School Versus the "Real World"

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How many times have you heard someone in a school say something like "When you get into the real world..."  How many times have you said that?  I've been thinking about this statement a lot lately.  I've said it many times over the years and it's a true statement.  School is, in a sense, practice for the world outside of our environment.  It's a place where students are allowed to make mistakes and learn from them.  A place where students can gain the base skills they will need in order to survive and thrive throughout the rest of their lives.  So why do we do things in schools that are only relevant at school?

I walked into a classroom the other day and noticed the students had created these beautiful tri-fold presentation board presentations.  For the most part, it was easy to see the main idea of the presentation and to understand what the creator was trying to say.  But why tri-fold presentation boards?  Where else do you see these outside of school?  Why not find more modern and authentic ways for students to demonstrate knowledge, teach each other and express their thoughts?  I thought I would focus this blog post on that very concept.  Below you will find a variety of ideas on how students can express their knowledge and thoughts.  Some ideas are iPad specific and some are not.

1. Create a video - This idea has been around for years now, and it's a good idea.  There are some very simple ways students can create videos to show or experience knowledge.
1. Use a web cam to record them selves inside of iMovie or Windows Movie Maker (Mac or PC) (free)
2. Compile images and create voice overs using iMovie (Mac), Windows Movie Maker (PC), PhotoStory (PC), iMovie app (iPad) (all free)
3. Use an interactive whiteboard app such as Explain Everything or Doceri in order to record videos and quickly and easily publish them to YouTube. (iPad) (4.99)


2. Create a visual/textual story - There are a wide variety of software applications and apps that allow teachers and students to create visually and textually appealing stories.  Here are some of them.
1. Comic life (PC, Mac, iPad) is a great way to allow students to have a lot of fun while learning and teaching using images and text.  (4.99 - iPad, 29.99 mac/pc)
2. Remarks - A student can use remarks to combine images, drawings and text.  This work can then be shared as a PDF document through email, Google Drive or DropBox. (iPad)(1.99)
3. MindMeister (Mind mapping) - MindMeiser is an online mind mapping application (and an iPad app) where students can create mind maps and presentations.  Students can also collaborate and peer edit these works.  The free version allows up to three mind maps, and the use of online images. (free and paid versions)
4. Photostory (PC) - An easy to use windows program that allows students to create an automated slide show that includes images, voice overs and sound tracks.  Each image is timed automatically to the voice over attached to it.(free)


3. Podcasting - Producing an audio program can be a wonderful way for students to express themselves, teach concepts to other and participate in modern digital communications and discourse.  There are many different services out there, both free and pay, that can be used, but ultimately the only things you need are recording devices, microphones and imagination.  Here are some of the ways I have seen students record themselves.
1. Audacity - An amazing free program with many robust features.  It's very simple to use (I've used it with second grade students), but have the power of many audio recording programs that can cost up to $100. (Mac, PC) (free)
2. Audio Memos - An easy to use app on the iPad where students can record themselves and critique their own work. (0.99)
3. Garage Band - Another wonderful program that kids and adults love to use.  If you want to  have background music playing on your podcast, this is the one to use!  (Mac, iPad) (free)


4. Power Pointish presentations - Of course there is always Power Point and Keynote, but there are many many more options on how to present information.  Some are strictly lecture based and some allow for more presenter audience interaction.  Here are a few.
1. Explain Everything - A presenter can create a PowerPoint type presentation with the added twist that things on the screen may be moved manually and the presenter can write directly on the screen during the presentation.  The presentation can also be recorded live and easily sent to youtube afterward. (free)(iPad)
2. MindMeister - This is wonderful mind mapping software (iPad friendly) that also allows the user to turn the mind map into a presentation similar to a Prezi.  The iPad app is still missing a few of MindMeisters great features, but they are working on it. (free version and pay version)
3. Prezi - Prezi has changed the standard for presentations.  The creator can make wonderful animated presentations that can stand on their own or be guided by the presenter.  You can now create a Prezi using their app, but not all of the features are available that way....yet. (free version and pay version)


5. Interactive Whiteboards - There are an enormous amount of interactive whiteboard apps for the iPad and they all have different strengths and weaknesses.  They all will allow you to add images and text to a screen as well as provides the ability to write on top of everything.  The largest differences are in how these apps allow you to share your files from these apps.  Personally, I like to use DropPox or Google Drive, but there are other options.  Here are some of the most popular ones I know of: (all free)(all iPad)
1. Explain Everything
2. Screen Chomp
3. Doceri
4. Educreations
5. ShowMe


6. Mind Maps - Mind maps are a great way to help students organize their thoughts, connect thoughts and share their thoughts with others.  Some mind map programs can also be turned into more interactive presentations.  Some offer the ability to share mind maps with others (besides just using email or iTunes) and some don't.  Some are specific to the iPad and some are not.  Here is a list of mind map apps I have seen and like.
1. MindMeister (free version and pay version)(iPad and laptop/desktop)
2. Mindomo (free version and pay version)(iPad and laptop/desktop)
3. iThoughtsHD (free)
4. DropMind (free version and pay version)(iPad and laptop/desktop)

What ideas do you have?  What kind of authentic presentation experience does your school provide for students?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.  If you would like to see more resources for students and educators, please visit my website.

The Paperless Classroom

Image Source: http://edc.carleton.ca

I'd like to take a little time to talk about something that has been around for several years...the paperless classroom.  This is not a new way of teaching and learning, and it certainly isn't glamorous.  It is a basic day to day task that none the less can have a profound impact on the classroom.  Not only does a paperless classroom make the trees feel better, it can help a class stay organized, safe time and communicate more effectively.  (an all of that saved energy and time can be put into creating innovative and engaging educational experiences for kids).

Let's look at sharing files with each other.

In the good old days of blue ink ditto machines (if you don't know what I am talking about, you are very young) an educator would make an activity on a piece of paper and duplicate it.  That piece of paper would get handed out and the teacher would make and keep several extra copies because he/she knew someone would loose theirs and need another copy.  After class the educator would have to walk around the room picking up the papers that were left behind and the poor janitor would have to go around the entire building that night picking up all of the papers everyone (kids and adults) left on the floor.

Fast forward twenty years.  It is the good old days of black ink copy machines.  An educator would make an activity on a piece of paper and duplicate it.  That piece of paper would get handed out and the teacher would make and keep several extra copies because he/she knew someone would loose theirs and need another copy.  After class the educator would have to walk around the room picking up the papers that were left behind and the poor janitor would have to go around the entire building that night picking up all of the papers everyone (kids and adults) left on the floor.

Fast forward to today.  Is it the good old days of "The Test".   In some schools an educator will make an activity on a piece of paper and duplicate it.  That piece of paper will get handed out and the teacher will make and keep several extra copies because he/she knows someone will loose theirs and need another copy.  After class the educator will have to walk around the room picking up the papers that were left behind and the poor janitor will have to go around the entire building at night picking up all of the papers everyone (kids and adults) leave on the floor.   (Do you see a pattern here?)

What about a paperless classroom?  (NOT a classroom using a variety of technologies to improve teaching and learning, I mean a classroom that has made their physical material into a digital format)

An educator will create an assignment on a document creation program (Google Docs, MS Word, Pages etc...) and upload that file to an online source.  Students will download that file, manipulate it in some way and digitally send it to the educator.  The basic concept has not changed.  Make worksheet, fill out worksheet, turn in worksheet.  Nothing that couldn't be done on paper, so why bother buying students expensive equipment if they are just going to do the same old thing with a computer they were doing with a pencil?

