“The great thing is how many opportunities emerge all the time from the iPod touch. It is an incredibly powerful tool for boosting personal learning for all pupils.”

Headteacher Richard Jones

Malpas Church Junior School: Learning at their
fingertips.

Malpas Church Junior School in Wales is building its personal learning vision on an iPod touch platform. Apps and podcasts support nearly every lesson. Songs help bed in basic maths and literacy. Social skills and group work disciplines are fast improving, as these seven to 11 year olds of all abilities push out their learning boundaries.

“The great thing is how many opportunities emerge all the time from the iPod touch”, says Richard Jones, Headteacher. “It is an incredibly powerful tool for boosting personal learning for all pupils. We are constantly amazed by the potential of apps – we had no idea we could find one to help with Welsh language learning, for example”.

“Another big surprise is how easy-to-use and pupil-friendly the iPod touch is. An iPod touch docking system means they are charged and ready all the time. I call the iPod touch our Swiss Army knife of the classroom. The children often decide which of the tools to use”.

Malpas Church Junior School’s main aim for using digital tools is to encourage pupils to direct their own learning. Richard believes that children should be “free range chickens, not battery hens”. It is an approach that has earned the school a Becta ‘ICT in Practice’ award for leadership in primary education – important recognition in UK education.

The school has always had an imaginative but practical view of technology. It uses it to deliver learning benefits, not as an end in itself. When the school first introduced computers, they were put behind the children’s desks, not hived off in an ICT room for computer lessons – close enough for children to swivel round and use them as a resource, but not a distraction.

As mobile devices began to gain popularity in the wider world, Richard and his staff assessed their potential for supporting the school’s pupil-led learning vision. “We knew it was a great opportunity to introduce a new dimension in education, advance our commitment to personal learning, and encourage children to explore the ways they learn”, Richard says. “We just had to find the key to using them in school”.

First ideas for using the iPod came from Swedish research into learning styles. The research focused on how background music could help the concentration levels of up to 60% of children and adults. The iPod nano had been introduced in a school in Gothenburg, with music loaded for students to listen to as they worked. There were impressive results.

“We thought this was an interesting approach and an opportunity to try out the iPod”, says Richard. “So we set up an experiment with Year 3. We controlled the music the children could access, selecting songs that were relevant to learning times tables, for example”.

As the music pilot was in plan, teachers began to explore ways to enhance lessons using podcasts from other schools. Then when Apple announced the iPod touch, it promised to take learning into a completely new area – using apps to enhance every kind of lesson.

“At first we didn’t realise the potential power of apps in education”, Richard says. “Then we experimented with a couple, and children and teachers were blown away by the ways we could use them”.

Products they use

iPod touch

This pocket computer is great for learning both inside and outside the classroom. Learn more about iPod touch

Apps they use

Teachers at Malpas Church Junior School use around 80 apps, loaded on the iPod touch, and keep an eye out for new ones all the time. These are some of the most popular with children now: