The future of the internet?

We had a guest lecturer today who came to speak to our ICT specialist group about the ‘future of the internet’. When he first raised the question about what we think the future of the internet will involve, I immediately thought of just more of the same technology that is around now; just improved and capable of doing more. However, the lecturer explained that it will most probably include things which we haven’t even thought of yet, things that we wouldn’t even consider being done by something on the internet.

What will the future of the internet look like?

He went into depth talking about wearable technology like the

FitBit activity tracker for iPhone

Apple Watch and FitBit’s; something which I have purchased and really enjoy using. One of the wearable technologies mentioned was the Google glasses, something which I haven’t yet had a chance to have a go with but am extremely eager and excited to!

 

Dr. Peter Harrop carried out some research which focused on the increase in popularity of wearable technologies and predicts that by 2025 the industry will create $70 bilion dollars, compared to the $20 billion made in 2015. With this exciting prediction, I feel that it is important to try and implement this into schools and help to make children familiar with and confident with using the new technologies available. Dr. Harrop mentions how these new technologies help to merge medical, fitness and well-being. As a result of this I feel that there are great opportunities to use this technology in curriculum areas like Science and PE.

The guest lecturer also discussed the use of an app called ‘If This Then That‘ (IFTTT). This was an app which I previously had not heard about. However the idea of automatically carrying out simple processes based on coding was very interesting to me.  IFTTT is an app which connects together different apps. Some examples of how the app can be used are shown below.

I created a recipe where if I get tagged in a photo on Facebook, it will automatically save it onto my phone. I really enjoyed playing around with this app and am interested to see how a technology similar to this could be used in schools.

Something which I thought could work well is similar to IFTTT but it would work as a registration tool for pupils in school. Every child could have a name tag or button which is unique and individual to them, and when there button or badge in placed in a specific place they are marked in, or if they aren’t marked in by a certain time then they will be marked as absent. Simple technologies like this could be put in place throughout schools and I feel that they would dramatically increase the amount of time a teacher has in registration time to maybe listen to children read.

Google Classroom

The Brief:

You have been asked to provide an exemplar e-learning resource to support a sequence of lessons for a class at a selected Primary School. Your resource should demonstrate a range of the functionality available online and good practice in its use.

Before this task I had never heard of Google Classroom. But when we watched the video during the session about what Google Classroom can do I was excited and began to play around with the different features of it.

At first, I really liked the stream idea which is very similar to layout of a Facebook news feed. I also liked the way you could see which students had completed and submitted work, and those who had not.

We worked in groups to create a test classroom where we could get some ideas for what we might like to do in our Google Classroom for our assignment. I worked in a group with Melissa and Sadia and we began to create the Google Classroom environment for a Year 4 class who were reading the book Into the Forest by Anthony Browne.

To start off the process of working out what each lesson would include, we tried to think of some engaging cross-curricular links. One of the ideas was that this book could be taught alongside a geography topic about Forests, building on the children’s locational knowledge. However, it didn’t take us long to realise that even though the opportunities for a field trip may have been there, Google Classroom wouldn’t have been an appropriate resource without trying to make use of it for the sake of it. After this, we wanted to create activities that we felt would lend themselves well to the functions and capabilities of Google Classroom. This is why we came up with a range of drama activities, descriptive writing but also still some cross-curricular links for example with music.

Through creating the Google Classroom we found that having the Class Google Drive was absolutely essential. Without it, all of our work would have been an unorganised mess. But with the Drive, we could organise the work into specific lessons which could also be accessed by children at home.

After we had an idea of what we would like our sequence of lessons to focus on, we showed it to Helen who gave us some helpful suggestions for improvement. Helen also suggested the idea of having an ‘end product’ for the project. This would be something that the class would build up to every week with the final lesson creating the final thing. As a group, we really liked this idea and decided that our end project would be a Movie Trailer for the book if were going to be turned into a film.  This helped us to work out what each lesson would need to include. We made sure that throughout the sequence of lessons children would be creating content which could be later on used to put into their movie trailer. This includes, sound clips, character profiles and hot seat questions.

