Learning & Development: ICT - All about ... digital journeys

From TV to DVD, phone to video calls, washing machines to gaming stations, the presence of technology cannot be ignored. It was this knowledge that led a group of Liverpool settings to embark on the Digital Journeys Project, funded by the local authority and led by Early Years Matters.

Helping me and other Early Years Matters advisers to develop the project was Colette Bentley, a member of Liverpool School Improvement Service, and Jo Hitchmough, also from the service and now an infant school headteacher. Like me, Jo strongly believes that technology should be integrated into teaching and learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).

By making ICT a daily part of children's experience, children accommodate technology in the same way as they do paints, crayons or other 'tools'. Such an approach avoids the 'feast or famine principle'. When technology is available intermittently, children 'consume' the experience as much as possible; when it is regularly on offer they learn to accommodate it as another tool for learning.

However, simply making smart technology available to children doesn't mean that they will learn more or know how to get the best from what is on offer. Achieving this requires careful planning and evaluation. So, the aims of the year-long Digital Journeys project - which were all achieved - were to:

• develop creative ways for teaching and learning using digital media

• develop children's and practitioners' confidence and skills in using digital media

• use digital media to extend and enhance learning, with a specific emphasis on communicating ideas and thinking, as well as PSED, C&L and UW

• record children's learning through IT and support documentation of children's learning

• engage parents in their children's learning

• research effective EYFS practice.

REFLECTIVE DIARIES

Taking part in the project were practitioners from a children's centre and ten infant and primary schools, alongside the children and parents.

Throughout, practitioners were encouraged to keep reflective diaries and to document children's learning. Findings were then shared at key points in the year to promote reflective practice and to understand how best to integrate iPads and iPod Touch technology into EYFS practice.

The project generated significant amounts of data, which gave an insight into technology within the home (see More Information) and established a baseline for judging success. Both staff and children's confidence in their ICT skills grew enormously in the course of the project. Judging their own confidence on a scale of one to ten, staff scores at the outset of the project ranged from four to ten and from eight to ten at the end, with an average confidence score of nine.

Similarly, practitioners scored half (53 per cent) of the children as having little or no confidence in using ICT at the outset, but at the end nearly two thirds (62 per cent) showed they were very confident in using ICT, with no child scoring less than four. This may reflect both the impact of involving parents in their children's learning and the fact that practitioners' confidence also increased.

The focus of the journeys undertaken by each setting diverged as different practitioners followed individual paths, recognising ways that technology could enhance teaching and learning in their own context. As one teacher, Cally, points out, 'When I introduced the iPad and iPods to the children I soon discovered that you can't just put these devices out - real thought needs to go into where they are placed and how the children will use them.'

Half-termly cluster meetings helped practitioners think this through and, in addition, practitioners received support visits from the project director and a creative adviser who used creative techniques to inspire the use of technology.

PRACTITIONERS' STORIES

Rudston and Beacon Primary Schools: evidencing learning using iPads

Observing, recording and making meaning was the focus of the Digital Journeys project, writes Ged Mulhaney, who with colleagues Rachel Sizer and Emma Rowley posed the question, 'How is children's learning evidenced?'

They explored ways of:

• using the technology to record shared learning, and

• the use of commercial observational assessment tools, using either Orbit or 2Simple Apps to create individual profiles.

This is what was discovered:

Shared understanding

Images, video and voice can all be captured and presented in various ways using an iPad and appropriate apps. These facilities expand the ways in which practitioners can establish a shared understanding of children's interests and learning, as well as record that learning.

Using apps

iMovie

Children captured, through photographs, the changing seasons, their environment and visits to the local area. They then decided the order in which to insert the images in apps such as iMovies or a slideshow and selected some music to accompany the images. The movies were then played in the setting on an interactive whiteboard or individual iPad to consolidate and reinforce the shared experiences.

Recording in this simple way and trusting children to choose their own images promoted a positive, collective ethos. It enabled the children to represent the important aspects of learning for them, which may, or may not, be shared by adults.

Educreations

Educreations has the facility for image, voice and text. We used it to make a presentation, outlining the children's ideas for 'what makes good counting'. This enabled children to record and revisit their strategies for counting accurately.

The children loved to hear their voices and see their work, first on the iPad then mirrored on the interactive whiteboard. This raised their self-esteem and their image of themselves as good learners. It was fascinating to watch the children's reactions to the presentations. They enjoyed their contributions being recognised and responded with pride to each replay. The reception children recently voted this their favourite app.

