iPod Touch Schoolwide Implementation
There are a number of posts from individuals interested in using iPod Touches for teaching and Learning. At Culbreth Middle in Chapel Hill, NC we began a pilot this past August to place the iPod Touch in the hands of staff and students.
Our staff development for faculty to roll out the new technology centered on teacher coaches leading their groups in exploration through professional learning communities.
Our AVID students use the iPod Touch in the AVID classroom and in all other courses. They have piloted this program, using the iPod Touches daily for note taking, keeping individual agendas, translation for world languages, and accessing research through the Internet. In addition, our AVID students use many of the apps that teachers sync with these mobile devices. As student leaders, they’ve understood their responsibility to work and share this learning tool in collaborative groups.
This winter we were able to add iPod Touch labs for each of our seven interdisciplinary teams and two labs for our exploratory and resource teams. The interdisciplinary grade level iPod Touch labs are housed with each team and shared among the four content teachers (math, language arts, science, and social studies). These teachers plan together so that their students have access throughout each day. They access the internet as needed and use many apps as well.
Teacher current app favorites include: WordBook, Thesaurus, USA, Countries, Brain Tuner, Blanks, Whiteboard, CoinToss, Lose It!, Word Warp, FlipBook Lite. Of course they are using the included apps: Calendar, Calculator, Notes, Clock, YouTube throughout each day.
We held an iPod Touch Day last week with visitors from all over the state and from across the country. We even had a group from the UK come see our students and teachers in action with the iPod Touch. With almost 400 iPod Touches now in use at Culbreth, we’re happy to share what we’ve learned and what we’re learning.
Our staff development for faculty to roll out the new technology centered on teacher coaches leading their groups in exploration through professional learning communities.
Our AVID students use the iPod Touch in the AVID classroom and in all other courses. They have piloted this program, using the iPod Touches daily for note taking, keeping individual agendas, translation for world languages, and accessing research through the Internet. In addition, our AVID students use many of the apps that teachers sync with these mobile devices. As student leaders, they’ve understood their responsibility to work and share this learning tool in collaborative groups.
This winter we were able to add iPod Touch labs for each of our seven interdisciplinary teams and two labs for our exploratory and resource teams. The interdisciplinary grade level iPod Touch labs are housed with each team and shared among the four content teachers (math, language arts, science, and social studies). These teachers plan together so that their students have access throughout each day. They access the internet as needed and use many apps as well.
Teacher current app favorites include: WordBook, Thesaurus, USA, Countries, Brain Tuner, Blanks, Whiteboard, CoinToss, Lose It!, Word Warp, FlipBook Lite. Of course they are using the included apps: Calendar, Calculator, Notes, Clock, YouTube throughout each day.
We held an iPod Touch Day last week with visitors from all over the state and from across the country. We even had a group from the UK come see our students and teachers in action with the iPod Touch. With almost 400 iPod Touches now in use at Culbreth, we’re happy to share what we’ve learned and what we’re learning.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Susan Wells on
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We are working with internet and research/reference of course but also apps.
Each of our grade levels, 6th, 7th, and 8th, has identified a bundle of apps at about the $20 price point, this includes plenty of free as well, that we're asking parents to include with their unit as part of their school supplies.
We'll be posting this on our school website if anyone's interested in our staff choices. Always happy to share!
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Permalink Reply by Deon Scanlon on
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How are you going with your app use, Susan?
Did you have issues with using paid apps, as far as legality of installing on many iPods, after paying only once?
I think it is pretty much accepted now, that this is the allowed. At least, all the schools I know of who use iPods are doing it without fear.
We have placed a $5 'software' levy (or something like that) on our students accounts for next year (our school year is based on the calendar year), which will give each class up to $150 to spend on apps. This is a HUGE amount of money in reality, and will be used on things other than apps.
The set of Apps I am using (which I have recommended to other classes) has cost probably around $40. We had iTunes cards for sale here recently at 2 x $20 cards for $30. A great deal, so I bought two for each class, which have now mostly been spent.