The next stage of this assignment was to go to the school and present our e-learning resource to a real year 4 class teacher. We talked through our plans and showed them the resource which we had created it. Again, similarly to the advice we had received from Helen, they gave us some helpful pointers about ideas which would work really well and others which might not run so smoothly. They advised us to swap a couple of activities around so that they were in-class activities rather than for homework. From talking to these teachers and hearing their opinions I feel it has really helped us to develop our e-learning resource.

Since talking to these teachers, we have made changes to our classroom based on the ideas raised and have also added in more ideas of our own like a Padlet wall for after
each lesson. This is a place where children can post what they have learnt from the lesson. They also have the chance to reply to each other’s comments if they would like to.

At the beginning of this blog post I mentioned how I
liked the stream side of Google Classroom. Since working with Google Classroom, I have changed my opinion of this. I don’t like the idea of how once something is posted it cannot be easily moved up/down in the stream it can be moved right to the top but that is it. Also, I don’t feel as though there are many opportunities for Peer Assessment within Google classroom. This was something which our group really struggled with trying to provide as children are unable to see the work that others have submitted. This is good in a sense as it means that children can’t just copy each other’s work. However, when trying to provide opportunities for Peer Assessment it does become a bit difficult. This is why we decided to use the Padlet page instead.

Web 2.0 Resource- Class Dojo

The Brief:

“Lead a short seminar on a Web 2.0 resource which is likely to impact on pupils’ learning in the primary school.”

The Web 2.0 resource I chose to do my presentation on was Class Dojo. Class Dojo is a Web 2.0 resource online and also available as an app for tablets and smartphones. It is a behaviour management tool which can be used both in the classroom and to provide feedback home to parents. Children each have their own ‘Dojo monster’ which they themselves can personalize. ‘Dojo points’ are available and are given as rewards in class for good behaviour and work ethic. Parents can also log onto Class Dojo to see their child’s progress and receive messages from the class teacher.

My slides from the presentation can be accessed here:

I am quite pleased with how my presentation went. I feel that I got across my main points and managed to convey my enthusiasm for Class Dojo. I feel as though the group were engaged and interested in the points I made about Class Dojo. My classmates seemed interested to find out more about ideas from the Idea Wall on the Class Dojo site and through further discussion we developed some of the ideas.

I had a slight ‘hiccup’ during my presentation where one of my slides seemed to have magically disappeared. It was on the version of the presentation on my laptop but not on the USB version. So somewhere in this transition from laptop to USB I seemed to misplace a pretty important slide from my presentation. It was in fact the slide which was going to initiate the practical engagement part of my presentation, so when I realised it was missing I had a momentary panic before realising I luckily had the information I needed on another document. This has taught me to not assume that just because I believed I had the correct version of my slides, I need to triple check before presenting!

For the practical engagement part of my presentation, I had created each of my classmates a Class Dojo account where they were acting as students in my demo school. Before the presentation I had logged onto Class Dojo and awarded each student a Dojo Point for each blog they had published on WordPress. I think this went down well with my classmates (I hope!) This was how the points stood at the time of the presentation…

As you can see, Melissa was way ahead with 17 points. This raised a question during the presentation about whether I would show this page to the children. I answered no, as for the children who didn’t have quite as many points it could be upsetting and maybe even embarrassing. I would either not have the points up on the board at all, or if for some reason they needed to be viewed I may show the children the group points. This view doesn’t single any children out so would be much less personal.

Overall, I am happy with how my presentation went. I was nervous when presenting and feel as though this showed in my voice, however, I tried my best not to let it affect my presentation. Through both creating and presenting this presentation I feel I have become more enthusiastic about Class Dojo and I can’t wait to have my own real class to use the resource to it’s full potential!

I also really enjoyed listening to other peoples presentations. It has really opened my eyes to the vast range of Web 2.0 resources which are out there for Primary teachers and I hope to use resources like Edmodo, Story Bird and Text Adventures in the classroom at some point.

