10 Killer iPad Projects Students Will Love #ISTE13

Notes from ISTE13 Concurrent Session

Holly Dornak and Jessica Dyer, ITS's, Lamar CISD

All presentation resources posted here:
http://icafe.lcisd.org/presentations/10-ipad-app-projects-students-will-love/ -

***Goal is to use the iPad or whatever device it might be to do higher level skills/ higher
levels of Blooms.

iPad Essential Skills - allow students to teach you if necessary!

• Spotlight Search - Kinder on up can do this with training!

• Adding Images to Camera Roll - Using camera, screen shot, Internet images (integrate finding
  copyright-friendly issues here; for example, Google advanced search)

• Taking Video - horizontal, please!

• Action Button - box w/ arrow coming out to send stuff off of iPad

• Turning in Assignments:
  
• Dongle - connect to iTunes; it acts as a USB drive

• Email - generic account or student email accounts

• Cloud Storage - SkyDrive, Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, etc.

• Edmodo

• Showbie- an app where teacher makes accounts and students can turn in
  work from iPad. Go to showbie.com for more info.

Tip: Get the App Apps Gone Free - Gives you a few apps every day. Can use about 1/3 for
education. Many of the apps recommended in the projects to follow may cost money now, but
the presenters first became aware of them through Apps Gone Free.

10 Projects:

1. Build Vocabulary - Skitch     Ex: take pictures of real world objects and label fractions, get a pic off Internet of something you've been studying (Ex: peninsula); trace and annotate.

2. Send Postcards from the Edge - Turbo Collage Lite and Postino     Build front of postcard with Turbo Collage  then make back of postcard with Postino. Can email the postcard to some one. Also send by snail mail for a fee.

3. Go Hollywood - storyboard with Stickyboard (movable sticky notes) or Grafio Lite (limited to 4 graphic organizers) or Poplet Lite. Sock Puppet, Puppet Pals, or ToonTastic to make cartoonish videos; Cute CUT (free; almost as good as iMovie) or iMovie for live video; OSnap! or iMotionHD for stop motion

4. Use Student Instructors - Educreations and Doodle Cast - teacher can record lessons for students to review or have students record presentations or their thinking when completing an assignment

5. Become Thread Heads - Voice Thread - Have students comment on content you or they post or create. Great because it can be easily shared online.

6. Write and Illustrate - Outline, Drawing Pad, Strip Designer, Scribble Press, Little Story Maker, Book Creator

7. Witness and Report - Pocket BMX & Evernote - Have student play game while other students act as reporters. When you first do this, have a game that moves slow or allows for instant replay.

8. Building a Talking Museum - Croak.It! and Scan - Students drew and wrote about a field trip. Posted on bulletin board and put a QR code next to it linked to them reading their report. Also use DropVox to record.

9. Connect to your Community - Make it real-world - FaceTime, Skype (Ex: Talk with a fireman and he/she can give you a tour the fire station. ) Also check out Skype for educators. DigitalWish and SignUp Genius will help manage project connections.

10. Get Social - Edmodo, Twitter, Blogger - Example: @Emilydrocha posts what's going on in her class via Twitter. Check your school's social media policies before jumping into this.

Posted with Blogsy

Time-Saving Tech Tips

You can eat, breathe, and sleep technology, and still not come close to knowing all of the short-cuts which could save you copious amounts of time at work or in your personal life. I was reminded of this when a David Pogue TED talk came across my radar earlier this week. I personally learned six new things from his less than six minute talk! The first tip he shares is my favorite.

Take a few minutes to watch Pogue's presentation. It's entertaining as well as informative. Then, take some time to leave a comment. What's something you learned from this video that you didn't already know? What's your favorite tech time-saver that you think more people should know about? Please share, so we can all learn together!

Tips for Planning for Technology Integration in the Classroom

As much as I work in educational technology, as much as I read, as many tools as I try, I still find it difficult to communicate what meaningful technology integration looks like. I think the most difficult thing to get across when I'm discussing this topic is "Don't start with the technology. Start with your learning objectives - what do you want your students to know and be able to do - and then let's talk about how technology can support your goals."

The video below came across my radar this week. It is a wonderful, concrete example of how to think about the incorporation of technology into teaching and learning. Although labeled as part of The Teaching Channel's New Teacher Survival Guide, I think all educators can pick up some tips for integrating technology into their classrooms. 

Some things I love about this video:

• It shows what is a real-world situation for the majority of schools and teachers - there aren't enough devices in the classroom for everyone to use one, and the teacher gets access to a computer lab on campus on a limited basis. 
• It emphasizes the importance of collaboration with technology staff
• It highlights the benefits of having a mentor to help plan technology integration. And it shows that if you have access to the Internet, your mentor can come from anywhere!

OK, I'm about to commit the faux pas of revealing the contents of the story before you get to watch it! So, I hope you'll set aside 15 minutes to watch this teacher progress through the planning of an engaging experience for her students. After you watch, I hope you'll share your take-aways and thoughts in the comments so we can all learn together!

