Last November, one of our second grade teachers and I were able to attend EdTechTeacher‘s excellent iPad Summit conference in Boston. All of the teachers at our school were given iPads at the beginning of the school year and we were eager to learn ways to use them that would move students from being a consumer to becoming a creator.

We were asked to facilitate a 2 1/2 hour workshop on the day we returned from the holidays. Having been a classroom teacher, I know the last place educators want to be the day before students return is listening to someone else talk! So, we had to do our best to make this an active workshop!

Jane, our 2nd grade teacher, had attended Beth Holland’s “iPads in the Elementary Classroom” pre-conference workshop and I chose Greg Kulowiec’s “Creating Digital and Multimedia Content” presentation (click here to see their resources). We learned SO much in these sessions and were excited to share what these two innovative instructors shared with us.

We decided to focus on the power of a few apps:

• Book Creator
• Drawing Box (free or paid version)
• Screencasting Apps such as Explain Everything and Screen Chomp
• QR Code Readers such as Kaywa and Qrafter
• Skitch
• Popplet Lite
• iMovie
• Fotobabble

Knowing we wouldn’t be able to get to every app, we chose to have the teachers participate in a QR Code Scavenger Hunt. We had found examples of student-made projects using these apps so we linked to them using QR Codes. The codes were placed along the hall. The teachers were told to get into groups of no more than 4 and their job was to scan a code and match it to a description on their “hunt” sheet.

It is amazing how fast a group of teachers can move when there is the mention of a prize! We had one group back in less than 5 minutes! Of course, there was no way they could have listened to every link but they received the prize anyway. It was my fault! What I neglected to say before hand was that they should LISTEN at each station (my assumption was that they would do just that; should have known better – this is a very competitive group!!).

We were able to share pedagogy (objectives first then choose technology IF it’s appropriate) as well as explore some of the apps and brainstorm how they could be used in the classroom.

We have a phenomenal group of teachers and they were an awesome audience! As presenters, we had a fun morning. I’m looking forward to working with our educators as they implement iPad technology into their classrooms.

Our presentation: