Tech Time

We have been busy little techies this week. We are working hard on integrating our iPads into our day seamlessly. To do this, we need to practice, practice, practice. 

Our goal is to use these devices in creative and innovative ways. Most of the apps we use are creatively based presentation apps that allow us to use them in all subject areas.  

Here are some ways we used our devices this week:

Learning to comment on an academic post on Kid Blog and learning to reply to comments appropriately.

We started by identifying comments that were productive and appropriate and crossing out the comments that were inappropriate or hurtful.

Then we practice commenting with our collaborative buddies on an academic post that was posted on our kid blog page. See that post (here).

Finally, we practiced logging back in and replying to these comments. 

Wondering about science using Today's Meet as our Backchannel.

What is a Backchannel? A backchannel is a secondary conversation that is happening while the main conversation is going on. It allows us to have real time conversation that give everyone a voice and time to find that voice.

We use Todaysmeet.com as our backchannel tool. 

The kiddos us a QR code to help us get to the site quickly.  You can see the students using their iPads to scan the QR code. 

I love this picture!

Once the students were at our site, they broke out into cozy spaces to begin their science research. We identified areas of wonder in our shared science text and their mission was to find possible answers or explanations to our wonders. As the students are working and typing, they can also immediately read what their classmates have shared. They can see it on their iPad and on our big screen.

View our Today's Meet page (here). Please do NOT comment on this. Today's Meet is for our classroom use only.

Both KidBlog and Today's Meet are sites that allow us to work in any subject area at any time. This is important to my iPad philosophy because I don't want these devices to be seen as a game device or a way to practice sight words. This is a learning tool that will allow us to accomplish things that we haven't been able to do in the past. I am excited to share more with you. Just wait until you see what these kiddos are capable of.