ICT in Primary Education
ICT in Primary Education
ICT in Primary Education
Throughout the course you will be making responses to the resources and to
discussions in the Forums. It is possible that your ideas and knowledge will
change and develop as a result of these encounters, so it would be useful if
you record the process. We will recommend points at which you should record
a comment you make, or a critique you have, or an idea you like, so that you
can log your own development, and do not lose track of those interesting
moments.
Where would you record these notes?
This is for you to decide. It could be a text document, divided up according to
Weeks, within which the headings are the Activity numbers. Alternatively you
could create your own headings according to the issues that interest you
most. If you have a blog (e.g.
using www.blogger.com orhttp://wordpress.com/), or you use free website
creation tools (e.g. https://sites.google.com/ or https://www.wikispaces.com)
or you use social media such as Facebook (https://en-gb.facebook.com/ )or
Linked-In (https://uk.linkedin.com/), you could use those to record your
developing ideas, if you are happy to make them public.
If you use an e-portfolio tool (e.g. https://mahara.org/) then you could use that
as a private place to record your thoughts.
If you would like to start a blog then try www.blogger.com and watch
the tutorial to get started.
For some activities, we will invite you to copy your ideas to a place where you
can share them with other participants, for exchange and comment, as part of
your contributions to the course. Also, when you make a useful point in a
Forum you can cut and paste it into your Course Journal, to make sure you
can refer back to it later.
We will continue to refer to the digital document you create for this, whatever
type it happens to be, as your Course Journal.
Create your Course Journal, in whichever format you prefer.
Record your initial thoughts from watching the video.
5 mins
Activity 1.1.3 Sharing ideas and resources (Optional)
Browse through the tools and note in your Course Journal the url of any you
think could be useful.
The Diigo site 'ICT in Primary Education' https://groups.diigo.com/group/ict-inprimary-education is a collection we are building for your use during and after
the course. You will need to sign up to Diigo first, if you do not already have an
account - it just requires your email address for verification.
Join the ICT in Primary Education group: Click on the My Groups link at the
top of the page and search for 'ICT in Primary Education' to found our group.
Comment on the postings submitted by other participants.
Select one or two of your ideas for using ICT in primary teaching from Activity
1.2.2.
Post them to the Forum: 'Ways of using ICT to elicit different types of
learning'. There is a thread for each type, and one for combined types.
Read through the comments others have posted, and comment on any you
find useful, or if you can suggest a way of making it even more effective.
30 mins
Activity 1.2.4 What is our collective perspective on the role of ICT in primary education?
(Optional)
from the early days of using ICT, their reasons for doing it, and the lessons
they learned in the process.
15 mins
Activity 1.2.6 Why do schools choose to use ICT? (Optional)
60 mins
Activity 1.3.2 (Optional)
Copy and paste to your Course Journal the ideas and methods in each
example of the document from Activity 1.3.1 (Chapter 4. Vignettes of
Innovative Primary Schools) that could be relevant to your own schools plans,
or to future policy on the use of ICT in primary schools. You will use this later
in Activity 1.4.3.
Contribute to the Forum on 'Comparing local experiences' to comment on the
ways in which schools have approached the use of ICT in comparison with
your own experiences, and how you would adapt them to make them more
appropriate for your own local context.
20 mins
Activity 1.3.3 (Core)
Now we look at how a school develops their capacity for integrating ICT. We
have seen the reasons why they decide to begin using it, which may be
external, internal or educational, or all three. Whatever the reason, there will
be progressive stages of ICT maturity, as the school gradually builds the
infrastructure, resources and teacher skills to use it well.
Watch the audio-slide presentation on The 21st century school environment.
It looks at the concept of e-maturity as a way of assessing how far a school
has come on the journey towards effective integration of ICT, and at what
different kinds of classrooms look like, according to how they are using ICT.
The link to the EU Digital Agenda, given in the slides can be accessed
here: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/pillar-6-enhancing-digital-literacyskills-and-inclusion. The link to the E-Learning Foundation is in the Diigo site
(Activity 1.1.3)
Link to the Forum ICT and the 21st Century school environment, either
during the presentation or after, where you can follow up on the specific
issues being raised.
Refer to the document 'ICT and the 21st Century school - Issues', as you take
part in the Forum as it reminds you of some of the issues mentioned in the
presentation.
90 mins
Activity 1.3.4 (Optional)
Scan this review of the role of technology in the UK, which summarised the
approach of primary and secondary schools and colleges. In all three sectors,
the review reflects the same kinds of opportunities, attitudes and barriers that
we found represented in our UNESCO survey of primary schools around the
world. This data shows the range of different stages of maturity of ICT use
between primary schools within the UK, which has a unified system of state
education. The range will be even broader when private education is included.
Some countries have not yet had the amount of government investment in
schools' ICT infrastructure that the UK had in 2008. Others will by now be well
ahead of this. However, the issues are universal, as each country goes
through a similar journey.
Becta. (2008). Harnessing Technology Review 2008: The role of technology
and its impact on education. Coventry, UK: Becta.
20 mins
Activity 1.3.5 (Core)
There are many countries that have local studies and reports on the readiness
of schools for using technology.
Conduct a web search to find and contribute to our collective Forum
Resources on ICT readiness in primary schools at least one study (in any
language, from any country) that is relevant to your context - other
participants' contributions may also be relevant to you. Terms such as
primary, e-readiness, e-learning readiness, ICT readiness, etc. may take you
to relevant sources. Or you can use these terms to search sites such asTES
Connect, EU Schoolnet, UNESCO, UNESCO's Institute for IT in
Education, the World Innovation Summit for Education, Tess-India, or your
national site for information about primary education.
You can also add useful resource links to the collection in our Diigo group.
In the schools survey we asked about the lessons they learned about the
process of integrating ICT, and how they would do it differently now. The
strongest responses were about how best to support the people who are
responsible for the process: both leaders and teachers. There were similar
responses from a recent survey in EU countries, which also echoed the Becta
studies from some years earlier.
