Writing

In a session with some PGCE students at the University of Leicester earlier this week a colleague asked the group ( fresh back from their first teaching experience) if they had seen any children writing using ICT rather than pen/pencil. There was good number of positive responses to the initial question so the supplementary,' ... and what software tools were they using?' was asked.

The answers have really made me think !

The first response was 'Colour Magic' ( and I confess that I thought that the student had just made a mistake in her software identification) ... but no. It was 'Colour Magic'... the children had been drawing pictures and using the 'typing/labelling' function to describe their pictures.

Further questioning produced a whole range of application that the children were using to 'write' in that were not writing tools in the pure sense.

This, as I have said, has made me think and ask around further.

What I seem to have discovered (and I should have known)is that children are doing a good deal of writing using software that just happens to have that facility.

I don't know why I am surprised at this but I am ! And it is all to the good ... my hope is that teachers and children alike are making decisions about the appropriate tools for the job and situation that they are in and are using them - transparently.

I would welcome views on this and examples to add to my growing optimism that, at last, things are moving forward.