Primary

Principal, Seán Gallagher, describes his school's approach to computational thinking, starting with infants who use Beebots, all the way up to senior classes who are using Scratch, Lego Wedo and engaging in computational thinking challenges, such as Bebras. Seán describes how the school has adopted this approach to improve problem solving skills. A range of activities are described. Reference is made to a JRC report which can be accessed here http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC104188/jrc104188_computhinkreport.pdf.

In this video, Principal, Seán Gallagher, describes his school's embedding of digital technologies across the curriculum. The school makes use of the Digital Learning Framework, Looking at our School and the EU SELFIE tool to plan for digital learning. Seán's approach involves dialogue with colleagues and pupils to agree digital learning priorities. The provision of a solid and reliable technology infrastructure, including reliable wifi, is a key element to facilitating effective use of digital technologies throughout the school. Pupils use a variety of devices, including Chromebooks and iPads as well as other resources, such as Lego Wedo. The school focuses on creating rather than consuming knowledge and this is borne out in the school's use of computational thinking approaches at all levels.

Deirdre Ní Ghallchóir and Cliona Ní Dhúshláine describe how they use www.leighleat.com for phonics in the infant classroom. Leighleat is a website which has been created by principal Neil Ó Taráinn and is available to use by all schools. Deirdre describes how she teaches phonics using Leighleat, which is based on the phonics programme by Síle Ní Shéadha. Cliona describes using other technology in the school such as the C.J. Fallon digital school books as well as using ipads for other literacy activities.

Daithí Mac Giolla Easpaig from Gaelscoil Uí Fhiaich describes a 4th class project on the Vikings, starting with a KWL. The pupils then researched chosen aspects of Viking life and created a written/poster project in groups. When this was completed the groups created a stop motion animation which brought the topics to life. This involved planning, scripting, filming, artwork and editing and provided integration opportunities across many different subject areas. The children each had roles which rotated each day. The technology used included netbooks for research, and each group had access to one ipad per group as well as the Stop Motion app to create their animations. The projects were uploaded to Dropbox and played on the interactive whiteboard.

Principal Neil O Taráinn describes how digital technology is embedded at all levels in Gaelscoil Uí Fhiaich, from using the Leighleat.com phonics programme in infants to using assessment tools, coding and stop motion projects in senior classes. Neil describes the importance of having technology that you can depend on and how having access to high quality technology helps teaching and learning particularly in a Gaelscoil.

Tracey Ní Chearáin, a teacher in Gaelscoil Uí Fhiaich, describes how she uses quiz tools such as Kahoot in her classroom. Tracey has covered a lot of topics since September and the children are now tasked with collaboratively creating a quiz on English, Irish and Maths, which will be used as a whole class assessment. The children must research their topics and come up with questions which will test their peers’ knowledge of what has been covered. This is a fun activity for the pupils whilst also providing Tracey with useful data about what the children have learnt and highlighting any problem areas or difficulty with concepts. The pupils have shared access to ipads to play the quiz. They create the quiz on the teacher’s laptop.

Sinéad Ní Dhiolúin from Gaelscoil Uí Fhiaich describes how she uses coding in a SESE lesson about recycling and litter. The pupils work in groups to create recycling trucks using Lego WeDo. They then programme the trucks to move around and create a recycling centre with the Lego. Sinéad describes how she introduced the concept and skill of coding to pupils using the free Lightbot app. The children are using problem solving skills to create their code and are highly engaged in the lesson. This coding initiative is part of a wider project within the Schools Excellence Fund where they are partnering with other schools to introduce coding into the curriculum. The children have shared access to netbooks with the Lego Wedo software installed on them to conduct this project.

Seán Gallagher, Principal of Attymass Primary School, near Ballina in Co Mayo, describes how his school is using Threads to bring local history to life. Using a wide range of sources, including interviews with Grandparents, as well as digital sources such as the Scoilnet and Dúchas websites, Seán describes how the pupils have been able to actively engage with the history of Attymass and to share their accounts on the Threads website. Patrick Coffey, National Coordinator in PDST Technology in Education, describes the background to Threads, an initiative of the Department of Education and Skills which has been developed by Scoilnet. To find out more log on to https://www.scoilnet.ie/threads/.