Confessions and Learnings of an EdTech Enabler

Photo Used Under a Creative Commons License

Some Typical EdTech Scenarios

Ms. Jones calls in a panic - her students are trying to get to the documents she shared with them on the school server and no one can find them. "The folder was just there," she says, "and now it's gone!" Knowing her history of "organizing" things, I run down to her classroom and in two shakes I move the folder students need access to out of the other folder where she's stored it. I want to explain that students only have access to this folder in this location, and when she moves it, they can't see it any more, but she's already lost valuable instructional time, so I quickly exit as she thanks me profusely and declares me to once again be the most amazing technology guru she's ever met. I vow to myself to follow up later, especially since she keeps doing this, but a day full of similar "emergencies" pushes the latest incident right out of my head...

Mr. Scott snags me in the hall as I am trying to get to the restroom. "I'm trying to use the clickers with my students and my computer screen and projector have gone black!" He pulls me in the door and I see the expectant faces of students, clickers at the ready. I go wiggle the power cable for the powered VGA splitter, and presto, we have visuals again! "Oh, thank you thank you thank you!" he says as he signals the students to applaud me. I really want to show him quickly how simple the fix was, but I've turned red at the attention and Mr. S. has already segued into, "OK, students, let's get started!" I slink out of the room, finally make it to the bathroom, and head back to my computer to send a tech tip to the campus about wiggling their projector connections (this is the third time I've helped someone this week) when the phone rings and caller ID says it's my principal...

It is one of those rare years when the campus is getting new computers (this happens every five or six years if you are lucky), and I've been asked to consult on the standard software image I want on the computers. OK, here's the software list. Now, which shortcut icons do I want on the desktop? Let's make sure the teachers and students can get to their most-used programs, network, and Internet resources without a lot of effort. I could show them how to make shortcuts themselves, but they're already so busy. (Ironically, I'm forgetting at this moment how often teachers tell me they "don't have a program on their computer" because they don't see a shortcut on the desktop...)

These stories are probably very familiar sounding if you are a technology specialist or even a tech savvy instructor on your campus. To many of the folks on your campus, you are the smartest person ever when it comes to technology. Magical even, because you know how to make things work and you make things easy for them. It can be ego-boosting to be thought of this way, but it can also be a burden, getting in the way of making progress with incorporating new technology tools and approaches because you are busy maintaining the status quo.

Learnings From My Experiences

The stories above are based very closely on my personal experiences. I stayed in that guru role as a campus technology specialist for six years, not so much out of the ego boost it sometimes gave, but out of the mistaken assumption that by making technology as easy and hassle-free as possible for my teachers, I was furthering instructional technology integration and student learning on my campus. I didn't see the connection then between what I was doing and my frustration over not being able to do more new things with my teachers or the fact that they seemed to advance little, if at all, in their skill and comfort with technology.

After those six years, I moved up to a district-level position and I watched how the person who took my previous campus position held teachers' hands a little less than I did - and how their tech skills and expertise improved. It was exciting for me to watch, and humbling at the same time. I fretted a bit over opportunities I might have lost for growing my colleagues, and vowed to do better as I moved forward.

This year, all of this helping really hit home. Due to budget cuts, the instructional technology staff in our district has been reduced to 1/3 of what it was just two years ago. I can see now that I wasn't the only campus specialist who was massively "supporting" teachers in instructional technology. For the first time in 11 years, there isn't a dedicated technology facilitator on each campus. I can see how much of a loss many of our staff members are at by the types of questions that are coming through our electronic help desk. And now, I'm making video tutorials on how to create a short-cut on your desktop.

What have I learned from all of this? First of all, teachers need technology support. They really ARE busy and have more demands on them than ever when it comes to instruction - differentiating for the multiple learning styles and special needs in their classrooms, analyzing testing data to push children to meet state and federal standards, supporting kids who may have little support outside of school for various reasons, not to mention trying to integrate technology into teaching and learning - the list is endless.

The biggest lesson I've learned, though, is there is a difference between enabling and empowering. An enabling approach is the one I used to have - do whatever I can to help the teachers survive the day (and then wonder why I'm helping with the same things over and over and over again...). An empowering approach prioritizes educating teachers in how to do the "little" things, like making desktop shortcuts or wiggling power cables. And it acknowledges that there is no time like the present to do this. 

As a Result of My Learning...

Even if the students are waiting expectantly with clickers in hand, I can call the teacher over and briefly say, "I know you want to move on, but let me show you this quickly, so when it happens again, you don't have to wait on me to fix it." Am I impacting instructional time at that moment? Yes. But how much more future instructional time am I saving by taking that moment to teach that brief lesson?

If the principal is calling while I'm creating/sending an important tech reminder, chances are they can leave a message and wait five minutes for me to get back to them. In the interest of impacting staff with important and helpful info, it's a good trade-off. I'll also add here that it's also worth my time to make a quality tutorial (print, video, etc) and post it where it can be accessed over and over again. As opposed to dashing off quick instructions that will only exist in someone's email and will get lost and therefore cost the teacher precious time they have to ask the same question again. It will also save me time when I can send a quick link to someone the next time the question is asked instead of having to dig out or retype the instructions.

