Technology used in schools- placement week

I went to Bryncoch Church in Wales primary school (http://www.bryncochciw.ik.org/home.ikml)  from the 5th-9th of Decemeber. This weeks blog will look at the technology used within the classroom in this particular school. In every classroom there was an Interactive whiteboard which is a large interactive display which connects to a computer. The whiteboard projects the screens desktop onto the whiteboard and allows you to control the computers surface using a pen. Children were allowed to use the whiteboard to play educational games. Children as young as 5 were competent and fully able to use the whiteboard and could navigate quite easily through it. It allowed the children to explore new types of technology, and have fun whilst doing it. A few children could use the whiteboard at the same time, helping eachother complete the task. The game they were playing showed a big red bus drive past and stop, asking the children to count how many passangers were on the bus, and if 5 got off how many would be left. the children then had to use the pen to write on the board the correct answer.

Every classroom also had atleast one computer, with many classes having four or five. The children could use the computers to assist their learning and in younger classes they had games focusing on sounds and other important skills.

In the after school club the also had a wii console (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii) which had educational games. The wii is a games console which you can move around with and you can get games which fully promote being active. I think this aspect in schools was a very good idea and allowed the children to have fun, whilst still learning.