Orivesi is a very small town and some schools are situated far from Orivesi center. The schools also vary in sizes and the percent of ITC -tools per student is very low. To improve that situation they had a project by The Board of Education (2014-2016) where the main goal was to get more ITC-tools for pupils and by that to improve every pupil’s possibility to learn ITC. With the budget, they got a rolling Ipad-suitcase with 15 Ipads and training for teachers from preschool and 1st and 2nd graders.
Done with technology partner: Computer/ Ipad Learning.
General-purpose. To give every pupil the possibility to train ITC equipment and to learn how to make stories with the iPad.
Specific purposes:
The project started in autumn 2014. First, all the teachers from the pre-school to 2nd grade participated in a course where the project was introduced and they were giving personal guidance and training. After a course settling one week turns to every class. During the first year, every teacher had also the possibility to have a tutor teacher in their class to help the pupils. The plan was made following a week timetable for autumn and spring.
The same learning system is still going on. Timetable for rolling iPad is given in August for the autumn term and in January for the spring term. The teachers are planning by themselves their own period (related to the curriculum and the school action plan). The iPad suitcase is traveling around the schools of Orivesi now for the fifth year.
Schools, teachers, and pupils involved in Ipad-suitcase weeks during term 2019-2020 (Altogether: 19 teachers, 292 pupils).
The rolling Ipad-suitcase is easy to carry around to all the schools and to every class. Organizing work well enough the learning can also take place outdoors.
After booking the Ipad-suitcase teacher plans the lessons according to needed contents. In the lesson, pupils can be divided for pair work or smaller groups depending on the subject. The teacher gives instructions and pupils do the exercise using their imagination. The assignment involves recording or writing, depending on the pupil´s skills.
Office 365, image processing, word processing, making audiobooks, animation, coding, learning games
Pictures, crafts, voice, film etc.
Individual books, presentations
In this project, we concentrated on the process more than measuring. The Board of Education project was successful and we work still according to the system we planned in 2014. The reservation system was good and it worked well (a very important part of well going).
All the pupils were involved and everybody had a suitable level/ challenge to process. Children were excited and they learn a lot. Pupils communication skills, teamwork skills, self-guidance, and knowledge-seeking skills improved.
INCLUDED – Digital Storytelling for Inclusion