Will these empowering techniques work every time? No, I might answer the same question again, but much like with teaching kids, over time, reinforcement will win out and I'll have empowered a teacher to move on on their own and perhaps, if I'm lucky, also emboldened them to try something new because of the confidence their technology learning is building in them.

Have you had similar experiences, frustrations, and learnings regarding support of educational technology? Please add to the conversation by adding to the comments below!

1:1 iPads and Digital Learning in Belton ISD

Image Source

On Tuesday, June 19th, 2012, I attended iPadpalooza at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas. This conference about all things iPad in education was co-sponsored by Eanes ISD and TCEA.


The first session I attended at iPadpalooza was presented by Instructional Technology Coordinators Terice Schneider and Vicki Ventura of Belton Independent School District. They gave an overview of how Belton began experimenting with BYOD and small 1:1 implementations over the past two years, culminating in opening a brand new middle school (grades 6-8) with 1:1 iPads for students in the 2011-2012 school year. Belton ISD is very generous to share information about their innovative projects. You can get a good synopsis of what has been happening in their district on their 1:1 initiatives web page.  Terice has also been posting some very insightful, practical implementation information on her blog. These are both valuable resources anyone considering 1:1 programs of any type should bookmark and refer to regularly!

Full Disclosure: I have a great deal of faith in the information Terice and Vicki share because I was privileged to work with them for several years when I was a  classroom teacher and campus technology facilitator.

In addition to the wonderful resources I've linked to above, here are my notes from their iPadpalooza session.

Lessons Learned from and Tips for 1:1 Implementations

Staff Development is KEY!!! It's much harder to fix the mistakes you make in staff development than to do it right the first time.

Belton is paying for most of their implementation through the Texas Instructional Materials Allotment (IMA). Some district funding also has to be kicked in. They are no longer buying things like dictionaries and calculators because apps can do these things. They still have calculators for state testing until the Texas Education Agency recognizes the home button can now be disabled in latest version of iOS, essentially locking students out of other apps on their devices.

When Belton tried BYOD, use in classroom was at teacher discretion. Devices were not being used. When 1:1 iPads were being implemented at a brand new middle school, only FOUR teachers volunteered to go to the new school where this was happening. The rest were assigned to the new campus. (Read between lines: There was a strong reluctance to implementation at the new campus).

Teachers also had to transition from Windows PCs to Macbooks with only  1/2 day of training in addition to several days of learning about the iPads and integration approaches. Teachers were VERY STRESSED. There were tears. Coordinators learned from this not to try to do too much too soon when it comes to staff development. Take baby steps!

Leadership is key - Principal and superintendent must be on board. You can tell somebody what to do, but you can't make them believe something. You have two choices - move them to a new position or convert them. They had one teacher with 40 years experience and she volunteered to move to the new school and embraced the 1:1 model. Other teachers with similar years of experience retired after training because it was too much for them.

After the school year began, district tech staff had to back off a bit at their middle school and allow teachers to build a culture (they were at a brand new campus building a new culture on top of everything else). Encouraged simple implementations like posting handouts to their websites that the students could download. Or making flashcards for review. Allowed teachers to explore and reach back out for more training when they were ready for more.

By the end of the implementation year, approximately 80% of the middle school teachers were able to move into truly using the iPads in instruction. Give teachers permission to start with supplementing, then replacing, then truly changing instruction. Teachers do not want to look stupid. Give them permission to learn with and from their students.

Next year, the high school is going 1:1. Gave high school teachers iPads ahead of time. Did four one hour sessions to get them comfortable with the iPads. Teachers can do Facebook, Pinterest, etc. - whatever will encourage them to get comfortable with the device. In summer staff development, brought in teachers from middle school to teach the high school teachers. Having experienced teachers teach other teachers provides more credibility and opportunity for sharing practical tips. Training of the high school teachers has been a marvelous experience and drastically different than the middle school teacher training of just a year ago.

The district had a budget of $40 per iPad for apps at the middle school.

Vicki and Terice have an iPadU (staff development) agenda and other documents which they will gladly share.  Belton will let us use/steal everything they have. We can email them for editable copies of their stuff. Many of their resources and their contact information can be found on this web page (also look for more pages in the left-hand navigation of the website.)


Digital Learning in Belton ISD


In spite of the challenges of the first year of large-scale implementation, the 1:1 initiatives have been fruitful in Belton ISD. The video below gives a great overview of the impacts felt by students and teachers alike.

1:1 iPads In A Third Grade Classroom

Photo Source

On Tuesday, June 19th, 2012, I attended iPadpalooza at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas. This conference about all things iPad in education was co-sponsored by Eanes ISD and TCEA.


Laura Wright, a third grade teacher at Eanes Elementary School, gave a wonderful presentation with many practical tips for implementing the use of 1:1 iPads in an elementary setting. Ms. Wright used the iPads in her classroom during the 2011-2012 school year. Each student had access to an iPad, but the devices did not go home with the students.

On her website, Ms. Wright provided a synopsis of all of her tips in a downloadable document. She also posted a video which gives you a peek into daily life in her classroom. You should check these out; this teacher knows her stuff and I learned a great deal of practical, useful information from her.

