Proverb Quote
“He who fails to plan, plans to fail”
As this week’s Learning Resources point out, our students come from different cultural backgrounds, speak different languages, and have different ability levels, readiness levels, and learning styles. Technology can help teachers customize their instruction to help students with diverse needs access your content. As a teacher, you develop learning goals for individual students that allow them to obtain the skills and knowledge required by standards. UDL (universal design) allows the curriculum to be enhanced (Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. 2010. pg. 120).
The first goal I had was to allow my students the opportunities to create Social Studies and Science projects. Technology can enhance book projects by creating digital storyboards. I would need a laptop or iPad for each student with Internet access and writing programs such as Microsoft Word. For the iPad there is an application titled ScriptWrite. ScriptWrite is screenwriting application. Students can write an entire screenplay or a quick scene on the go, all with one easy interface. There is another application titled Lyrics Writer. This allows students to write lyrics for music. By using technology for Social Studies and Science, projects will be enhanced and students will be engaged in their learning.
The iPads are now just being inventoried and newly arrived on campus. I have been researching applications and borrowing my sons iPad to learn the technology out there. I am in the planning stages for their Solar System project and will allow students to use technology to enhance their learning. The information I still need is the range of iPad applications that are out there theat are effective in assisting students in the learning process.
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
I have never used an Ipad before so I am really behind the eight ball. I really appreciate the information that you shared about the programs that are offered through Apple. This is good to know, as I also have never owned an Apple computer, although I do have an iPhone. The programs that you talked about sound like they would be very engaging for the students and a hands on experience for them.
ReplyDeleteTaking the time to research more applications that would be helpful in your project completion is not going to be necessarily difficult, just time consuming. I am anxious to see what you find out in your journey and hoping to own an iPad in the future to bring into my classroom.
Are the applications that you found so far need to be purchased? If so, will your school be willing to purchase the application for each computer, or how does that work?
The iPad works just about the same as your iPhone. Apps do cost money. We can either purchase them ourselves or if we want the district to pay for them, we can send the link to our tech person and they will approve the purchase. We have 3 per classroom right now. We can borrow other iPads from co-workers if we need more. I like the iPad because I can give the student one and they can look something up on the internet. We do have one laptop cart and a half cart for the entire school. It makes it a bit more inconvenient to get the cart vs. the iPads. Because the iPads are new, I am still researching great applications that can be used. If you hear of any good ones, please let me know.
ReplyDeleteCami
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if I have mentioned to you before about xtranormal.com. It is also a place in which students can make movies. The cost is ten dollars (per month) for the teacher account and fifty cents per student per month. Since your district is playing for some applications, maybe they would pay for this account and student fees as well. Students would just need to be able to type in their script, select characters, and setting. If you have not had a chance to explore it, you should give a try! I hope this is helpful for you, even though it is not an app for iPads.
Marisa Roberts
Innovative technologies will continue to evolve. Although exciting, this can also be quite demanding as educators must stay abreast of the latest trends. Collaboration from all stakeholders, especially our students, must be incorporated in our lesson framework. I often engage my students in inquiry-based web search activities. Having your students search the web for ways to implement technology in their Social Studies curriculum would enhance their literacy skills of applying knowledge, foster self-directed learning, engage students in authentic/real-world applications, and hopefully, introduce new technologies that can be implemented in your lessons.
ReplyDeleteCathy B.