"Connecting to the past, delivering the future" - with iPads in the classroom by Joe Moretti

Joe Moretti demonstrating the Augmented Reality app Aurasma

International keynote speaker Joe Moretti, an iPad education expert, demonstrated to teachers on Monday that the use of technology should not surpass the pedagogy in the classroom.

The number of teachers attending the event showed that the vast majority of them has been in the classroom for 20 to 30 years. They are experts in their special fields and experts in teaching. Their knowledge and experience are paramount when adapting to a new environment of using technology in the classroom. Combining that with the children who are digital natives with the use of technology, it makes it easier to make the switch.


Joe Moretti suggested that if there is only one iPad in the classroom available, the teacher already has access to many new teaching methods.

"Connecting to the past, delivering the future"
The pedagogy is still essential for teaching in the future!

New teaching methods with an iPad in the classroom

- Connecting via wireless mirroring to type and show what they are busy with on the iPad. It is not necessary to stand in front of the Black board any more. The teacher can move around with the device in her hand. She can type and draw while moving around. She can ask the students to show what they are doing on the device.

- The camera can be used to record in class, and there are no struggles when saving and searching for the files. It can be uploaded to be made immediately available to all.

- The use of Pages (Microsoft Word) and Keynote (Microsoft Powerpoint) makes it very easy to update and convert the presentations on the iPad. All the previous Word and Powerpoint documents can be uploaded to Dropbox and accessed via the iPad.

- Book Creator is one of the apps that is very easy to use, and it has a myriad of applications in the classroom. It can be learned in 5 minutes. Sound, videos and images can be uploaded as well, and it is very easy to upload it to iBooks.

- SHOWBIE is a great way to share and receive files from students. It has unlimited storage and unlimited class size. It is also free.

- iPad as simulator: There are many ways that the iPad can be used as simulator in the science fields. It can take the students into the human body as well as into space. One microscope that's connected can be shown on all iPad devices in the classroom. The Globilab was demonstrated as a wireless data collection device that makes K-12 science experiments mobile and immediately available.

- Special needs children: Settings were demonstrated to lock the device into a specific app, especially when working with autistic children that gets distracted easily.

- Augmented Reality is a great new way to make old boring posters and learning material coming alive in the classroom. Aurasma was demonstrated as one of the apps to use.

A dinosaurus coming alive on the screen via AR

As always I got very excited when I saw all the endless possibilities and creative uses of the iPad in the classroom. I wish I had an education like this, and I wish my children will be able to have access to this technology!



Related posts:

- Book Creator great for learning and fun 

- Choosing iPads for your school - Fraser Speirs

- Ipads in Education - I want to be a teacher now #iPadSamG

What makes pirates being afraid? - another Afrikaans app for the iPad

I found this cute adaptation of an Afrikaans book, "Waarvoor is seerowers bang?", as an application for the iPad.

Arrr! Everyone knows pirates aren’t afraid of anything! But when something on deck starts smelling worse than the breath of a hammerhead shark, Sanmarie suspects there might be one thing that makes her fearless pirate dad and his crew tremble in their dirty boots ... This hilarious, rip-roaring, rhyming pirate adventure by well-known children’s author Jaco Jacobs comes to life on your iPad – thanks to innovative animation, fun music and lots of interactive elements."

                                                                           - Waarvoor is seeerowers bang?

The story is written and narrated by Jaco Jacobs, with the illustrations by Chris Venter.
It was developed by Lapa and Full Circle cooperation.


There are three features available:

- Children can read the story by themselves.

- The story is read to them and they are able to interact with the animations on the screen. The animations include touch elements, flickering green arrows and an extra sidebar with extra character comments.

- There is also a puzzle game available.


This is definitely the small fee worth, especially since the hard copy is three times the price of the application.

I could not wait to hear what makes a pirate afraid!
Very cute!


Related post:

- An Afrikaans app on the iPad: Die Drie Varkies

Apple in Education Awards 2013 - the winners! #iPadlearningZA

The 7th annual Apple in Education Awards 2013 arrived on Wednesday. It is designed to award excellence in the classroom. But it does more than that. It challenges the teachers and learners to excel in being creative in their use of technology to enhance their own learning.

