Posts tagged ‘mobile tech’

Student Voices #TDReflex14

I may be a week late with this (how much does that matter in an un0course?) but once again, the topic of the week has been timely for me.

For some reason this year I’m coming to feel that the ‘student voice’ has been really missing in my practice this year, especially around the iPad project. . I don’t really know why this has happened.

In my ESOL class I feel I have been so fixated with getting my head around teaching teenagers and two curriculums that are new to me, as well as figuring out how to effectively use 8 iPads with them, there has been almost no space for the students! How nuts does that sound. Read more ►

iPads: student explorations 2

Feeling inspired from last week’s lesson, I was glad that I had a week to think about how to follow up. The biggest challenge I found in thinking of something was the level of my students and what language they would need to review their apps. It took me a while to think about how I could simplify this enough & give them the language they would need.

Another chance corridor encounter meant that I was peer observed during this lesson too, & I know following this that this tutor has now used the iPads with her students too so I’m looking forward to chatting more about this & seeing what we can learn together.

Here’s an outline of the class: Read more ►

iPads apps: student explorations

I was (am) still feeling a little overawed with the class set of iPads. I am still taking the eight iPads into class every Monday, and most weeks they get used. But I have really focused on letting the students self-direct with using Google translate or images to check any new words or I have continued to experiment with using the app Ask3. Beyond this I was feeling a little stuck for inspiration and a Bit Daunted by the huge amount of apps available.

A chance corridor conversation gave me the nudge I needed I needed. My colleague has been using the iPads with her maths students. She told me she had initially introduced the iPads and spent some time letting the students explore the wide variety of maths-specific apps available. Now in class, she plans a 15-20 slot where students can self-direct their studies and she’s getting an informal idea of which apps they like by which ones they return to. (She also told me she had an evening student that was considering moving to the daytime class, but when she found out the iPads were not available in the daytime she decided to stay in the evening!!) Read more ►

a dash of differentiation & a huge helping of peer support

I had a thoroughly enjoyable 16-18 class this week. Gasp, shock, horror I hear you cry. It’s been such a long time since I posted about my bemusement of the younger age group it’s hard to figure out where the time has gone.

So what exactly have I been grappling with? Moody teenagers – check. An unknown curriculum – check. Trialling some new technologies – check. No wonder I’ve had No Brain to write!

I think I finally have a grasp of the (dreadful) PSD portfolio-building assessment & the iPads have taken on a routine-usage. As for the moods – just gotta swing with those. Read more ►

iPads and Course Books

At the last regional NATECLA conference I spent some time with the lovely Julia, who was staffing the OUP stand. She demo-ed the wonders of iHeadway and talked a good talk about the benefits of a course book.

On the whole, as an ESOL teacher in the UK, course books have played a pretty minor part of my repertoire, they always seemed to take so much adapting it was hardly worth it. Read more ►

crime, criminals & keeping your online presence private

crime/criminal

crime/criminal

I have reflected previously that I would embed the topic from PSD into developing the students ICT & digital literacy skills, however as the end of 1/2 term approached I felt that it was becoming increasingly challenging to keep the students engaged for 4 hours on a single topic. So today I have changed tack and had two distinct sessions: 2 hours of PSD and 2 hours of ICT.

Over the past couple of weeks I have also been increasingly aware that the iPad project has been dominating my thoughts and my planning with this group so I was keen to have a more balanced lesson this week. Read more ►

search, crop, insert

I actually enjoyed class today. I know – only 4 weeks in, and 4 weeks of stressing and nerves and over planning – but today I felt relaxed and ready to take on the 16-18 tech challenge. I could grow attached to this group.

I had a colleague, from my Teaching Triangle, come to class today and I few things stood out for me from our discussion. Read more ►

The fog lifts

Attribution: Image: ‘White sunset’ http://www.flickr.com/photos/22705478@N03/6831414535 Found on flickrcc.net

I may actually be starting to get my head around my new 16-18 ESOL group. I definitely spent the first two weeks in a kind of fog where I felt every thought I had led down the dark alley  of cluelessness.

The first week was a pretty traditional ESOL-y first lesson, with getting to know you activities and a college induction and class rules. So far so predictable. Except it wasn’t predictable. I wasn’t at all sure how the lesson would go at all – as it turns out the much over planned college tour using QR Codes and iPods was a Big Flop while the ‘draw a good student/a bad students/a good teacher’ went fairly well. Read more ►

Setting up Class iPads: a challenge

Having the support from the fabulous people at Sunderland University last year, through the (now defunct) LSIS Research Development Fellowship, was amazing on many levels. But I had one particular Light Bulb Moment: I became conscious that the reason I was possibly slightly derogatory about class sets of iPads was because I didn’t have any experience of this. All my experience with them was around how they could be used by individuals  – firstly through my project with the tutors on the ESOL subject specialism and then through last year’s project with the HE tutors and students. Read more ►

A rough and ready post on #learnpod13

I am on a complete high from attending my second unconference today. Thoughts on the day:

Things that I knew already:

  • I like to go first. I was the first to pitch and thankfully in the first slot of the day.
  • The world is made of amazing people and I have the pleasure of having these amazing people in my PLN.
  • Meeting face to face is invaluable. Technology can enhance these relationships but face to face rules.
  • Socrative, Educreations and Show Me are good apps to have on a class set of iPads Read more ►