This year was the year that I decided to embark on furthering my education. I have to say that is had been hard going, after being out of education for about 8 years.
There have been so many ups and downs in my life that could have caused me to give up this course, but I decided to be persistent and I am really thankful that I did. I have just complete and submitted my final assignment for this year. woop!!!
seeing as English is not my strongest subject and that this is a assignment only course I have to say that I am really proud of myself for getting everything in on time. I would have appreciated an exam to lighten the load a little but life doesn't always give you what you ask for.
I have made some brilliant friend who I hope will be there for life and I have learned so much this year, especially about myself. I just have to keep and remember that actually I can do whatever I put my mind to.
Tuesday, 2 June 2015
Monday, 1 June 2015
coding
Coding is something that children learn in primary school, which is definitely a big step from what I learned when I was in school. It definitely shows the steps that are made in the ICT curriculum.
Although we are still behind on a world prospective, it still shows the steps in the right direction.
You wouldn't find children learning things like this 10 years ago.
In a world where technology is advancing at warp speed it is definitely necessary that the children of this generation learn even the basics of these times.
I believe that in a world that games consoles are outdated extremely quickly, (costing parents a fortune) its important that children are equipped to have at least the basic knowledge that will enable them to have the minimum requirements and knowledge to get high prospects jobs when they finish school.
lets face it computers and games are a major part of our society, so to allow children the access into
these sort of fields of work is just fair (in my opinion).
We were given the opportunity to do a coding task. Of course with my logical, mathematical brain this task wasn't particularly hard for me to do.
I have found though that coding is a complete logical thing, and that mathematical skills are necessary for this to become something that is quite simple.
I believe that this poses somewhat of a problem as maths is not particularly a subject that a lot of people and children enjoy, and in fact a lot find quite difficult.
I guess the government has the right idea when I comes to having maths specialist teachers in schools. maths is a completely necessity and in all reality in need to be made fun for children to engaged.
anyway...
I completed this coding activity and I think that it would be good for you to have a go to see what our children are actually learning.
follow the link below and do an hour of coding
good luck.
http://learn.code.org
Although we are still behind on a world prospective, it still shows the steps in the right direction.
You wouldn't find children learning things like this 10 years ago.
In a world where technology is advancing at warp speed it is definitely necessary that the children of this generation learn even the basics of these times.
I believe that in a world that games consoles are outdated extremely quickly, (costing parents a fortune) its important that children are equipped to have at least the basic knowledge that will enable them to have the minimum requirements and knowledge to get high prospects jobs when they finish school.
lets face it computers and games are a major part of our society, so to allow children the access into
these sort of fields of work is just fair (in my opinion).
We were given the opportunity to do a coding task. Of course with my logical, mathematical brain this task wasn't particularly hard for me to do.
I have found though that coding is a complete logical thing, and that mathematical skills are necessary for this to become something that is quite simple.
I believe that this poses somewhat of a problem as maths is not particularly a subject that a lot of people and children enjoy, and in fact a lot find quite difficult.
I guess the government has the right idea when I comes to having maths specialist teachers in schools. maths is a completely necessity and in all reality in need to be made fun for children to engaged.
anyway...
I completed this coding activity and I think that it would be good for you to have a go to see what our children are actually learning.
follow the link below and do an hour of coding
good luck.
http://learn.code.org
Thursday, 28 May 2015
publisher
We had the task of creating a brochure for an educational school trip.
I decided to do mine on Go Ape.
I had a few difficulties as the programme was quite slow for moving things around to get it exactly the way I wanted it, but this task wasn't a relatively hard task to do.
I quite enjoyed doing it.
I decided to do mine on Go Ape.
I had a few difficulties as the programme was quite slow for moving things around to get it exactly the way I wanted it, but this task wasn't a relatively hard task to do.
I quite enjoyed doing it.
Wednesday, 27 May 2015
stop motion
We had the task of creating a stop motion video on e safety.
Stop motion is not something that I have use before. I had the opportunity to download the app and have a play around with it at home (not for very long mind you), but I still got the opportunity.
