iPads k-2

1-11-12 - Wednesday

We have now had two days of iPad use so far

A couple of notes –

1.     We limited the number of apps we installed so that each would be investigated before either the teacher or the student moved on. With too many apps we have found that some are looked at for 10 seconds and they move on – mile wide inch deep.

2.     Our regular meetings/informal discussions will be launching points for new apps

3.     Before each preliminary introduction I meet with the teacher to explain the use of some of the apps – some have experience most don’t but all are very very receptive and excited about their use

Kindergarten – the class was split so they were introduced 11 students at a time – structure was important – with 30 minutes available they started by playing with a specific app – just to familiarize themselves with the device – Next step was to learn how to – TURN THE VOLUME DOWN – not surprising.

            With the intitial familiarization complete it was time to move on to an app called “my story”. Here the students can create a short book by drawing a picture and adding text – see below

1. Intro window,  2. pages in story, 3. exported to ibooks, 4. other pages in iBook

 The next day, Tuesday – we introduced them in one of the second grade classes. Most of the students had either seen or used an iPad before so the “how to use” component was not needed. Structure still was required and they eventually settled on either “MathBingo” or “stack the states”

The other second grade teacher followed and had some excellent comments about the iPad.  We discussed the philosophy of the iPad – is it a toy or tool, are the students to be passive learners or active ones – how can we avoid having them associate the iPad with toys and/or games. At home we might use the iPad as a game tool when we require some “quiet time” or we can use it as a learning tool. On the education side the teachers are actively involved in the use of the iPad – assigning a task to be completed and continuously roaming the room to make sure that the students are working. We are making sure here to deisgn lessons that cause the students to be active, to investigate to ask questions and find solutions. We are rethinking our teaching methods to use this new tool. So this is where we are – working on finding great apps, sharing them when we find them, sharing how we use them, talking about better ways to use them. So the seed has been planted – next steps teach, collaborate, meet, take a step forward à end result students who are excited to learn via pen, paper, computer, iPad …

K-2 iPad roll out - day 1

Today we introduced iPads to the Kindergarteners. Wow! Over the next week the students in grades K,1 and 2 will all begin to use iPads in the classroom. We were so fortunate to receive some funds that allowed us to purchase an additional set of 22 iPads and a cart to store them in. Their use will be shared based upon a schedule that we developed with those teachers who were using them. Basically the classes have one hour blocks assigned to them each week. We thought that this was much better than the sign out system – (which is how allocate the use of the current upper school laptops). It allows them to be certain of the availability of the device.

We spent some time over the last month creating the roll out plan. As usual the details took time and the syncing of the apps did as well. We are looking into CASPER (An IOS device management tool) to help but until then we are working with what was given to us by Apple. What is great is the wireless syncing and the wireless automatic download of new apps (Unfortunately limited to 10 devices per iTunes account). We are looking into a more efficient means of syncing the apps, but until then we will manually sync.

Apps – We have pre-loaded the iPads (2’s by the way) – with several apps – that we decided would be a good start for general use across K-2. What is one of the most important pieces is the collaboration – there are ½ a million apps available and therefor critical that we all can help search and define those best suited for the students. I will be observing and meeting with the teachers both individually and collectively to assess and determine next steps. We will meet as a unit monthly to talk about lessons learned and any new apps that were discovered – this is the gold!! I will post the Apps that we went with shortly.

Below are a few pictures of the students in action on day 1  (click on pictures to make larger)