InfoMania - Learning Diary of BARIS AKPINAR, Turkey-Erzincan by Baris Akpinar

Creative use of Tablets in School

Kythira — 2015-04-20 15:50:20 UTC

As a huge user of tablet in the classroom, i've dedicated myself to this course of European Schoolnet Academy for the end of April. Course has 4 modules containing informations about the usage of tablets and their importance in our class-life.

Baris Akpinar

Kythira — 2015-04-20 15:52:32 UTC

Hi to the new teacher's blog system of Padlet. This is Baris Akpinar, an English teacher from Turkey. Currently, i am teaching at a multi-programmed high school located in the east-side of Turkey, Erzincan. I divided my English lessons into three phases, and in every one of them i use 'my tablet' to make students feel more connected to the lesson by making our 'books' interactive.

Why do we use tablets for teaching ?

Kythira — 2015-04-20 15:59:37 UTC

I divided my English lessons into three phases, and i use my tablet in every one of them to be more interactive in the classroom. In today's world of education, i think it is more important to combine our educating methods with technology because with this combination we can achieve the success in our classes. By this technology, students feel more connected to the lesson, and they always say in the end that they never understand how the lesson comes to the end, and i think 'This' is the most important criteria for using a tablet.

What whole-school challenges do I already face or do I anticipate facing when using tablets?

Kythira — 2015-04-20 17:21:25 UTC

I'd like to take this matter in two sides as positive and negative subdivisions. First of all, wireless connectivity is a negative challenge for the schools in Turkey, because in general the issue hasn't been resolved completely so I try to use the apps that allow me to use in offline mode. Another negative challenge is teachers' being lack of knowledge in using the tablets just like Ms. Diana mentioned in the video. Generally teachers want to have the tablets with the apps installed for them to use: 'just' use. I think a teacher should research about the apps that s/he can use in the classes. When it comes to the positive challenges for me in Turkey and my school, i think working with small groups is a great method to use in the lessons. I generally try to use that method so that students can feel that s/he is 'the part' of the class. In other words, i make her/him interactively connected to the classroom which is the 'real outcome' of using tablets in school.

Taking Notes for the Course

Kythira — 2015-04-21 18:41:01 UTC

As the Module 1 continues, i'm taking notes throughout the videos about using tablets in school with advantages and disadvantages. It is a good way of expressing the thoughts about why we use tablets for teaching in our lessons.

EDMODO for Everyone

Kythira — 2015-05-11 19:57:48 UTC

Using Edmodo in the classroom is a great way of following your students minimal online steps for the lesson of yours. The great part of Edmodo -i think- is that you can include the parents as well through the learning process of the specific unit studies you put on your Edmodo group.

APPology#1: Oxford BookShelf

Kythira — 2015-05-12 17:32:02 UTC

For my English lessons, i use 'Oxford's 'BookShelf' app which is available on AppStore for everyone. As a teacher, you can register for the app, and then can buy and download the digital books you like. You can access your digital books from Web, also. For the 'Listening' parts of my lessons, i use 'Tacts for Listening' of Oxford by using this app on my IPad. The app and the digital books are easy-to-use, and have 'everything' the book's set includes in general.

What do I make of the Learning Scenarios concept?

Kythira — 2015-05-12 17:59:38 UTC

I was on an education-week last week on a regional education facility of 'Ministry of National Education' of Turkey, and on that educating programme, the final product of ours as the contributors was to create a 'Learning Scenario', and me and my learning group decided to create one relating to the issue of problems of our education system which focused on the problems especially related to the teacher. We used 7 stages just like on the video, and i'll use this in my lessons, too.

What kind of content can I produce with my class?

Kythira — 2015-05-12 18:11:49 UTC

The content can be 'Nature' as the word stands for itself in general. Students can use 'Popplet' to create several ideas relating the 'issues' of our 'Nature'. Then, the groups can change the outcomes from 'Popplet' and try to come up with ideas about the issues mentioned previously. After that, students can use tablets to go out in the free time at school, and record answers about the issue from students and teachers. Groups come together to discuss the answers on the videos. A member of the group can create a theme video for the answers by using 'MovieMaker (A Windows App)'. Groups try to create different solutions that can be done in the 'school area', and record their every steps as video and also the diary that can be added to both 'Blogspot' and 'Padlet'. After the solutions, the results can be shown as posters via 'Phoster (An AppStore App)'. After all, the motto can be 'Green schools will change the world.'

