Ideas for Using iPads in the Classroom
Source: Grant Wood Area Education Agency
- Use the iPad to differentiate. Extend your more able learners, or give your struggling learners more reinforcement.
- Schedule 1 on 1 time for students with the iPad. Shared time helps get everyone involved, but as with real life, 1 on 1 time is important too. You could even break out the digital timers here.
- Use the iPad as a Listening Center or as part of your free reading time. There are many good, free books in the iBooks Store that could be used in your classroom during this time. Many have read aloud audio.
- Find apps suitable for small group instruction. You as the teacher can lead the small group, demonstrate the skill with the app, and involve students in the learning process.
- Project your iPad. Use Apple TV, Reflection or AirServer to project your iPad on the big screen for the whole class to see. Teach from the iPad. Have students take turns to interact with it like you would with an Interactive Whiteboard.
- Work on Collaborative Stories. Several students can work on a story at one time, so you don't need one iPad for every student in this kind of scenario, if everybody plays nice and takes their turn. Assign roles and rotate students through them.
- Give student assessments - Give student assessments with Socrative, InfuseLearning.com, or the Accelerated Reader app if you use that. Assessments can be done on an individual basis and scores are recorded for the teacher.
- Make rubrics in Google Forms so the teacher can keep running records of students they conference with or work 1:1 with for reading or other activities. Have multiple forms open in tabs, one for each student, or use Class Dojo!
- Create a QR Code Scavenger Hunt. Have students complete the hunt in small groups, taking turn to scan the QR code and search for the information.
- Screencast! Use apps like Educreations, ShowMe or Doceri to record screencasts of group projects, science investigations, math concepts, and more.
- Scan Text/Worksheets - Use the camera or a scanner app to capture text from a book, worksheet or self created graphic organizer and write on or annotate it in Skitch.
Great Apps for a 1 iPad Classroom
- Class Dojo - Behavior Management tracking tool for the teacher - you can carry it with you at all times!
- Socrative - Test taking tool that lets the next student take the assessment
- Camera to display student work to the class
- Skitch - Annotate diagrams, or get students to annotate for the class to see
- Toontastic - Can be used in small groups to create digital cartoon stories
- Scribble Press - Another great digital storytelling app that lets students write and illustrate stories ($3.99)
- Educreations - Interactive whiteboard app that makes screencasts of the lesson or student work.
- Qrafter - Scans QR codes. Great for a QR Scavenger Hunt which can be made for free at classtools.net
- Stick Pick - A can of virtual popsicle sticks, but also a way to record/evaluate student responses in class ($2.99)
- Doodle Buddy - Create pictures to save to the camera roll or use as a whiteboard in class.
- Google Earth - Useful for Social Studies, mapping, locations, continents, states, etc and ALWAYS up to date.
- DropVox - Record audio and automatically have it sent to a Dropbox folder on the teacher's computer. Or, use Audionote Lite for free and keep recordings on the device.
