New iPad Learnings

Today the three of us (Rosie, Nicole, and Kate) met with Cathy Wolinsky to share what we've learned (so far!) about using the iPads in our classroom.

• First we discussed taking photos and video with the iPad, and the best ways to access them once they're on the iPad. We learned that we have a few free options: we can retrieve the photos from our iCloud accounts, or we can purchase the Picasa app from the App Store. In addition, we can email the individual photos to our Picasa account. 
• Rosie shared with us the way she used VoiceThread to capture a recent field trip to the State House. She was able to take a video of the students in the House of Representatives and upload it to her classroom blog after emailing it to herself. She plans to use VoiceThread to have the students add narration to various photos she took as a way of having students reflect on their experience of the trip.
• Kate shared her recent use of Dragon Dictation to help a student with a writing prompt. She was impressed with the ease of the application for the student.
• All three of us would like to use the iPads to assist struggling readers. We talked about different ways we can do this, including TumbleBooks, Kindle books, audio books.