As I have mentioned in this post earlier, this year, I have an AppClass with my 4th graders where we are learning and practicing with our own tablets. It is great to see what is really happening in the classroom with 1:1 and catch on what is working and what it is actually not.   Here are my reflections and ideas of my experience in a class in Istanbul with 10 year old EFL students so; your experience, context and reflections may not necessarily be the same.  It is important to set up your rules for your class if it is the kids’ first time in BYOT process. Some of my kids misunderstood the class and they think that we were only going to play games =) We have talked that they shouldn’t forget their devices at home though this is inevitable in some cases. After a month, they know that they have to follow the tasks and complete them. Parents knew and had already approved what we are doing in class so I didn’t need to ask for permission.  I wanted to use an LMS to connect with the kids so I have chosen Edmodo for that. It is easy to connect with the kids, parents or admins can monitor if they like. I created my class on Edmodo and in the first class, I asked the kids to enroll with the password. Now, they all know that, they have to check Edmodo often to connect with me and to check what we will be doing in each week. They also talk to each other or me about our class in English. Although they should download the apps before coming to class, there are some kids who forget this. I had this problem at the beginning because some of them didn’t know their iTunes passwords to download them. They should also have an registered mail address on their tablets to make the sharing process easier. I have also started using ClassDojo, a classroom management system. I give them points if they bring their devices, download the apps before they come, complete their tasks etc. I really like this tool.  In the first lesson, we also got our accounts on Evernote which is one of my favorite tools to use. They are using it to write their notes/reflections on the tasks and as an e-portfolio.   We are using our library at the moment. Unfortunately, we have limited wifi there. This causes problems sometimes as the kids may want to download their apps at school. This is the key thing in BYOD process I guess, as it is really limiting what you can do if you don’t have a proper internet connection. Many of my students have their iPads but also a few of my students have Android devices too. I try to choose the apps that are both available in both devices. I give the kids a task each week with each app that I will be writing about in my next blog post. First, they have to design their tasks and then use their tablets to create what they will be doing. So, in our class, the regular teaching and technology is hand to hand. Sometimes, the time is not enough for their tasks as the kids come with different levels of English. I ask them to complete their tasks later and share them on Edmodo if the app allows it. I have to confess that they are not good at this at the moment. Overall, I think, it is difficult create the culture of BYOT in class if it is your and your students’ first time. It certainly takes time and patience.  Picture Source: ShutterStock

Schoolshape Website Schoolshape's free version lets you set, complete work and assess work online. No adverts are contained and you may use it indefinitely or you may upgrade to one or more of the advanced services for a monthly fee. What do you think of Schoolshape?

Halloween is just round the corner and the preparations are in full swing! If you want to do some online activities with your kids at school before the night, here are some spooky, scary, creepy web tools for you! Children can tell their spooky stories with Kerpoof, Storyjumper or a collaborative story using Storybird. Choose your storyline, write your text and boo others! Children can create their cute monsters on Moshimonsters. They can write or talk about their animals’ Halloween plans. What about creating Halloween e-cards with your own pictures? Choose your e-card, upload your pictures, add your message and scare others. You can carve your own pumpkin here or here or play some Halloween games here with your kids. Would you like to create your own spooky pumpkin, here you go! Children can create their own Halloween avatars using Voki, and record their voices telling their jokes or stories. Here and here, you can create an interactive e-card, use text-to-speech and share it with others. You can play this Halloween Escape game and ask kids to write the directions for each other. You can create your own funky card here by uploading your face pictures. Here is a nice game where you write the words and make the ghosts disappear. You can attach different animal parts to a human body to build your wild safe and share it with others. If you are working with young learners, PBS Kids is also celebrating Halloween with many interactive activities. Have a spooky time on Halloween. Don’t get too scared though… Image source: Shutterstock This blog or the author is not responsible for any inappropriate images/text/ads of the external links. Please double check before you use it with your students.  

Wordstash Website Wordstash lets you create and customize your own digital flashcards on anything from dates for History class to vocabulary for French class. Add images from Wikipedia and Flickr. WordStash is built on top of a dictionary and contains over 200,000 English words and phrases. What do you think of Wordstash?

