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New applications and survey results

November 20th, 2009 by · No Comments · Uncategorized

Our latest challenge with the Ipod touches is that everyone wants to use them, the year six teacher isn’t getting the time he wants on them because other classes are so keen to use them. With all the enthusiasim even the teachers are jumping onj board, three teachers have not got their own iphones or are seriously thinking of getting them.
The students are currently completing the survey created using google docs forms and reduced url (using tiny.cc) We hope to have results available soon. I would also like to see the teachers using the forms in google docs for assessment purposes, small steps are needed though.

Some cool applications we have found and are using are associate this ( a word association game) T charts – a cons and pros application which is really cool as the students can add weighting to each point. Also a brainstorming application called Simplemind express.

mind express

With the end of school year functions comming up, we are thinking of using the ipods for music storage and the teachers can have their songs on their ready to go. We have speaker set up in every classroom already so it is quite easy for teachers use the ipods in the classroom.

We have also just purchased a live scribe pen, which we are hoping to use for teacher and student created animations, i.e. answers for homework, how to use punctuation, science diagrams with explanations or anything else we can think up. These will then be placed on the Ipods for the students to use whenever they can / like or need to.

The first set of results from the google doc survey are in

Out of 21 students

17 said that Ipod touches are a good way to learn

11 said they were better than laptops for school

6 said there are disadvantages to using Ipod touches

10 said the ipod touch has helped them improve their number facts

9 said the ipod touch helped them improve their spelling

I will add some of their comments next week

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Even the teachers love them

November 9th, 2009 by · No Comments · Uncategorized

teacher3

last week I took the ipod touches to the staff meeting for the teachers to have a look at and play with. All of the teachers who tried them instantly thought they were great and asked if they could use them in their class. As the trial class was away on camp the grade five teachers jumped at the opportunity to use them. They used the pre loaded applications for drill and practise. One of the teachers asked if she could take one home to play with and came back the next day super excited about how she could use them in the classroom. I walked into one class and asked them “who liked using the ipod touches?” instantly every hand shot into the air. Now that we have enthusiastic teachers and students, we need to move beyond the application phase and start using the Ipods as a genuine student centred teaching tool.

The year five teachers also used safari for the kids to surf the web, they even used the touches to complete the online surveys every student in year 4-7 has been asked to do as part of a whole system survey. Apparently the kids had no problems completing the surveys on the touches and once again the teachers liked the fact that they were so fast to load. (much quicker than waiting for laptops to start up and students to log in.

teacher1

The Grade one students haven’t had the opportunity to use the ipod touches instead of listening posts, they are all set up and ready to go. The student created audio recordings are synced, which was easier than I thought it would be. The Ipods have been synced using the Year six teachers laptop, (which was away on camp) I wasn’t sure if syncing the touches with mylaptop would wipe eveything off them. It didn’t so that was a relief and add’s opportunities for syncing audi and applications from different machines.

This week we hope to do some online assessment using google docs, Here is a link to a survey I am going to get the kids to do on the touches. http://tiny.cc/ipodsurvey  and maybe using a great new application I heard about  from Jonathan Nalder which allows kids to make T charts. We might also have to look at how kids can email work from the ipods to their teacher. I would also like to get a microphone connected so the kids can record themselves reading and reflect on what they are hearing. We need to teach our kids how to reflect on their learning, it is an assessable item after all.

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Anyone can use Ipods?

November 2nd, 2009 by · No Comments · Uncategorized

Today begins week three of the project, I didn’t get a chance to post last week, so here are some reflections on what happened last week.

These types of things really need the time, energy and interest of teachers, admin and students to make them work. Our year six teacher was away for two days, so the ipods sat in the classroom doing nothing. The kids were keen to use them, yet the replacement teacher wasnt knowledgible enough or game enough to use them in the classroom. We also still need to find a solution for storage and safety of the devices. I would have loved to get down to the class and help out, but time is always an issue in admin.

Once the teacher was back onboard things got going again, the students are really loving the applications and it is excellent to see them so keen to get involved in spelling, grammar and number facts.

We have also begun recording stories that our year ones can do in rotational activities. We have used an mp3 voice recorder for the older students to record the books in an audio format that the year one students can use in conjunction with the story books during lessons.

The mp3 recorder plugs directly into a usb slot in a computer and we are going to use itunes to sync the student created audio books with the ipods.