 

 

Horizon Report and Video Conference

On Thursday our usual ICT specialism lecture was replaced by a video conference. This was a first for me and I was really interested and intrigued as to how it would work. We had originally planned to carry out the video conference on Blackboard however there were some technical issues so luckily we had a backup plan of Skype in place.

During the video conference we discussed our findings and thoughts on the Horizon Report. Each member of the group had been given 3 sections of the report to look at and feedback to the rest of the group in a presentation. You can view my presentation here. The 3 sections I was focusing on were:

1. Rise of STEAM Learning (p.18)
2. Significant Challenges Impeding Technology Adoption in K-12 Education (p.20)
3. Creating Authentic Learning Opportunities (p.22)

Before the session I had heard of the Horizon report however had not actually read any of it. I found the reading really enjoyable and interesting and I found myself agreeing with a lot of the points and ideas being made within the report.

 

Rise of STEAM Learning

• We already know about STEM learning (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), STEAM adds in the Arts and tries to integrate the arts into all of these other learning areas. .
• All areas of STEAM learning should and can relate to one another which will provide students with an understanding of the bigger picture of how a wide variety of knowledge and skill sets can come together in the real world. They are not separated and don’t only exist alone.
• An example of STEAM teaching to younger children would include teaching students how mathematical concepts such as geometry are embedded in artworks and mosaics.
• “A study conducted by the University of Florida revealed that students who are engaged in music class do better in math.” This shows that by integrating the arts into other areas of learning, it can increase and improve learning outcomes.
• It has also been proven that by having a greater involvement and experience with the arts it can improve individuals innovative thinking, adaptability, and other problem-solving skills.

 

Significant Challenges Impeding Technology Adoption in K-12 Education

• There are some challenges involved in adopting new technology and these are categorized into solvable, difficult and challenging.
• A solvable challenge is one that we both understand and know how to solve.
• Difficult challenges are ones that are more or less well-understood but for which solutions remain elusive.
• Wicked challenges are the most difficult, are categorized as complex to even define, and thus require additional data and insights before solutions will be possible.
• all the challenges have policy implications. For example, creating policies which integrate technology into teacher training. This is being launched in Bangkok where national standards are being created for teacher training programs.
• Similarly, all the challenges have leadership implications. When creating authentic learning opportunities for students some schools are trying to create a partnership between themselves and enterprises which are offering real-life experiences and apprenticeships.
• There are also implications involved in practice. Fore xmaple, when beginning to teach more complex thinking it requires the use of multiple skill sets such as problem solving and creativity. Because this sues multiple skill sets it has been defined as a wicked problem as there is not yet a common understanding around language and protocol for defining and assessing complex thinking.

Creating authentic learning opportunities:

• Authentic Learning is an umbrella term for pedagogical strategies that have great potential to immerse learners in environments where they can gain lifelong learning skills.
• An authentic learning opportunity will bring students in touch with real-world problems and situations.
• Authentic learning prepares students for the skills and knowledge needed for later on in life at university and in jobs.
• Hands on learning in schools is becoming more popular with more and more schools offering vocational courses.
• Authentic learning strategies bring students a greater understanding of their abilities and purpose in life beyond the classroom.
• Portfolios have been proven to empower students to take ownership of their studies and to develop key lifelong learning skills such as critical-thinking, reflection, and problem-solving.

I really enjoyed reading the ‘creating authentic learning opportunities’ part of the Horizon Report. I feel that by giving children more experiences that will help them in later life outside of school and by helping the children understand that what we learn in schools doesn’t only exist in schools it can really help to deepen and strengthen their learning. This is something that I would like to put in place in schools when teaching. I also feel that overall it will make the children’s learning experience more fun! Getting involved in hands-on practical activities is much more beneficial and enjoyable than just completing a work sheet and I hope to remember this and put it into practice!

