- It is fun.
- It is creative.
- It is outdoors.
In the past, I have had to scrounge up enough cameras for each group to have one camera. Now that we have 20 iPads to share, I was able to give each child their own iPad. Awesome.
In the past, we put together slideshows of the photos. It was somewhat labor-intensive and usually took a second session (session 1: take pictures, session 2: make slideshows). Not a huge deal, but I had to be involved with the students to help them put together the slideshows. I had to have the account for the slideshow creator. I had to download all the photos and push them out to the kids' computers. There was prep involved.
Not with the iPad.
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| scavenger hunt list- tweak according to your curriculum |
- One hour with first grade.
- Review the handling of the device.
- Read the scavenger hunt page in the classroom. Answer any questions.
- Go outside and have fun taking pictures.
- Return to classroom, and each student made a pic collage with their favorite photos.
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4 comments:
I think this is a fabulous idea. Not only do students get outside to experience nature (even if it is a concrete jungle), but they also learn how to use the iPad for creative endeavors. This, to me, is far more valuable than math fact apps!
We had two iPads crack this year due to students tripping while carrying them. Do yours have rugged cases? Do the students have an adult walking with them?
Thanks again for this great idea - I will be sharing it with our iOS teachers.
Hi Laura,
Yes, I am all about using the iPad as a creative tool, not using "interactive worksheet apps" (if you know what I mean). I think the scavenger hunt could be tweaked and used to teach different concepts, too.
We do not have ANY cases! We have the smart covers, but we took those off for the scavenger hunt. Our iPads have held up ok in terms of external damage. We have had the 20 shared iPads (for the whole school) for 2 years. The problem is the maintenance. It is hard to keep them updated. The cart we bought does not work as promised. So right now, they are a bit of a mess. In fact, I didn't write this in the post, but one of the kids took his pictures and then couldn't open PicCollage because it was stuck updating. It took me like 10 minutes to transfer his pictures to another iPad so he could make the collage.
We found the carts to be less than stellar... the cart manufacturer blames it on iOS updates, and of course Apple blames it on the manufacturer.
What we ended up doing was having a grandfather build shelves in a lockable cabinet. Our district electrician added a power source. It cost us about $100. Much cheaper than the $2k carts! We have D-Link powered USB hubs and we do the updates in groups of 5. It's not perfect, but it works.
Thanks for being awesome!
This is exactly how I want to use the 6 iPads I got for my K'garten kids.
I need to learn how to transfer pics from iPads to computers -- or other iPads like you mentioned.
I want my kids to be able to share what they create. I have an interactive white board, but no idea how to get their work on it.
Yikes -- always something new to learn.
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