New Things

For a variety of reasons, I am intrigued by using handhelds in the classroom. This time, my interest stemmed from a discussion I had with a friend from St Olaf. Her school is focusing on inquiry based learning this year and we explored this article, “How to Write Effective Driving Questions,” as part of our conversation. Included in this article was a link to the Buck Institute for Education’s YouTube channel with a video on project based learning. I noticed one of the other videos on the side, Tony Vincent’s K12 Online Conference presentation entitled, “Project Based Learning in Hand.”  Since watching that presentation, I have become more intrigued about the potential for iPod Touch and iPads in the classroom.

I have access to 7 gen 4 and 5 gen 1, 2 or 3 iPod Touches which I will be trying out in a variety of ways in my classes this year, the first is going to be early next week with our Constitutional and Criminal Law class, we are going to interview a Founding Father. The second will be with the same class, the plan is to have students make some sort of video or flip book about the Constitution. The ideas are gelling, I will let you know how it goes…