iPad Apps (Mariona, Gemma and Mireia)

Trying with iPads

As the first experience with iPads, we had the chance to work with two apps called Book Creator and Bits Board.

Book Creator gives you the possibility to create your own book with all the new technologies possibilities such as camera, pictures, videos and voice recording. We thought that a good way to use all these possibilities was to create a book about emotions. Each group could work with one emotion and try to represent it with a picture from Internet, a picture taken by themselves, a video or a voice recording. This activity is about understanding the meaning of the emotions and creating a way to explain them.

Another possibility, as you can see in the example that we created, is to design a book related to more than one emotion. Children can work in peers or threes and they can talk about which things make them feel happy, sad, confused, angry, annoyed, scared, bored or whatever. In this second option students can learn more vocabulary because they work on more than one emotion and they can also learn more things about their classmates. After finishing the creation of the book, each group will be present theirs to the rest of the class.

We designed this activity for second year of primary because of the topic but this app can be used in other school years; we just need to adapt the content we want to work on.

We think that this app is very useful, first of all because it is a HOTS activity and it promotes the use of High order thinking skills. It allows learners to work on the four skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) and they learn new vocabulary. When they are creating their book they can write or record audios (speak). To check if what they have written is correct they have to read it and to check the audios they have to listen to it. They also have to read or listen the other groups’ presentations. Related to the vocabulary, they learn the name of the emotions, and also other vocabulary related to these emotions. Maybe they want to say “I feel scared when I hear a Thunder” but they don’t know the word “thunder” in English, so they have to ask to the teacher and then they learn it.

Another advantage that this app has is its visual attraction. As we have said before, it offers a lot off possibilities (pictures, audio, images…) and kids love it. Children also have an active role doing this activity and they can experiment with the IPAD and this make them be motivated. Finally, the IPAD itself makes the activity more attractive to students. They usually love new technologies.

Related to the example we created about emotions, we think that it is a beneficial activity for the teacher because with children’s creation, the teacher can know better their students; their interests and fears.

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0XjKFxt21t2dHY0Ym5WcV9adWExaXVjRFJ1MUpXTWdTX3RV/view?usp=sharing

Bits Board activity is the second app we discovered in the last session. This app allows you to create flashcards related to any topic. You can take pictures or choose images that the app already offers you and write the name under the picture. Then, if you want, you can add the audio of the word. You can record the word with your voice or if you prefer, the app can also produce the words by recognizing them ones you have written them. In our example you can see flashcards related to the parts of the body.
It is a good app to work on LOTS (low order thinking skills) activities.

We think that this app is also really interesting because instead of showing to the students some flashcards that don’t mean anything for them, you can make them create these flashcards that you are going to use afterwards. In this way, their learning is more meaningful because they work on the vocabulary while they are creating the flashcards and when the teacher uses these flashcards in the class, they feel proud and also they have fun because they can see themselves on the pictures.

• https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0XjKFxt21t2a2NwMmVqU2swYXM/view?usp=sharing