Read the document ICT in Education Survey Summary, and compare these
findings with those in the studies in Activity 1.3.4. Have the issues changed in
those 5 years?
30 mins
Activity 1.4.2 (Core)
Assess your priorities for teachers and leaders needs as they plan the
integration of ICT, using Section 1.5 The lessons learned from the document
you downloaded in Activity 1.2.5, Chapter 1: Setting the Context.
Record them in your Course Journal in the 'Supporting teachers' section, for
use in Activity 1.4.3.
Watch the audio-slide presentation on Action plans and policies for
integrating ICT, noting the areas and issues that are of most interest to you.
30 mins
Activity 1.4.3 (Core)
Read through your Course Journal records from Activities 1.2.6, 1.3.2, and
1.4.2.
Contribute to at least one of the following Forums: Outline lesson
ideas, Outline action plan, Policy plan, so that we can begin building collective
ideas and plans. Each Forum has initial threads under which you can make
your contribution (up to 50 words per contribution), or you can add another
thread yourself.
Read through other participants contributions and vote for those you find
useful.
Register on the Learning Designer. This is an online design tool for teachers
to capture and share their ideas on how to use ICT in primary teaching. It is
free to register, and you are simply asked for a name and email address, so
that you can be updated on developments. This will continue to be open and
available to you after the course.
Browse the learning designs for lesson plans: Click on 'Browser' at the top
and then on Education Sector - Suitable for Primary Education, and explore
these teaching ideas by clicking on each one to see how that teacher has
developed their teaching ideas. This type of design tool is different from a
document describing a lesson plan. One advantage is that it asks each
teacher-designer to describe the details of the outcomes and time allotted
overall, but also asks them to select what type of learning activity they are
designing, how long it should last, the group size, and the link to the resources
used. So you can follow another teacher's design in detail. You can also then
edit it to adapt it to your own context, as the tutorials below explain. And when
you have a better design, you can then publish it for other teachers to use.
In this way, tools of this kind enable teachers to work together to discover the
best ways of using new technology.
Watch the video tutorials 'Creating a lesson plan with the Learning Designer',
'Using and adapting an existing learning design', and 'Exporting your design to
Word'. We will return to using this tool in Week 5, as a way of enabling you to
share your teaching ideas with other participants on the course - teachers
collaborating to innovate with technology!
By the end of the course we should have developed a shared collection of
ideas from which you can choose to develop your own locally contextualised
version of a lesson idea, action plan or policy plan.
To take the ideas further, you may then be interested in joining the next
Institute of Education MOOC on 'What future for education?', which will run in
September 2014.
Or consider an online MA course in Education and Technology at the Institute,
starting in October - we can meet again there!
We have looked at several aspects of the integration of ICT into primary
education. Recall your initial reactions to the first video of children using
tablets to find out about butterflies.
Compare these with the Word Clouds (link to come - due on Sunday 01 June)
of your collective reactions to ICT in primary education of all participants, both
positive and negative. Are your reactions typical? Do the positive and negative
ideas associated with this use of ICT present issues that you want to work on
further?
Complete the Quiz on Your educational context'. Then check your Course
Journal to see if you have the same answers now. Whether or not your
answers have changed, you may have new observations on Q3 to record in
your Course Journal.
There are three ways now to gather your reflections on the week.
Brainstorm ideas, using the Padlet wall Supporting teachers and leaders to
think about the process of integrating ICT into primary education - what do
they need? what would help them most? If you wish to create a new wall with
a different titel, use the + sign on the right to create a new wall, and put the
link into the Forum
below.
Contribute to the Forum on What new idea will I try next as a way of testing
in discussion with others the ideas you have offered and discovered on the
Padlet wall. Comment on other participants ideas and plans where you can
make a constructive suggestion.
If you wish, you could join with them in setting up your own group to work
further on an idea.
Record in your Course Journal your current plans, questions and ideas to
take forward to next weeks discussions.
Welcome to Week 2: How does ICT make a difference.
This week we will look at different dimensions of change reported by schools
who have successfully integrated ICT, we will see some opportunities of
projects and initiatives available to participate beyond the school boundaries,
and we will share what children have told us about their perspective on ICT in
primary schools.
Watch the short audio-slide presentation with an introduction to the main
topics of the week.
Note: The presentation will open in a new browser window, make sure you
come back to this page after you watch it
20 mins
Activity 2.1.2 Sharing ideas and resources (Optional)
We will continue working on the Sharing ideas and resources activity that
you started last Week (Activity 1.1.3 at Section 1.1). This is a community
knowledge-building activity in which you are expected to contribute - and
benefit - from new tools, resources or readings that could be useful for your
work.
Check the Scoop-it site http://www.scoop.it/t/etel for tools or resources that
could be useful for your work and note the urls in your Course Journal.
Note: The presentation will open in a new browser window, make sure you
come back to this page after you watch it
90 mins
Activity 2.2.2 (Core)
Write your reaction to what types of changes you expect to take place in your
own context due to the introduction of ICT.
Use a "Padlet Wall " to write your reaction. This is a free tool that allows you to
virtually place a sticky note with your thoughts (and also web links) in a Wall.
Please try it and share your thoughts with your colleagues:
Read through what others have contributed, and you can add comments to
their notes as well.
60 mins
Activity 2.2.3 (Optional)
Go to the Discussion Forum for Activity 2.2.3. and choose one of the Forum
threads
Due: 3 days after the start of the week (by 5th of June).
Read the comments written by other participants and comment on at least 1
of them.
Start: 3 days after the start of the week (obviously you may read comments
since the beginning of the week, but make sure you come back to read
them by 6th of June so that you don't miss the latest contributions).
Vote on 3 of the comments that you find more valuable to be shared with the
rest of the world (comments that allow you to think and reflect about the
changes that can take place in schools).