I love seeing the finalists and the winning entries! But I must mention that I think that each of the entries in the competition deserves to be mentioned, and especially the teachers who have made a special effort for these kids to be able to take part!

I see this as a positive step towards a future in education where we will be able to address imbalances in the standard of our education, compared to the standard of education globally. The winning entries showed that government schools that implemented the same technology were on par with the private schools!

A few interesting facts, figures and announcements were made:

• The second edition of the Education App guide has been launched, and there are over 100 000+ education apps that are available to use.

• ZA Books have now over 1500 South Africa titles 
• There are great apps that are free on new iPad purchases: iWork productivity apps: Pages, Numbers and Keynote and iLife creativity apps: iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand.
• From Grade R - Grade 12 have submitted entries in this competition.
• There are entries from 32 subjects in the competition.
• 56 schools have submitted entries.
• 783 projects were entered.
• The judges were independent from the schools and the learners.

Donnay Torr announcing the winning entries for
the Curriculum Projects Grade 5-7

I had the privilege to be a judge in the category Curriculum Projects Grade 5-7 with Donnay Torr and Karen Walstra. It was very difficult to decide on the winning entries, because the entries were all very creative and innovative. Luckily we had a list of criteria to measure and compare our marks of the different projects.

Grayston Preparatory School winning entry being shown

The winning entry from Grayston Preparatory School deserves their win!

Congrats to the winners of Curriculum Projects Gr 5-7 >Grayston Preparatory #iPadlearningZA @SAPixi @KarenWalstra pic.twitter.com/teTnxOd5BB
— Karen du Toit (@karentoittoit) November 27, 2013

The iTeacher of the year from Gugulesizwe Primary School (I missed her name, unfortunately!) successfully introduced her learners to using the iPads as a way to introduce English as the language of learning and teaching in the school. 

I am sorry I don't have more information about the other winners and about the learners. I was hoping to find some more information about this competition on the web, but so far it has not been made available.

Congratulations to all the enthusiastic teachers, and especially the creative students! 

The students are showing us that there are no limits on education! 

Give them the tools and technology, and they will embrace it with enthusiasm and with positive results!

Related posts:

- Apple in Education Competition Awards 2013 coming up #AppleinEd

- Apple in Education

Book Creator great for learning and fun

Moshoeshoe Primary School pupil presenting her ebook
created on Book Creator

An app that came up during the visit by Fraser Speirs about the use of iPads in schools, is the Book Creator app. It is one of the apps that is part of a suggested learning set of apps being pre-loaded on mobile labs of iPads in schools in South Africa.

Moshoeshoe Primary School is an example of a school that has implemented iPads in their school through corporate sponsors and iSchoolAfrica. They use Book Creator very creatively in the English Second Language classes.

We also played with the app. It is a lot of fun for own personal use, or maybe for that book you always wanted to write. Little Missy dictated her story to me while I recorded it. I could add the video in the book, and wrote the rest of her story, with photos attached to it. The first book is free, and after that you have to upgrade to create an unlimited number. At $4.99 (about R37) it is not a huge amount.

We will be making more...

The creators of Book Creator picked up on my mentions of Book Creator in previous posts, and asked me to write a guest post.

 

The guest post is here: Book Creator adding to the learning experience in South Africa

Apple in Education Competition Awards 2013 coming up #appleined

The yearly Apple in Education Competition awards is happening at the end of this month. 

I was extremely honoured to be asked to be a judge in one of the categories. 

The aim with these awards is to reward creative use of Apple in teaching and learning!

I was expecting to see great projects, because I have seen the previous year's winners at the Apple in Education Awards, but I was blown away with the creativity! Again!

The venue was at the stunning new iLounge in Juta Street in Braamfontein.

Thr iLounge has a great view of the city with Mandela Bridge.

Each category was judged by 3 people. Each of us sat with all of the projects in a category, and gave our own marks and notes on each of the projects. After that we went through all the projects again, and it was extremely satisfying to see that the individual thoughts concurred to select the best three.

The children in the category Gr 5 - 7 mostly made projects in iMovie, and we had one Keynote presentation to judge as well!  It was so inspiring to see what they are able to do!

I can't wait to see the projects of the final winners in all of the categories! The projects come from schools all over the education spectrum; from government to private schools.

