iPods, iPads, and the SMARTBoard: Transforming literacy instruction and student learning
Saine, Paula. 2012.
“iPods, iPads, and the SMARTBoard: Transforming Literacy Instruction and Student Learning.” New England
Reading Association Journal 47:
74-81.
This article focuses on the daily use of iDevices and SMARTBoards in an American elementary, middle, and high school as well as an elementary school in Nigeria.
The first teacher is a 1st grade teacher in Nigeria. In this school, they used iTouches since they were much cheaper than laptops. The teacher had the class work on a research project about another country. Initially the teacher had them use online tools to help with writing strategies. Students would then research their country and make it into a written paper. The teacher then had students take their information, create poetry from it, and turn it into a podcast that went on the classroom website. What the teacher saw was students were more excited about this project. This had them practice both their written and oral skills.
The next teacher is a 1st grade Spanish teacher. She uses an interactive white board with her students. Her goal is to have functional and useful language skills to be able to talk about things they see. One way she did this was using the interactive white board with Google Earth. Students would look up places and observe what they saw in small groups. Students would write down what they saw in small groups and talk about it. She said that students were excited to see their own personal growth with their oral skills and it showed them the importance of being able to describe and talk about things they saw.
This teacher has students in 4th-6th grade. She uses iPads with her students which includes apps like Toontastic and BrainPOP. When she uses Toontastic, she has already taught students how to use this app. She then takes their knowledge and has them create a short story with animation and narration that pertains to character traits and story elements. In the next lesson she had student use the BrainPOP app to watch a video, fill out a graphic organizer, and then use that info to create paragraphs with well structured sentences. In the last lesson she uses an iPad to take pictures of geometric shapes in the school. Students then used an app to create picture strips with text bubbles that explained what the shape is and what is it's function.
The last teacher is a high school literacy teacher. She uses a SMARTBoard to talk about literary terms in poems. She would take different poems and have the terms listed on the side of the poem. She would have students come up and use the SMARTBoard to mark and show examples of these terms in the poem. Each day the activity became more student driven. The summative assessment required students to write their own poems using these literary terms. In some cases from the pre-test to post-test, there was a 10% gain.
I think when used effectively and appropriately, iDevices and SMARTBoards can be great in the classroom. However without the teacher having any training of the device, the apps, and how it can be utilized, those pieces of technology will not be of use. These teachers in the article seemed well-educated in what their pieces of technology were capable of doing. I am fortunate enough to have a SMARTBoard in my classroom which I use every day. We have an interactive classroom calendar, math games, how to make an inference, life skills, and vocational skills games. All students are able to participate in these lessons despite their ability level. However I do not use iPads/tablets as much as I would like. The district provides my classroom with an iPad but has extremely rigid requirements to get apps added to the devices. Any app I wanted for my students was not approved. In the classroom it was only useful for the browser and in the community it became a glorified camera. Even though my students are in high school, they function at an elementary or preschool level. I therefore needed apps that focused on telling time, working with money, functional reading, and life skills. I had so much opposition with them that I gave up and bought my own to use with them. I love it for individuals or small groups because it gives instant feedback and also collects data. However since I only have one tablet, not every student can use it every day for every subject, which I hate.
The first teacher is a 1st grade teacher in Nigeria. In this school, they used iTouches since they were much cheaper than laptops. The teacher had the class work on a research project about another country. Initially the teacher had them use online tools to help with writing strategies. Students would then research their country and make it into a written paper. The teacher then had students take their information, create poetry from it, and turn it into a podcast that went on the classroom website. What the teacher saw was students were more excited about this project. This had them practice both their written and oral skills.
The next teacher is a 1st grade Spanish teacher. She uses an interactive white board with her students. Her goal is to have functional and useful language skills to be able to talk about things they see. One way she did this was using the interactive white board with Google Earth. Students would look up places and observe what they saw in small groups. Students would write down what they saw in small groups and talk about it. She said that students were excited to see their own personal growth with their oral skills and it showed them the importance of being able to describe and talk about things they saw.
This teacher has students in 4th-6th grade. She uses iPads with her students which includes apps like Toontastic and BrainPOP. When she uses Toontastic, she has already taught students how to use this app. She then takes their knowledge and has them create a short story with animation and narration that pertains to character traits and story elements. In the next lesson she had student use the BrainPOP app to watch a video, fill out a graphic organizer, and then use that info to create paragraphs with well structured sentences. In the last lesson she uses an iPad to take pictures of geometric shapes in the school. Students then used an app to create picture strips with text bubbles that explained what the shape is and what is it's function.
The last teacher is a high school literacy teacher. She uses a SMARTBoard to talk about literary terms in poems. She would take different poems and have the terms listed on the side of the poem. She would have students come up and use the SMARTBoard to mark and show examples of these terms in the poem. Each day the activity became more student driven. The summative assessment required students to write their own poems using these literary terms. In some cases from the pre-test to post-test, there was a 10% gain.
I think when used effectively and appropriately, iDevices and SMARTBoards can be great in the classroom. However without the teacher having any training of the device, the apps, and how it can be utilized, those pieces of technology will not be of use. These teachers in the article seemed well-educated in what their pieces of technology were capable of doing. I am fortunate enough to have a SMARTBoard in my classroom which I use every day. We have an interactive classroom calendar, math games, how to make an inference, life skills, and vocational skills games. All students are able to participate in these lessons despite their ability level. However I do not use iPads/tablets as much as I would like. The district provides my classroom with an iPad but has extremely rigid requirements to get apps added to the devices. Any app I wanted for my students was not approved. In the classroom it was only useful for the browser and in the community it became a glorified camera. Even though my students are in high school, they function at an elementary or preschool level. I therefore needed apps that focused on telling time, working with money, functional reading, and life skills. I had so much opposition with them that I gave up and bought my own to use with them. I love it for individuals or small groups because it gives instant feedback and also collects data. However since I only have one tablet, not every student can use it every day for every subject, which I hate.
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