Watch the audio-slide presentation that introduces the opportunities that are
present for schools to participate in National & International projects related to
the use of technology in schools and networks of innovative practice.
Note: The presentation will open in a new browser window, make sure you
come back to this page after you watch it
60 mins
Activity 2.3.2 (Optional)
.
30 mins
Activity 2.3.3 (Core)
Note: The presentation will open in a new browser window, make sure you
come back to this page after you watch it
60 mins
Activity 2.4.2 (Core)
120 mins
Activity 2.4.3 (Optional)
What do you think about how technology is being used in your school?
How would you describe the difference in the use of ICT inside and outside
school?
Share your text, image or video link on the Padlet wall Childrens
Voices Padlet Wall: http://padlet.com/wall/wbarmwiy24
To create a new note, you have to double click on free spot on the wall and you
will get a blank note where you can write your name, title and descriptive text.
If you have an image, you can upload it with the "upload" option, which allows you
to drag your image file or to choose it from your computer (if you click in the dragging
area).
->
If you have a video, you can include the link to the video using the "link" option,
which allows you to write the video url.
->
Note: make sure you ask for permission before publishing childrens images
or videos.
Come back from time to time to see what other participants have contributed.
This week we had looked at different dimensions where schools have reported
to experience changes due to the introduction of ICT:
Changes in the teacher profession. There has been more collaboration and
sharing among teachers. Teachers use technology to support their teaching and also
for administrative tasks.
Changes in pedagogy: New forms of pedagogy that are more attractive to
children, supporting more project based and cross-curricular activities. Children have
more space to be creators of their own ideas ideas and initiatives, and not merely
consumers of knowledge.
Changes in learners: Mainly through an evident increase in motivation, which
allows children to acquire - and practice - new skills. Some children who are labeled
as underachievers in traditional curriculum subjects have found opportunities to
excel, and many children have chance to learn acting as educators themselves.
Changes in administrative tasks: Many teachers have seen reduced their routine
administrative tasks with the use of ICT Systems at school, which allows them to
keep a focus in teaching and learning.
By the end of the week, go back to the previous activities and read the
contributions made by other participants. Write down interesting tips and
ideas in your learning journal and make contact with those participants share
similar interests with you.
In this padlet wall participants shared their reactions to the testimonies of
school leaders who shared their views on the changes and impact of ICT in
their schools: http://padlet.com/wall/sjhd4a0piq
We also saw some examples of projects and initiatives that allow students and
teachers to expand the learning experience beyond the school boundaries,
and we created a collective document with your own recommendations:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VsPFPlz03ddHUczTO5v5iWQiGxB
uIEt_txwu3cah2RM/edit?usp=sharing
And finally we saw some of the Childrens Perspectives and identified at the
UNESCO study and shared the testimonies that the course participants
collected in this padlet wall:
http://padlet.com/wall/wbarmwiy24
Next week we are going to explore the Pedagogical changes achievable
through ICT.
Watch the short video introduction to the main topics of the week.
(For
Check Activity 3.6.1 as this describes the first assessed task, so you know
what to expect.
There is one of these assessed tasks in each of the remaining weeks. To
receive a Statement of Accomplishment or a Verified Certificate on the
Signature Track you will need to complete all four of these tasks. This is
explained in the Assessment and Grading section.
10 mins
Activity 3.1.2 Upgrade our readings (Optional)
Keep track of
Comment on the readings submitted by others and share the resources that
you found yourself. The instructions for using Diigo are in Activity 1.1.3.
Activity 3.2.1 What are Learning Styles? (Core)
OR
Watch the video on Learning Types and try to identify the types of activities
Select a single learning activity using ICT that you have encountered so far, in
either the course or your previous experience, and post it into theICT
activities suiting/challenging learning styles Forum commenting how you think
the activity would suit or, on the other hand challenge students to build
competencies for a specific learning style. Try to select preferred learning
activities that you yourself might wish to adapt within your own practice. Later
on this week, you will be asked to develop a Learning Object for a preferred
theme using ICT tools yourself and this might give you a good start.
Read through the comments others have posted in the Forum, and comment
or argue with the suggestions of others, explaining your arguments.
15 mins
Activity 3.2.4 How about your own Learning Style? (Optional)
Test your own learning style by signing in the questionnaire in this page.
Saving your results, please write your opinion about it in your Course Journal.
Watch the introductory video on how we are Born to Learn to be able to live
up to expectations and challenges. These characteristics of children provide
teachers with the chances to deploy suitable learning activities that could
contribute to the deep learning that children need in order to meet curriculum
objectives and skills development.
(For those having language difficulties: Only automated transcript is available
clicking on the icon under the YouTube video. If you have problems with
access to YouTube videos, look at page 5 on this link and read further on if
needed "How Children Learn" the short book published by UNESCO.)
30 mins
Activity 3.3.2 What is the connection of Bloom's Taxonomy to digital learning? (Optional)
Select a single activity using ICT that you have encountered so far, in either
the course or your previous experience, and post it into theConnecting digital
learning activities to Blooms taxonomy Forum explaining how you think it
relates to LOTS and HOTS in Blooms Taxonomy and deepens the learning
experience. Try to select preferred learning activities that you yourself might
wish to adapt within your own practice. In the next section you will be asked to
develop a Learning Object for a preferred theme using ICT tools yourself.
Read through the comments others have posted in the Forum, and comment
or argue with the suggestions of others, explaining your arguments.
30 mins
Activity 3.3.3 Where can I find tools for learning activities? (Optional)
Explore and Select tools from the Learning Technologies Pearltree which
includes free-to-use technologies you could make good use of in your
activities. Pearltrees is a networking site where you can share and comment
on structured sets of links from pearls. You might like to build one of these as
you go through the course, and keep it for later reference, gathering external
contributions to enrich your own collections.
