Mobile Learning | Feature
Apps and Ideas for Literature Circles on iPads
Technology is sliding a power cord, app, or some other innovation into every aspect of education, even elementary reading classes. Today, the use of e-books and iPads in the classroom are taking reading to a "whole new level," according to Diane Darrow, library information media specialist at Bel Aire Elementary in Tiburon, Calif and an Apple Distinguished Educator.
Darrow says that traditional methods for teaching reading have centered on a verbal-only methodology, which she describes as using one track in the brain. This approach fails to utilize other ways of learning that engage students and supports the development of reading skills such as comprehension, retention, and vocabulary.
"You want to give [kids] different types of learning experiences so that learning sticks in the brain," Darrow says. "If you're only using a one-track system, which we have been for years, it's less likely that the understanding is going to stay. If you make it more memorable and you give them a variety of different systems to use to articulate--drawing, web clips--you're using more aspects of the mind, which makes it a more memorable experience, and it's more likely they'll remember information."
