Category Archives: iPod Touch

iPod Touch

iPod touch- Sacred Heart Primary

Angela Harley writes:

In Sacred Heart we set for Maths. I used the i pod touched with the children in my group. I have a group of very bright P.7 children and a group of children from P4- P.6 who can be challenging to hold their attention.

With the P.7 children they took ten minute slots each on the maths games pre loaded on the i-pods, daily. The aim was to challenge their mental maths skill and for them to beat their own scores and times. The children had a great deal of fun and it encouraged independent working. The children kept their own records of scores and made sure the allocated times was shared among the group.

With my other group they also used the pre-loaded games but at a less challenging level. My aim was to use the i-pods to encourage the children to work smarter and maintain their focus on their work. Each day the children had to be at a certain point in their work before they got their slot on the i-pods. This worked well and the children aimed to complete tasks to get their go, This group of children were not fully aware that the games I asked them to go on were in fact improving their mental maths skills.

In my own class I also used the i-pods as an incentive to promote positive behaviour. The children opted to use the i-pod touches for their Golden Time. The condition was that they had to have their full Golden Time by the end of the week. This seemed to work well especially with boys who display negative behaviours in the class. If they did lose Golden Time then they worked greatly on the positive side to earn it back. On this occasion I let the children use any of the pre-loaded games and some connected to the internet.

iPod Touch

iPod Touch – Victoria Primary School

Background
We borrowed 20 Ipod touches to assist in the teaching and learning of all curricular areas. We also shared these with our P5 and P7 classes who were timetabled to use the ipods for 2 hours per week each. The remainder of the time was dedicated to P6.
How ICT supported learning and teaching
Maths – Used in conjunction with active maths sessions to reinforce more formalised maths lessons. Children especially enjoyed the apps on multiplication and were engaged longer than more conventional teaching tasks such as board games, textbooks or even laptops.
Language- Children used Safari to research Victorian Laws such as the mines and factory acts. From here they constructed posters to advertise the advent of these new laws and the impact that they would have on Victorian living. Children also researched crime and punishment and devised ‘apprenhension’ sheets of criminals from pictures and real life Victorian stories from the web.
Interdisciplinary learning – Children used the ipods to research Victorian transport and shops. From here we developed a Victorian Street in which we placed means of transport. The children also independently research a whole range of Victorian facts, which were then presented onto a fact card that they shared with other children in the class.
Impact / conclusion
The ipods proved to be a very value teaching tool and all children were very confident in using the ipods to conduct individual research on our Victorians topic. The fact that these could be instantly turned on and children had access to their own piece of hardware made organizing lessons much easier and increased the amount of time that they were learning.
I would thoroughly recommend the integration of ipods into classroom as children were immediately engaged on tasks and enthused about the prospect of using them to further their learning.
Similar views were held by the teachers from P5 and P7 who felt they were an excellent teaching tool.

Colin Thomson

iPod Touch

iPod Touch – Chapelhall

WE borrowed a box of 7 iPod Touch to use in our new ‘Gadgets and Gizmos Golden Time Club.’ However, we found they already had many applications we could use in other curricular areas also. We used the French Lite app to help with consolidation of basic vocabulary and also to allow children to listen to words being repeated as they were able to use the headphones. The maths apps were put to very good use in many active maths lessons, where they helped with recall of facts, times tables, time and all of the number processes.

Here are some of the children’s comments. “Really fun because you touched the screen to make it work and I had never used one before.” It was more fun than writing the answers in your jotter.” “You had to get the answers right because the teacher heard the noise it made when it was wrong.” “It made me work faster to answer more questions to get to the next level.”

iPod Touch

iPod Touch – Glencairn Primary

My Primary 6 class have been using the iPod touches to assist with their learning since January.  I have found them to be both a worthwhile and motivating resource to support learning and teaching.

Using iPod touches within the classroom has helped to promote independent and responsible learning.  The children have been given unlimited access to their own iPod touch and make decisions and choices about when to use it.  They take responsibility for the care and ownership of this and must ensure it is fully charged overnight.

In the beginning the children were introduced to the different apps available to them and they were given time to explore these before using them within lessons.  This was beneficial as it prevented valuable teaching and learning time being wasted .

The apps available on the iPod touch are very varied and have helped to develop literacy, numeracy, ICT skills and the children’s general knowledge.  I have found the maths games to be very useful and the children find them challenging and enjoyable.  Other apps which have been worthwhile are: Flags, The Human Body, Slideshow, Comic Twist, Wikipanion,  Google Earth and Safari.

With every child having their own iPod touch it has meant that internet research can be carried out at any point in the day, therefore not limited to when the class has laptop access.

I have planned lessons to incorporate the use of the iPod touches.  Google Earth has been used as a focus for maths lessons,  Safari has been used almost daily for a range of activities,  Notes has been used for writing lessons, Wikipanion for research projects and many purposes.

The children are also given the choice to use the ipod as a follow up to lessons.  They are provided with a choice of tasks and enjoy this.  They are eager to finish their other work to get onto the iPod tasks.

The children have learned to post comments onto the Glencairn iPod Blog.  Many children can access this independently to upload photos, podcasts or write text.  Parents and the wider community can access this blog to keep up to date with progress and comment.  Parents have reacted very positively to this project and the comments reflect their enthusiasm, many identifying the benefits associated with this initiative.  The children are highly motivated by the outside interest in their work and regularly check this.

To summarise, the benefits of using iPod touches have been:

  • Increased motivation
  • Apps enhance learning and teaching
  • Promotes independence and responsibility
  • Unlimited access to the internet
  • The children’s ICT skills have improved

Many opportunities for revision or consolidation, ie maths/ language games

There have been some challenges to overcome during this initiative.  Firstly, navigating around the ipod touch was difficult for some children due to poor motor skills, especially when typing.  Another problem we encountered was when sharing resources.  We had set up First Class as a way of sharing work, however this did not work well.  It would be helpful if there was a way of resolving this.

We also experienced some problems with the airport signal within our school and we were unable to use the ipod touches all at once.  This problem was resolved by updating the system.

The benefits certainly outweigh the challenges and I have found the iPod touches to be a very worthwhile resource within the classroom. So much so that the school are planning to invest in their own for all the children to use.  The primary 6 class will act as mentors for the rest of the school.

Thank you very much for the opportunity, it has been a  great experience.

Robyn Moonie