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Students learn in different ways

The iPad can provide visual, audio and tactile learning; reaching many students’ learning styles.

The iPad is often used as an individual tool in isolation

But please, don't put the child in a quiet place and just hand them an iPad without a true purpose. Let's get creative with its use. How to use an iPad in the classroom with a group? A couple of thoughts - Teacher directs, students watch.  Teacher directs, with iPad in the middle of the group and students touch with instruction.   Teacher instructs and iPad is passed between students. Use as part of your lesson, part of your center activity.   Teacher instructs and the students use, independently or in a team situation.    Team learning situations. Hand a group of students an iPad with a purpose. 

Most of us will not have enough for all our students for a while.

ideas

ideas

be careful to not have the iPad become what we have seen so many computers become in education: a glorified toy.

What are some of the benefits we are seeing? We are seeing that the iPad often encourages interactivity. Students will share a lot of what they're doing, ask each other "How did you do that?" or, "Oh, look what I did!"  They want to problem solve together. It encourages group discussions between the students. They tend to help each other a lot more.  It is affordable, comparatively speaking (see below.)  

For special education students, some are saying it is the best tool that has ever been designed. Here are a few reasons why we might prefer an iPad over a desktop computer: Ease of access – no need to be able to operate a mouse, a switch or to need to sit a certain way. The iPad can easily come to the student, be placed where they need it and the touch required is extremely friendly. (Not for all!! Remember, this is very individual.) Simplicity of programs – from very basic to more complex, many apps are design to be user friendly. For the moderate to severe population of students the amount of simple apps is huge, plus they are extremely inexpensive and visually draw students in. Simplicity of use - many who cannot understand how to operate a computer, can understand how to operate an iPad. (Even your grandmother!) Low cost of programs – compared to the cost of software programs for a computer, there really is no comparison (unless you consider the abundant amount of free programs available on the Internet. And yes, please continue using those!). There are apps designed specifically for our population (see other postings to right). Designing apps for education has become quite the market. The amount of apps designed specifically for special education has grown so much that there is now a category for it that stands alone in the iTunes Store. Assistive Technology and Communication Apps are available that help to make this a tool for access support, not just a tool for learning (i.e. audio books, word prediction, visual prompts, etc.) It can be loaded with many adaptive technology gadgets and programs, thereby reducing the need for multiple devices. Talk about UDL (Universal Design for Learning)! This is a tool that can level the playing field for many. There are apps that are inexpensive and exciting to increase vocabulary, sight words, math facts, reading comprehension, organizational skills, and drawing skills, just to name a few.It can be very educational and in the classroom, this is what we want: exciting, fresh, innovative teaching tools. Built-in accessibility tools such as zoom and high contrast display make this a tool to support visually impaired. The built-in VoiceOver screen reader works as well on the iPad as on the iPhone. For our VI population, the options are growing and growing. (However, it may be the iPhone that is the best solution for those with significant vision impairments.) Programs such as Dragon Dictation is free, no paper and pencil needed if one can speak clearly, for writing text messages, e-mail, maybe documents. (Must have Internet/WiFi connection for this to work however and it is not the best option for longer texts.) The brilliant screen of the iPad which creates and supports visual interest - with the ever improving HD colors which are bright and the HD video and/or camera- tools at our fingertips that can be pulled into our educational artillery in so many new and innovative ways.  The right case can make it much less indestructible. More and more tools are being developed to help with access. (Mounts, switch access, adaptive styluses, etc.) Light weight (iPad = 1.5 lbs.) Instant Response/Instant On/Fast Processor. Consider this: Combine the touch screen, ease of use, and cool factor of the iPad and you have a pretty interesting format for communication device

AT is intended to enhance performance of an individual with a disability.  It is why we have to carefully match what we recommend to the user's strengths and needs.  The iPad cannot do that on its own, it is the recommendation of the appropriate Apps that ultimately improve the performance of a student.  Thus, the iPad itself is not the Assistive Technology it is the Settings and the Apps, the case, the special stylus, that offer enhanced performance. Improving performance of a student with a disability through AT (Apps or otherwise) means looking at the student, identifying the task that needs to be performed and identifying where the student will use the AT - i.e. the environment, effects of time etc

This is a list of iPad pros, from a student’s point of view (wish I knew the student’s name so I could reference her. My apologies!):

iPads with Moderate to Severe Students:

Videos worth watching:

Articles worth reviewing:

Now go out and make this tool a wonderful addition to our educational world!

