[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Josie,

Thank you for your post and for your engagement throughout the course. You have identified a plethora of advantages around the use of coding with classes, whilst also acknowledging the significant challenges and barriers that may be present. The new STE Curriculum spec provides opportunities for children to experience coding in both plugged and unplugged settings. However, the rollout will need to be cognisant of some of the challenges you have listed, particularly around the provision of appropriate resources and teacher training.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Michael,

Thank you for your post. It is great to hear that significant investment has allowed for the embedding of digital technologies across curricular areas in your school. With each class group having access to their own set of devices, it certainly makes their use more attractive. I am a firm believer that for digital integration to be fully possible, our teachers need access to reliable devices and reliable internet connectivity. When children are having problems getting online or devices are not working or charged, it can be very difficult to manage the classroom and can often lead to a reluctance towards using the devices.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Seán,

Thank you for your post. It’s great to hear you have had the opportunity to showcase Chat GPT to your 6th class pupils and allow them time to explore ways in which it can be a helpful guide to them when studying or preparing for exams in second level. Knowing how to use it and what is/isn’t appropriate is a very important aspect to this. Integrating AI use with tools like Microsoft Forms is a great way to save on your workload and cut out unnecessary grading work. May quiz based online tools now offer a direct plug-in to ChatGPT to make using them more attractive.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Olivia,

Thank you for sharing this outline with us. It is clear that you have put a lot of thinking time into this. What strikes me is the truly integrated nature of this unit of work and the huge variety of success you have listed in your post. Giving a brief description of the roles of each of the group members also makes it very clear as to how this unit will work and what will be achieved by the children at the end.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Karen,

Welcome to the course and thank you for your post. You have raised some excellent points within it. From my own school and other work I have done, I can attest that this is a common thread across many schools. Frameworks like UDL, and national policy publications like the DLF, Digital Strategy and Guidance on Preparation for Teaching and Learning are being missed. There are so much going on at the moment in schools, and it would appear that a rethink is needed on how key messages are being sent to teachers, and the ways in which we can be supported to adopt what is being proposed within these.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Orla,

Thank you for your post and for providing this outline for your unit of work. I have to say that it is one that I might use myself, as it sounds like it could really bring to life this period of Irish history. Being able to chart the course of these historical figures through a depiction of the main events and locations from this period is fantastic. Your outline of group roles also shows the huge potential this has for the creation of an engaging learning experience.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Ryan,

Thanks for your post and for recognising the ways in which Lens and Immersive Reader can be incorporated int your own practice. It’s great that you are already using tools like OneNote and Teams, as it allows you to clearly see how thee assistive tools can be interwoven with your existing practice. Indeed, these tools can also be highly effective in providing differentiated help to students, or as a way to provide more inclusive learning experiences for EAL children.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Una,

Thanks for your post. I feel you have hit on a really important point regarding the active and passive use of technology for young people. Too often people often think that young people are highly competent technology users, without fully recognising the type of activities they are proficient with. Often children can struggle with word processing, designing posters, importing and cropping images, etc. These are all areas that we need to focus on building digital, technological and computing skills.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Rachel,

Welcome to the online part of this course. Thank you for your overview of the SSE process. As you have said, it’s a great way to allow schools to identify their own priority areas for improvement arounds the four domains in both teaching and learning, and leadership and management. Some of the areas you have mentioned are perfect areas for a school to hone in on, and create meaningful and trackable action plans to monitor improvement.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Emma,

Thank you for your post. Regardless of being based in an urban or rural area, climate change is beginning to wreak havoc with the lives and livelihoods of people in communities throughout the country. Others here have also referred to the plight of farmers and their crops being ravaged by extreme weather. This applies both ways and can relate to either flooded or parched lands. It’s hard for them to catch a break at times. Like we have said throughout the course, being able to relate this to the children’s own lives and to the local area is key for getting buy in for these initiatives.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Betty,

Thank you for your post and welcome to this course. I like how you have referred to the old PDST site ‘dlplanning.ie’ – this is a wonderful resource for teachers and school leaders when creating their schools digital learning plans, or when looking at how digital technologies and assistive technologies can be interwoven into the culture of the school. The SETT model is a great tools to help us plan for tailoring the use of assistive technologies to best meet the needs of pupils, and will be explored further alter in the course.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Ruth,

Thank you for your post here and for breaking it down into the main areas outlined in the assessment prompt. I like how you have identified the potential for digital tools to promote collaboration in the classroom, as well as developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The removal of a book or a set procedure for debugging issues allows children to think creativity and engage in a spirit of ‘trial and error’, in which they can build on and learn from their earlier mistakes.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Sadhbh,

Thank you for your post and welcome to the online aspect of this course. I’m sure you will have experienced some sample ways of using digital technologies to create engaging learning experiences earlier in the week. You have raised a key point around the PCF. ‘Being a Digital Learner’ is a key competency that should be developed across all subject areas. Digital learning is not a single subject area, and rather is a lens or medium through which children can extend their learning in all subjects.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Desmond,

Thank you for your post and for outlining your journey with the use of digital technologies. One point you have made that I feel is really important centres on the ‘reflective’ use of digital technologies. It’s so important that we are continuing to evolve and develop our skillsets, but this must be based on the needs of the children in front of us. Developing generic skills that we cannot put to use in the classroom is not the best use of our time. Taking some time to reflect and decide what your priority areas of development should be is a really important step.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Paul,

Thank you for your post. It is undeniable that AI has the potential to cut teacher workload significantly, and writing genres is one area that it really lends itself too. Depending on the prompt, you could model a series of differentiated pieces on different genres and topics. For instance, if you changed you acrostic prompt to ask for a single word to describe Halloween in this form, that may be the most suitable piece of modelling for some children in your class. Whereas, others can use the detail acrostic you have copied here as a basis for creating their own. The potential to personalise and individualise learning really is endless with AI tools.

[Author]

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