Well I finally did it........It has been an amazing journey through the world of the iPad and I feel like I have learnt a lot. I have managed to complete it while writing reports, completing assessments and the usual run of the mill classroom organisation tasks we all have to complete!!!
Despite some trepidation when I was asked to do it I have really enjoyed the journey and have been allowed to spend time just exploring the apps and being directed to those to fulfil a particular purpose. This then lead to others that would also be helpful and the journey has become exciting. I have learnt a lot along the way and am excited to introduce these new ideas and new apps to my Kindergarten class.
As I have gone along I have commented on Jeneane iPad blog (Module 5)
http://ololjen.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/module-5_20.html and Emma Cheng's blogs (Module 2) http://emmacheng1.blogspot.com.au/p/module-2.html?showComment=1384050319941
Saturday, 9 November 2013
Module 6
Transformative Device
I couldn't agree more with this one.....it is revolutionising learning. and is quite scary when 18 months old can swipe and select activities they want to do from a selection of apps. It is the way of the future and requires a letting go of the traditional way of teaching. no longer are we imparting knowledge upon children but we are giving them a base to run with themselves. Using an iPad allows children to move aong at their own pace, to discuss and share ideas with others and become more in control and responsibile for their learning. The very nature of the iPad as a mobile, talking, music/video playing device creates curiosity and excitement not offered by a piece of paper and a pencil!!!
Camera Activity
The camera is such an easy tool to use and the children seem to use this more effectively than I do! Creating albums and naming them has been something I have been doing for a while and it was good to revisit this quickly to refresh my memory.
Annotating Activity
Skitch was a great app to use and with some fiddling around I worked out how to use it. However, I had difficulty saving my pictures and couldn't locate the home page or opening pages where I could perhaps access all annotations I had completed?? Perhaps I had missed a step!! Despite this I can see it uses for encouraging students to label pictures, explain what was happening in the photo or even documenting parts of an animal, person, scenery etc that may have been used in class or as part of an excursion. This would have been great after our term 3 excursion to the zoo!
Blogging Activity
Naturally the desktop / computer version offers more features but for convenience and ability to access it wherever you are, the iPad app Blogger is great. I have used it for Web 2.0 and now for this mobile devices course. I have switched between the laptop and the iPad for this course alone and find them both useful depending on the situation or my whereabouts at the time.
iMovie Activity
I have used iMovie in the past and have witnessed our Stage 3 students use it a lot better than I can! It would be great to record students participating in any activity in the classroom and to watch and reflect upon what they did. It could also be shared on the school website (or however the parents access information) for parents to watch and be part of what the children do during the day. This would also encourage a bit of communication between home and school.
I couldn't agree more with this one.....it is revolutionising learning. and is quite scary when 18 months old can swipe and select activities they want to do from a selection of apps. It is the way of the future and requires a letting go of the traditional way of teaching. no longer are we imparting knowledge upon children but we are giving them a base to run with themselves. Using an iPad allows children to move aong at their own pace, to discuss and share ideas with others and become more in control and responsibile for their learning. The very nature of the iPad as a mobile, talking, music/video playing device creates curiosity and excitement not offered by a piece of paper and a pencil!!!
Camera Activity
The camera is such an easy tool to use and the children seem to use this more effectively than I do! Creating albums and naming them has been something I have been doing for a while and it was good to revisit this quickly to refresh my memory.
Annotating Activity
Skitch was a great app to use and with some fiddling around I worked out how to use it. However, I had difficulty saving my pictures and couldn't locate the home page or opening pages where I could perhaps access all annotations I had completed?? Perhaps I had missed a step!! Despite this I can see it uses for encouraging students to label pictures, explain what was happening in the photo or even documenting parts of an animal, person, scenery etc that may have been used in class or as part of an excursion. This would have been great after our term 3 excursion to the zoo!
Blogging Activity
Naturally the desktop / computer version offers more features but for convenience and ability to access it wherever you are, the iPad app Blogger is great. I have used it for Web 2.0 and now for this mobile devices course. I have switched between the laptop and the iPad for this course alone and find them both useful depending on the situation or my whereabouts at the time.
iMovie Activity
I have used iMovie in the past and have witnessed our Stage 3 students use it a lot better than I can! It would be great to record students participating in any activity in the classroom and to watch and reflect upon what they did. It could also be shared on the school website (or however the parents access information) for parents to watch and be part of what the children do during the day. This would also encourage a bit of communication between home and school.
