21st Century Classroom: iPod Touch Expands (& Flips) the Classroom

[mortemdrummer]

dang, this could reduce costs immensely.

all around a good solution. this idea would certainly weed out the 'teachers' from the real teachers.

[ChannelTechSmith]

@mortemdrummer It's not a perfect solution for all teachers, but it's definitely an innovative way for them to involve technology!

[pezoket]

Did your school purchase the ipod touch's or was it through a grant? Can you give any details if it were a grant? I'm very interested in flipping my classroom, but not all students have the required tools at home. Thanks!

[runfardvs]

@pezoket My school purchased them. Fortunately, I had a pretty progressive superintendent who encouraged this kind of thing. One thing to consider is that there are lots of little ways to give kids access - let them use their own iPod or smartphone, copy the files onto a USB drive, burn them onto DVDs, etc. There are lots of little "silver BBs" to get the screencasts into kids hands if you can't get someone in your district to drop the cash for that.

[runfardvs]

@kaffeine67 That was a major concern. If they were going to check out iPods, they (and their parents) had to sign an agreement saying they were responsible for any damage or loss. Interestingly, I never had a break or loss in the two years I had them available. We talked a lot about expectations and what not to do. Plus, a lot of kids had their own iPods or smartphones and I could load the screencasts onto those. That took away some of the demand on the school devices.

[kaffeine67]

How do you ensure that the kids take care of the i-touches? How many have been lost or damaged?

[mcmahon35]

I love this idea. I'm a 3rd grade teacher and have used three Ipods in small groups with the kids. We've done place value on the abacus, practiced parts of speech with the Madlibs app, produced videos on what they learned about rocks, and practiced multiplication with various games. I have a vision impaired student who uses the Ipad to play along. Keep up the great work.

[ChannelTechSmith]

@mcmahon35 Thanks for sharing these ideas! Reminds me of another teacher who is using Jing and a document camera to record video screencasts of students as they review educational iPhone apps. Google "Rob Zdrojewski jing" (without quotes) for details. Mobile devices are opening up so many interesting avenues for classroom tech.

[frostybroc]

Amazing. Seriously this is a great way to bypass the "outdated" textbook issue we see in poor rural and inner city areas. Bringing innovation to the classroom, now only if I could find a gig that would allow me to do this.

[ChannelTechSmith]

@frostybroc Thanks! That's a good point. We just visited with Greg Green, principal of Clintondale HS here in Michigan, and he's exploring flipped learning as a way to address some of the challenges faced by at risk schools. Seems like there are lots of great applications of the idea.