Another useful thing I have found is the transferral of OS updates by local network, rather than downloading in iTunes on each computer. The large size of the files is hard to download using Wifi, so I transfer the files into the correct folder locally, after downloading it on one computer. It's much faster and more reliable!
I will share my class's apps with you soon!
Ciao
Deon
Out of interest, the iTouch OS 3.0 update cost $13.99 in Australia to download. I downloaded 3.1.1 on a few computers this week, and didn't pay anything. These machines hadn't previously downloaded OS 3.0, so somehow we have gotten it for free. Lucky! -
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Permalink Reply by Barry Bakin on
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Had to go to google to search for the meaning of the tech term open-slather! When you say students have access to"just about everything" but not facebook in particular, I wonder why facebook is considered worthy of blocking when "just about everything" isn't? I'm not saying that facebook shouldn't be blocked, by the way, I'm just wondering how the decision was made...
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Ah, Facebook...
The reason it was blocked was because of mis-use. One example is students staying home from school (pretending to be sick) and chatting to their friends on facebook every spare moment they could (including during class time, when they shouldn't be using it). It would have been most just to only block those who had been mis-using it, but it is against Facebook's terms for our students to have accounts, anyway. Facebook is supposed to be for 18+ years for private use, so we wanted to set the right example, too.
My definition of 'open-slather' (which isn't a technical term, more a colloquialism, I think) is probably misused... what I meant was that we limit very little, other than porn, violence, gambling and other things that are not to be encouraged.
Many schools block social networking sites by default, or time-wasting sites (games etc). We don't. We give the students the opportunity to use the Internet appropriately, and if not, as in the case of Facebook, we remove access.
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Hi Susan: a suggestion for Sentencespin update: shake to spin all three spinners. That would be cool.
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Permalink Reply by Lynne Goodhand on
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Interesting idea. We use shaking to clear the screens of CountBy and TimesBy, but hadn't thought about it for SentenceSpin.
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Permalink Reply by Keith on
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Susan, Thanks for your post and on the NECC ning. We are starting two similar projects in our school district this summer. We have purchased 400 iPod Touches and 12 of the Bretford carts. One pilot group will be using them as class sets where they hand them out in the beginning of the period and collect them at the end of the period. The other pilot group will be checking them out to students at the beginning of the year and the students will use them in all of their classes (They were scheduled for classes together as much as possible.) We are in the midst of creating a course that will run this summer that all of the teachers in the pilot will take in preparation for the pilot. Any information that you have would be appreciated. Thanks again.
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Keith,
I just replied on the NECC ning. Feel free to contact me at swells@chccs.k12.nc.us
I'm happy to talk about our year and our upcoming plans for a full one to one with the iPod touches.
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Thanks Susan! I found you on twitter too. I am keithbpatterson on twitter. I have been posting info there for my teachers.
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Permalink Reply by Joan Ackroyd on
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I'm a library media specialist who will begin using iPod Touches in collaboration with teachers in a PK - 5 elementary school. We are slated to receive 20 iPods within the next month. I am responsible for secure storage and charging, not to mention introducing their care and applications to students. The Bretford charging cart is not an option for us. Right now I'm thinking of getting 2 Griffin Power Docks or a Wildcharge (each system charges 4 at at time). Does anyone have any advice on charging as many of the units at a time as possible? I would like to store them in some kind of a lockable desktop unit that I can keep in my workroom. A small lockable cart is an option, but I can barely move in my office as it is. Any ideas?
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Permalink Reply by Derek Keenan on
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http://www.tribeam.com/product.html
This might be an option for you. I looked at them before my division decided that they would rather I had the Bretford cart. Not sure about pricing, but certainly would be less than Bretford for the desktop ones.
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Thanks Derek. This looks like a really good option for me, depending on the cost. I have an email out to Tribeam to get pricing.
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