The year six students have recorded several stories and today I worked with some of the more able year one students to continue recording the audio stories. (The year six students are on camp)

year1

The Year one readers loved recording the stories, here you can see one of the kids getting readin to hit the chime (the signal to turn the page). It was interesting watching the kids read, seeing the visual cues they used when reading.

We can’t wait to get the students using the ipod touches in the classroom, we have bought some new headphone to use with the ipods, we believe this will be much easier to use and more hygenic than earplugs.

The ones we bought are cheap ones from Sams wharehouse $5 each, so hopefully for $30 we have a cheap solution.

We have also found some new applications, one is like wordle and allows kids to make their own word clouds on the ipod. We have also found some apps that allow you to make cartoons and add captions to photos and pictures.

The other ideas, using google docs forms for quizes, ipod blogging, using student created self help videos and answers to homework and using u-tube videos on the ipods. Once again I will keep you updated.

At our staff meeting this week we will be playing with the ipod touches and hopefully spreading the energy and enthusiasm that these tools can generate with students and teachers.

Now how to convince the French teacher to start using the free french apps that are already loaded on to the ipods.

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Applications Applications Applications

October 23rd, 2009 by · 3 Comments · Uncategorized

The Use of the Ipod touches has begun in ernest in our year six class, after syncing all the touches (6) so they all have the same applications the students have begun using them.

The touches are passed around the room when the kids are working independently and the applications are being usied for drill and practise. The teacher has made an excel spreadsheet with each students name and the applications they should be using, this allows for differentiation of activities. This happens during maths mentals time (morning) and reading time (after lunch). Also at other times in the class when students are working quitly.

rotationalspreadsheet

for Maths the drill and practise applications that have been used are Mental Maths, Fraction Factory and Freddt Fraction, feed me

for English the the drill and practise applications that have been used are free grammar, sentences, grammar 2 and scramble

The Students have responded very well to the applications and love using them as a reward and it is an incentive to finish their work early.

The Ipods have also been used for research. The students have looked up recipes using the ‘all recipies.au’ application and the coles application. The students then take notes to use later. The students have also used safari, to research in small groups – one ipod per table, in case students need web access for last minute research for their debates. The teacher has noted that it is much quicker for the students than getting a laptop, loggin on, opening IE and then searching using google. He is still looking for a find function to find words on webpages in safari.

One ESL student (Italian) has been using translator websites in the Ipod during other lessons, when she doesn’t understand a word, she looks it up and gets the Italian translation, it is less obstrusive and quicker than doign the same thing on a laptop.

For homework the students had to find / create photos of angles around their home, these were then emailed to the teacher and the photos were placed on the ipods for other students to use/measure and explore. the students have also been using applications with built in protractors and angle games.

 

PICT0237small

Quite a few of the applications that require the web don’t work on our system (translators, dictioanries), because we have a proxy, even though authentication happens when the wifi connects, (we have created a general login for all the ipods) this is still a problem. We don’t have a solution yet but are working on it.

Next week we want to use voice recorders to create read-a-long stories for the year one’s, then put these on the ipods for the year one teacher to use with their kids. We also want to add student made instructional videos (i.e. how to measure an angle) to the ipod library. We hope to explore the possibilities of using quizzes for assessment  using forms in google docs and tinyurl to shorten the url. We hope these can be put into bookmarks on Itunes and then the bookmarks sync as the ipods sync. This should be much easier for the kids to use.

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The Project Begins

October 20th, 2009 by · 4 Comments · Uncategorized

The project I (we) have chosen is the implementation /use of ipod touches

My original wording of the project was

How can teachers and students use Ipod touches as a management and learning tool?

We have purchased five more ipod touches to go with the one the school already had. The year six students are very excited, as is the teacher.

Our year six teacher has an iphone of his own which he uses in the classroom as a management resource. He gets his emails, record photos and video. I would like him to explore some more options – using the voice record function, anecdotal records, roll marking, gps mapping or anything else.

Now that they are here, we need to work out a system for

-           Adding applications

-           Charging the ipods

-           Storing the ipods

-           Keeping track of the ipods

We also need to work out systems for classroom use,

 

  • Small rotational groups
  • rewards
  • activities for early finishers
  • pass around the class when students are working independently
  • or some other system 

We would also like to explore possibilities of how you could get the ipod screen onto a dataprojector to show kids examples.

One of our year one teachers has expressed interest in using talking books on the iphone. We might get some year seven students to recorder them selves using MP3 recorders and then import them into Itunes/ place them on the ipods for the grade ones to use in reading.

Here are some of the applications we have already on the touches

 

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