Shirley Warren Visit

I was very excited about visiting Shirley Warren Primary School, and working with the children and the iPads. At the school I worked at for my gap year iPads were used on a regular basis, in particular I saw them being used in numeracy, it was very interesting to see how much the school used technology and I was looking forward to seeing how Shirley Warren incorporated iPads into their teaching. Our task for the day was to support a group of children presenting data on their findings from a recent survey. I was extremely surprised to see how well educated the children were at using the iPads, having the use of iPads within the classroom I feel brings education to life. IPads allow children to have endless access to valuable information such as a dictionary and thesaurus which may be limited physically within a classroom, they also have the countless number of apps to explore and use. Interactive technology makes learning more engaging, interesting and memorable (Clark and Luckin, 2013).

Throughout the day we had two sessions with the children, in these two sessions they mainly used iMovie, I can animate and Book creator. The pair I was working with was presenting their data in a pie chart and taking pictures of each stage to put together in a short clip; they then used iMovie to record themselves talking about their findings. I had never used iMovie before so I was learning new things all the time. Gillispie (2014) says ‘Without a doubt, the most rewarding aspect of this technology is observing my students using it. They are interacting, collaborating, and creating products in ways I never thought possible’ (P.144).  I liked that I was learning from them, however it was scary to see that these children in some respects were more knowledgeable than myself.

Using the iPads is such a good tool for learning; the children were so willing to learn due to the aid of the iPad and the modernization of new technology. The iPad allows children to explore mathematical strategies without the fear of getting things wrong (Audain, 2014). The iPad is easily integrated within existing IT systems. With cloud-based computing, the children have connectivity anywhere within the school grounds. The children all knew how to use airdrop, drop box and Google drive to transfer information from one device to another.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit at Shirley Warren, I feel that I learnt a lot and gained more of an understanding on how iPads could be used in every subject. As a result of this I can not wait to put my new found knowledge into practice on school experience.

 Bibliography.

·       Audain, J. (2014) The Ultimate Guide to Using ICT Across the Curriculum. London: Bloomsbury.

·       Clark, W and Luckin, R. (2013) What the research says: Using iPads in the classroom. London: London Knowledge Lab.

·       Gillispie, M (2014) From notepad to iPad. New York: Routledge.

·       http://primaryipadclassroom.com - [Online] Assessed 22.10.14