Written by Last weekend I attended an iPad workshop hosted by Joe Dale. In my exploration of how I can leverage technology to increase oral fluency in my classes, I thought it would be a good idea to learn from the most popular language teacher/iPad guru on my twitter feed. He promised to provide us with some hands-on experience with apps for the iPad that promote listening, speaking, pronunciation & confidence in French. I’m going to share a few of the apps I learned about that I believe would be useful to several subject areas.
Show Me – This is a free and simpler version of Explain Everything, for teachers who don’t want to spend their valuable class time teaching students how to make a presentation. Students can make backgrounds for their slides using the Camera Roll, then write/draw on the slide. There is a recording feature, which is easy to pause while making the presentation. This could be a great alternative to a traditional pen and paper test when asking students to “show what they know”. I can also easily make lessons to post online and have students watch for homework, so that we can put what they learn into practice during class time.
Decide Now – Picture a Wheel of Fortune wheel, only you get to select the labels. Students spin the wheel and discuss that topic, or a question related to the label that you’ve prepared in advance.Here is something I made during the workshop for an upcoming chapter discussion on Le Petit prince:
Tap Roulette – To decide who speaks during a structured discussion, set up a group of 4-5 students around an iPad and have them place a finger on the screen. Tap Roulette selects one students’ finger and it’s their turn to speak. Yes, this is a 2.0 version of drawing straws 🙂
Book Creator – Unlike a blog, this app placed equal emphasis on the audio, visual, and written content you could upload to create an e-portfolio of student work. I really liked its simplicity and thought that the format would really appeal to the boys I teach. My AP students have been curating articles and various media linked to the 6 course themes and a francophone country they’ve chosen to learn more about. While they present this material every few weeks in an informal way, in April they will put it all together (possibly using Book Creator!) with the added task of an oral reflection comparing what they’ve learned about that country’s culture to Canadian culture.
QR Codes – We spent a long time looking at how you can make a QR code out of websites and audio files, and then how to scan them or transfer them to another device. I love the idea of coming up with a game or scavenger hunt that involves these codes, and maybe posting some popular reference websites around the classroom but I don’t see how they could (or should) be used often in class. Feel free to enlighten me with your ideas!
My conclusion at the end of the day was that many of the apps introduced accomplish things that could easily be done on a student’s laptop; unless we are replacing laptops with iPads in the senior school there is no point in introducing apps such as Voice Record Pro, Visio Prompt, or Photocard. There were other apps introduced, such as Tellagami and Puppet Pals, which appealed to junior school teachers in the room.
I was happy to learn about general iPad uses, such as sharing my iPad screen using Reflector, so that if I ever acquired a class set of iPads my students could follow my instructions using the SmartBoard. I will also be using dropitto.me to collect large student files. Their work is automatically transferred to my Drop Box account. This works as backup for files on the camera roll and allows me to delete those files and save space!
I’d like to know to which extent high school teachers are using iPads in your schools. If you’ve used them successfully or if you’ve seen a colleague demonstrate a great use for the iPad, or if you feel iPads don’t serve student needs in the senior school, I’d appreciate your thoughts!
Jen, I’m excited to experiment with some of these apps in Grade 7 English. Thanks for sharing these resources.
It would be interesting to hear your evaluation on how well each of these apps could move tasks towards “redesign” or “modification” on the SAMR model. I’m also curious if some of the apps could have multiple possibilities, depending on how they were implemented in the class!