If I was going to do this in school on the same topic, I would educate the children first on the topic before making a talking book.

Apple (2014) states that ‘powerful creative tools, interactive textbooks and a universe of apps and content make endless learning possibilities’. The variety of apps we used with the children were great for making a talking book. With the green screening app I found it very difficult to use but I overcame this by working and learning from my team members. The children were fascinated by the concept of themselves standing with a different background compared to the blank blue background they had behind them. Drage (2011) reinforces this fascination and explains that the green screen application is designed to bring learners’ presentations to life. The challenges with green screening faced were getting the camera at the right angle to record the children whilst trying to keep the children under control. Many takes of the green screening occurred due to the children loosing concentration when as a group we were trying to get it perfect. On future experiences with green screening I would make sure I know the app I was using inside out to make sure it wasn't too time consuming for the children.

When filming the animation this was also quite tricky. As we were with year 1 children they didn't grasp the concept on having to take lots of pictures quickly. YouthLearn (2012) state that ‘simple animation techniques are fun, hands-on projects that incorporate play, creativity and collaboration’, in regards to this I couldn't see this in relation to using animation with year 1 children. From having this experience with animation with younger children I felt that this sort of technology was aimed at older children in which older children would have the capabilities to understand and carry out the making. McManis and Gunnewig (2012) explains that the most meaningful interactions between a child and technology take place when a program is adapted to suit the child’s needs. I feel that the apps we used on the iPads today were too enhanced for the year 1 children we had within our group.

Overall, from my time with working with children who we have only just met using the technology was a positive experience generally, however I have learnt that as a teacher I need to become more up to scratch with the iPad apps to enable myself to teach children how to use them. I feel that if maybe the task of making a talking book on a topic aimed at younger children would really get them involved more with this type of technology. 

Bibliography

Apple. (2014). Ipad in Education. Retrieved from: <https://www.apple.com/uk/education/ipad/> [Accessed 25/03/2014]

BBC Active. (2010). Ipads in the Classroom. Retrieved from: <http://www.bbcactive.com/BBCActiveIdeasandResources/iPadsintheClassroom.aspx> [Accessed 25/03/2014]

Drage C. (2011). Kudlian 'green screen' brings TV tech to schools. Retrieved from: <http://www.agent4change.net/bett-week/software/772-kudlian-green-screen-brings-tv-tech-to-schools.html> [Accessed 25/03/2014]

McManis, L. and Gunnewig, S. (2012). [pdf] Finding the Education in Educational Technology with Early Learners. Available at: <http://www.naeyc.org/yc/files/yc/file/201205/McManis_YC0512.pdf> [Accessed 25/03/2014]

YouthLearn. (2012). Teaching Simple Animation: Fun With Thaumatropes and Other Big Words. Retrieved from: <http://www.youthlearn.org/activities/teaching-simple-animation-fun-thaumatropes-and-other-big-words> [Accessed 25/03/2014]