Saturday 15 June 2013

The Paperless Classroom

There are so many websites and apps available that make having a digital classroom simple. Some that I have tried out are:

  • Edmodo and Kidblog to set tasks and communicate with students - these can also be used to communicate with parents
  • Blogs and Wikispaces to share ideas, showcase work and poll students
  • PowerPoint or Keynote to present material
  • Screen casting and whiteboard apps such as Educreations for students work out problems instead of paper
  • Book Creator and other story making apps to write stories
  • Interactive Whiteboard to show worksheets and documents from the iPad
  • Google Docs etc to share documents
  • Book Creator etc to create books for students - the great thing here is they can be at the level you want, contain the phonic sound or vocabulary of your choice and be on your current topic
  • Digital Books in iBooks for students to read

One idea that is neither innovative or creative and, as far as the SAMR Model goes, purely substitution but useful just the same is to present worksheets on the iPad. Teacher made worksheets can be saved as photos, either by taking a photo of an actual worksheet or taking a screenshot, and then presented in an app such as Doodle Buddy. Students can complete the worksheet, write their name on the sheet and you can save to Camera Roll or take a screenshot and you have your evidence. Then the screen can be cleared and handed to the next student. This could be used for assessment of learning, assessment for learning and consolidation of skills. There is a screenshot below of a worksheet as the background in Doodle Buddy.

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