Ideas for Using iPads for Digital Storytelling By Sam Gliksman The following is the first of a series of excerpts from Gliksman’s book iPad in Education for Dummies. The digital aspect of storytelling raises the art to a new level of experience. The emergence of technology and digital media has resulted in some significant departures from the traditional role of storytelling in education: Stories have become media-rich experiences. Reading and writing remain crucial educational components. When you think of storytelling from a traditional perspective, you might conjure up any of these images of Danny Kaye telling a story to a group of children seated on the ground; a kindergarten teacher reading a book to a group of young students; a parent reading a bedtime story to a child. Then we reached the information age. Students are becoming producers of knowledge: digital storytellers who use technology to express themselves. Students traditionally produced a product for an audience of one: their teacher. Related
My BIG List of iPad Coding Apps for Kids! December 9-15, 2013 is Computer Science Education Week, and this year their big push is to get coding incorporated into school curriculums everywhere. There are lots of reasons why kids should be coding, but none more than the fact that there are more resources than ever to help students and teachers get started, regardless of their previous experiences with computer programming. So, in honor of the #HourOfCode project, here is my BIG list of iPad coding apps for kids. There is something here for students of all ages. Bee-Bot (Free) - The new Bee-Bot App from TTS Group has been developed based on our well-loved, award-winning Bee-Bot floor robot. Bee-Bot Pyramid ($0.99) - A fun educational Numeracy game which encourages directional language, sequencing and problem solving. KineScript Lite or KineScript (Free or $1.99) - KineScript is a visual programming language that children can learn a code and share it. Cargo-Bot (Free) - Presenting Cargo-Bot. Like this: Like Loading...
Project Based Learning with iPads Bringing learning to life – Bringing Life to learning! To start with, I think Project-based learning is the future of education. It puts students into real situations where they have to: Act professionallybe a team playerunderstand their assigned roleStick to deadlines as a teamProblem solveProject manageCommunicate ideas … I could go on for a while here! Photo by USdagov These are the skills the world, employers, charities and universities are crying out for, far more than any specific content schools might have traditionally taught. Fortunately, I don’t have to cover PBL in much detail as there are a number of sites and Youtube channels that do it brilliantly, especially EDUTOPIA and BIE. Here’s Edutopia’s introduction: Just one Important distinction! Project-based learning is not ‘doing projects’. PBL APPS (version 1) Here’s my quick representation of PBL by iPad App. Like this: Like Loading...
Redefining the Writing Process with iPads Take a moment to think about how you learned to write. What steps did you go through? What was your process? Most of us learned the same core set of skills on paper: organize, draft, edit, revise, turn in. When computers entered into the equation, we digitized the process. In the progression from Writing 1.0 to 2.0, we digitally enhanced an existing process. With what we'll call Writing 3.0, students and teachers can: Organize and draft through handwriting, drawing, text and voiceCollaborate and incorporate multimodal feedbackCreate a final product that demonstrates mastery and communicates understanding beyond the literal confines of paper Organizing & Drafting With iPads, writing has becoming mobile, not just in the sense that we can write anywhere -- in some ways, we could do that with paper -- but that we can use the tools and features of the devices to scaffold our process both in terms of the output and the input. Imagine a student who benefits from the tactile nature of handwriting.
Checklist: Are You Ready for iPads In Your School? Digital Tools Which? Tech By Sam Gliksman The following is the third of a series of excerpts from Gliksman’s book iPad in Education for Dummies. It seems that every school is considering purchasing iPads these days, and Apple has reported that iPad sales to schools are currently outselling MacBook sales by a very large margin. Well-planned technology deployments can be tremendously successful and transformative for schools and students. Determining Whether You’re Ready There’s no point in purchasing iPads if you don’t have the technical infrastructure to manage and deploy them. Do you have adequate incoming Internet bandwidth to connect all the devices and use them at the same time? Understanding and Communicating Why You Want iPads This is the elephant in the room — the most critical question that is rarely discussed and evaluated from an educational perspective. Targeting 21st-Century Learning Objectives There’s a natural inclination to stay in your comfort zone. Enabling the Unpredictable
Kids iPad Learning Apps Winter 2013  Ready for some new educational apps? I figured this was about the time you would be itching to get some new apps. Kids home for several weeks. Extra time. All of that. Math & Science Pettson’s Inventions 2 $1.99 math, visual Cartoony graphics get to figure out how to build something but it’s not as easy as it seems because you can’t just put something somewhere – must figure out a system. The Curse $2.99math, thinking skills Oh, no! Number Run $.99 math I love this app for math practice. UmiZooomi $1.99 math A fun, interactive story that asks the reader to help Jake find his lost stuffed bunny at the carnival.Play the categorizing balloons game. Social Studies Geography Drive USA $4.99 geography Great for kids over ten. Thud: Presidential Edition $2.99 history I love that this trivia game keeps giving you chances until you get the correct answer. Paul Revere – Ansel & Claire $5.49 history Wow, this is probably the best example of learning through gaming that I’ve seen! Toontastic Jr. xo ~ Melissa
Back to School with iPads: 5 Steps for the First 5 Days School is just about to start, or has already started, and you have been armed with iPads for this year. Whether your students will be 1:1 or you have access to a handful of shared devices, the expectation now exists that these tools will be put to good use. So now what? How do you get started? What can you do in the first five days of school to get going on the right foot? 1. Students will be excited about using iPads from the beginning. Shaelynn Farnsworth (@shfarnsworth), a high school English teacher from Iowa, provides her students with a set of expectations on the first day of school. Third grade teacher Suzy Brooks (@SimplySuzy) writes: I am committed to teaching students the value of these expensive tools, and how important it is to take care of them. To provide her elementary students with a concrete representation of responsibility, she created iPaddling licenses last year. How do we represent ourselves online? 2. 3. Teacher Activities Student Activities 4. 5. All about Gage
20 Apps (Games) for Play-based Learning - Getting Smart by Guest Author - EdTech, ipaded, serious games “20 Apps (Games) for Play-based Learning” by Julie DeNeen first appeared on the InformED blog. Even though older adults might still carry a negative association with video game consoles and devices, today’s technology is vastly different than it was 20 years ago. Apps have exploded on the scene, and while there are plenty of time wasting games available on the market, today’s offerings also include a wide range of affordable apps that enrich learning and allow for quick on-the-go play. 1. The Letter School app won the Editor’s choice for Children’s Technology Review for 2012. 2. From the makers of Angry Birds comes Amazing Alex. 3. If your child likes puzzle games and math, Awesum is a fantastic combination of Tetris and Sudoki. 4. Traveling explorers and geographers will love the Barefoot World Atlas app available for iOS devices. 5. For parents looking to teach children how to tell time, Jungle Time was featured in Parenting magazine as one of the 10 best educational apps for kids. 6.