Overall, I feel that the video conference was a really good experience for me. Before participating in it I was a bit dubious about how it would work, and nervous about what I was going to say with everybody else listening and watching. However, once we got into it, it felt completely normal and no different to a normal session in the classroom. I hope that at some point in my future teaching I have the opportunity to bring a video conference into the classroom. I feel that it would be a really beneficial experience for pupils to engage in. If I had the opportunity to I would really love to get in contact with a children’s author and have a video conference with them in class. I feel that this would be somebody that the children would really look up to and admire, and that they would want to ask questions.

BETT 2016

Last Friday I attended BETT 2016 at London Excel. Before attending, I knew a little about the show and the types of people I would expect to meet and talk to. But I never imagined the level and huge extent of information which the show had on offer. As I walked into the show I was amazed to see hundreds of stalls all offering different types of technology which can be used in education.

The Google Stand at BETT 2016

I was keen to go and speak to some people from Apple as I used iPads
frequently with a year 6 class on placement. I wanted to discuss the problems I found with using iPads in class. The main problem I found was that as soon as you walked away from one group/pair of children and went to speak to another, they would have switched apps and gone onto a game or another app. This was frustrating however I felt as though there should be the technology in place to stop this happening and which should allow a teacher to control and restrict what is available to the children at a certain time.

The person I spoke to from Apple seemed excited to tell me about new software that they will be releasing in the summer. He seemed confident that this new software will bring a stop to problems exactly like the one I encountered. He directed me to look at the preview of this software which is on the apple website. (http://www.apple.com/education/preview/) The preview shows that this software should make the classroom experience better. Part of the new software gives the teacher access to a ‘my classes’ app. This allows the teacher to see what the children have been doing on the iPads by showing their most frequently used apps. Also, instead of a complicated apple ID, each child can have a 4 digit pin which they log in to; this will make it much more accessible for younger children.

 

 

Whilst at BETT, I got drawn towards the Education City stand. It was brightly coloured and seemed to be buzzing with lots of people. A representative from the company showed me how the online resource worked and gave me examples of both a teacher and pupil user profile. Education City is an online resource which provides both in class input and activities and homework tasks. It is similar to sites like MyMaths and Mathletics with the tasks available however it is much more cross curricular offering tasks in all curriculum subjects. I really like the fact that education city offers more than these other sites and the fact that it is not only for one subject. I also really enjoyed the pupil tracker feature, where you can track the progress of your pupils, look at how they completed individual tasks, including the time they spent on it (useful to see if they have rushed their work!).

I ended the day by talking to some people from WizeFloor. They have created an interactive floor which focuses on learning through play. Using the floor, you can play thousands of different games which all have a subject focus and link with ready made lesson plans. The games can be adapted and edited by individual teachers to make sure they include exactly what they need. I had a go at using the WizeFloor and have to admit it was incredibly fun! I would love to use this in schools in the future and feel that it takes learning onto another level.

Overall I feel my experience at BETT was highly beneficial. I have opened my eyes to technology I never knew existed and hope to use much of this in my future practice.

The Birth of Wikipedia

In this TED Global video, Jimmy Wales discusses the birth of Wikipedia. The video, being filmed in 2005 is a little outdated and I feel that Wikipedia has evolved since the filming. With new features including the VisualEditor. However, I feel it was still relevant to me as I didn’t know a lot of what I now know before watching. One of the main points discussed within the talk was the problem of editing within Wikipedia, something I knew a little about. I have always been told don’t use Wikipedia, none of its true! It’s all edited by random people! However, since watching the video I now have a greater understanding of the process of editing and how vandalized posts are removed.

There could be similar problems involved when creating a collaborative learning environment with a class in a school. If children know that they can edit things freely with them being published straight away it could create an opportunity for silly comments or even bullying. I am aware that a lot of sites which are made for school use have an option for the teacher to review any comments or changes before they are published, and I think that this is a brilliant idea. Many classes may not have any issues with these problems, but by having the teacher review everything first, eliminates any opportunity for it to happen.

