My first surprise cam when some children who had only used Samsung Galaxy Tabs at home become a little stuck using the iOs software. One thing to note for the future, check what experience of hardware the children have at home.
Our wi-fi seems to be holding up to the task, although we are only on 14mb download from Cheshire, so we may need to invest in BT fibre Optic in the very near future - not a huge issue though, all the apps we needed were already downloaded.
Teaching the children to use Evernote was a good experience as they had never experienced that sort of organisation before. They have been using it to take photographs and store notes on maths problems and to write they first blog post about the iPads - more about that later.
Our first Multi-App project
On the first day I wanted to show the children how they can combine lots of apps to produce a final piece of work. The image is from Visual Poet, the photographs are from SnapSeed and the language generated was mind mapped using Poppet. A really interesting afternoon.
The children loved taking the images and using various filters and the using the photographs to inspire the writing about 'A Windy Day.' A simple, but very effective project using multi-apps and demonstrating the power of the iPad
Book Creator: Jackson Pollock
I asked the children to use their notes, sketches and feelings that they had collected in their sketchbooks on their visit to produce an iBook using Book Creator.
This has to be one of my favourite apps on the iPad and also inspired by this post from ADE Ian Wilson - The Importance of The Blank Canvas
We started by researching the paintings, his life and even create our own impressions using a free art app called Draw. The children combined all their findings into one book and then published them onto Edmodo for others to download and share.
What was interesting, was that some children chose to use Pic Collage instead of Book Creator. I was very pleased some children chose to do this as this was one of the reasons I started this research project - I want children to have a choice.
This choice leads to unique pieces of work and more excitement in the classroom. Children are expressing themselves in a way that they want to. Some even used Visual Poet to write a poem about their thoughts and feelings towards the painting.
A big step forward for the children.
Screencasting
At the end of last term I wrote about the children using Vittle to create short mathematic calculation videos for assessment purposes. I was amazed when I say a few children creating these videos during a maths session this week to help others in the classroom - how powerful is that!
The children were actually modelling their work and then able to pause and rewind the method to help themselves. Even better, they now have that video forever! When we come back to investigating fractions they will have that video from that lesson.
During that session some children found an interactive fraction wall to help them when finding out which fraction was bigger (e.g. which is bigger 4/7 or 8/10?) This is the website they used - Fraction Wall
The Children's Reflection
At the end of the week I asked the children to reflect on their first week by posting on a short paragraph and screen shots of their work. I want the children to do this each to help document the impact of the project over the next few months. I'm thinking this will be a huge piece of evidence.
Next week, I want to see how the children use the iPads when they are not instructed to do so. Some children have been using the 'define' button when reading to help them understand a piece of text and some have been using the online dictionaries and thesaurus to improve their writing.
I'll write some more reflections next week.
Both my books are on sale on Amazon Kindle, Google Books and Kobo for digital download.
Amazon - Technology is a tool to be used not an outcome
The books detail all my work to date around flipped classrooms primary schools.
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