There are a few reasons (although I'll leave the strength of these reasons to you).

1. The dog can't eat the laptop or the iPad.  (Although I have had people tell me that Google Docs ate their homework)
2. They don't forget a digital document in their locker, in their bedroom or on the bus.
3. They don't leave laptops or iPads lying all over the floor and all over the halls.
4. The teacher can't loose my homework
5. The teacher doesn't have to carry around a bunch of papers to drop into a mud puddle
6. There doesn't need to be a "back up" copy of every assignment
7. The time needed to hand out papers has just been reduced to less than 30 seconds
8. The time to gather papers has just been reduced to less than 30 seconds
9. Students don't have to carry around 10 different text books (they have them in digital format)
10. You don't have to stand in line at the copy machine to make a pdf

These reasons are in a paperless classroom where nothing else has changed.  No pedagogy shift.  Students still read the book and annotate, they still fill out the worksheet.  If we were to include the change in pedagogy that accompanies many paperless classrooms, this list would be enormous, but this will do for todays purpose.  Let's look at some of these benefits together.

Time, time, time.  One day I was observing one of my fifth grade classrooms and the educator asked the students to turn in their homework.  (This particular homework was a journal writing done in the app Paperdesk)  The students promptly opened their iPads and digitally "turned in" the file before the teacher finished taking attendance.  Fast forward to another classroom that does not have this opportunity.  I walked into the room and there was a flurry of activity.  One student was looking for a pencil to write their name on the paper, one person was looking for the stapler, some students were passing papers one way and some passing papers the other.  In all it took almost five minutes to get all of the papers gathered and the students ready to begin learning.  That's about 4 and 1/2 minutes of unnecessarily wasted time that is precious to any teacher.  That's just getting homework turned in...nothing had been passed out.

That darn dog.  Prior to the days of the digital classroom the dog got blamed for many misdeeds.  Once things became more digital I have noticed that the dog has been busy teaching the computer some dirty tricks.  (I have a really smart dog) The concept of "something happened and it wasn't my fault" is a constant theme in education and it probably will be for all time.  If you have a digital classroom, one way to alleviate this issue is to implement something like Google Docs.  If a student begins a Google document and shares it with you, you have instant access to that documents history.  So if Billy comes to you and says "I'm sorry Mr. Thomas, I've been working on it all week, but my work just disappeared" you can go into the document that was shared with you and say something like "I'm sorry Billy, I see that you started it a week ago, but you haven't been on it since." ... ouch...

Waiting for the copy machine can be a rough way to start your day.  Having to run across the building to make copies in the 2 minutes you have before class starts can be very stressful and is not a good way to begin a class.  If you share document digitally with your students (and you are a wee bit organized) you can send the file to the entire class in seconds.  If you only have a physical copy of what you want to share, you still have a couple of options.  Flatbed scanners are a cheap way to scan documents into a pdf format.  Another way is to use that gigantic copy machine we all love so much.  Many multi function machines (if set up for it) can scan documents and send them to you via email or save them directly to a school server without ever making a physical copy.  It's easy peasy.  If you would like to try this method to digitize your papers, ask your school secretary.  I bet they know if your machines can do this or not.

Another benefit of the paperless classroom is exposing students to the digital tools they will use when they get older.  As educators dare to embrace this new world that is so different from the one we grew up in, the last thing they need to do is stumble on a project because they or the students are unfamiliar with a specific technology.  If educators and students experience the technologies that make the paperless classroom possible, they are also experiencing the same technologies that allow them to do a wide variety of things to expand their learning.

If you would like to learn more about the paperless classroom, here are some resources for you:

http://www.paperlessclassroom.org/
http://thepaperlessclassroom.wordpress.com/
http://edudemic.com/2012/09/how-one-classroom-actually-used-ipads-to-go-paperless-part-1-research/
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech059.shtml

If you would like information on how you can use digital tools in your classroom, please see my website at http://www.technologyskills.net

iPad Restrictions: Parental Controls for the iPad

I had an interesting conversation with a parent this week.  Her child was using their iPad to watch funny YouTube videos and in the process ran across a video that was not appropriate for a ten year old.  She, of course, was concerned and her first consideration was to install spyware on her child's iPad.  I don't personally believe in this approach, even if I do understand the concern.  However, in order to be informed myself and able to talk to parents about this type of issue I did a little research.

There are several "spyware" programs out there that cater to the iPad.  After reviewing them I realize that many of them (if not all of them) require you jailbreak your iPad.  This is not an option for anyone that has Apple Care as the warranty would become null and void immediately if you jailbreak your iPad.  But there are ways parents can have some of the control they may need or crave.

First, if the child's iPad is WiFi only, a web filter is a great thing to use.  I have suggested that parents who have iPads contact their internet service provider in order to see is they provide this service.  There are also other web based services such as OpenDNS that could be employed in these situations.  These types of options do not require you to install software on any of your devices and anyone using the wireless at your home would be under the same restrictions as the child (although there are override codes adults could use).

Second, there is the restriction settings on the iPad that can be set by an adult.  If you go into the System Settings of the iPad and tap on "General", you will see the word restrictions on the right hand side of the screen.  Tap that in order to set up restrictions on the iPad.  See my video below for this process. Changing the restrictions on an iPad is a good way to help filter the information a child might access from the iPad.  For example: you can set the age restrictions for movies and TV shows on the iPad.  This could prevent the child(ren) from renting inappropriate movies and shows from iTunes.  You can also set music to not allow sexually explicit material and Siri to ignore explicit language.  Basically, there are a fair amount of options here.

This solution does not solve my original query about filtering YouTube  but after a little looking there is one thing you can do in order to filter YouTube videos on a computer.  This solution works on both the iPad and any other device that uses a web browser to access YouTube   The downside to this is that in order to be thorough  you would need to repeat the filter process on every browser on the device.  For example, if you turn on the filter in Safari on the iPad, but not the "Google" app (which is also a web browser).  In order for the filter to be turned on in both web browsers, you would need to go through that process on each browser individually.

Here are your steps in filtering YouTube:

1. Open the browser and go to youtube.com
2. Log in to YouTube.com.  If you don't have a YouTube or Google account....get one.  They are very useful and required for what you are about to do.
3. Scroll to the very bottom of the page.
4. Change to "Desktop" mode by clicking on the word "Desktop" (blue text) in the bottom right hand corner of the page.  What we are looking for doesn't show in the default mobile view.
5. Now that you are in "Desktop" mode, scroll back down to the bottom of the screen.  you will see several YouTube options in black lettering.
6. Locate the option for "Safety" (you should see the word "off" next to it with a down arrow)
7. Tap on the down arrow next to the word "off".
8. Select the "On" radio button
9. Tap "Save"
10. Logout

Now that you have turned the YouTube filtering on, it cannot be turned off on that browser unless it is turned off by someone logged into YouTube as you (which is why it's important to log out when you are finished).  Don't forget, this is only good on each browser this process is completed in.  

This process does NOT work on proxy browsers such as Rover and Photon (browsers that allow you to view flash content by using a "proxy").  The YouTube browsing experience through one of these browsers isn't as nice as a standard browser, so reduces the "fun" factor for anyone choosing to view YouTube that way.

