Thursday, January 21, 2010

A Classroom Idea for Using an iPod Touch

Yesterday, as I observed a sixth grade teacher, I had one of those simple ideas that sometimes flash into your consciousness from out of the proverbial blue.

The teacher posed a question to his class that called for a short one or two word response. He told his class to write the answer on paper and he circulated through the class looking at their answers.

I had my iPhone in my hand taking observation notes. Suddenly, I thought, "If each kid had an iPod Touch and the Marquee app, they could all enter their answers, hold up the Touch, and the teacher could quickly scan everyone's responses."

For those of you unfamiliar with Marquee, it lets you write your own message, choose the font, the background and text colors, the speed and style by which the message will scroll or flash on your iPod Touch screen. Then hold the screen up towards the person you want to see the message, and let them read it from across the room.

This isn't going to change the course of education in the 21st century, but it makes an efficient and simple use of new technology.
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4 comments:

Nick Provenzano said...

What a great and simple idea. It's amazing how some of the smaller changes can make a huge impact in the class. All of those minutes used looking at sheets of paper add up over the course of a school year. Also, the paper saved would add up for each student. Thanks for tip!

rd said...

With a classroom set of 30 iPod touches, this idea will be implemented soon! Thank you for sharing!

Missouri FCCLA said...

Thanks for sharing this idea and app. I'd wonder how this would work in other settings, such as meetings?

Mrs. Tenkely said...

Cool app! If he had had a class set of iPod Touches, he could also have them text the answer into him (a variety of Touch apps do this). I love the instant feedback that this would give teachers.

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