Teaching and Learning with iPods @NECC09

My district will be implementing some sets of iPod Touches during the 2009-2010 school year and I have been on a quest to learn as much as I can about their use in schools. I attended 3 sessions at NECC 2009 that gave me some great ideas and information

Tony Vincent, handheld guru, presented a session called: Do So Much With an iPod Touch. Tony’s presentations are always wonderfully well organized and have something for everyone.

Here are some great apps and ideas he shared:

• places to look for iPod apps besides the iTunes store: appshopper, mobclix
• earbuds are available from Walmart for $0.97. Beats having kids share them. Ew!

*Note: Games labeled as “lite” are free versions of a paid application. Lite versions usually have fewer levels or settings/options to entice you into buying the full-featured version. Lite versions often are enough for a school setting.

• Language Arts
  • Whiteboard Lite* — 2 devices share one ‘whiteboard’. Have students pose math problems to partner, create a list of synonyms together (can be saved for use later)
  • Quickword ($4.99) — word processor, can be used for peer editing: ‘red hot’ words (strong words) make them red, ‘cold words’ that need revision color them blue
  • Dictionary.com — once downloaded you don’t a wifi connection, a dictionary that is always with you
  • Lifestrips ($2.99) and Comic Touch ($2.99, also a Lite* version) — create comics, add speech bubbles and effects to photos, the ideas are limitless

• Social Studies
  • convert YouTube videos into mp4 format (needed to play on iPod) by using kickyoutube.com
    • first access the video on YouTube
    • then add ‘kick’ to the url before ‘youtube’ in the URL (ie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ becomes http://www.kickyoutube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ)
    • choose the mp4 format and download
    • drag into iTunes on computer
    • add to iPod during next sync
  • Inflation ($0.99) — see the relative prices of most anything from 1800 to the present
  • Google Maps (installed on iPod Touches as ‘Maps app’ — take a photo of a place/building and use with other maps
  • Allli’s Jigsaw Puzzle ($0.99) — turn any picture into a jigsaw puzzle, let kids put together to review a concept
  • create a list of links for students using wirenode.com
    • creates a mobile website for students to access using Safari on iPod
    • eliminates need for bookmarking in Safari on each iPod

• Science
  • Flipbook Lite* — create animations of processes or cycles
    • will need a stylus to draw with detail
    • can upload animation or see what others have created on flipbook.tv
  • Belkin Mic (or similar) — have students narrate during a field trip or while performing an experiment (will need to put audio into GarageBand on a Mac (or similar audio editing software on PC) if editing audio is desired)

• Math
  • Math Drills Lite* — math facts practice
  • Make Num Lite* (Sum it Up) — use as many numbers possible to make a given sum
  • Lemonade Stand ($0.99) — the old stand by simulation game now for iPods/iPhone

The “Birds of a Feather” session Using iTouch and iPhones for Teaching and Learning, dealt with a huge gamut of topics with lots of folks popping up from the audience to add to the learning. It was a wonderful structure and a rich learning experience. It can be viewed here thanks to Scott Meech for posting the video and the folks at ISTE for recording it.

Here’s a tidbit from the session, Global Connections in the Primary Classroom:

• Australian teacher Amanda Marrinan has her Years 2s (which is equivalent to first grade, I think), read books into an iPod and then sends the iPod home with the child so parents can hear their children’s reading fluency. She stated that many parents say they are too busy to sit down and listen to their children read. She also has them podcast what they are learning and posts it to their blog.

For more iPod apps, ideas and information please check these sites:

• Tony Vincent’s Learning in Hand
• IEAR.org (i Education Apps Review)
• Lots of links and resources on Karen Thompson’s iPod Touch site
• iPods4Education wiki Add some of your own resources/ideas, too!