If you need a broader range of tools to search from, you can visit the Directory
of Learning Performance Tools.
Create an activity in your Course Journal selecting a learning type using one
of the selected tools. Explain how it relates to Bloom's Taxonomy.
40 mins
Activity 3.3.4 How can I build my own collection of tools? (Optional)
Create your own Pearltree selecting and inserting pearls that would be
interesting to use later on. It is free to register providing your email, or
connecting with FaceBook, Twitter or Google account. Have a look at some
guiding videos. (Please note, that the layout skin of Pearltrees has just
recently been changed, but the functionality remained and even improved.)
Structure your pearls according to meaningful categories.
Write the link of your Pearltree into the My Pearltree Forum.
Explore the Pearltrees of others and enrich your own with new pearls.
20 mins
Activity 3.3.5 So how can the overall skills of children be developed? (Optional)
Either:
Look at the seven videos (total 29 min.) produced in Hungary by teachers
themselves in Samsung Smart School.
Try to identify the pedagogies encountered, the different learning types within
a theme, the tools used, the probable depth of learning in relation to levels of
Bloom's Taxonomy, the integration of 21st century skills, the connections
between course themes, the extension of learning space beyond the individual
school tables. Watch the confidence developed in both the teachers and the
students themselves just three months after they started to integrate tablets
(Interested to learn a bit about Hungary? You can watch the recent
film produced by UNESCO on Hungarian Intangible Cultural Heritage. This is
really for interest, and is not part of the course).
Alternatively:
Identify the issues mentioned above and what planning processes and
resources you would need in order to perform such activities. If you have any
queries please use the forums below to ask about that.
Share your thoughts in any of the 'Case-studies' Forum (Hungary, UNESCO
Book, Australia, iTEC, USA, EUN). You might find some of the participating
teachers responding to your comments.
30 mins
Activity 3.4.3 How can leadership and policy support these activities (Optional)
http://iite.unesco.org/publications/3214707/ pp 67-80.
Create a Learning Object using ICT that would suit your interest and profile in
your Course Journal, explaining how it relates to learning outcomes and
curricular requirements within your locality. At the end of the week you will be
asked to submit the summary of your Learning Object.
Even if you are not a primary school teacher, please place yourself into the
skin of one. :-)
The issues emerging in this week are appropriate for all levels and roles
of participants in the education field. So, let you create your own version in
alignment with what you have gained so far from this course or your previous
experiences to enrich the community with diverse approaches.
Please, be aware that the submission at the end of the week will require the
following headings:
Outline of the activities and resources used including the ICT tool or
resource being used
Watch the introductory video on How Youth Learn which summarises what
learners need to be able to learn. This suggests that teachers must find the
modes of assessment (choosing proper tools and methodologies) that provide
personalised learning, by taking account of the range of differences and
choices for assessment methods.
(For those having language difficulties: Only automated transcript is available
clicking on the icon under the YouTube video. If you have problems with
access to YouTube videos, look at page 5 on this link and read further on if
needed "How Children Learn" the short book published by UNESCO.)
30 mins
Activity 3.5.2 Recognising informal learning (Optional)
NMC Horizon Reports K12 predictions for ICT use within 1, 2-3, 5 years (visit
nodes for further links and readings or just download and read latest report)
Post an idea into the Emerging Technologies in Education Forum - one you
have found within your readings that you would willingly explore in the future,
and describe its significance in the learning process.
Read through the comments others have posted in the Forum, and comment
or argue with the suggestions of others, explaining your arguments.
(Don't forget that Scoop-it: www.scoop.it/t/etel provides you with a continuous flow of new
articles on 'Emerging Technology Enhanced Learning Tools'.)
The time has come to synthesise what you have gained from this week by
submitting your own contribution as a creation of a 'Learning Object using
ICT' that you prepared in your Course Journal in Activity 3.4.4.
Even if you are not a primary school teacher, your contribution will be of great
importance and very helpful for the participating community. Your view on the
contributions that other participants have made will provide them with
feedback on the ease, difficulties, and possibilities of implementing their ideas,
as well as the degree of alignment with the issues raised this week.
Your own version of 'Learning Object using ICT' submitted under Submission &
Review page - due by 16th June
2.
Outline of the activities and resources used including the ICT tool or resource
being used
An outline of the assessment rubric used from your notes from Activity 3.5.2
Alignment How good is the fit between the outcome, activity and assessment?
Learning outcome - How appropriate are the supporting references to this?
You will be asked to evaluate the two submissions on a 1 to 5 scale according to these
criteria.
Please also provide a short overall written response to each submission.
Please note, that you will be allocated two reviews, and (to be sure everyone
receives two reviews) a 20% penalty applies for each missing review!
Activity 4.1.1 (Core) - What is the focus for this week?
Note: The presentation will open in a new browser window, make sure you come back to
this page after you watch it.
Whenever you want to clarify the meaning of any basic concept we are
working with during this week (like ICT or digital literacy or digital content etc.)
you may go to this Reference_document or visit other useful resources like
the TEL Dictionary or Educational technology Wikipedia.
15 mins
Activity 4.1.2 (Optional) - How should we plan for integrating ICT?
Schools may have different criteria and preferences when choosing new
technology to be integrated into their teaching and learning activities.
Watch the audio-slide presentation that introduces several issues reported by
schools in this context.
Note: The presentation will open in a new browser window, make sure you come back to
this page after you watch it.
60 mins
Activity 4.2.2 (Core) - Choosing appropriate technology
Note: If you have problems downloading the whole book (32 Mb) you can
download a lighter version that only includes Section 2.2 following this link.
Read Section 2.2 What does the literature say about ICT in ECE?, especially
page 25 (last bullet) to page 27 of the document.
Contribute to the Discussion Forum on Appropriate ICT tools for primary
education, if you think there are any missing criteria, typical for the primary
stage. Are there any you disagree with?