A Content Creation: 'Nature Calls'

Kythira — 2015-05-12 18:18:30 UTC

My students wanted to 'do' something for the 'Nature', and after using 'Popplet' to create different ideas about the issues, we came up with the idea of planting trees which was a unit of our lesson plans also, and we connected ourselves with ENO programme, and contacted with the regional nature services and planted trees. We used 'Phototastic Collage PRO' to take photographs of the content's outcome, and 'MovieMaker by Windows' to create a unique movie of our project. Here is our video:

My 'InfoMania' Learning Diary Available on the Forums

Kythira — 2015-05-12 18:26:57 UTC

I've just published my 'InfoMania' learning diary on the forums of 'Creative Use of Tablets in Schools' course on the European Schoolnet Academy web page.

How do I form groups of students for group work and why do I take this approach?

Kythira — 2015-05-12 18:48:55 UTC

I usually use 'Collaborative Learning' through my lessons to create a combining theme in the classroom. Recently, i've been using 'TeamUp' tool that i learned from an education-week about 'New Approaches to the Education' in Rize, Turkey. With this tool, you can write every little detail about your students, and the tool can make pairs related to the information you give. If I close myself to the needs and more importantly 'insights' of my students, then the pairs wouldn't connect to each other which would make the pair collapse from the beginning.

How do I keep my students focused and on track during collaborative projects? How do I ensure all students contribute to the task?

Kythira — 2015-05-12 19:05:16 UTC

Two weeks ago, i used 'Collaborative Learning' tecnique for my 'Nature' unit of 11th grades, and while the pairs were working together to create a unique message about a city's nature issue, i saw that in the groups of 3 students, every group focused on each of their partner's ability as what s/he could do for the project. I think this is the 'key' for the pairs: to focus on the ability. When you relate someone to something that s/he cannot feel 'inside' -a path to that side, maybe-, the pair would collapse eventually.

School-to-School Collaboration Projects: Etwinning

Kythira — 2015-05-12 19:23:11 UTC

As an active etwinner myself, i'm currently running 4 different etwinning project that has international partners. I want to take attention to my previous project of 'IDIOMS are easy!' which aimed at building a visual mind map for students about the idioms they hear, use and the actual meaning they see behind that idiom. To decide the idioms that we would use, I used 'Popplet' to create brainstorming in my etwinning club's students. Then, students drew, colored different materials in real art-work. After that, I used 'Phoster (An AppStore App)' to create posters from those works, and it ended very well and the outcome was very unique, i think. I'm sharing one of our posters below:

Assessment & Collaboration

Kythira — 2015-05-12 19:27:18 UTC

As for me, the 'key' point in pairs is to use the right 'ability' in a student, generally the students in the groups i create feel very collaborative, but from time to time, some students can feel -maybe- not connected to that pair after a while. To change that path, in an 10 or 15 minutes time table, sometimes i change the students from one pair to another with the same abililty s/he can use in the project. In that way, student can feel 'up' again for the process.

APPology#2: Phoster

Kythira — 2015-05-12 19:28:27 UTC

As i mentioned before in the article of 'School-to-School Collaboration Projects', i generally use 'Phoster' app on my IPad to create different kind of posters with my students about the projects we are in, or the pair-works that we use in our lessons.

APPS for Collaborative Learning

Kythira — 2015-05-12 19:40:12 UTC

I've created a section on my learning diary on Padlet as 'APPology' and i'm sharing the apps i use in my classroom there.

In general;

For interactive lessons,

- Oxford BookShelf

- Cambridge Interchange

- VODScreen

- Futaba

- Opposites

- Wheel of Fortune HD

For creating posters,

- Phoster

- Phototastic PRO

For creating videos,

- MovieMaker by Windows

- Magisto

For the classroom ideas,

- Evernote

- Weebly

- Popplet

- Story Patch

- Book Creator

- Things

For the offline use of videos,

- AVPlayer HD

- Free Video by IOS

are the apps -in general, of course- that i use.

