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The excitement of learning Molly Delaney, Illinois Public Media educational outreach director, said she correctly predicted that the children could learn how to use the touch screens fairly quickly. “But it was amazing to see how engaged they were and how there was a group dynamic to the learning as kids crowded around the iPad and helped each other,” she said.
Learning everywhere: books, video, games on iPads As part of Illinois Public Media’s Book Mentor Project, children in Champaign County Head Start classrooms used iPads to play PBS math and literacy learning games. Illinois Public Media provided two PBSKids Mobile Media Labs, including iPads and Kindle Fires, to the classrooms. CPB and PBS furnished the Media Labs as part of a project to encourage stations to use new PBS resources, including apps and games for mobile devices, in their educational outreach efforts.
Book mentors still read books to the kids and do activities, but technology is an additional component this year, Molly said. The school district furnished new interactive white boards and iPads for all of its Champaign Early Childhood Center classrooms, and they’ll be integrated into the Book Mentor Project to take advantage of the PBS mobile apps. Molly and Illinois Public Media’s community partners Christie Norton of Head Start and Amy Hayden of the Champaign Early Childhood Center went to Washington, D.C., to get training on how to leverage new PBS “transmedia” content in the
classroom. The message they heard was that the key to enhancing learning with technology is using the right content on the right device at the right time. “We were really excited to bring back this technology to our community,” Molly said. “We’ve seen how powerful these educational tools are and we’re dedicating ourselves to pursuing funding so we can incorporate additional technology in all of the Head Start classrooms in Champaign County.”
Words in the Wind Local actors came together in a benefit performance for Illinois Public Media’s Book Mentor Project, raising more than $800 that will be used to buy two iPads for Head Start book mentor classrooms. The fourth annual concert-style reading of children’s books by veteran actors was organized by U of I associate professor of theater Tom Mitchell, and featured performances by actors from The Station Theatre,