Personal Experiences with ICT within Primary Education
My personal experiences with ICT within primary education are very limited. During the Foundation Phase of education, I found that ICT was rarely used during day-to-day teaching and learning. However, ICT was slowly introduced as you progressed through primary education with the introduction of ICT lessons and interactive white boards.
Although ICT was a relatively new introduction to my education, it is much more common today. ICT can be used in everyday teaching situations with the use of tablets and computers within lessons.
As Marsh et al. (2005, p5) states; children are “growing up in a digital world and develop a wide range of skills, knowledge and understanding of this world from birth”. This demonstrates that their knowledge of ICT will be much greater than ours was at their age.
Ref:
Marsh, J et al. (2005) Digital beginnings; Young children’s
use of popular culture, media and new technologies. University of Sheffield:
Literacy Research Centre.
Similarly, my experiences with ICT in primary schools was limited. I recall only using it myself during ICT specific lessons, in which myself and others would be easily distracted by online games. However, although I did not use it myself regularly, the teacher would use it quite often. For example, using the whiteboard to engage students with answering math questions or simply to show videos in relation to a lesson (Ellis and Loveless, 2013).
ReplyDeleteReference: Ellis and Loveless (2013). ICT, Pedagogy and the Curriculum Subject to Change. Hoboken : Taylor and Francis.
I agree that the teacher would use technology quite often, but I feel that teachers wouldn't allow the children to use technology themselves. In my experience, I found that the teacher would always control the use of, for example, the interactive whiteboard, and input any data given my pupils. The children would very rarely be able to actually use the whiteboard themselves.
DeleteI can also relate to my teachers using the interactive whiteboards. The use of them become very popular when I was at primary school, especially the later years (Juniors). From my own experience I found it became a fun way of learning as we were able to play games and take part in various activities through the use of technology.
DeleteAt my Primary School we used the SMART Boards and I have found a video clip relating to these, showing how easy they are to use, how the products are engaging children and improving learning outcomes in the classroom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U05WeXPGlk
Although this video relates to the interactive whiteboards being easy to use I also remember teachers at my school struggling to use them and finding it hard to adapt to this new use of technology. This is possibly because they had been at the school for years and was comfortable in their old teaching ways. However, the more they were used the more comfortable teachers got in using them and they began to become a popular use of technology at the school.
From my own experiences in primary school, I can relate to witnessing teacher’s being unconfident when it came to integrating ICT with everyday teaching for many different reasons. An example of this would be because many of the teachers who taught at my primary school had been teaching for many years prior to ICT becoming a useful tool in education, and therefore were untrained in using technology. On the other hand, some teachers may not have been willing to undertake the necessary training required to be able to work efficiently with ICT (Bingimlas, 2009).
DeleteReference: Bingimlas, K.A. (2009). Barriers to the Successful Integration of ICT in Teaching and Learning Environments: A Review of the Literature. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education. Vol. 5, Issue 3. 235-245.
I feel that during my primary education I did not use ICT as frequently as pupils do today. However, when visiting other schools, I noticed that ICT was more accessible and available. This could be because the area in which I grew up was relatively deprived and so my school received less funding for ICT facilities. On the other hand, the school I visited was in a better socioeconomic area where there were higher levels of accessibility available for ICT for the pupils (Livingstone and Helsper, 2007).
ReplyDeleteReference: Younie, S, Leask,M ,Burden, K (2014). Teaching and Learning with ICT in the Primary School. 2nd ed. London : Taylor and Francis .
I can relate to Lucie in the fact that I grew up in a deprived area, and therefore, my school didn't receive sufficient funds for ICT facilities. Each classroom had one computer at the back of the class, which was only to be used to reward a pupil when they completed work to a high standard, or used to reward a pupil who usually misbehaves and disrupts the class. The school did, however, have one room with enough computers to enable each child in a class to use. This classroom would only be used for an hour or two a week, which means the technology was not being used on a daily basis.
DeleteIn regards to ICT being used to reward a pupil, I have found a blog post which discusses a form of reward system used in some schools:
Deletehttp://www.teachertoolkit.me/2015/09/30/carrotrewards/
From my own experience, I feel that using ICT in this way is very engaging for pupils.
