This year our class will be participating in BYOD.
What is BYOD?
This stands for Bring Your Own Device and means that students can bring their own iPad to school for educational activities and learning in the classroom.
Why BYOD?
BYOD allows for students to use their own personal iPad at school which is the device that we are used to and feel comfortable using. It also means any work that we save on our devices and can be taken home and shared with our family or used to complete homework.
Using iPads as learning tools allows for students to become more excited about showing their learning. Students often love to produce interactive or multimedia items to show what they have learned. This leads to a better connection with the skills, concepts and content being taught because students have an opportunity to be creative with demonstrating what they are learning.
This week Mr Philbrook visited our class to give us an introductory lesson on how to use the iPads correctly in class. He demonstrated to us how to carry the iPad properly around the classroom and when working with it on the floor. He also taught us a rule which is…
When a teacher says ‘Apples Down’ this means we need to place our iPads face down where we are working.
This is something we will be practising as a class regularly.
Mr Philbrook introduced us to 2 ‘Apps’ that we can use in the class at school.
Showbie
This allows a teacher to set a task to our class or individuals so that we have this task on our iPads to look at anytime. We can also import this task into other apps to use. This can really help us because we instantly have the task with us at school and home to look at anytime. Mrs Baldwin can also check our work through this app and provide feedback to us.
Explain Everything
Explain Everything is a fun app which is like using a whiteboard with so many more features! We can type, draw, import pictures, record our voices and import videos of ourselves. It is a great way to creatively show our thinking and learning about a certain topic covered in class.
Mr Philbrook used Showbie to set the following task to use in the app Explain Everything
- Make a new slide
- Insert a picture of yourself
- Write your name. See if you can change the font
- Write an interesting fact about yourself
We first had to login to Showbie so we could view the task. We then imported this task into the Explain Everything app. From there we completed the task. This task really allowed us to explore the Explain Everything app by allowing us to discover for ourselves how it is used. Once we get familiar with the app we will be able to use it in many subjects during class time.
Check out the fun we had
Some other things we have been using our iPads at school have been:
- Taking photos of the board so that we have a copy to use at our desks.
- Taking photos to show our parents what we have been learning in class.
- Using dictionary.com for dictionary meanings or to correct spelling errors made in our writing.
- Using the stopwatch and calculator
- Reflecting on posts on our class blog during Daily 4
Mrs Baldwin is looking forward to using technology in the classroom in combination to using our books.
Dear Miss Baldwin,
I have used both of the apps at school but not at home.
I enjoyed that we learnt how to use the apps.
👋🐶 From Constantina
Dear Mrs Baldwin,
I have used Explain Everything but only at school because it costs money on the app store.
I have enjoyed messing around and having to do tasks on Explain Everything
I think it helps a lot because it is faster
from Zac😭
Dear Mrs Baldwin,
When Mr Philbrook came in it was the first time i had used Showbie but i have used Explain Everything at home.
I loved using the apps in the class room because it is fun to draw and create cool stuff about learning.
I think iPads are helping because you can take a photo and bring it back to your desk and there is lots of good learning apps that can help you learn.
From Matilda🐕🐩😎
Dear mrs Baldwin,
I have never used Showbie at my house but I also haven’t used the app at school either.
What I enjoyed the most about using the app was how we got to take pictures of our partners and got to edit it ourselves.
How I think iPads our helping as in school is we can learn from our mistakes and get better at things every day.
from Ruby.
Dear mrs baldwin,
I’ve only used one of the school apps from school before which was explain everything. I found brining my i pad to school also helped me learn more things about how i can use my i pad so i really enjoyed that app. I think study ladder will help us learn most because of the different games and they can help you learn .
So i can’t wait to use them at school
from Tilly🦁🐯🦁🐯
Dear Mrs Baldwin,
Yes I have used show is and explain everything at home before.
I enjoyed using these apps at school because they can help you a lot with your learning skills and so that Mr Philbrook can learn more about us.
I think that the iPads are helping us learn new things about the environment and are helping us with our learning.
Regards Chloe
Dear Mrs Baldwin,
I have used explain everything but I haven’t used showbie. I used explain everything in year 2 we used it for a slideshow.
I like using it about taking a photo of our partner.And we got to mess around with the app.
I think it would be good for doing different activities and having fun with it.
From Max
Dear Mrs Baldwin
I have used explained everything with my cousin because he was in mr Philbrooks class
last year but I have never used Showie.
I loved that we got to explained everything with a partner it was so fun.
I think it is great because we have so much fun and there are so many learning apps that are good for our leaning .
From Jorja😄
Dear Mrs Baldwin
I have never been on showbie but it was steel fun to learn about it.🙂
I learnt that it can be hard at the start but it becomes easer than you mite think.🤔
I think it helping our school because it’s farster and its easer.☺️
From Jasmin😘😍
Dear miss Baldwin
I used showie and explain everything at school before when we did byod .
That you can explore anything that are on the two websites.
That you can explain websites by just editing the websites in all different areas.
Regards Tyler 🎩🕶🤑😎😇🍫🍿🍧🍰⚽️🏀🏉
Dear Mrs Baldwin,
I haven’t used the apps at home but I have used explain everything at school.
I enjoyed taking a photo of Max and decorating the page I created.
I think they are helping us because we are getting better at typing and using electronics. Also if we need an iPad for work we don’t have to do it for home work.
Regards James😎😀😄🤑🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