Kindergarteners Gaining Independence, Pride & Increased Comfort Level with the iPad

The picture above makes me smile… I see a group of Kindergarteners thinking, wondering, discussing, testing things out, collaborating, being proud of their independence as they are working with iPads.

It was the first time, we “let go” with the iPads. Previously, we had iPad Centers, working with 3-4 students at a time or we took two buddies out of the class to record each other in a separate room.

This time, we decided students were ready (I was not so sure, if I was ready) to give each 5/6 year old their own iPad in hand. My eyes were constantly darting across the room, trying to foresee any potential disasters or accidents about to happen in regards to the physical well being of the devices (I am happy to report that there was not one incident!)

Mrs.Y.’s , the Kindergarten teacher, goal was to work on NOUNS. Building on the iPad skills they had developed in the previous weeks. We modeled for the entire group how to:

• find “nouns” in the classroom
• frame a picture so several nouns would be captured
• open up Skitch app
• using arrows to point to the nouns
• use type or handwrite the name of the object
• email their picture to their teacher to be included in their blogfolio

Some students tentatively starting with one noun and then worked their way up to more than one in a second (or third, or fourth) image. They became more creative as they were wandering around the classroom to take  “just the right” image. Mrs. Y. projected her email program to the board and as a class they went through each screenshot that had been taken and mailed.

You could really see the pride these students were displaying in their work.

Further Amplification… Other Languages…

“Amplification” in education is a concept, I am deeply committed to. In a recent post, Upgrade & Amplification Exercise and Checklist, I try to break down the process of amplification and make it more transparent for educators. What I did not explicitly include  was the component of another language to amplify one’s work, learning opportunities, reach, voice and ability to reach a global audience.

Last October, I published the post Sharing- Creative Commons- Collaboration- Amplification, which in turn refers to

 It’s All About Sharing and Collaborating, a post I wrote about a Russian educator who had translated material from Langwitches into his language in order to SHARE the content with his colleagues who spoke no English.  Alec Couros, told the Amazing Story of Openness and his diagram of the Networked Teacher as it has been translated into many languages now.

It am tremendously honored, when my work gets AMPLIFIED into other languages, reaching educators, I would not have reached otherwise. Dico Krommenhoek  contacted me a few days ago via Twitter. I was thrilled to give permission, without hesitation, when he asked to translate the iPad App Evaluation checklist into Dutch. It gives me a sense of COLLABORATION across time, space and language, when I can “teach” via my work and materials without ever speaking the same language or meeting these teachers face to face.

This is a beauty of CREATIVE COMMONS and an amazing story of openness (as Alec Couros puts it).

Since then I have received several requests and permission  to amplify into other languages. I would like to share the work of the educators who took the time to amplify into their language.  This is how collaboration and amplification looks like

Marlon offered to translate the  iPad App Evaluation for the Classroom into Chinese (pdf)

Carrie Antoniazzi, as a conseillère pédagogique” with a french school board in British Colombia, Canada, translated and adapted the Are u Ready 4 Twitter into French  (pdf) for her teachers.

How Does iPad Workflow Fluency Look Like in Kindergarten

Recently, I tried to explain to a teacher from another school how we are trying to use iPads BEYOND apps. We have over 100 apps on our school iPads and introduce our students according to age level to a variety of them, but the focus of the use of the devices NEEDS to remain primarily as a tool for:

• exposing students to skills, characteristic of a “modern learner“
• critical thinking
• personal learning
• transformative learning
• workflow fluency
• anytime/anywhere/anyhow
• creating

There is nothing wrong with using apps for isolated skills practice, such as multiplication, spelling, memorization, taking digitized quizzes or substituting otherwise traditional analog activities. These purposes should not be the only reasons of using iPads though. As students are being exposed to different apps, the focus needs to remain on the purpose, creation, workflow and sharing of what they can “do”with the iPads. They should “do” what they could not conceive or accomplish without them before.

I have shared last week, how our first graders are showing first signs of fluency when working with the tools at their disposal. How do we approach the workflow fluency with Kindergarten students?

We chose four apps (Doodle Buddy, Skitch, iMovie, ExplainEverything) to introduce our 5 and 6 year olds to the workflow:

import>create>save>share

• Students listened to a story (about dinosaurs and Hanukkah) without seeing the illustrations in the book
• in Doodle Buddy, they visualized the story by drawing the imaginary images in their heads.
• they saved the images in the photo album
• emailed the images to their teacher (to be inserted into student blogfolio under categories: Art, Writing)

• We started out by having students use Skitch to take a picture of themselves (some of them asked a buddy to take it for them, which they then reciprocated)
• by using the pen tool, they chose a color and then wrote their name on the image
• from Skitch, their “annotated” images were emailed to the teacher  (to be inserted into student blogfolio- Category: Kindergarten, Me, writing samples)

• Using iMovie students created a new project
• recorded a buddy telling them about their “favorite part of Kindergarten”.
• they played the movie back, re0recording if necessary until the movie clip was to their satisfaction
• students saved and named their project
• the movie was sent to a school vimeo account (to be embedded into student blogfolio- Category: Kindergarten, Me, Oral Language)

• The Kindergarten teacher set up scenarios and took photos in the classroom, demonstrating the Math concept of “fewer, more, equal”.
• the images ( different scenarios with different groups of children) were emailed to each iPad and saved in the Photo Album
• students looked at each image and chose the scenario, they wanted to “explain” (all students chose an image they were part of!)
• using Explain Everything, they then imported the image
• chose the pen tool and color
• recorded, paused, and drew their explanation
• the project was saved and mailed to teacher to be uploaded to classroom vimeo account (to be included in student blogfolio under Categories: Kindergarten, Math, Oral Language)

As we were using the above apps, we continue to ask and reflect:

• How is the app used to directly support curriculum content?
• How are we allowing students to demonstrate evidence of their learning in this moment in time?
• How are we/they documenting their learning process?
• How do we provide opportunities for students to think about and reflect on their own learning?
• What skills of a “modern learner” are we exposing our students to and how are we supporting the development of new literacies?

What are some of the workflows your students are becoming fluent in? How are you connecting skills and literacies of a modern learner to transforming activities in the classroom?