Reflections of an iPad classroom 28/11/13

Well it took longer than expected and we are still waiting for the paid apps, BUT the 17 iPads are in my classroom and Srta L has hers to see how she gets on with a one iPad classroom. I'm going to aim for a quick blogpost each week on some of the stuff that has worked or not.. 

An issue has been the lack of flash with Safari so I am looking forward to getting Puffin for some websites as well as creating on the likes of Animoto. 

A hot favourite this week has been Kahoot. You create an account on getkahoot.com and create your quiz. You select play and with iPads, pupils then go to kahoot.it on Safari and enter the pin. They absolutely loved the bright graphics, ease of functionality and competitive edge provided by scoring more points for speedy answers. I used it for Form 1 for the topic of family, Form 4 for daily routine and Lower 6 for the subjunctive, as well as oral stimulus for conversation. Pupils answered a series of 6 questions about the internet and social networking, then went into smaller groups to discuss the questions in more detail. 

Quite apart from the whizzes and bangs of activities with kahoot, the iPads have proved invaluable for basic things like the wordreference app to look up words with several definitions provided in context, as well as verbix.com to allow pupils to check verbs conjugated in the different tenses. Pupils from Form 4 and Lower 6 have been swift to avail of this when working independently. 

Next week I am looking to use Linelearner and Voice Record Pro to help pupils learn answers for their oral exams which are imminent as well as Kidblog for a bit of self-reflection at AS level.