One part of the video I found particularly interesting was the Neutral Point of View policy. This is the idea that Wikipedia will only publish the truth; information which is not debatable. Obviously an encyclopaedia needs to be unbiased but I was confused at how with thousands of editors, Wikipedia can stay unbiased and entirely truthful. I would be interested to try out a project with a class in school involving this. Could we create our own class encyclopaedia on a topic we were studying? It would be a good opportunity to teach children about unbiased information and not including our own opinions in some forms of writing.

I haven’t seen Wikipedia in use much whilst I have been in schools but I feel that since watching the video my viewpoint has changed. Before hand I was very ‘anti-wikipedia’ as I believed that anybody could log on and change and edit information. However I now have a much better understanding of the process of this and would feel more confident in allowing children to use Wikipedia in schools.

Gilly Salmon in her book E-tivitites, suggests how Wikipedia can be used by teachers to spark ideas for discussion and collaboration. I particularly like how she highlights how all the content on Wikipedia is available to be freely used and can be used by teachers to save time on creating original content for each lesson.

KidSMART Online Resources

The kidSMART website is full of useful resources to use in both KS1 and KS2. They are there to help teach children about using the internet safely.  For KS1 the resources available are mainly interactive books where the idea is to turn the page and read along to the story. For KS2 pupils there is a much greater range of resources available, this is most probably because KS2 pupils generally have a better understanding of how to use computers and the internet. KS2 pupils will also most likely be starting to use the internet for social media. Something which I observed during my placement in a Year 6 class.

The interactive book of The Adventures of Smartie the Penguin teaches children to tell somebody and ask if something comes up onto the computer screen which they didn’t want to appear. I feel that this is an important lesson to teach children, as there are so many pop-ups and adverts as well as nasty viruses that a child may accidentally come across when using the internet. If they ask an adult then these can be removed quickly and easily. Within the book there are ‘time to chat’ moments where a question is asked and children have the chance to think and talk about what they would do if they were in a similar situation. Personally, I would use this resource when children are beginning to learn about browsing on the internet and some of the problems they may face whilst doing this. This particular story could link in quite well with other areas of the curriculum like PSHE as it gives the children a chance to think about what the right thing to do would be.

Some of the resources available for older children include games and quizzes. There are a lot of resources available to download and print out. There are lots of videos for pupils to watch on particular topics within using the internet. For example, one of the sections is on chatting online. The kidSMART website gives its top tips for staying safe while chatting online, and there are also 4 different videos to watch. All the videos are of children of a similar age talking about using chat facilities on websites. I feel that this is a brilliant resource to use with children as it gives them a chance to listen to people their own age and not feel as though they are being lectured about what not to do all the time.

Personally, I feel that the KidSMART website has a very good user-interface. It is full of bright colours and pictures which will be eye catching for children, making the website look both inviting and fun.

From looking at the KidSMART resources and website I would feel confident in teaching children about e-safety in school. I feel that I have a secure understanding of how to stay safe on the internet and that through the use of the resources available on the KidSMART website I could lead some fun and engaging yet informative sessions.

E-Safety

I found looking through the resources on the teacher’s area of the ThinkUKnow website very interesting. It contains lesson plans and activity sheets to use in classes. They are helpfully organised into resources for Parents, KS1 and KS2. I took a look at the KS2 resources and found an example lesson plan for teaching children how to use email safely.

The learning objectives for this particular lesson are:

Pupils will practice the following skills:

• Taking responsibility for the needs of others
• Making real choices and decisions
• Considering social and moral dilemmas
• Finding information and advice

During the lesson pupils will learn about the appropriate behaviours to use when sending and receiving e-mail. They will also learn that there are a range of strategies that they can use to deal with issues involving viruses, spamming and also bullying via email.

I would start the lesson by brainstorming ideas about what we know about emails and the risks we can come across. I would hope to create something that looked similar to this:

From this we could discuss each of the points and ask pupils to consider:

• What is e-mail? Why might they use it? Who might they communicate with?
• Do they ever get e-mails from people they do not know? Why do people we do not know contact us?
• What is an appropriate message? What is inappropriate? How would they feel if someone sent them an offensive message, or one which was bullying? What could they do about this?
• Ask the children if they have heard about computer viruses. Has anyone ever had problems with a virus? What happened? Do they know where it came from?

