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Constructivism really supports our Digital Learning Plan because it encourages pupils to use digital tools in an active and meaningful way. When we apply constructivist principles, pupils move beyond passive interaction with technology—they become active creators of knowledge. Through project-based learning and inquiry tasks, students can use tools such as Book Creator, ScratchJr, iMovie, and Minecraft Education Edition to design, construct, and present their own ideas.This kind of learning makes our goal of developing digital creators feel real and achievable.
It also helps us build digital literacy across the curriculum. By getting pupils to work together, ask questions, and solve real problems, they naturally learn how to use digital tools responsibly and safely—skills they’ll carry with them beyond the classroom.
Constructivism also supports our aim of embedding digital literacy across the curriculum. By encouraging pupils to work collaboratively, pose questions, and solve meaningful problems, we help them develop essential digital skills. They learn to produce content responsibly, while also fostering safe and respectful online behaviour.
Constructivist approaches definitely help to strengthen the connection between school and home. When pupils share digital projects through platforms like Google Classroom , parents gain insight into their child’s learning journey and can celebrate their children’s achievements.
That’s a very useful list of ways that Webwise can be shared with the whole school community. These suggestions would work in a ny school setting. I have diipped into lessons on Webwise in the past but this odule has really given me time to appreciate the range of resources suitable for use in my school. I will be prioritising Digital Citizenship in my school this year. The resources are very teacher friendly as they need very little adapting for my school setting.
I have found the resources on Webwise.ie very effective in promoting safer internet use and encouraging responsible digital citizenship. In the past, I’ve used some of the HTML Heroes lessons with my 3rd to 6th classes in the Senior Room to mark Safer Internet Day, and they were suited to the multiclass setting. However, I wasn’t aware of the checklists for identifying fake news, including the SHARE checklist. These would be very useful with older classes, ideally at the beginning of the school year, rather than waiting for Safer Internet Day.I intend to teach most of these lessons in September as I think they will help us discuss safe ways we can use chrome books in class too e.g. safe search engines etc.
From my experience, many pupils are familiar with the term ‘fake news’ and they like to joke about it. But they are not yet equipped to recognise fake news and often take online information at face value. The lessons from Common Sense Education, such as Finding Credible Information and Seeing is Believing, are excellent tools and I think they would really engage the children in my Senior Room. The slides are ready to go and come with a range of supporting activities that spark important discussions around media literacy and critical thinking.
I haven’t used My Selfie and the Wider World before but would like to use them around February for Safer Internet Day and build on the work that I will do in September.
I am a teaching principal in a two teacher (plus base SET teacher) rural school also. I agree with the ways that other participants have listed that it can help us in our role. I am really looking forward to using AI to help me draft policies, targets and actions for DEIS planning, newsletters and communication with parents in general. I think AI and all the digital tools that we have explored on this course will help me to be more productive on my Principal Release Day in the office. I sometimes get distracted with emails/telephone calls/meetings etc too often on my PR days and although this work is important for the day to day running of the school, I would like to spend part of the day getting more ‘paperwork’ done. I often start working on newsletters, letters, policies etc but I often end up finishing most of this work in the evenings as I am daunted with a blank page! From using AI, I like that it can draft something and then through inputting more precise specifications (using the RASE format ) and through editing it myself, it can help me produce a document so much faster.
I used Chat gbt to compose a letter to parents after a one year career break as teaching principal. I used the following prompt :
I am a primary school principal in Ireland.I am returning to school after a one year career break.Compose a letter to parents and include the following.I would like to reintroduce myself by saying that I taught 3rd to 6th class in the Senior Room for five years from 2019 to 2024. I am looking forward to teaching these classes for the school year 2025 2026 and using some of the teaching ideas and initiatives that I researched and experienced in other schools during my year away.
