Literacy apps (informal post week 8)

This blog post relates to my experience of trialling different digital literacy apps in the week 8 seminar. I have now recognised that iPad apps can be used to support reading, writing, speaking and listening (Blackburn, online; and DfE, 2013). This post will critically reflect on some of the apps explored and discuss their potential for supporting the literacy curriculum (DfE, 2013).

It is essential that teachers develop pupils’ competence in writing composition (DfE, 2013)One app which has potential for supporting children’s writing composition is ‘Book Creator’, a simple application which allows teachers and children to create books (Red Jumper Studios, online).  Book Creator is engaging as children can bring their books to life by adding text, images, video, music and narration to tell a story (Red Jumper Studios, online).  Once books have been created they then appear on the library shelf of connected iPads, making publishing very authentic to pupils and they also have easy access to each other’s books; engaging pupils in the writing process (Beninghof, 2013). As children can create the books using a variety of mediums it is noticeable that the app can support the literacy learning of many ages and abilities as books do not necessarily need to be created with written text, they can be spoken and recorded using the voice recorder or pictures could be taken or uploaded from the camera roll to make a picture book. Therefore, this demonstrates that this app provides differentiated learning experiences (Beginghof, 2013; and Red Jumper Studios, online). Book creator is the number one book app in 60 countries (Red Jumper Studios, online) showing that this app also has the potential to support EAL learners as the interface can be changed to suit their language.

Teachers also need to develop children’s competence in both dimensions of reading; word recognition and comprehension (DfE, 2013). There are a range of apps which can support this; one that was looked at in the seminar was ‘Collins Big Cat’ books. These books could be read on the iPad just like a normal book allowing children to develop their word reading skills as they can ask for hints or the book could be read to children, allowing pupils to concentrate on developing their reading comprehension.

An issue with most apps is that they can be expensive to install onto a class set of iPads (Beginghof, 2013). Teachers should be careful with using free apps with children as they can often be ‘lite’ versions of an app which costs money, meaning they may not include all of the features (Beginghof, 2013; and Upton and Konar, online). Furthermore, the lite versions of apps usually have adverts which are inappropriate for primary age children (Upton and Konar, online).

This seminar has allowed me to consider how different apps can be used in the classroom to support literacy. I have never seen the apps discussed used in the primary school before, as a result I wish to implement them into future practice to further consider their potential for literacy learning.

Bibliography:

Beginghof, A. (2013) Best iPad Apps for Differentiation. Available at: http://d20ipadusergroup.wikispaces.com/file/view/Beninghof_iPad_Apps.pdf/458284250/Beninghof_iPad_Apps.pdf . (Accessed: 07/03/2014).

Blackburn, S. (online) Ipads in Primary. Available at: http://www.ipadsinprimary.co.uk/home . (Accessed: 07/03/2014).

DfE. (2013) The National Curriculum. In Scholastic (Ed.) The National Curriculum in England: Handbook for Primary Teachers Key stages 1 & 2. Oxfordshire. Scholastic.

Upton, E. and Konar, V. (online) Ipads and Tablets in Schools. Available at: http://blog.teachable.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Tablets-in-Schools-report-v3.pdf . (Accessed: 07/03/2014).

Red Jumper Studio. (Online) Book Creator. Available at: http://www.redjumper.net/bookcreator/education/ . (Accessed: 08/03/2014).