An interview with Gráine McGowan, Principal of Mount Anville Primary School in which the approach to the use of digital technologies across the school is described. In particular Gráine describes the school's approaches to teacher professional learning, including accessing CPD, sharing of practice and availing of PDST support. Gráine also describes the school's digital technology infrastructure and provides examples of how this is used to support learning and teaching at all levels.

In this video Alma Curran, Teaching Principal in St. Joseph's National School, Rathmullan, describes how pupils engage with, and create their own digital book as part of a construction themed lesson. First they read the book in groups and individually. They then record themselves reading and create their own digital book using images and audio. As well as engaging the pupils it creates a useful assessment record for reading for both the pupils and the teacher. The app used in this video is Pro Show Gold, other apps which have similar functionality include Adobe Spark and Animoto.

In this video, Oonagh Russell, teacher in St Joseph's National School, Rathmullan, describes how she uses tablets in a construction lesson. Pupils are tasked in groups with building famous landmarks using a variety of materials, including Lego. Pupils record the process of their construction using images and when they have finished they upload the images from the tablet to the whiteboard and present them to the class, outlining how they built their landmark and any challenges they encountered along the way.

In this lesson, Sharon Graham, teacher in St. Joseph's National School, Rathmullan, demonstrates a robotics lesson for STEM which is conducted with the help of Seagate in Derry. The lesson incorporates the use of robots, Scratch programming and smartphones and the pupils carry out various tasks in groups. The lesson involves communicating, problem solving and numeracy and literacy skills. The pupils plan to build their own robots in the future!

In this video, Sharon Graham, teacher in St. Joseph's National School, Rathmullan, describes how her class created an animated version of the Flight of the Earls story, using their own created characters, sets and storyboarding. They used stop motion animation and recorded audio and sound effects to create an engaging video depicting the story. The project took a number of weeks and integrated History, Geography, Maths, Music, Visual Arts and Drama. The pupils were assisted by Letterkenny Institute of Technology throughout and the film was shown at the Rathmullan Film Festival.

In this lesson, Derek Brennan, teacher in St Joseph's National School, Rathmullan uses tablets in a PE lesson on dance and fundamental movement skills. The pupils use an app called Sworkit to warm up with and then they use the video function on the tablet to carry out self and peer assessment of FMS, in particular balance in this lesson. After the activity the pupils look back over their videos and complete a self assessment rubric on their fundamental movement skills.

In this video, Mairíosa McGee, Mount Anville Primary School, describes how she uses quiz tools, in particular Kahoot, as a form of assessment. In this example the pupils have created a Kahoot quiz for their peers which is directly based on a presentation they have created and delivered to the class. Using the quiz tool in this way encourages the pupils to actively listen and engage with the presentations their peers have created. The quiz questions help to consolidate the learning for all pupils as well as being a fun and engaging mode of assessment.

In this video, Alma Curran, Teaching Principal in St Joseph's National School, Rathmullan, describes how she uses a smartphone to assess play in an Aistear setting. She moves around the class recording conversations with the pupils, as well as amongst the pupils and then uses this to assess what learning is taking place and what language the pupils are using. Alma also assigns a pupil the role of photographer every day and they capture the activities taking place on the class tablet. These images are used as a stimulus for discussion during review time at the end of the day.

In this video, Mairíosa McGee, Mount Anville Primary School, describes how her class created video projects based on the UN Global Goals. In pairs pupils were assigned a global goal and had to create a project in the form of an Adobe Spark digital story based on their global goal. After researching their goal using various online sources, the pupils created a short digital story based on the goal which they then presented to the class. During the lessons Mairíosa took the opportunity to teach them about copyright and using only copyright free images for their project. As well as presenting the projects to their own class, the pupils had the opportunity to present them to younger classes in the school to educate them about the global goals. Mairíosa saved all of the projects to Google Drive as an assessment record. The pupils created their projects using shared laptops.