Children should be made aware (if not already) that viruses can do a lot of damage to computers and the materials stored on them, and they are usually sent from strangers who have set out to do damage. Explain how they are often sent as attachments, which become active when the attachment is.

I would ensure that pupils understand what the terminology means and then maybe use mini whiteboards to have a quiz on the definitions of this terminology using the Glossary in Cybercafe.

I like the activity mentioned in the lessonplan from the ThinkUKnow website, it asks the children to explore the Cybercafe and work with the character, Sunil, to help him make the right decisions when using his email account. I feel that this will help to put what the children are learning into context by giving real life
situations. Allowing the children to explore with this gives them a risk free environment to do so but will still give them the understanding of the types of emails they should be cautious of.

I would end the lesson by having a discussion about what to do if we receive emails from people we don’t know. Children should be told to delete it without opening it and then Report it to a trusted adult.

Teaching children about how to use the internet and email safely is extremely important now more than ever. Children are so used to email nowadays that they may become desensitized to the threats it can involve, so by making children aware of these it will help them to continue to use the internet safely and minimize the chance of them having any issues with it.

I am aware of websites which have created child-friendly email.  Sites like Tocomail, SafenSoundmail or Kidsemail, these services allow you to limit who can email your child and who they can email. Some even filter messages with words which may indicate bullying of some sort. However, personally, I feel as though children should be using ‘normal’ email providers and if they have been taught about the dangers using these then they should be fine in distinguishing what may constitute an inappropriate email, or something which may be spam.

Badges

“I love earning badges. It shows the effort that I have put in has been recognised and my work is being appreciated. I think the badges encourages people to get involved as I get lots of people asking me how I have so many badges on Makewaves.” – Sweetheart1, Student

Above is a quote from a student who has been using Makewav.es in her school. Websites like Makewav.es give children a safe social networking platform from which they can blog and share stories with their classmates, also on Makewav.es is the children’s e-portfolio where all their badges are stored. Children can go home and log into their account and show their parents the badges that they have earned. Or, alternatively parents can also have an account to monitor their child’s progress.

Badges can be an extremely useful resource to use in primary school classrooms. They can help to engage and motivate learners by providing a reward for completion of tasks. For a teacher they can help to monitor progress and track attainment by seeing which pupils in the class have completed a task and which have not. As a teacher you also have the opportunity to review children’s work before the badge is awarded, this can help to prompt the children to go back and revisit the work and improve. For the pupil, badges can help to make a task seem more inviting. Knowing that you will earn a badge for completion of work can help to increase motivation.

Badges are something that I would like to use in my class when I am teaching, I feel that they help to promote a positive attitude towards completing work to a high standard. Personally, I can remember being set homework at primary school which at the time seemed very boring and pointless. However, had I known that I would have been rewarded with a badge for completion I’m sure my attitude would have been very different and I would have probably made more of an effort with it!

On the other hand I can see why some teachers may not be so pro badges. They may bring competitiveness into the classroom which may result in conflict or some children who don’t have access to the internet at home may not have the same opportunities to earn badges and therefore could end up feeling left out as they won’t have as many badges stored in their e-portfolio.

I feel that badges promote a behaviorist learning approach. Skinner (1987) hypothesized that student behavior can be understood through the motivations, reinforcers, and punishments imposed upon students by teachers. Student motivation, Skinner theorized, can be manipulated by teachers through systems of reinforcements and punishments to increase students’ engagement and learning. Badges can be used right across the curriculum and will provide children with the motivation needed and reinforcement needed.

I have seen how the use of house-points be really effective throughout all the primary school years. They work really well in increasing children’s motivations and engagement both in lessons and in other areas of school.From the perspective of a trainee teacher I know that I would much rather award a child a specific badge for completion of a specific piece of work than awarding a generic house-point. The badge can be something which shows what steps were taken in order for it to be awarded, and is something which can be shown to parents. In my opinion, I feel that house-points are too generic and don’t recognize children’s individual talents and achievements, whereas badges can be created for nearly anything which a child does in school. For the children who may not be so strong academically, they can be awarded a badge for things that they individually excel in.

