Thursday 10 January 2013

The first lesson...

Well we had the first lesson today and it was HARD WORK. The beginning of the lesson was fine - they responded well to my rule of not using the iPad until given permission, they asked sensible questions about the project and seemed pleased with the idea of Tweeting about the progress of the iPad trial.

It was when we tried to start working that the trouble started... in hindsight I probably shouldn't have expected as much from them on the first lesson. I have been informed by many that the first few lessons of an iPad trial are often a bit of a write-off in terms of work. The iPads are still very much a novelty for the pupils and although I am confident that they will become more focussed during lesson time I do also think that it may be a little harder than I had first imagined! Once the pupils realise that there are still rules and consequences for breaking them (e.g. having iPads taken away, Apps blocked etc) things should become a little easier. They are naturally testing the boundaries, as pupils always do when there is change.

In fact I am probably being a little over-critical here. The truth is that despite the lesson seeming quite hard to manage, all of the pupils successfully downloaded another learning App, recorded two pieces of speaking work and most managed to send me their work on Audioboo as well. In the grand scheme of things that's pretty good going for a first lesson I suppose! I just look forward to the time when we can do that and more, without the constant rule-reinforcements and nagging!

Patience is a virtue...

1 comment:

  1. Good luck with your 1 to 1 project. Yes, the novelty will wear off and the devices will become just another tool that are integrated into routine classroom activity. Will still be fun, though. Just better organised and more disciplined fun!
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