For the Love of Learning
Saturday, February 4, 2012
iPods in the Classroom: The Future (Part 7 of 7)
iPods in the Classroom: Differentiation (Part 6 of 7)

iPods in the Classroom: Collaboration (Part 5 of 7)
Thursday, February 2, 2012
iPods in the Classroom: Room 405 (Part 4 of 7)
iPods in the Classroom: Effective Models of Practice (Part 3 of 7)
- Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) initiative rolling out in August 2012
- Administrators recognize that more students own personal digital devices and are using them at home in their free time
- They will provide professional development so that teachers are using the technology in the classroom effectively; no "type a word document" as homework
- Use music, quickly, to introduce a topic
- Navigate through an audio book
- Load video, audio and images to the iPod
- Create flash cards using various apps in order to study vocabulary
- Interview community members, create oral history reports, weekly podcasts highlighting what they learned that week
iPods in the Classroom: Our Digital Outlook (Part 2 of 7)

- Almost all of the 5th graders have an mp3 player - the majority of those with mp3 players use it not just to listen to music, but also to play apps.
- Also, almost all of the students have a video game console. In addition, 14% of those with a video game console, are gaming for more than 2 hours a day.
- I was most surprised by the YouTube data. I threw it in there because of some observations I had in my own class. Not only are students viewing videos on YouTube, 15% of those students watch more than 10 videos in one sitting.
- One more statistic to add is that 20% of the 66% of texters, send more than 10 texts a day.
iPods in the Classroom: The 21st Century Learner (Part 1 of 7)
As an educator, I want to meet the needs of my students. I want them to be engaged and motivated. I want them to love the learning process. As I think about the type of 5th grader I was, I realize that my students are very different from students 20 years ago. Our students have a world of information at their fingertips. Our students can navigate through technology better than many of their parents. Our students want to create things and work together. It's my responsibility to help them get there. There are so many days in the week that the LRC is bustling with students using iPads at the tables, or a classroom using the SMART board in the Eagles' Nest, or students typing their papers in the computer lab. There are times that I would like to use the resources, but we just don't have enough to go around in a day. I want to take a risk and try something new. I want to see my students connected all of the time and see what they create. I want to integrate iPods into my classroom to further differentiation and encourage collaboration. I'm going to have you take a look at how some schools and classroom have integrated iPods into the classroom and have changed how education looks. I want to show you four apps that will promote differentiation and support collaboration.
First, let's take a look at a profile of today's learner: