The iPod Touch Class

Check out this article.  It's about the iPod Touch class that I have set up at Lakeview School.   The article starts:

'At the start Term 2, Year 5 and 6 students in Room 3 at Lakeview School were given an iPod Touch to use in class. Here Tim Nelson explains the thinking behind the initiative and the outcomes so far'.

If I can do it, anyone can!

Education through gaming

Check out this article re engaging children in education through gaming. The article starts:

'New Zealand's school curriculum needs to take a lesson from video games to get kids more engaged in learning, according to Deputy Prime Minister Bill English'.

To read the article in full, click here.

Using Twitter and iPods to teach Mandarin

Here's an idea that I have just started using as a means of using Twitter to teach Mandarin on an iPod Touch.  It's pretty simple, but I think it will prove to be very successful.

1. Set up your own Twitter account
2. Get your class to set up their own Twitter accounts and have them follow you.
3. Create your own of find a You Tube video of a language concept you would like covered.  Tweet the video with a learning intention.
4. Students are to listen to and practice the language concept.
5. Students to record themselves on an app (we use iTalk) and email the file to me for assessment.
6. I listen to the recordings and email back feedback.

As soon as one student sends in a recording I can tweet the next lesson, meaning that the children can learn at their own pace, not having to wait for their peers to catch up.