I had a really good day at eTime’s Inclusive Learning with iPads course last week. Although there was content I knew and had been through before there was still plenty I could feed back about to the cluster and that I could learn about for myself. I had my first experience with an iPad in June last year. Although I had an iPhone I had never used a tablet before. I spent many hours in the second half of Term 2 taking my iPad home and having a play. One of the things I’m really pleased about is that I got to work with Book Creator. Looking at some of the different apps available today really made Book Creator shine through. As a class teacher I’ve had it drilled into me to always be looking for apps where students can create original content. Book Creator provides a blank canvas which is very important in regards to copyright and creation. The students can then add their own designs, pictures, photos, ideas, voices etc.
Before the course even started I was talking to an RTLB about an app she is using in a digital classroom that contains several students with challenging behaviours. The app Class Dojo is a free behaviour management app and it is available in both stores. She showed me briefly how it worked. You can make comments and award badges for behaviours. She doesn't recommend commenting on the bad but just encouraging the good. Parents can log on at home too and see how successful the day has been for their child. The reason I liked it was because it’s aimed at primary but she has made it work for secondary. Even though it has the awards etc which highschoolers wouldn't usually buy into she has managed to get buy-in based on the simple fact that the teacher can do it in silence. She doesn't have to make a big deal out of the behaviour the way a primary school teacher would, she simply adds the achievement and it pops up on the students screen. Positive reinforcement such as ‘Jarred I really like the way you are working quietly with Jasmine’ doesn't always work with older children but this teacher is having huge successes with this app. You can award points too, to the whole class or individuals if you wanted to have table points with prize boxes or auctions etc.
Although I’m not currently in a classroom and don’t own a tablet personally I now have a list of apps for further investigation. If you have an iPad and are looking for something new to have a play with, I would suggest the following:
- Write about this - Writing App - Teachers can provide a prompt, children can record themselves and then write, replaying their pre-recorded story back when they get stuck.
- ican count money - Maths App - Using NZ money! - from identifying coins all the way to giving out correct change.
- Game Press - Coding app - Much like Scratch
- Bits Board - Skill and drill app - you can create boards or use other peoples and then there are 18 mini games for you to run them through.
- MoE NZ Apps - The NZ MOE has created some iPad apps too, mostly basic readers but some are in Maori and some have NZ Sign Language incorporated. Search for apps created by The Ministry of Education New Zealand and they should come up. Otherwise try searching for the RR book I want to fly and then click on app designer to get a list of all the apps designed by them.
You can check out my notes from the day if you want to know more details.
