Description/Experience
The last seminar was a presentation of ipads in the classroom. The elementary school received grant money for firstly, ipads, and later on, for a number of ipod touches. The presentation explained how the ipads were shared, by teachers and students, and discussed a number of educational apps.
Application
I would like to use the History:Maps of the World app. It has a collection of maps that span across the world and centuries. This is a great app for comparing maps. For example, it can show the differences between the Eurasian continent in the 1600s and today.
Learners: 8th grade history class
Learning outcomes: The purpose of this activity is to familiarize students with world geography during the US Civil War as compared to what it is today and to show comparisons between the US Civil War and similar complications in other countries.
Assessment: The students are to pick a region and write a paragraph about why they think that region has changed according to their maps.
- Students are put into groups of 4 to share ipads.
- Each group is shown how to use the app and given a few minutes to familiarize themselves with the functions.
- The students are then given 15 minutes to compare maps of foreign countries from the US Civil War era and today.
- They are then told to pick a specific map or region. Groups pick the same region, but will turn in separate papers.
- After picking their regions, the students are given about 10 minutes to write a paragraph discussing why they think these differences on the maps may have occurred.
- Then they may share with their groups what they wrote.
- The students will turn in their papers and a followup the next day will discuss what the real reasons were for these regional differences.
--Pedagogy-Content:
This assignment not only involves the history content, but is also a good way to build critical thinking. The critical thinking aspect begins when the students are given the ipads. Many of the students will probably never have used an ipad before and almost certainly never have used the History: Map of the World App. The students will be thinking critically when navigating through the maps. They will continue this critical thinking as they are creating their own stories about why the maps have changed; therefore this assignment allows a constructivist teacher who values critical thinking, to teach about history and geography.
--Technology-Pedagogy:
The technology aids the pedagogy by giving the students a better motivator to learn. The technology, ipads, is something new and fun for the students. This motivates them to learn and therefore will keep them seeking out knowledge on their own which supports a constructivist pedagogical approach.
--Technology-Content:
The technology makes a great connection with the content. Maps aren't always fun for children, especially when they come from an atlas full of them. A better way for students to look at maps is to use the ipads. It also allows them to compare more easily because it eliminates page flipping and instead lets them simply click on maps with their fingers.
--Technology-Pedagogy-Content:
The technology, pedagogy, and content all aid each other in this activity. The technology helps the students effectively grasp the content and helps the teacher's approach to the lesson be more effective as well. The pedagogy is reinforced by both the technology and content. Lastly the content is influenced by the technology by improving opportunities to learn with an ipad and it is helped by the pedagogy when the teacher uses effective teaching strategies to present it.
