PETE & C: Arianna’s First Presentation

This year’s PETE & C was my third year attending and second year presenting. My favorite moment came at Monday’s Birds of a Feather session on Mobile Technology in the Classroom, when my daughter made a cameo appearance.  She and my wife were walking around the lodge and strolled past the session. 

Arianna came into the room to say hello and then proceeded to conduct an impromptu session on Meegenius with my iPad.  She quickly found the app, by “looking for the little owl.”  Once the Meegenius app was opened, Arianna quickly opened up her favorite story, “Little Red Riding Hood” and had the app read to her.  Meegenius is her favorite app, it has the ability to read stories to her while highlighting the words.  I like it because it is free and has many free and/or inexpensive stories that go with it.

She is four years old and can not only manipulate the iPad better than many adults, she can also explain the process.  Granted, she uses four year old terms in her explanations, but she also drops words like “plethora” in conversations…and with correct usage.

She has demonstrated the use of iPods and iPads for me before, but only through short video vignettes. Her brief appearance last Monday was her first live presentation…further proof that there is no logical reason why schools should hold off implementing 1 to 1 programs until the older grades.