The website we are developing is intended to provide useful information for intermediate teachers within our own schools but also across the country and indeed, the world. A simple google search of the terms “iPads and literacy” will bring interested readers to our site.
Surely we aren’t the only teachers who are experiencing the iPad phenomenon. iPads are purchased by the school, available for us to use, but there is absolutely no training or Pro-D that goes along with them. Because no one knows what to do with them, they get hogged by one or two keen teachers, or sit and gather dust.
It seems that iPads are the technology that most schools are turning to so we wanted to create a resource that will help give teachers ideas for how they can be used to enhance literacy in the classroom. After reading the various pages on our site, we hope that teachers will be inspired to begin using the iPads.
We do not go into detail on “how” to actually use the iPads. We have to assume a bit of background knowledge on the part of interested teachers! Luckily, iPads are so common these days, it is rare to encounter someone who hasn’t had the chance to play around with one or seen them used. iPads are also very user-friendly so we didn’t want to focus on the technical stuff.
Basically, we hope that an interested teacher will visit our site, browse the various tabs, and walk away with several ideas that can be implemented right away in the classroom. Using the iPads to create book trailers? Excellent idea! Using the iPads to record students reading aloud to help build reading fluency? Genius! The site is set up so that teachers can pick and choose what they would like to learn about and they are welcome to try any or all of the ideas in whatever order they choose.
We also created a Contact Us page so that interested teachers can email us with their comments or suggestions.
The work you are doing is going to be an important development in teachers’ ability to conceive using iPads in teaching situations. This project becomes part of the linguistic cognitive domain pertaining to iPads in educational practice. If educators’ can’t imagine how they might use iPads for teaching and learning, they aren’t going to use them. If they can’t conceive of how their curriculum and pedagogy can be enhanced, enabled or enriched by iPad use, why would they bother? We have to assume experienced teachers are also good teachers. If what they have been doing for years, or decades, has been good, why should they change? This is the imaginative, creative part of the challenge.