It was always my intention while in New York City last month to draw on it’s inspiration to construct a learning project utilising the iPod touch and Studywiz Mobile, as an example of drawing together a range of resources and sharing them on a mobile device. One Friday afternoon, after having arrived in Manhattan and settled in, I found my hotel was very close to the American Museum of Natural History.
A majestic building, a magnet for someone with a love for learning on a grand scale. It was late afternoon, and after climbing the stone steps and passing the bronze statue and towering pillars, the lady on the door suggested that as closing time was only one hour away, I should head quickly to the 4th floor and the dinosaur exhibit, or Fossil Halls. Still in awe of these great beasts that once roamed our planet, I made haste, camera at the ready and I was not disappointed.
The learning journey in the Fossil Halls allows students to “enhance their overall understanding of dinosaurs; examine certain features of dinosaurs in order to draw conclusions about what they ate, how they moved, and how they cared for their young; and explore the various theories as to how these animals (except for modern birds) became extinct.” So with these questions in mind, we can form the basis of a mobile learning journey connected to this exhibit.
There are so many possibilities when using Studywiz Mobile. I will begin by showing you all the choices of activities I can create in Studywiz mobile; any of the activities labelled with a little blue ‘m’ can be viewed on the mobile interface. The shared elocker is accessed through the eLocker App.
1. RSS Feed – I will create an RSS feed reader for the New York Times dinosaur news so my students can keep in touch with the latest discoveries and stories of interest to report back to the class and discuss with their families at home.
2. eBulletin – An eBulletin can range from a simple reminder to a resource with video or weblinks for students to follow. Here is an eBulletin informing and preparing students for an excursion to “The Age of Dinosaurs”.
3. Discussion – The discussion will be a place where students can discuss their thoughts on the theme questions, such as ‘Why do you think dinosaurs became extinct?’
4. Gallery – This is a gallery of the photos I took in the fossil halls. Students are able to tag them, comment on them and rate them.
5. Test - The test is an essential assessment for learning tool. The feedback provided guides you as a teacher to create new resources for specific students, or the whole class, based on the needs identified by the responses.
6. Multi-media - The multi-media activity allows you to combine audio, video, web-based and image resources on one page with instructions and questions to create an interactive lesson. (The video content embedded here is from YouTube and will play on the iPod touch YouTube App. )
7. Calendar - Give students and teachers a calendar which lists lessons, assignments, activities and anything else that can be organised by date.
8. Fast File – The fast file give teachers a quick and simple way to deliver a resource to a student on their iPod touch. The resource attached to this fast file is an activity based on comparisons of the woolly mammoth with other creatures to visualise and measure its size.
9. Vote - The vote allows students to provide simple feedback and view the results polled by the whole class, for example, this simple vote for a favourite dinosaur, which could guide future directions for study. This vote tool can also be used to replace an expensive class set of ‘clickers’, unnecessary when you have Studywiz mobile and the iPod touch! The teacher can see the graphed responses instantly.
10. Chat – The chat room can be constructed to include any group of students, and if properly managed, provides a new way of using the iPod touch for real time communication. Here is an example of a mobile chat room where students keep in touch with each other to plan their research for an assignment.
This is just a small sample of what is possible. The combination of Studywiz Mobile and the iPod touch can completely change the way students access learning and collaboration. That’s enough for this post, stay tuned for more ways this unit of work can be delivered on the iPod touch.
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