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| Familiar Technology Makes its Way into the Classroom |
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Feb. 6, 2012 Elementary school teachers experiment with the iPod touch as a teaching tool for math and music.
When the Elementary School IT Department approached K1 and grades 4-5 teachers with the idea of using iPod touches in their classrooms, the teachers welcomed the opportunity, and the iPod touch pilot project was underway.
Over the course of several weeks last month, the iPod touches were used for two different purposes. K1 students used the iPod touches during their math unit on shapes, while grades 4-5 students used the touches as self-evaluating and creative tools during music class. The feedback from both the teachers and the students was very positive. K1 teachers found that their students, most of whom had already been exposed to iPod touches at home, were very comfortable with the technology and stayed engaged and on task. The visually appealing format of the shapes applications, the ability to hold the Touches and manipulate the shapes, and the chance to learn at their own pace put the students at ease and greatly increased their self-confidence. The immediate feedback also made the learning experience very interactive, prompting the students to want to discover more and challenge themselves.
Grades 4-5 students also responded enthusiastically to the introduction of iPod touches in music class. Half of the students in the pilot project used the iPod touches for self-improvement purposes, recording their playing an instrument or singing, and then playing back the piece or song just performed. The students found that it was much easier to practice and improve their playing or singing, as the feedback was virtually instantaneous, and they could quickly note their problem spots. The other half of the fourth and fifth grade students studied the skylines of Dallas, Texas and Dubai, and worked in groups to represent the shapes of the buildings with creative movements. They then used the iPod touches to take pictures of buildings on the ASD campus that were similar in shape to the Dallas and Dubai buildings they had found interesting. Back in the classroom, the students were able, in real time, to discuss, represent, and compare their movement shapes with the pictures they had taken. Each group of students then composed and recorded a melody on barred instruments that followed the rhythm of the poem “Skyscraper”, by Dennis Lee. The melody was used to accompany the created movements inspired by the buildings and structures in the pictures taken with the iPod touches. Given the success of the pilot project, iPod touches will now be used in other ASD elementary grades to help support literacy and math development and as a learning tool for Arabic, science, art, music, and much more. The use of the hand-held technology in the classroom is not meant to replace traditional methods of teaching and learning. Rather, the iPod touch is seen as another teaching tool that, along with laptops, is portable, interactive, and offers a medium in which students are comfortable and motivated to learn. |