Read section 2.1 Choosing technology from Chapter 2 'Technology
opportunities', of the UNESCO Book ICT in Primary Education. Volume 2:
Policy, Practices and Recommendations, which summarizes the responses to
our survey about how schools are involved in the process of choosing
technology and what kinds of technologies are being acquired and used in the
classrooms. Do these responses add anything to the criteria in the book?
50 mins
Activity 4.2.3 (Optional) - Categories of ICT
In our survey, the schools did not go into detailed categories of ICT they use
or would like to use. Thus, it is worth reading how ICT can be categorized
from the Early Childhood Education perspective. This is in the book you have
already downloaded: UNESCO book Recognising the potential of ICT in early
childhood education
.
Read Section 4.2 Categories of ICT, pages 56 to 66. Later this week we will
come back to one of the categories: digital and programmable toys, in a
separate section.
Note: If you have problems downloading the whole book, you can download a
lighter version that only includes section 4.2 following this link.
30 mins
Activity 4.2.4 (Optional) - Ask an experienced teacher
At the end of the week a group of school teachers - with a wide experience in
using ICT in primary education - will collaborate with our course sharing their
experience and answering the three most popular questions posted by the
course participants.
Write one question that you would like to ask an experienced teacher in
relation to the provision or use of technology in their school. This question
should be written in the Discussion Forum Activity 4.2.4 Ask an experienced
teacher.
Read the questions posted by other participants in this thread.
Vote for three best questions in the Forum (three winning questions will be
answered by experienced teachers engaged in our survey at the end of the
week).
Deadline: you should complete this activity by Thursday this week (19th of
June).
40 mins
Activity 4.2.5 (Optional) - One-to-One: How much do we need?
Read the Management summary, pp 7-12 for a positive view of the value of
One-to-One tablet provision.
It is rare to find people arguing against the approach, but from your reading or
your experience you may be aware of some concerns. We would like you
to share your own arguments for and against the One-to-One approach.
Write one argument FOR the One-to-One approach in the thread Arguments
For in the Discussion Forum Activity 4.2.5 One-to-One: How much do we
need.
Write one argument AGAINST the One-to-One approach in the
thread Arguments Against in the Discussion Forum Activity 4.2.5 One-to-One:
How much do we need.
Vote for the three most valid FOR arguments and for the three most valid
AGAINST arguments.
Activity 4.3.1 (Core) - How do schools use digital content?
In our UNESCO IITE survey we wanted to learn how schools and teachers
choose digital content and what they use it for. We also asked them what kind
of digital content they use or would like to use, from where do they get it,
whether they develop any content by themselves and share it with other
schools etc. It is also very important to pay attention to what teachers find
missing in this context, what kind of content they would like to have and use.
Watch the audio-slide presentation that introduces several issues reported by
schools in relation to these questions.
40 mins
Activity 4.3.2 (Core) - Teachers' experience of using digital content
Read Section 2.4 Digital Content: Choosing and using and Section 2.5 Digital
content: Getting, buying, sharing and developing of ICT in Primary Education
Vol 2, Ch 2: Technology opportunities, which summarizes the responses to
our survey about how schools choose digital content and what they use it for.
It also explores the questions of how schools get the content, how they share
it, and quite often also - how they develop it by themselves.
20 mins
Activity 4.3.3 (Optional) - Decisions: how to provide digital content
Assume he following case: You are a decision maker at a national level and
have been asked to propose a combination of strategies that would allow
schools to have access to the digital content.
These are the possible strategies:
a.
b.
school purchases).
c.
Invest in the development of public information educational portals: Schools might
have access to expert information and guidelines to find a good selection of free
educational content from all over the world
d.
Fund expert groups that would professionally develop high quality content and
make it freely available to all schools
e.
Support schools to develop their own digital content: Schools would receive
training, support and tools to develop their own digital content.
Choose one of these five strategies that you think should be better promoted
in your country.
Write a brief argument supporting it (about 80 words).
Post your argument in the respective thread at the Discussion Forum Activity
4.3.3 Decisions: how to provide digital content:
- Distribute money directly to schools
- Do centralised purchases
- Invest in educational portals
- Invest in professional development
- Support schools to develop their own digital content
Comment on other participants posts, especially in your chosen thread, as
well as in the others. There is no right or wrong answer, but you are expected
to think about the strategies and their implications.
20 mins
Activity 4.3.4 (Optional) - LMS as a means to deliver the content
provide them with the opportunity to observe the learning content and
progress of their children.
Read Section 2.2 Integrating LMS of ICT in Primary Education Vol 2, Ch 2:
Technology opportunities, which summarizes the responses to our survey
about how teachers perceive the LMS and how is it being used.
Copy and paste into your Course Journal any ideas you find inspiring when
reading the quotations and comments from the schools in the Highlights
section of the document.
Activity 4.4.1 (Core) - Introductory presentation
60 mins
Activity 4.4.2 (Core) - Reading and reflecting
In the book ICT in Primary Education. Volume 1: Exploring the origins, settings
and initiatives (download it if you have not already done so), read Section2.4 ICT in
present-day schools: different models of implementation on pages 36 to 38.
Note: You can download a lighter version that only includes Section 2.4 following this
link.
Watch the following videos. Note the key ideas and concepts that intrigue you
into your Course Journal.
60 mins
Activity 4.4.3 (Optional) - Share your experience with digital programmable toys and
programming environments
If you do not have visual material or you prefer to share a textual narrative:
Write a short description (1 to 3 paragraphs) about how you use different
digital toys, robots and programming for reaching various learning goals, in
any subjects, in the thread Computing in different subjects in the Discussion
Forum Activity 4.4.3 Programming in various contexts.
Read the contributions in the padlet wall and in the discussion forum and
comment on them.
Activity 4.5.1 (Optional) - Questions to an experienced teacher
1.
A brief text (between 150 and 350 words) presenting My technology decision.
Your answer has to be submitted under Submission & Review page - due by 22th
June
2.
