My thinking about the iTouches hasn't changed much in the past month. If anything, I have an even stronger desire to use them in the classroom as I see all of the potential benefits.
One problem that is nagging at me is the financials that go along. I understand that if they are in the classroom, the district or the PTA will have paid for them, so it is not the initial cost that I am concerned about. When I was reviewing apps for math class, there were quite a few apps that were intriguing, but were not free. What if there is an app that we really want all of the students to have? Where would the money come from?
Another part that goes along with this is whether or not the students would be able to take them home, and if the student loses them, what happens? What if they cannot afford to replace it? Many of the potential applications that the iTouch could be used for with my students would involve taking them home. I realize that this might not be possible with the responsibility level of a 3rd grader.
(See similar thinking on the following blog: http://hla-c.blogspot.com/2011/02/we-need-place-to-go.html#comments)
I hope the time is not far off when I will be in a classroom that has iPod Touches for all of the students to use. As educators we need to keep the children caught up with all the technology and show them how to use it not just for entertainment, but for education.
I think that any school that purchased Touches would also budget for apps... I think that that's sort of like not just putting a computer in the classrooms but making sure that it had reasonable software, too.
ReplyDeleteI just read a study where kids each had a Touch in the class, and they were used in all of those 5 minute transition times (before it was time to go to lunch, before it's time to go to PE... and in those 5 minutes going on, a whole lot of learning went on.
Teachers can advocate for things like this... so we hoped that you'd at least get a sense of what was possible (and funny to read about your use of the timer!)