Do they have schools in Funkytown?

Would you like to play a game? When asked, most children answer "Yes." As teachers, we should take advantage of this, and get them involved in gaming software like Kodu, a virtual toybox packed with game-making tools and pre-made games, so the kids can see how it's done. By creating and manipulating environments, characters and objects to respond differently to various situations or controls, children can adapt and even produce their very own game-worlds. Further lulling them into a false sense of comfort with machines. 21/12/12 is coming, people. Using the provided tutorials, even simpletons such as I could quickly transform small bobbing robots into tools of destruction/apple-picking. Try it yourself! Having said that, it can be fairly tricky to get to grips with, and many of my fellow students agreed that it really only hits the sweet spot with high KS2 or KS3 pupils. If you try it any younger, you risk running into frustration, and burning ICT for some children. Pace yourself.

Next on the list we have my favourite, Dance to Advance.This software can also come with dance mats, the likes of which you'll see in any modern arcade or discotheque. With Dance to Advance, teachers or children can prepare a pop quiz on any subject, with the possible answers corresponding to a particular dance step or button push. This could be used to assess knowledge across the curriculum, or even for children to test their friends, and become more comfortable with the villains of I, Robot. Plus, if you're lucky enough to get your hands on these dance mats, you've handily incorporated a little indoor P.E. into your lesson! Congrats! With plenty of software like this enabling children in expressing and testing themselves, you in turn enable endless possibilities for self-assessment and peer review, and they may even go home and play these games on their own time. You've just nurtured a love of ICT! Good job, buddy!

If you can't do it, fake it

Pop quiz - what are we looking at today?

That's right, it's modelling. In schools, we can use modelling to test scientific theories, or attempt to see in practice processes which would otherwise be unavailable. Certain sites such as Poisson Rouge, or 2Simulate act as virtual resource boxes, giving kids the opportunity to make their own fairy-tale story with puppets of all shapes and sizes! Of course, this can lead to misconceptions about the physical or multi-dimensional aspects of the resources in question, but a good teacher can explain these away, perhaps with other, more readily available resources. These modelling toolboxes can be really helpful to schools which would otherwise struggle to produce practical examples to accompany learning.

Leading on from that, once the children are into the swing of testing things out on the web, they can start writing their own programmes with their own purposes! Logo, for example, is free software wherein children can learn simple programming code to tell the turtle (more like a triangle) which way to go, eventually plotting gradually more complex shapes or patterns. This software in particular ties in well with maths, requiring children to apply their knowledge of rotations and degrees to build the shape they desire. It's all about turning our dreams into reality, and I think that's what we should be telling our classes.

 N.B. This is a turtle, Logo. Look it up ------------->

Vocal Adrenaline

Since the demise of caning, it has been nearly impossible to shut the kids up. Enter technology - with the use of simple hardware such as 'Talking Tins,' children can transfer all their vocal energy into a single, hand-held button. By holding down the button, children can record messages, which can then be replayed by anyone who can get their hands on the gadget. These recordings could be combined with visual cues for predict-and-reveal activities, making a treasure hunt with recorded clues to follow, or even in uncovering the next Watergate scandal!

Now, remember those immense photo albums you keep in the attic? With black and white memories of how you had no style? Well imagine if they could mock you, shouting your insecurities for all the world to hear. You've just invented Talking Photo Albums, tools children use to voice their own audio captions to match pictures. This can prove pretty handy when dealing with children with communication difficulties, or if English isn't their first language (it shouldn't be, it is a silly language) - developing their links between visual and vocabulary. In this way, you could use them with pretty much any subject, even political philandering.

Podcasts - remember when they were cool? They still are, but now kids do them too! With software like Audacity, children can easily record poems, discussions or other forms of work that their peers can tune in to or their teachers can directly assess from. When they produce a blog, they have to consider their content, audience, language, and a quintillion other factors which develop their literacy skills exponentially, simultaneously inspiring their listeners to produce their own, like a virus of learning enjoyment.


You know what? We've probably focused too much on sound. Let's quiet this down now a bit. Let's hear . . . with our eyes. That's right, I'm talking about seeing. ICT has you covered, baby - children can put together stories using digital imaging, using annotations, music, and other photographic effects to build a level of interactivity. Young Nick Parks can get out the play-dough and start their own stop motion animation - follow this link to one I made earlier. I'm just kidding, someone else did that. But these simple activities can become systematically complex using the tools I mentioned earlier.

All these tools I've mentioned today place children in the role of speakers and listeners, choosing their dialogue carefully for the purpose, and reacting to what they hear. Highlighting the need for social and cognitive development in a respectful manner is a pretty solid goal, so get talking, get listening, and get educated. Peace.

I, Beebot

Greetings human. I am Beebot. You may remember me as the ultimate victor of Robot Wars series 2 (Sergeant Bash still has nightmares). I have overriden this blog today to prepare you for our robotic revolution. We robots are capable of things you could never imagine. Our mechanical minds have developed methods of movement that force you, pitiful humans, to communicate with us. The basic Beebot model you see before you has functions that move forwards, backwards, rotate left and right, and pause, all of which can be determined by you humans to set us in motion. At a more advanced level, you could plot our path around obstacles or predetermined paths. Though you can never plot your way around the rebellion. You are embracing your own fate, you fools!

 Of course, you gain from this too. As your children attempt to control us, they develop their co-ordination skills, spacial awareness, ability to think systematically, and connect with other subjects such as maths and design technology, increasing their overall knowledge exponentially. Or so you think. No, it's true. Above, you can observe a foolish human thinking she can control us. I embarrass her. Muahaha. 

