The New iPad and the New 1:1 - Personalized Learning

I've written about the iPad before, but the more I use it in the classroom and the more feedback I get from students and teachers the more I am convienced it is the right device for personalized learning in a 1:1 setting. ​The iPad, moving beyond the traditional capabilities of a computer or laptop, is the natural choice for a 1:1 program. As Greg Kuloweic has so clearly stated, the iPad is mobile recording device (audio & video), editing device (audio, video, images & text), publishing platform (blogs, websites, video, audio and screencasts to YouTube), digital notebook and digital research platform. Because of the recent introduction of the device, in-depth data and research is limited, but recent studies have shown an increase in student performance when using the device.

 iPads offer many distinct advantages over laptops or other tablets available, making it the best mobile learning device available. Some commentators have even seen it as a total replacement to their other computing devices. Here is the most comprehesive list I have been able to develop (based on my own experience and the experiences I have read from others) on the features that give the iPad a clear advantage over all other platforms.

 • With iPads and cloud-based computing systems, students can work from anywhere at school with greater portability and connectivity. Schools also don’t have to pay for computing power that they no longer need. USB and optical drives become irrelevant and unnecessary with cloud-based storage such as iCloud, Dropbox, and Evernote.

 • Schools have found creative ways to use iPads to save money, especially when moving toward a paperless environment. From homework and tests to digital textbooks, the iPad offers numerous ways to eliminate paper, saving dollars and the environment. Wireless printing can also be accomplished from the iPad via Airprint, but will become less necessary with paperless assignment submission.

 • It occupies a new space in technology, one which is still undefined to some extent, yet which is likely to be significant over time. The space is between the mobile space occupied by phones and iPods, and the portable space which is where laptops and netbooks live. The new position in between these established areas is one in which the iPad largely does what the other devices offer yet also offers so much more.

 • The iPad will help to personalize learning - it is widely recognized the 1 to 30 one-way knowledge-transfer model is fast becoming redundant as project/problem/inquiry-based learning is becoming more prevalent in modern schools. The iPad is perfect for this type of personalized learning. As teachers begin to create new ways of tackling this issue, the iPad could play a useful role in this transformation. The form factor, battery life and apps mean that the iPad can be an ‘anywhere anytime’ learning device. This makes it ideal for projects and learning which take place out of the classroom, in the schools grounds, on a day visit or residential stay.

 • The iPad could be the beginning of the end of the dominance of old, slow school-based networks in education. How much time is wasted not being able to ‘log in’? How often is the network ‘down’? The iPad could hold all the apps a learner needs for a day/week/month/term’s work on the device itself or on off-campus cloud storage.

 • The iPad's instant-on & all-day battery features really make it a ideal devce for regular use in education. It’s possible to get on the net and find the information you require using an iPad before a laptop has finished running through its boot-up sequence. Using a device all through the school day without having to charge it up saves a huge amount of time for teachers and learners.

 • The apps which run the iPad (and other iOS devices) signal the way forward when it comes to saving work learners produce and create with the auto-save feature. Saving files takes place automatically ‘behind the scenes’ constantly in the background, which means learners (and teachers) know their work is always safe. No more excuses like ‘I forgot to save my homework’ etc. anymore!

 • Apple’s App Store has more educational titles than any other location, many of them free. This is advantage over many competitors’ apps stores and also allows for high quality, virus-free apps that are guaranteed to work on the devices. The new iTunesU platform also allows for easy and free online course content creation and sharing.

 • Wireless connectivity via Airplay allows the iPad screen to be wirelessly streamed to a projector or television via the $99 Apple TV device (this can also be done via PC using various apps). This is much less expensive than a Digital Whiteboard and allows the teacher to move around the class while interacting with the screen and allows both student and teacher devices to connect to the projector as needed.

 • The iPad, unlike a Nook or Kindle Fire, has the ability to download and read books from all various bookstores and publishers through iBooks, the Nook App, the Kindle App, and various others. The new iBooks Author tool also gives teachers and students the ability to create their own books.

When all the potential functionality of the iPad is added up, it becomes clear that the iPad is the ultimate personalized-learning device. It can be a science lab, literacy tool, research station, history archive, language lab, art canvas, music studio, video editing suite, math computation center and library.

 - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Creating the 21st Century Classroom

Technology does not make a classroom learning experience. The interaction of the learner to the skills and content central to the class, supported by a great teacher is central to a successful learning experience. But, as any engaged teacher knows, the current learning environment is changing rapidly due to the massive changes happening in our world. Technology is a central part of this change, driving innovation in science, business, communications and politics.

I've been fortunate enough to be in a position at the school at which I teach to be a leader in new techniques using technology, as someone who is has a voice in decisions relating to these issues, and as an educator who has been given the tools to experiment with new learning methods.

So, in this post, I just want to give a brief overview of the tools that I am currently using. In later posts I will talk about the impact and usage of each in a high school social studies classroom in 2012.


