Yesterday we had our second session with parents of our students in Year 3. We started today by looking at this Technology Blog and exploring the range of different stories of learning showcased within it. In particular, we focussed on recent ‘green screen’ movie making in Year 4 history, the use of teacher created iBooks in History and the use of 3D printing and blogging in English.
The practical part of today was to look at ‘Explain Everything’ as a means of making thinking visible. We talked about the benefits of using technology in this way which includes:
- students making their thinking visible
- students working with each other to confirm understanding
- enabling the teacher to provide feedback and direction to the whole class.
- enabling the teacher to direct the next teachable moment
- students having to articulate their understanding
- etc
I showed a range of examples:
A prep example in which the student has been able to practise the retelling of a story using a puppet play type arrangement:
A second example of the process involved in a math’s algorithm was also shown:
At next session we will look at the settings on the iPad in more detail and explore Family Sharing as a means to set up Apple IDs and to share apps across family members.
I also have to share our iTunesU course on ‘Parenting in a Digital Age’, which may be helpful for workshop participants to continue exploring the concepts about which we have been talking.