Week 2 - Moving Image Education

This week in our ICT elective we had been directed to research about Moving Image Education(MIE).

My first thoughts before I visited the website were, What is Moving Image Education? I instantly thought about my own experience in the classroom with regards to MIE. In 2SE1 I was lucky to experience a lesson being taught which was about the children watching a short film and then analysing it. I also had an opportunity to teach a lesson similar to this. I found the children were extremely motivated by this, they enjoyed watching the film and as a result were eager to collaborate to answer questions specific to the film. For example I had a set of Q cards with different titles such as Music and this Q card would have a list of questions asking the children to analyse the music in the film and how it contributed to the film. I have never seen this done before but I thought it was quite unique and enjoyable to teach.

"Moving Image Education is about helping young people to question, analyse, explore and understand the meaning of what they’re watching and hearing." Creative Scotland (2009).

From my own experience at both Primary and High School, children are expected to read a lot and analyse what they read, although I strongly agree with this I think occasionally using these higher order thinking skills on a different media would be exciting for the children and very beneficial. This also gives the children who may be at a lower reading ability the chance to develop their higher order thinking skills by analysing and evaluating a moving image.

Curriculum for Excellence (CFE) (2009) states, “The purpose of the curriculum is encapsulated in the four capacities - to enable each child or young person to be a successful learner, a confident individual, a responsible citizen and an effective contributor.” In order to be an effective contributor or successful learner children must be encouraged to think for them self and to be confident in their decision making.

Solomon, Schrum (2007) “teachers encourage students to think about what they already know about a topic, search for new information, and collaborate with others to solve realistic problems and derive new understanding” (p38).

This website also talks about talking to the children about fact and fiction. I think this is important because many children may watch a film and believe it, without being encouraged to question it. Also many films are not accurate or historically correct.

Reference

Scottish Government (2009) The purpose of the curriculum
Available http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/understandingthecurriculum/whatiscurriculumforexcellence/thepurposeofthecurriculum/index.asp
[accessed 24.01.12]

Solomon, Schrum. (2007) Web 2.0 new tools, new schools. Eugene: International Society for Technology in Education

Link to Website: http://www.movingimageeducation.org/

Week 1 - Social Media

Week beginning 16.01.12

This week we were looking at Social Media - A Journey through the 21st Century. It amazed me to look back at the technology I even played with myself as a child and to see how much our technology has progressed over the years.

I have strong beliefs that as professionals we need to ensure we remain up to date with technology (not only how to use it, but also how this can enhance our teaching). Even my 4year old niece understands how to use an iPhone and is very much aware of texting/face booking and emailing (during a conversation with her last week she said to me 'I will email you tomorrow to tell you I love you' aaw!!).

Therefore if a 4 year old who has not even reached Primary School yet has knowledge of Social Media we must ensure we are equipped to teach all areas of the Primary School and use this as an advantage in our classrooms! Buckingham (2007) talks about how children are very familiar with current technology, "and nearly three-quarters of them have mobile phones and personal computers for their own use" (p77). This gives us even more reason to become a digital whiz our self!

Buckingham, D. (2007) Beyond Technology childrens learning in the age of digital culture. Polity Press. Cambridge 

Looking back to BEd 1

We came across this today on You Tube, an animation clip we made in BEd 1 (2010).

This was very fun to create and I have also seen this being done in the classroom which the children really loved doing!

Social Media

16.01.12

Today we learnt about Social Media.

We looked at the history of social media and how much of a role this has in todays society.

I also learnt how to create a blog! I am very impressed!