Lesson 3: More apps to play
Last summer we spent a lot of time exploring Apps to use in
the classroom. Many of you found great
apps for reviewing math facts and for learning various skills in your
classroom. Take a few minutes and review
some of the apps that are listed on our blog from last year. Every day new apps are created; it is
difficult to keep up with so many. Look
through the list and see if you have some that need to be added to your
classroom devices. Down load “Apps Gone
Free”. It will give you a list of apps
every day that are free for a short time.
My favorites have been the photography apps. Think of ways to use apps to produce products
with your students. Many of the apps are
much easier to use than a program on a computer. If students manipulate a photograph, it can
be e-mailed to you or when you connect your computer to your ipad/itouch use it
as a camera or storage device. You can
just upload the information to your computer.
Dropbox also allows for sharing between ipads and computers. Another app
to use to share photos and creations between ipads/itouches is Bump – both
devices must have it loaded…but with a simple “bump” a photo can be transmitted
wirelessly.
At RCE we are just barely touching the basics of using an
Ipad. I visited with an RCE teacher
recently about writing and reading with ipads.
As I started doing research I came across this article on Digital
Storytelling. Digital storytelling
is just telling or writing a story using technology. This article lists many different apps that
make storytelling fun. Think about the various apps you would need to tell a
story using the digital device. Again,
remember that technology is only a tool.
You may want to digitize some of your graphic organizers or use some of
them on the web. The iPad enables you to
easily access Google Docs to create a graphic organizer.
RCEAPPS (use the column on the right to navigate
through the site) is where we posted all of the apps that we found last
year…you can continue to add if you found more.
It would be great if this could be a living breathing document with
additions all of the time.
Remedial:
Go back and look at the blog we used last year (http://appstoplay.blogspot.com/) It may help you to utilize the ipad to it’s
fullest by looking over the articles.
Sometimes when you first get a new piece of equipment, it takes a while
to see all that it can do for you!
Enrichment:
Read through some of these articles on integrating an ipad into your
instruction.
62
Ways to use an ipad in your classroom (It’s a shared slideshow with some
great free apps with ideas on how to use the ipad in your classroom )
The
smart way to use a tablet in your classroom (article on implementing use of
tablets)
Assignment:
Locate at least three new apps that you could use in your
classroom. A good place to look for
great apps is this blog sponsored by Scholastic. A second site with 50 more apps is located on
this
site.
On the blog, respond to the following questions: How do you best utilize your ipads/itouches
in your classroom? What kinds of apps do
you prefer and why? (Productivity, drill
and practice, writing, internet use) In
what ways can you see changing your current use of ipads for the next school
year? How will this affect student
learning and success?
I love the app “Apps Gone Free”. That is going to be something that I share with my class at the very beginning of school. I just wish our iPads had more memory so that I could download a bunch and not have to manage adding / removing them according to what we are learning.
ReplyDeleteWe use various apps for producing all the time. What I like most is being able to email them to myself so that when my student is done and ready to turn it in, it is just a click away! The easiest way to go about this is to create a “fake email” account… (xxxtrevinot@gmail.com) and have it synced on the iPads / iTouches. That way, they do not have access to “personal” conversations! This works great with Videoliscious, Magisto, Pages (Word for Mac People)…
I checked out the 62 ways to use an iPad and realized we are already using a lot! #29 Puppet Pals (Great way for kids to practice their retelling / to create new stories focusing on BME & Conflict / Resolution)
#38 Dropbox (Love using this as a way to share large files – photographs)
#39 SKYPE
#48 Google Docs
#49 Toontastic (Create digital stories to share with others)
#61 Emoji Free (Icons that you can use instead of words – fun for texting)
Show Me (Awesome for having kids create whiteboard videos to share)
I plan to explore these more:
#9 Dragon Dictation (It allows for speech to be converted to text – what a great tool for those kiddos with Dysgraphia)
#12 Smartnote (This allows for you to share worksheet activities that they can write on and then share back – would have been a GREAT tool at the end of the year when our “copies” were maxed out!)
#20 Make Comics (It allows for the creation of comics on an iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone)
#24 / #50 Evernote (According to Foster – 2nd Grade Teachers will be using this to hold our antidotal records for Guided Reading – BIG HIT w/ NANCY!)
#30 PhotoCard Lite (Kids can create a postcard and then email it or use it later in their journal)
#32 Story Buddy (I like this because kids can take SFML and then share them as an eBook for others to enjoy)
#41 K12 Timed Reading Practice (Use this for a “warm up” before kids participate in Guided Reading – helps to build fluency)
#55 Connect to a Live Tutor (This will be great as I flip my math curriculum for this next year!)
