In February 2010 I began a six week teaching placement in a primary school, working with a Key Stage 2 class. During the placement I conducted an investigation into the use of Web 2.0 applications in primary education.
What was initially a vague idea about somehow designing a project involving podcasting, quickly developed into a plan for a cross-curricular topical project. I managed to acquire some complimentary accounts on an application called Honeycomb, which I had recently used myself for the first time, and was able to get to work designing this ambitious, monster of a project.
To be continued.......(because I'm tired).
An informative presentation. The use of video in the presentation gave me a good insight into the project. I found your comments about the challenges with using honeycomb in the classroom and how the project evolved interesting. I think this was a common trend in the ICT projects. But inevitable when you are trying things for the first time. Do you think the benefits for the children outweighed the challenges?
ReplyDeleteA few people made the comment to me; 'that's the problem with ICT it doesn't always work.' I can see their point, but I think when it does work it can compliment conventional lessons and engage children in a different way. So I don't see the point of enliminating options.
The G&T children in the class use something called Epals, which is an international collaboration network for students at all levels of education, and those children picked up Honeycomb very quickly and probably got the most out of the project. Because they were used to working in a similar way leads me to conclude that ICT in that instance does work if the children are given enough opportunity to become familiar with it. The investigation I conducted took place over three weeks as this was all that was possible for the school, and this was never going to be enough time for the children to gain sufficient experience of Honeycomb.
ReplyDeleteI asked my tour guide at the school we visited today how often the use ICT and she said very frequently. The way she described it was as though using ICT was second nature, much the same as using a pen and paper is to you and me.