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iPad for English Language Learning
A Hands-on Exploration, by Jim & Kathi Lengel and Molly Dubois

Objectives

Reading
1. Install the iBooks app from the App Store.
2. In the iBooks app, go to the store and purchase a book. A free book of the type your students might read would be good.
3. Read the book, and as you do, tap and hold a word that your students might have trouble with. Then click the dictionary button. Tap and hold it again, this time select the highlight button.
4. Read another page or two, and repeat step 3.
5. Read some more, until you come to the name of a well-known place or person. Tap, hold, and select the entire name. Then tap the search button, then tap Search Google. Find out all you can about the place or person.
6. Discuss how reading in an iBook is different from a paper book.

7. Install an app book from the App Store, such as Miss Spider, Green Eggs and Ham, or A Story B4 Bed.
8. Interact with the app book as a young student might. Work with all the possibilities.
9. Discuss how the reading experience with app book differs from the iBook and the paper book.

10. Install a reading game from the App Store, such as Super Why.
11. Work with the game, exploring all it's possibilities.
12. Discuss how the experience with the game differs from a reading workbook.

Writing
1. Use the Notes app to write the story of what you will do tomorrow from the moment you awake until you get to work.
2. Email your story to a colleague, asking for suggestions on improving the strength of your verbs. At the same time, review a colleague's story, and suggest how the verbs might be strengthened.
3. Discuss how writing with Notes is different from writing on paper.

4. Install Pages from the App Store.
5. Create a new document, a mock newspaper from New Orleans on January 9, 1815. Begin with one of the Pages templates.
6. Send your document to a colleague for review, and vice versa.
7. Discuss how the writing experience with Pages differs from other approaches and technologies.

8. Install a writing game from the App Store, such as ABC Tracer or Free Grammar.
9. Trace at least ten letters in ABC Tracer, until you can get them 100% green. Or answer quesitons in Free Grammar until you can get seen in a row correct.
10. Discuss how these writing games differ from workbook approaches to the same topic.

11. Install Creative Book Builder from the App Store.
12. Create an iBook, with a title, text, images, voice over, and video.
13. Save the book to the iBook Library. Review it, then go back and revise as necessary.
14. Email the book to a colleague, and ask thm to write a review. And vice versa.

Listening and speaking
1. Review your experience with the App books above. How do these books help develop listening and storytelling skills?
2. Install QuickVoice from the App Store. Record yourself telling the story of your morning from above. Play it back. Record again until he expression is just right.
3. Email your recording to a colleague for a review of your expressive voice.

4. Use the Camera app to record a persuasive video essay to convince a colleague to purchase an iPad. Play it back. Record again until he expression is just right.
3. Email your recording to a colleague for a review of your expressive video.

5. Install the ShowMe app from the App Store.
6. Record a short piece that shows the various geometric shapes in a house or a car.
7. Save your work as a public document, and send its URL to a colleague for review.

8. Install Dragon Dictation from the App Store.
9. Dictate the first sentence of your story until it comes out 100% correct.
10. Change the language to Spanish, and dictate Buenos dias. Como esta usted? until you get it 100% correct.

11. Install UTalk English from the App Store.
12. Practice vocabulary and pronunciation. Play some easy games.

13. Install Sonic Pics from the App Store.
14. Create a two-minute podcast with six images and voice.
15. Email it to a freind for review.