It made me excited again to think that this type of technology are helping - and should be implemented more - to level the educational standard in South Africa!

I wish we could put this in all of our children's hands!


Related posts:

- Why iPads? #iSchoolAfrica

- iPads at Moshoeshoe Primary School - changing the South African education landscape #iSchoolAfrica

- Chosing iPads for your school - Fraser Speirs

An Afrikaans app on the iPad: Die Drie Varkies

Die Drie Varkies
iPad screenshot

Afrikaans children don't have that many choices with regards apps on the iPad, and mostly it doesn't matter. They get along just well with all the English apps and stories that are available!

I found this cute interactive story app in Afrikaans, which is worth the small fee!
Die Drie Varkies (The Three Little Pigs) is an adaptation by Abrie Byeleveld for Lapa Books, complete with the South African lanscape, objects and animals. There is even a plate of koeksisters (a sweet South African delicacy) at the end of the story.

There are three options: a read-to-me, a-read-by-myself, and a-read-and-play-option available.
The characters do somersaults when they are tapped, and blue and red dots signal the child for extra interactive activities.

The story is rewritten by Wendy Maartens, and Jaco Jacobs reads it.

There is also a game of putting a pig together again.



Related posts:

Afrikaans op die iPad

Excited about ZA Books

iPads for children #iStoreMomsandKids

Excited about ZA Books

ZA Books

ZA Books launched yesterday.
It is the eTextbook solution for South African education!

South African school pupils are able to download all their textbooks on an iPad, with much less cost to them, and a lot of flexibility with regards manipulation of taking notes, highlighting and search within a textbook.

It is possible to put this into each child's hand, even in rural South Africa where there already are solutions to power these devices by solar.

Taryn Hyam at iStore, Sandton

Taryn Hyam announced the launch of the ZA Books website, as well as how much inroads Apple has made already with regards education in South Africa. 

80 000 educational apps are available through the iTunes store. App guides were release last year to help parents and students with choosing the right apps. It is divided into the various grades, for primary and secondary school. 

180 schools in South Africa have already implemented iPads, of which 120 are private and government schools. 60 of these schools are iSchoolAfrica sponsored. There are a variety options available of how to implement the iPads: 1 to 1 programmes or mobile labs.

A nice video presentation of the schools that are already using iPads are available on the ZA Books home page: 

Watch the South African iPad in Education video

I love how teachers are responding: The children "brighten up!" (Ndlelenhle Primary School) or that "Nobody wants to miss an iPad class." It is "engaged learning!"

The observations that are forthcoming from the use of iPads: engagement, motivation, discipline, differentiation, reward and re-mediation are significantly higher!

It "allows the teachers to feel like rock stars!"

The global trends are the same, where the digital solution has become a simple choice!

The results are:

Increased interest in reading;

Cost saving;

Homework completion up;

Accessibly for special needs;

Personalised learning;

No more heavy backpacks!

Linda de Klerk
ZA Books

Linda de Klerk gave more clarification on ZA Books and how it is being implemented. 

ZA Books includes CAPS aligned titles, as well as normal reading titles. Teacher's manuals, handbooks and workbooks are available. 

It is already available in 6 languages, and 33 subjects are launched, with 600 titles available. More are being made available on a daily basis!

I checked: There are quite a number of Afrikaans books available already!

Schools can start registering at ZA Books to get a volume licence, and purchasing are done on the website. Individuals can also register.

The ZA Books app is available to download for free.

There is going to be two phases of implementation: Phase 1: school licensing; and Phase 2: individual purchasing.

The pricing is a minimum of 25% cheaper than the physical printed title!

ISchoolAfrica addresses schools in more rural environments by way of corporate sponsorships.

There are tailored solutions for each school.

I also enquired about how I can get my child's schools to adopt this type of learning. 

I was introduced  to Michelle Lissoos of Think Ahead Education Solutions. They help with talking to the principals, the selection of the right solutions for the school, the training of the teachers and implementation.

They have implemented these programmes into Afrikaans schools as well!

I am so excited about this! I will be the parent this year who will go and pester talk to the principals of my child's pre-primary and primary schools. If not this year, then the following year!