In this video, 5th class teacher, Róisín Lineen, from St Patrick's National School, shows how she uses World Book Online for a project on Ancient Rome. Using the differentiated levels of content (Kids and Students levels) the children use World Book's Timeline, Webquests and Compare Countries functions to create their project. The children demonstrate independent research skills while availing of tools including the inbuilt dictionary and the citation feature. World Book Online is available to all schools in the Republic of Ireland via www.scoilnet.ie.

Cormac Cahill of Carrigaline Educate Together National School uses a green screen to extend learning in his classroom. In this video pupils find themselves walking through a famous artwork. They combine looking and responding in Art with descriptive writing in English to create a narrated video. This helps the pupils to delve deeper into the piece of Art, while supporting the use of descriptive language.

Pupils in Carrigaline Educate Together National School use Book Creator to research and demonstrate their knowledge of History topics, eg the Vikings or Ancient Rome. Their teacher, Cormac Cahill, speaks about how creating ebooks supports literacy, problem solving, Music and Art in his classroom. Pupils work in groups to research facts and strong emphasis is put on using creative commons content. The pupils are creating permanent resources that can be used by subsequent classes.

To support his teaching Cormac Cahill sometimes creates eBooks rather than using textbooks. These ebooks can be made relevant to his pupils in Carrigaline Educate Together National School. The eBooks can also be shared wiith the wider teaching community through iTunes. Pupils can add to the ebooks or use other apps such as Explain Everything to demonstrate their learning. This video shows a lesson about volcanoes, combining digital tasks with hands on learning.

6th class pupils from Cregmore NS have been successful in the FÍS film competition. With support from their teacher Stephanie Herwood they have created Stop Motion animations with a cross curricular theme. Each project incorporates a wide variety of tasks including researching, storyboarding, scripting, set designing and producing. Students engage in groupwork with the emphasis on self and peer assessment.

TULCA and the Marine Institute's Explorers Education Programme have collaborated producing an art- marine science installation and short film called "Build your own Unknown" with artist Louise Manifold and with pupils from Cregmore national school, Co. Galway. The project involves a re-enactment of the 2011 discovery of the Moytirra deep-sea hydrothermal vent field. Students, teacher, artist and scientist, learn and work together in the classroom as co-creators and collaborators embedding ICT and creativity throughout the project. The project will also result with the development of education lesson plans and resources for the Explorers Education Programme™ which will be available on www.explorers.ie later this year. The Programme is supported by the Marine Institute, and funded under the Marine Research Programme by the Irish Government. More Info see: http://tulcafestival.com/marine-institute/'

Paul O'Callaghan teaches 1st class in Lucan Community National School. In this Science lesson the pupils made plasticine boats to better understand floating and sinking. They created procedural writing pieces in Book Creator based on the lesson. In addition they used Scratch Jnr to code the results of their Science experiment. Paul uses ICT to support planning of thematic lessons which span the curriculum.

2nd class in Lucan Community National School use tablets to support their learning in English. In this video their teacher, Eoin Flood, outlines several apps he uses including A+ Spelling, Book Creator and Chatterpix. He also uses technology to support planning ad assessment in his classroom, using One Drive to creat ePortfolios, Class Manager to view the children's tablets, and Apple TV for assessment. Through careful planning he has embedded ICT in his lessons.

In Lucan Community National School Róisín Cartwright uses tablets to support Maths learning with her 1st class. In this video the class are divided into stations and are learning about Place Value through a mixture of hands on activities and apps. The apps used in the video are Pieces Basic and Twinkl 100 Square. Peer assessment, self assessment and teacher assessment all feature in this lesson. Róisín emphasis that ICT is a tool to support curricular learning.

