Mobile Learning in Georgetown ISD

Over the past year, the school district I work for has made tremendous strides in the realm of mobile learning. I am proud of all that our school board, administration, technology department, educational technology staff, and teachers have done and are continuing to do on a daily basis to move students' educational experience forward through integration of district-owned and student-owned mobile devices. Our Engage! initiatives are rolling right along.

And now, a peek into what's happening in GISD...

Yesterday, local ABC affiliate KVUE did a story on our grades 6-12 BYOD initiative. High school Latin teacher Mark Warren and his students were featured, as was our EdTech Coordinator Kim Garcia (my boss). They both did a great job of reperesenting the goals/purposes of the program! I think my favorite moment, though, is when one of Mark's students talks about not really getting homework anymore. See if you can catch what he says about that!





For our opening convocation earlier this year Kim put together a video montage showing what our teachers and students had accomplished in 2012-2013 with iPads that were rolling out across our district. as of the start of the 2013-2014 school year, every teacher in our district has been issued an iPad, and many campuses are bringing in small sets of iPads to use with students. Take a look at how creative our teachers were in a relatively short amount of time; the majority of teachers did not receive their iPads until mid-Spring 2013!




After posting resources and stories about other districts on this blog from time to time, it's fun to get to feature my own district and rewarding to be a part of these endeavors!



*******************************************************************************************
All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Please see specifics on my re-use policy in the right-hand column of my blog before re-posting/re-using any of my blog content.

5 to 6 Hours of Basic Training on iPads? What?

Photo Used Under Creative Commons License

My last post was on the plan the educational technology team in my school district came up with for iPad Basic Training for Teachers. As iPads began making their way into our school district through different avenues last year, we felt it was important to make sure our teachers had a basic understanding of how to use the iPad before we even began to talk with them about using the iPad for teaching and learning.

In conversations with people inside and outside of my district, upon hearing we were proposing five to six hours of training in the basics, we were occasionally met with "What? You want HOW MUCH TIME to do basic iPad training?" The strongest reactions usually came from people who were already iPhone and iPad users themselves.

I'm going to list a few of the reasons we felt five or six hours was the minimum amount of time we needed for iPad basic training. They are not necessarily listed in order of importance, but all contribute to the reasons that prioritizing for this kind of training should be included in any implementation that puts iPads into the hands of teachers for the first time. The same principles can apply to any tablet, laptop, or mobile device you are deploying to teachers.

• If a teaching force is made up of typical adults, chances are only about half of them have experience with a smartphone. According to Pew Internet, approximately 56% of American adults own smart phones (data from April-May 2013).

• Only one-third of a teaching force has experience with a tablet device (data from April-May 2013) and not all of the tablets they have experience with are iOS devices.

• When planning for effective training, you have to assume that as of now the majority of your teachers have not used tablet devices before. If you are an edtech specialist or "natural techie,", think back to times when you have used totally new devices. I remember touching an interactive whiteboard for the first time in the early 2000's. I still remember the trainer saying, "Press harder, you won't break it." Breaking it was a real fear of mine since I had not used that type of technology before. Your teachers have a wide range of fears when adopting new technologies, too.

• Staff members who own personal smartphones and tablets use them for personal reasons, which are different from the reasons and ways these devices will be used in the classroom. For example, how a person evaluates an app they are going to download for personal reasons is very different from how they should evaluate an app they are going to download for use with students.

• Even teachers with smart phone/tablet experience do not know all of the ins and outs of the device. 
• They may have never investigated device restrictions or accessibility settings which might be beneficial in classroom use.
• Have they learned time-saving gestures such as the five-finger pinch for closing an app? (I learned that when I saw someone else do it, about a year after getting an iPad.) 
• What about the hidden-characters on the iPad keyboard, such as the apostrophe you can get if you long-press the comma key or the quotation marks you get when you long-press the question mark key? I didn't know those were there until I watched training materials we had gathered for our teachers. Based on their reactions to our trainings, many experienced iOS users didn't know about them either.
• Several teachers we interacted with admitted they didn't know how to download apps or manage an Apple ID/iTunes account because someone else in their family, often their children, managed their devices for them or did stuff for them when they asked for help instead of showing them how to do it.