Edmodo:

Social Learning

Grockit

Learning

Useful Tools

Lesson Planning and Tool

These tools can help you to stay connected, organized, and increase the ease of building multimedia lessons and learning tools. Evernote: Capture great ideas, photos, recordings, or just about anything else on your Evernote account, access it anywhere, and keep it organized. A must-have tool for lesson planning. Twitter: There are so many ways Twitter can be used in education. Teachers can connect with other educators, take part in chats, share their ideas, or even use it in the classroom to reach out to students. Google Education: Google offers a number of great edtech resources for teachers, including email and collaborative apps, videos, lesson plan search, professional development, and even educational grants. Dropbox: Easily store, share, and access any kind of data from anywhere with the easy-to-use and free Dropbox service. Diigo: Diigo lets you treat the web like paper-based reading material, making it simple to highlight, bookmark, take notes, or even add sticky notes. Apple iPad: One of the most widely used, though expensive, tech tools being used in today’s classroom is the Apple iPad. With a host of educational apps being developed for the device, it’s become a favorite of teachers and students alike across the nation. Aviary: Aviary is a suite of tools that make it easy to edit images, effects, swatches, music, and audio or to create and modify screen captures. Jing: If you’re teaching kids about tech or just about anything else, a great screenshot program is essential. Jing is one great option that allows teachers to take screenshots as images, record up to five minutes or videos then edit and share the results. Popplet: You and your students can use Popplet to brainstorm ideas, create mindmaps, share, and collaborate. Google Earth: From geography projects to learning about geological processes, Google Earth can be an amazing and fast way to show students anywhere in the world. DonorsChoose: Need funding for a classroom project? You can get it through this site that hooks up needy teachers with willing donors. SlideShare: With SlideShare, you can upload your presentations, documents, and videos and share them with students and colleagues. Even better, you can take advantage of materials that other have uploaded as well. LiveBinders: Like a real-life three ring binder, this tech tool allows you to collect and organize resources. Much better than a binder, however, the site also comes with tools to connect and collaborate and a virtual whiteboard. AudioBoo: Through this tool, you can record and share audio for your students or anyone else.

Learning These educational tools can help you to make lessons fun, interesting, and more effective. Khan Academy: Many teachers use this excellent collection of math, science, and finance lectures and quizzes to supplement their classroom materials. MangaHigh: MangaHigh offers teachers a wealth of resources for game-based learning in mathematics. FunBrain: If you’re looking for a great collection of educational games, look no further than FunBrain. On it, teachers can take advantage of fun tools for math and reading. Educreations: Educreations is an amazing online tool for the iPad that lets teachers (or students) create videos that teach a given topic. Perfect for studying or getting students to show off their knowledge. Animoto: Animoto makes it simple to create video-based lessons or presentations for the classroom and to share them with students or anyone else. Socrative: Available for computers, mobile devices, and tablets, this student response system engages students through games and exercises on any device they have on hand. Even better, teachers can easily assess student progress and track grades. Knewton: Adaptive learning has been a hot topic in recent months, and with Knewton it’s something that any teacher can access and use. The site personalizes online learning content for each student according to his or her needs. Kerpoof: On Kerpoof, students can get creative with their learning with games, interactive activities, drawing tools, and more that are both fun and educational. StudySync: With a digital library, weekly writing practice, online writing and peer reviews, Common Core assignments, and multimedia lessons available, this site is a fully-featured tool for teaching and learning that can be a big help in the classroom. CarrotSticks: On this site, teachers can take advantage of a wide range of math learning games, giving students practice while they have fun.

new tools are hitting the market constantly and older ones rising to prominence, broadening their scope, or just adding new features that make them better matches for education, which can make it hard to keep up with the newest and most useful tools even for the most tech-savvy teachers.