Comic Life

In the EYFS unit, the children had shown a real interest in superheroes. So, as part of a nursery maths activity, we built on this interest by displaying photographs of superheroes flying around Liverpool landmarks on the interactive whiteboard. The children, we explained, were newspaper reporters, like Peter Parker from Spiderman, tasked with counting and recording the number of superheroes. This excited them all, especially the boys.

After input in small groups, the children worked with a partner. They built their own tower and rolled the dice. They counted the superheroes then found the correct numeral under sparkly fabric. Their partner photographed them during the activity and together they copied the photographs into Comic Life, with adult support.

To extend some children's learning, the dice was rolled twice and they had to calculate how many superheroes they had in total. Afterwards, the Comic Life strip was used to reflect with the children on their learning, as part of a display and as evidence for their learning journeys.

iBooks

A trip to a building site was a starting point for a group of children interested in making their own book. Children's questions included: 'Who works at the building site?', 'How do you make a concrete floor?' and 'How do you know where things go?'

The interested children visited the site, took photographs and videoed the workers and site manager answering questions. Back in the classroom, we also recorded the children's reflections on the visit.

The children pursued their interests by exploring planning and design as well as building materials and processes. Various children reflected on their different interests. Matthew retold the process of laying the concrete floor, from the mixing of the materials to the end product. Poppy was interested in the machines on-site. Joel and Lucas made their own bird's-eye view plans.

The children chose the photos, film, drawings and voice to use in the book creator app to produce a simple book and uploaded it to iBooks to share with classmates and parents.

Involving parents

Fathers' Story Week provided an opportunity to involve our children and their dads or male carers in creating stories together and emailing them to school. A fabulous range of stories, including word, images, video and drawings, arrived.

Harry and his dad recounted their time together on 'Sporty Saturdays' and ended with Harry's words: 'I love my Saturdays with my dad and I can't wait to go the (football) match with him.'

Gabriella and her Dad used photographs and drawings to create a book about 'Speedy the Snail', which appeared with Gabriella, in the garden and on the slide.

Children and teachers shared the stories through the interactive whiteboard, a printed book placed in the book area, and the school website, which helped raise the profile of dads and male carers.

Individual learning

Before the Digital Journeys project, staff in both settings recorded observations using pen and paper, photographs and a mountain of Post-it notes. This was a time-consuming process, which normally entailed taking home files and a significant amount of cutting and sticking.

During the project, practitioners used the 2Build a Profile app in a reception class and in a nursery and reception unit, and also used Orbit EYFS to contribute towards an individual learning journal for each child.

We explored using and taking photos, adding text for describing the evidence, accessing the learning objectives from Development Matters and adding next steps. All staff from both settings have now used the iPads to record observations and are gaining confidence in using the apps more effectively. These have been moderated with FS1 and FS2 and with other schools and at local authority level.

The advantage of using apps is that they give direct access to photographic evidence to support observations indoors and outdoors. The children were incredibly enthusiastic about using the iPads to record their learning. This highlighted what they considered to be their achievements and enabled them to contribute to their own profile, to share with parents and teachers in their new classes as they completed their time in the EYFS.

Having Development Matters a click away benefited staff new to the EYFS. It was easy for them to:

• link their observations to the developmental statements

• begin to understand how the statements linked to the children's learning, and

• identify next steps in learning.

Observations were automatically sent via Wi-Fi to a secure website where observations could be collated, viewed, saved and printed at any time.

Parents were positive about using iPads within the EYFS and in recording their child's achievements. Their comments included: 'Great idea to use iPads in school to support learning. Ruby uses ours at home and is very confident', 'It was lovely to see my child in action in the observation photos. To see how settled they are in school' and 'Brilliant! At five, Joel can use an iPad better than me.'

Parents have also been involved in accessing their own child's observations online and commenting on them and contributing to the picture through the parent link in both apps.

Having time to type in a coherent observational account and consider the links to Development Matters while still engaging in the learning and supporting children was not always possible in the session and extra time had to be allocated to complete the task effectively.

Moderation of the observational assessments was essential to ensure a team approach and develop a shared understanding of Development Matters and Early Learning Goal statements. So technology saves time in some aspects, but it also still requires discussion, reflection and analysis with staff, children and parents.

Individual case studies

Educreations: Mollie & Ruby

In nursery, one child is drawing and recording the drawing process onto Educreations. Mollie is busy giving instruction, taking a real interest and complimenting her friend Ruby on what she is doing. Guiding and giving a commentary, she says: 'That's the body; you need legs at the bottom. Well done, Ruby! We need hair and arms. Well done, Ruby!'

Educreations records the voice and shows one child's skill to guide her peer, while capturing the other child's drawing. It is excellent for capturing snapshot events and learning that is taking place and how the children interact with each other.

