Mrs. Miller, 8th grade Speech teacher, was teaching her students about the four types of listening:
1- Critical
2- Therapeutic
3- Appreciative
4- Comprehensive
She chose to use PuppetPals on the student iPads as a way for her students to demonstrate each type of listening skill. As I observed the student projects, I realized the time and effort her students had put into them, thinking carefully about their scripts, their characters, and how they would tell their digital story using the iPad. These "digital skits" were a hit and really drove home each of the types of listening.
She started the lesson with an introductory video (a bad lip reading of a presidential debate) followed immediately by the student groups showing their PuppetPals videos. After each video, Mrs. Miller had the students close their iPads so she could ask follow-up questions to make sure they understood what they had just watched. I think these checks for understanding are critical in any lesson, but particularly when exploring a new digital technology, where it would be far too easy to get sidetracked by the "shininess" of the iPads and the PuppetPals app. The main idea I saw with regards to this lesson was the iPad was not the point of the learning activity, it was merely the delivery tool. The iPad and PuppetPals provided an excellent avenue for this particular lesson and allowed students to demonstrate their learning of the topic without getting in the way of learning.
This lesson was not without its issues, however, and she shared with me useful tips for future iPioneers. For example, there were issues with the dongle staying connected to the iPad. Some solutions for this in the future could be having the students email in their videos or turn them in through Edmodo or eBackpack or even the use of an Apple TV. Another issue was the sound. Several video had very low sound and most had significant background noise from the recording process. Because students were recording their videos in somewhat close proximity to one another, several of the videos has very distinguishable voices in the background. Mrs. Miller handled all of these in stride, acknowledging that this was a learning process for everyone and asking students to bear with her. At the end of the day, it wasn't about iPads, puppets, or even about a cool video or two. Students were developing listening skills and learning about the four types of listening, all of which were needed in class that day.
Below is a video that one of the student groups completed. Enjoy!
1- Critical
2- Therapeutic
3- Appreciative
4- Comprehensive
She chose to use PuppetPals on the student iPads as a way for her students to demonstrate each type of listening skill. As I observed the student projects, I realized the time and effort her students had put into them, thinking carefully about their scripts, their characters, and how they would tell their digital story using the iPad. These "digital skits" were a hit and really drove home each of the types of listening.
She started the lesson with an introductory video (a bad lip reading of a presidential debate) followed immediately by the student groups showing their PuppetPals videos. After each video, Mrs. Miller had the students close their iPads so she could ask follow-up questions to make sure they understood what they had just watched. I think these checks for understanding are critical in any lesson, but particularly when exploring a new digital technology, where it would be far too easy to get sidetracked by the "shininess" of the iPads and the PuppetPals app. The main idea I saw with regards to this lesson was the iPad was not the point of the learning activity, it was merely the delivery tool. The iPad and PuppetPals provided an excellent avenue for this particular lesson and allowed students to demonstrate their learning of the topic without getting in the way of learning.
This lesson was not without its issues, however, and she shared with me useful tips for future iPioneers. For example, there were issues with the dongle staying connected to the iPad. Some solutions for this in the future could be having the students email in their videos or turn them in through Edmodo or eBackpack or even the use of an Apple TV. Another issue was the sound. Several video had very low sound and most had significant background noise from the recording process. Because students were recording their videos in somewhat close proximity to one another, several of the videos has very distinguishable voices in the background. Mrs. Miller handled all of these in stride, acknowledging that this was a learning process for everyone and asking students to bear with her. At the end of the day, it wasn't about iPads, puppets, or even about a cool video or two. Students were developing listening skills and learning about the four types of listening, all of which were needed in class that day.
Below is a video that one of the student groups completed. Enjoy!
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