I would be interested to hear about what other people are doing to filter and secure iPads for kids.  Please feel free to leave a post with any of your ideas or you can email me at randy@technologyskills.net.  More information about iPads, including iPad video tutorials, can be found on my website at technologyskills.net.

An Inefficient model: An Effective PD

When implementing any kind of technology, professional development is key to its success.  What is the point of purchasing a computer if you don't learn how to use it?  Most technology projects that fail, fail because of a lack of professional development.  I have spoken to many educators and technology people over the years and I have heard this same story over and over.  People talk about how their school or district purchased a smart board for every classroom, but no one knows how to use it.  Every teacher got a laptop, but didn't get any training so it is only used for typing letters, internet and email.  Every time I hear a story like this I am frustrated and saddened.  Look at it this way.

Let's say you have a teen aged child.  It's time for that child to learn how to drive, but instead of signing the child up for Drivers Education or taking him/her out with you to learn how to drive, you just buy them a new car.  That's it....you buy the car, give them the keys and say "you are on own" or "let me know if you need any advice".  Who in their right mind would do this?  When in comes to using technology in the schools, we do it all the time.  Schools or districts purchase equipment so they can show they are using technology (or with the goal of truly integrating technology into the classroom), but don't supply professional development.  Some schools give a little bit of training on the hardware and stop there.  Some districts have Technology Coaches, but a single Technology Coach for 100 educators is simply paying lip service to a serious flaw in our current educational model.

Let me clarify one thought.  Professional development is not training.  They are not the same thing and should not be approached the same way.  When someone receives new technology equipment, they need some training to learn how to use it.  When an educator receives new equipment, they need training on how to use it, THEN they need professional development to learn how to use it in the classroom.  They need to be able to explore the technology within the confines of their curriculum and they need to be able to speak with someone about their ideas who can speak back and help the educator explore the possibilities.  Without this step, technology integration into the classroom will never reach it's full potential.  Training is easy to understand.  Training has clear and observable goals that can be seen right away.  Training can be done through simple tutorials via video or text documents.  Training, if organized well, is efficient.  Effective professional development is not.

Professional development is that extra step educators need to help them use classroom technology in the best possible way.  It can be obtained through the many wonderful conferences that are available (see this page on my website for a list) and many schools and districts offer mini conferences during the beginning of the school year.  They are good ways to encourage educators to use technology and experiment with it's limits, but is simply isn't enough.  Technology is changing very quickly and we have to keep up or get left behind.  I am not talking about "Keeping up with the Jones", I am talking about using the best modern tools to facilitate teaching and learning.  I am talking about knowing and understanding which tools are best suited for a task and leaving behind old technologies when appropriate.  I am talking about understanding the myriad of tools available and having the ability to filter through them in order to find the most appropriate one for your situation.  This kind of understanding can come through conferences, but a truly thorough understanding of a technology and how it can be used in the classroom comes from high quality professional development.

At the school where I work, I have made some serious changes to technology professional development.  The first thing I did was to move my personal vacation time.  Every year I get three weeks of vacation (plus the week of July 4 which is a mandatory week off).  Instead of pretending to take my time off in July (when I end up working half of it anyway) I take my time off during the school year.  During the summer, educators are invited to work with me directly for up to three days as individuals or in small groups (I limit these groups to three or four).  I work with these educators and their curricula.  I don't "train them" even if we start with a little bit of training.  I help them explore the technology and how it relates to their classroom.  My results are sometimes not what I expected.  For example:  I was working with a couple of educators on the concept of digital portfolios.  The original plan was for me to teach the basics of creating a Google Site and helping them to create a template for their students to use.  This evolved into using iPads to document work and share files.  We explored various online storage options and found a system that would work well with their specific age group and their classroom environment.    The iPad discussion led to a variety of apps that could be used to teach math and explore information.  This led to their desire to learn how to use iMovie and Comic Life on the iPad.  Which lead to... and the list continues. We did accomplish creating the digital portfolio template and planning how digital portfolios would be implemented.  We did accomplish how to use the iPads to document information and share files (I'm talking the kids doing this as well as the adults).  We did accomplish finding apps to help teach Math and all of what we accomplished is now being smoothly (for the most part) implemented into the classrooms (grades 2,3,4).  So in a total of 6 days over the summer we have made an enormous change in their classrooms and students as young as 8 years old are creating their own digital portfolios and truly reflecting on their own learning.  How cool is that!?

Let's take that same situation and place it into a more traditional model of professional development.  Let's also use the six educators referred to above.  So I have six educators who are interested in having students create and use digital portfolios.  They discuss their idea with me and I ask for some training during the week educators come back in August and are given some training.  I argue with administration to separate these educators out from the rest of the staff.  I struggle with the schedule to find the best time to help them learn how to use Google Sites and at best I get to work with the whole group of 6 for up to 3 hours (at absolute best).  In that three hours I teach them how to use Google Sites and discuss how they can implement the concept into their classrooms.  That's all, I'm done and since it's the beginning of the school year, I may not be able to approach them again about this project until late September.  At best 2 of them will have implemented the project.  They get frustrated because things didn't work as smoothly as expected (we didn't have enough time to plan and discuss how to implement).  They get frustrated because they don't remember how to do some stuff in Google Sites (they didn't get enough practice).  The students get frustrated because the teacher can't help them (the teachers didn't get enough "play time" and we didn't plan out the student training portion of the idea.  In short, we have spotty success at best.  Does this sound familiar?

If we want technology to be truly and fully integrated into the modern classroom, we MUST provide quality professional development.  The money we save by not having teachers receive this experience is paid by student learning and success.  

Just-in-time Training

When working with a 1:1 mobile device program at any school there are certain things that have to be considered, and certain things that absolutely must be available to students and staff.  The first is technical support.  If technology doesn't run smoothly in the classroom, there is a larger chance they will simply stop using it.  The second is training and understanding how to do certain things.  I work for a small school and for everything we do with technology (and we do a lot), there are only two of us in my entire department.  My helper is in charge of technical support and I cover everything else.  It isn't possible to do everything that needs to be done, but it is possible to provide tools where educators and students can help themselves.

We have provided a wide variety of tools to our students and it is my responsibility that the students and educators know how to use those tools.  I have provided training over the summer for staff and I have actively been inside the classrooms, but that will never be enough.  My people (and probably most educators and students using technology) need high quality Just-in-time Training.  They need access to tutorials (written and/or video) on how to do the specific tasks they need to do.  There are many wonderful sources for technology tutorials online.  Video tutorial sites such as Lynda.com are wonderful for professionals.  Teachers and students however, tend to need training that is a little more specific.  They need a video or written tutorial that explains to them how to get from their point A to their point B.  For exampe: Let's assume that a child is working on a project using Google Apps.  They need to insert a specific table into a document, but have no idea how to do it.  Let's also say that I am not available to help them.  They could spend time searching for tutorials on how to accomplish this.  They could find information and mentally adjust it to their situation (maybe), but this type of thing takes time, especially if they lack experience with Google Docs.  Here's my solution:

If I know students (or educators) are going to do something that may be difficult for them, I will usually make a quick video tutorial or (upon request) a written tutorial on how to do a very specific task.  This way the learner does not need to go hunting for help and I know they will have help from their own individual starting point to their own individual ending point.  For example: A group of students or teachers need to connect a printer to their iPad.  There are tutorials on generally doing this, but they will be more successful if I take the 5 minutes to make a quick video tutorial (ipad screen casting resouces listed below) showing them how using their app and our printers.  Also, this way they can hear my voice and we know each others idosyncricies.  They are all more likely to understand what I am saying, even if a complete stranger uses the same words.  I also know exactly what the student/teacher heard and can adjust any trainings as necessary to improve student/teacher learning.  This is not something any third party can do.

