Learning Technology Organically

Working with K5 kindergarten students on iPads is always one of the most incredible things.  To see these young, innocent beings willingly and excitedly dive into technology is amazing.  They aren't afraid.  They haven't learned that fear, yet.  They take chances and they make mistakes.  But it doesn't phase them.  They simply start over and learn from what they did wrong.  They're fearless in the best ways - wide-eyed, excited to learn, and innocent.

I love working with kindergartners and technology - particularly iPads, which are so wonderfully tactile and make the process and experience of learning incredibly multidimensional.  In my opinion, they represent hands-on learning as an active pedagogy.  Students are active in their learning - engaged, involved, and present, using higher order thinking skills easily aligned with Bloom's Taxonomy.  In later projects we will work towards higher levels of the cognitive process with creation projects and self as well as peer evaluations.

But today...well, today we played.  We played productively and learned how the iPad works. We learned tips and tricks to navigating the technology.  We learned how we should use it respectfully and responsibly.  We learned by actively doing.  And then we learned through explorative play, choosing any app and practicing our navigation skills until we discovered the app we most liked and wished to explore further.

My favorite part of a lesson like this is watching how each of these little learners "play" with the iPad - from the way they learn to use their fingers to navigate the touch screen to the apps they are most attracted to.

Learning is a process.  It is planned.  It is discovered.  And it is created.  It's a pretty special process to participate in and an even more remarkable one to witness when it happens organically.

A picture is worth a thousand words... and a little extra Thanksgiving gratitude.

It's a short holiday week, but we are still learning and using technology to express familiar ideas in not quite so traditional ways.  Today my 3rd and 4th grade learners worked on iPads to find ways to express the things they are most thankful for during this Thanksgiving season.  In planning this lesson I thought of the myriad of ways students are often asked to express themselves and/or present their ideas.  For this short project, I wanted the focus to truly be on them.  I wanted them to be able to express their ideas in as individual a manner as possible.  What better way than a self-portrait?  We used aTypo Picture, a free and simple to use word photo app, to create self-portraits highlighting the things they are most grateful for this Thanksgiving.  This was one of my favorites, from a very expressive and creative 4th grader...