NPFS online discussion: Day 5 – ICT
It’s the fifth and final day of the National Parent Forum of Scotland’s online discussion with parents and others before their conference tomorrow, 6 October, in Bishopbriggs.
The final question for this week is around ICT. Don’t miss your chance to have your say by submitting a comment below!
Day 5: 5 October
As you would expect, schools and Parent Councils are taking advantage of technology to engage with parents more and more. We see more use of text messages, blogs, school websites, even Twitter.
What has worked for you and your school? How would you like to see schools promoting technology for your child’s homework/self study?
Related:
#NPFS12 – Discussion: Day 1 – Parental Engagement.
#NPFS12 – Discussion: Day 2 – Curriculum for Excellence
#NPFS12 – Discussion: Day 3 – Transitions.
#NPFS12 – Discussion: Day 4 – Additional Support for Learning.
Useful links:
Be at the heart of your child’s learning
A quick guide to Curriculum for Excellence
Have your say
Join in the discussion and help us make Scottish Education even better.
How do we harness children's appetite for social media in a positive way that would include it's use within the learning context? Is there a Scottish Government policy/position on this? Do other parents think it is a good idea?
ICT is very important – obviously! My son enjoys using Scratch and would benefit from doing "real" programming too. One thing that has been very beneficial for my daughter, now 17, was learning to touchtype when she was 11. This was done as an after school course. It means she gets her essays etc written very fast and saves her a lot of time. My son, 12, is currently learning to type.
Totally agree and it is fascinating how quickly children take to new technology and seem to look at it and then understand how it works and how to make it work. Typing is really important both for school and in work and is becoming an incredible skill to take into the workplace. Our youngest son is 5 and he uses the computer, one hand on the keys, the other on the mouse and his eyes glued to the screen as he navigates his way around. It is great to see your children grasp these technologies and play and at the same time learn transferrable skills.
Young people are on the min part much more comfortable with technology and the rate of pace it is changing and developing. I would like to see how schools (secondary schools( in particular) can utilise the technology that most children have in their smart phones. I know that there are issues with these phones especially as they have cameras but surely there is a way forward with them?
This sounds like a question about Bring Your Own Device (BYOD): if pupils have their own sophisticated phones etc can they use them in school and with the school network/ wifi to support their learning?
Issues relating to the cameras is perhaps more of a behavioural/ moral issue than a problem with te technology per se?
School blogs are great. There is a reluctance to engage with Facebook because of a few bad experiences. In West Lothian there has been a huge ammount of work carried out by schools to make sure every child has access (and can use) GLOW. This is used for school closure days in the winter.
Accessing IT in schools is a difficulty. Wireless connection and broadband width seem to be major issues. Computers and laptops are often a few years old and now that they need replaced cost is an issue.
The cost of providing sufficient numbers of computers or tablets for every pupil seems to be a big challenge at a national level. Yes, it would be expensive, but OTOH if there are sufficient benefits arising from pervasive access to devices and Internet access, is that a cost worth bearing by the public purse?
Our Parent Council has gathered email addresses from the parents and we are able to keep in touch with them all year round. This has become a far more acceptable method of communication than paper copies and far easier for parents to respond. We not only use it to update parents about eduactional issues but also for the fun social events so that no one misses out.
Children do a lot of research for topics and homework online and as long as they dont adapt the "cut and paste" methods for transferring their knowledge then its a great way for them to find out about the world.
Our parent council collected email addresses from 98% of parents and use this to communicate. However our school has refused to let us help distribute school letters via this route and aren't doing it themselves either. Also we wanted an extra tick box on the annual data check from the school so parents could opt to let the school share the recorded email address with the parent council, but the form was not changed this year – perhaps next year? *sigh*
We also have to print paper copies of all our correspondence to send in a bag drop because the HT says it would otherwise discriminate against those pupils whose
Also, the risk of cut and paste should go hand in hand with the use on plagiarism tools to check – it's much easier to copy/paste but it's also much easier to detect plagiarism in electronic submissions.
Unless of course some schools support online research for projects but then insist on handwritten or printed submissions?!
Oops – pressed submit too soon! Was going to conclude to say we have to send paper copies as well as email as the HT says it would discriminate against pupils whose parents do not have an email address. Does anyone have a good solution to this problem?
My daughter was involved in a P7 blog last year and this certainly captured her imagination. I would like to see the P7 profile utilising IT better as this would allow all partners in learning to get involved including parents and allow High school teachers to have earlier access.. Parentmail and Parentzone have been a major success and I see these going from strength to strength. Lots of positives but still lots of scope for improvement.
Giving children access to GLOW, setting homework via GLOW and introducing Internet and research based topics all help children use and learn more about ICT especially as they have to write and then upload to GLOW.
Eportfolios are fantastic and broaden childrens use of ICT as they incorporate more information about their leanring, their achievements and their school life onto their portfolio.
It is a medium which children like and grasp quickly and easily and it's use should continue to be encouraged and expanded. Well done to the children and young people, the teachers and the schools who use ICT in their learning.
I would like to see teachers’ blogs on our school website, then we’d all be on the same page in knowing what our kids are learning and how parents can help. As far as I make out, teachers are frightened of sharing information but they say it would be far too much work. Is this a staff competency issue or just a general reluctance to embrace parental involvement?