Screens play an important part in the everyday learning in our classroom. Our school division realizes the importance of technology and is very supportive in every way possible. We are very fortunate to have three laptops, three desktops, and six iPads to use as assistive technology tools in our room. It's really a way of using the appropriate technology when it's necessary, but not for everything and not for every day. So yes, we will be working with manipulatives in math class, we still work on writing with paper and pencils, and we know the only way to become a better reader is by reading, but when we need the technology, it's there. Students maybe working on posting to their blogs on the desktops /laptops, researching a project, or collaborating on an iPad to create a digital story or animated comic strip.
With tablets and mobile learning devices becoming increasingly popular not only at school, but at home, I thought I would try to give parents some guidance when choosing apps to download. We have some really good sites linked on our classroom wiki that give reviews and suggestions by grade level or by subject, of the best educational apps on the market. The apple App store has over 500,000 apps and counting, so yes it can be an extremely daunting task to sift through to find the gems. Click here.. to link to our wiki. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or suggestions .
