Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Renita's thoughts


Here are some of my thoughts about IPADs in the classroom. It was definitely a good idea to give the product to teachers first. If teachers are not given time to think about the changes that should occur in the classroom, the use of any type of technology will be limited to just fitting it into the current instruction, expectations, assessments and tasks. Teachers need to be comfortable with the devices and have time to think about classroom integration and transformation. Writing in the blog gave us the chance to experience a web tool that could be useful in the classroom.

If you haven't seen this TED Talk by Diana Laufenberg, it is  worth 10 minutes of your time.

Here is an interesting article about digital textbooks: http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2010/10/20/01digtextbooks.h04.html?cmp=clp-edweek

The IPAD has been a very useful tool. I can use it for AIMSweb tasks no matter where I am. It has been great for taking notes in meetings and during classroom visits. Finding information is easy. The information piece is its greatest strength. It is what I grab when I go into classrooms. It is not what I use to work on Smart lessons, make assessments, make new webpages, or complete other lengthy tasks. When our classrooms do transform, I'm not yet convinced that the IPAD will be the best tool for students. I'm also thinking that students would probably use whatever device they have outside of classroom time as much, if not more frequently than during class time. Hopefully the classroom of the future will balance direct instruction with projects than include collaboration, conversation and integration of content.

Here is a list of Challenges and Successes from the Palm Beach IPAD Project. It was a link from a page you sent to us earlier.  I didn't see Study Island on the list - it falls under the "some things work" category.

Challenges and Successes

Please list anything on an iPad that you used in your classroom that either worked or did not work and list why it worked the way it did. If there are things that can be amended to make it work better, please list that as well.
All of these were tested on the public network.

Applications/Software
Works perfectly
Does not work
Some things work
Notes
Learning Village
X


Some external links may not work.
End of Course Exams

X


FCAT Explorer

X


Destination Reading, Math, etc

X

HMH has a possible solution to be discussed 4/29/10
PDF's
X



Gizmos


X
The actual Gizmo does not work; however the documentation (pdf, doc) does load.
PBSpaces Blog
X


Works on web and there is a WordPress App
DEStreaming


X
Mobile site coming begining of August. All Quicktime Videos Work. Some videos on their homepage are flash based and do not work. Some videos work others do not. Tested the video "The Holocaust: A Teenager's Experience" and it worked.
netTrekker


X
Read aloud is sporadic; however this is a known IT issue.
TrainU
X



Vodcast Server

X


District Exchange Email
X


Works in Safari
Destiny
X



Edline
X



VMathLive!

X


Youtube
X



District Website
X



Core K12
X



BrainPOP & BrainPOP Jr.

X

They do have an iPad app that shows the featured video each day with a quiz. No plans to move to HTML5.
Weekly Reader


X
Games do not work; however, teacher center works
World Book for Students


X
Everything works except for video
eHartcourtSchool.com


X
Pages show up fine; interactive activites do not work.
Kids Infobits
X



Tumblebooks

X


Glogster

X


NASA for Kids


X
Most things work; on a few things that don't
Wordle

X


National Geographic for Kids

X


PBS Kids (Games)

X


Kids Click Search
X


Search works fine; linked sites may not work
Starfall

X


Student Resource Center from Gale
X



Common Craft

X


eLibrary


X
Everything works except for video
SIRS Discoverer
X



Internet Public Library for Teens
X


Search works fine; linked sites may not work
Ask a Librarian


X
Email works; chat doesn't
Prezi

X


VoiceThread

X


CompassLearning

X


E2020

X


SIRS Researcher
X



World Book Kids
X



FunBrain


X
Some games work and others don't
Delicious
X



Teachingbooks.net


X
PDF files work but author videos and slideshows do not.
Keynote (like PowerPoint)
X


App that can be purchased
Pages (like Word)
X


App that can be purchased
Numbers (like Excel)
X


App that can be purchased
Animoto
X


There's an app for that
Scholastic Suite

X


App Store (native app)


X
Can navigate and find apps, music, etc., but cannot download and install on Public Network.
iBooks


X
Can navigate and find books, but cannot download books on Public Network.
Google Mail
X


Does not work in Mail App
Google Calendar
X



Google Docs


X
Can view docs but not edit them. You can purchase Docs to Go and edit Google Docs.
Google Sites
X



Teachscapes
X


Free app that can be downloaded.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I have been using the IPAD during this second round and I love it for personal use and uses that help me with me with my "teacher" jobs (checkiing email, aimsweb, etc.)
I have shared my IPAD with my middle school students, and have had discussions with them as to how they see our school using them. They are super excited and love the IPAD-so in terms of motivation, it's there! (and that excitement is something middle school students sometimes lack as it pertains to school). Mnay of the apps, though, seemed to be a better fit for younger students (the reading apps were more for early reading), so I would say that I am still trying to figure out how to best use my IPAD to catch some of their excitement and move forward to more academic uses.

Bronwyn Lehman said...

During the last few months I have found the iPad to be educationally beneficial in my capacity as a school psychologist. Primarily the iPad expedites the observation and evaluation process by allowing me to take notes and observations electronically in "real time," saving me time later. The iPad also has some useful apps such as the stopwatch and chronological age calculator. However, in terms of being able to provide me with an innovative tool that allows me to do my job "better" in that it has tools that would build on my foundational knowledge of my profession, I was unable to find any. But it is a great tool for research, allowing me to quickly look up more information on relevant topics in my profession ( ie evaluation tools for ad/hd or up to date research on S.L.D. assessment and diagnosis).

I did like Beth O's idea about using it as a reward for good behavior. I didn't have an opportunity to try that as no situation arose in which it would be applicable given most of my students have so far worked well 1:1 with me and I am also at the hs. However, every time a student I've evaluated has seen it, or when I observe a class, I always get comments about how "cool" it is.

Pros
Good for Internet research during meetings-provides ways to research products being presented
Good for taking notes electronically in " real time" which saves time later!

Cons
Would like a USB port
Internet doesn't always work
Word program would be very beneficial

Overall I will miss having my iPad as it has often saved me time and allowed me to more efficiently multitask. I do see it as being a tool to create more engagement with students, especially our more at-risk students. And from reading the other posts, I can already see how it is fostering creativity for students and the teachers!