Technology Reflection: Instructional Use of iPads

Description/Experience

            Before Friday’s presentation I had never considered the iPad to have applications in schools for children, especially young children. The demonstration of the different apps that are available for the iPad showed its subject versatility from math to English to digital stories. The video footage of the children actually using the iPads taught me that the iPads can be helpful to children who learn in different ways. The iPads could provide kinesthetic learners, auditory learners, visual learners, and hands on learners programs that are suitable strategies to best help them learn.

Application

            Using the iPads I would create a lesson for the first graders in my PDS classroom that would help them when learning to count money. I worked with them a few weeks ago learning how to count pennies, dimes and nickels and I think iPads could aid in this process. The students will use an app on the iPad with pennies, nickels and dimes that will allow the students to move 5 pennies into an area where they will turn into a dime, move 2 nickels into an area where they will become a dime, and allow the students to drag the larger denominations, nickels and dimes into a place where they would break apart into pennies. I think this would be a great hands on and visual learning tool. By the end of the lesson, the students should have a grasp of the value of a pennie, nickel and a dime. They also should be able to be given nickels and dimes and tell me how many pennies they make and vice versa. I would know the use of the iPad was effective if the students could verbally explain or show me with money how the change relates to each other.

-          The students would be introduced to the iPads and how we care for them and use them in general.

-          I would then have the children go through entering into the app with me while I showed my iPad on a camera that projects onto the smart board.

-          I would go through each of the change exchanges projected onto the white board and have the children follow along.

-          They would then be given 5 to 7 minutes to ‘play’ with the app to better acquaint themselves with the relationships between the coins. (They have already been introduced to the concept of counting change in a previous lesson, but without the use of an iPad)

-          For the remainder of the class I would have the students use the iPad app to complete a coin conversion fill in the blank style worksheet I had created.

-          Towards the end of the class I would go around while the students were working and ask them to explain the concept to me so I would know if the iPads were effective or not.

Reflection

--Pedagogy-Content:

            The content I was intending to teach in my change counting lesson would be hands on manipulation of the coins on the iPad so the students could see the values of the coins change physically. The app would be completely hands on and the manipulation of the coins allows visual learners, hands on learners and kinesthetic learners all the best learning experience.

            Most of my first graders have a little experience with counting money and the value of coins they learned at home, but there will always be some that have no experience, for these it’s important to start very basically. With this particular technology, the iPad, it is so simple to use and the apps that are designed for the children are also very simple, I don’t believe that the students would have an issue using it. Although, it’s always best to assume that there are some students in the class who have never handled a touch screen device before, so instruction on how to touch it would be given before the device is even given to the students. As far as motivation is concerned, there will always be students who aren’t motivated to learn for whatever reason, but I think the use of the iPads, being a novel device, will entice those less motivated students to become interested in what is happening on its screen.

--Technology-Pedagogy:

            The main instructional purpose served by the iPad is a tool for manipulation and visualization of the coins. I teach in a way that is very hands on and introduces a lot of real world applications to what I’m teaching. This technology allows me to let each student have a hands on experience at once. In terms of classroom management, I think a close monitoring of what the students are actually doing on the iPads is needed. There is also a greater need for classroom control because of the fragility of the iPads. While I am using the iPads in the classroom I would have to permit a strict policy of no walking around with the iPads as well as keeping a handle on other horse play that could occur in the room. By constantly being on the move around the classroom checking on each of the students frequently they will be more apt to stay on task than if left alone.

--Technology-Content:

            The use of iPads would enhance the way I show the transformation and exchange of one set of coins for another coin. The animation the iPad is capable of would have a much greater visual impact then what I would be able to show the students with play money on a table. Without the technology the students would have play money coins they would work on counting and exchanging for other coins, but with the iPad they have it all on their screen. The iPad can correct their mistakes and tell them when they think there are 10 pennies in a nickel by giving them two nickels when they give it 10 pennies, when they were expecting to get one.

--Technology-Pedagogy-Content:

            The iPad’s ability to show, rather than tell, the students how many pennies are in a nickel going along with my hands on and real world application style of teaching. The iPad is great because in lessons like this I can let each student have a hands on experience all at the same time a lot easier than without the technology. If I didn’t use the iPad for this lesson I would be doing a lot of explaining in front of the class and showing them on a projector the exchange of coins for other coins. I feel that the best way to learn is by doing, and the iPad allows my students to do more. Since the content I’m teaching the first graders in the real world actually has to do with touching the coins and manipulating them I think the hands on approach to teaching it is the best. The technology is well suited for this teaching strategy because it is all about moving things with your fingers and physically doing.