Years 1 to 4 boys use iPad Air but access to crayon

Year 5 boys use an iPad Airs with Apple Pencil

The boys have their device for two years and then rollover to a new device

Pre-Kindergarten/Kindergarten and Pre-Primary children use a class set of iPads. These are in a ratio of one iPad between two children.

In the ELC, children use the class set of iPads on their own and with other children when working in a group. The iPads are also used at Bush school to capture video and pictures of the children’s learning.

The ELC teachers use a digital portfolio tool called Seesaw to capture and share what is happening in the Pre-Kindy/Kindy and Pre-Primary classrooms. Seesaw allows teachers to provide an immediate and personalised window to share and communicate with their families. Posts to Seesaw can include photos, videos and collages, which can be great conversations starters. Popular posts have included Bush school photos, slow motion videos of STEM experiences, and the French ‘Welcome/Hello’ song. These posts can then trigger a conversation with families which further cements learning for the students.

The iPads are also used in the ELC for the Early Learning Languages Australia (ELLA)  programme.  ELLA is a digital, play-based language learning program for children in preschool.  It helps children to become more comfortable with another language early in life so that they can stay engaged with learning languages in later years.

The development of the 1:1 iPad programme in the Junior School classrooms has seen an increased focus on using the iPad as a creation device, as opposed to content-consumption device. This means the boys use the device to show their learning, rather than play games.

Teachers provide opportunities for the boys to choose the way they demonstrate their understanding of concepts. During summative assessments, students can choose the iPad tool (app) that suits their purpose such as creating and editing movies, brainstorming knowledge through mind-mapping apps, creating multimodal presentations and generating picture collages to demonstrate understanding.

iPads are used during Mathematics lessons, where boys can record the way they solve a problem. By using a combination of manipulatives, pen and paper, they can use the iPad to capture their methods for devising a solution to the problem.

We are ensuring 21st Century learning for our students with our 1:1 device programme.

Effective use of the iPads have:

• increased independent and self-initiated learning among students
• increased student motivation and active engagement in learning
• improved teachers’ capacity to plan for and meet individual student needs
• led to an improvement in student learning outcomes
• extended students’ learning beyond the classroom

The boys have amazing support structures to help them manage their devices. We have the Tech Centre to assist the students and teachers directly when issues arise. The 1Degree station is situated in the Junior and Middle School Library and is open between 8:15am and 3:30pm.

The Junior School iPads have a few key “creationary” apps that are used often so the boys can choose the tool to best show their understanding. Edmodo, Popplet, Explain Everything, Keynote, Book Creator and iMovie would be the most used apps on the Scotch iPads.

Edmodo has been an invaluable app for teachers to facilitate the sharing of student work. It has also resulted in learning extending beyond the classroom walls where the teacher and students can interact when outside the classroom. This has led to many students independently researching images and information at home and sharing this content with the class on the Edmodo page to help others learn.

iMovie has allowed the boys to demonstrate their understanding of the central idea in a fun and creative way. The boys work collaboratively to plan the content and structure of their iMovie prior to the filming. The boys are always engaged and excited to show their knowledge in a professional and creative way. The final products are entertaining and demonstrate the individual learning that has taken place throughout the unit of inquiry.

The Scotch iPads are managed devices, meaning that only the teachers choose the apps they wish the boys to have on their devices. These apps are pushed to the school device when they come onto the school wireless network. This means that the iPads all have the same number of apps and importantly all the apps are teacher approved and age appropriate.

The iPad is a window into your son’s classroom – the camera roll will have photo and video evidence he has taken of his work and his learning. Apps such as Keynote and Popplet will have brainstorms, explanations and presentations for parents to unpack with their son.

Often when parents, at the end of the school day, ask their sons how their day progressed, they hear that the day was “fine”, “good”, or when asked what he did today, be told “not much.” The Junior School teachers can guarantee that this is not the case.

When the boys take  their iPad home each night, parents have a window into their son’s classroom. With apps such as Edmodo, parents can see the inquiries, activities and assessments their sons have been working on during the week.