#56 iTranslate (Assist in conversations)
#58 Tangram App (Helps to develop mathematical concepts of fractions, spatial awareness, geometry, etc.)
#62 Sliceit (Mathematical problem solving)
I love using the iPads for a lot of different activities. Mainly - though - for productivity!
Jennifer B.
ReplyDeleteI am planning on using my iPads more next year for my students to write and record audio with stories they have written in class. I prefer apps that have drill and practice with them so that the kids are actually learning something at the same time that they are using technology. Not just using it for fun and games, but getting something out of what they are doing on the iPad. I used them a lot for internet research this year, but am planning on using them more for practice and production of a final product (audio and pictures for a written story?.
I think students will be more eager to want to write papers if they know that when they are completed they are able to produce a final product that has audio and creativity with their pictures to tell the story that they have written.
Looking at motivating others to use the productivity apps. The Ipad should be used for more than just drilling kids. The iPad has many apps that students can quickly create photos and journal entries. I will encourage the ipads to be used as e-readers as well. The ipad is a perfect device for students to use in many different ways.
ReplyDeleteLisa Davis
ReplyDeleteI love Apps Gone Free! It's nice to find free apps that you can use in class. I looked at the slideshow, just like Theresa, and I was pleased to find that we use lots of those same apps too. I downloaded a few apps to try this year. The first one is Over. It lets you write over photos before publishing. I think kids will have lots of fun with this app and they can write something they know about a character from a book, or even themselves, depending on the picture. I like the idea behind ifontmaker. Students use their fingers to write letters in their own handwriting, then that font can be used on a computer for them to type out their work. I didn't buy it because it is expensive, but I'm waiting, hoping for a sale. Also, I want to try Barefoot World Atlas. I'm sure it's just like other atlases, but I like the kid friendly writing that goes with this one. As kids tap the different countries they will learn facts about each one. One last app is called Dragon Dictation. We have reluctant writers every year. This app lets kids speak their story and turns it into text. I'm planning to use this for those kids who can speak about what they want to write, but when they have to put it on paper, something crazy happens and what they write isn't what they said. I'm excited to try these new apps this year.
Kate Evetts
ReplyDeleteI appreciate Theresa posting different apps that she used. I played around with some of these. I discovered that I lean toward story telling apps. I downloaded Puppet Pals, where students can create their own shows using animation and audio. I think the students would enjoy doing this and it would make story writing fun. I also liked Story Buddy. Students can use the ipads to create stories and share them with each other. Maybe one student could start a story and pass it on for someone else to add to it. They could continue this for a few rounds and see what kind of story it turns into. Then this could be a sort of brainstorming/prewrite for another indivdual story. But I think my favorite app at this point was the Dragon Dictation. I like the idea of giving struggling students a chance to get their wonderful stories out and recorded so they don't forget them. Then they can come back and replay it while putting the words to paper. They can also adjust stories to make them better without forgetting what they wanted to saying. I think I will try to find time in my LA time daily for different groups to use ipads with these apps in order to motivate them to try writing without frustration. This will probably be a station in my room.
I use my iPads and iTouches constantly throughout the day. The first and most important thing to remember is to set up your expectations and have the kids understand the purpose of the technology. I used all types of apps—productivity: Created movies, stories, etc.; Drill and practice: language arts apps for sight word practice, math fact practice, etc.; Writing—back to some of the productivity apps, they used them for writing and then transferred to the writing to productivity apps; Writing/Internet use: Researching topics became a great use of the technology during writing time. This also gave me a chance to discuss copyright and have kids begin giving credit for where they found information. This next year, I will continue with all of this different ways of using the technology. I am excited to learn about the dragon dictation app. I didn’t know about that one and wish that I had it this past year for one of my very reluctant writers that had difficulty with writing but could verbally tell fabulous stories. Theresa’s app list is fabulous—she always lets our team know about the latest app she found so we can try it out. AppsGoneFree is the best! I’ve gotten a lot of fabulous apps this summer-or school and personal use!
ReplyDeleteMany of you may not like to hear what I have to say, but I don't utilize my ipads or itouches in the classroom. My kids use them primarily for a dictionary, to practice their vocabulary on Quizlet, or for research. I don't feel like we have time to retell a story and record each other and still walk away with something new. Kids do this at home all the time when not at school.