We didn't have very long to gather our idea's and get the video done, about an hour and a half in total.
Me and Paula (my partner in crime) managed to put something together, unfortunately we didn't have all the tools and time that we needed to make the video exactly what we wanted it to be but we manage to get something done which is the main point.
I believe that the idea of getting children to do projects in school like the one that we did, is a great idea, and with the time, the right tools and the great imagination that children have I believe that they can come up with some great video's to put on school blogs etc.
Anyway!! here's what we managed to accomplish.
Tuesday, 26 May 2015
smart notebook
We were given the task of creating a smart notebook presentation that could be used in a lesson with children.
Smart notebook isn't something that I am terribly familiar with, even though I have seen it been used in the school that I work in, and actually it is a programme that they use quite a lot, but I haven't had the opportunity to play around with it.
We had a lecture on how to use this piece of software but, it was only basic information, I didn't find this to be too much of an issue because actually I learn best when I have the opportunity to play around and figure out what I can and cannot do.
I managed to pull together an 11 page presentation that the teacher that I work with used in 1 of her lesson, which is an opportunity in itself.
Smart note book is a great tool that is and if not should be used in schools. It provided opportunity for involvement with the children, so they can get up and actively be involved in the lesson, which can make the lessons a little bit more interesting.
I think that a little bit more time and more use of the programme will be interesting for me in the ways that I can learn to use it.
Smart notebook isn't something that I am terribly familiar with, even though I have seen it been used in the school that I work in, and actually it is a programme that they use quite a lot, but I haven't had the opportunity to play around with it.
We had a lecture on how to use this piece of software but, it was only basic information, I didn't find this to be too much of an issue because actually I learn best when I have the opportunity to play around and figure out what I can and cannot do.
I managed to pull together an 11 page presentation that the teacher that I work with used in 1 of her lesson, which is an opportunity in itself.
Smart note book is a great tool that is and if not should be used in schools. It provided opportunity for involvement with the children, so they can get up and actively be involved in the lesson, which can make the lessons a little bit more interesting.
I think that a little bit more time and more use of the programme will be interesting for me in the ways that I can learn to use it.
Wednesday, 13 May 2015
Food for thought
One of topics that we are looking at in out ICT module is the ICT curriculum.
In 2014 the curriculum was finally updated.
I have been thinking about this over the last few days and there are so many implications and factors to consider...
Looking at the old curriculum, it was so out of date I feel its terribly unreal, considering the advancements that countries in other parts of that have made. We fail terribly when it come to making strives in technology for the generation and teaching them these things.
Although the new curriculum was most definitely needed, there are a number of factors that worry me.
There is a sense of being somewhat overwhelmed especially from the older generation of teacher, being that they don't have the subject knowledge to be able to teach this curriculum effectively.
I have considered that there is lack of training, I guess I speak this from 1st hand experience being in study myself. I would have expected that I would have learned and been introduced to new technologies and software that can and should be used in schools, but to my dismay this is not the case. not saying that I haven't learned anything, because that would be an outright lie.
This lack of knowledge and training is definitely a stumbling block when it comes to delivering this new curriculum.
Another thing that I picked up while at school is that some children although very literate in technology lack basic computing skills like saving correctly etc.
I guess this is something that can be easily taught, but its taking the time to do these things, without presuming that these children already know these things.
On the other side of the argument I am completely in agreement with this updated curriculum, I think that it was well overdue.
I was thinking about my upbringing and how fortunate I was to be brought up with a lot of computers around me. This was one of the influences that allowed me to be possible more computer literate that some of the friends that I have. considering this I looked at the generations that we are teaching, and all of the different types of technology that they have open and available to them. I dare say that my 9 year old brother in the not so far future will definitely be more computer fluent that I, and the fact is that most of the children around us will be, and the simple fact is that we have to get with the times and get on their level when come to teaching them ICT, because if we're not careful actually they will be teaching us in class instead of the other way round which is the way it's supposed to be.
So... what strides are we going to make?
what can we do to impact the next generation?
and how can we do it effectively?