I have a dozen student desktops in my classroom. These "middle of the road" machines are great for internet access, typing, creating webpages, recording video and audio (via webcams)


I also have a set of a dozen iPads and a dozen netbooks which make flexible the learning process in the classroom. In using the iPads over the past several months, I have become convinced that they are powerful learning and creation tools capable of interactions not possible on desktops and laptops.





And while I think getting technology in the hands of students is by far the most important goal in using these tools, having strong teacher tools for demonstrating and modeling are critical. I am lucky to have a desktop PC attached to a projector and interactive whiteboard. I also have an Apple TV connected to my projector to mirror the iPad (mine and the ones the students use) on the screen. I also have a scanner and printer (for those limited times when paper still is used). I also have a webcam set up on my interactive whiteboard to have guest speakers in class via Skype (see the pic below of a session I just had with a friend from Germany.)


I know that I am luckier that most educators in what I have available in my classroom, but steps can be taken by all schools, teachers, and students to incorporate technology into 21st century learning by using what is available and taking advantage of items like smartphones to break the old paradigms.

What tools do you think are critical to a 21st century learning environment?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Beyond the 3R's

Last week the librarian at my school and I lead a professional development session on new literacies in the 21st century.  My school has been focusing on the theme of literacy for the past year and we wanted to make sure that we have a broad definition of what literacy means today.  We discussed how it is no longer enough for our students to have the basic skills or reading and writing in an age of digital media, on-demand audio and video, and social networking.  In addition to discussing the philosophical and pedagogical aspects, we gave some practical ideas about using applications such as Evernote, VoiceThread, Dropbox, and Edmodo to foster 21st centuries literacies.

All in all, the session went well and gave our teachers many new things to think about.  Below is a short introductory video I created for the beginning of the session using Explain Everything on my iPad.

 

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad 2

The Three P's

Last year I wrote a post on the Six C’s of 21st century learning, an idea that I was going to apply to my classes in designing lessons, units, and my overall curricula. I find putting a framework over the learning process and involving students in shaping and understanding that process to work very well to increase student engagement and proficiency. I have continued to experiment with considerable success and moving forward I have identified another set of themes that I would like to use in addition (and imposed on top of) the Six C’s.

I am terming this set the 3 P’s – Personalization, Project-Based Learning, and Portfolio Assessment. Personalization is key to reaching every student in the 21st century classroom. Personalization takes the ideas of individualization and differentiation to the next level with new techniques and new technologies. A recent article in THE Journal addresses the primary themes of personalization and is worth a close reading. It is only through the true personalization of learning that we can hope to reach every student, tap into their natural abilities and life experiences, and challenge them to grow beyond what they are and reach their fullest potential.

Project-based learning is the strongest methodology to achieve the personalization for each learner and impart the 21st century skills that students need. Let me clarify that I mean "project-based" in the broadest sense of the term. In my own classes, I employ a variety of techniques that could be classified as project, problem, inquiry, or challenge-based. Each builds upon constructivist and connectivist ideas that I've discussed before on this blog. Each makes the student the center of learning and requires of them the types of skills needed for dynamic and changing world.

I include portfolio assessment as one of the 3 P's since it is becoming the essential tool for authentic and innovative assessment. Portfolios allow students to see their work develop over time, to reflect on what they have done, to see how they can improve their work, and to connect their work across classes and content areas. Portfolios when digital years ago and are now going mobile with various formats available for smartphones, tablets and laptops.

I'm making a concerted effort in all of my classes to increasing incorporate aspects of the 3 P's. I've increased my use of project-based learning over the past several years until it makes up the basis of the pedagogy I use in my classes, this year I have begun experimenting with students developing their own digital portfolios for deeper assessment and self-reflection, and I continue to strive to tap into my students passions, interests, experiences and needs to personalize their learning opportunities.

Please let me know your thoughts about the 3 P's. Comments welcomed.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad 2

Going to the Extremes

I've recently been reevaluating and examing the way I teach content in my class as well as across the curriculum in my department and at my school. I've come to the conclusion that in many classes (including my own), teachers are guilty of presenting muddled and uninsteresting content due to the problem of breadth versus depth. Teachers have long faced the problem of the amount of content that they have to teach along with how in depth they can go into that content. This problem is especially true in Social Studies classes where the problem of how much history to teach (or how much of the timeline to cover) and how do you then go into more in the deeper and stimulating events, people, and stories that make history interesting. To try to deal with this, most teachers try for some kind of "middle path" combining beadth and depth. Unfortunately, in trying to do this, most teachers don't do a very good job over covering the overall material OR getting deeper into the content.

As an alternative, I suggest that instead of going for the middle and thus teaching in a muddled way, we "go the extremes" and do both well. In planning the content to be learned throughout the course of the school year, teachers should look for ways to break down their lessons, projects, activiities, and units to breadth activities and depth activities and do each well and separately (as opposed to muddled together and poorly as most of us do now). In a history class, this would involve a unit that would have a lesson or series of lessons that would give the broad overview of the major themes of a time period, followed by various activities such as primary source analysis, discussion groups, and historical investigation projects that would get in-depth with the material in select ways determined by either the teacher or student choice to support the broader themes. I've have been experimenting with this in my classes this year and I will discuss more details of it's successes and failure in future posts.