How do you feel about this?
Using ICT to reward pupils tends to be very popular in schools today. Although after completing voluntary work at a Primary school I was able to see how they reward their pupils and it appeared to be very successful. When a child needs to be rewarded they would be given a token which would be equal to a certain amount of time in the ‘games room’. The children would get very excited about this kind of reward as they were able to play various games and sometimes be able to take a friend to play with.
DeleteIn my opinion, I believe rewarding children physically is a more effective way rather than using ICT. It is pleasant to see the children getting excited about having free time as some do not have this opportunity at home. Also, in todays society ICT is used a lot, so children don’t appreciate this kind of reward system as much as they would with being able to have free time to play with something of their choice.
In relation to your idea of rewarding students with ICT. I agree with the points you have made but can also take under consideration that play time is very broad and children need both free play and structured play to improve their holistic development. These types of play may both include ICT, whether that be independent use of cameras or software on computers, or even a planned fun activity which may also enhance learning. Theorist Vygotsky(1978) suggests that when learning, children require activities that support both past learning and encourage new learning at a slightly higher level. These are activities in the zone of proximal development, this therefore suggests that we should ensure children’s technological development is developed through play.
DeleteReference:
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
I started school in the year 2000 and the use of ICT in my primary school was not relied on as much as it is today. There was a limited amount of computers available within the school and teachers used more traditional ways of teaching rather than relying on technology. This meant that technology in the classroom was mainly used as a reward system, which also had a positive influence on attainment (Beauchamp, G. 2012). As I progressed through primary school, ICT was starting to be used more throughout the curriculum, as well as being used during everyday tasks to enhance learning. For example taking registers and planning lessons.
ReplyDeleteWas ICT being used more later on in your school, or was it limited throughout your experience?
Beauchamp, G. (2013). ICT in the Primary School From Pedagogy to Practice. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. P. 3
Although ICT was not used as much when I was in school as it is today, I feel that I experienced the growth of ICT being intertwined with subject areas such as Science, Maths and English as I progressed through primary school. I understand that this is due to the developing interest and research in regards to how ICT can help with academic attainment. I feel like as a child who was in primary school during a time where ICT was on the rise, with new advancements being made relatively often, I witnessed the beginning of ICT becoming a fundamental part of education as well as the problems that arose in terms of pedagogical approaches. An example of how the pedagogy in my primary experience was influenced by ICT is when we used computer software to practice spelling individually. The software was set up by the teacher for each individual pupil to have spelling questions suitable for their capability and would be used on daily basis. We would then go over any mistakes we made in order to improve (Beaucheamp at al., 2004).
DeleteReference: Beaucheamp et al. (2004). A review of the research literature relating to ICT and attainment. Available at: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/4151887.pdf. Accessed: 29/10/16.
I believe that teacher's were reluctant to use ICT when i was in primary school, as they felt their teaching techniques were effective without ICT, and may not immediately enhance their teaching when they adopt ICT. They may also have believed that their performance may dip as they experiment with certain ICT skills (Kennewell, S et al. 2009). However, teacher's nowadays are far more experienced with ICT and take part in training in order to integrate ICT into their lessons. As Ryan earlier stated, teachers now use software to enable pupils to enhance their learning and skills throughout the day.
ReplyDeleteKennewell, S et al. (2009). Interactive Teaching and ICT. The Welsh Journal of Education;. 14 (2), 29-44.
This short video outlines Jenna’s comment above that it is essential teacher are up to date with ICT. It also emphasizes the key skills that primary school teachers can develop into curriculum to help their students learn about computer programmes. I think that this video articulates that it is crucial that teachers must adapt their lessons accordingly. Practice and understanding of algorithms is the most important training for computer programming, at primary school this can be done by creating algorithms for daily procedures and activities, for example cooking.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRPpYX8SOA8
I think that we have reviewed our personal experiences with ICT in primary school enough, which leads us onto the next topic, to discuss whether teachers will be replaced by mobile technology in the future.
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