iPads in the Early Years

It is very tempting, when working with Kindy and Pre-Primary students, to use iPads as an independent activity. Downloading content based apps and setting them up as a rotation, thus freeing up the teacher and EA is certainly an easy option but is it making the most of this fantastic tool? In my opinion, the answer is a definite no. While the iPad is extremely intuitive and the touch screen makes it well suited to young children, can we be sure students are actually getting anything out of the activity? Are they actually learning or is the iPad being used as a babysitter while the teacher does the 'teaching' at a different table.

What if the teacher takes the powerful tool and uses it with the students? Quality teaching, powerful tool, engaged and motivated students = learning!

Some ideas:

Make use of the camera to film students or have them film themselves or each other as they develop phonemic awareness.

Have students use basically any app that they can create text on (pic collage, pages, Educreations, book creator, drawing pad, doodle buddy) to explore graphemes.

Have students reflect on stories from whole class reading or reading groups using apps that they can create pictures and text on (book creator, drawing pad, feltboard).

Have students reflect on stories by drawing and writing but also recording their voice telling the story using apps such as Explain Everything, Educreations, Book Creator.

Teachers create relevant games and stories to fully differentiate and personalise the learning.

Teachers use resources such as Nearpod, Beat the Teachers, TinyTap and the camera to collect assessment data.

These are just few ideas but hopefully readers can see the value in using the iPad table as a teacher led station rather than an independent one where it's questionable whether or not the intended objectives are achieved.