Tech Thoughts

My iPod Touch had been turned back in, its out of my hands, and waiting to be passed on to others to see and experiment what it can do for learning and teaching. However, I am continuing to think about what it can do for me as it sits on my wish list of things I want to purchase.

One of my favorite features of the iPod are the ereaders. However, many of them cost money so I only played around with the free ones. I was able to look at the Dr. Seuss ABC app and it was really cool. Not only can you click on the words and then they are read out loud but then you can also click on the illustrations and the words that correspond with the picture light up. The other thing that I think would be really great is being able to create your own audio for books using the Touch. You could just record yourself, or the students, reading a book and use it at the reading stations for others to read along with. In the kindergarten class I am in that is one of their choice time stations and it is frequently visited. However, I think it would be great if we could create an audio for any of the hundreds of book in my classroom. Next I would just need to find an app that allows you to upload and create ereaders. I am sure its out there or on its way. Then you wouldn't just have the students record audio of them reading just any book but you could record audio of them reading their own book and turn it into an ereader.

In the kindergarten class the other day I was working with one of the students that is having trouble distinguishing between letters and the sounds that they made. This student was working on writing and I was helping her to stretch the words and listen for the letter sounds. With a lot of support she was able to get some of her sentences down. While I worked with her for a long period of time there were a lot of students that I did not get to. I wonder if an iPod Touch with the Dragon Dictation App would be helpful for her, or if she just needs more support . If she needed to write the word "with" or "happy" would she be learning the same amount if she just had to stretch the word on her own. It is a completely different approach than what many of the other students did to get to where they are but is that wrong?

Today in class we talked briefly about some people view the use of  a, iPod Touch like playing with a toy. Some people do not respect it in the education community. I think that it would be a powerful tool for students and could be used educationally, but at the same time how do you make sure your students are not taking advantage of it. Some of the students I can think of that it would be helpful for are also the ones I worry that would just play around with it. My thought is, if you told a student to look up a word in the dictionary you would notice if they were because it would be on their desk and you could see them flipping through the pages. However, if a students Touch was their dictionary then how do you at a glance or two tell if the student is making any progress or even on track. Or maybe it would not make a difference.

iPod Touch in Kindergarten

In my current thinking about using the ipod Touch to differentiate instruction, I was exploring app land to see what all is out there. There is really a lot. I came across a free spelling app that looked like fun but was not sure if it was something that a kindergarten class would use, since I am mainly thinking how could I use it in my classroom now. In my experience in the class I am in, there is not much of an emphasis on spelling correctly. The students are encouraged to use "guess and go" spelling and to use what they know about letters and sounds to spell. Therefor, I think using an app where they are going over letter sounds would fit in more with what we are currently working on. As this thought passed through my head my friend sent me a text. I pulled my phone out of my coat pocked and read a text saying "Jace has spelling tests. Since when do they do this in kindergarten". Hmmm.....maybe some kindergarten classes could use spelling app. Maybe in fact it could be used in my class. Some of the students in my class are still having trouble with sight words like "the" and "my". Those students might benefit from more exposure and the use of a spelling app at their desks to master the sight words.

To further explore what I could with apps, I searched "iPod Touch kindergarten" in Google. I found a log of great things doing that. Blogs, tutorials, schools asking for the money to buy touches, and videos. Below is a video that I found from YouTube of a kindergarten student reading a book with the help of an app that he types in unknown words and it pronounces it for him.

This is another way that students could use the Touch as they read. If a student had it at their desk with them with headphones on they would be able to use this during silent reading. I am going to have to play around with this app to see what all it does. It would be great if it could record or keep a history of the words a student was looking up. That way it could be passed back to the teacher to see if there is a pattern to what words the student is missing. They might need some more instruction on something like what sound a particular letter makes, or what sound a "ph" makes. This could also be helpful for the students to use in knowing if they have a "just right" book or if it is too hard. The rule could be if you are having to look up more than 5 words than it is too hard. That gives the students a clue that it is is too challenging.

i Teach With My i Touch

While I have not had the opportunity to use my iTouch in my main placement yet, I am really enjoying thinking about the different uses and how it could be used for differentiated instruction. I am really noticing the different strengths and abilities of the students in the kindergarten classroom that I am in. Some students are reading beyond grade level, while others are still struggling with letter sounds. Some are confident with guess and go spelling during writing time, while others have to ask how to spell something before they can move on. Even during our math time I notice how some don’t want to show their work to solve a problem, while others have to if they want derive at the correct answer.

Thinking of three different students in my placement I believe the iTouch could be used to assist their learning. One of the students in the class is really struggling with matching the sounds to letters and even just saying what sound a letter makes. I believe the use of an iTouch with a phonics app would help her to practice her letter sounds. There is another student in our class that is in a similar situation as the one I just mentioned however she is an English Language Learner. She would benefit from using similar apps. The student learning English has not had enough exposure to our alphabet and the sounds the letters make which automatically places her behind the majority of the class. Another student I believe that would benefit using an iTouch is a student that is doing some therapy for his fine motor skills. Not only would the Touch require precision as he first just selected which app he wanted on the screen, but there are a variety of apps that would help him work on his motor skills throughout their use. There are apps for hand writing where you have to trace the letters, and apps where you have to make matching selections. This would help the student to focus in on what is needed and strengthen his fine motor skills as he used his muscles to make necessary taps of the screen.

For the last student that I mentioned, who needs assistance strengthening his fine motor skills, I could also see the use of the Touch being very frustrating. While I have not witnessed this student get frustrated before, I would be concerned that using a Touch might be too challenging. If he was playing a game on the Touch or just working on something else I could see that it might be discouraging if he continued to touch the screen in the unintended spot.  I suppose a limitation in using the Touch for the two girls I had mentioned that need help with letter and sound recognition is that they might not be able to use what they are learning within the context of a text. If they are just going through drills of letters and sounds and are not able to recognize them outside of the app then they are not able to apply what they are learning.