I will keep you updated, and on how easy this process is!

Do your children use iPads at school, and what are your thoughts about it?

Related posts:

Apple in Education

iPads for children #iStoreMomsandKids

Apple in Education

I never thought I would get as excited about a technology gadget as I have become about my iPad. The more you do with it, the more you realise how much can be done!

I am only limited by my own ignorance and technological inadequacies.

I have seen how creatively it can be used for children, especially after I won the invite to the Tech-Moms & Tech Savvy Kids event at the iStore.  I realised how valuable iPads for children can be used as a learning and educational tool!!

That's why I get so excited about the Apple in Education Awards 2012 that happened last week. I was extremely surprised at the number of entrants. It shows that Apple has made an amazing impact in the classroom in the short time of 2 years!

The facts and figures of the entries received: 

• Grades R to 12 participated
• 32 subjects were entered
• 72 schools took part
• 1028 projects were done for the competition

One of the most exciting announcements is that Apple is planning a new iPad app to be launched in January 2013. It is called ZABooks. It will be an iPad Textbook Store that will run separately from iBooks. They will have about 400 textbooks containing to the South African curriculum, and more will of course be added on.

We saw samples of some of the winning projects, and it is very inspiring already!

Congrats to all the winners, and especially Germiston High School who walked away with the iSchoolAfrica youth press team award.

My wish is that all schools in South Africa will start with implementing this in the classroom.

I think I need to make an appointment with the Principals of our pre-primary school as well as the primary school.

There are ways and means to put this in every child's hand!

iPads for children #iStoreMomsandKids

I had the good fortune to win an invite to the Tech-Moms & Tech Savvy Kids event at the iStore in Sandton on Friday. Thanks to Rattle and Mum!

We have the tablets at home, but we are still struggling through the maze of all the apps that are available. We are also not sure about the management of the tablets in the home.

I got a few pointers at the iStore that opened up my eyes to the possibilities for our children.
I could only jot down a few, because I had a toddler in tow who kept coming to swing on the doors and asking me to join her where they were being entertained by the friendly iStore people.

iPads for children from Pre-School to Secondary School:

- A study that has been done about the impact of iPads on learning has yielded a much higher result for children using the devices.
- iPads in kindergarten have also been successfully implemented in South Africa
- Parents should be comfortable with their decisions about daily screen time as well as be discerning about the apps.
- Management from parents are the most important factor in the use.
- iPads are starting to change the classroom - 200 schools in South Africa are already using iPads. (There are different funding models available).
- The applications are classified in manuals regarding primary school and secondary school.

- "Technology and media should not replace activities such as creative play, real-life exploration, physical activity, outdoor experiences, conversation, social interactions that are important for children's development." - Marli Hoffman

-  They are combining traditional teaching with new technology in pre-primary school.

- Benefits of iPads for Preschoolers:

•  at ease with technology from a young age
• promotes active & engaging learning
• compliment traditional learning
• adds another dimension

- The criteria for selecting an app:

•  The outcome is important
• Read the description
• Age level
• Read critiques
• Become familiar with the app

- iPads in primary school. The teacher says they are "iPaddling along with their children", but it's all good. The children are teaching the teachers. 

- The children are making sense of their own world through the use of iPads, for example their own interests, research and basic presentations, as well as creating books. Keynote delivers amazing projects by the children.

Enough said! 

It seems I got more than a mouth-full about the positive impact of the iPad in education.

My Toddler did not need any convincing, and had a great time! 

An interactive Peter Rabbit being read to the children

Catching bubbles

Sliding down the slopes, with Emma & Melinda (Melinda's Memoirs Mumbled),
Max (Tanya's Dear Max) and Katie (Sue Stuart)

Mieka got grass burns on her bum for doing that... 

(Because she did not want to put on the leggings I wanted her to wear. *The best way of learning!*)

Archiving all the art

A toddler is a daily creative machine of art!

I found a great app to store all the art that's constantly being created!

I really want to keep everything, but it becomes just too much.

It is a good idea to photograph it, but with my artkive I am also able to title and date the photographs and share it from there with friends and family.

And it is stored in an archive of art!
I "Like it!

I do not get paid to say this!

The best: the app is free!

ArtKive