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This is a great lesson. I like that you started with screen free critical thinking followed by research and opportunities for the children to present and discuss their findings.
How would you guide learners who found it hard to distinguish fact from fiction or to see that they have received clashing information?
Your follow up lesson reinforces the critical thinking aspect as the children will again be asked to spot misinformation.
I also liked the quote you found and it is a useful one to bear in mind while approaching technology, we can often be absolutist in good/bad and scared into avoiding things.
I would create an activity for 6th class linked to the maths curriculum and digital literacy- understanding machine learning. The children would create a “homework checker” for long multiplication. To do this, it would train the machine using photos of correctly worked models of long multiplication and incorrectly worked examples. Once trained they could test their checker on new examples. They could identify issues and see if they could improve the data or quality of data they provide the machine to solve these.
For discussion would be why this would be a useful or not piece of technology. Depending on results they could discuss the accuracy of this machine. They could discuss how this would differ from using a calculator and whether it was something they should or shouldn’t use regularly to help their learning.
I would gather evidence directly from the machine results but also from the discussion in class and observation of the work to train the machine and troubleshooting.This seems like an interesting lesson and one that would lend itself well to building class community. It would link well with SPHE and wellbeing topics. The game based learning as well as discussion topics would help to strengthen skills such as team work and decision making.
• The name of the demo world you chose
Bad connection
• A short overview of what the lesson or world is about
Online safety- learning to recognise attempts to manipulate the user, learning how to decide who to trust and contributing to a safer internet for everyone.
• A brief summary of the lesson plan, learning objectives and associated resources
The lesson plan includes the learning objectives, lesson plan and range of resources such as student handouts, exit tickets and presentation slides and assessment checklists. It also includes a facilitation guide but is quite americanised.
• A short reflection on one possible Irish curriculum link or Focus of Learning
This lesson would tie in with SPHE making choices: appreciate personal agency and responsibility in decision-making, evaluating influences and adopt strategies to support informed decision-making.
• Whether you would use the world as it is, or modify the support, pacing or follow-up discussion for your pupils
I would not use this world as I teach younger students but it was interesting to see. Personally I do not like the Minecraft interface, I find it very difficult to look at so would be unlikely to use it in my teaching. I think having a lesson aimed at 11-18 year olds is too broad a range and perhaps two separate bands should be developed for different age groups to explore.Hi Maire,
I enjoyed your game. It was clear and easy to use. I liked that you linked art and design to it, and all age groups would enjoy designing their character and background.
Coding the sprites to move would help reinforce the learning of coordinates and the children could explore the effects of changing the values for x and y to simplify the game or make it more challenging.
How would you carry out the computational thinking example? As a whole class discussion or in groups?
Game type: chaser
Game title: Mountain Mission https://makecode.com/_4HE3cg2WhYTP
Storyboard: Set in the mountains, Suzie the explorer is looking for vials of food while being chased by Monkey. She wins by getting her food, and loses is Monkey catches her.
I used debugging as I didn’t have the right sprite matched to the right name.
The game links to geography and biodiversity, exploring habitats and ecosystems and the human impact on these. The game is an conversation starter- although not realistic, it is to get the children thinking about how humans, animals and environments interact. The children could replicate this style after their learning, to present their knowledge about the ecosystem they have studied.Hi Deirdre,
I liked this project as children love to test any sort of noise-meter in the classroom. This would give them the opportunity to explore the science and technology behind it. They could then link to maths for data and recording how often the volume hits a certain threshold. If you had physical microbits, they could analyse the sensitivity of each one and see if recordings were consistent. So much opportunity for STEM learning.
I completed the Morse Chat tutorial. It sends dots and dashes both as LED visuals and sounds to a second microbit to communicate in Morse Code. When I had completed the tutorial, I had another go independently and made some changes. I changed the input from a long and short press which I found finicky on the simulator to press button A and press button B. I also changed the tone of the dot and the dash just to see, but it could be used as an accessibility feature as the different tones are another factor to help differentiate between dots and dashes. Here is the link to my project: https://makecode.microbit.org/_2ut2dq8DscYb
This project could easily be adapted to an integrated stem learning experience touching on History and English. The children would study the use of Morse Code and other codes in history. They would then complete the tutorial and plan to create their own code machine be it Morse or another code. In groups they could then complete and test their projects.Hi Rachel,
I was not familiar with the tree octopus, what a pity it’s now debunked before the kids even start. Your approach seems both educational and engaging and has inspired me to try jigsaw teaching again.
I think your goal of a monthly lesson with Digital technologies to support PE, Music, Drama or Art is very realistic and achievable. There are a lot of resources out there and a quick search can yield a lot. You can also use basics like Paint for children to explore particular styles in Art. Feedback from the pupils is also hugely helpful for future planning.
Try Chrome Music Lab – Rhythm for music, it is a fun way of composing and very child friendly.
Looking at the Digital Learning Framework focus of teacher collective/collaborative practice an area of strength is my engagement with professional development as I am conscious that technology moves fast and I no longer embrace the latest advances in my personal life but am keen to keep abreast of technological advances to keep relevant in education.
I would like to further develop the standard of “Teachers contribute to building whole- staff capacity by sharing their expertise” as there is huge knowledge in my school but a gap between those who enjoy and are interested in technology and those who are still wary of it. We have good resources in our school and while they are heavily used, there is capacity to ensure more even use across the school with associated skill building.
To support this, the actions I will take this term are
1. To designate a fixed bi-weekly clinic for teachers to come together and share knowledge and resources, provide peer support or troubleshoot issues to help support their teaching and the learning in their classes.
2. Create a resource bank on our school Teams where teachers can share and access resources.