Last class, having set up and logged into an itunes account for the first time, we continued our use of the ipod touch. I was immediately amazed at the huge number of available applications. To be perfectly honest I had no idea that so many applications existed. I must admit my eyes have been opened when it comes to the ipod touch and its apps!
As I considered the assignment I thought of a one student specifically who may benefit from the ipod. However, this student was one who was non verbal, and having already covered that application of the ipod touch in class, I decided to attempt to come up with a student of a different profile. In the end I decided I would challenge myself to see if I could find a way to make the ipod an appropriate tool for a student with behaviour issues. This student was often oppositional and at times aggressive. Would the ipod work for her?
Knowing what I do about the student I first thought about the fact that when her behaviour is an issue, when she has an outburst, it is most often preceded by some type of stressful situation. It may be a class she does not want to attend, a dispute with a peer, or an activity that makes her feel self-conscious; each of these can lead to stress which then leads to a blow up. So, the first app I search for was one to do with stress management. A few apps were identified but seemed to be too sophisticated for an elementary student. Perhaps I was thinking in too complicated a manner. I tried selecting ‘stress toy’ under the suggested search terms. Ah Ha...this lead me to a few apps that were more like a means of stress reduction than a means of avoiding stress. In the end I choose to use the ‘Smash Screen’ app, which simply put allows you to virtually smash the screen of the ipod touch by tapping it with your finger. I see this app as serving two main functions; first, when the student gets angry she can sit and ‘smash’ the ipod screen rather that smashing something else. Secondly, it could act as a cueing system for the teacher, that is, when I see her using Smash Screen I know something’s up and I should deal with it while she is still keeping it under control.
I also knew that this student often struggled when it was time to go to French class. Although the French teacher was pleasant and did her best to support this student the issue nonetheless remained. Upon some investigating, the issue seemed to be that the child did not feel confident in French, this made her feel embarrassed which she released (or hid) using anger and opposition. Therefore, I also included on the ipod a French-English dictionary app called French-English Lite. This I would hope, would allow her feel slightly more confident in French. Along this same line, I included the app called FlowMath. This program helps build number sense by having the user select from a set of numbers and operations what is need to build a math sentence that will yield a given value. Again, math was an area of frustration for this student and my thinking was that perhaps a ipod touch would represent the means by which to build her number sense without having her immediately shut down her willingness to try something. Finally, when it comes to academic support to help this student work through some of the frustrations that she faces with daily tasks, I also located and loaded a spell checker. Spelling is a huge issue for this student so I was great to be able to find a spell checking program for her. This particular version ( Speller-Free spell check) was great due to the fact that it included a word prediction aspect and would take the user to a dictionary entry for a spell checked word as well. The only issue of concern may be the fact that the dictionary part of the app required a wi-fi connection otherwise it would not function
Lastly, in order to help this student manage her time, and because she does often struggle to complete a task, I included a timer app. This, I believe, will help her see that the end of a task is approaching and will hopefully help her avoid asking ‘how much longer are we...?”. The great thing about this timer was that two or three times could be set and all viewed at the same time. Therefore, one timer could be set to countdown until the student could have a break, a second timer could time the break, etc. My hope would be that it would allow her to partly self monitor her own time management.
So, it was great to explore itunes and check out just a few of the many available apps for the ipod touch. It was certainly a productive assignment.