Jake had an interesting question today: How would you use an iPad in the classroom if you only had one? That is, students don't have one in class, just the teacher.
Grant mentioned it could be used as a giant, mobile trackpad, allowing students to point, draw, annotate items which are being projected. He also mentioned that they are useful for giving immediate video feedback to students.
To find out: What software makes it easy to inexpensively and wirelessly connect to our overhead projectors? (Please add suggestions/info in comments below.)
So, how might you use an iPad in class even if the students didn't have one?
Information Technology at AISB
Monday, March 26, 2012
Personal Learning, Networks and Connectivism
One of our goals is to develop and strengthen our personal learning networks (PLNs). One of the things our new iPads can really help us with is connecting---to people, data, knowledge, expertise...
Please watch the videos below. What did you find interesting about them? What did you agree with or disagree with?
"Chance favors the connected mind." Steven Johnson
"The network is the learning." George Siemens
Please watch the videos below. What did you find interesting about them? What did you agree with or disagree with?
"Chance favors the connected mind." Steven Johnson
"The network is the learning." George Siemens
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Interesting Article / Podcast
I just bumped into an interesting article about schools abandoning textbooks in order to go with iPads only.
While the article is short, the accompanying podcast is 15 minutes long and worth a listen.
A couple parts of the podcast which I found interesting: At 3:38 interviewer asks, "How do you trust the source of that?" referring to students going online to find information that they would have previously found in textbooks.
Sounds like she's assuming that textbooks are superior in that they have been vetted, edited, and thus their content is of higher quality. While it's true that textbooks have been edited, they are not free of bias. They tell one point of view--usually the popular one. Being a product of committees, they are mostly free of anything controversial, provocative and interesting. They do not make good reading.
But more importantly, learning how to "trust the source of that" is a critical skill students (and adults) need to acquire in the age of self-publication. Staying within the confines of textbooks will not help students acquire these new media literacies.
At 8:10, talking to a teacher about Khan Academy, the interviewer asks with much concern, "If you sent your kids to that site doesn't it take teaching out of your hands?"
Why is this a concern? Shouldn't it be one of our goals as educators to help people learn how teach themselves whatever they want? In an age of abundant information, courses, experts, data...being able to learn without the need for a teacher may be one of the most important skills we can acquire.
As is often the case, the comments of the article can be quite informative.
While the article is short, the accompanying podcast is 15 minutes long and worth a listen.
A couple parts of the podcast which I found interesting: At 3:38 interviewer asks, "How do you trust the source of that?" referring to students going online to find information that they would have previously found in textbooks.
Sounds like she's assuming that textbooks are superior in that they have been vetted, edited, and thus their content is of higher quality. While it's true that textbooks have been edited, they are not free of bias. They tell one point of view--usually the popular one. Being a product of committees, they are mostly free of anything controversial, provocative and interesting. They do not make good reading.
But more importantly, learning how to "trust the source of that" is a critical skill students (and adults) need to acquire in the age of self-publication. Staying within the confines of textbooks will not help students acquire these new media literacies.
At 8:10, talking to a teacher about Khan Academy, the interviewer asks with much concern, "If you sent your kids to that site doesn't it take teaching out of your hands?"
Why is this a concern? Shouldn't it be one of our goals as educators to help people learn how teach themselves whatever they want? In an age of abundant information, courses, experts, data...being able to learn without the need for a teacher may be one of the most important skills we can acquire.
As is often the case, the comments of the article can be quite informative.
Friday, March 23, 2012
IPADS in the Middle School!
We have been lucky enough to purchase 10 IPADS for the Middle School! A big thanks to Ray and Phil for the support make this happen. We are going to spend the final quarter exploring their applications to create their own personal learning community and for our classrooms, the implications for teaching and learning. Our intention is to have ten teachers at a time pilot the IPAD for four weeks, taking it home with them each day and on the weekends. The intention will be for you to experience what an IPAD has to offer for you in developing your own personal learning community and to discover what are some classroom applications.
Throughout your four week trial with the IPAD. Bill will be offering a thirty minutes workshop from 12:00-12:30 each Monday. The MS office will provide lunch on these days and we ask those of you with the IPAD come to each workshop to engage in guided discovery of sites, tools and experiences that Bill will provide. The intention is for a portion of this time to instructional and then for the rest to be exploratory and sharing as we are all going to be learning together. Bill has already started with some folks who already have an IPAD exploring IPAD applications and sharing lists, applications and the like, so this will be an excellent starting point for the rest of us.
Paul D., MS Principal
Paul D., MS Principal
Photo credit: yto at Flickr.com CC BY
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