TECH IN THE CLASSROOM: How students are implementing tools learned at JRCoE in their own classrooms
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t’s a typical Tuesday late morning at Rollingwood Elementary School in Oklahoma City. Some kids are antsy, some are ready for lunch. Attentions are focusing a little bit of everywhere. And then, Morgan Dunnagan says the magic words. “Alright, it is time to get out your iPads.” Dunnagan is a fourth-grade teacher at Rollingwood, a 1-to1 iPad school, meaning each of Dunnagan’s students has an iPad at their disposal. “I was quite tech-savvy coming into college after doing robotics and computer classes in high school,” Dunnagan said. “What I really took away from my time at OU was how to use an iPad for educational use. I learned how to take a regular test review/worksheet and turn it into a fun game via the iPad.” That is exactly what was happening in Dunnagan’s class in late March, right before the rounds of state testing were to begin. The task at hand was to review vocabulary words, learning their use and context, but no one pulled out a textbook or a sheet of paper. Instead, it was iPad time. “My students absolutely love their iPads,” Dunnagan said.
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BRIDGES |SPRING | 2017
“They are excited each time we get them out, even when it is for an assignment. I also love that they can also be used for down time once an assignment is done. My students know that when they are done with an assignment, they can get on Epic!, which is an online library, or they can go to Code.org to work on their coding skills.” On this day, Dunnagan was using an app called Kahoot! to go over the vocabulary review. Kahoot! is a free, gamebased learning app that allows users to create learning games made from a series of multiple-choice questions. Users can also add videos, images and diagrams to increase engagement. As the sentences popped up on the board, students were given four options from which to choose for the right vocabulary word. The giggles and groans reverberated