Practical Tips for Using iPads in the Classroom (My Notes from the Presentation)

During the presentation, Ms. Wright asked us to download an app called Nearpod, which is a relatively new app. Free. Using this app, students see on their iPad a presentation which is being sent out from the teacher's iPad. Students cannot advance the presentation because the teacher is in control of the presentation. Nearpod can deliver tests and videos  and also be used to take polls. There were some glitches with Nearpod during the session, but Ms. Wright says overall it has worked well and is still a new app that is continuously improving.

Ms. Wright stressed that you need classroom routines in place before using iPads.

In the classroom, students use textbook stands for their iPads. They use the small size of these stands.This keeps the iPads out of way of other student materials. But keeps iPads on desks all day so as not to lose teachable moments.

In presenter's classroom, students get all their materials out in the morning and randomly go to iPad cart to get their iPad out. (Don't create a line of kids at the cart!)

Keep iPad in textbook stand on inside corner of desk. Less chance of iPad getting knocked on the floor.

Plug ear buds into iPad all day long even if they aren't used: keeps iPads muted when using apps. Use a hanging wall chart w/pockets to keep ear buds organized.

Ms. Wright does not recommend using iPad on flat surface because students can't type and have eyes on teacher at the same time.

"Grab and close" to get students to get out of an app. iPad cover needs to be closed so you know the students are listening.

If you have snacks in your classroom, if you can get junk on your iPad from your snacks or has any liquid, it can't be on the desk with the iPads.

Selected students called "Tech Teachers" help peers in classroom. Teacher does not need to know everything about every app.

Took an hour a day to explore apps with students during the first week of school. Ask individual tech savvy students to investigate an app for you before you decide to use it with all of the students.

Use collaboration and let students help each other. There will be movement in your classroom.  An atmosphere of learning and collaboration will evolve. Exciting if you allow collaboration to happen.

Personalize! Give them control to change their screen savers. Ms. Wright noticed students would change their screen savers throughout the year based on what unit of study was going on. Students will take more ownership and better care of the iPads if it is personalized.

Ban the word "play" as in we are going to "play" with the iPads today. Distinguish between home use of personal devices and school use of this iPad.

Use art programs for math warm-ups every day. Let students share their favorite art program. If they are more comfortable with an app, they will use it better and learn better.

Post QR codes around the room for search engines and large units of study. Create a safe path to Internet sites! (This works well with a small group of iPads too if you are using them in a center.)

Presenter says since she's had iPads she has not set foot in a computer lab.

Settings & Apps Ms. Wright Recommends:


In iPad Settings go to General - Accessibility - Multiple settings to help kids with special needs (or anyone). Turn on AssistiveTouch - can create new gestures for someone with motor issues. But Assistive touch in general puts a home button on your iPad screen. You can rotate, lock screen, etc.


Ms. Wright has a single email address/iTunes account assigned to all of her iPads. Uses that to download apps and it goes simultaneously to all iPads in the classroom


A Fact Every Day - App that engages Kids.

Glow Draw - favorite drawing app for math warmups. Black screen and glowing colors for doing the warm-ups.

Math Bingo - Consistently rated as a top math app. Uses every day for skill building and saw improvement in test scores. Has kids use this during warm-up time each day and record their scores so they can improve their score each day.

Arcademics - students can play racing learning games and compete against each other. Most are 99 cents but sometimes they come up for free.

Scribble Press - Another drawing app. Includes built in books you can create from.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also be interested in my previous posts on teacher experiences and student experiences in 1:1 iPad classrooms.

Teacher Experiences in a 1:1 iPad Environment

On Tuesday, June 19th, 2012, I attended iPadpalooza at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas. This conference about all things iPad in education was co-sponsored by Eanes ISD and TCEA.

Early in the day I attended a panel where I heard the perspectives of four students who had been participants  in a 1:1 iPad pilot which took place at Westlake High School during the 2011-2012 school year. You can view my notes from that panel here.

After hearing about the pilot from the student perspective, I was eager to hear from teachers who had been involved in the project. So, for the last session of the day, I attended a teacher panel. The panel included three English teachers and one science teacher, who told a little about their experiences and took questions from the audience. Below are my notes on the thoughts/experiences which they shared.

A little background: Because of the timing of the approval of the pilot and the time needed to purchase the iPads, the 40 teachers involved received their iPads approximately three weeks before the 2011-2012 school year started. For the majority, this was their first experience using an iPad.

The Teachers' Experience

Two paths to take - embrace it and run with it even thought it is scary or forget it and let others take all of the risks.

Be willing to look foolish and collaborate. Students will have to help you. A mental shift has to occur. Teachers are no longer the keepers and disseminators of knowledge but become facilitators of learning. iPads kick this shift into high gear. (Emphasis in this paragraph mine because that comment stood out so much!)

Academic integrity issues come up. It's possible students can take screen shots of your online quizzes and share with students later in the day. So, put different questions on quizzes for each class.

