Rossett School

On Thursday I used Ipads with my GCSE PE students for the first time and like Paul Mac has already mentioned, I wasnt sure on how it would go, so I decided to start with a low use, easy to manage activity. With students ranging from year 9-11 I had two options how I could get the students to use the IPads for the RIGHT reasons.I could either go in heavy and start with the students involved in a task or I could give them five minutes to explore (think thats the correct word) to reduce the chance of any potential mis-use.

After they had five minutes to have a play I got all students to watch a YouTube clip I had created through Explain Everything. The clip was designed to help students break down/structure long exam question which they had found to be difficult on their latest mock paper. Students could then sit with more or less an Ipad each, watch the clip and answer the long question , starting and stopping the clip where they needed.This then allowed me the opportunity to work with lower ability students in the class who would perhaps need that extra support with answering the questions.

The students responded really well to this and there was no messing around or incorrect use of the Ipads which was my original concern.In fact it was that good students want to use again next week! Next week im trying Show Me to create adverts on benefits of taking part in physical activity!

Today was a bit of a step into the unknown as I taught a lesson which involved the students using the new ipads. Like many staff I have been impressed by how my own personal ipad has opened up many areas which has helped in my lessons. What I found today was that with a little pre-planning the ipads can be a fantastic aid to learning when the students use them too.

The lesson was based around revising the aerobic energy system with my Yr 13 A2 PE students. Prior to it I had made a short video of what I wanted them to learn in advance. I did this with the explain everything app which then allows you to upload it to Youtube. I shared this over twitter with my students. The video is below:

I then started the lesson with a short quiz to establish understanding using quiz I had made on Socrative app. The students then in pairs started brainstorming on simple facts about aerobic system using the brilliant Ibrainstorm app. As they were doing this I got Socrative to email me the report of the initial quiz and we then as a class reviewed our knoweledge and progress. I then split the class in half and they all produced a presentation using the Showme app on the specific areas that I gave them. With this they could use screen shots from their Ibrainstorm work or screen shots from the notes app & put them in as pictures. Some even revisited my explaineverything video by searching for it on Youtube on their ipads to remind them of certain aspects.

They then presented to their partner on their respective areas. Finally to gauge progress and check understanding, I used the exit ticket on Socrative to get the students to answer an exam question and also tell me what they had learnt, or still found difficult. There was even time for some students to copy their ipad notes and paste them into the google docs that I set up which they can all now share on Realsmart. With the exception of the explain everything app all the apps mentioned here are available to use on the student ipads. Only things is now they want to use the ipads every week!

One app that I have used is cloudon, which allows you to use word, PowerPoint and excel on your iPad. You will need a  dropbox  app downloaded here too which is basically a free cloud based storage device. Also have a look at explain everything app.

It is great as your own mini whiteboard. You can add photos in, web pages and make video and audio presentations which you can use with students.

Below is a video I made using the explain everything app.

Finally socrative is a great app for gauging students responses. You can set up a quiz, use the true/false section to just verbally ask students to respond and also there is an exit ticket section where students can feedback what they have learnt in the lesson.

Cheers,

Paul

In theoretical GCSE PEand BTEC sports I have used 2 apps this week to assist with student learning and to assist illustrate certain points or topics. Educreations is like explain everything, it acts as an interactive whiteboard when linked to a projector and allows you to add pictures, you can then add labels to or draw a model etc (see example).

Revision of Performance Pyramid by GCSE PE students

Ibrainstorm is a great app for brainstorming ideas,thoughts and debates, this can be put in the middle of a table and you can have four students all adding their points or thoughts.

(IBrainstorm on PSHEE -  Body Scanning By Jess Walker, Marina Tapley, Harry Wilson and Marina Tapley)