echnology and education are pretty intertwined these days and nearly every teacher has a few favorit

Edmodo: Teachers and students can take advantage of this great tech tool, as it offers a Facebook-like environment where classes can connect online. Grockit: Get your students connected with each other in study sessions that take place on this great social site. EduBlogs: EduBlogs offers a safe and secure place to set up blogs for yourself or your classroom. Skype: Skype can be a great tool for keeping in touch with other educators or even attending meetings online. Even cooler, it can help teachers to connect with other classrooms, even those in other countries.

new tools are hitting the market constantly and older ones rising to prominence, broadening their scope, or just adding new features that make them better matches for education,

Technology and education are pretty intertwined these days and nearly every teacher has a few favorite tech tools that make doing his or her job and connecting with students a little bit easier and more fun for all involved.

new tools are hitting the market constantly and older ones rising to prominence, broadening their scope, or just adding new features that make them better matches for education

ew tools are hitting the market constantly and older ones rising to prominence, broadening their scope, or just adding new features that make them better matches for education

These tools use the power of social media to help students learn and teachers connect.

Teachers Pay Teachers: Have great lessons to share? Looking for something to add to your classes? On this site you can do both, selling your own class materials and buying high-quality resources from other teachers. Planboard: Make sure your lessons are organized and that your day runs smoothly with the help of this amazing online tool designed just for teachers. Timetoast: Timetoast is a pretty cool for student projects, allowing them to build sleek, interactive timelines in minutes. Capzles: There are so many different ways that Capzles can be used in the classroom, there’s bound to be an application that fits your needs. What does it do? Capzles makes it simple to gather media like photos, videos, documents, and even blog posts into one place, making it perfect for teaching, learning, or online projects. Prezi: Want to build presentations that will wow your students? Make use of this online tool that makes it simple to do all kinds of cool things with your lessons, even allowing collaboration between teachers. Wordle: Create stunning word clouds using Wordle, a great complement to language lessons of any kind.

Yet as with anything related to technology, new tools are hitting the market constantly and older ones rising to prominence, broadening their scope, or just adding new features that make them better matches for education, which can make it hard to keep up with the newest and most useful tools even for the most tech-savvy teachers.

Lesson Planning and Tools Use these tech tools to pull together great lessons and design amazing and memorable student projects.

Social Learning These tools use the power of social media to help students learn and teachers connect.

Learning These educational tools can help you to make lessons fun, interesting, and more effective.

Useful Tools These tools can help you to stay connected, organized, and increase the ease of building multimedia lessons and learning tools.

Teachers Pay Teachers: Have great lessons to share? Looking for something to add to your classes? On this site you can do both, selling your own class materials and buying high-quality resources from other teachers. Planboard: Make sure your lessons are organized and that your day runs smoothly with the help of this amazing online tool designed just for teachers. Timetoast: Timetoast is a pretty cool for student projects, allowing them to build sleek, interactive timelines in minutes. Capzles: There are so many different ways that Capzles can be used in the classroom, there’s bound to be an application that fits your needs. What does it do? Capzles makes it simple to gather media like photos, videos, documents, and even blog posts into one place, making it perfect for teaching, learning, or online projects. Prezi: Want to build presentations that will wow your students? Make use of this online tool that makes it simple to do all kinds of cool things with your lessons, even allowing collaboration between teachers. Wordle: Create stunning word clouds using Wordle, a great complement to language lessons of any kind. QR Codes: QR codes (or quick response codes) are showing up with greater frequency in education. If you’d like to get in on the trend, you’ll need a tool to create and manage the codes like Delivr and one to read codes, like any of those listed on this site. Quizlet: Quizlet makes it easy for teachers to create study tools for students, especially flashcards that can make memorizing important information a snap. MasteryConnect: How are your students performing with regard to state and common core standards? MasterConnect makes it simple to track and analyze both, as well as other elements of student performance. Google Docs: Through Google Docs, teachers can create and share documents, presentations, or spreadsheets with students and colleagues as well as give feedback on student-created projects. YouTube: Not all schools allow YouTube, but they are missing out as the site contains a wealth of great learning materials for the classroom. There’s even a special education-focused channel just for teachers and students. TED-Ed: TED isn’t just a great place to find inspiration anymore, the site also contains numerous videos that are organized by subject and can help you to teach everything from how pain relievers work to Shakespearean insults. Glogster:Glogster is a social site that lets users mash up music, photos, videos, and pretty much anything else you’d like. It’s a great way to create learning materials and a handy tool for creative student projects. Creaza: Want to bring your student projects into the 21st century? Creaza can make that possible, offering tools to brainstorm, create cartoons, and edit audio and video. Mentor Mob: On Mentor Mob, you or your students can create a learning playlist, which is essentially a collection of high-quality materials that can be used to study a specific concept. Useful Tools