Another version of Just-in-time Training that is important for technology integration success is having someone in the classroom to offer advice when needed.  Of course, it would be impossible to be in every classroom every day, but classroom observations could help.  Providing regular visitations to classrooms in order to observe and offer ideas can provide an amazing amount of help to staff and students.  Instructional Technologists must be given the time and encouragement to go into classrooms and provide another point of view.  Classroom teachers must be given the time and encouragement to allow someone to come into their classroom, in a non judgemental fashion, and give them another point of view.  This is a collaborative approach, not an evaluative one.  This is not about teacher performance or evaluation, it is about student learning and engagement.

If you find yourself in a situation where your school or district is interested in integrating technology into your classrooms and curriculum, encourage them to deeply consider the important of professional development for teachers.  Too many schools and districts have purchased large amounts of technology equipment only to have it sit in a room or unused in a classroom simply because they did not provide the necessary professional development.  Equipment alone is simply equipment.  Equipment plus training equals potential.  For an example of the effects of professional development on integrating technology, see my post titled "The Importance of Professional Development".

If you are an administrator and would like help teaching teachers how to use and integrate technology, please feel free to email me at randy@technologyskills.net or you can contact me through my website at technologyskills.net

A note about screen casting on the iPad:  I am not aware of any app that allows you to screencast directly from the iPad, however there is a nice work around.  I use AirServer to project my iPad onto my computer screen and then Camtasia for Mac in order to record what I am doing.  This allows me to make quick and easy video tutorials on doing different things on the iPad.  Some of my tutorials are listed on my website. If you don't want to play for a screencast software, Screencast-O-Matic and Jing are both nice alternatives.

Taking Concepts for Granted

So far my fifth grade teachers and myself have worked very hard to create this new blended learning environment where students are competent  in creating, manipulating and understanding digital files.  To date, the kids have done some amazing stuff with their journaling app (PaperDesk) and their pdf annotator (DocAS).  They have done so well and understand digital learning environments enough that we have decided to move into "phase 2".  Of course, we aren't quite sure what phase 2 is yet, but we do know that it involves teaching these students some modern digital concepts that we sometimes take for granted.

Many times over the years I have heard educators or technology people say that the teacher didn't need to know the technology as well as the students, the teacher needed to know how to guide students.  I used to make this statement myself.  I am beginning to think that this was partially a mistake.  Maybe we have taken this concept to a point where we do not feel responsible for teaching our students some basic modern skills.  We take time out of our days to teach students how to do things like organize their locker, organize their binder or organize a paper, but we don't take the time  to teach them how to organize themselves in a modern way.  If you were write down all of the resources available to students today, the list would be staggering.  We are using all of these resources in schools, but instead of teaching the students how to organize their digital lives, we essentially allow them to "stuff it in the closet".  This is unacceptable and we need a solution.

This discussion with my fifth grade staff started because of an email.  We provided our students with email and just assumed they would know how to use it.  We talked about being polite, but not how to double check email addresses, using the CC feature or organizing their inbox.  We hadn't even considered teaching them how to use email signatures or the more "adult" features of email.  On the one hand, the kids did know how to use email, even those who had never used it before were taught in seconds by their peers.  But...

I had a parent come to me complaining about a grade her child received.  The child was to email the teacher, but the teacher said that the email never arrived so the child got a 0.  I explained that the child probably had mistyped the teachers email address (which I had just spoken to the students about a few day previous) and at this point there was no leniency on that issue, but to double check my guess I would like to see his email.  This is when I realized our mistake.  This child, this 10 year old child, had been deleting his sent email right after sending them because he wanted to keep his email organized.  He had been deleting emails from his inbox after reading them (including instructions from teachers) because he wanted to keep his inbox clean.  We taught this child how to send and receive messages, but we didn't really teach him how to effectively use email.

This has been troubling me ever since I realized what was going on.  I approached the fifth grade educators about my "phase 2" idea and will now be meeting regularly.  Our first order of business is to teach students how to effectively use email.  How to make decisions on what to delete and what to keep.  How to make folders and sub folders so information can stay organized and how to search their email to find information they need.  These are basic 21st century concepts and they are just as important as organizing their binders, lockers or anything else in their lives.  As adults, it is our responsibility to understand these basic concepts as well, just as we would understand they other types of organization.  It is our responsibility to know enough about these concepts that we can instantly offer suggestions to students without having to stop and think about it or having to ask someone else "Is it possible to make folders in email?".

They are the digital natives, but we are the guides.  We are not absolved of our responsibility to join the 21st century.  It is not ok to sit back and allow the students to learn new technologies in our classroom without learning that technology ourselves.  In order to be good educators, we must be good learners.  I think that is the main difference between and educator and a teacher.  A teacher helps students learn a specific subject.  An educator helps students prepare for life.  Which one are you?

Below are some resources for students and the 21st century.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills
National Education Technology Standards for Students
The Center for Public Education

The Importance of Professional Development

Mobile learning is a huge topic in education today. Some people want to run to it and others want to run away. I don't usually get on band wagons, but I did get on this one. I had been waiting for something like the iPad for years before it was released. I had seen the potential and benefit of cell phones in the classroom, but they didn't have quite enough features and those screens were just too small....then came the iPad.

The iPad changed how we view education and truly revolutionized the possibility of the learning environment. The cost of the iPads made schools rethink computers in education and suddenly everyone is purchasing iPads for their schools, but many of them are missing the point. One day I was driving down the road and I noticed a sign in front of a school that read "This fall each child will receive an iPad." And I thought, so what? Tell me something important, like what are you going to do with those iPads? Although the right equipment is important, the pedagogy behind how we use the technology in our classrooms is much more so.

Studies have shown that purchasing equipment for classrooms, but not providing the proper professional development is a great way to ensure the program fails. No amount of computers, smart boards, iPads or classroom performance systems in the world will change the classroom if the educators don't have certain things in place. The first is educator buy-in. Successful technology integration cannot be forced on people, but people can be persuaded to try certain things and hopefully that will make the difference. Consider this scenario:

I was working with a group of educators in using the iPad in the classroom. As a part of this training, I had them creating comics in Comic LIfe, a video using iMovie and a video using Explain Everything. One of the educators in this group fought me every inch of the way through this process. She didn't want to make a video (in either iMovie or Explain Everything) and luke warm to the idea of Comic Life. After a lot of gentle nudging I finally got her to create a video on classroom expectations. I doubt this educator will ever make another video, but now that she has had this experience, her students are allowed to create videos using iMovie or Explain Everything or comic using the Comic Life iPad app for class projects. They have never had this option before.

Let's compare this to another group of educators. Another group of educators were implementing a 1:1 iPad program and only accepted two hours of training. They wanted their technology trainer to show them how to use a couple of apps and then they wanted a small amount of training to show the students a couple of apps and that was all. To my knowledge, this group of educators and students are struggling with the iPads and how they can change the classroom. They don't have the base knowledge necessary to smoothly use this technology in their classrooms and have have no vision for what a truly modern classroom should look like. They struggle with simple tasks such as digitally sharing files and cloud storage, not to mention web 2.0 tools.