• For those who are self-taught on iOS devices, if you added up all of the little bits of time you put into learning how to use your device as you needed to learn it, I would be willing to bet six hours would be a low number for the time you invested. 

• When deploying iPads for teaching and learning, time is not a luxury that exists in terms of allowing teachers to learn the basics "in their own time as needed." They need to be brought up to speed as quickly as possible so they will feel comfortable with starting to use the devices instructionally. Scaffold the "how to" so you can move everyone toward meaningful educational use.

In my previous blog post on iPad Basic Training for Teachers, I explained that we decided to deliver the majority of our training through self-paced online modules. Although our primary reason at the time was the need to reach hundreds of teachers with several hours of training, the online delivery of the training has proved effective for other reasons. It allowed those with more experience to quickly move past information on topics such as "The Parts of an iPad." 

The amount of material covered is best absorbed in small chunks as well. When we trained in person in two three-hour sessions on separate days, at the end of each session, the participants' eyes were glazing over. They needed to be introduced to the different concepts and then given time to experiment and play. And people with existing experience needed to be able to move forward faster. Online modules allow for personalization in learning. We received many positive comments in our end-of-module surveys regarding the ability of the participants to watch the materials online while practicing with their iPads, review the material as needed, and fast-forward through skills they already knew.

One of my favorite bits of feedback was from a teacher who had been a technology specialist on her campus several years ago and now serves as a classroom teacher. She took time to email myself and my boss. Here is what she had to say:

Well, for someone who thinks I am a know-it-all on the iPad, thank you for these trainings! I learned so many things just from Module 1. I can’t wait to finish the training! 

Thanks for all the time you put into these trainings!

As teachers are implementing iPads in their classrooms this Fall, time will tell how effective our plan was overall. But the comment above, as well as multiple positive comments in our end-of-module surveys, make me believe the approach was the right one to take. And I will continue to remind myself of the benefits as I think of the time we're going to have to reinvest to update all of the training materials now that iOS 7 is out!

****************************************************************************************
All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Please see specifics on my re-use policy in the right-hand column of my blog before re-posting/re-using any of my blog content.

iPad Basic Training for Teachers

The Background

Photo Used Under a Creative Commons License

In the Spring of 2013, my school district committed to issuing an iPad to every classroom teacher. The purposes for this initiative were to give teachers an additional tool for teaching and learning and to familiarize teachers with mobile devices in anticipation of more iPads being purchased for classroom use and a grades 6-12 BYOD program coming in the next school year.

This type of initiative is exactly what my supervisor Kim (AKA @DigitalLearners) and I had been waiting/hoping for.

This is why we had been reading everything we could via Twitter and blogs and attending every session we could at professional events about mobile learning and iPads for the past three years.

And yet, when the prospect finally became a reality, it was a little overwhelming. From all of the wonderful resources we had compiled, we needed to come up with a plan to get our teachers up-to-speed and comfortable with using iPads, while planting seeds of a vision for the use of mobile technologies in their classrooms. Most of the iPads would be in the hands of teachers by the end of the semester. Time was of the essence.

Thankfully, we had had a couple of trial runs in the fall. Federal funds had brought small sets of iPads to each of our Title I campuses, and we had put together six hours of in-person training on using iPads in teaching and learning for math and reading intervention teachers at 10 campuses. Additionally, a principal at one of our elementaries had secured funding to purchase an iPad for each of his teachers. With these 35-40 teachers, we asked them to cover some basics that we had posed online, and we did an additional two hours of in-person after school training with them. You can see our training agendas for these in person sessions here.

