Early Childhood Education and the iPad

I was fortunate enough last weekend to receive an invitation to the Sydney Catholic Schools Early Years Conference. I was interested because the conference was centred around creating a clear and coherent vision around Early Years pedagogy. I was also intrigued to see how the iPad fitted in with this vision. One of the sessions I attended was Technology in the Early Years - Apps and iPads by Kate Highfield a Lecturer in Early Childhood from Macquarie University Sydney. Kate suggested that we could plot apps on a educational continuum depending on where the different apps contribute to cognitive development. Instructive Apps:The first type of apps that were identified (Instructive) were those apps that were drill and practice. Manipulable Apps:The second category (Manipulable) are those apps that allow multiple responses to the app. Constructive Apps:The category that Kate was most excited about was the last. PuppetPals: FREE Create your own animated stories. StoryKit: FREE

How to organise Apps and manage restrictions for a Primary or Early Years iPad ... #ukedchat #ipaded #edtech - Enabling Environments For the Summer Term I am planning to support staff at the primary school I work at with understanding the basics of using an iPad in a primary classroom. This blog post is going to act as a base for all of my advice, so it will probably change over the coming weeks. For information on managing multiple devices and purchasing app licenses, see my blog post here: I saw a blog post at EdTechLoung.com this Easter holiday which gave a huge bank of recommended Apps for Early Years and Primary Education. When I supported the staff at Tiny Tots Day Nursery with the setting up of their iPad, I offered similar advice to them. Here is how I set up the iPad in my class: Installing, grouping and managing Apps and Folders Browse AppStore’s ‘education’ category or search for Apps using the search function. You will find that your iPad Home screen is full of various Apps and it ‘looks messy’. 1. Like this: Like Loading...

ICT in the Early Years