Compare this scenario to the group mentioned previously. The students of the first set of educators (younger than the second set) can create pdf documents, manipulate files and create comics and videos as well as move files around online and use email with ease. Although they can print, they have done so on rare occasions since they have felt it was unnecessary to print papers to turn in when you can simply use Google Drive to turn in papers digitally.

There is no fundamental difference between the two group of educators or their teaching situations. There were people in both groups who were not thrilled to start a new adventure and who needed to see the benefit of infusing technology into the classroom before being willing to look at things with new eyes. The largest difference is the time allotted to each group. Four days vs. two hours. A group of ten year olds who can manipulate, create and communicate easily using the iPad versus a group of fourteen year old students who get frustrated and cannot seem to figure out what to do.

So what is the cost of a four day staff training compared to two hours? The cost is student learning. The cost is the ability to provide a high quality modern educational environment for students. The cost is the ability of educators to understand the possibilities of effectively using technology in the classroom. The cost of not providing an adequate amount of professional development is simply too high.

I would love to hear stories about your experience with teacher professional development. What has worked, what has not? Please feel free to post to this blog or send me an email to randy@technologyskills.net

iPads in the Electives Classrooms

Many times, when there is a new implementation of technology or a new way of thinking, people usually consider core subject educators.  They don't often consider the non-core subject educator, especially when it comes to funding.  When I taught music in a public elementary school, I was very fortunate to work with a principal that saw the potential of the arts and recognized how the non-core educators could help his school reach its potential.  He made sure that music, art and physical education educators were considered in any school plan and he listened to our opinions as strongly as he listened to the opinions of core subject educators.  Since I have left the music classroom and entered the world of education technology, I have attempt to take the same approach.

When my school decided to implement a 1:1 iPad program, I immediately considered the music and art educators.  I knew they could do amazing things with iPads, but I also knew they had a different way of looking at the world.  They would need a different type of support and a different type of professional development.  There were several things to consider in this approach, and which apps to use was the least of it.  I had to consider how technology could enhance their respective subjects and how I could help them manage classroom behavior in a way that having the physical equipment in the room would not get in the way or become distracting to the students.  I also had to find a way to integrate the arts into our classroom management system that allowed them to participate in digital learning without them feeling like they were trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.  The solution was simple.  Patience, patience and more patience.

First let's talk about the professional development.  The electives educators were encouraged to go to the introductory training given to all of the core educators.  After the initial training (how to use the iPad, find and request apps, share files etc....) they were given the option of staying to learn more, or going off to experiment on their own and working with me directly at a later date.  They chose the latter and that's what we did.  I worked with the art teacher in using a variety of apps and using her Apple TV to project her iPad to the front of the room.  I then encouraged her to record videos of herself completing class warmups (using the app Explain Everything) and posting them online to share with students and parents. That involved learning how to use the schools classroom management system.

Classroom management systems are built with a set of tools such as discussion boards, file sharing, quiz modules and grade books.  These all fit well within the confines of a traditional classroom, but not necessarily in a forward thinking arts program.  The trick was to use the tools that were a natural fit to the arts, encourage the arts educators to be open minded to new ideas on some tools and ignore other tools that are simply inappropriate to an art program.  To date, my art and music people are using file sharing, links (to youtube videos) and discussion boards.  They are using a variety of apps on the iPads as well.

In music, students are using audio recording, a digital metronome and Garage Band to compose music. The art teacher is using apps like Brushes and Doodle Buddy for two dimensional drawing and Cast Drawing and 123D Sculpt for three dimensional drawing, and it doesn't stop there.   She uses a variety of other apps such as National Geographic in order to allow students to experience photography.  The last time I walked into her room, she had the fifth grade students looking at an image on their iPad (from National Geographic) and recreating that image using nothing but a black ink pen.  I'm no art critic (I can barely draw a stick figure) but those students were doing some really neat stuff!


For your further reading, here are some interesting website about the iPad and the arts.

http://kentwired.com/school-of-art-launches-ipad-initiative/
http://blog.cia.edu/digitalcanvas/2012/02/28/ipad-art-education-not-just-college-anymore/
http://theteachingpalette.com/2012/02/24/theres-an-app-for-that-ipads-in-the-art-room/

Student Initiative: My Big Oppsie

Last week Apple published it's new iOS update to iOS 6.  To be honest, I hadn't really given it a lot of thought.  I was going to give it a week or two and see what people had to say, then I was going to update my stuff and test it out.  After I was satisfied, I would arrange to update the student iPads.  Of course, I never relayed this intention to the students or their families since I wasn't ready.  It never dawned on my that the students would take the initiative to update their iPads on their own.  oops...

If the students had all of the apps under their own apple ID, I wouldn't care so much, but although the students could update their OS, they could not update the apps that were under the schools account, and of course some of our more important apps quit working.  (thank you Murphy's law)  Suddenly I am getting emails and phone calls from educators, students and parents making it sound like the sky was falling.  Seriously.....I had to look up to make sure the sky was still in it's proper place.

Ultimately the solution was simple....update the apps on any iPad where students updated the iOS and tell the other students to hold off on an update.  We used Apple Configurator to create the iPad images, but learned that we could also manually update apps without Configurator, so I was able to walk around and offer a "quick fix" for anyone who needed it.  Whew!....problem solved...for now.

Obviously I need to deal with two issues.  1 - communicating with families, teachers and students about what NOT to update and 2 - how to schedule updates.  I need to do this in a way that will have the least impact on the classroom and is sustainable for a very small technology department.  Reviewing the student schedule I believe this can be done during PE and lunch times.  We can update small groups of iPads during these times throughout the week and this way no students would have to go without their iPad during class.  A bit of a stretch for the tech department, but it's doable and most importantly does not adversely affect student learning.

If we had a help desk, these issues would be much smaller than they are, or if I were willing to take the iPads away from students during a time when they would usually use them.  A help desk is never going to happen (we don't have the personnel or the space for one) and telling students and teachers that iPads are not available because I need a more convenient way to update, simply isn't a solution I am willing to entertain.

Schools support technology in a variety of ways and each school has a different philosophy of technology in education.  Some schools/districts struggle to find the balance between the needs of technology (servers and services) and the need to maintain a modern classroom.  Some schools focus on infrastructure as a way to provide services to teachers, administrators and students.  What happens (or can happen) in the classroom is based on what the infrastructure can handle.  In many of these situations, infrastructure concerns are paramount.  Some schools take a different approach.  My school reverses the process and we start from what we want to do in the classroom and build our technology infrastructure around that.  Students MUST be the primary focus, and although the intentions are great, if the technology infrastructure is dictating what is possible in the classroom, we will loose site of what is important...the kids.  

I would be interested to hear what you have to say about your technology department.  How does education technology and information technology merge together?  Who is in charge?  How are classrooms supported?  Feel free to leave a comment on this post or send me an email at randy@technologyskills.net

The Time Factor: Helping Educators Find the Time They Need

Implementing anything new in the classroom can be tricky.  One of the first concerns I hear from an educator is "I don't have the time".  Educators are pushed to (and often past) their limits and the thought of adding yet one more thing is simply overwhelming to many.  This is completely understandable, and those of us who support and/or lead educators should always be aware of this time factor and be prepared to alleviate it in any way we can.  Here's what I have done to help the educators I work with.  Note: this does not apply to only my iPad educators, it applies to ALL of my educators.

