Tuesday 15 May 2012

Technology Adventures

We have been very fortunate to have some terrific technology in our classroom over the last few weeks.  The first thing we received was an interactive whiteboard (called a Smartboard), along with the projection device and laptop that go with it.  We can project images from the laptop onto the whiteboard, then touch the whiteboard to move the images on the screen.  You can also write directly on the screen using the special pens that come with the board.  For our first lesson using the Smartboard, Ms. Birdsall created an interactive Jeopardy game board for us to review for our Science test on habitats and adaptations.  Below, you can see the game board and the teams lined up behind their buzzers.  The game was a lot of fun, and we are looking forward to using the Smartboard often.  It will be in our room for the rest of the year.



 The second technology guest star in our room last week was a set of iPads.  Our school district has a cart of iPads that schools can borrow, and our school has them for three weeks.  On Friday it was our turn to use them and we incorporated them into our Health and Career Education unit on friendship.  In partners, we wrote scripts showing how to resolve a fight with a friend.  Then we used the app Puppet Pals to create animations of our scripts.  Puppet Pals allows you to choose characters and backgrounds for your stories.  You can then record your voice and move the characters on the screen to create a digital puppet show.  We loved using the iPads and the end results were impressive.  Here are some photos of us working.








Here is an example of the types of videos the students made.  This one was created by Alta and Madison.



You can find some of the other videos on our Kidblog site.  Unfortunately, when some of the videos were uploaded to YouTube, they suddenly had no sound, so those videos aren't posted on Kidblog.  Ms. Birdsall is hoping to discover and fix the glitch this week, so stay tuned.  Division 9 loves technology!

3 comments:

  1. The ipads were so much fun!! Jeopardy was awesome too. My team was first losing but then we came to 3rd place!!!


    Pawan

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  2. I absolutely love tech! We are lucky over here, we all have smartboards in our classes but one thing we don't have is access to Ipads. They look amazing, did you have a good time using them? Did you use other apps too? I'm hoping to buy some Ipads (one of my jobs is leading ICT in school) so I need some good ideas.
    Just to let you know, I did some work on inference after seeing your great activity with the shoes. It was great fun. We are going to do an inference activity based on what's inside a handbag (I think you call it a purse) The children are going to work out which teacher it belongs to. If you pop over in the next couple of weeks you will see the photos.

    Bye for now,

    Mrs Warner
    Fieldhead Carr PS
    http://www.year4blogspot.blogspot.co.uk/

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  3. Hello again.
    I wondered if you guys knew about quadblogging. It's a collaborative blogging idea where four blogs take it in turns to visit each other and leave comments.
    We have been involved in it this year and have had quad buddies from Australia, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand and the UK.
    It's a great way to open up your audience.
    Here is a link http://quadblogging.net/ or you could find out more on Twitter @quadblogging.
    Twitter is a great place for teachers to share ideas too.

    Bye for now,
    Mrs Warner
    www.year4blog.blogspot.co.uk

    ReplyDelete