Nichola Spokes describes how Beebots are used with Junior Infants in Lucan Community National School. The aim of these lessons is to support pupils' problem-solving, development of instructional language, sequencing, organisational skills, and collaboration skills. The Junior Infant class work on a variety of stations over a six week period. The stations include small world, treasure maps, learning directions, phonics, 2D shapes, construction and Beebot app on tablets.

In this video, Ann Marie Roche, Lucan Community National School, is using tablets for literacy in Junior Infants. The pupils are working at different stations, including blending sounds, letter formation, tricky word practice, and dictation. Three stations use hands on material, while one incorporate tablets. The app being used for letter formation is Hairy Letters app. Pupils are motivated to learn as they engage with each other and the technology.

Learning support teacher Laura Duff, Lucan Community National School, is working on Procedural Writing with children for whom English is an additional language. In this video the 1st and 2nd class pupils have planted some seeds. Their teacher uses Kahoot to assess their knowledge of the necessary vocabulary. They recorded photos and videos using Explain Everything. They then created their procedural writing piece using Book Creator. During the lesson the pupils are developing their vocabulary, oral language, and procedural writing skills. Their work is assessed through a mixture of self assessment, peer assessment and teacher assessment.

Lucan Community National School is a developing school under the patronage of Dublin and Dun Laoghaire Education and Training Board. The school was established in 2013 with Junior Infants and has now grown to 2nd class. By 2020 the school will have all classes filled from Junior Infants to 6th class. In this video principal Nichola Sparks outlines how ICT is used in the school. She provides a full overview from the ICT vision in the school to accessing resources to whole school planning.

Senior Infant teacher Áine McGinn, Lucan Community NS, demonstrates how she uses tablets with her class. In this video the pupils have learned about the structure of a story in circle time and must now use the Toontastic App to create their own story. They are engaged in sequencing, creativity and problem-solving. Áine recommends having clear expectations and guidelines for pupils when using ICT. She also suggests using a staged approach when introducing ICT to your classroom.

Iseult Mangan, of Cloghans Hill NS, uses Scratch to support teaching and learning in a multi-grade setting. In this video, the junior pupils have been doing a language scheme of work based on the story Rainbow Fish. Once they have studied the story Scratch and Stop Motion Animation are used as modes of assessment. The senior pupils, in stations, facilitate this work amongst the younger pupils and, in doing so, develop their own oral language skills.

In Cloghans Hill NS, Iseult Mangan uses Scratch to support teaching and learniing in a Music lesson. Her senior pupils translate music notation into Scratch code to play songs in the software. This tasks supports differentiation as all pupils can work to their own level. While Scratch may not feature in every music class, it is a useful tool to include at various times throughout the year.

In this video the pupils of Cloghans Hill NS combine ICT and PE to create a revision lesson. During procedural writing the senior pupils write up Unihoc skills that they have been practising. From this writing they create QR codes. During the PE lesson pupils use devices to scan the QR codes to find out what task is next. This lesson supports integration and differentiation in a one teacher school. It also allows teacher Iseult Mangan to assess several aspects of the curriculum in an effective way.

Cloghans Hill NS is a one teacher school of 15 pupils. In this video teacher Iseult Mangan outlines how she uses ICT to best effect to support teaching and learning. She gives an overview of her planning, the school's Bring Your Own Device policy, as well as explaining some of the ways ICT helps her to integrate, differentiate and assess in an efficient way.

In Cloghans Hill NS teacher Iseult Mangan uses ICT to support teaching and learning in her Maths lessons. In this video she is focused on the topics of tangrams and perimeter. The class is divided into three stations. In the first station pupils are using the Osmo software and equipment to make tangrams with instant feedback. The next station uses Khan Academy, free software where individual tasks can be preset for each pupil to complete, with the teacher receiving feedback. At the final station pupils are drawing tangrams and using these drawings to measure the perimeter of an irregular shape.The teacher makes use of these ICT tools to support differentiation and assessment. Iseult recommends accessing online supports to help with using ICT tools for Maths teaching.

