Response to End-Of-Year iPad Questions

Today I had a discussion with my class about our project.  We attempted to answer the questions in Leigh’s article.  Here are the Grade 2 thoughts.

1.  Mobility – “I want to go outside more; We did digital art outside using the iPads and I would like to do more of that.  I would use PicCollage. Stopwatch, Camera, Explain Everything”; “I think we should use them in the gym more to make videos to show how we solve challenges in math”; “I think it would be okay if we went out in the hall or somewhere else that is our own space whenever we use the iPads because we know what is expected when we work on them and we don’t need the teacher”

2. Gaming – “Miss Versteeg didn’t really let us play games”.  “We played Math Bingo and a few other Math games”

3. Classes – We used it most for Language and Math.

•  “In Math we used it for calendar almost every day, we showed our calendar jobs using Explain Everything, the internet for weather and the calculator.”  ” In math we played on Math Apps like Math Bingo and Jungle Coins.” “We did lots of Pic Collages to explain our thinking about Math Challenges. ” “We did ‘outside’ math where we took pictures of problems and then recorded the solutions using things we found outside. ” “We did a lot of calculator stuff. ” “We blogged about what we learned in Math sometimes”
• “We mostly did iPad stuff in Language.  In Language we wrote on our blogs a lot. ” “We wrote in a lot of formats like a Biography, Book Reviews, and lots of Olympic stuff. ” “Mostly we don’t get told what we have to write anymore and we pick the style and topic we write about on our own and we write on them almost every day.”
• “We learned how to use the iPad like an e-reader and we went on a field trip and got Perth County library cards so we can download all kinds of e-books to read.”
• “We used the links page to get to sites that Miss Versteeg wanted us to use”
• “Our spelling words were on the blog so we could know them ahead of time or study them.”
• “In Science our Science teacher had a blog too and she wrote about what we did and put pictures up and gave us feedback”

4. E-mail –  We didn’t use student e-mail. We did something that was kind of like it though, because we commented on each others work all the time

5.  Engagement – The best thing we did on the iPad this year was…

•  My blog.  I used creativity for my stories.  I also used  communication for commenting.  I have about 120 posts on my blog!  My favourite post is… I really can’t say because they are all my best!  I have really changed since my first post.  Every time my post gets more interesting or bigger. (Spencer)
• My blog was best because it keeps my brain going.  Sometimes I even blog my homework  (Bishop)
• The e-books are the best because you can read anything you want to read. Also, the best thing was the Apps for Jungle Coins and Bingo to learn math.  (Malaya)
• Our blog is the best because we can write anything we want to write
• The best thing in grade 2 was all the picCollage stuff.  I liked it in art when we made a colour wheel by taking pictures of colours in the class. (Mike)
• I think it was my blog because we can write pretty much anything we want and we could comment on other kids blogs.  Some kids wrote really awesome posts and got lots of comments from people in our class and our family and other classes.  Some people even got comments from people they don’t know! (Tia)
• The best thing was blogging because almost every day we blog.  Mostly the best thing was commenting about each others blogs to say questions and what we liked about it (Addison)
• The best thing we did the iPads  in Grade 2 was blogging because it has all our work on it.  I like that I can see how much better I am than when we just got the blogs. Also we could comment. (Landen)
• I think photobooth is the best!  When you take a picture it puts it in a funny way (Jill)
• The best thing is my blog because I write and I read others posts and comment.  It is kind of a challenge because you see if you can get a lot of good posts. (Cooper)
• The best thing was blogging because we can comment. I really like changing my theme and my pictures in the background (Ben)
• The best thing was comment because you got to talk about how good your work is.  I found out that you can edit comments.  Some kids write good posts.  When you write a good post you get better comments and you get more comments (Keagan)
• The best we did on the iPads in Grade 2 is being able to blog.  One thing I blogged was my Spelling (Kierra)
• The best thing on the iPads was PicCollage and blogging because we went on the blogs all the time.  We also went on picCollage a lot too (Travis)
• The bast thing we did was make stuff in PicCollage.  It was so fun and we had partners.  Having partners is one of my favourite things.  We can have fun and do our work. (Tyson)

6. Screen Time – “We were on them for different amounts of time every day at school.”  “Some kids don’t have the internet at home.”  “Some kids did their homework and some commenting every single night” “Sometimes we use them at lunch and recess”

7.  Personalization – “I love that we write about whatever we want like what we do on the weekend or big stories or stuff we research on the internet”  “I love changing my theme so that mine is different from everyone else”

8.  Creation vs. Consumption – “Mostly I made stuff and wrote stuff.  I made PicCollages and blog Posts and Explain Everything stuff.  Sometimes I read e-books and looked stuff up on the internet too.”