We were about to distribute iPads to 800 teachers. The timeline and our number of staff members would not allow us to do multiple-hour in-person trainings with all of them. Yet we felt based on our fall experiences that five to six hours of "the basics" was vital to giving this initiative the basis it needed to get off to a successful start. Online training was the only viable solution.

Thankfully, in the bank of resources we had been collecting was this iPad training page from Comal ISD which included this proficiency checklist. Comal graciously gave us permission to adapt their materials, and thus iPad Basic Training for Teachers online was born.

Training Plan

We took our fall experience and Comal's checklist and divided the basics into five one hour modules. Only the first module is delivered in a face-to-face format. Here is how it is organized:

• Receiving an iPad Session (in-person): Apple ID Set-Up, Precautions, and Security
• Teachers view this video which goes over important policy, and they are introduced to the Teacher iPad Proficiency Checklist. EdTech staff assists teachers with creating an AppleID that does not require a credit card.
• Module 1: Vision and Basic Operations
• Module 2: Email, Calendar, Web Browsing, General Settings
• Module 3: App Management
• Module 4: Camera, iBooks, Educreations

Teachers needed to receive credit for completing the modules, so we set up eCourses in our Eduphoria Workshop system which include quizzes at the end based on the proficiency checklist. Basically, it's an honor system where teachers answer quiz questions with a "yes" or "no". Each "question" is one of the proficiencies on the master checklist, such as "I can create folders on my iPad for organizing apps."

We wanted the training resources to be readily available to our teachers on an ongoing basis without the need for a password to access them, so they are posted on our public website (see links above).

You are welcome to use the resources posted on my district's website and YouTube channel in your own trainings. I ask that you credit my school district if you use any district created resources or if you use the organizational ideas of our training. I would also appreciate if you share with me how you use it!

Why?

Are any of you thinking, "Really? Four to five to six hours of training on iPads? They're intuitive, right? Kids use them with little if any guidance. What the heck?"

Good questions! That, my friends, is the topic of my next blog post!

****************************************************************************************
All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Please see specifics on my re-use policy in the right-hand column of my blog before re-posting/re-using any of my blog content.

Not 1:1? There's Still Hope for Implementing iPads! #iPlza13 #not121

At 10:15 am on June 19th, @DigitalLearners and I are scheduled to present Not 1:1? There's Still Hope for Implementing iPads! at the 2013 iPadPalooza Learning Festival in Austin, Texas. Below is our presentation as well as a folder of resource documents that schools implementing iPads in any way, shape, or form might benefit from.

If you can't join us in person, follow the hashtag #iPlza13 for Tweets from the Festival, and #not121 for Tweets from our session.

Also, if you have experience with or tips for deploying iPads in less than 1:1 environments, please share in the comments below so we can all learn together!

---

Presentation Slides
If you click or tap the Open in New Window icon at the right end of the orange bar, a new tab will open in your web browser. You will see a larger version of the presentation and be able to access any notes made on the slides. The details are in the notes!




Resource Documents
Click or tap the blue box below to access supporting documents. A new tab will open in your web browser.

Learning at the Speed of Technology - David Jakes

Notes from David Jakes Keynote
Fall 2012 TCEA TECSIG Meeting
October 4, 2012
Austin, Texas
All resources posted at davidjakes.me

Question: Are we taking brand new disruptive technologies and trying to force them into old models?

The emerging model in business today is BYO3 - Bring Your Own Laptop/Tablet/Phone

We are coming to a price point where schools can provide small tablets and allow students to bring their own devices for learning as well.

We are still on the grid model - classrooms with desks in rows. Even when we put technology into the classroom. We are putting new technologies into old classroom models.

Students may have tons of devices, but don't know how to use them deeply beyond texting and recording. How do teachers manage the multiple platforms.

Regarding student use of technology, Mimi Ito says, "Students engage in friendship and interest-based activities. They need academic intervention..." For example, students are engaged in social activities an passion based research (if they love photography, they look for photography info).