Module 5
Multimodal literacy is more than just a catch phrase used by educators at the moment. It really encapsulates the way young readers and writers learn to develop their literacy skills and the iPad is perfect for this. In Kindersgarten at my school we use the iPads constantly especially for those children who require a little help to develop these skills. They record their voice in a variety of ways, including apps such as Story Kit, and it is played quite clearly back to them. There can be a problem with background noise but I have yet to find a Kindergarten classroom that does not have background noise!!!!! An external microphone may be an option although background noise my still be a problem....it is defintiely worth looking into.
Storytelling Activity
Within our Kindergarten classrooms we use StoryKit and that has been fantastic for the children to create their own story. We have used it within reading groups and for RE contract work with the bible stories we have looked at. The app I explored was Doodlecast. The microphone was great and I was able to hear my voice very clearly. Background noise could be heard but it wasn't too bad and did not distract from the voice. This app would be fantastic for Kindergarten as they can draw and talk at the same time or take photos. I am excited to use this in the classroom! I looked at the poetry apps but I think that would be too hard for my Kindies.
Creating an eBook Activity
We use Story Kit a lot in our classrooms for creating books. As I said above we have used it across a few KLA's and the children are able to use it independently. I also explored eBook Creator and thought that was fantastic too. My own children also loved having a go. Book Creators could be used across most KLA's. Besides documenting childrens artwork, they could use it to retell excursions, incursions, bible stories or just write a description of a photo or series of photos! It could be used to explain a science experiment, where the children have to document what happened & complete an explanation or retell a fairy tale or the life cycle of an animal! I think with a bit of imagination, Book Creators could be use for many different things.
This module has been very interesting. I have picked up a few things that I am eager to try in the classroom. Doodlecast will be great for encouraging the children to talk through what they are doing, hopefully getting an insight into their thought processes at the same time. I was also impresed by eBook Creator and Doodlecast which I am eager to implement.
Storytelling Activity
Within our Kindergarten classrooms we use StoryKit and that has been fantastic for the children to create their own story. We have used it within reading groups and for RE contract work with the bible stories we have looked at. The app I explored was Doodlecast. The microphone was great and I was able to hear my voice very clearly. Background noise could be heard but it wasn't too bad and did not distract from the voice. This app would be fantastic for Kindergarten as they can draw and talk at the same time or take photos. I am excited to use this in the classroom! I looked at the poetry apps but I think that would be too hard for my Kindies.
Creating an eBook Activity
We use Story Kit a lot in our classrooms for creating books. As I said above we have used it across a few KLA's and the children are able to use it independently. I also explored eBook Creator and thought that was fantastic too. My own children also loved having a go. Book Creators could be used across most KLA's. Besides documenting childrens artwork, they could use it to retell excursions, incursions, bible stories or just write a description of a photo or series of photos! It could be used to explain a science experiment, where the children have to document what happened & complete an explanation or retell a fairy tale or the life cycle of an animal! I think with a bit of imagination, Book Creators could be use for many different things.
This module has been very interesting. I have picked up a few things that I am eager to try in the classroom. Doodlecast will be great for encouraging the children to talk through what they are doing, hopefully getting an insight into their thought processes at the same time. I was also impresed by eBook Creator and Doodlecast which I am eager to implement.
Friday, 8 November 2013
Module 4
File sharing and using Dropbox and Cloudshare is something I have used a little at home with the iPads and iPods that we have. It has been great to track on my iPhone when my children download apps at home & I can see exactly what they are doing!
Using this in the classroom would be fantastic. Kindergarten are able to take photos and videos on the iPads and then to be able to download them straight to computer for easy saving or printing would be fantastic! If things are automatically linked to other devices it saves the need for teaching children to constantly log on and off different devices and to find the same files or to save the same file on different devices.