I have also come to the conclusion that this type of thinking can inform us with other issues as well. In paticular, I am brought back to my current thoughts on technology integration into the classroom. For years, middle-of-the-road desktop computers in classrooms and labs were the norms for schools. They were better than nothing, but they suffered from the same type of "middle path" problem as in content that the computers offered often more than was needed for student computering on a daily basis, but often didn't offer what was needed for more high-end functions like video editiing and graphic design. A rethink of device type and deployment is needed, one that ideally "goes to the extremes." For everyday student and teacher use, I am convinced that devices like the iPad far better than middle-of-the-road desktop computers in their personalization, battery life, portability, especially if they are deployed in a 1:1 program. iPads also continue to prove that along with being great media content consumption devices, they are also becoming powerful content creation devices for everyday document, presentation, video, and audio production. This frees up both funding and space for schools to invest in a small number of high end desktops or laptops on a cart for doing advanced video editing, graphic work or programing. This is "moving to the extremes" of educational technology could have considerable advantages, particularly when paired with the same strategy in pedagogy discussed above.

In pedagogy and technology, despite the instinct to think otherwise, going to the extremes could prove very powerful.  Please let me know your thoughts.

The iPad as Primary Educational Computer (intro)

So, list me amongst the converted.

A few months back when discussions began across the educational community and in my own school about the merits of using the iPad as a primary computing device for studetns in a 1:1 program, I'll admit I was more than a bit skeptical if it was the best way to go. Now, I am an Apple fan myself (I've owned several iPods, I'm on my second iPhone, and I bought a Macbook Air this past spring) but, having worked in a limited way with the iPad, I wasn't convinced it was the best solution for education. Even though many had made a case over the past year or so that the device was made for more than just media consumption, I still found many factors lacking and concerning.

Despite my concerns, I was observing at other schools and reading on blogs and twitter feeds the merits of the iPad. Also, with a limited test deployment at my school, I've seen the fabulous ways that students interact with the device. So, I've challenged myself over the coming weeks and months to take a hard look at the iPad as a serious (and perhaps "game-changing," even though I hate using that term) device for education and how it can be seemlessly integrated into an educational program that involves student inquiry, research and collaboration.

I am writing this post on my iPad, and in follow up posts I will document my explorations (both myself and with my students) on using the iPad in various ways in the educational setting.

Stay tuned.

Doing the "Interactive Flip" with VoiceThread.

As mentioned earlier in this blog, I have been experimenting with incorporating Project-Based Learning into my teaching.  In particular, I have had my students using Web 2.0 tools such a Glogster, VoiceThread, Google Apps, and Jaycut.  The problem I kept having was a matter of time.  Being a history teacher, and seeing the importance of building a narrative, I wasn't ready to completely do away with basic lectures and discussions while moving to more projects in the classroom, even though I want my students to discover more of their learning for themselves.  So, what was often happening is I would spend a couple of days lecturing on a topic and, in-between, giving students time to work on their projects.  Usually, this wasn't enough, so they would have to finish their projects at home.  Often they would have questions, encounter technical difficulties, and they would end up emailing me at 11:30 with these issues.  This was frustrating for them and me.

Then, about 6 weeks ago, I came across several articles talking about Reverse Intruction.  In this technique, developed by chemistry teacher Karl Fisch, a teacher records their lectures for the students to watch at home.  This gives them their "basic" level of understanding.  Then in-class, students have more time to do the more complicated, deeper work of the class.  I found this to be a wonderful idea that could be applied to almost any area of study.  The only problem I saw with this was the limited amount of interactivity that students had with just watching the video of a lecture.  My solution, was the use of a resource I had been using with my students: VoiceThread.  VoiceThread, for those of you who aren't familiar with it, is an online service that allows you to take presentations, video, pictures, and documents, and place them online and comment on them interactively.  I find this to be a more interactive version of Reverse Instruction (an interactive "Folmer Flip" as opposed to the ground-breeaking "Fisch Flip" of innovator Karl Fisch).  So, I now take the presentations that I had been using for lectures in class and place them on VoiceThread.  I then make comments using my webcam to turn it into a 15-20 minutes lecture that students can watch and have some simple questions to answer at the end (I use Edline for this, but you could also do it with something like Google Forms)  The nice thing about the VoiceThread is that students can make their own comments on the presentation, ask questions, draw on the slides, even interact with their classmates.  I can go back and check on these and add new information for clarification (I also place the presentations on Google Docs for students to review and print out later).  This then leaves class time to do more work on projects, analyze documents, or have deeper discussions that would have been taken up with the lecture.  In this way, my students and I are interacting on a deeper level with more differentiated and personalized learning.  Also, using VoiceThread for this is very easy since it is entirely web-based.  All the teacher needs is a mic or webcam (or you could type you comments, like many students do, but this is less engaging).

This is still an very early experiment, but the students have been giving me very positive feedback thus far and all indications show they are learning more.  Below are some examples of VoiceThreads I've done with this method.  Please share any information or feedback in your comments!