ReplyDeleteI read the article, "The Smart Way to Use Ipads in the Classroom" and still walked away unconvinced. Retelling a story? Most RCE kids come to us so verbal that they are perfectly knowledgeable of recording their voice. We are struggling with writing it, punctuating it, spelling it, and keeping it all in the proper tense. It's not as much fun to do pencil and paper, but clearly we are not getting enough of it. If I allow students to use technology as a resource, I constantly find them on a game app or playing with them like they do at home. We seem to lose our goal and end up having a whole lot of fun.
“Children are being able to show what’s in their minds by adding the oral explanation,” he said. “That’s off-the-charts amazing.” This is what our kids come to us capapble of doing. Unless we are working with an ELL kid, we have already conquered this. Help with oral explanations might be helpful if we were talking about students with Autism or those that are completely reserved and too shy to speak in class.
Put a book on an electronic device and I'm sold. Without that portion, it sounds like after school fun to me.
I feel like I utilize the iPads in the classroom in an fairlyaverage way (not lousy & not over the top). As I look at the chart provided on the RCEAPPS page, I noticed that I tend to gravitate toward APPS in the creating and evaluating levels of Blooms. Then I jump over and have a lot of APPS in the higher levels of understanding and remembering. I found it helpful to see the chart in that way so I can now focus on gaining more in the analyzing and understanding levels. I find that the APPS are terrific in skill and drill in math and edit, but problem solving TEKS in math and applying editing are difficult to implement using the APPS I have. I also have difficulty finding APPS that really focus on the craft of writing. Creativity is clearly enhanced using this technology, but my kids need work with actual multiple sentence formation/paragraph writing. They need work with reading and intensive comprehension where making a movie or turning a scene into a cartoon isn't going to help. My focus this year is to find APPPS that are used to truly make my students better writers of long essays and narratives as well as deeper thinkers in comprehension work. It was nice to have some time to hunt around for new APPS for true classroom use.
ReplyDeleteAmy White
ReplyDeleteI utilize IPads in my class so more students have access to Texas Success during technology workstation time. Texas success is a differentiated program that provides practice of various math concepts. I also use them to access Manga High through the app Rover. I was very happy to find Rover because it allows the students to access computer programs that normally are unable to work on an ipad. I also prefer drill and practice apps because it allows students to practice math facts in a way that they enjoy. Next year, I hope to find more apps that can be used to go deeper into math concepts. I can also use the devices as research tools in Science. I think this will affect student learning and success by providing multiple student led choices during workstation time.
Lesson 3-
ReplyDeleteDebbie Moore- Using the itouch apps in health fitness class as a station is another way to have students continue to get their active participation time and incorporate technology. The new app “My First Yoga” class could be used easily as a station. “Big Cat Race” would be best used with one or two partners. “Eat This Not That” is an app taken from the popular book by the same title. This app and “Smash Your Food” would be 1-2 partner activity station. I do think we can incorporate student’s participation with technology more during class time this year by searching the apps available and being creative with grouping to manage the large class sizes. I think the summer technology classes are great. It gets everyone going in a positive “technology way” of thinking.
Becky W.
ReplyDeleteI utilize the ipads more so than the itouches in my classroom. There are different types of apps that are downloaded. Besides finding numerous several drill and practice apps for math (Sushi Monster was listed on the Scholastic List), we use some problem solving apps as well. But I am still looking for some more that include math WORD PROBLEMS instead of just drill and practice. We also used them for internet research, which was very helpful since there are only 2 student computers in my classroom. Just downloaded the app, Educreations, and I look forward to using it in my classroom next year. It transforms the ipad into a recordable whiteboard that captures your voice and handwriting. I can see using this in math to have a kid explain the steps to long division to another child or it can be a way to check for understand after teaching a new concept. You can also use it to practice spelling words, summarize a story, etc..
I look forward to adding AppsGoneFree, and seeing what else we can use!
Kerry L
ReplyDeleteI enjoy watching the kids create movie and stories on the IPADs with Videoliscious. I am always impressed with their creativity. My 2nd grader is very into the comics so I cant wait to see what he will do with the Make Comic App.
I do find it easier to get the kids to practice their spelling words and math facts on the IPAD. Looking forward to trying the Educreations App.
I am truly an Apple gal. I am glued to my iPad. I use it more in the classroom than my laptop. I love that I can do almost everything on the district website with my iPad. That being said, it is much easier to use the iPads and itouch for math and science than for language arts in the math classroom. For science I love the rat and frog dissections. This is mainly a 5th grade concept and it is not free but it was great for reinforcement of our HOS concepts. I also found a really neat fraction app. It is called squeebles fraction. You have to make fractions and then also make equivalent fractions as the game gets harder. It would be good for grades 3-5. The girls love it. I also have an app called app advice. It reviews new apps and gives apps in different categories.
ReplyDelete