Duties - In my school educators have supervisory duties outside of their classroom.  I have offered to cover duties for people if they would like to take that time to record for a flip lesson, make examples for students or they need time to experiment with an app.  I can stand and supervise recess or lunch just as well as the next guy.

Digital copies - Our copy machines can also turn a paper copy into a pdf file and can email it to you.  These copies are distributed to students via our digital classroom or are incorporated into apps such as DocAS or Explain Everything.  I'm pretty good at pressing buttons, so I have offered to take any paper document(s) educators want in pdf format and run the copy machine for them.  (this doesn't take long and it seems to relieve a lot of pressure on educators)

Subbing - Just like covering duties I have offered to sub for classes for subjects I am comfortable with.  I have also offered to proctor tests, cover advisories and study halls if necessary.  This gives the educator a longer period of time to work on a video or example.  They are even allowed to use my desk if they need a space to work.  (I'm messy so they would have to clean my desk first!)

I have noticed that every time I offer this service, teachers are taken aback.  I get responses like "Really!  You would do that?!".  I wonder if it's not the offer more than the act that they appreciate and need to hear.  I know educators are extremely busy people (I used to be a classroom teacher) and it's the responsibility of those of us who aren't in the classroom regularly to help the educators achieve the schools mission and in the grand scheme of things, the above examples don't actually take that much time.  I encourage any and all support staff and administrators to consider taking similar small steps to help their educators reach their potential.

Here's my question to you (yes, you....the reader).  If you are a classroom educator, how could administration help you find the time to work on a modern classroom environment?  If you are an administrator, what else could I do?  Please feel free to reply via comment or via an email to randy@technologyskills.net

The Philosophy of an iPad Program

I received a really good question the other day about my blog and this roll out of the 1 to 1 iPad program at my school.  The question was..."what educational philosophy are you following?".  What a good question!  Personally, I generally follow a constructivist approach to education, but I also believe that there is no single "right way" to do anything.  When I first decided to push my school to implement an iPad 1 to 1 program, I based my arguments and reasonings on constructivism, but I also used my belief in the Universal Design for Learning, although I didn't know that term at the time.

I have always believed that students should be given information in a variety of ways and allowed to experience learning in a variety of ways and of course, express their learning in a variety of ways.  Since everyone is different, it seems silly to force people to follow a single way of teaching and learning.  (You can imagine my opinion on standardized tests)  From this perspective, supplying each educator and each student with a device that has a variety of capabilities just makes sense.  Using the iPad, students can handwrite to fill out papers, type documents, create a variety of presentations, write stories, create videos, collaborate with each other and the list goes on.  No single device can do everything, but as much as possible we should provide tools that are as multi-faceted as we can.

I went to a workshop on Universal Design for Learning during the ISTE 2012 conference in San Diego.  This was one of the best workshops I have gone to in a long time for a couple of reasons.  First, since it's my job to keep up to date and study technology in the classroom, I don't usually get a lot of new information in a single session at a conference. This session, however, was chalk full of wonderful information.  Second, the presenter didn't use a lot of 5 and 6 syllable words, she kept it simple and to the point.  She took the thoughts I have been having and presented them in a succinct and understandable way.

I was told to take a spreadsheet and fill in the first column with the concept goals of the course.  In the second column, place the variety of ways a students can discover the information needed to learn that concept.  i.e. links to videos, informational websites, text books etc....  In the third column list the variety of ways the students can show they have learned the class concepts.  i.e.  discussion with educator, create a movie, write a paper, create a comic, create a VoiceThread etc....  Finally, the fourth column is for educator notes.  How simple...how logical...and how amazing!  I realized right away this is where I was heading and now I had other people that thought the same way and there's even research to back me up!

I used this information as a basis for all of the professional development I provided to my staff over the summer and I will continue to use it as a justification for the expansion of the program.  The educators I have worked with through this process have done a wonderful job and have opened their minds to the possibilities.  I have faith that we are on the right path to creating a true modern learning environment.  Not just in the technology we use, but HOW we use it.  HOW we allow educators to provide vital digital learning experiences for our students and HOW we non classroom staff in order to support this version of education.

More information about the Universal Design for Learning can be found at cast.org and udlcenter.org

If you have stories on how you have implemented iPads in your classroom or how you are creating modern learning environments, I'd love to hear them.  You can email me at randy@technologyskills.net

The Rubber Hit the Road

Anytime a new project is implemented, there will be problems and issues.  The question is....what are the possible problems?  How will we deal with them?  What are we missing?  The problems with this iPad implementation have been so small as to almost go unnoticed.  I believe this is primarily due to all of the time the educators and I spent planning, discussing and practicing.  (see previous posts) Although these issues are small, I will still write about them here and discuss my thoughts on how to resolve them.  If anyone reading this has an idea, I would love for you to comment.

Issue 1 - I work at an independent school where the admissions people are bringing new students into the school right up to the beginning of the school year and through the firs three to four weeks.  A new fifth grade student arrived the third week of school and of course was completely lost as to what she was supposed to do with this iPad since she hadn't gotten any of the training the other students had.

Resolution 1 - Work with admissions to create a new student orientation to technology program were these new students can receive a basic course in using their iPad and Google Apps.

Issue 2 - PDF files are a pain in my neck.  I have downloaded and played with over twenty pdf annotation apps and I never found exactly what I wanted.  Here is the down low on what has been going on.  We chose to use the app Remarks as a pdf annotator.  Educators would provide a pdf in our digital classroom environment (Fronter) and the students would download and manipulate it.  I LOVE this app.  The problem comes into play when the educator wants to view the manipulated pdf.  Remarks can save to Google Drive...great.  But...(dramatic pause) the teacher must view the new pdf on their computer or in Remarks.  The Google Drive app on the iPad will not show the changes Remarks made to the pdf file.  This was not acceptable so I searched for another option.  I landed on DocAS.  Although I don't like it as much as Remarks, it does everything we want....until we implemented.  It is not currently possible to save a pdf from DocAS into a sub folder within Google Docs/Drive.  It will only share to the main file structure.  So if I make a folder called RandySpanish and place a file from DocAS into it, I have to do the following.  Save from DocAS into Google, then move the file around using OfficeHD.  Not an ideal solution, but a solution none the less...(another dramatic pause) until educators need to grade them.  In order for an educator to write on the childs pdf, they have to open it in DocAS (makes sense) and then go through the same save and move process as the kids do.  That is sooooooo not going to work.  Doing it once is bad enough, doing it for thirty kids?  As a current alternative, educators that want to write on the childs pdf will do so in DocAS and email the file to the child with the comments.

Solution 2 - I am completely open to any suggestions people might have on this issue.  I need a pdf annotator that can save the annotations where the iPad can read them AND be able to save into a specific Google Docs/Drive folder. Anyone?  Anyone?  Beuller?

Issue 3 - Flash.  I have to take complete responsibility on this one.  I allowed the idea of getting a flash browser fall through the cracks.  I was sitting in the back of a math class when the educator was attempting to demonstrate the website arcademics.  She quickly realized this website contained flash based math games and accepted this iPad limitation.  I, however, did not.

Solution 3 - There are a fair number of browsers that out there that will allow us to run Flash on an iPad.  I spent some time with them and I liked iSwifter the best, but in order to get the full version I had to do an "In App" purchase.  This is not the way I need to get apps for students, so I emailed iSwifter, explaining my issue and chose my second choice, the ever popular Photon.  Just in time, I received a reply from iSwifter informing me about the free browser they made for schools called Rover.  Perfect!  Decision made and issue resolved!  Thank you iSwifter people!

