What's Next in the Tablet Niche Market in Education?

Very interesting post here

Coding Apps for the iPad

In preparation for our HOUR of Code (Dec 8-14), we are trying out these apps:
So far, we love Light-Bot, Scratch Jr., and Hopscotch. Looking forward to trying the others!

Hopscotch

Kodable

Bee Bot

Code.org

Light-Bot

Codea

Codecademy

Hakitzu

Scratch Jr.

Book Creator our go-to tool for eBooks, Digital Portfolios, and quick formative assessments!

Book Creator has found a home here in our Early Elementary. Teachers are using it for everything from simple book creations by our 4-5 yos describing a unit of inquiry ("What is TALL, and what is SHORT?") to full-on Digital Portfolios with color-coded pages for each subject area. We are combining student-created ebooks into class-created ebooks to upload to our library iPad minis for a wider audience. eBook creations on Book Creator have also been exported as videos and uploaded to student blogs for some amazing examples of formative assessment.

iBooks Author Overview from Apple

This new overview provides a nice look at the app for your computer. We use iBooks Author to create "lesson" books for students and we are looking at having students create their own eBooks using iBooks Author.

Keedogo Assistive Keyboarding App

Keedogo is an assistive, keyboarding app for kids. The keyboard is designed for iPad for elementary-aged children. Here is what is looks like:

As an early elementary tech integration specialist, I think the Keedogo keyboard will be great because of its appeal to children. Keedogo Plus allows for predictive text which helps with spelling and writing. It looks like it will help as much with literacy as it does with basic typing skills. 

iPads are still the device of choice in the lower elementary at ISKL

Kids love them. Teachers love them. They are being used in many different ways from recording student learning, to create engaging presentations and ebooks. The learning curve to put the device to meaningful use that elevates tech integration to the transformative level has been quite a bit smaller than was anticipated. The device helps ease the learning curve in its ease of use!

1:1 iPads in early elementary

We are off to a great start to the school year with our iPads in the Primary years. We have 1:1 ipads in grades Prep Senior (Kindergarten), Grades 1 & 2. We are also 1:1 in our very young classrooms, Prep Reception and Prep Junior (Pre-K). The teachers are excited to put the devices to use and some are already using them to blog and take photos and videos. Awesome!

School year winding down...

The school year is winding down... 2 more weeks to go. What to do with our current iPads, and what to do with our incoming iPads? We will have the tech team reimage the old ones according to grade levels, and image the incoming new ones for their specific grade levels as well. We are excited to see how the 1:1 program will work as it trickles down to the lower grades (we will be 1:1 in PS, 1, and 2 next year) Exciting times! Check back to see how we are doing!

New iPad Minis arrive!

We have just received 45 iPad Minis for our upper elementary grades. We will divide them up so grade 4 and 5 will each have a class set to use. It will be interesting to see how they are used and how everyone responds to them. There is already quite a bit of interest in them which may mean we have a dilemma on our hands... Do we stick with our 1:1 old laptop program (which has its share of pros and cons) and just use iPads as needed? Or do we scrap the laptop program and focus on developing 1:1 iPads in the upper grades as we have done in the lower elementary? We will have to wait and see!

Thoughts on 1:1 iPads in the UK

From The Cambridge News

Getting ready for EARCOS!

I'll be presenting a talk for teachers new to iPads in their classroom. What are some strategies you can use NOW? The iPad is a great educational tool, but it can be overwhelming. Where to start? What are some ideas that can be used? We will discuss all of this and more! See you there!