“We done Some Research” using our IPADS

Pudú and friends. by Lizette Greco

We did some research

We went on Google

These were two phrases I used to hear a lot when I was an ICT advisor. It meant the  teacher had been doing an internet research lesson, which at best could be a chance for the children to broaden their knowledge around a topic through a series of preselected sites. While at the same time strengthening and honing their research skills.

At worst pupils would come to the Google homepage with the same sense of confusion and boredom, that can occur when  faced with a blank page and asked to write a story. I learned quickly from my own lessons and those that I watched that children need prompts and guidance to research. Without these scaffolds and clarity of expectation, the output can be nothing more than cut and paste word documents or print outs of web pages. I remember a display of beautifully crafted leaflets. They had been made in Microsoft Publisher and though they looked very nice, closer inspection revealed that the text in everyone was merely a direct paste from either the BBC or Wikipedia. This is why web-quests gained popularity a few years ago, this technique worked as a sort of information treasure hunt and brought structure and focus to research work.

But real world research does not fit nicely into a linear set of questions as in a web-quest. We look for specific information and discover new questions, meanwhile the answer we seek may not be where we thought and we night need to try another site or page.

It strikes me there are 3 things to get right when using the internet as a text with your class:

1. Do it in a reading Session

Acknowledge that the internet is a giant sprawling hypertext book of information and  just like an information book, “a real book” or something from a dire reading scheme – YOU need to scaffold and support the children in crafting strategies for reading it. This means looking at how web pages are put together, discussing navigation, content, authorial intention, the effectiveness of design features as well as decoding and looking at new vocabulary. I have recently taken the step of including more on-screen web-based reading within my supported guided reading sessions, as we can not just assume that proficient technology use means a child can locate and easily extract and summarise information on a website.

2 Learn to search effectively.

I know I need to work on this with my class and I am keen to place context around and use the recent lesson plans from google on more efficient searching.

You can find them here.

3 Value the Output of the Research

By this i simply mean if children have to create a product with the information they find  then the engagement and end result is in my experience far better. In recent weeks my year 6 class have been using a selection of pre given sites and a mix of open-ended and more closed questions on our topics such as Michael Morpurgo , The Beatles and The Tolpuddle Martyrs. Their task has been to create a presentation using Key Note on their iPads based on their answers/ findings on the topic.

In order to set this up I created an Iwork account which the children share their work to when finished. Remarkably this has proved most successful when children have been paired on one device rather than having one device each,. At the front of the class I display our Iwork page, where each time a Keynote presentation is completed a thumbnail appears. This adds a gamification element as children are keen to see their work on the board, it also means as a teacher I can click on any piece of work in a mini plenary style and draw out with the class elements for development.

I have been surprised by how successful this method of data mining has become with my class and we now use it routinely when looking at any new topic. The Ipad has added a hook for disengaged and reluctant writers who have been keen to present their work in a form other than graphite and lined A4. I am acutely aware that this is no silver bullet and there is a need to reflect upon the effectiveness of this approach and look at other formats. It is worth looking at the ideas put forward by Simon Haughton on his blog, as he is someone who regularly writes on how pupils might present their internet research.

I’d be keen to know readers thoughts, so as always leave a comment or a tweet.

I men

Foam Fighters and AR Nostalgia

This is not very educational.
I have just been trying out Foam Fighters an augmented reality style app / toy for IPad and iPhone/ IPod.
I have enjoyed piloting my plane through difficult skies and avoiding attack. Apps like these that need something physical attached to the device are slowly increasing. I do hope we see more inventive and imaginative applications for this augmented reality style technology when it comes to tablets and IOS.

Playing this game tonight took me back a few years to the excitement we had in my early days of 2SIMPLE, when chief genius Max would emerge from his tool shed like office with another chunk of code. He shows his forays into augmented reality in his video appearance at Teachmeet East London below.

