I received an iPad for Christmas last year and did not know much about using the tool. For the past year I have been using my iPad mainly for the internet or a couple of games. I am not a great technical person so I was a little intimidated by the tool. After watching the speaker talk about all the different ways to use the iPad in the classroom and showing how easy it is, I feel as though it is something that could be easily learned and used.
The iPad is a wonderful tool for students who are non-verbal. There are so many apps to use to help the students. One of the apps the lady used in a classroom was just like a big communication board you might be used to seeing in the class but it was on the iPad. The student was in middle school and rarely used the communication board because it was big and clunky and embarrassed her. When she got her iPad she was more confident and engaged with the rest of the class. It is amazing what a small little electronic device can do.
There is also a program called Yes/No. This program is also used for non-verbal students. When asking them a question the student can point to either yes or no on the screen. It will verbally play back their response using the computer generated voice. You can also customize it to your needs. For example if you want the child to choose milk or juice for snack you will create two buttons one for each and can even put a picture with the word that way the student can recognize the word and picture and choose.
Another awesome idea I though was using the app Sonic Pics where you can make your own social stories with your own pictures. So using the iPad the student or teacher could take pictures of what the student was working on all day. She then could create a 12 picture show and add audio describing the pictures. The teacher could e-mail the pictures to the students parents and they would be able to see what happened that day.
There are other apps such as a sign language app where it actually shows you how to sign the words which are in a list which looks like a phone list on the iPhone. There is also an app called Speak It and you type what you want to say and it says it for you. One app for helping students write letters is called Doodle Buddy. By just using your finger you can make a letter on the iPad. Once the child becomes familiar with that you can incorporate using paper and pencils.
Most of the apps that were talked about were ones for young children learning numbers, letters, and putting puzzles together. Also a lot of them were for communication. I would love to incorporate iPads in my future classroom. I become nervous when using technology but I believe that once I get the hang of the app and how to use it it would be able to be used very easily in the classroom.
No comments:
Post a Comment