Your review on submissions of two other participants appearing later also
under Submission & Review page - due by 29nd June
(or invest in) for a primary school. Describe the type of technology and use you would
do in the school.
Why to buy it reasons that justify this investment. What is the main contribution
that this technology might offer to your school. Is your decision developmentally
appropriate? For example:
New learning opportunities (specify which new practices or objectives
Dealing with special needs (specify how technology might help and why
this is important in your school)
Why is this a priority - justify why this might be a higher priority than other
technology investment in your school.
Consistency The investment decision and the reasons that justify it are
consistent. The type of technology that would be bought might actually support the
intended purposes.
Relevance - The reasons that justify the investment are relevant for a school
objective, and there are good arguments for considering this a priority, including
various criteria of the developmental appropriateness.
You will be asked to evaluate the two submissions on a 1 to 5 scale according to these
criteria.
Please also provide a short overall written response to each submission.
Please note, that you will be allocated two reviews, and (to be sure everyone
receives two reviews) a 20% penalty applies for each missing review!
20 mins
Activity 4.5.5 (Optional) - Final reflection
During this week we have looked at different categories of ICT and pondered
on what to consider when planning how to extend our digital equipment. An
interesting points to think about are:
Welcome to Week 5.
This week, we will look at some of the challenges and obstacles we may
encounter when integrating ICT, and some of the inspiring solutions and
practices that teachers and educators have used. We will look at each
problem as something that can be overcome and that leads to innovation and
creativity. The examples we study during the week will be the creative
pedagogical innovations that came out of the different challenges.
The topics we discuss should project into your future plans for further
extending your digital environment by acknowledging the challenges and
transforming them into opportunities for innovation.
Watch the short video introduction to the main topics of the week.
We suggest that you continue to make notes in your Course Journal so that
you can build ideas, links, and plans to use later in your work.
Whenever you want to clarify the meaning of some of the basic concepts we
are working with during this week (like ICT or digital literacy or digital content)
you may go to this Reference_document or visit other useful resources like
the TEL Dictionary or Educational Technology Wikipedia.
20 mins
Activity 5.1.2 An inspiring project that overcame some challenges (Core)
How would you describe this innovation from your point of view?
2.
What kind of challenges do you think this team of educators have faced
while implementing and developing that project?
3.
What are the elements of this project that you find inspiring and that
you might use to overcome some of your own challenges?
Record your answers into your Course Journal. You will come back to them
again towards the end of the week.
Activity 5.2.1 Dealing with the potential pitfalls (Core)
Make notes on the issues this teacher has encountered, and what she did
about them.
Watch this short video from a school in Moscow.
Reflect on how difficult it would be to set up something similar in your own
school.
Try to identify pitfalls and obstacles you could meet in your own context (lets
try not to focus on the financial dimension) and on why a teacher says in the
video from Bury it hasnt been an easy journey.
Record your answers into your Course Journal.
Share the questions, pitfalls and challenges that these examples bring to
mind in the Forum 'Practical aspects of using ICT well'.
What were the useful tips for helping students use ICT well? Do you have other
ideas for tackling these issues?
Can you give some concrete examples of your own useful tips?
Read the chapter section on Limitations and concerns to see the kinds of
issues teachers and schools have been confronting as they integrate ICT into
primary education. Highlight the ones that are currently most important for you
to deal with.
Focus on pp 88 to 93 in Kala, I., Laval, E., Laurillard, D., Lim, C.P., Meyer, F.,
Musgrave, S., Senteni, A., Tokareva, N., Turcsnyi-Szab, M. (2014). ICT in
Primary Education: Volume 2 Policy, Practices, and Recommendations.
Moscow, Russian Federation: UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies
in Education.
Watch these two videos from school teachers and administrators from
schools in Canada and the UK, who speak about challenges and obstacles:
Bury, Canada
Broadclyst, UK
Note in your Course Journal the issues you recognise as important for you in
your own context. You will be able to use your thinking on these issues in the
Assignment for this week.
The first video is a discussion between a teacher and a former school board
administrator. They talk about the implementation of the integration of laptops and
iPads all over the school. Note what they say about the different steps taken, pitfalls
and challenges they faced and their vision.
The second video is an interview with the principal of a school in the UK.
Throughout the conversation, he speaks about his vision and ideas, but note that he
also mentions different dangers, challenges and obstacles.
60 mins
Activity 5.2.3 An overview of the key issues in ICT (Optional)
The key issues and challenges of ICT implementation are complex, and range
across all parts of the education system from the teacher in the classroom to
the minister of education, across all subject areas, across all parts of a
country, across all kinds of technology... How can we tame this complexity to
something we can handle? This week we are using teachers' experiences to
start from the ground up, to see how these issues are felt at the teacherstudent level, and that helps to focus our thinking. A different form of help is to
use an organising tool like a 'concept map'. We introduce it here because it is
useful for thinking through these complex issues, and also a nice tool for using
with students.
Read this article on concept maps to find out why they are useful, and how to
use them: Novak, J. D. et Caas, A. J. (2008).
The theory underlying concept maps and how to construct and use them.
Concept maps can be a good way to develop your thoughts on what needs to
be done, and how the component parts of a plan fit together.
(NB.: this article has been translated in many languages, try to find one in
your own language and share it in the Diigo group)
Create a map of the different issues and challenges you can identify in your
own context, as a way of analysing it. Use the notes you have made in your
Course Journal from the articles videos to decide what to represent. Your map
could include actors, spaces, technologies and timeframes. It could also
represent the context of the school or system you have in mind. You can use
one of these concept-mapping tools:
CMapTools: http://cmap.ihmc.us/
MindMeister: http://www.mindmeister.com/
XMind: http://www.xmind.net/
Share this map by putting a link to the image you created (using one of those
tools) on the Padlet wall 'Concept maps for dealing with key issues' and
compare yours with some of other participants maps.
