ipadio in Education
Mobile technology is playing an increasingly large role in the classroom - most students have a phone of their own, so why not use a device that they're familiar with to engage them with education? Ipadio technology is perfect for enhancing and improving the learning process.
In brief, Ipadio technology links up the telephony networks with the internet, enabling the live broadcast of audio directly to the internet... all from a standard telephone. There's never been an easier way to record oral assessments, create revision podcasts or collect homework.
Making Assessments Easier
Need to grade students on their speaking abilities? Why grade them on one viewing of a performance live when you can record and archive them, for later play back, second marking and contextualising feedback to the student - showing them the exact moments where they need to improve, and so on?
Let the students collect the data
Need to collect data for research? Whether you're a teacher of seven year olds wanting them to ask grandparents about life as they grew up, or a university professor looking to collect research data, ipadio can be used for both!
Enable remote learning
Ipadio makes creating and sharing audio easy - simply call up and speak! Your words can be listened to online, downloaded as a podcast or even read as text thanks to speech-to-text conversion with Spinvox. Your broadcasts can also be pushed through social media channels - with phonecasts posted to Twitter, Facebook, and all of the major blogging platforms as soon as they have been recorded. This makes sharing a lecture to those who missed it, or creating a revision podcast for students a breeze - and the learning materials that you create will be available to students on platforms they are already familar with, such as Facebook and iTunes.
Enable remote assessment
If your institution carries out remote assessments, why not make life easier for the examiner by letting them phone in reports in an easy to manage way? Ipadio are currently working with the Duke Of Edinburgh awards to enable their assessors and students to log their progress whether they're on top of a mountain in the pouring rain, or at home on the sofa... after all, speaking on a phone is much quicker, easier and more durable than writing into a notepad!
Promote Your Institution
The role of many educational institutions don't end at the front gate - and Ipadio can be used to engage with people on the outside too! From promoting events going on to hosting interviews with academics and staff, Ipadio can be used to highlight the work that goes on in your school or university, to prospective students and other interested parties. Lectures, lessons and other learning materials could be offered too, and even offered as podcasts on iTunes and your website, raising the profile of educators in your institution.
Keep Parents In-The-Loop
Call ipadio after each class and explain a bit about what went on - that way parents can follow what their children are learning, and support them more effectively at home, in a way that is convenient to them, as they can follow your updates on your website, via podcast, Twitter, blogs and many other avenues - and all you as teacher have to do is make a single phone call!
Many more ideas
These are just a handful of ideas - I'm sure actual educators can think of many more! If you'd like to discuss any ideas with us, do get in touch!
Case Study 1: Learning Spanish with Ipadio
Ipadio is already being used effectively in languages classes in one school. Here's the teacher explaining how in their own words:
"This past week one of the teachers in our World Language Department used student cell phones and ipadio to record pairs of students having a conversation about a famous Mexican painting. Prior to the activity the teacher paired the students off and had them write a dialogue in Spanish talking about the Mexican painting. On the day of the activity the students paired off around the room and using one cell phone dialed into ipadio, entered the 4-digit access code, and began talking. When they were finished they just hung up the phone. Each of the recordings were saved in the teachers private ipadio account. Later that day the teacher listened to the conversations and assessed each student’s performance.
After the class when I spoke with the teacher she told me that she had the students do the recording in groups at a time so that she did not have 20+ students talking at once. She said that doing the phone calls took less time than she planned. She had about 20 recordings and all but two worked as planned. One recording was nothing but static and the other one was just not that clear. The next day she had those students redo the activity.
The lesson required the students to study the culture of Mexico (painting), use correct grammar in writing the script, and use proper pronunciation in speaking the target language. Additionally, the activity afforded the students the opportunity to perform an oral activity with just one of their peers while talking on a cell phone (something they are quite comfortable with) as opposed to doing it in front of the whole class. The take away for the teacher was that she could listen to the recordings at her leisure and replay the conversations as much as needed to properly assess the student’s performance. This scenario is much better than when the teacher has to assess the students live when they perform in front of the class. In the live scenario the teacher has to asses both students at the same time and does not have the option to replay the conversation.The end result is a much better assessment of the student’s speaking ability. The teacher can provide much richer feedback and even replay the recording for the student. The students enjoyed the activity and were eager to listen to themselves speaking.
I believe this activity demonstrates an innovative way to use student cell phones within the confines of the classroom and is an example of technology being used to accomplish something that would not be possible without the technology. Did I mention that the activity used none of the schools technology resources?"
After the class when I spoke with the teacher she told me that she had the students do the recording in groups at a time so that she did not have 20+ students talking at once. She said that doing the phone calls took less time than she planned. She had about 20 recordings and all but two worked as planned. One recording was nothing but static and the other one was just not that clear. The next day she had those students redo the activity.