Flow: Ryan

Ryan uses sensory drawing app Flow to create patterns and pictures on-screen. He is intrigued by its facility to create pictures and sound. To extend his interest, staff set up an art activity, enabling him to explore the combination of paints and colours using marbles in a box, mirroring the app process.

Ryan derives great joy and pride from his efforts. He is able to talk about what he is doing and what is happening and to listen to other children working on the same activity. As well as supporting his communication and language skills, this activity also develops his creativity and physical development in picking up marbles and moving the tray around to make patterns.

Puppet Pals: Holly

Our observations for Holly reveal she is an imaginative and creative learner. Holly loves to make props for her small-world and role-play activities. An opportunity for Holly to create her own underwater story using the Puppet Pals app and a mermaid with Holly's face on it illustrates a vocabulary which incorporates specific story language and expression with an awareness of the listener:

'Cindy the mermaid was swimming one day by the seabed. She saw an octopus. She thought she would ask the octopus if he would like to play with her. So he said yes. So they played and played and played by the sea bed. They played hide and seek. Cindy hid and then octopus found her. She went "BOO".'

This immersion in the story then led to Holly recording her story in writing using a copy of the screen grab created in Puppet Pals.

Summary

Many types of evidence can be used to document children's thinking and learning. Images are powerful because they provide different perspectives on a child's learning. Voice and visual images allow children to demonstrate what they know and how they think, so expanding our understanding of how individuals and groups of children learn.

Using the iPads and iPods as part of the project made integrating them into our practice easy for all involved - practitioners, parents and children. The work developed through the project has enhanced the involvement and well-being of the children involved. It has enabled intense learning experiences to be developed, recorded and shared. This strengthened the learning experience for the children in our settings.

Springwood Heath Primary School: inclusion

Springwood Heath Primary School, writes Amy Rowlandson, caters for the needs of children in the locality as well as learners with severe medical and physical needs.

Our reception class consists of 34 children with a wide range of needs. Since beginning the Digital Journeys project we have fully incorporated the iPad and iPods into our learning.

The children have been using them during adult-led group activities as well as during independent learning time. The children use iPads to complete a range of activities - drawing, listening to stories, playing number games and recording their play in photos and videos.

The iPods are used mainly to record learning, with children taking photographs and videos of their own creations, such as in role play or to share their achievements at the end of the day with a slideshow of pictures and videos. The children really enjoy this independence and love showing off what they have created to their friends and teachers.

Individual case studies

Ella

Five-year-old Ella came to school last September after attending another nursery. She is confident and sociable, motivated to learn and excited by new challenges. Since she has regularly used both paper and the iPad she shows enormous progress in her co-ordination and as a result her learning has been accelerated, particularly her ability to communicate through mark-making and writing.

Ella also enjoys using the iPod Touch to play games and record her learning. She loves making videos of her friends acting out stories and then watching them.

Always confident and keen to learn new skills, Ella has embraced the use of ICT in the classroom. When asked what her favourite part of school was, she said 'I love acting out and filming.' She can confidently capture, film and review her videos. She can delete them if they are not to her liking and also show other people what she has done.

Rhys

Rhys started out as an apparently very shy boy who enjoyed playing outside but seldom initiated play with other children. He didn't seem to enjoy talking about what he was doing and showed reserve with others. Using an iPad helped Rhys to show a new, outgoing side to his personality, and taking turns independently with his friend Liam during continuous provision revealed he was quietly confident. After talking with his parents, we found that he enjoyed playing on their iPad at home so we explored different activities using the iPad in school. The effect of this approach was visible almost immediately.

Rhys is very confident navigating his way through apps. He enjoys mark-making, playing number games and designing his own monsters using a painting app. The biggest difference we have seen with Rhys is in his interaction with adults and peers. He now helps other children on the iPad, showing them how to access different apps - 'If you want to take a picture of the screen you press this' he says, showing an adult how to take a screen shot.

Rhys has transferred this confidence across the curriculum. For example, after reading Aliens Love Underpants, Rhys decided to create his own alien, which linked brilliantly to maths activities where he used an iPad to write the numbers of aliens he found in the classroom.

Using ICT has allowed Rhys and many other children to take ownership over their own learning, build confidence across the curriculum and increase their motivation to learn. It has made learning more exciting, relevant and accessible to all the children. As our school is fully inclusive, this is very important.

All children in our class have been able to access the iPods and iPads to varying degrees and all children have shown high levels of involvement when using the equipment. The ICT equipment has also challenged our teaching, encouraging us to use fresh ideas in our planning and take the lead from the children who often act as teachers to us. Digital Journeys has been a fantastic project. We have been proud to be involved in it, with some impressive results. We look forward to extending our use of ICT and hope to build on our successes.