Comment on other participants maps in the Forum Concept maps for
dealing with key issues and describe what you were trying to achieve with
your map.
Activity 5.3.1 (Core)
Read promising practices number 5 (p. 53), 10 (p. 96), 11 (p. 104), 12 (p.
109) and 13 (p. 117) from Kala, I., Laval, E., Laurillard, D., Lim, C.P., Meyer,
F., Musgrave, S., Senteni, A., Tokareva, N., Turcsnyi-Szab, M. (2014). ICT
in Primary Education: Volume 2 Policy, Practices, and Recommendations.
Moscow, Russian Federation: UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies
in Education.
These are promising practices shared by schools from different countries in
the world showing how they managed to innovate even though they also faced
some challenges and obstacles.
Watch this video of children's recommendations. They have been asked what
they would recommend to a teacher who is about to integrate ICT for the first
time. Their ideas are quite interesting.
Share your perception in the forum 'Perceptions', according to the different
dimensions of challenges we just identified in the previous section, of the
solutions that these different schools and teachers seem to have found to
overcome some of the challenges and your perception of the childrens
recommendations. Why do you think these innovations could be adapted and
applicable to your own context? And how?
Listen to a short presentation with slides & audiotalk that introduces the
different avenues that one can take to overcome these obstacles and
challenges that we have identified in the previous section. This presentation is
based on the questionnaires and will lead to the 2 main topics : sharing of
experience and instructional design.
30 mins
Activity 5.3.2 Facing the challenges (Core)
Read the book section on Sharing to see the kinds of solutions and
propositions teachers and schools would like to share on how to avoid pitfalls
or obstacles, and also on how to give equal chances to everybody when
teachers and schools want to integrate ICT. Highlight the ideas and topics that
are currently most important for you regarding the challenges with which you
have to deal.
Pp. 100 to 105 from Kala, I., Laval, E., Laurillard, D., Lim, C.P., Meyer, F.,
Musgrave, S., Senteni, A., Tokareva, N., Turcsnyi-Szab, M. (2014). ICT in Primary
Education: Volume 2 Policy, Practices, and Recommendations. Moscow, Russian
Federation: UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education.
Watch, as an example of how ICT can also help teachers facing other kinds of
challenges, the video of the TESSA project (teacher education in sub-Saharan
Africa - WISE project page | TESSA Website). We suggest you watch
specifically the fourth section which is more about a teacher who, thanks to
ICT, managed to learn and develop her teaching compentecies.
Vote for what you think would be the 3 most effective ways of facing the
challenges:
60 mins
Activity 5.3.3 Developing and sharing pedagogical design solutions (Optional)
During Week 1, you discovered the Learning Designer Tool. Could teachers
use tools like this to work out to use ICT smartly to improve motivation to
improve learning? Consider the lessons learned by the teachers we have
heard from this week. Some of them found good solutions to the problems
they encountered in using ICT. These are what we call promising practices,
and you will explore more of them in Week 6.
Suppose the teachers could share these new ideas with other teachers online,
who could then improve on their design and share it back with the
community? Being able to share learning designs could help teachers
collaborate to find the best ways to use ICT smartly.
We can explore this idea in our MOOC community. The Learning Designer
has two designs that teachers might use to help their students use technology
for learning.
Login to the Learning Designer at http://learningdesigner.org (if you have not
done this go back to Activity 1.4.3. where it was introduced)
Browse to Education sector - Primary education to find two learning designs 'Learning to give clear instructions' (this is related to Introducing Coding), and
'How we celebrate a family birthday' (this is related to Comparing Cultures).
Read through the Description, the Aim and the Outcomes of both designs and
select one to work on. Each one uses ICT, and has been derived from some
of your discussions in the Activity 1.4.3 'outline lesson ideas' forum in Week 1
- both designs combine several of the ideas in that very interesting forum.
Your task is to adapt one design to your own context, make some kind of
improvement to it, and explain your improvement in the Notes at the bottom of
the activity.
Watch the tutorial 'Using and adapting an existing learning design' if you need
to refresh your memory on how to edit a design.
Evaluate how well the design addresses the design aim, and from your
experience, and the activities on this course, think about how you might
improve it, especially if you can make better use of ICT.
Adapt the design in some way - add a new Teaching-Learning Activity, or
change the wording, or attach a different tool with url - and then in the Notes
section at the bottom of an Activity you can explain why you did that.
Save your new design and then go the the Browser, select your design
(rollover it and a check box will appear on the right), and bookmark it (icon at
top right next to + sign) into your Public space under the My Submissions
folder, if you would like other participants to find it. Your login, together with
your design and your own space will remain available to you in the Learning
Designer tool after the course.
Share your thoughts in the Forum Sharing pedagogical design solutions on
whether you think the Learning Designer approach to teachers sharing their
promising practices will help us all to work out how to use ICT smartly.
Activity 5.4.1 Inclusion or exclusion? (Core)
Read the description of the critical factors that support or hidden access to
education for everyone in the short Chapter 5 Equal chances for
everybody from Kala, I., Laval, E., Laurillard, D., Lim, C.P., Meyer, F.,
Musgrave, S., Senteni, A., Tokareva, N., Turcsnyi-Szab, M. (2014). ICT in
Primary Education: Volume 2 Policy, Practices, and Recommendations.
Moscow, Russian Federation: UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies
in Education.
Explore the site on Inclusive Education in Action (IEA) at http://www.inclusiveeducation-in-action.org
Share your vision in the Forum Perceptions on the state-of-the-art of ICT
application for the primary school children who are at risk of exclusion in your
context. What kind of special needs do they have? What are the main ICT
solutions are applied or should be applied to support educational inclusion?
30 mins
Activity 5.4.2 ICT tools for communication and learning (Optional)
Note, both case study videos are hosted on YouTube. If you cannot access
YouTube, read the ACE Centre's case study summaries andinformation
sheets.
