Bitsboard is a must!

Hello again!

We are Marta and Amaranta and we will like to talk about ipads, the new trendy electronic devices in classrooms. In our context, almost all children know what an Ipad is and how to use it without us having to explain how it works detaily. However, it is true that teachers can help them to get to know more advanced skills that this tool can offer us. The world of apps has grown considerably for the past five years and currently teachers are lucky to have a plenty of online resources that enable students to review and learn new content, play games in groups, take up new linguistic activities, save time...etc as well as develop their digital competence!

In this post we would like to present you an amazing app we have discovered recently called: BitsBoard, the top 5 education game in the US app Store. Bitsboard is a free app for Ipads that includes a variety of different mini games -such as flashcards, matching and multiple choice games (called “photo touch”) and some others where students have to create words (“called word builder”)- on subjects at different levels of difficulty. This is a simple app, easy to deal with and, consequently, it can be used by children of any level, from ages 4 and up. In addition, teachers and students can also create and customize their own games, taking advantage of the available templates of “boards”, in order to use them as teaching tools.  

BitsBoard APP

ACTIVITY:

Target audience: Initial level of primary education (2nd year).

Bloom Taxonomy: (LOTS) Identify,remember, understand

Placement in curriculum: music (CLIL)

Aims of the game:

• To be able to learn the names of 12 instruments and their spelling.
• To be able to classify 12 instruments in their corresponding families (wind, string and percussion).
• To be able to use Bitsboard app.

Language:

• Vocabulary related to musical instruments: piano, guitar, violin, drum, harmonica, xylophone, maracas, accordion, flute, recorder, harp, clarinet.
• Expressions: belongs to, go together.
• Spontaneous language used by students in class.

Competences involved:

• Linguistic and audio-visual: through that sequence of activities, students will they develop the reading and the listening skills. All the activities have the option to include sound hints that say clearly the names of the instruments whenever you need it. In addition, one of the aims of these activities is to have an idea of the spelling .
• Musical: in these games students are learning some musical instruments that belong to the wind, string and to the percussion families.
• Digital: students have to be able to use Bitsboard in their Ipads.

Development:

• In order to detect our learner’s previous knowledge about the topic, we will carry out a “review game” (called like that) from Bitsboard. There is an image of one musical instrument and students will try to remember its name. Then, they will click on “tap to see the answer” and will self-assess their previous knowledge by answering the question: “How well did you know this?” and the possible answers are “not well”, “somewhat” and “very well”. Consequently, we could see what is the level of the class in this topic and students could review and acquire the vocabulary.
  
  

  

  Check previous knowledge
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Then, we will play a game named “Pop Quiz” to learn it better and review the names of the 12 musical instruments and focus also the attention on their spelling. This game consists of a multiple choice where it appears an image of an instrument and, below, two or more written names of instruments. 
  
  Afterwards, next step will consist of classifying every instrument in his family. For that, we will play a game called “Related items”, in which students have to drag an instrument next to another from the same family (p.e., the violin and the guitar belong to the wind family).
  Afterwards, next step will consist of classifying every instrument in his family. For that, we will play a game called “Related items”, in which students have to drag an instrument next to another from the same family (p.e., the violin and the guitar belong to the wind family).

  

  Related Items

  

                        Pop Quiz: What do you think?

Finally, to assess if students have achieved the objectives established, we will put into practise a game called “True or False” in which students will work both on the names of the instruments and on the spelling. The game is the following: it appears the picture of an instruments and below one name written. The student has to decide if the text matches with the image and, also, if the text is well written. In case both things are good, they click on the tick (true) but if one of those things is wrong, they click the cross (false).  We will give them more than one opportunity to do so they can practise it before the definitive one.

                  

Assessment: Is "Meracas" well written?

Feedback provided by Bitsboard: every time a child does an activity correctly, he/she receives a positive feedback comment (orally), such as “Well done!, “perfect”, “wonderful!”, etc.

Fast finishers students: Taking into account that Bitsboard offers much more minigames, the fastests students can explore all of them and play freely whatever game they want related to musical instruments.  

Classroom organisation:

Students will have the option to play the first three games individually or in pairs. Despite the fact they choose to play in pairs, each student will use his own Ipad, but they will discuss the answer all together first. It is important to make them remember that all the members of the group or pairs need to touch the ipad and select an option so they can alternate turns. The last activity, as it is the assessment, will be played individually.

Classroom management:

Following the tips that we have learnt in the ICT lessons, we would ask students to set Ipad aside when they didn’t need them to avoid classroom management problems. When we are telling them the instructions of the activity, we would say “Ipads facing at me”, so we can make sure that they pay attention and don’t get distracted. Moreover, we would ask students for assistance if we need their help or we get stuck (Experts TIC) In addition, at random points during the session, we will ask students to flip their screens of the Ipads so we could check that they are doing the task proposed. We believe that it is always important for the teacher to have used the app before and have tried to create a game to foresee the problems that can arise.

Added value through ICT

• Gives extra motivation for children. Children love using Ipads and show other kids their digital skills.
• Visual support that help them memorize better the vocabulary, good for different learning styles.
• Save time.
• Can be saved and repeated whenever they want.

The White Board

On march 10th we did a whole ICT session about Digital Boards. The Digital Board is a kind of blackboard that works with electricity... so it's digital. It let us bring to the classroom a wider variety of activities and resources for theaching/learning.
The new possibilities that the Digital Board brings to the class are almost infinite, and you can use it for any subject or purpose; this tool is ready to bear anything!

As you can do with blackboards, you can write and draw in it as well as create interactive games, play music, surf the internet and save your notes from one class to the next one.
It really is a very powerful tool that is slowly coming into our classrooms. It is true that a lot of schools have this device, but it is also true that not all schools take a real advantage of this wonderful tool. Some teachers uses it as just a projector but others had found in this tool the perfect device to make lessons more motivating and easy to understand for pupils. 

In order to practice and try this new technology out, I have designed a very simple game to be done with a digital board. Taking into account the Blooms Taxonomy, this activity will fit into the Understanding step; this activity has been designed to check pupil's understanding and memory about a topic (The Space).

The target age for this activity/game is 7-8 years old and it would be played in Science Time (CLIL). Whit this activity you will be:

• Checking understanding about the Space topic
• Developing their thinking and relation skills
• Testing their memory capacity
• Practicing English and Science while having fun and using the Digital Board

This activity isn't something new. We all have done relation activity sheets (as students and as teachers) and we all know how they look like. However, redesigning this old (but great) activities into something more visual and new is something that needs to be done; as soon as possible and in the most innovative way possible. The Digital Board allows us to do this redesign process using all the tools that this device offers us. 

This classic activity, just "adding the ICT thing in it" turns to be a perfect TPR activity. It makes students stand up, come to the front and use their whole body to complete and relate all the aspects shown in screen. Once again, technology made of a simple activity something a little bit different and more motivating for everyone. 

But... how do you assess it? This activity was made with the purpose of having fun and review content, so you don't really need to assess it. But if you want to you will see it is really easy to do. If the students completes each screen with good rhythm and with not manny errors, that would mean that the pupil know. 

I struggled to upload or embed the activity in this entry... but you will find the file with the activity clicking here!

Ferran Rodríguez i Díaz

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