How do I know what types of learners there are? What are good strategies to identify this?

Kythira — 2015-05-12 19:54:52 UTC

Every student has his/her own way of giving ideas about the projects in general. For instance, in my lessons i write a note related to the topic of that day on the board, and then ask the students what they can do with the 'note' on the board. Students get excited because of this question goes directly to their ability to use in it, and one by one i get the replies about the 'note'. Some say that s/he will create a poster about it, and others say that s/he will draw some different things about it, and then color it. I simply leave the choice to the students because s/he has to know and get the information about that 'note' him/herself. By using this tecnique, students feel more secure and connected to the classroom.

What other ways can I think of how tablets can be used to personalise the learning experience of my students?

Kythira — 2015-05-12 20:02:48 UTC

I try to use Edmodo for my lessons in the classroom, and the students find it very easy-to-use and they are able to find their 'independent' search via this tool, but in the video i've seen 'Aurasma', and i think it is really a great app to use in the big classrooms to give the students the idea of every different tool about how to use it. I think we can personalize this tool with every lesson -especially English-.

APPology#3: FreeVideo for IPAD

Kythira — 2015-05-12 20:16:09 UTC

As sometime 'The Internet' can be a big problem in the schools, we as teachers need to be prepared for the lessons with different kind of videos searched online. For that reason, i use 'FreeVideo IOS' on my IPad to search the necessary videos on internet with many different video providers such as YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion and etc. Then, i download them to my IPad so that i can use them in offline-mode-app-style.

Flipping the Classroom: Preparation

Kythira — 2015-05-12 20:27:59 UTC

I think the last video of 'Flipped Classroom' is amazing because of its 'language' using through the video. It's point of views about the regular education system is absolutely true. Maybe in some way, we as teachers generally use 'Flipped Classroom' model in our lessons, but the entrance part of the 'preparation' phase took my interest. As today, our students generally use their 'mobile phones' all day, after creating a closed Facebook group, I can share an interesting video about the next lesson on there so that students can watch, and gets excited about it, and even they can do some research before coming to the classroom. As seen on the picture below, Bart is also taking advantages of the model 'Flipped Classroom'. :)

Challenges of Flipped Classroom

Kythira — 2015-05-12 20:40:14 UTC

The big challange for this model for me - i think- is the internet issue in general. By tee help of this video, i learned a new app called 'Showbie', and for sure i'll try to use it with my students of 11th grades as a start next week. In general today, many people have an access to the internet, but generaly this is just 'mobile'. To create a more openly service of this model, the internet should be more 'accesible' for the students.

Apps and Tools for Personalisation and Flipping the Classroom

Kythira — 2015-05-12 20:44:33 UTC

With the help of the previous sections, i learned some new apps to use in my classrooms for instance, 'Aurasma' and 'Showbie'. I came across with 'Socrative' app last week on the education-week of 'New Approaches in Education' in Rize, Turkey as they wanted to give our last exams for the education from that app. It seemed really amazing to me, and i decided to use it on one of my quizes for the 10th or 11th grades throughout the end of the semestre.

APPology#4: Cambridge Interchange

Kythira — 2015-05-12 20:45:29 UTC

For the interactive parts of my English lessons, i use Cambridge University's 'Interchange' series as they have IPad versions of their course as an App which is available on AppStore. You can have all the audio scripts on these digital books along with the videos that are necessary for the units. All the grammar tools are included and the shortcuts that are paced around the units are really helpful.

Creating a Lesson Plan with Learning Designer

Kythira — 2015-05-12 21:22:40 UTC

I learned a new web-tool called 'Learning Designer', and i've just completed my first 'Lesson Plan with Learning Designer' about the topic of 'Nature'. Here is the link to my lesson plan:

http://v.gd/0RENiu

APPology#5: Futaba Classrom

Kythira — 2015-05-12 21:29:46 UTC

For me, the 'change' in the apps for the classroom would be 'Futaba' because with this app, learning is very easy-to-present for teacher, and it is very easy-to-participate for students. It is actually a pop-quiz app that helps you to create different types of quizes for your units. It also has prepared quizes for your lessons and the 'Cloud' system makes everything just in 'place'.