iPads and literacy

Reubina Irshad: Part of my inquiry was to enhance student engagement using an iPad as a creative tool. Part of my process was just to give the children an opportunity to explore with the iPads because most of our children can afford having iPads, they have them at home already so I would find them coming in and showing me as a teacher how to use some of the apps, and it was a very humbling experience, as a teacher, because I’m having to learn from the students as well.

In the classroom, we talked about how we’re all learning together and learning at the same time. Using SOLO as a framework for our thinking with my five year olds, Year 1 class, definitely it helped them to see visually where their thinking and where their outcomes were. Initially with their literacy, I found that they were showing a lot of multi-structural thinking and shifting that thinking to relational thinking where they were able to make links, and also being able to be creative in publishing their work. Towards the end of the inquiry, children were able to verbalise what their learning outcome was and what their next steps were going to be. Shifts that I’ve made with using the iPad as a creative tool in my classroom, as a teacher definitely gave me confidence to have a go at using the tool and I found out that iPads, flash computers, whatever form of digital tools we have, they are just tools to enhance students’ learning outcomes. It comes down to the relationship that we build with those children and making learning fun for them in the classroom.