Progress has been delayed temporarily due to the pressures of also being a class teacher. I have been snowed under with assessments and reports for a few weeks which have taken all of my attention.
Encouraging prices were received from Asus regarding their VivoTab which we are looking to persue as a school, should the funds be available to do so and depending on whether Asus are able to develop a more rugged case than a simple sleeve as this would possibly be a little light weight for young children.
On other fronts, I have had a brief meeting with the people from RM regarding their RM Books and RM Unify products. I can see that if we were a secondary institution we would already be seriously tempted to use them. At the moment I believe the amount of suitable content falls short of what we might want in the Primary market but it sounds promising that there will soon be much more.
RM Unify looks like a good product from initial specs. I am due to have a look around using a temporary log on that I have been issued with. This is also on hold due to assessments but the idea of a software that links reading material, google docs and other sevices together with one app sounds like a nice plan, although I am sure it must not be quite that simple or it would have been done earlier.
Wednesday, 29 May 2013
Wednesday, 8 May 2013
Tablet Use In Primary
I have decided that it is worth putting together some thoughts about where a tablet computer can be applied to the primary classroom.
* Adding context to English lessons;
My initial thoughts apply to doing poetry. I have an image in my head of studying Wordsworth, reading about the lonely life of clouds whilst students are able to stop and wonder about what surround them in the gardens. We could jot ideas about the clouds onto a collaborative document, take pictures of interesting clouds and then share when back in the classroom.
* Personal Art research;
I enjoy looking at new artists, when we do a Geography based topic we will always look at an artist from that country. For instance at the moment we are looking at Mexico and Diego Rivera. I wish for the children to recreate one of his works of art, practising shading skills with the pencils. Each pair of students could go away, research Rivera's art and find their favourite We could put together a short note about why we like it, pick out the key artistic features and then ultimately create our own replica. Along the way the tablets become a picture frame, first to hand around the class to look at examples of Rivera's work, as a picture gallery to show the range of pieces on a windowsill and ultimately as a screen in front of the pupils that they can zoom in and out of to pick out details.
* Group Reading / Story Books
Small groups of children have a certain book open on the tablet that they can then read and use to answer comprehension questions or to discuss a lively text. Younger children can use a service such as Oxford Owl to have the book read to them. Work can immediately come from the text in the form of a piece of work on the tablet, written work or even drama that could then be videoed or photographed and shared with the class.
* Science;
Many uses in Science, in my mind. The tablets can be used with great science resources such as BBC Science Clips for revision or research. The video camera can be used to capture footage and photos of experiments and tests that can immediately be placed into a piece of work or shared with the class for a review on the whiteboard (providing the tablet has access to a shared folder on the server)
These are thoughts, a brain storm if you will, of what I would love to use mobile computing for. It adds and extra dimension, option and further flexibility to the teaching within the classroom. If pupils wish to take a piece of work in a different direction then this is possible.
To me, all of this would be wasted without two key features... When first discussing tablets with my Head, and 2 members of the board of governors, I was extremely keen to raise 3 issues with the iPads we were trialling. Whilst possibly only a stumbling block, I am glad I mentioned these issues;
- Lack of flash player. May teachers have adapted to the Internet world by finding websites that include the games and information that they wish to teach. To require teachers to keep finding these pages as well as wondering whether there is an app for that is a big requirement of staff hours.
- Lack of connection to the network. I wish for my pupils to be able to share information with one another, the iPad needs a 3rd party app to connect to a windows network, or an email account. This is hard for a 5/6/7 year old to consider and work with. Possibly older classes could manage but I want a tablet to be all encompassing.
- Printing, the iPad only likes AirPrint enabled printers. We do not have a wireless enabled printer. Imagine the possibilities should we be able to... connect to the network and use the network server to link via wireless to a printer.
I am working steadily, although building up a head of steam with this and getting quite passionate. If I achieve one thing with my trials of different tablets it will be to work out what tablets work at a primary level with smaller budgets, less children and Windows based networks.
* Adding context to English lessons;
My initial thoughts apply to doing poetry. I have an image in my head of studying Wordsworth, reading about the lonely life of clouds whilst students are able to stop and wonder about what surround them in the gardens. We could jot ideas about the clouds onto a collaborative document, take pictures of interesting clouds and then share when back in the classroom.
* Personal Art research;
I enjoy looking at new artists, when we do a Geography based topic we will always look at an artist from that country. For instance at the moment we are looking at Mexico and Diego Rivera. I wish for the children to recreate one of his works of art, practising shading skills with the pencils. Each pair of students could go away, research Rivera's art and find their favourite We could put together a short note about why we like it, pick out the key artistic features and then ultimately create our own replica. Along the way the tablets become a picture frame, first to hand around the class to look at examples of Rivera's work, as a picture gallery to show the range of pieces on a windowsill and ultimately as a screen in front of the pupils that they can zoom in and out of to pick out details.
* Group Reading / Story Books
Small groups of children have a certain book open on the tablet that they can then read and use to answer comprehension questions or to discuss a lively text. Younger children can use a service such as Oxford Owl to have the book read to them. Work can immediately come from the text in the form of a piece of work on the tablet, written work or even drama that could then be videoed or photographed and shared with the class.
* Science;
Many uses in Science, in my mind. The tablets can be used with great science resources such as BBC Science Clips for revision or research. The video camera can be used to capture footage and photos of experiments and tests that can immediately be placed into a piece of work or shared with the class for a review on the whiteboard (providing the tablet has access to a shared folder on the server)
These are thoughts, a brain storm if you will, of what I would love to use mobile computing for. It adds and extra dimension, option and further flexibility to the teaching within the classroom. If pupils wish to take a piece of work in a different direction then this is possible.
To me, all of this would be wasted without two key features... When first discussing tablets with my Head, and 2 members of the board of governors, I was extremely keen to raise 3 issues with the iPads we were trialling. Whilst possibly only a stumbling block, I am glad I mentioned these issues;
- Lack of flash player. May teachers have adapted to the Internet world by finding websites that include the games and information that they wish to teach. To require teachers to keep finding these pages as well as wondering whether there is an app for that is a big requirement of staff hours.
- Lack of connection to the network. I wish for my pupils to be able to share information with one another, the iPad needs a 3rd party app to connect to a windows network, or an email account. This is hard for a 5/6/7 year old to consider and work with. Possibly older classes could manage but I want a tablet to be all encompassing.
- Printing, the iPad only likes AirPrint enabled printers. We do not have a wireless enabled printer. Imagine the possibilities should we be able to... connect to the network and use the network server to link via wireless to a printer.
I am working steadily, although building up a head of steam with this and getting quite passionate. If I achieve one thing with my trials of different tablets it will be to work out what tablets work at a primary level with smaller budgets, less children and Windows based networks.
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