St Christopher's Primary School: using iPads in storytelling

Storytelling is central to our practice across the school, writes Rachel O' Connor. Taking part in the Digital Journeys project allowed us to build on our interest in developing storytelling using apps, an iPad, two iPods and other peripherals, as well as iTunes vouchers for buying apps.

Puppet Pals

The most popular storytelling app in our class was Puppet Pals, which opened my eyes to the potential of apps in supporting cross-curricular learning. Our class had been working on The Gingerbread Man and we used this app to make a video of our retelling of the story.

The app comes with set backgrounds and characters but also allows children to add their own, including photographs of themselves. The children drew characters and background scenes for the story, which were then photographed with the iPad. Using the children's drawings gave them a real sense of ownership of the project.

We then connected the iPad to the smart board so the class was able to practise retelling the story and to plan a movie before recording it. This allowed the children to see what the movie would look like and to rehearse their lines. Recording the process was easy and the children were mesmerised to see the end product.

Noticeable throughout was the children's total engagement. I was particularly impressed that one child with a special need was very vocal in expressing their ideas both during and after the session. The iPad proved an excellent tool for engaging children and enabled them, in a non-threatening way, to enjoy and achieve their play plan targets.

Following on from this session, the children created a library of stories -some using available characters and backgrounds, others incorporating the children's own.

I found that this was a great way to record children's voices and identify their interests. We made alien models using fruit and vegetables and then photographed them - even after they have decayed they remain in Puppet Pals as characters ready for more story adventures.

Book Creator and Busy Things Animal Muddle

Book Creator is another good app. Again my main use for this has been for retelling stories and I sometimes photograph the pages from our storybook of the week and use a recording app to encourage the children to retell the story. It is also good for encouraging the children to make class books, recounting things they have done.

We created a class book of aliens after the children discovered the Busy Things Animal Muddle app. After they created creatures, the children named their aliens and created an Alien Directory - just in case anybody wanted to check out how to spell some weird alien names.The more able children typed the names on to the iPad and also recorded their aliens' names verbally. As a teacher, I also find this app useful as a presentation tool.

Other good apps for storytelling include the Collins Big Cat stories. Not only do these apps help with children's reading skills but the story creator allows children to use the scenes and characters to retell or create their own tales. Another app, Halftone, allows you to turn photographs into cartoon strips.

ST GREGORY'S PRIMARY SCHOOL: QR CODES

At the beginning of the Digital Journeys project, it was put to us that we could use QR codes to give children instructions and allow them to work completely independently, writes Cally Gillespie.

These codes are used mainly on packaging. When scanned they take the buyer to the product website or contact details. You can download a QR reader app to your smartphone or tablet computer.

I liked the idea of providing interactive ICT as part of our continuous provision, believing it was just the tool we were looking for to promote and enhance children's engagement with maths activities. Our instructions could be verbal, on video or offered as a set of photographs in modelling a skill.

Using QR codes as an alternative to a talking postcard or talking tub, we now record a video of instructions, upload it to YouTube and link it to a code, which the children can scan to access the information, say for a treasure hunt.

This then led us to the possibility of having the children use their own illustrations and narratives to create a retelling of a story, which could then be recorded as a video and linked to a QR code displayed in the book corner next to a picture of the well-known story.

Ideas snowballed when discussing the technology with Cate Heron, my project partner, and others - highlighting the importance of reflecting together on practice. We now use the codes to celebrate, motivate, provoke, inspire, reinforce, challenge, create stories, solve maths problems, and document learning and to share information with parents and visitors. We put codes on walls, in books and newsletters, on the school website, in homework books, on our transition booklets and on parents' leaflets.

Using the codes has enhanced children's speaking and listening, motivation and self-esteem because the emotional environment has encouraged children and adults to try new things and to learn together. This has extended deep involvement in many activities (we know this from having used, as part of the Digital Journeys project, tools such as the Ferre Laevers' well-being and involvement scales as a measure of children's engagement in activities).

ICT AT HOME: A SNAPSHOT

A sample of 53 children revealed the extent to which ICT features in their lives. It was found that of their parents:

• 96 per cent owned a mobile phone (of those 60 per cent owned a smartphone)

• 54 per cent used a PC, 67 per cent used a laptop and 23 per cent used a tablet

• 50 per cent had access to a Nintendo DS or a Wii

• 21 per cent used an iPod Touch and 35 per cent used an iPad.

Ann Langston is director of Early Years Matters, www.earlyyearsmatters.co.uk