The iPad Adventure Day 1

The iPad Adventure Day 1

Ok, so day day one was a couple of days ago, but here's the run down.  I had the clever idea that my staff would feel more relaxed if I put food out.  I thought "How could they get nervous and uptight if they are busy staying away from mini candy bars and cookies?"  I could not have been more wrong.  Ouch!  We knew the first thing we had to do was decide on the best apps for what we wanted to do.  We started with the basic word processing, excel and ppt.  I know what you are thinking.  Why didn't we just use Google Docs?  In the world of laptops I would agree completely and we have used Google Apps for a few years, but I wasn't happy with how smoothly Google Docs worked on the iPads and neither was my staff.

I knew we would want to use something more robust and user friendly than the standard Google Docs interface on the iPad so I first turned to CloudOn.  CloudOn is a great office type tool for the iPad. If you are using DropBox as your storage I continue to suggest CloudOn for text documents and spreadsheets (not so much for presentations).  Unfortunately, when connected to the new Google Drive (Docs is now Drive) it would sometimes make duplicates of the file instead of a smooth sync.  (on a side note, I have discovered that DropBox (in general) has a smoother syncing experience than Google Drive)  Next we turned to the app OfficeHD.  Not only could we connect multiple Google Drive accounts as well as DropBox accounts onto the single app, we could use OfficeHD as a pivot point and share documents between DropBox and Google Drive!  So we chose OfficeHD for our official office type product.

With this done, I thought I was in the clear and could start to breath (that first decision took us a while) so now it's on to journals.  Instead of having each child have a separate spiral bound notebook for each class (how 90's) it seemed appropriate to supply the iPads with a journaling app.  We originally decided to use PaperDesk for this purpose due to it's simple user interface, and it's ability to auto-sync to DropBox.  Unfortunately my educators had decided that as much as humanly possible they wanted all of the student apps to sync with Google Drive.  (each student will create a share folder with each educator giving them their own individual link to their teacher and a place to turn in their homework)  So the search began, but in the end we didn't find anything we liked as well and tabled the discussion so I could explore our options that night.  At this point my educators were getting stressed and trying to solve detailed questions about how things would work without understand the big picture so I had to stop them and force the candy on them (I knew that had to help at some point).

Finally, the pdf app.  This was a doozy.  We wanted the ability to share pdf files with our students in our learning management system (Fronter) and instead of having the students print them out and fill them in, we wanted to (as much as possible) keep them digital.  (this has taken up most of our time)  We started with an app that I love and have used often called Remarks.  Remarks allows students to draw, type, annotate and all kinds of things to a pdf file and you can set it to automatically update to DropBox.  Sweet!  Awesome!  But my people want it all in Google Drive.  GGGGGRRRRRRR.  Foiled again!  Ok, at this point I stop the conversations.  We are going in circles and I'm concerned that my staff is going to freak out a bit so I send them on a break.  Breaks are good, it helps people decompress and process.

After the break I had us leave the journal and pdf annotator discussion behind and we discussed presentation apps.  I am a believer in concepts such the Universal Design for Learning which, in very basic terms, states that students should be given the options to present what they know in a way that fits that child.  It may be a speech, a video, a poster, a book or standing on their head balancing tea cups on their left foot.  If they can demonstrate they have learned the objective, they are good to go.  Sooooooo, we need a variety of apps (and I wanted to make sure we all had the discussion of allowing different options with my staff).  So of course we looked at OfficeHD's PowerPoint, then I showed them some other options.  This was a relaxed discussion about the different options we can use on the iPad for presentations.  So we ended our day by playing with new apps without a specific agenda.

This day would have gone easier if I would have simply chosen the apps for the educators to use.  I could have dictated what apps were used, how they were used and how students would share files with educators, but I don't believe that would be appropriate.  I also believe I would have made some poor decisions.  I know a lot more now about what goes on in their classrooms than I did back in the spring. Now that I have a more thorough understanding of the workings of the different classrooms, I am able to guide my staff better in choosing technologies and can offer better advice when they seek me out.  I also believe that the technology department in a school should not dictate the technology in a classroom.  Too many classrooms are limited in their technology by the rules and regulations of the technology department.  Too many times a teacher is told they may not do something that is educationally valid because the technology department forbids it.  I take the reverse approach.  I work with my staff and design my department (I'm using the term department very loosely here) around the desires of the teachers and the movement of technology in education as a whole.  So our first day was frustrating, it was long and I really need a nap.  But, because we went through this process today, the school year will run much more smoothly and most importantly, our students will be given better opportunities to learn.