In this video, the senior pupils of Cloghans Hill NS use Stop Motion animation to retell a story from their rang Gaeilge. By integrating with Visual Arts and English their teacher, Iseult Mangan, maximised her time during the busy school day. She used PDST Fís lessons to support her teaching. Pupils used drawings, paintings and Lego to recreate the story. This task demonstrated pupils understanding of the Irish vocabulary. Once completed the video was shown to the junior pupils and thus ensued a lively Oral Language lesson.

John Weir, of St Mary's Parish Primary School, explains how ICT integration works in his school of 1100 pupils. The school has a laptop trolley to share among classes, with additional laptops dispersed among the classrooms and an IWB in each classroom. The school has a strong ethos of sharing, using Google Apps to share between teachers and to create ePortfolios for pupils. In this way teachers, parents and pupils can view their progress as the year continues. ePortfolios also facilitate teacher and peer assessment. To support teachers in using ICT the school trains teachers in small groups and this year is running a PDST Technology in Education summer course within the school.

Teacher Colm Hanlon uses Google Classroom to enhance and support writing lessons with his 6th class in St Mary's Parish Primary School, Drogheda. He creates writing resources which the pupils can access at school or at home. He supplies a variety of support documents including word banks for struggling pupils. This digital writing process includes feedback from a peer and from the teacher. All work is saved to the pupil's Google Drive, as well as the teacher's own Google Drive, in this way creating a detailed ePortfolio. Final drafts of writing are shared on the class blog. Colm has noted a dramatic improvement in pupils' writing since introducing this system.

In this video 6th class teacher Colm Hanlon of St Mary's Parish Primary School, outlines how he uses online tools for collaboration. Pupils create a group project based on a topic, eg A Famous Scientist. The group creates their project from information provided by the teacher. Their project is then submitted to Google Classroom or Google Drive for approval by the teacher. Finally the group present their work to the class. Each pupil has an ePortfolio of their work on Google Drive.

Teresa Kilbane, 1st class teacher in St Mary's Parish Primary School, outlines how she uses Google Classroom for Visual Arts. She and her pupils create a digital rubric that is followed by pupils creating in Art. In this way the pupils are focused on the artistic process rather than the finished product. The completed rubric, as well as photos of the artwork, is saved to each pupil's Google Drive to form an ePortfolio; to be viewed by pupils and their parents. Pupils work in pairs to enable peer assessment. Using ICT in this way has enabled Teresa to become a more reflective teacher; emphasizing the learning objectives in her lessons.

Mark Boggins, Holy Family National School, outlines how to create learning paths using Scoilnet. A learning path is a collection of online resources that share a specific topic e.g. the Famine. The teacher compiles the learning path, which pupils can access at school or at home.

Elaine Lyons, Christ the Saviour NS, demonstrates how to use Scratch to support work on writing genres. In this video 5th and 6th class are working on the final draft of a procedural writing piece using Scratch and other tools. The work demonstrates how Scratch can facilitate integration between different subjects, in this case English and Science.

In this video, Elaine Lyons, a teacher in Christ the Saviour National School, Ballingarry, talks about the use of Scratch to support literacy and numeracy. She describes how using Scratch across the curriculum helps develop pupils' skills in many areas, including problem solving, and also how it supports assessment, in particular self and peer assessment.

In this video, 5th and 6th class children from Christ the Saviour NS are using Scratch as part of a literacy lesson. Scratch supports their comprehension skills while studying the novel Carrie's War. While engaged in Scratch tasks the pupils are problem-solving, communication and brainstorming. The video also demonstrates how Scratch can support self assessment and peer assessment.

In this video Maeve Callery and Eavan Griffin, Mary Mother of Hope Junior National School, outline how to use tablets for assessment in Maths. Maeve describes how the tablets enable her to make assessment active, in the same way maths lesson are active. Evan makes the point that using tablets enables teachers to create targeted goals for individual children.

