iPad Apps for Early Years: a few ideas to get you started.

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 Staple Apps for your iPad

My Story

This app is a simple book creator app and is great for making multi-modal texts. Children can insert photographs, clipart, saved images. They can also record their voice and there are a range of mark making tools for them to write and record their ideas. Read more about introducing My Story on this post here.

Puppet Pals

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This is a puppet show app and children can quickly create a story with characters and backgrounds in 3 simple steps. The app records their voice and playback is instant. Puppet shows export as videos to the iPad’s camera roll.

Here is a good YouTube video which demonstrates the Puppet Pals App
Here is an example of children’s work from my class:

Puppet Pals is so versatile and can be used beyond story telling. It can support non-fiction, instruction texts, science and mathematics. Find out more about using Puppet Pals beyond story telling here.

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Jan Dubiel’s Lecture "A New Landscape? Exploring the Implications of the Early Years Review

@MarcWithersey Early Years, Leadership and Managemant , , , ,
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On Saturday 10th March, the same day as the NAACE TeachMeet in Leicester, Derbyshire County Council also held a big event for their Derbyshire Early Years settings at the University of Derby. I was lucky enough to be invited to attend this with Tiny Tots Day Nursery to showcase a range of ICT equipment and demonstrate the appropriateness of Games Based Learning in Early Years settings. This blog post is one of two, here I will reflect on the Keynote Lecture given by Jan Dubiel which focuses on Curriculum change in Early Years. My second blog will provide links and advice based on the discusses I had with visitors to the workshop I featured in.

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Three iPad accessories to streamline your mobile life

@MarcWithersey early years

Background.

With the expected launch of the iPad 3 coming soon, I have started to think about how my relationship with iPad has moved from “why?” to “how” in the space of 14 months. Even though I’ve had an iPod for many many years, my first being the iPod mini and replaced the model several times, when the iPad launched I was underwhelmed and switched off to it’s purpose. As regular visitors to my blog will know, my school purchased iPads for classrooms about 12 months ago. Each classroom was given an iPad 1, and so I started to look at what I can use the resource for. As I started using the iPad as an educational tool, I very quickly fell in love with it. This meant that I started using it for other purposes too; surfing the web, research, Keynote presentations, word processing, emailing… and my laptop spent more and more time tucked away in it’s beautiful Paul Smith ‘Mini on Location’ laptop sleeve (which I am yet to find for my iPad!) As soon as iPad 2 arrived, just a few months after school purchased iPad 1, I forked out the cash and invested in the new model.

… I’ve just scrolled up and realised how much I’ve talked, I think it’s time to get to the point…

So I’ve been using my iPad 2 for a year now and it comes everywhere with me. To conferences, to staff meetings, to presentations. But it hasn’t been an easy ride, I’ve had to find ways to overcome some of my problems. Problem 1: Importing photographs/videos from PC Wow syncing photographs and videos can be tricky on iTunes, and working with staff at school to help them can be even trickier.

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Our INSET day: Using iPads to Create Movies and Animations #ukedchat

@MarcWithersey iPads, Leadership and Managemant , , ,

Background Information

Classes at my school currently have 1 iPad per class and staff have struggled to integrate these into classroom life.

Towards the end of last year I began a partnership with European Electronique (@euroele) to promote the use of games and apps based learning in the classroom environment. After working at the BETT Show with the company, they organised an INSET day at my school to train staff to use an iPad as a collaborative learning tool in the classroom. This promoted the effectiveness of a 1 iPad classroom, proving that tablets can be used creatively and successfully beyond 1:1 ratio.

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What is Games Based Learning? My reflections from TeachMeet

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I haven’t felt the need to define what Games Based Learning is on my blog as I’ve been too busy trying out different strategies and resources. However, at TeachMeet Play in February half term, I presented for 7 minutes (yeah right, more like 30 minutes!) on these strategies and what Games Based Learning meant for me. Alongside me at the event, Ray Chambers (@lanky_boi_ray) and Bill Lord (@Joga5) also presented and discussed their experiences of gaming in the classroom. We all work with different age groups so our reflections and advice vary which has provoked me to write this blog post.

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Thinking Outside of the X Box

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My partnership with European Electronique has encouraged a lot discussion and research in to the possibilities of using game console hardware beyond the box they come in. I have seen Raymond Chambers (@lanky_boi_ray) speak and followed his blog for a year or so. Ray uses the Kinect Camera with a laptop and creates his own apps for secondary students to use in his ICT lessons. After many chats with Ray he has kindly produced a spelling app based on Letters and Sounds for my class.

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Project Based Learning using X Box Kinect.

@MarcWithersey Child Initiated Learning, Early Years, Games Based Learning , , , ,

I began my journey in to games based learning about a year ago, and I often get asked “how does it work?”. I still don’t have a clear answer, but I do have interesting stories to tell about children’s interactions with games in the classroom.

I have recently partnered with European Electronique (@euroele) who are an ICT solutions company with an interest in promoting games based learning. This partnership has helped to define my ideas about games based learning, so this blog post offers another perspective on what games based learning could be.

In my previous post on games learning with the Kinect in a Foundation Stage setting I spoke about organising game play in smaller group situations and engaging children in activities related to game play. This idea remains the most effect use of gaming with children.

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