One trick is reorienting the desks so teacher can see the screens during certain types of activities. It's also important sometimes to say "put your iPads away" when they are not necessary.

Part of the role as educators is fostering face-to-face communication. Closing the iPad and looking people in the eye to converse is important sometimes. Don't feel pressure to have the iPads out all the time.

If the iPads are going to be out, what are we going to be doing with them that makes them useful to learning right now? It takes time to understand this and shift curriculum in the classroom.

Initial misconception was they had to do everything all the time every day with the iPad. It's ok to take baby steps. Take on one thing at a time. First, focus on getting content to the students via the iPad. Then, tackle collecting work via the iPad, etc.

Students are really forgiving as teachers are learning the iPads and like to help.

It's ok to tell the kids to "power down" when they need to focus on you in the classroom. Get their faces out of the screens.

In science one teacher had about 75% of her kids doing things completely paperless and turning in assignments through New Annotate or Google Docs. Sent assignments back to them with grades and comments.

iPads were really beneficial for "backpack filers" (the students who traditionally keep everything "filed" [stuffed] in their backpacks). Now teacher can tell them it's probably on their iPad and if they can't find it they can download it again from the website.

Establish expectations early on. For example, they WILL use their school issued email and they WILL set it up correctly. Put a correct name in there so the recipient knows who is sending the email. English teacher says she will focus on this requirement at the start of next school year instead of giving students the choice to use school or personal email throughout the year. It won't be ok to say, "Oh, I don't check my school email."

Nuts and bolts of using the iPads are not always intuitive for the students. Example: setting up correct servers for apps and WebDav (the app used to access shared network folders). One teacher says she will spend the beginning of the school year getting a lot of those things set up. Through trial and error this first year, they learned a lot about better ways to roll out the iPads.

Teachers also have definite thoughts on when the iPads are taken up. District technology decided to take them up a week before school was out, but finals weren't over. There was some "civil disobedience" as a few students opted to keep their iPads past the turn-in date so they could study properly.

Not all students are proficient with or prefer the iPads; some still prefer paper. One teacher tells students it is their responsibility to print the documents out at home if they prefer paper. She thinks as students get iPads earlier in their high school careers (Eanes is expanding the program to include all freshmen and sophomores next year) comfort levels will increase.

Even with all of the awesome apps, email is one of the best tools they have. They work a lot with kids on proper format, using school email not personal, etc. Some students changed their personal email accounts after being allowed to use them and realizing that their addresses weren't ones that they would give to an employer or professor. (Example one teacher gave was "sexygirl34" as an email address she was not super comfortable sending to.)

Science teacher says she often lectured from apps instead of her PowerPoints. For example, when looking at anatomy of foot, she can use an app to turn a 3D model on her screen and talk about it. Better understanding for students!

Science teacher really loved Google Docs for making quizzes for her students. Used Flubaroo script to set up automatic grading. There is a YouTube video for learning to use this.

Teachers are saving tons of time in the copy room. Electronic docs also good for making corrections if a mistake is found in a handout.

English teachers use Notability app to organize student documents.

40 teachers in pilot this year, so there were no specific campus requirements for how much teachers needed to do with the iPads. As they move forward with all students receiving iPads, more requirements may come along. It was a good way to start since they were figuring things out on the fly.

Kids are still kids, even with iPads. Sometimes you have to say "time out" and take the iPad away if they are off task. It's part of them growing and learning.

More on the 1:1 iPad Teaching and Learning Experience

The panel was amazing. I truly enjoyed the honesty of the questions and the answers and getting a peek into the transformation that the teachers experienced during their 2011-2012 school year.

If you would like a similar peek in addition to my notes above, I encourage you to watch the video below. It was put together in January of 2012, just half-way through the school year, for a presentation to the Eanes ISD School Board.


WIFI Update from Westlake Chaps on Vimeo.

Student Experiences in a 1:1 iPad Environment

On Tuesday, June 19th, 2012, I attended iPadpalooza at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas. This conference about all things iPad in education was co-sponsored by Eanes ISD and TCEA.

One of the sessions I attended was a student panel. Four rising seniors from Westlake High School shared their experiences as part of a 1:1 iPad pilot which took place at WHS during the 2011-2012 school year. During this pilot, Eanes ISD issued iPads to all juniors and seniors and a few sophomores, over 1000 students in all. Forty teachers were also involved in the initiative, which challenged all parties to integrate mobile computing devices into teaching and learning.

Below are my notes from the student panel. First, each student shared his or her favorite apps for learning. Then, they took open questions from the audience. The students were very articulate, and I enjoyed learning about their experiences, both the positives and the negatives. Overwhelmingly, the experience leaned to the positive!


The Students' Favorite Apps

Note: As the students plugged in their iPads to the projector to demonstrate their favorite apps, I loved seeing the personal apps they had installed - Facebook, Netflix, etc. Score some points for personalization!

Goodreader - Annotating app. Allows highlighting and taking notes. Usesd it in math for writing on test reviews. Used it in reading to annotate novels, readings, etc. Allows you to toggle between documents easily.


iBooks - Can also annotate and highlight and add notes.

