Technology Supported Field Trips

The following post originates from the Innovative Practices at ACDS blog. It is offered to present a few ideas on how field trips can be enhanced through the use of technology. 

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The Second Graders joined with their Fifth Grade buddies to take part in Ms. Tacktill's series of art and technology field trips. This group went to the Smithsonian American Art Museum contemporary art exhibition. As part of Ms. Tacktill's art literacy and appreciation curriculum, the students went through the exhibit stopping at each piece to share their reactions with each other. The Fifth Graders jotted down the responses into their iPads. 

A second learning opportunity had the student teams revisiting the art to view it a second and third time for further reflection. Along the way the Fifth Graders used their photography skills to take photos of the art and of their buddy. They would go on to import the photo of their buddy into an art app on their iPads. They then drew inspiration from the sculpture and mixed media paintings to digitally paint backgrounds around the photo of their buddy. 

The Second Graders looked for pattern repetition in the art as they recently studied it with Ms. Tacktill. They then used iPads loaded with a photo of a portion of one of the patterned paintings to expand the patterns. You can see examples of their creative work above and below. Nice work Second Graders!

App Smashing

Combining two or more apps to do more than each can do on its own is at the center of app smashing. Read a super blog post which is also where the above infographic comes from. 

French and Spanish Language Resources for the iPad

Our Web Resources for Learning site has several sites that provide lesson and app ideas for our French and Spanish teachers. Take a look at the iPad Support page for a full listing. Here are a few specific ones. 

• French Apps with Applimini: Apps connected to European iTunes store so look to search for them in US store
• French Apps for Kids: An elementary teacher shares helpful apps
• French Apps at Thinking About Syncing: Reviewed French apps
• Fun for Spanish Teachers: A blog for elementary Spanish teachers. See her blog roll down the right side for other bloggers.
• Teaching Spanish: A blog with many lesson ideas
• The French Corner: A blog with many tech resources 

WebQuests

We can provide very structured and guided inquiry projects called WebQuests to support the PYP emphasis on inquiry and students being independent and active learners. WebQuests are online research expeditions built by teachers that put the students, working in groups, into roles to find information from specially selected sites and books as they attempt to solve a real problem. The students working in teams analyze, curate and then use the information to create a project to demonstrate their understanding. WebQuests are NOT Internet scavenger hunts with students just going through a list of links. True WebQuests have the students performing in the authentic roles of historians, economists, mathematicians, etc. The culminating project is usually a performance task in which the students present their findings while playing their roles, or apply the learning to produce a product. 

Supporting examples: 

• ColonialQuest
• Solar Explorers  
• Middle Ages Quest
• AfricaQuest

To learn more about WebQuests, experience a WebQuest about WebQuests with their creator, Dr. Bernie Dodge. Developing the several web pages that comprise a WebQuest takes some time up front, but the results can be impressive as students become very engaged as they really do “own” their learning. It can be used year after year with new classes of students, sequencing important instruction online instead of onto photocopies. WebQuests can also be the mechanism to deliver a full unit of study.

ICL Supported Thinking Routines

In Making Thinking Visible, Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, and Karin Morisson help readers understand the power of thinking routines to guide them to develop cultures of thinking. They define cultures of thinking as “places where a group’s collective as well as individual thinking is valued, visible and actively promoted as part of the regular, day-to-day experience of all group members.” (Kindle version 4357-65) The authors go on to explain that they use the word “places” to note that cultures of learning take place in boardrooms, meeting rooms and not just the classroom.

To support the thinking routines, a Thinking Routines section was created for our Web Resources for Learning Web site to share how technology can be used in the classroom to support and at times enhance the use of the thinking routines as you use them to reach the learning goals of your lessons. An important purpose of the routines section is to connect to the authors’ point that cultures of learning also can take place outside of the classroom. In this case the "place" is a virtual learning space where students and teachers interact. Thus, you will find tools and practices here that support blended learning which helps build cultures of learning by using online tools where students can work individually and in groups outside of the classroom.

ICL and Curation

Curation of information is an important part of the Information and Communication Literacies (ICL) program. We skill our students to find information and analyze it. But what do they then do with the information? Where do they put it? There are several tools such as Google Docs, Noodle Tools and several others where students can curate their findings. 

For more information on curation in K-12, take a look at the article "Why Curation Will Transform Education and Learning: 10 Reasons".

Visual Note-taking (Sketchnoting)

Our students live in a media rich world. They think in images, video, and sound while constantly making neural connections. The iPad empowers students to draw, audio record, insert images and embed hyperlinks to information sources all in a very personalized way. This is where visual note-taking (also called sketchnoting) comes in. We can expand note-taking choices beyond just text recording by guiding students to use mind maps, colors, shapes, images, digital grouping by dragging and dropping objects, and using connecting lines to record their thinking. Talk about individualizing and personalizing student learning! Here are a few resources to help paint the picture of visual note-taking. 

Select the image to see larger version outlining Three Things To Remember with Visual Note-taking

Supporting sites: 

• Sketch Notes 
• Grade 3 Example  
• Sketchnoting by Kathy Schrock
• Sketchnoting slideshow by Sylvia Duckworth
• Teacher’s Narrative 
• Visual Note-taking by Nicki Hambleton
• Wes Fryers’ Blog Dedicated to Working with Media

Image Sources: Visual Note-taking  | Visual Note-taking 3 Things