Embrace Connected Learning - The concept of "Connected Learning" is at the center of a new theory that champions say "is a model of learning that holds out the possibility of re-imagining the experience of education in the Information Age" that draws on "the power of today's technology to fuse young people's interests, friendships and academic achievement." According to Dr. Mizuko Ito, a leader in the field of Connected Learning and a professor at the University of California, Irvine, and cultural anthropologist of technology use, examples of Connected Learning are when a teacher may ask a student to do a report on their favorite video game, or if a kid who likes to draw on the computer creates the signs and banners for a classroom party.

Free account available. Visually appealing interface with extra features. Maps can be shared for collaboration, published, printed/exported as a pdf and embedded.

mindmeister

ree Google account. Create documents, presentations, spreadsheets, form or drawing. Organize into folders, publish to the web and share documents with other users. Supports existing document upload (word & powerpoint).

Google Docs

“Technology is bigger than ever in schools,

“These closed sites fulfill an extremely important need, and that is communication.

But the context is you have to protect the kids and give the teachers oversight, and that protects everyone.”

“We want to make responsible users of social media,

They don't fully comprehend the finality of hitting the send button.

Teachers under age 35 are more likely than teachers age 55 and older to describe themselves as “very confident” when it comes to using new digital technologies (64% vs. 44%) Conversely, the oldest teachers (age 55 and older) are more than twice as likely as their colleagues under age 35 to say their students know more than they do about using the newest digital tools (59% vs. 23%) 45% of teachers under age 35 have their students develop or share work on a website, wiki or blog, compared with 34% of teachers ages 55 and older Younger teachers are also more likely than the oldest teachers to have students participate in online discussions (45% v. 32%) and use collaborative web-based tools such as GoogleDocs to edit their work (41% v. 34%) Younger teachers are more likely to “very often” draw on colleagues for ideas about how to use new technologies in the classroom (22% of teachers under age 35 do this), when compared with teachers age 35-54 (16%) and teachers age 55 and older (13%)

94% of AP and NWP teachers own a cell phone, slightly higher than the national figure of 88% for all U.S. adults 58% of these teachers (68% of teachers under age 35) have a smartphone, compared with 45% of all adults 93% of teachers own a laptop computer vs. 61% of all adults 87% own a desktop computer vs. 58% of all adults 39% own a tablet vs. 24% of all adults 47% own an e-book reader vs. 19% of all adults 78% use social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+, compared with 69% of adult internet users and 59% of all adults 26% use Twitter vs. 16% of adult internet users and 14% of all adults

99% of AP and NWP teachers use search engines to find information online 90% name Google as the search tool they use most often Virtually all AP and NWP teachers (99%) use the internet “to do work or research for their job” Almost three-quarters (73%) of AP and NWP teachers are “very confident” in their online search abilities

80% of AP and NWP teachers report getting email alerts or updates at least weekly that allow them to follow developments in their field 84% report using the internet at least weekly to find content that will engage students 80% report using the internet at least weekly to help them create lesson plans

92% of these teachers say the internet has a “major impact” on their ability to access content, resources, and materials for their teaching 69% say the internet has a “major impact” on their ability to share ideas with other teachers 67% say the internet has a “major impact” on their ability to interact with parents and 57% say it has had such an impact on enabling their interaction with students

WORD PROCESSING

ISCELLA

ECHNOLOGY TOOL

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