SidebySide - Allows you to open two windows next to each other. Example shown was two web browser windows.

WHS has an app called Self Service so students can pull down apps that were purchased for them by the school/district.

Wolfram Alpha - great for math. Has calculators for math and science. Was able to do intergrals in Calculus. Nice big scientific calculator keyboard.

Graph Calc HD - type in equations, graph them and compare the graphs

iMovie - created presentations for class assignments

Splashtop - connects your iPad to a computer via the Internet. Example - forget Word doc on computer at  home. Access computer via Splashtop, then get the Word doc off of home computer and drop it in Dropbox, then access document in Dropbox app on iPad. Or Email doc from home computer. Helpful for using things that go beyond capabilities of iPad. Photoshop, etc. Can hook to multiple computers.

WebDAV Nav - Access network shared folders from you iPad. This was provided by the school. Example - PDF of French textbook accessed this way.  Avoids copyright issues of putting textbooks online.

In Class - For class organization. Includes a calendar. Set due dates for assignments that will remind you with something needs to be turned in. Keep notes and save documents within the app. Put in profiles for each of your instructors. Room numbers, office hours, etc.

Audio Note - Allows you to record lectures in class and take notes. Example: Listen to teacher speaking and review the PowerPoint.

Quizlet Deck - Electronic flashcards. Can find card decks created by others and use them too. Compatible with Quizlet.

NoteTaker HD - When teachers provided PDFs, students could use a stylus to take notes.


The Student Experience

At this point, I stopped taking copious notes and started capturing the students' comments on their experience via Twitter. Below I have embedded a Storify which I used to preserve their thoughts. The Tweets are presented in slide-show format. Click the arrow to the right of the slide numbers to move through the show.

If you enjoyed the information in this post, you might also be interested in my post about Teacher Experiences in a 1:1 iPad Environment.

Interview on Down the Hall Podcast

Graphic Used Under a CC By-SA 2.0 License

I recently had the privilege of being invited to be interviewed on the Down the Hall podcast. Down the Hall  is produced by the External Programs and Learning Technologies (EPLT) department of the University of British Columbia. I have networked on Twitter and on this blog with one of the podcast hosts, Dave Roy (@UBCMET), a Senior Program Assistant for EPLT, and it was Dave who asked me for an interview after hearing me in another recent podcast appearance.

It was exciting to be part of a program whose purpose is to reach an audience including "EPLT/Faculty of Education stakeholders (students, prospective students – especially at the graduate level, faculty members, prospective academic and/or social media contacts, and those interested in educational technology & social media in education)."

Dave and I had a great conversation, and I hope you will take time to listen to Down the Hall Episode 36: Developing the Practice. (Special "guest" appearance by one of my dogs thrown in as a bonus! Kudos to Dave for really good editing on that one!)

One aspect that made taking part in this podcast enjoyable for me was the fact that Dave provided questions for me ahead of time, so I could think through the ideas I would like to share. Even though I got to think about my responses prior to the interview, it did not take away from the natural flow of the professional conversation we had, because neither of us strictly followed a script.

Below, I am posting the questions Dave sent me, and the notes I made for myself to refer to during the interview. You'll see if  you listen to the podcast and read my notes that what I said and what I wrote don't exactly match. You'll also see there are three questions, but in the podcast, we only discussed the first two. As I've admitted several times before, I am long-winded!

I hope you enjoy listening to and reading this information. And that you will share any thoughts it provokes in the comments.

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Q1.    One of the areas of interest you mention in your bio on your blog is “educator professional development,” and many of the things you talk about on your blog and on Twitter are about resources for teachers to use in their classroom. How important of a resource are various social media for doing this? How can teachers enhance their own development by forming networks online and sharing resources? 

·        Social media can be a very valuable source of information and professional development for educators. What I love about it is it is a constantly flowing stream of knowledge, and you can drink from it as much and as often as you are comfortable doing so. And there are multiple entry points – Twitter is a very lively example, but educators can follow other professionals on Facebook, or find teachers with similar interests using tools such as Pinterest, Diigo, Scoop.it, or the innumerable blogs written by practicing educators. At first, they may just “lurk” and watch what others are doing, but eventually they will try some of the things they are exposed to and hopefully contribute back to others’ learning. 

·         Teachers who make efforts to learn from their colleagues online through social media are nurturing their own continuous learning and growth, and adding to their professional practice in this way is of great benefit to their students. No longer do we have to wait for just the right workshop to come along or attend a great staff development experience in the summer only to have it fade in importance by the time school starts. In the age of social media, I can be exposed to a new teaching technique or tool online, ask questions about it, and try it out as soon as tomorrow with my students. I can then share my efforts back out to my online network and get feedback on what went well and what I can continue to improve. Another teacher may learn from and enhance what I just tried today in their classroom tomorrow.

Q2.    You have 19 years of experience in education. How has the increasing use of digital technologies changed the K-12 classroom in your opinion? In your opinion, does it make it even more important for teachers to work on their own development to stay ahead of the curve?

·         First I need to point out that the quality and quantity of digital technology use varies widely from classroom to classroom, school to school, and system to system depending on the resources available and the quality of staff development that is provided.

