Saturday 8 December 2012
To use IPad in education
A relatively new tools to use in teaching is the IPad. My school have during the autumn purchased IPads, but unfortunately only one/grades, which means that about 30 pupils have to share one IPad. But luckily we will get another one/grades after Christmas.
Since you can have many different functions in the IPad it can be used from preschool and up in the school years. For preschool children and younger pupils in school there are different play-apps to use for example Fun English, which mixes different simple and everyday concepts through memory, songs, games and functions to recording speech. The children can work individually or together in small groups. For the school pupils there are different translations-apps or apps to training "glosor". Another app that could be useful is Book Creator. In this app can the pupils individually or together in small groups making their own books with pictures, text and speech. This app can be used by both younger and older pupils, because they decide by their own the level of their work.
Have you then got a projector or a SmartBoard in the classroom can you easily by using a connection cable connecting the IPad to the projector or SmarBoard and show the work to the whole class as an accounting or to play games together.
As a teacher I can use the IPad to make different presentations to show the class on a projector or SmartBoard. There are many great apps for example Apples own: Pages (same as Word), Keynotes (same as Power Point). You can also go on the Internet and show for example clips from Youtube or films from AV-media.
Personally I feel that this is a tool that I want to learn more about. So I can use it more in my teaching in the future.
One disadvantage is that it costs money to invest in IPads and since moste schools already have computers, both destops and/or laptops. This could make it differcult to get the school to invest in IPads too.
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Hi Helen!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the iPad is an interesting tool to use in education and I would, just like you, like to learn more about it. I think you have mentioned some good examples which suits well in language teaching. How do you feel that the students have responded to the use of iPad in education? Is it something that gets them more interested than for example using just the whiteboard?
Right now I am working in a preschool with children in the age between 1 and 3 years and even with these young children there is quite a lot of things you can do with an iPad. Since the kids I work with still are learning how to speak at all, I haven´t been able to try the app Fun English. It sounds like a lot of fun so it will be something I will try to keep in mind so we can try it later on. For the moment we are frequent users of the camera on the iPad. It is an easy and fun way to keep track of what you are working with. I believe this could also be used in school, in just about any grade. When they are old enough to handle the iPad by themself you could let them take photos of a certain process and then give a presentation to the rest of the class and describe what they have done. A little bit like the Book creator you wrote about (as I have understood it)but instead of practicing writing they get a chance to practice their oral use of the English language. :)
//Malin
Hi Helen!
ReplyDeleteI have chosen to comment on your blog post because I find it very interesting. 'My school' have purchased two Ipads to the six-year-olds which they will be able to use next semester. The other classes in school will also be able to use them when the six-year-olds are not using them and I am trying to learn as much as I can about them! ;)
You are mentioning that you can connect you Ipad to your Smart Board - have you done that yourself? If you have - can you play the apps as usual on the Smart Board or are playing on the Ipad and it is just showing what is happening on the Smart Board?
My question to you is what you think is the advantages with an Ipad comparing to a 'regular' computer? Is it the apps that are the advantages with an Ipad? Because otherwise - isn't that just the same thing as a computer? If you don't think about the apps?
And another question I have is - how would you like to use the Ipads in your teaching? I understand that it is all new to you that you said that you would like to know more about it but do you have a wish on how to use it in your teaching? ;)
I am so looking foward to use these two new Ipads we are getting next semester. Especially as I am working with a child with autism and I think that Ipads can be very useful for him. Useful because I think that he need things to be more interactive in order to stay focused. In my opinion, Ipads are more interactive than computers.
Thank you for your blog post!
//Jonna Lengstedt
Hi Helen!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the iPad can be a useful tool for all pupils no matter how old they are. And even is a good tool for teachers, thanks to all different apps and ways the iPad can be used in.
I love my own private iPad and use it a lot at home, but I haven´t had opportunity to use it as a tool in my teaching yet. So I, just like you, try to find out more how I can use it with my pupils.
Just like you said the advantages are to have access to a lot of useful apps to chose from, get access to everything on the web and that the iPad can be useful both for working individually and in whole class. By using the camera you are able to use Skype (or FaceTime to interact between other iOS - devices) as a way of letting the pupils communicate. Many apps makes it easy to share texts, pictures and documents to for example Facebook or a Blog if you use this as well in your class.
In addition to these uses, I would use the iPad to let the pupils make own recordings. Both movie clips and animations or to make recordings when pupils speak English is easy to do, through apps like Soundcloud or Lego Movie. Other benefits by using the iPad in front of computers and laptops is that the iPad is easier to carry around and use everywhere. I also find it easier to read text documents on the iPad than from a computer screen, and for younger children it is easier to touch the iPad screen than try to maneuver the computer mouse. And the iPad offers a more interactive learning than the computer.
The disadvantage you describe, that it is expensive for the school to invest in iPad, I also believe is common. But one argument, from those schools that choose to provide all pupils an own IPad is that the cost of both hardware and software is cheaper than a computer. So by highlighting the advantages by using iPad in teaching maybe we can get our headmasters to realize that the benefits by using iPad outweigh the extra costs.
/Linda Bodin