We have iPads now what do we do with them?

In September the iPads and charging cart arrived and we were excited.  Finally, our students had access to iPads and could use them all day long.  Previously we had been using one iPad and iPod in the classroom.  Now came the task of figuring out what would be the most effective way of using the iPads, what apps to put on them, and how to get other teachers using them.

Syncing the iPads took hours.  The syncing day was the same day the new IOS was released and all iPads had to be updated with the IOS as well as synced.  Also downloading the apps onto the syncing computer also took awhile.  Lora (my teaching partner) and I decided that we wanted to avoid game and practice and drill apps and instead focussed on creation/imagination apps.  We chose apps that we felt would engage students as well as develop their communication skills (Puppet Pals, Explain Everything, Skitch, iMovie, Comic Life, Popplet, Edmodo, Word Wizard, etc...)

Once the iPads were set up and ready to go the real learning began.  How to fit them into our daily teaching? How to teach everything that we want to in a day that doesn't seem long enough?  How to make sure that students still learn to read and write?  How to make sure that paper art projects still happen?  So many questions and so many worries.  Worried that students will stop the hands on play that is so important still.  Worried that their interactions will change as they become more focussed on iPads and less on interacting with each other.  Worried about what to give up in the day and what to keep.

I realize that the addition of technology to the classroom can't just be used as a supplement to the program that you are already doing.  The use of technology means a change to the way that you teach.  It means giving up control and becoming a learner alongside the students.  It is hard sometimes to give up the control.  It is hard because we all want the best for our students.  We all want them to succeed.  It is scary giving up the driver's seat and becoming a passenger along for the ride.

Right now I have been showing my students the apps and having them explore and figure out what to do with them.  Children don't have the fear that we sometimes have so they push buttons and try things easier than we do.  Last week my buddy teacher and I gave up control and let the students pick their own buddies and then gave out the iPads with the instructions to try something in the Story Maker folder (Popplet, Comic Life, Scribble Press, Book Creator, Puppet Pals, Toontastic).  It was chaotic at first with ipads and groups everywhere in the room doing different activities but the sharing was great.  Groups were naturally showing each other the different things that they were trying on iPads.  For example, they were teaching each other how to make the characters big and small on Puppet Pals, how to take pictures and put them into Comic Life, how to choose different story frames in Scribble Press.  They were busy, they were loud, but they were engaged and learning from each other.  We were also learning.  Angela and I were walking around the classroom asking questions and learning how to do the programs.  It was a noisy but great afternoon.

My classroom is not quiet but it is not chaotic.  When I look around the students are engaged and are learning but they are busy.  Busy taking pictures with the iPads, taking videos, blogging, writing words and listening to what they write, making puppet shows, searching for countries, listening to stories, counting, creating pictures and sharing their learning with each other.  I am still trying to figure out how to do all the things that I want to do in a day and to make sure that the students have a balance between technology and hands on play with manipulatives.

How do you use the iPads and how do you keep a balance in your classroom between technology and hands on activities?