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You are here: Home » iPhone App » iPods and iPads in the Classroom iPods and iPads in the Classroom 0 Comments and 0 Reactions January 14, 2011 | The Startl Team The Herald Journal posted an article this week detailing one school’s use of iPods and iPads in the classroom.  Kids and teachers alike find these devices not just entertaining but useful in learning as well.  Something that we at Startl have seen first-hand through our Developer Boost and Accelerator programs. Students are using the popular gadget to practice math skills, learn how to read and improve English fluency. In the last year, iPods and iPads have been introduced into Logan classrooms. According to local educators, kids have excelled because of it. Classrooms have iPods or iPads available for various curriculum throughout the day. In Jen Green’s English as a Second Language class at Adams Elementary, students in kindergarten through fifth grade use iPods. On Tuesday morning, a handful of them spent about 40 minutes working on iPods. To help kids with reading and fluency, Green has students use iPods to record themselves reading. Green and the student then listen to the recording together. They hear any errors, and then the student reads and records again until they have read it correctly in a certain amount of time. Green said student progress has been “unbelievable.” With one student, she saw results in just minutes. Green has kept some of the recordings to measure progress. By listening to the child’s first recorded reading, it was difficult to understand what they were saying. Green played a reading recorded 15 minutes later and the words were clear and understandable. While we see a broader adoption of use of apps and devices in the classroom, the question to ask is how can teachers evaluate what apps suit their needs best and how will they be integrated into the classroom?

What I mull over is how instruction using mobile technology can contribute to this type of thinking. That these new, promising mobile devices often house apps offering more of the same drill-and-kill activities we desire to minimize is a limitation. In attempts to integrate mobile technology, educators are left to the mercy of app developers who or may or may not fully understand how imperative it is that our children become critical and creative thinkers.

In this upcoming series, I will highlight apps useful for developing higher order thinking skills in grades K-5 classrooms. Each list will highlight a few apps that connect to the various stages on Bloom's continuum of learning. Given the size and current exponential growth of the app market, I will also assist educators in setting criteria necessary to identify apps that maintain the integrity of teaching for thinking.