Think about the following questions:
1.
What are the main challenges which are faced by Aroob, Tiago or other
pupils with communicational disorders?
2.
3.
What are the main purposes of the communicational devices use for
such children?
4.
Read the main areas for policy interventions from the Policy brief (pp. 710) ICT for Inclusion: Reaching more students more effectively (2010)
Moscow, Russian Federation: UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies
in Education.
Share your vision on main interventions for better inclusion with others in
the Forum 'Implementation Ideas'. Please, try to create and write an
Implementation plan of promoting accessible education (related to your
context) based on the recommendations provided in the Policy brief.
Comment and discuss other ideas and implementation plans.
Activity 5.5.1 Sharing suggestions (Core)
The assignment this week is to reflect on the ideas and suggestions for
overcoming the key challenges, and to prepare your own response to one
of the challenges of your choice.
You are asked to make two types of contribution:
1.
2.
Money
Support
Technology and infrastructure
Teachers Knowledge and confidence
Time
School Management
Family Context
Make use of the ideas in Activity 5.3.2, and the examples and ideas you found
in the readings, the video examples and your own experience.
Summarise your suggestion, using the following headings in approximately
400 words:
Context the local context in which you would be implementing this (~ 20 words)
The challenge which of the challenges are you setting out to address?
Your suggestion including the ICT tool or resource being used, and any
activities you set up (~150 words, for up to 30 marks)
For each of the other challenges, what further action would be needed to deal
with it? (~250 words altogether, or a sentence or two on each of the other 6, for up to
10 marks each)
Money
Support
Technology and infrastructure
Teachers Knowledge and confidence
Time
School Management
Family Context
And that's all for this week - we hope you enjoyed exploring these ideas,
and now feel ready to hear about the 'promising practice' we have found in
primary schools around the world next week.
Activity 6.1.1 (Core)
Welcome to Week 6.
This week's activities are designed to serve as a platform for you to reflect on
your learning journey and showcase some of your learning outcomes of the
course.
The activities start with a video of how an ICT coordinator in an Australian
school introduced mobile technologies to teachers in her school, and how she
sustained and scaled up the efforts with the support of the school. Then we
examine the key competencies required for teachers to use ICT effectively for
teaching and learning, and how professional learning develops this set of
competencies among teachers.
What were her motivations for using mobile technologies in her school? What
type of support did she get from her school? Could these be relevant to your context?
How did she convince the teachers in her school to use mobile technologies in
their own classrooms? What was her biggest challenge in getting the teachers to use
OR
2.
The system will record whether you have uploaded a brochure or newsletter
and provided feedback to at least two other brochures or newsletters, to
qualify for the certificate.
Go to Peer Assessment 6.2.1 to upload your brochure or newsletter and to
submit your reviews.
Select and explore one of the case studies from:
Lim, C.P. (2014). ICT in Primary Education Volume 3: Collective Case Study of
Promising Practices. Moscow, Russian Federation: UNESCO Institute for Information
Technologies in Education. (Final Draft)
Reflect upon the following questions in relation to your chosen case study:
Role of teachers: Given the promising practices in the case study, how would you
describe the role of the teachers in these learning environments?
Capacity of teachers: Having identified the role of the teachers, can you list and
explain the competencies that they will require to take up the role effectively?
Supporting conditions: What are the supporting conditions (at the school and
system level) and how do they support the teachers in these learning environments?
Design a two-page brochure or newsletter (up to about 400 words, and any
appropriate illustrative images, if you wish), based on your reflections on the
case study, to inform policymakers about the following:
1.
2.
3.
You may design the brochure or newsletter with the following app:
Quark DesignPad or Mailer Lite (for iPad or iphone)
https://www.lucidpress.com/ (for Desktop)
http://www.creativebloq.com/career/10-free-newsletter-templates-your-design-work11410393(Templates for Download)
OR
Would the competencies identified allow the teachers to fulfil their role in the ICTenhanced learning environments?
Are the competencies appropriate?
Could the conditions support teachers in using ICT to engage students and
enhance their learning outcomes?
How could these conditions be made more robust to provide better support to ensure
sustainability and scalability?
Reflect on the challenges and issues you have considered over the past
weeks about the use of ICT in primary schools (refer where appropriate to
your Course Journal) to identify what you need to address to make ICT work
in your own context as a teacher, researcher, school/institution/organisation
You can draw on the material you have been building up in your Course
Journal, go back to some of the resources and ideas you found in the Diigo
site, or in the Forums, and include short descriptions and links to those. It is
up to you to use the e-portfolio in any way that will help you maintain a
continually reflective approach to your work. As teachers we are all learning all
this time - this is a good way to capture that learning.
You may then share your reflections on the value of keeping an e-portfolio
with the rest of the participants in the discussion forum Keeping an e-portfolio.
Au Revoir...
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COURSE
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Assessment and Grading
4: Technology opportunities
5: Inspiring examples and implementation concerns
RESOURCES
Video Lectures(selected)
Discussion Forums
Quizzes
Peer Assessments
Surveys
OTHER TOOLS
Help Articles
Technical Issues
Video LecturesHelp
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Week 6
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Week 5
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5.1.1 Overview
Subtitles (text) for 5.1.2 An inspiring project that overcame some challenges
Subtitles (srt) for 5.1.2 An inspiring project that overcame some challenges
Video (MP4) for 5.1.2 An inspiring project that overcame some challenges
5.2.3 Dimensions
5.3.1 Avenues
Transcript (RTF) for 5.3.3 Learning Designer - Adapt a design from the directory
Subtitles (text) for 5.3.3 Learning Designer - Adapt a design from the directory
Subtitles (srt) for 5.3.3 Learning Designer - Adapt a design from the directory
Video (MP4) for 5.3.3 Learning Designer - Adapt a design from the directory
Week 4
4.4.2 Programming
Week 3
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Week 2
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