IPad and Social Studies!!!

After receiving the IPad last week I was really nervous more than excited to open the box and figure out what I could possibly do with this high tech piece of equipment. In fact before last week I had only spend a total of 5 minutes even touching an IPad. My only experience with Mac products have been my beloved IPods. However, I cautiously opened the box at home and realized how easy it was to set up to my home network. I opened each installed program, roamed through the free applications, and was extremely impressed at its ease, the visual quality of images, and eager to find ideas for my 6^th grade Social Studies classes.

It’s been over a week and I have yet to truly wrap my head around how and what I can do in order to bring the IPad successfully into my classroom. I am still at awe at the various applications, still trying to determine a system that seems fair to me in rolling it out in my class, and really still trying to learn more about this awesome equipment. I know as I become more comfortable with the IPad I will be able to have a clearer vision of its possibilities for myself and my students.

So far, my favorite two applications have been the IBooks and the National Geographic Magazine. IBooks is awesome, there are many titles, really cool features, and FREE books – I’m pretty sure it must be the top downloaded application. The National Geographic Magazine application is a bit limiting but still worthy of being mentioned. Through the free application a few pages of about five magazines are viewable. The pages so far have only been pictures, but the magazine being one of my favorites as well as my students leads itself to some possibilities. I like the ideas of using images as writing prompts, developing interests in specific topics, or even just providing a view of other areas of the world to my students.

I am excited and still a bit nervous to roll the IPad into my classroom, but overall I know my students will be enthusiastic to use this new technology to enhance their knowledge and abilities in learning about world history.