At Rossett we have had 1-1 iPad scheme running for two weeks. That said it is only this last week that I have really felt that they are part of my classroom. Every student does not own an iPad and I have to book about 5 for most lessons. With that done I am effectively teaching in a school with 1-1 iPads.
Has this completely transformed my classroom. No I guess not. But that could be down to the fact that we have had iPads in school for a year, they just haven't been 1-1. This week I marked a GCSE mock exam and used YouTube (and ExplainEverything) to give my feedback. The students used my video generated content, in individual ways, to produce AfL targets (see previous post). I have been doing this for a year and 1-1 didn't change that.
That said I have already noticed that my teaching has changed.
Ebooks
My head of history has invested in some ebooks in PDF form that we have emailed to KS3. This has already altered how I set homework. Using apps like Popplet I have asked students to screenshot some content and make sense of it. This couldn't have been done before. As time passes I can see the online development of 'books' being used in very different ways.
Edmodo
I have now been able to use Edmodo in lessons. This week year 7 have been working on medieval towns. We play a game which necessitates the students keeping a town diary. The students completed the diary on the iPads (using notes or pages) and then pasted their work into an assignment on Edmodo. I then marked their work, offered a target, and the students then developed and improved their diaries and class work. This was all done 'paperless' within Edmodo. I can see a lot of lesson work being completed in this way in the future. Marking on Edmodo is simple and with some pre-written targets pretty quick.
Becoming an 'ICT' teacher
This is a big change that has occurred in my classroom. I have used Socrative, Edmodo, iMovie, Popplet and keynote/pages this week. My belief was that the students would be able to work these apps. This has not been the case. This has led to me having to become a pretty proficient 'ICT' teacher. I have always been 'good' with technology and I am thankful that I was given an iPad a year before the students. As this develops the students will become more proficient but at the moment the students need support with this. This has undoubtedly developed me as a teacher and has made me more confident in a computer room.
Emailing
Students having their email accounts on their iPads (or being able to access them on the school owned ones) has given me a great tool to share content. No longer do we need to have the work displayed on the board. This has allowed for increased de-facto personalisation of the lesson, something the iPads are brilliant for. We don't all need to work at the same rate and in the same way.
Engagement
The wider availability of this technology has allowed for greater excitement around school. "Are we using iPads in this lesson?" Has become a very common question. I'd have liked to think that students were already excited by the prospect of my history lessons but my use of iPads has certainly taken this to another level.
Differentiation
I love Popplet and YouTube and they are tools I like to use myself when learning. Obviously, now I can embed them into my teaching much more widely which has allowed me to differentiate much more easily. I remember last year filming myself reading an extract from 'Birdsong' to make the text more accessible. It went down a storm with all sets especially the bottom ones. I did as a bit of a gimmick to put it on a level playing field with Blackadder which we were comparing it with. The impact was much greater than that. iPads have the function to read out any text and, whilst it obviously won't be as good as a video of me, I think there is a lot of scope with this.
Obviously there are a lot of challenges with the 1-1 approach but it feels like a natural progression for me as we have had bootable iPads for a while now.
I will need to decide what to keep and remember that my students are working towards written exams.
Obviously, the initial excitement will drop as iPads become the norm. Or will it? Students always look forward to doing things they enjoy.
I love the possibilities that this approach to education brings. After only one real week of teaching I can see the impact. I am very fortunate to work in such a forward thinking school. I believe that our students are lucky to learn in an environment with so many possibilities. I would urge anyone in education to give this idea some serious thought.
I wrote this post on my iPhone on a busy delayed train. I am about to tweet it to 1,238 followers. 18 months ago I didn't have a blog or any followers. Two weeks ago we didn't have 1-1 iPads. Think where we will be in 18 months.
Below are a selection of photos from this week in my classroom @Rossett. All these photos are real they are not staged.
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
Has this completely transformed my classroom. No I guess not. But that could be down to the fact that we have had iPads in school for a year, they just haven't been 1-1. This week I marked a GCSE mock exam and used YouTube (and ExplainEverything) to give my feedback. The students used my video generated content, in individual ways, to produce AfL targets (see previous post). I have been doing this for a year and 1-1 didn't change that.
That said I have already noticed that my teaching has changed.
Ebooks
My head of history has invested in some ebooks in PDF form that we have emailed to KS3. This has already altered how I set homework. Using apps like Popplet I have asked students to screenshot some content and make sense of it. This couldn't have been done before. As time passes I can see the online development of 'books' being used in very different ways.
Edmodo
I have now been able to use Edmodo in lessons. This week year 7 have been working on medieval towns. We play a game which necessitates the students keeping a town diary. The students completed the diary on the iPads (using notes or pages) and then pasted their work into an assignment on Edmodo. I then marked their work, offered a target, and the students then developed and improved their diaries and class work. This was all done 'paperless' within Edmodo. I can see a lot of lesson work being completed in this way in the future. Marking on Edmodo is simple and with some pre-written targets pretty quick.
Becoming an 'ICT' teacher
This is a big change that has occurred in my classroom. I have used Socrative, Edmodo, iMovie, Popplet and keynote/pages this week. My belief was that the students would be able to work these apps. This has not been the case. This has led to me having to become a pretty proficient 'ICT' teacher. I have always been 'good' with technology and I am thankful that I was given an iPad a year before the students. As this develops the students will become more proficient but at the moment the students need support with this. This has undoubtedly developed me as a teacher and has made me more confident in a computer room.
Emailing
Students having their email accounts on their iPads (or being able to access them on the school owned ones) has given me a great tool to share content. No longer do we need to have the work displayed on the board. This has allowed for increased de-facto personalisation of the lesson, something the iPads are brilliant for. We don't all need to work at the same rate and in the same way.
Engagement
The wider availability of this technology has allowed for greater excitement around school. "Are we using iPads in this lesson?" Has become a very common question. I'd have liked to think that students were already excited by the prospect of my history lessons but my use of iPads has certainly taken this to another level.
Differentiation
I love Popplet and YouTube and they are tools I like to use myself when learning. Obviously, now I can embed them into my teaching much more widely which has allowed me to differentiate much more easily. I remember last year filming myself reading an extract from 'Birdsong' to make the text more accessible. It went down a storm with all sets especially the bottom ones. I did as a bit of a gimmick to put it on a level playing field with Blackadder which we were comparing it with. The impact was much greater than that. iPads have the function to read out any text and, whilst it obviously won't be as good as a video of me, I think there is a lot of scope with this.
Obviously there are a lot of challenges with the 1-1 approach but it feels like a natural progression for me as we have had bootable iPads for a while now.
I will need to decide what to keep and remember that my students are working towards written exams.
Obviously, the initial excitement will drop as iPads become the norm. Or will it? Students always look forward to doing things they enjoy.
I love the possibilities that this approach to education brings. After only one real week of teaching I can see the impact. I am very fortunate to work in such a forward thinking school. I believe that our students are lucky to learn in an environment with so many possibilities. I would urge anyone in education to give this idea some serious thought.
I wrote this post on my iPhone on a busy delayed train. I am about to tweet it to 1,238 followers. 18 months ago I didn't have a blog or any followers. Two weeks ago we didn't have 1-1 iPads. Think where we will be in 18 months.
Below are a selection of photos from this week in my classroom @Rossett. All these photos are real they are not staged.
