TechChef » Part 1: iPad – What it Is/Isn't and What You Can Do with It

If you received an iPad on your campus or are considering purchasing one, you will want to learn about the capabilities of the device and uses for it in the classroom.

Table created with Exploratree. iPad image from Apple.

As technology changes at rapid speed, mobile devices are a standard, and children gather & interact with information in new and exciting ways, we must consider changing our pedagogy and how we deliver instruction to benefit the needs of our digital natives. In this 5 part iPad series, I hope to engage and inspire teachers to do just that. The Mumford & Sons song, Awake My Soul, says it better than I can, “Lend me your eyes, I can change what you see.”

The TCEA “Leading with the iPad” gives some great examples of how the iPad can be used in the classroom.

Load iPads with different eBooks (Overdrive, Google, Project Gutenberg, & Magic Catalog of Free Kindle Books are a good place to start) and ePubs and assign them to different groups (there are also lots of children’s and adult books/novels that can be found in the App Store). Check out “Load Your New iPad with E-Books Without Going to the iBookstore“. Check out a Vook (books with video embedded)!
Have students watch a preselected video or listen to a podcast and create a written response using a blog, wiki, or other Web 2.0 tool.
Use the iPad in conjunction with Google Docs to create a collaborative writing assignment or product.
Have students access news & periodicals online to foster research and writing activities.
Have students research and review apps and build a classroom list of approved apps (great for critical audiences).
Have students use the calendar as a class agenda or the contacts as a database (take or save images for authors, elements, campus officials, characters in a novel or play and add a name & description) and Bump them to build a class database.

How will the iPads change your pedagogy and classroom practices?

Here are some more thoughts on how to integrate the iPad from the kitchen of techchef4u:

Have students create a movie (using a Web 2.0 tool like Little Bird Tales)
Have students create (or use existing) flash card sets to review vocabulary, historical events, difficult concepts/theories using Flashcardlets.
Use the iPad in conjunction with a peripheral like the Neo 2 or AlphaSmart to facilitate the writing portion of an assignment or with Turning Point response devices for a formative assessment or scavenger hunt.
Use various versions of books and media to compare/contrast (The Three Little Pigs, The Wolf’s Story, The Three Little Pigs StoryChimes / Wizard of Oz & Wizard of Oz podcast, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz audio book & ebook, iReading: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz), use children’s book and graphic novels to facilitate all content areas at all levels (A2Z on Global Warming, Rosa Parks, Garfield Cyberbullying, Dinosaurs Across Americas, Teenage Survival, The Story of Da Vinci)
Have students brainstorm and mind-map using apps like Idea Sketch, Popplet, and Simple Mind.
Have students review vocabulary or classifications using iCard Sort.
Have students respond to a class discussion using the Web 2.0 tools Lino It or Todays Meet on the iPad.
Have students create their own interactive lessons or reviews using ePubs, podcasts and PDF’s with transcripts, hyperlinks, and images (see history example on Appy Hour post). Tools like FlipSnack have multiple templates that allow you to create stylish flip books for your iPad from PDFs.
Have students create their own app (advanced). There is an free iTunes U course available with accompanying PDF’s. Also check out how to make an iTunes artwork.
Have students use the summarize and text to speech options on a Mac to create podcasts of articles and books.