·         But in places where digital technologies are being used well, teachers and students have unprecedented access to tools and information which make differentiation in instructional delivery and the ability to demonstrate learning through product creation far more possible than ever before. Teachers can now find text, visuals, audio, even simulations, for delivering required content to students to reach the multiple learning styles in every classroom. In places with access to easily updatable websites or learning management systems, they can even provide the content for students to consume or study at home, then work one-on-one or in small groups in the classroom the next day to customize the learning of the content for each child.

·         Complimentary to the ability to deliver content in a wide variety of mediums, students with access to digital technologies can demonstrate their learning by creating products using text enhanced with graphics and video, collaborating on blogs and wikis, designing web pages or apps. The possibilities are staggering. The digital K-12 classroom is no longer confined to the four physical walls surrounding it. When the resources available are leveraged properly, the resources for learning and the audience for witnessing student outcomes are literally without limit. And the exciting thing is no one teacher has to be an expert in all of these areas – the web gives access to teachers, both informal and formal, all over the world, and students and teachers can co-learn together.

·         I believe it’s vastly important for teachers to continuously develop themselves to stay ahead – or more accurately with the curve. The curve moves so fast now that staying ahead is almost impossible. But continually keeping up with what others are doing, tweaking their ideas to work in your situation and trying something new, is extremely doable with all of the information available through networking online with other educators and education entities.

Q3.    We’re familiar with blended and online learning at the post-secondary level, with UBC being heavily involved in implementing such courses with programs like the Master of Educational Technology. How do you think blended and online learning can benefit students at the K-12 level? What form would this kind of learning take?

·         At K-12 there are multiple ways blended and online learning can benefit students. Online learning can bring otherwise unavailable courses to students who are perhaps in smaller schools or systems that do not have capacity to provide instruction in on-site subjects like certain foreign languages. For example, in Canada you may have an overabundance of French teachers and we may have numerous Spanish teachers here in Texas. Students in each of our areas can benefit from instruction half-way across the continent. Similarly, homeschooled students can take higher-level courses that might otherwise be beyond their resources. Online learning can also benefit students who are not successful in the regular classroom. I’ve read about successful initiatives which bring students into schools to work in a self-paced online environment with certified teachers available onsite to assist with questions when face-to-face assistance is needed.

·         Blended learning also offers opportunities for students in more traditional settings to achieve at higher levels. We have had a few teachers in my district work online discussion boards into their traditional classrooms. They report that students who are less likely to participate in class discussions often put more effort into online posts. They also are thinking about learning outside of the traditional school day. One of my favorite examples was a high school English course I had access to mostly for technical support purposes. My email box was getting hit by discussions of Hamlet at 11 pm and 6:30 am. What teacher does not want to see that kind of engagement in students outside of the hour or so they see them during the day?

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Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds With @CoolCatTeacher & @JulieLindsay

Notes from FutureofEducation.com Webinar 


Steve Hargadon, Moderator
Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay, authors of Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds
http://www.flatclassroomproject.org/

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Book was three years in the making. Steve says it's like an encyclopedia of how to use Web 2.0 to make education connections. Julie says they really wanted to highlight the work of many great teachers. It is not just about Julie and Vicki.

Vicki says they wanted the book to be an experience that is encouraging. Helping to take Web 2.0 from the early adopters to the main stream. Wanted to tell the story of the classroom teacher and show these things are really happening. It doesn't take a lot of money, but a community of practice to scaffold the learning and collaboration.

Steve loved the quotes from the teachers in the book and an email that shows how Julie and Vicki first connected with each other. They first connected in the K12 Online Conference in 2006. By reading Vicki's blog after that, she saw Vicki's students were reading The World is Flat. Julie's students were also reading the book, so she left a comment on Vicki's blog and the first Flat Classroom project was born through connecting their students. Something magical happened - and that's how it all started!

Thomas Friedman (author of The World is Flat) and Don Tapscott played into the first project. Friedman emailed Julie two weeks into this first project. This email helped them realize they had something and needed to make it scalable. Tapscott was writing Grown Up Digital and also contacted them and helped spread the word with what they were doing. This also encouraged Vicki and Julie to want to nurture other teachers in starting similar projects because they were supported in their first project. Sort of a "Pay it Forward" investment. Humility is important in helping others.

Who is the book for? Julie says for anyone involved in education. Individual educator, school, and student. Professional developers, teacher educators. It's full of stories, tips, tricks, tools, and methodology. There is something for everyone at every level.

"Visionary educators realize global collaboration is not an extra but a pedagogy." (paraphrased quote from book). Vicki says when there is massive change, there is great opportunity to benefit. She showed a chart which shows we are going to have a massive shortage of knowledge workers in the U.S. in the coming years. Where will they come from? You cannot have a world class education without the world.

One of Vicki's biggest problems with the ed reform movement is it keeps talking about what isn't working instead of offering solutions. For example, Vicki asks her admins to evaluate her students' portfolios instead of just coming to observe her for thirty minutes a few times a year. They use Weebly for efolios and post projects on Wikispaces. Teachers today need hope and they need to know there is a way to do this.