Edmodo provides a secure online learning platform where teachers and students can collaborate, share content, and use educational apps to supplement in-class learning. This private learning environment is managed by the teacher. It allows students to interact with only other students and teachers added to the class at the teachers’ discretion. Edmodo provides a safe and easy way to support learning within and beyond the classroom and helps boys develop important skills in a digital environment.

Parents can see the various Edmodo classes their son has joined and see the type of inquiries and work they are doing in class. They can access files, images, links and resources provided by the teacher. Parents can log in as their son on any device to see the online Edmodo classrooms at any time.

3D printing in the Junior school offers excellent opportunities for boys to develop their creative thinking, problem-solving abilities and have the opportunity of seeing their ideas built into a physical entity.

The process can occur as an immersion activity, as a modelling process during investigation, being a component of the presentation stage or even as an action after the inquiry process has been completed.

The benefit of the current 3D printers is that they are portable and can be taken into class to show the boys the process of how the printers take their designs and layer them into the 3D render. This is an important part of the process to help the boys understand how to ensure that any design they make needs to be supported by the 3D printer and how support structures can be used to help to have a successful 3D print.

One example of 3D printers in use:

In Year 1 the boys work on the ‘How we express ourselves’ unit with the central idea of: ‘Stories communicate a message and may evoke emotions’. As part of the unit, boys look at the structure of narratives and the development of characters and settings. The boys are given the opportunity to design a 3D character using their Makers Empire app and then they watched their characters come to life via the 3D printers. The boys then developed a story, which they filmed on their iPad. As the final summative assessment, the boys write a story about their character and publish it in an e-book format.

Sphero

Sphero is an app-driven programmable robot. It fuses programming with mathematics and science. It is an effective way to introduce science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) into the Junior School in a challenging and engaging manner. Sphero is programmed from the iPad. The robots are used to engage in a series of activities that will teach the boys programming concepts while extending their mathematical and collaborative skills.

Subjects covered using Sphero

• Math: Percentages, division, geometry, and patterns
• Physics: Speed, time, and distance
• Computer Science: Programme flow, variables, conditionals, and reading sensors

An example lesson:

The boys use Sphero to discover the linear relationships between time, speed, and distance. They learn to programme Sphero to move at a particular speed for a particular amount of time, and then measure how far it has travelled. They use division to find the relationships between time, speed, and distance. Once the boys have understood the basic concepts of time, speed, and distance using the Sphero more mathematical concepts can be explored.

Coding

Coding clubs are run in Year 5. Beebots and Probots are used from Kindergarten to Year 2. Spheros are used in Years 1 to 4. Swift programming is used in Year 4. Scratch Junior is also used in the Junior School.

As a PYP school, our boys will utilise a variety of iPad and laptop resources to enhance their unit of inquiry in the classroom and allow for greater communication between other schools. Some of the apps used:

• Edmodo for communication and a shared virtual classroom
• Explain Everything for reflections on activities
• Popplet for mind mapping

iPads and laptops give an easy way for Scotch College boys to communicate with other children, which paves the way for further collaboration and networking within the global community.

When a mobile technology like a school iPad is brought home, a number of interesting challenges arise, particularly when you have wireless internet access. The effective management of a mobile learning technology in the home is an important discussion to be had.

Parenting in the 21st Century is challenging. Here are some suggestions for managing learning technologies at home:

1. iPads, laptops and other learning technologies should be used in the open spaces of the house, typically the kitchen table. Problems with inappropriate use of technology can often be circumvented if you have the opportunity to occasionally glance at the laptop or iPad screen while moving around the house. In particular, do not allow internet access from the bedroom.
2. Teachers do not allow students to Google on Safari without strict supervision on the iPads. Ensure that safe searching is turned on if your son must search.
3. http://www.safesearchkids.com is the Google search engine which can be used on iPads if you want your son to search for something.
4. Junior School teachers have noticed a lot of boys are on YouTube at home. Please be aware of how easily the boys can navigate away from the original video. Our recommendation is that YouTube viewing should be done with an adult present.
5. Negotiate essential activities first. Once these are demonstrated, an appropriate reward can follow.
   • What is your homework for tonight?
   • Can you show me where you are up to?
   • What will it look like when you are finished?
   • How long will that take?
   • How about you show me when you get that done.
   • It is okay to say ‘no’ and put the devices away.