The simple fact is we are teaching the next generation of modern technology.
In 2014 the curriculum was finally updated.
I have been thinking about this over the last few days and there are so many implications and factors to consider...
Looking at the old curriculum, it was so out of date I feel its terribly unreal, considering the advancements that countries in other parts of that have made. We fail terribly when it come to making strives in technology for the generation and teaching them these things.
Although the new curriculum was most definitely needed, there are a number of factors that worry me.
There is a sense of being somewhat overwhelmed especially from the older generation of teacher, being that they don't have the subject knowledge to be able to teach this curriculum effectively.
I have considered that there is lack of training, I guess I speak this from 1st hand experience being in study myself. I would have expected that I would have learned and been introduced to new technologies and software that can and should be used in schools, but to my dismay this is not the case. not saying that I haven't learned anything, because that would be an outright lie.
This lack of knowledge and training is definitely a stumbling block when it comes to delivering this new curriculum.
Another thing that I picked up while at school is that some children although very literate in technology lack basic computing skills like saving correctly etc.
I guess this is something that can be easily taught, but its taking the time to do these things, without presuming that these children already know these things.
On the other side of the argument I am completely in agreement with this updated curriculum, I think that it was well overdue.
I was thinking about my upbringing and how fortunate I was to be brought up with a lot of computers around me. This was one of the influences that allowed me to be possible more computer literate that some of the friends that I have. considering this I looked at the generations that we are teaching, and all of the different types of technology that they have open and available to them. I dare say that my 9 year old brother in the not so far future will definitely be more computer fluent that I, and the fact is that most of the children around us will be, and the simple fact is that we have to get with the times and get on their level when come to teaching them ICT, because if we're not careful actually they will be teaching us in class instead of the other way round which is the way it's supposed to be.
So... what strides are we going to make?
what can we do to impact the next generation?
and how can we do it effectively?
The simple fact is we are teaching the next generation of modern technology.
Tuesday, 12 May 2015
presentations
We had to do a PowerPoint presentation in our ICT class.
I found this to be somewhat of a mundane task to do, as I thought that I would be learning about new technologies that we could use in schools.
Although this was not a relatively had task to complete, I did find that I had a lot of difficulty in deciding what subject I should talk about during the time that I had.
I had various discussions with my classmates to help me get some ideas as to what I should do, but this left me a little confused, I must admit, because there seemed to be a lot of confusion as to weather the presentation had to be relevant to our course or not.
I was down to the day before the presentation and I still hadn't decided on what to talk about.
In the end I decided to collate the ideas of applying a random idea and a subject relating to the course.
I decided to do my presentation on how I thought my course was going, and including the ups and downs that went along with it.
Although my PowerPoint included mostly gifs and pictures, my presentation went quite well. I managed to capture the attention of the audience and in truth even though there was an element of frivolity, there was a lot of laughs.
I have to say I really did enjoy doing this presentation, bearing in mind that actually I didn't want to do it.
I found a YouTube video on how to make a good PowerPoint and I did stick to the points that it made.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b_sv9rqjrg
I found this to be somewhat of a mundane task to do, as I thought that I would be learning about new technologies that we could use in schools.
Although this was not a relatively had task to complete, I did find that I had a lot of difficulty in deciding what subject I should talk about during the time that I had.
I had various discussions with my classmates to help me get some ideas as to what I should do, but this left me a little confused, I must admit, because there seemed to be a lot of confusion as to weather the presentation had to be relevant to our course or not.
I was down to the day before the presentation and I still hadn't decided on what to talk about.
In the end I decided to collate the ideas of applying a random idea and a subject relating to the course.
I decided to do my presentation on how I thought my course was going, and including the ups and downs that went along with it.
Although my PowerPoint included mostly gifs and pictures, my presentation went quite well. I managed to capture the attention of the audience and in truth even though there was an element of frivolity, there was a lot of laughs.
I have to say I really did enjoy doing this presentation, bearing in mind that actually I didn't want to do it.
I found a YouTube video on how to make a good PowerPoint and I did stick to the points that it made.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b_sv9rqjrg
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