Alma Moran, principal, outlines how her school, Mary Mother of Hope Junior National School, uses tablets. Having reviewed literacy and numeracy as part of their School Self Evaluation, tablets were introduced. Initially they were rolled out to teachers who felt comfortable using the technology, and this was expanded through team teaching and modelling. Maeve Callery explains that tablets are used from Junior Infants to 2nd class, using a variety of apps, both content rich and content free e.g. Explain Everything

Ivan Hennigan, Mary Mother of Hope Junior School, outlines how to use tablets in an active Maths lesson. 2nd class are engaged in solving capacity tasks in groups. The groups must record their estimated answers using the Explain Everything app. These recordings are then viewed to assess the children's progress.

In this video Colette Haran, Mary Mother of Hope Junior National School, uses tablets to support talk and discussion with a Senior Infant class. Having read the story "It's A Cold Dark Night", the children use Story Creator in Collins Big Cat App to recreate a scene from the story. They then present their work to a partner. This task facilitates differentiation and rich oral language.

Rachael Doyle, Mary Mother of Hope Junior National School, explains how to use tablets for guided discovery with Senior Infants. In this video the pupils are doing sorting activities within the Data strand of the Mathematics curriculum. They use the Explain Everthing app to record their thinking.

Class teacher, Brendan Curtin uses a story builder app on a tablet device and emphasises the process in story development prior to use of any device. The children demonstrate that a variety of media can be incorporated into their stories. The mutual learning that took place is a particularly salient point.

In this video, class teacher Rosheen McGrath outlines how a variety of devices are being used effectively for the teaching of fractions. The IWB, tablet devices, hand-held video recorders and visualiser are all used at various stations. The use of ICT for self and peer assessment is clearly demonstrated and the use of technology for a purpose is stressed.

In this video, school Principal Enda McGorman outlines how tablet devices are being used to develop active learning especially for literacy and numeracy. Class teacher, Declan Lally demonstrates the use of tablet devices as a station activity with children engaged in active learning methods at the other stations. The importance of experimenting with the potential of the technology is stressed.

In this video, primary teacher, Mark Boggins, from Holy Family National School, Rathcoole, uses Scoilnet Maps and other tools in an SESE lesson. The Scoilnet Maps activity is one of five different station activities, some paper-based, some ICT-based, which all support the development of mapping concepts and geographical investigation skills. The lesson integrates numeracy as well as other curricular areas.

In this video, primary teacher Ruth Donald talks about how she uses the free programming language, Scratch, to support the development of her pupils’ numeracy skills.

In this video, primary school Principal, Enda McGorman, talks about why they chose Scratch to support the development of numeracy in their school and how this technology has been integrated on a school-wide basis.

In this video, primary teacher Ruth Donald teaches her 6th class about 2d shapes using a number of different technologies, including the free programming language, Scratch.

In this video, Mary Jo Bell, St Anne’s Primary School, Shankill, shows how she uses Web 2.0 technologies in her infant classroom. Mary Jo uses a variety of tools to support literacy development, including Animoto, Audacity, Skype and Twitter.

In this video, Patrick Halpin, Donabate-Portrane Educate Together National School, shows how he uses the visualiser as part of his maths teaching with 4th class. Patrick records himself completing a long multiplication sum on the board and then plays this on a loop on the interactive whiteboard, while he works with individual pupils and groups around the classroom.

In this video, Patrick Halpin, Donabate-Portrane Educate Together National School, shows how he uses Photostory with 4th class. Working in groups, the pupils create a photostory presentation on how to create origami flowers. They will use this presentation to teach origami to junior classes.

In this video, Mary Jo Bell, St Anne’s Primary School, Shankill, shows how she organises ICT in her infant classroom. Mary Jo uses the interactive whiteboard, digital camera, visualiser and other technologies. Additional tips are provided by Carmel Smyth, St Cronans JNS, Brackenstown.

In this video Mary Jo Bell, St Anne’s Primary School, Shankill, shows how she uses ICT as a support for literacy development in the infant classroom. Additional tips are provided by Phil Cheetham, Central Model School and Carmel Smyth, St Cronan’s National School.