Next up:  annotate, annotate, annotate, pop quiz!

The iPad Adventure: the Beginning

The iPad Adventure

Everywhere you look you see an iPad, iPod, iPhone or iSomething.  If you don't see the iDevice, you see the Droid, Samsung, Nook or some other mobile device.  Wether we like it or not, mobile devices are in our lives and in our schools (for the record, I love my iDevices).  Our children can't seem to put them down and many of our educators are afraid the world will explode if they turn it on.  Where does this leave the schools?  Who wins this generational battle?  I'll give you one guess...

It seems that everywhere you look, you see a school advertising that every student will be given an iPad or some other mobile device to be used in teaching and learning.  That sounds great on the surface (as so many advertisements do), but I find myself asking how?  How are you going to implement your devices?  How are you going to train your teachers?  How are you going to help educators use their mobile devices to their full potential?  How will you allow the students to fully participate and lead their own learning with these devices?

To answer this question I started talking to other technology leaders from other schools, both within Arizona and across the country.  What I found left me excited, a little intimidated and unimpressed all at the same time.  Some schools took a very cautious approach by testing iPads with administrators and maybe a few teachers with the intent of implementing slowly and carefully.  Although this sounds good on the surface, if they are taking a year or two to implement technology, they are never going to have current technology tools.  On the other hand, there were schools that just purchased the iPads and handed them out with little or no Professional Development for staff or students.  This way is much easier than the first, and it ensures that technology is getting into the hands of the students, but is this really the way we should implement technology in the schools?  In this model, your best hope for success (success being that every student has access to modern teaching and learning tools) is that every educator is excited to bring new technologies into the classroom and takes the time to learn, explore and implement.  Anyone know any schools like that?  If so, are they hiring?

This blog will catalog my journey in helping my school implement an effective 1 to 1 iPad program.    We are a small independent school in Arizona, but we are chalk full of fun ideas and we have a technology leader that loves to see what we can do with our technology (yes.... I'm talking about myself).  This journey started when I was talking to the Middle School division director (principal) and suggest that we bite the bullet and purchase an iPad for every new 5th grader in the upcoming school year instead of purchasing another cart of laptops.  The educators seemed willing so we moved forward with the project.  We have several benefits to implementing a project like this.  First - we are small.  Our maximum grade size for a middle school grade is 40 and they are broken into two groups so the individual class size limit is 20 students to one educator.  Second - I am working with an administrator who cares and believes children have the right to a modern and developmentally appropriate education that includes working with a variety of technology tools.  The down side is that, since we are a small school, I wear many hats and am a very busy man so my availability to help my educators is fairly limited.  We must also prove the viability of what we are doing to our board of directors and most importantly our finance committee.  Our funding is completely tuition based, and in order to receive funding for modern technology tools, I need to be able to provide evidence that the tools are important and help our students learn to their potential.

Ok, enough hub bub.  This is what I'm going to do.  First, I'm going to train the bejeebers out of my 5th grade educators.  (I enjoy making up words)  I have met with this team of 5 educators 4 times to discuss the more granular things educators worry about.  "What if the child won't stop goofing off with them...", "What if they forget to charge it...." etc. etc. etc.  I felt it was best to allow my people to get their trepidations out of the way early so we can make the most of our large chunk of professional development time.  I also gave each of them an iPad back in March to give them a few months of time to experiment and ask questions.  Now the real work begins.  Starting Monday July 30, I will work with this team for 4 full days.  My goals are simple. Make sure my staff are comfortable with the iPads, Apple TV's, and anything else they may use in the upcoming school year.  They will explore apps, experience using Google Apps and their digital grade books through the iPad interface and they will experience some of the weaknesses of the iPad such as printing and file sharing.

I will dictate some device settings such as Google Drive and Dropbox.  Other items such as student digital journals and organizers are up for discussion.  Rules and regulations may be changed during this time and a list of student apps will be created.  I only have one rule.  Whatever we put on the iPads must engage the students.  This is not a new tool that allows us to repeat the past on a new screen.  This is an opportunity to look at how we teach our students and ask ourselves..."Are we providing our students with the best learning environment we are capable of?"

Over the course of the next week I will write daily about my experiences with my staff.  I'll express my excitement and my fear.  I'll use this medium to process my thoughts and share my experiences. I hope you can learning something from what I'm doing.

Back to my original question.  Who wins this generational battle?  If we do it right, we all do.

Next stop....PD Day 1!