Niamh O' Malley's Design and Build to Learn Blog: Introduction Page

Yosemite National Park

Short Bio

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My name is Niamh O' Malley. I'm 22 years old. I originally come from a small village called Carrigallen in County Leitrim. I've lived in London for a year where I studied Speech and Language Therapy, I then decided this wasn't the course for me so I decided to take a year out to figure out what was the best course for me, on this year out I went volunteering to Fiji for 5 months, I done 2 months Shark Conservation and 3 months in a Kindergarten. This was the best experience of my life. Having spent 3 months in a kindergarten I then realised that teaching was what I was born to do and applied to do Primary school teaching in St.Patrick's College and now I am currently in second year of the Bachelor of Education course.

Why did you select this Major Specialism?

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I picked this specialism as I strongly believe digital technology is the way forward in terms of teaching/learning in the future. Digital technology is an exciting aspect to give the classroom the face lift it needs. Books are heavy to carry, boring to look at and out dated. Cameras, interactive whiteboards, internet, ipads etc are multi sensory, colourful and vibrant which will instill a happy working environment in the classroom.

Do you think the use of Digital Technologies changes the way we learn?

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Yes, I fully believe that Digital technology is the way forward in terms of education as it is an element if the 21st Century that has inspired a new lease of life in children. I hope to learn with the help of this module how to make topics such as Maths and Irish, exciting again through the use of computational devices and digital technology, children have a knowledge of how to use touch screen apparatus such as android phones and ipads which improves motor skills. Digital Technology brings topics to life through games, activities, songs as opposed to the textbook/worksheet learning era.