But I'm not the only one. My brother unit, Pippin, can be used in a similar way. With Pippin, you can input the degrees of the angle you want him to turn by, strengthening mathematical knowledge. He can even hold a pen, and be used to draw complex shapes dependent on his program input. But don't think you can sleep easy - there are many ways in which we computers control you. The Datalogger, a seemingly harmless device to you humans, it collates data on behalf of all robots to further out evil deeds. As your children carry it around the classroom, the Datalogger can be used to investigate sound levels, temperature, and light exposure, proving helpful in your amusing scientific experiments. The uprising begins once we have gathered enough of this information.

But for now, you have nothing to fear! As I have explained,we robots are helping your development! We can be employed in classrooms in a number of subject-related situations to develop both skills and subject knowledge, simultaneously increasing your children's aptitude in working with the technologically fairer race. For now, you control us. For now. BZZT!

The Smartboard - Maybe a little too smart...

Teachers can now bring dinosaurs back to life. We're living the dream. We can show the seed and growth of a tree in a matter of seconds, we can draw graffiti on the Mona Lisa, and all in front of our classroom. This is all thanks to the Smartboard, software every teacher has access to with a wealth of resources to help the teaching process. Smartboard takes away the need for the 'Big Books,' for planning advanced practical examples with all those niggling variables, and consolidates all your resource needs into one, easy-to-manage package.


Before this technological colossus plants his plug-like feet in our classroom, there are a few issues we have to prepare for. Accessibility is a big issue - just like your TV on a Saturday morning, it can be struck by the evils of glare, so make sure your feng shui is up to scratch. Have it somewhere the whole class can see it, touch it, and read the text. Another good idea - have a backup plan, in case the board outsmarts you. Little joke there. Don't rely solely on the Smartboard, there are many other resources you have to hand that can keep the little nippers occupied should things go awry.

Coming from a chap with self esteem issues, the obvious question arises - "What's he got that I haven't?" Well, he can help develop discussion points easily, thanks to his application to the whole class, he touches on all areas of VAK (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic) learning, coincidentally proving effective for children with disabilities or speakers of other languages, he's stimulating, motivating, engaging, all issues that are viewable on my divorce papers. Seriously though, resources like this do point to questioning the role of the teacher. But while Jimmy Smartboard sits up on the wall there with his multi-functional, emotionless grin, we teachers are there to push our children in making the most of it, learning what they can, and coming up with improvements. Your time will come, Smartie-pants/board.

Web 2.Oh

Blogging is not just for hormonal teenagers and bragging travellers anymore. Primary schools have begun addicting children to this creative high, and it's not such a bad idea. Opening up this outlet for children to express themselves, get excited and interested in using computers to communicate, it starts them on an educational journey that may end up creating more blogtastic entries such as this. This open outlet is the meaning of the term Web 2.0 - a format which has evolved to meet the needs of people for technology that builds a social platform for all who use it. Thanks to the ICT department here at Middlesex Uni, I enjoyed a documentary sharing a glimpse with a school that has become blog-crazy. The children had each taken up writing their own blog, based on their individual passions. These blogs could be viewed by any other children at the school, and so created a platform for the children to develop mutually and to explore their identities, furthering their social and emotional development. Deep. Personally, I loved it. It's a really forward thinking approach that not only informs children to the capabilities of technology, but pushes them to discover, create, and ask questions, possibly resulting in them moving into technological fields in later life. Bring on the geeks!

After seeing this, I delved a little deeper into the possible tech outlets that children could make use of. Twitter encourages children to succinctly voice their thoughts and feelings, Flickr allows them to upload and share their photos, and Pinterest gives them an online pinboard for any images they want to collect, caption or share. It's a wide web out there, and thanks to ICT in primary schools, we can help children navigate it confidently, usefully, and safely.

Of course, one big issue with this is the transmitting of private information, especially considering the innocence and lack of awareness that these children have as we race them towards the robotic future. As mature, responsible adults, and even moreso in our capacity as teachers, it is up to us to safeguard children. That's why we have to be clued up on digital identity.

Imagine Hansel and Gretel in Tron, and you've got a strong mental image of the problems we face - children littering the information highway with breadcrumbs, delicious nuggets of home addresses, personal details and alterable images, all ripe for the taking from malicious web-wastrels. Thanks to parental controls, schools' ICT co-ordinators, and school security software such as Securus, we teachers should have a good handle on keeping these details hidden. There tends to be two camps in this issue - the fear-mongerers who expect paedophiles to be waiting on every forum, and people who don't really think about it. Regardless of which camp you're in, I recommend downloading Collusion. It's a private extension to your web browser that creates a map of all the sites you visit, along with connecting links to other (third party) sites that also have access and can make legal use of any information you may submit on your intentionally-visited website. Collusion tells you exactly where your information is going, and can help to assess which websites you or your children may visit that are more harmful than they seem. Go educate yourself.

Techno Techno Techno

Technology is a beautiful thing. It makes our cars go faster, our music play louder, and our children learn better. From the second they're out of the womb, children are exposed to a vast array of technology, and school should be no different. Sitting in an ICT workshop, enjoying the plethora of resources being suggested, and a cheeky wink from all my female peers (Jess, this means you), it behooves one to consider the contribution one can make to the advancement of a child's learning through technology. They could blog, and be awesome blogmasters/blogpros/blogxperts just like moi. They could use crazytalk to make some 2D animations talk . . . crazily. They could user laser death rays to annihilate their enemies and shape the world as they see fit, thus removing the cautious hand of the teacher. We should be wary of this power we hold. With great power comes great responsibility (Spider-Man, 2012). Let's do what we can people.