ipod touch - final thoughts

     Perhaps the fact that I am not too broken up about giving back my ipod touch tells the story.  Quite frankly, it has not lived up the potential that I anticipated this quarter. I know that part of the issue is that I have been busy and rushed and I have not devoted as much time to trying to find ways to incorporate this tool into the school day as I would have liked.  Another issue is that the wireless in my classroom was not always fast or reliable (when I finally figured out how to use it).  A related issue is that the classroom computer usually could be used to check out google and with greater ease and visibility. However, for most of the quarter I have been hard pressed to incorporate using one ipod touch.



I have liked the audio recording device and wish I had a smart phone that could do that for me.  There are so many opportunities to use this feature that I might have to consider some alternatives.  The dictation and dictionary.com and google translate saw only "testing" in my hands.  I did use the Merriam Webster dictionary  (no internet required) last week and it worked well.  I used it to look up the Latin roots of equilateral, isosceles and scalene triangles.  It helped me give my students a way to help them remember what these mean and augmented my lesson on triangles. 


I am still very intrigued about the possibility of the touch just on sheer engagement alone.  My daughter thought it was the coolest thing that I was using a touch to help my teaching.  She is NEVER without it and as I have said before it is THE accessory of choice in her tween crowd.  I have also found that even in lower socioeconomic circumstances, it is something that kids own.  This device is powerful and I suspect as the price comes down and the availability goes up, access will not be an issue.  I think it is a tool to continue to think about in the classroom if everyone had one.  Only now, I will have to wrestle my kids to use theirs.

Ipod touch revisited

Well, things have not worked out quite like I had planned regarding using my ipod in the classroom.  I thought I might be able to use some kind of combination of Dictation and Google Translate for R, for translating modifications to his homework.  It has not really been needed.  R. just does the math computation and skips the word problems, his English has improved considerably in the time I have been gone.  It also took me a couple of weeks to be able to access the wireless network in my classroom.  My teacher does not use it, so I needed to seek help from another teacher.

I did get the opportunity to use my ipod with H.  He was struggling to complete a science assessment that consisted of two short answer questions about labs from the previous week.  H. was inside during recess to get that completed as he struggled to get it done during class time.  My MT was out of the classroom and he turned it in to me with virtually nothing on the page.  I tried to coax him into giving it some additional time and he could not.  I then asked him if he might be able to talk to me about questions from the lab and he agreed.  I did record his answers on my touch.  Unfortunately, my MT told me that he did not have “voice recording” as an approved accommodation (he has a 504) and in addition, she is trying to get him to write and does not give him alternatives!  I ended up transcribing his answers to the assessment so that she could determine how much he understood from the lab.  She gave him a 2.5 (just below benchmark) for the assessment and felt it was helpful.

I have not used the touch for C, to extend science in any meaningful way.   I did use Google to get a quick picture of a plateau to assist my MT while she was teaching.  The concept was confusing given the pictures we had and so I found a picture and put the ipod under the doc camera. 

I have used the ipod to record the six science interviews I have done in class.  All the students were engaged and intrigued that I had this device as part of my classes.  It has allowed me to focus on getting to know the students and not have to worry about taking notes.  I will continue to look for opportunities to use the ipod touch in my classroom as a means of differentiation.  I will look to my cohort peers to see how they are using the touch.

Differentiated instruction using ipod touch

R. is a student in my 5^th grade class who moved here from Japan at the beginning of the school year.  He arrived knowing very little English but goes to ELL each day – but not during reading time.  As I am returning to my 5^th grade, this is a subject area where R. continues to struggle.  The class uses a Houghton text and often has a “packet” of activities about the reading to complete.  The teacher works with a small group while the rest of the class works independently on the packet.  R. sometimes works on something from ELL or Rosetta Stone and I am wondering if there is an opportunity to help R. using the ipod touch and Google translate as demonstrated by Jane in our first class.  At this time, I do not have wireless access at school, but I am working on that.  As a first step, I would like to be able to get the homework assignment (usually modified) translated into Japanese and sent home by email to R.’s mom, who reads and writes English pretty well.  Right now R. usually brings home the same homework as everyone else and my master teacher tries to remember to write a note home about the modifications and what to focus on, but it is difficult with 31 students in our class.

H. is a bright boy who has significant difficulty with writing.  He attends special ed to get help with writing skills as he gets so frustrated during writing, he completely melts down.  I am wondering if letting him use the ipod and the Dictation app could be helpful as it gets his ideas down by speaking and then the written version could be sent to an email or Google doc for him to continue.  Getting started seems to be the biggest hurdle.

C. is a quiet and bright girl in my class who has is looking for opportunities to have her thinking extended in science.  C is asking for more difficult science experiments or opportunities to learn something beyond the Foss kits.  Is there an opportunity for me to use the ipod to help her get there?  Even using Google to research erosion and deposition from our lab last week might help extend the lesson for her.