16. Compare English languse leaning with the iPad to other approaches.

Summary

Reading:
iBooks- reading, definitions, cross-references, any book, your own books, VoiceOver
App books - interactivity, voice-over, animation (e.g., miss spider, Green Eggs and Ham, A Story B4 Bed)
Reading games - interactivity, quizzes, comprehension, self-correcting. (e.g., Super Why)

Writing:
Notes - basic writing, organizing, spellcheck, sharing
Pages - writing, layout, formatting, spellcheck, definitions, sharing
Writing games - interactivity,self correcting (e.g. ABC Tracer, Free Grammar)
Creative Book Builder - create iBooks with text, images, voice, video

Listening and Speaking:
Quick Voice - voice recording, playback, and sharing
Video camera - voice recording, playback, and sharing
ShowMe - voice recording, Graphics, storytelling
Dragon Dictation- voice accuracy
U-Talk English - vocabulary, compare voice,
Sonic Pics - storytelling, voice with pictures

Reflection

This short simulation simply scratched the surface of the possibilities of using an iPad for working and learning. As we watch students and teachers and school leaders take advantage of iPads and their pocket-sized cousins, we see them acting as a library, a teacher, an organizer, and a communicator.

The iPad as a Library

It fits in your purse, but it has more books and other resources than your school library. Or the town library. But it's much easier to use, and is always with you. And the built-in Safari web browser connects you to the reference resources of the world-wide web, from pictures of animals in the zoo, to the latest political candidates (don't confuse those), to the latest news, to databases of historical information. Just type your search words into the Google box at the top right of the window. The built-in Maps application helps you find places, see what they look like politically or geographically, and learn how to get there. The iBooks app opens the window to more than 50,000 free books, including most of those included in the canon for K-12 literature. The largest selection of free books is in the Project Gutenberg collection. The free Dictionary.com app lets you look up words and find out what they mean. The free Wikipedia Mobile app is an excellent general reference work with more information than Britannica. And the free New York Times app puts the front page onto your iPad. Or if you prefer (see politicians, above) get the Wall Street Journal app.

The iPad as a Teacher

It can't evaluate your essays, but it can teach you some of the things you need to know, through educational podcasts on a variety of topics, and educational applications that target specific skills. Educational podcasts are created by teachers, publishers, professors, and even students. Most are available for free. You can find hundreds of them in iTunes U, following this path on your iPad: iTunes --> iTunes U. You will find at the App Store educational apps created by publishers and programmers to develop specific skills, from English grammar to fractions and decimals. Follow this path to see what's available: App Store --> Categories --> Education.

The iPad as an Organizer

Just as the grown-ups use their Blackberries and Palm Pilots to manage their schedules and contacts, their children can use the iPad to manage their academic work. The built-in iCal app can keep track of class meetings, assignments, events, and responsibilities. And notify you with an alarm just before they are due. The built-in Mail app lets them use email to communicate with teachers and colleagues. The built-in Notes app enables them to type their thoughts, or paste quotes from online sources. The built-in Contacts app keeps track of teachers and colleagues, their email, telephone, address and photo. And the Photos app keeps track of visuals that you download from your camera or copy from the web.

The iPad as a Communicator

The ideas you found in the iPad library, or learned from the podcasts, can be saved and presented with the same device. That's right: with the video adapter, you can make a slide show on your iPad, and present it with the projector in your classroom. The built-in Photos app can save images from Safari (with one click), and present them as a slide show. The built-in Voice Memos app can record oral history, research reflections, or oral communication practice. And play them back through the speakers. The built-in Notes app can organize text, and present it page-by-page on the screen. You can do a Webex meeting from the iPad, use instant messaging, and send a receive email. Even make a Skype call.

...and those are just the built-in and free tools. Thousands of two- and three-dollar apps can extend these four functions even further.

Your Assignments:

1. The iPad can serve as a library and as a teacher for your students, as described above. Find in the App Store a set of free apps that you'd want to see on every one of your students' iPads, that would help them learn what you have to teach. Download these to your own iPad, and be prepared to show your choices to your colleagues.

2. Design an assignment for your students that can be completed on the iPad. Following the model of the simulation assignment you did earlier, combine the library, teacher, and communicator functions of the iPad to put your students through a learning journey in your own subject area. Write the directions for the assignment. Practice it step by step to make sure it works. Then you'll give the directions to a colleague to try.

Workshop Evaluation for Jim