In the grand scheme of things, there are very small issues.  Since the educators and I (the technology department) are working closely together, we have managed to deal with all of our issues as they arise, so the negative impact to the learning process has been minimized.  I was able to install Flash browsers right away, the Spanish educator and I could meet right after a class and resolve our DocAS issue and I was available to help the new student immediately ensuring that she becomes accustomed to our digital aged classrooms quickly and without too much stress.

The smoothest 1 to 1 implementation ever!

Eric Hoffer once said “In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” This quote and other similar quotes are sometimes used to describe teachers who refuse to look toward the world of tomorrow.  It is a quote suitable to those who believe they have learned everything they need to know and are content to remain stagnant.  Unfortunately, the message of this quote will pass over those who would benefit from learning from it.  I am proud to say that the people I have been training aren't one of these teachers. They are educators. They have looked at the possibilities and have risen to the task of providing a 21st century learning experience for our students.

The have accepted the challenge (to themselves as well as their students) to equip our learners to be prepared to use technology as a tool for learning and communicating. I have worked with many educators over the years that just wanted to work their schedule and forget about the rest. They have no inclination for learning and no interest in expanding their personal horizons. Luckily this is not the case in my school. These educators may sometimes be trepidecious about trying something new, but they do try and they do their best to enter a project with an open mind.

As I sit in the back of a classroom watching educators and students work together to use their iPads, I am simply amazed and thrilled that everyone (teacher and student alike) are comfortable with the equipment and quickly grasp the variety of ways they can use the iPads to share thoughts, files and other forms of information. Within the first few days of school these 10 and 11 year old kids are creating digital journals, using pdf annotators, creating voice threads and participating in digital discussions. With a grace that usually takes us adults a while to master, these students smoothly settle into a world of digital and blended learning. I see students taking control of the class by projecting their own iPads to the front screen (using the apple TV) and sharing their screens with the rest of the class. In the time it may take to have 2 or 3 students physically go to the front of the room, 5 different students may have taken over the screen to share their stuff.  I see educators encouraging students to participate in classroom digital discussions and different ways of learning experiencing different information.

During one class, as I sit in the back of the room, the educator guides the students in creating a digital notebook they will be using throughout the year.  They discussed all of the different ways they can keep information in the notebook and it's different features.  When the educator got stuck trying to remember how to add another page to this new notebook, I jumped in to help.  I should have sat there and allowed the kids to take over.  After showing how I would add a second page, one student looked at me like I car crazy!  Then he states..."Mr. Thomas, just do this." and in a single tap on the screen he produced a new page.  (my way took 3 taps)  I love it when I learn new things!

This is just a sample of what I saw the first week of school.  I have implemented several projects over the years and I have never had one go as smoothly and as strongly as this one.  It is also the only one where I have had the opportunity to thoroughly work with a staff who is interested in learning.  I work with an administrator who believes in professional development for educators and I work with a headmaster who believes in me enough to support technology goals in a variety of ways.  THAT is a winning combination.  I don't care how much money you have to work with (I'm fortunate in that regard, but I also have budgetary restrictions), if you don't have an administration AND a staff willing to collaborate and learn, you are waisting your time.  A strong team today results in amazing learners and leaders tomorrow.

Location:E Shea Blvd,Phoenix,United States

The Students Begin

Ok, we have learned about the iPad and practiced several apps. We have excelled in some areas and are holding our breath in others. We know there will be issues we didn't foresee, but we are also ready to deal with those issues.

It's 8:30 and the students have arrived. I have set my schedule to follow groups of students around to help as many educators throughout the day as I can. (This is where being a small school has it's advantages) It's go time. The entire Middle School has an all school assembly and then breaks into a modified schedule where they will spend three days learning expectations, procedures etc... Again, this type of thing takes a bit of time at the beginning of they year, but reduces issues all year long.

I sit in the back of the room during the first class of the day. I know most of this class time will be spent on basic procedures that do not include technology, but I need to make sure that when they do discuss and practice technology procedures I am there and available to help ensure things go smoothly. This class runs more smoothly that I could have ever expected. The students had spent some time with their iPads and quickly became familiar with the first app they had to use (class organizer). As I followed students around throughout the day I discovered this to be the case for everything they had to use on their iPads. I could not have asked for a better start to the school year! Now let's talk about the teachers.
Some of the teachers I taught over the summer were sold on the concept of 1 to 1 iPads from the moment I mentioned it. Some....well....not so much. Some were concerned about their own comfort level and skills in using technology. One educator left us two weeks before students started, so one person was new to everything, but she has done an awesome job!

As I followed these students I observed the educators and (as I expected) some asked me to teach the iPad part and some attempted to teach it on their own. In the first case, the educator watched closely and was able to be independent during the next class. In the second, I jumped in when I thought the educator was about to make a mistake or to clarify a concept. In this case, the educator paid close attention and corrected any issues with the next course. I could not be more proud of these educators. They have accepted my ideas, they have held difficult discussions about procedures and they have stepped outside of their individual comfort zones. All of this work has made a world of difference, not only in their ability to teach the students how to use the iPad, but in their demeanor in using the iPad as a teaching tool.

Location:N 39th St,Phoenix,United States

The Parent/Student Meeting

On important step we decided to take was to spend time with the students and parents together. During the standard orientation to the school an hour was set aside for me to teach students and parents. I love stuff like that!

I am in a room packed with people all wondering what I was going to say. We spent time going through the equipment and the expectations. We discussed that the primary and most important use of iPads in our classrooms is for learning. Everything else comes in a far second. The students and parents alike were ecstatic to get their equipment and ready to sign the Technology Acceptable Use Policy.

One important thing to note about this meeting is that all of the educators attended it as well as the parents and students. Since everyone was together, there should be less confusion and the educators have heard what I have to say. Since the educators heard what I said to parents and students, they can support our guidelines and are less likely to give a parent bad information.

Since I had a captive audience, I also introduced the parents and students to our online parent/student portal as well as our digital classroom environment. They aren't iPad specific, but all of our technologies are integrated into a single way to teaching and learning. They are not separate entities that function by themselves.

Now he just wait for the first day of school for students. So we hurry up and wait.

Location:N 39th St,Phoenix,United States

The iPad Adventure Day 4

This day is the final challenge for my educators. I believe in having educators experience technology (and many things) through the eyes of their students. They are asked to expand their horizons and step out of their comfort zones. My educators will use their time today to create movies using the iMovie iPad app, create comic books using the Comic Life app, creating videos using Explain Everything and many other activities. This is their chance to take what we have discussed and gain some hands on experience.

We spent a couple of hours discussing the first days of school. Where will Randy be located throughout the day? How will we deal with the unexpected? How will we communicate ideas with each other and our students? Who will teach which apps? This is not the most exciting conversation we have ever had, but if we want a smooth implementation, it is VERY important.

My educators did a wonderful job! They asked questions, got frustrated and figured out how to do things themselves. How wonderful! This is all I have to say for this day as most of the initial learning was completed during days 1 through 3. I can't wait to see what the first day of school brings!