I can definitely see different uses for Dropbox and other file sharing program's. My iPad is synced with iCloud which seems to be very similar to Dropbox and is so handy for all documents and programs that teachers use and need to share.
I have never used or seen neuAnnotate +PDF and this was interesting to look at. I can see the benefit of using an app like this to edit and annotate work / documents etc in the upper grades. I don't think it would be useful for Kindergarten particularly in the early part of the year!
Using this in the classroom would be fantastic. Kindergarten are able to take photos and videos on the iPads and then to be able to download them straight to computer for easy saving or printing would be fantastic! If things are automatically linked to other devices it saves the need for teaching children to constantly log on and off different devices and to find the same files or to save the same file on different devices.
I can definitely see different uses for Dropbox and other file sharing program's. My iPad is synced with iCloud which seems to be very similar to Dropbox and is so handy for all documents and programs that teachers use and need to share.
I have never used or seen neuAnnotate +PDF and this was interesting to look at. I can see the benefit of using an app like this to edit and annotate work / documents etc in the upper grades. I don't think it would be useful for Kindergarten particularly in the early part of the year!
Module 3
Module 3 was actually quite exciting for me to have a look at. Although I have used iTunes before mainly to access music I was interested to explore the educational apps that are available. I have heard about apps such as Popplet, iMovie and Tumblr but have never really had a good look at them.
Sock Puppet was a great app for my Kindergarten students. Collaborative skills are so important to teach the little ones and Sock Puppet allows this to happen. I loved the choices and decisions they are required to make with the great backgrounds, costumes and script writing that can come out of it as well. Fantastic for small group work at any time of the day! It certainly meets the iLearn criteria of Collaboration Skills.
I looked at Kathy Schrock's evaluation of an app form in relation to Popplet. This was an app that I haven't used before but I definitely think it is one that I could use with Kindergarten. It met most of the criteria in the evaluation form, however I wasn't able to access any music or sound within the app. Does anybody know if there is any? There may be a setting that I have missed. Popplet seemed to meet the criteria for iLearn collaboration and creative thinking skills. I hope to use this in a small group situation with the classroom.
Sock Puppet was a great app for my Kindergarten students. Collaborative skills are so important to teach the little ones and Sock Puppet allows this to happen. I loved the choices and decisions they are required to make with the great backgrounds, costumes and script writing that can come out of it as well. Fantastic for small group work at any time of the day! It certainly meets the iLearn criteria of Collaboration Skills.
I looked at Kathy Schrock's evaluation of an app form in relation to Popplet. This was an app that I haven't used before but I definitely think it is one that I could use with Kindergarten. It met most of the criteria in the evaluation form, however I wasn't able to access any music or sound within the app. Does anybody know if there is any? There may be a setting that I have missed. Popplet seemed to meet the criteria for iLearn collaboration and creative thinking skills. I hope to use this in a small group situation with the classroom.
Thursday, 7 November 2013
Module 2
Module 2 gave me lots of little tips and tricks for using the iPad more efficiently. Those hidden icons behind some of the keys are handy to know about and "Adding to Home Screen" was something I will definitely use.....it's so easy to get to pages I use all of the time! I explored the Notes and the Photo Booth inbuilt apps. As I teach Kindergarten, the photo booth will definitely be one they enjoy using. Notes has been good at staff meetings and other meetings where pen and paper are not available and now, not needed!!!
The chapters read were interesting, updates are so readily available it is hard to keep up! I did find the tools of Voiceover, Zoom and Large Text really handy for those students who need just a little bit of extra help.
The chapters read were interesting, updates are so readily available it is hard to keep up! I did find the tools of Voiceover, Zoom and Large Text really handy for those students who need just a little bit of extra help.
Tuesday, 5 November 2013
Module 1
Previously I have not had a lot of experience with an iPad so it was a little daunting to use it as a tool to complete this course. I found Module 1 to be a good starting point as it dealt with the basics - and showed me a few tips and tricks along the way. Anything that saves time is always handy!
IBooks looks awesome, as an avid reader this will be something I can definitely use in the future. Locking the screen and changing orientation are great too. As others have said I have always found the screen flipping to be really annoying so that option is very useful.
Looking forward to Module 2 and more secrets being unlocked!
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