My school is currently running an iPad trial with a Year 8 class and I have been loaned an iPad 3 to use in lessons. All rooms have been set up with Reflector software to allow us to Airplay from the iPad. We also have a set of 15 iPads which we an book out for use in lessons. I’ve had an iPad 2 for some time and still use it at home, but love the enhanced camera in the iPad 3, especially indoors. The images are super sharp and open up a whole world of uses in the classroom. Whilst there are many applications of the iPad in lessons, I chose to focus on the use of its camera in a recent staff training session. Most of these suggestions could be done with any camera or smart phone, but the ease of use with the iPad has been fantastic in adding fluidity to lessons.
One thing I’ve used it a lot for is allowing students to catch up missed work. We have a lot of students in and out of lessons for music lessons and sports fixtures and getting them to catch up can be a pain if they need to borrow someone else’s book. I’ve used the iPad to take a quick snap of board work or another student’s book. The image can then be posted online (I use Edmodo – more on that in another post) or emailed to the student. We’ve even used Facetime to allow an absent student to join in the lesson from home.
I’ve also used the camera to take photos of student work as a way of praising them or highlighting great work to other students. I have taken the shot and then airplayed it straight onto the board, allowing the chance for stud nets to see exemplar work. They love being the ‘chosen one’ and it encourages high standards of presentation. You can also use it to ask students how they would improve a piece of work. I’ve also shared the best work with the rest of the year group online.
I am fortunate enough to have a Visualizer in my main teaching room which is great, as I have many different books and prefer different books for different topics. If you only have one copy of a book, your options are to either photocopy it or project it. I found this image online of someone using the iPad as a Visualizer. Your other option is to use the camera as away of quickly scanning pages and projecting them. There’s a great app called Skitch which you can use to annotate images, either with your handwriting or typed text.
I’ve also managed to use the iPad to take pictures through the microscope eye piece. I’ve let the kids share the iPad between them to collect images. They have had more success than me and recommend that two pairs of hands are better than one! I’ve posted the best ones online and it’s promoted discussion at home. I’ve posted lots of pictures of them doing experiments which they’ve shared with parents and spent time following up online in their own time.
The camera has been good for documenting the results of short, medium and long term practical work. We’ve had some nice before and after shots of petri dishes, shown the growth and development of our class Sea Monkeys and captured some flashy propanone burning.
My next mission is to try and use Skype or Facetime to set up some links with ‘real life’ people and see some of the theory I teach in action.
Pedagoggles 