The lesson required the students to study the culture of Mexico (painting), use correct grammar in writing the script, and use proper pronunciation in speaking the target language. Additionally, the activity afforded the students the opportunity to perform an oral activity with just one of their peers while talking on a cell phone (something they are quite comfortable with) as opposed to doing it in front of the whole class. The take away for the teacher was that she could listen to the recordings at her leisure and replay the conversations as much as needed to properly assess the student’s performance. This scenario is much better than when the teacher has to assess the students live when they perform in front of the class. In the live scenario the teacher has to asses both students at the same time and does not have the option to replay the conversation.The end result is a much better assessment of the student’s speaking ability. The teacher can provide much richer feedback and even replay the recording for the student. The students enjoyed the activity and were eager to listen to themselves speaking.
I believe this activity demonstrates an innovative way to use student cell phones within the confines of the classroom and is an example of technology being used to accomplish something that would not be possible without the technology. Did I mention that the activity used none of the schools technology resources?"
This was all achieved with one ipadio Open Channel - all the teacher has to do is tell the class to dial a number and enter a pin! Simple!
Case Study 2: Learning French through song!
Suzi Bewell is a French teacher in the UK and has been using the ipadio iPhone app to upload recordings of her class singing songs to learn the language. A great example of this would be this reworking of the Pink Panther theme to teach students their "etre" verbs!
One of the benefits of recording is that the students can play it back as many times as they wish, in order to get the pronunciation spot on, and can use it as a revision tool when listening at home.
Case Study 3: Honors Spanish in East Grand Rapids High School, Michigan
Kim Ibara is a French and Spanish teacher in Michigan. She descibes how she is using ipadio below:
As a pilot classroom for our district 1:1 netbook program, I have been
trying out many Web 2.0 programs with my high school students. I came
across ipadio during a professional development seminar, and have found
it to be an incredible resource!
For example, in my Honors Spanish class, I have students record their oral exams on ipadio. I can listen to each exam at home and make notes in the comment box as the exam is playing. Because each file has its own URL, I can make this available to the students individually and they can read my comments as they listen again to their own exam, which gives them much more useful feedback than a simple verbal comment after they have finished speaking. They can also listen again later, and compare exams as the semester moves along to see their progress.
I have also used ipadio as a brainstorming tool. In groups students discuss certain issues and record their thoughts using ipadio during the group discussion. I then access my ipadio site and have the whole class listen to each group's ideas, using this as a springboard for more discussion.
The students are very comfortable with the technology, and they are very engaged in the process. There are several other teachers in my building who are beginning to use ipadio as well, and it will be exciting to see all the different applications!
For example, in my Honors Spanish class, I have students record their oral exams on ipadio. I can listen to each exam at home and make notes in the comment box as the exam is playing. Because each file has its own URL, I can make this available to the students individually and they can read my comments as they listen again to their own exam, which gives them much more useful feedback than a simple verbal comment after they have finished speaking. They can also listen again later, and compare exams as the semester moves along to see their progress.
I have also used ipadio as a brainstorming tool. In groups students discuss certain issues and record their thoughts using ipadio during the group discussion. I then access my ipadio site and have the whole class listen to each group's ideas, using this as a springboard for more discussion.
The students are very comfortable with the technology, and they are very engaged in the process. There are several other teachers in my building who are beginning to use ipadio as well, and it will be exciting to see all the different applications!
Case Study 4: Abingdon-Whitney College
Students from Abingdon Whitney College have been using ipadio to record responses for exercises set by their teacher. The teacher and her colleagues have then used the comments system to post feedback on the work, accessible from both college and home - and of course, the student can listen back to their original recording to see exactly where the feedback applies.
Case Study 5: Edutalk
Because ipadio phonecasts also work as podcasts and RSS feeds, they are available for aggregation and syndication - and the Edutalk Project has been using this to great effect, aggregating many different educators using ipadio into one blog - using all phonecasts tagged with "Edutalk".
Case Study 6: Josh's Social Science Class
Here's what Josh had to say:
I started using a blog at the start of last year. It serves a few
purposes as I have it set up. It updates homework, provides resources
for additional work at home or reinforcement of skills, or a summary of
what is going on in my class daily. I really wanted to create a
situation where parents were not out of the loop with my classroom. I
went to a tech session at a recent conference and learned about ipadio. I
tried it and loved it! It was nice because I can now update my blog
from anywhere... including the car ride home from work. It is also nice
because I tend to say more than I type which is good as well. I am
planning on trying to use it to record short lectures from class to post
on the blog as well.
If you'd like to find out more, contact Giles Bryan on giles.bryan@ipadio.com or 0844 7069665.
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