Location:E Doubletree Ranch Rd,Paradise Valley,United States

The iPad Adventure Day 3

The iPad Adventure Day 3

It's the evening of the second day and I'm a bit tired, but full of determination to find a way to make things work the way we want them to.  I finally conceded that Remarks may not be the solution we need, so I went on the hunt.  I downloaded 16 pdf annotator apps that looked promising and began to experiment.  It's a good thing I am stubborn, because it was app number 16 that solved my issues.  Allow me introduce to you the app DocAS.  (on a side note, I'd love to find a really cool way to pronounce the name of this app)  DocAs is perfect for us!  This app is awesome!  Students can arrange their pdf files from teachers into folders, annotate them and share the finished document directly with the student/teacher folder for the course.  How awesome is that?!?  I was a little nervous at changing apps at this point (I didn't want to end up swinging from the rafters), but once I demonstrated the app to the educators, they liked it as well.  Pdf annotator issues...resolved!!!!  Now it's on to our classroom management system.  My staff had asked questions about quizzes and our classroom management system, so I allowed them to take this path for a while.  Since it isn't directly iPad related I'll skip that part of our morning.

The last of the large hurdles is the student planner.  We had decided on a student planner several months ago and it was time to teach it.  When we started this part of our day I announced that we could review more options if anyone was interested.  (this is when I should have been afraid, let's just say they weren't interested)  So we went through how to use the app ClassOrganizer.  We aren't using some of the features available in this app for our fifth grade students, be we felt the app was easy enough to use that it was still worth the cost ($2.49 USD education cost over 20 units).  We could have removed the need for PaperDesk and used Class Organizer as the students note taking tool, but felt it was a little less user friendly for an 11 or 12 year old.(our Upper School students may use it though).  Teaching the app itself took about 10 minutes.  Coming to agreement on consistency between courses took a bit longer, but we got it done.  I am very pleased with this turn out.  We take a much needed lunch hour(ish) and return for a fun filled afternoon of Socrative and iMovie.

Have you ever taught a group of teachers how to use iMovie?  Oh my.  It took me about 10-15 minutes to teach the iMovie interface to my group of educators.  iMovie on the iPad is so simple and fun to use they were off to the races in no time.  It took me about 10-15 minutes to get them to record themselves.  (for people that spend their lives in front of an audience, they sure do hate to get recorded)  I must say, even my least tech savvy educator (who REALLY didn't want to do a movie) managed to make a simple three scene video with very little extra assistance from myself or another educator.

Finally I taught them the app Socrative.  Just like comic books and interactive whiteboards, there are a variety of options when selecting a class survey/quiz tool.  I also made the decision for my staff (I don't usually do this, but they seemed to want the guidance).  Socrative is fun to use, does everything we want and is free.  My educators took a short quiz I created, then each educator made a quiz and used the rest of us as guinea pigs.  They seem to understand and enjoy Socrative, so I guess I made the right choice.

I felt learning four apps was enough for one day, so I allowed the time to explore the app store in search of apps they may wish to use for their individual classes which I can then purchase through the Volume Purchasing Education Store.

To recap, we have learned the following apps so far this week:

iMovie
Socrative
DocAS
Remarks
Class Organizer
PaperDesk
Explain Everything
Office HD
Google Drive (app)
DropBox (app)
Comic Life

No wonder i'm tired.

Tomorrow is our final day as a group.  We will discuss who will teach which apps to the students and when.  We will also decide where I will be located the first few weeks of school (I have promised this 1 to 1 program my full and possibly undivided attention(yeah, right)).  After that nitty gritty I promised to not teach any new apps (well, maybe just one more) but I would organize them in a way where they will have the time to use some of the apps listed above again in order to become more comfortable with them.  Let's see how that works out!

The iPad Adventure Day 2

The iPad Adventure Day 2

So last night I worked and worked and worked.  First I tackled the notebook app.  We really liked PaperDesk and I struggled to find a way to keep it and make it what my educators wanted.(remember that we want all student files for a course to go into a specific Google Drive folder)  After messing around with it for an hour or so I had my aha moment (sometimes referred to as my duh moment).  We could use PaperDesk and have it automatically back up to DropBox (as much as possible we want files to automatically back up to the cloud for students). We could then use Office HD to move files for us.  Since Office HD would communicate with both Google Drive and DropBox we could simply use that to copy files from DropBox into the student/teacher share folder.  It could work like this:

Johnny keeps a Science journal for his Science class taught by Mrs. Beaker.  Mrs. Beaker says "Class, please send me copies of your journals so I can grade them."  In the old days Johnny would have freaked out because he knows that silly journal has to be somewhere.  Did he leave it in his locker?  Is it at home?  Did the dog eat it?  That night Mrs. Beaker would carry a stack of journals home, spread them out everywhere so she could go through them and accidentally leaves one behind the next day.  In the new way, Johnny turns on his iPad, opens the OfficeHD app and selects his DropBox account (where his automatic backup is stored).  He selects the pdf file his journal app created and sends a copy to the folder he shares with Mrs. Beaker.  Mrs. Beaker goes home and puts her feet up.  She can now explore the journals from her iPad, laptop or any other device she has that can connect to Google Drive (which is just about anything beyond a piece of paper and a pencil, but I hear they are working on it).  So, am I a genius or what?  Journaling app solved!

Now for the pdf annotator.  ugh.  As much as I love the app Remarks for my own personal use, it is not going well for our group share situation.  But, thanks to my ingenious duh moment with PaperDesk I thought I had our answer.  oops... How wrong I was.  Fast forward to school where I have just taken the staff through how the students can share the journals.  They are relatively happy and content with my resolution to this issue.  Next, we decide to use the same method for sharing pdf files out of Remarks.  As any good educator would, we tested things just to make sure.  We could indeed transfer the pdfs into Google Drive, but not the annotations.  Non of the hand writing, typing or drawing we added to the pdf files inside of Remarks would transfer.  How frustrating.  After an hour or so trying to manipulate this I had another idea.  What if the problem isn't with Remarks, what if it is with the iPad?  Soooooo, I'm off to my laptop.  I open Safari (yes, I'm a mac guy) and I open one of the shared pdf files.  Low and behold!  There are all of the annotations we couldn't see on the iPad!  At least the educators could use their laptops to grade files left for them through remarks.  They weren't thrilled, but accepted this and we moved on to other things.  (I was not convinced we had to accept this so of course at night....)

After all this stress I felt they needed and deserved a treat so I taught them something new and exciting!  I taught them how to make a comic book using Comic Life!  There are several comic book creation apps out there, but in my not so humble opinion, none of them provide anything near the quality and experience of Comic Life.  I provided an example of a simple comic to the teachers and let them loose for about 30 minutes.  I'm not sure I've ever seen teachers so focused when it's not report card time.  They then used their iPads and projected their comics through the appleTV and yes, they exported them to DropBox in order to transfer to Google Drive in a pdf format just like students would.

Continuing with the concept of creating presentations without a Power Point type application, I had them create interactive presentations using Explain Everything.  There are, like comics, many different and good digital whiteboards out there, but Explain Everything had the features we really liked.  It could save to and load from DropBox, you could create videos and share them (using your Google Apps account) on YouTube.  (guidelines for sharing to YouTube is another discussion all by itself) or they could create a multiple slide presentation similar to a PowerPoint, but they can write on top of it, use a pointer tool or any of the other interactive whiteboard tools available in the app.  Although the interface is less user friendly to younger students, the robust features and powerful potential made it worth taking the time to teach the students(and teachers) how to use it.


And there's the day.  My staff had a success, a challenge and some fun while learning something new.  Tonight, I finally solve the pdf annotator issue.