Also, there is no excuse to not reach every child with today's technology.

Julie says it is incredibly important for students to have choices. They need opportunities for personal success. Don Tapscott talks about customization of digital tools which leads to customization of learning environments.

Steve says there is a deep thread in the book about the changing role of teachers and how things start with them. Vicki cites the Hawthorne Effect in the book. Chapter 2 covers the role that research needs to play. Hawthorne Effect tried to study what caused productivity to go up in a factory and found that everything did. It was an effect of being studied. So, learning can improve by doing pilot projects. In the Flat Classroom projects, there are researchers observing what is going on. Students do not know who they are, but it allows others to study what is working. It is time for research to evolve and look closer at collaborative projects.

There is great opportunity to improve learning in all areas, no matter how small or large the local area where students are learning.

It is important for teachers to look at their own practice and how technology affects their every day lives personally and professionally. Teacher needs an essential understanding of what the tools are about and digital citizenship issues. They have to be hands on; can't sit back and just let the students use the tools. When teachers come into projects for the first time, it is often a steep learning curve for them. One thing Vicki and Julie do is run Flat Classroom teacher certification courses for teachers before they do their first project or while they are doing their first project. Certification covers most of the content of the book.

Global Projects (Get detailed info at http://www.flatclassroomproject.org/):

• Flat Classroom Project - @flatclassroom
• Digiteen Project - @digiteen
• "A Week in the Life..." Project - @flatclassroom
• NetGenEd Project - @netgened
• Eracism Project - @eracismproject
• Incubator Program - @flatclassroom

Most projects are free. A few projects require them to hire a few people so they have nominal fees. Preservice teachers and higher ed professors come into these projects as advisors.

Taxonomy of Global Connection (p. 54-56 in book)

• Level 1: Intra-Connection (w/in your own class)
• Level 2: Inter-Connection (w/in school/district)
• Level 3: Managed global connection
• Level 4: Student to student (with teacher management)
• Level 5: Student to student (with student management)

Communications in the 21st Century

• Intrapersonal
• Interpersonal (face-to-face)
• Interpersonal (not face-to-face)
• Technopersonal - Where schools fall short because they are fearful of online issues. But in the 21st century, schools must be "bricks and clicks".

Students do NOT innately understand technopersonal skills; they must be taught appropriate behavior and digital citizenship. These lessons cannot be learned in walled gardens.

What is the impact of these programs on ethnocentrism? We can scaffold inter-cultural communication and understanding using technology. No longer are we just reliant on student exchange programs for this. Technology breaks down barriers and helps us understand cultural differences. Different holidays, beliefs, family situations, etc, lead to more awareness of global citizenship. The projects help get people out of their comfort zones. Some live events/trips help supplement the experiences.

Cultural exchanges do not happen without friction. On the first project, Vicki had a parent who thought the students from Bangladesh were going to come through the computer and bomb them. Another example was that her students came to her and said "The news is wrong, all Muslims do not want to come here and kill us." On profile pictures, arms need to be covered. Saying "Yes, sir" like we do in the South in the U.S. is considered rude in the UK. Vicki says 98% of the problems they encounter are due to technical accidents. One of the main things she hopes to teach students is to give others the benefit of the doubt. Building good techno-citizens will serve them well throughout their lives.

Julie on professional development (Chapter 11). Need to work the back end as well as the front end on these projects. This is why there are conferences and the teacher certification projects. You can bring this back to your own school in a methodical way. Process and project based - not just one off lectures or one hour of hands on, etc. Everyone can move folks in their own environments forward.

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Questions from the Audience:

How do you deal with social media website age limits for elementary students? It's not one size fits all. There are different rules in different countries. Kid friendly sites are Wikispaces, Edmodo, Diigo. Look for others working with kids in your age group and emulate what someone else is doing. If you have a conservative administration, find a project and show it to them. It doesn't have to be scary.

What does flat classroom mean? Bringing the world into your classroom and putting your classroom out in the world in a safe and productive manner. Combine what you are doing in your classroom with what's going  on out in the world. Also, teachers are no longer the sun with the students orbiting them. They are now the Star Trek Voyager moving around and guiding their students. Also bring in pre-service teachers and professors - flattening between K-12 and Higher Ed. Students can be moderators and mentors for adults. So flattening between the generations too!

How does teaching about global citizenship happen? There is a lot of unintentional learning. Oh, you can't use YouTube in China? How do you introduce yourself to someone from another culture? How do you create a professional learning environment? VERY important for future employment?

What kinds of responses do you get from previous students in the program? One student got into college and was differentiated because she had managed an international team. One of her former students is now studying social media in college and had been on Twitter since it was five months old and had been doing wikis since he was in 10th grade. His college classmates thought these technologies were all "new". He now believes that it's too late when everyone thinks the technology is a good idea (he thought Twitter was stupid when they first learned it). Vicki doesn't care if her students thank her today, but wants them to thank her five years from now.

This was an awesome webinar! I definitely need to get this book! Thank you Steve, Julie, and Vicki!