Blogging in Primary Schools

‘Our blog is a place where you can write, watch and learn new things that you never knew.’ (Year 6 pupil)

This is a quote from Educational blogs and their effects on pupils’ writing. I feel that it perfectly sums up how blogging can be beneficial to pupils. Before reading this I had a brief understanding of how a blog could work in a class, however, I felt it would be more beneficial in a secondary school environment. Since reading I now have a much greater understanding of how blogging can be used within a primary school setting and feel that schools all over the country should be using blogs as a learning resource.

The article discusses how teachers need to be giving children effective invitations to blog. This means suggesting ways in which the pupils can write and how to research the topic. This is something which may not seem too important, but from reading I can see how much of an impact it can have on the children’s responses within their blogs.  Children will benefit from being given prompts and starters for their writing and I can see now how this could be overlooked by the teacher.

Part of the article also mentions how blogging does not only have to take place within school, it can also be carried on at home with the children writing blog posts about their weekends or personal interests. I feel that this is a fantastic idea as not only will it help the children to be enthusiastic about their writing and give them a chance to read about their peers hobbies. It also gives the teacher a chance to learn more about the child as an individual and what they enjoy doing away from school. One issue highlighted in the article is that not all children may have access to the internet or the blog at home and may feel excluded or left out from this part of the blogging that they may not be able to contribute to as much as some of their peers.

The article also mentions the role of commenting and how this can have an effect on the children. Many children found that by having a class mate comment on their blog it helped them to feel encouraged. Similarly, when the teacher commented on the pupils blog posts it helped them to feel motivated and rewarded.

An argument that was raised within the article was that does writing on the blog help improve children’s literacy? Many teachers from the project schools found that the work that the children produced for the blogs was weaker than the writing in their literacy books. This may be down to ‘short-burst’ teaching where the children only have a certain amount of time a week allocated to blogging so their work may be rushed or not well planned or thought through. I feel that if children are going to be expected to create and publish well written blogs then they need to be given appropriate time to do this. If a teacher was creating a display for the wall, I can’t imagine the children would be rushed to complete their work. So why should it be any different for blogging which is also on display to all?

Many of the teachers from the project schools also said that they did not assess the blogs the same way that they would the literacy books, and that blogs are seen as an area free from assessment as through writing the blogs it is helping the children to become more confident writers. So, even though the standard of written English may not have been as strong within the blogs, the children were not assessed on this. Teachers also commented that pupils rarely revisited their blogs to edit them after they had received comments on then, even though they were available to a wide audience. However, an American teacher found that because of the audience of the blogs, the children were more careful with their writing and would take time proofreading and revisiting them.  Personally, I am quite shocked that many children were not going back to revisit and edit their blogs.  From experience in schools I have seen that when a child knows that somebody is going to see their work (eg. On a display) they will usually spend more time on it than they would on something that is going to stay in their book and not be seen by others. I feel that if blogs are going to be a part of a collaborative learning environment within a school then children should be conscious and made aware of the fact that their peers and others will be reading and commenting on their work, which may help to produce higher quality writing.

Mitchell (2013) found similar results when he introduced blogging to his Key stage 2 classes. He found that through blogging students’  National Curriculum test scores rose from 9 per cent to 60 per cent in just one year. this shows the impact that blogging can have on children’s literacy.

I’ll finish this blog with this quote from one of Mitchell’s Students. It made me smile and I hope it will help others to see the impact that blogging can have on children motivation to write.

“I am 11 years old and have gained lots of confidence in reading and writing. Writing has now become a hobby as I do it everywhere. Yes I mean everywhere! Even when I was on holiday in Pakistan I shared with the world what I was doing and communicated with my class mates. I received comments on the work I wrote and I would read other people’s work and give them feedback. Didn’t I hear that boys don’t like reading and writing? Well I’m a boy and I love it.”

What this pupil was talking about was blogging.