For this review I looked at iTunes U again but this time we looked at the section titled Using Apps in the Classroom. This series of books are basically mini-lessons to give teachers ideas on what to teach in the classrooms. There are about 18 different books in this whole collection and they are all made by the Apple Distinguished Educators program to help teachers throughout the country. These books are to help teachers with ideas but to also help students think critically and creatively.

Out of the 18 different books in this collection there are many interesting ones but there were three that peaked my interest Skitch Lesson Ideas, Explain Everything Lesson Ideas and Stop Motion Studio Lesson ideas.

To get to this collection you need to first get to iTunes U, this is a free app available through iTunes. Then from the home page you need to click the “For Educators” bookmark. From there you will be taken to a page with many different links on it. If you scroll down a little bit you will see a sub-heading titled “Apps in the Classroom” click on that and you will be there.

So the one I am going to discuss is Skitch Lesson Ideas. Skitch is an app on the iPad, it is an app used for making an interactive whiteboard type activity. Basically you can take a picture or screenshot of something and then write on that picture, add text and many different variations of this. It is a fun app to use in the classroom and it is something educators should at least know a little about because it is very useful for classroom activities and student projects. This book gives a short introduction to skitch as part of its introduction. Then it gives multiple lesson ideas for different topics and age levels, these range from 5-18 year olds and covers things like Mathematics, Foreign Language, Web Design, Social Studies, Science and Literacy. I thought it was very interesting that they included Foreign Language and Web Design, these are two classes you do not really think about teaching when looking at common core type things (STEM). Though these two lesson activities are designed for students age 14-18 (So high school age) which is understandable given the nature of the classes. So I will go over a few of the different activities that they explain in this book so you can get a better idea what they are about. First we will look at the Mathematics activity for age 5-11. This activity looks at geometry and thinking outside the box, math in real life. Being in pairs students use the iPads to take photos of shapes, lines and angles throughout the learning environment, then we share the images with a different group and label each others images with the proper terms and definitions, using the skitch annotation tool. As well as giving the activity the book shows some examples of what the students will be doing and also gives some ideas for other things they could do with the same activity, in this case having the students go out and take pictures in a variety of environments. They also include a sample rubric to get the teachers started with the activity. The next activity I will Look at is that for foreign language for ages 14-18. This activity revolves around vocabulary, by working in pairs students will determine what vocabulary words they want to analyze. After discussing and finalizing there terms students will then take pictures of people and objects. Then using the skitch app students will label the images with the vocabulary terms they choose.

These books are very interesting and have a lot of merit in the classrooms. These books can give teachers a stepping off point for future activities as well as ways for administrators to see the worth of technology in the classroom.

For this project I looked at a collection of lessons under the iTunes U app. This collection called Inspiring Lesson Ideas, is a variety of lesson plans for all different topics from History to English. Created by Apple Distinguished Educators each lesson plan contains an outline, instructional strategies, a list of materials including  videos, images and apps and is set up ready to be integrated into your classroom.

There are 30 different lessons in this collection and a few interesting ones include iPad integration in Elementary Education, Of Mice and Men and Rise of the Frankenstuffies: The Industrial Revolution.

To get to this collection on your iPad you need to first download iTunes U from the app store. Then after opening up iTunes U click on the “For Educators” bookmark. This will open a variety of collections and sub-categories but are all clearly labeled and you can explore to your hearts content.

The one I chose to review was Rise of the Frankenstuffies: The Industrial Revolution. This lesson looks at the industrial and agricultural revolution in a interesting twist. The teacher introduces the concept of steampunk and how it relates back to the industrial revolution and has the students reading  a collection of three fiction books relating to the steampunk genre and as well includes a project that has the students using iMovie and a green screen to make their own movie. Included with this lesson is a list of materials you will need to be able to teach it including links to the books needed (Goliath, Behemoth, and Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld), links to videos and web links, documents needed (guided notes, handouts, readings) and finally apps needed for the whole lesson. A few of the apps needed are pretty basic and ones that I have discussed before like explain everything: interactive whiteboard, and also keynote, google docs and pages. One interesting app that is used is called Showbie-Paperless Classroom.

Showbie is an app for making your classroom completely paperless. You can assign, collect and grade all the students work on the IPads and allows students to be able to show creativity by submitting things from other apps through Showbie. I will be doing Showbie in an upcoming app review so stay tuned.

So back to the lesson. It is for a middle school level social studies class, it is intended to raise student knowledge in the industrial revolution and what changes it brought to the world as well as teaching students video production. Students will also create a “Frankenstuffie” or a hybrid stuffed animal and make a video about its creation to show understanding into steampunk and the industrial revolution, this shall be done by students sewing together three-four parts of different stuffed animals together and then explaining how technology and their DNA mixed together. We first do an introduction into the industrial revolution and set the scene, and then the creator of this lesson recommends doing the stuffed animals at this point to allow for students to have a blank slate before reading the books. Then students will read the books, between each book their will be a mini lesson about power and transport, mechanization and the Agricultural Revolution. Following the books and mini lessons students will finish doing their stuffed animal projects (the videos and outlines). And ending in a final rap up and watching the videos. This is one example of the video presentation.

These lessons have a lot included in them and are very accessible to everyone, every single lesson is free. Though some of the materials that are shown may cost money like in this case the books. These are very helpful and resourceful for all teachers who need a quick lesson or an idea to go on for a topic in any type of classroom.