Belinda

Hi Belinda, This is your space to talk about how your ICT is going in class (perhaps finding out all about how great Macs are!! :-)

Hey Belinda. How is planet Mac going for you?? You love them, don't you...come on say it!! What was the highlight for you at the Expo this year? Stu

MY LEARNING JOURNEY

Macs certainly do have some fantastic applications and software. I have enjoyed how easy it is to use the programs in the classroom with children, and I am trying to use more ICT applications in my literacy now. My latest learning curve is with voice thread. I am yet to master it but excited about its possibilities.

My Action Research focus has been using the function 'track changes' to help the children with editing and up-skilling their writing. This is a great tool to use, however I have found that it would be more suited to older children. At this age the children find it time consuming and often difficult to type their work onto the computer, and need the practice and development of key board skills for this to be a successful tool in literacy. As it stands, the children (at this level) get more out of editing their work in their books with a different coloured pencil and feel safe and secure in their learning by doing so.

In order to help the children during this action research project, I decided to ask their year 7 buddy class. This was a great little activity, providing another opportunity for the year 4 students to be modelled to by older children, and learn how to edit and improve their writing. Track changes allowed me to see the developments and changes made as the sections were highlighted in different colours.

In saying that, the year 3 & 4 teachers are very excited about the children's literacy and look forward to when they are ready to use this tool later later in the year.