Counseling Education

Considering using your iPad in class -- here are some useful teacher tips

So it's the start of January, many students are underway with revision and exam preparation for their mock or module exams, whilst teachers are preparing for the start of a new term with new lesson plans.

If you found yourself on Santa's nice list this year you may have been fortunate to get that iPad you've been wanting for a while now.

I'm sure you don't need me to detail your excitement â€" and if you're anything like me you would've spent most of the festive break playing on it, loading all of those apps that you've had your eye on, months back.

I'm an English teacher at an academy school in London and after spending hours scrolling through iTunes and the copious numbers of apps available I couldn't help considering what the iPad could offer in the classroom. Don't get me wrong I have a great bunch of students that show great enthusiasm towards my current teaching techniques, but as with all teens it's difficult to capture and maintain their attention for the entirety of the lesson.

That got me thinking, what if my students had access to iPads or even iPod Touch's, what impact would this have on the way I teach?

English Literature is a unique subject. I know I'm slightly biased but it's one of the very few subjects where discussion and debate is pivotal to the learning process. For years now I've have used prompt cards or index cards. These are simple conversation prompts that raise the participation levels from all students.

Following a discussion with colleagues I chose to adapt this technique by replacing the student name cards with a dice roll that corresponded with a student register. This format simplified the selection process and also made students feel more confident that selection was completely at random.

Within the education sector participation is an obvious goal for all teaching professionals, however not all students are the same and will vary in their level of desire and ability to contribute. So instead the purpose of using techniques such as index cards is to create an environment in which all students can explore issues and ideas in depth, whilst actively becoming involved in discussions. Using the dice-roll technique, I've also managed to overcome several other barriers:

1. creates an accepted channel of class communication, which means I can look past overeager students who would otherwise dominate class discussions

2. random selection means that students who usually demonstrate low participation are now called upon without the awkwardness of selecting them for their lack of effort

3. random selection also means that any student could be called upon at any time, the anticipation of which raises student attention and focus

4. generates a wider range of responses, enabling me as the teacher to assess and promote learning.

Index cards and dice-roll selection techniques are just one of many effective tools we as educators use to raise student participation levels but how about considering what the opportunities could be if we had access to an iPad or other iOS device….

Twitter â€" a familiar social networking site for many of us but what about if it was used as a group discussion platform. Consider if each student had their own account (set-up for academic use only, separate to their personal profiles). Once online they could then follow their fellow students. Tweets could be sent in real-time, acting as an instant open-messenger, enabling pupils to share content and offer feedback on issues related to each lesson. Discussion threads are simple to set up using the hash tag feature enabling the teacher to monitor and control the direction of the conversation. The use of hash tags also mean conversations are archived, helping the teacher and students to refer back to past lessons as well as helping those who may have missed a class to be involved in the post-lesson discussions.

Facebook can also provide an equally effective platform for group discussion but as I was researching some of the ways teachers have implemented this network I realised that most of the information I was reading was from blogs. Blogging is fast becoming a significant source of information, written in the most part by citizen journalists content is relevant and from a real source who often has first-hand experience. That got me thinking, why if these are such a valuable tool to us as information seekers are we not encouraging their use in the learning process?

I'm not suggesting that students set up their own separate blogs but what if you create a class blog. A central space allocated to an individual year group, subject or specific class of students. At the end of each lesson, a different student can be selected to summarise the lesson, recapping the key themes, discussion points and subsequent end of class tasks. Their fellow students could then comment and add any other information that they felt relevant to the lesson. The comment section at the end of a lesson blog also provides the opportunity for learners to discuss points that they may not have fully understood or to submit questions that they were not as forthcoming with in-class.

Blogging is a relative new way of communicating information but a skill that will be useful to all, whether in their professional career or on a social and communal level.

Creating a class blog is easy to do and as well as complementing in-class learning, it may also help to engage parents more in their child's learning and development. Consider making the blog a central part of lesson preparation and after-class assignments, this will then document progression as teachers and parents will be able to view student participation levels.

In this way parents are empowered to take a greater level of involvement in their child's learning - helping them to understand their level of learning. Parents are then better placed to support development such as by subscribing to an online classroom supplement âˆ' in a similar way to hiring a personal tutor but at a fraction of the cost, students can access online video tutorials via their iPad or iOS device, at a time that suits them (here's an example for GCSE revision).

Apple iPads are quickly becoming a useful tool for creating innovative lesson plans. So, whether you have a classroom full of iPads or just the one, think creatively and try something different this New Year!

To read more from this author follow them @LearnersCloud or visit their blog: Insights from the Cloud

Image credit: flickingerbrad on Flickr