If you have heard of Siri, you know that it is one of the features of iPhone, she is a program who has her own personality and humor. Here is a pretty cool and a fun web tool to create fake Siri messages. Simply, go to the web tool, write your text, and don’t forget to write "Me:… or Siri:…" at the beginning of your sentences. It gives you an image file of your fake conversation, just like it would appear on your phone. You can download, get a link or get the embed code for your blog. Here are some ideas on how we can use this tool with our students: Give students a topic and ask them to create Siri messages about that topic. Give the Siri messages blank and ask children to complete them. Give the Siri and a famous person’s dialogue in a jumbled order and ask students to put them in order. Make Siri give advices or recommendations to children. Write an idiom and ask students to be Siri and answer it in a humours way. If you like this tool, try also creating fake text messages. Image Source: ShutterStock        

After my previous post, here is another tool to create fake accounts and this time, it’s on Twitter. First, go to this link and write your Twitter conversation. Here is an example: TheWolf: I like eating little children. Little Red Riding Hood:@theWolf Don’t eat children, eat ice-cream please. When you’re done, you can customize your fake Twitter stream. You can write the full names, upload pictures, change colors, the background image and many more things. When it’s finished, you will see the Twitter stream.  Here are a few ideas to use Fake Twitter in class: Ask students to create a fake dialogue between two story characters. Students can create a Twitter stream to ask questions to inventors or important people in history. Students can ask questions to each other and answer them. They can create a Twitter stream with the new vocabulary or the grammar that they have learnt.   In groups, they can try to create the funniest stream about a topic. Tweets can be in a jumbled order and they can put them in order and write them using this tool.  If you like this tool, try this one as well. Picture Source: ShutterStock

iBooks Author Website Create stunning iBooks textbooks, history books, picture books, and more for iPad. Start with one of the Apple-designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. Add your own text and images with drag-and-drop ease. What do you think of iBooks Author?

As we are saying goodbye to October, here are my favourite posts from this month. Enjoy the throwback! Boo to You keeps the Halloween spirit goes on in and out of our classes. Read my AppClass series and learn how I am using mLearning in my class with kids. Are We Ready for BYOT? and My AppClass. One of my favourite web tools lately, read more about it here: Reading Log for Kids.  Do you remember my Call for this App Project? Do please contact me! Also, don’t forget to try Fake Tweet Builder and Fake Siri. They have great potential in class! Witching you a happy Halloween!

Studio Sketchpad Website Studio SketchPad uses Processing.js, a programming language for creating animations and interactions for the open web. Prepare example sketches (with comments) for your students to work with. They can follow along step-by-step, and re-render the sketch at any point along the way. What do you think of Studio Sketchpad?

In the previous week, in my Appclass , we have used Tellagami app. It’s a free, fun and a neat app that can be used with elementary level students. It lets you create and design your own avatar, add a background image and record your voice. When you finish, your 30 second video is ready to share. You can share your videos via email or get a link, share it on Facebook or Twitter. You can also view your videos on Tellagami’s website as well.  At the beginning of the lesson, I talked about what I expected the kids to do and explained the app. I didn’t want the kids to use their apps immediately and record their voices spontaneously; so first of all, I asked the kids to write ten things about themselves; e.g.their names, likes and dislikes, where they live etc. on their worksheets. When they finished, I asked them to work on their apps and create their avatars and record their voices. When they are done, they have shared their Tellagami’s via link and also posted them on our Edmodo page.  What worked? The app is very easy to use so you don’t need to explain it to the kids in detail. They like discovering the apps themselves. They pick up how the app works easily. It is great that you can save your video in your picture gallery and access it later. Suggestions for a better lesson: As they have to record their voices using the app, they wanted to find a quiet place which was difficult to find!!! It took a very long time for some of the kids to write 10 things about themselves. As they are EFL students, they had some tiny mistakes as well so some of them couldn’t complete the task. I had some wifi issues, so some of them couldn’t share their Tellagami videos but they posted their video links later on Edmodo.  As a post activity, I asked the kids to write their reflections o Evernote. Here is one of the Tellagami videos: Overall, I and the students like this app! But still, we need time to create the culture of BYOT process and mLearning.