Blog Task 7

I used PowerPoint to create a multimodal text about animals that lived in a forest. This task was very enjoyable because I learnt many new skills and techniques. I did something similar on my last placement, where I taught the children how to create hyperlinks between each of the slides in PowerPoint when creating animal fact files. Creating a story with activities for children to complete can be adapted to help children understand the story structure and learn a wider vocabulary using a word bank. The story I created was very interactive which children would enjoy as they are not just reading, but inputting their own choice of words, being a part of creating the story line. I learnt that this activity takes time and needs careful planning, especially for children to complete, to ensure it meets its purpose. I found within the hour seminar,I was unable to complete the task, which influences me to plan this task over a week of lessons for children to carry out, to produce the best work possible. I would like to learn more about using PowerPoint and create a drag and drop activity and add sound for children to learn new skills and explore. I found that allowing children to 'have a go' themselves, resolves in sharing skills with the class which myself as the teacher did not know as it is a learning process for everyone. Due to this task being time consuming, there would need to be a few starter lessons on exploring the tools and features and to then plan the story and create it over a few days in order to perfect it using interactive features (QCA/UKLA, 2004). When using images found from Google, they need to be appropriate. An idea to help this would be to create a drop box or folder with a selection of images as I learnt from seminars. This saves children having to Google images and saves time. Evans (2004) explains how relating tasks to children's interests creates a positive response, stimulating talk. I would like to relate an activity using PowerPoint based on children's choice of interest, giving them more motivation to complete the task. However, the transition from one mode of media to another has its difficulties. This needs to be explained clearly by the teacher to inform children how the different modes link to each other and to discuss it in detail (Evans, 2004). Allen et al (2012) promotes children using PowerPoint with sound in an interactive way, creating projects with the children, displaying their work through the Interactive Whiteboard. I have learnt that I need to further my knowledge and skills in using different software in order to teach it creatively to appeal to children and encourage them to want to learn.

Allen, J., Potter, J. Sharp, J., Turvey, K. (2012) Primary ICT: Knowledge, Understanding and Practice. 5th Edition. London: SAGE

Evans, J. (2004) Literacy Moves On: Using Popular Culture, New Technologies and Critical Literacy in the Primary Classroom. Abingdon: David Fulton Publishers

QCA/UKLA (2004) More than words: Multimodal texts in the classroom. London: QCA