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The iPod touch becomes a learning tool for kindergarten students with the help of ACU’s teacher education department.
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Passing the Torch ACU teacher education students team up with local schools to share mobile-learning technology
By Robin Saylor Adapted from ACU Today Magazine, Summer 2011
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obile learning is headed to kindergarten, and ACU students are paving the way for this new kid on the block. Kindergartners are no strangers to playing with Dad’s iPhone. And using mobile technology in the classroom has become second nature to ACU students since the university first began distributing iPhones to freshmen in 2008. So it was a natural partnership for teacher candidates at ACU to help a local kindergarten teacher integrate mobile learning into her classroom. Three students in ACU’s Department of Teacher Education teamed up with Taylor Elementary teacher Jody Reese to help her young learners develop digital stories using mobile devices. Research gleaned from the project was presented by students and faculty mentors at international educational technology conferences this year.
From the familiar to the unfamiliar “We started by interviewing each child individually to determine their experience with the device and their knowledge of vocabulary related to the device,” said ACU senior Tiffany Siegel. “We talked about words such as icons, apps and upload.” She and the other teacher candidates – seniors Kendra Kleine and Paul Sims – then worked with small groups of kindergartners to create a digital story about the Native Americans in the desert Southwest. “We had the kids record themselves, record each other, and practice uploading and transferring data from the iPod touch to the Macbook,” said Siegel. The students used iMovie to create a short film.