Richard Halverson: "Digital media provides a path to personalizing and customizing learning...this has meant that digitally literate young people have come to understand that there are at least two living channels for learning 1. an institutional channel, and 2. a peer-driven, interest-driven, and unregulated digital media channel.

How can we help students build the skills they need to learn on their own if we are not providing digital teaching and learning spaces (online spaces)?

DIGITAL = DISRUPTIVE

Mission vs Vision - What's the difference?

Our mission has not changed: Help kids learn. Our vision for how that occurs should change over time as new technologies emerge.

Do we live and breathe our mission and vision every day in what we do and how we act?

What do you want learning to look like?

What do you want your school to be?

Unifying Theme: The Ecology of Things
is represented by the sum of the connections between people, information, ideas, and technology and are manifested through the interactions that occur in the physical and digital spaces of the school.

Things: apps, cloud-based programs that allow us to share and collaborate on projects. (Example: WeVideo for Google Drive.)

Unifying Theme: Transliteracy
is the ability to read, write, and interact across a range of platforms, tools, and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks.

Kids have to exhibit an ability to negotiate across a range of modalities from face-to-face to world-wide virtual connections.

Unifying Theme: Content, Skills, Habits of the Mind, Dispositions and Experiences

In education, we tend to cover content, skills, habits of mind, and dispositions well. Are we providing the range of experiences needed to successfully cover all of the contemporary skills, habits, etc that modern students need? Or is their primary experience sitting in rows??

What If? School As Studio

School as studio - spaces that inspire, spaces that support remix and creation, spaces that together contribute to the "ecology of things" Spaces where boundaries for learning do not exist. Spaces that support the timeless value of teacher-student interaction.

Do we have these kinds of spaces in our schools? Spaces with room to move, inviting colors, comfortable furniture? Where do kids hang out in your school and why?

There are models out there. Blue School is an example. How can spaces in your school be re-designed?

What If? School as App

School as portal School on demand. School as node with 24/7 connections.

mySchool app?
myINSERTYOURSCHOOLNAMEHERE

How have you positioned your school for anywhere, anytime, any device learning? Are you designing for mobile?

Are you providing digital learning spaces where students have ownership of their content? Where it is not locked in a learning management system? (Ex: Google Apps accounts).

What If? School as Network

Learning is now independent of time, space, and place. Schools serv to link learniers.

Network as School

Anyone can be a teacher, anyone can be a learner. Learning not limited to a class roster.

Standford MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) - Introduction to Artificial Intelligence - 180,00 enrolled; 6,000 have completed

mobiMOOC - Course where participants self-organize based on their interests in mobile learning.

M.I.T. - Has been offering open online courses for 10 years. Is now launching MITx where instructor is involved. More students have successfully completed a course on circut design since it's been online than in the 40 years of face-to-face only prior to that.

Skill Share, Hour School - people who voluntarily organize around learning experiences.

What If? School as Canvas

The school canvas paints a picture of the capabilities of the human beings associated with school. The school canvas illuminates their presence and ideas locally and globally to create a conversation aobut the learning taking place, and about the passions being explored.

Make it OK for kids to publish their work with their names to create a positive digital footprint.

Youmedia - YOUmedia is an innovative, 21st century teen learning space housed at the Chicago Public Library's downtown Harold Washington Library Center. YOUmedia was created to connect young adults, books, media, mentors, and institutions throughout the city of Chicago in one dynamic space designed to inspire collaboration and creativity.

What If? School as Third Place

Part of the connective ecosystem, part of being transliterate, is to be able to step away from technology and have the face-to-face conversation, the quiet reflection experience, and time away from technology.

Schools need informal spaces for learning. Think Starbucks, Barnes & Noble coffee shop...


Update October 21, 2012 - A recording of David's presentation has been posted online. If my notes left you wanting more (they should have!), you can now view the whole thing for yourself!