3 Free Resources I have used this week

I don’t know teachers these days, they do not know they’re born.Back in the day  I spent many an hour slaving over a mouse and a tedious table in MS Word to create a label or a poster. But now, there are a wealth of sites that create these things for you and some are actually very good too.

Adverbs Posters and Long list of examples

I do still prefer to make my classroom posters, using a mix of Powerpoint, Big Huge Labs and Springfield Punx, but this resource from Mark at Teaching Ideas looked great and is now adorning my wall. Adverbs is a tricky one for some year six pupils to grasp and so along with the poster there is also a long list of A4 pages of examples too. Very useful and if positioned well for room does not look like every other sparkle box styled room in the country.

PaperZip

Paperzip create beautiful display resources and they’re free. I am making a display of how we use IOS devices and Paperzip has some well drawn templates of iPads and iPhones, along with some rather elegant certificates, bookmarks and posters.

Monster Simile Poem Creator

Google My Monster and this site from Lancs Grid for Learning will be first to show. It is a very clever writing frame that guides pupils through the process of making a simile rich poem. Complete the half-finished lines with your own similes and voila instant Monster poem. i tried it this week with my class and I was impressed with what they came up with.

in retrospect I would use this site as a starter for a unit on Imagery, rather than half way through a unit as by now pupils have already blogged some very descriptive and metaphorical  poems about beasts

Here is what one of my pupils created with the monster site earlier this week:

My monster is called Blodin

My monster has a body like a mountain
Eyes like tomartoes
A nose like the end of a spear
A mouth like a big black hole
Legs like tree trunks
And arms like branches

My monster is as friendly as a grumpy old troll
As clever as a plank
As loud as a bullhorn
As smelly as a dump
And as frightening as thunder

My monster Blodin

The End

On Sarah’s iPad

Just want to flag up this great blog On Sarah’s iPad‘s is updated very regulallry with lively and informative primary age app reviews and advice.

Sarah has worked in the field of assistive technology and has her six children. So, she is more than qualified to talk about children and edtech.

Keep up the good work Sarah – I am enjoying your posts.

Art Circles

I have just been spending a fascinating hour with the current Itunes App of the week, Art Circles. This new app allows you to discover art via innovative circles of curators, collections or colours. It has opened my eyes to a wider range of high quality photography and both classic and modern paintings.

As the App Store classifies this app as a 12, then I would be reluctant to install it across the IPad network, just in case one of my class did come across some profanity or other inappropriate content..Howvever after looking at it for some time, I have yet to find any!

Where I do think this app  has great value is as a reference and planning  text for teachers. It is a great tool for planning Art lessons and for finding works of art and powerful images in the spirit of Last Fm or Spotify. I imagine I would use it whilst plugged into my class projector whilst the pupil used 2Paint a Picture or analogue brushes and paint to create their own work “in the style of ____”.

Having just looked at it for a second time, it strikes me that this would also enhance descriptive language as each colour is given a vivid and evocative name & definition. For example a deep blue is referred to as Lapis .Alongside the definition of the colour there are streams of paintings which encapsulate or feature that colour. With this in mind I coulkd see myself having a colur of the day or week. Time could be set aside to create lists of similes or poetic sentences for our chosen colour, rather than just focusing on the often hackneyed – but necessary wow words.

Springfield Punk and Labels

Class rules

I want to pass on a site that I have found invaluable as a source of contemporary and attractive graphics. I recently inherited a classroom part way through the year, I needed to redo many of the standard signs and labels that were either dog-eared or (worse still) created in Word Art.

A selection of classroom signs

I will never be a one for Sparklebox or Mrs Pancake or whatever. I ‘d like to have some individuality and originality, rather than have my space look like most other rooms. In my environment I’d rather use a simple rounded rectangle template in Powerpoint and create my own signage.I came across Springfield Punx blog around a month ago and Dean’s wonderful Doctor Who cartoons have now started appearing all over my labels, displays and regularly feature on the IWB.

It is not for everybody, but I do think these cartoonised and colourful aliens compliment and enhance my classroom.