iPad shortcuts

Some of the tips in this article have already been mentioned (love the split keyboard gesture!) but here are some more neat things that might come in handy with your iPad.  One of my favorites is the gesture to return to the home screen!  There is also a quick way to switch between recent apps that would be a time saver!

http://ipad.appstorm.net/roundups/utilities-roundups/40-super-secret-ipad-features-and-shortcuts/

East Jordan schools purchase 770 iPad minis

This article has just firmed up my beliefs that we are heading down the right track for technology.

In this article (Click here to read) East Jordan is going to buy every student in the high school an iPad Mini with a case and blue tooth keyboard. They are also going to buy iPads for all the rest of their students, but they will not have an option to take them home. In the article is says that they have about 1,000 students...just like us.

Very interesting to read...

-Dylan

More apps to share

I have tried and kid tested these FREE apps this week and thought that some of you might want to try them...

A+ -- free app. You can enter and voice record your own spelling words. It asks you the words and helps you when you get it wrong. After you test you can email the teacher the results.. With a list of what words were missed.

Feedly, pocket, twitter -- using this to read professional journals. Pocket is a way to save offline. I can check google reader/rss feeds/twitter accounts and just click "read later" then it download to my pocket to read when I am offline.

Geomaster, tap quiz - good free social studies apps

Overdrive - using this to get books from McBain library

Virtual manipulatives - basically fraction bars online. I don't know how useful since I don' t use these in class.

Sticky note - sticky notes on the ipad! Best of all they are available offline.

Dani

Fun/good apps to share

I have been playing...um, working....For the past few days on my new toy....um, tool.

Matt approved:

Stack the states. The free version is good, but I actually bought the .99 version since he liked it so much. It directly relates to what he is learning in 4th grade.

Doodle Buddy: This is just cool, but could be used for a whiteboard in class (I think the students in the video were using this when answering the teacher at the board.) It is free.

Meteor Math: I woke up to Matt smashing meteors while practicing multiplication tables to 12x12....Guess I need to passcode this! This is free, too.

I'll keep you updated until I go back into the 1970's (otherwise known as the inlaws house) where the internet does not exist.

I am sure that everyone found the common core standards app.

Does anyone still have the twitter suggestions from the speaker on November 1st? I forgot to bring them with me and am trying to use that for professional development like she suggested.

If anyone else has neat/useful apps, could you please post as well.

Dani

Excellent Resource for Webinars

I have been using this site to take part in webinars.  There are lots of great FREE webinars coming up that have to do specifically with iPads.  Any that say "(Full access required)" require being a member, but if it does not say that by the registration button they are free.  These are very fast paced - usually 0.5 hour of non-stop talking by the presenter - but you usually get an ebook, slides, and/or reference material to go back and look at afterwards.

Also, if you click on the Shared Resources tab at the top, there are ebooks from past webinars as well.  These are also FREE.

Dani

http://community.simplek12.com/scripts/student/webinars/browse.asp?show=upcoming#more

This survey covers every possible technology question. Plus .5 CEU

Project Tomorrow, www.tomorrow.org and MDE are offering SCECHs/SB-CEUs to teachers and administrators who take the survey through our Non-Seat Time Pilot. Administrators must share the survey results with their community. Teachers who take the survey must also have their students take the survey. Both administrators and teachers can earn .5 SB-CEUs (or 5 what are now called State Continuing Education Clock Hours - SCECH). Project Tomorrow (www.tomorrow.org) is a national technology related survey. The secret word for students, educators, and parents to take the survey is su_mi. This will work for all Michigan schools to access the survey even if you have a separate district or school survey password set up from past survey cycles. To view the data in February 2013 you will need the school or district admin password, which Ann-Marie Smith smitha24@michigan.gov, offering coordinator can provide. You may email her for the password as that date approaches. The survey closes December 21, 2012. Data will be uploaded into the SCR in January of 2013. Please remember there is an email generated by the SCR and from then a one month window to take the offering evaluation in order to be awarded the clock hours.

Digital Wake-Up Call: Could On-line Assessments Spur Districts to Take the One-to-One Leap?

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/scholastic/administrator_2012latefall/#/12

This is a link to an article in the Scholastic Administra​tor called Digital Wake-Up Call:  Could On-line Assessments Spur Districts to Take the One-to-One Leap? By Erich Strom  The article is on page 10.  It discusses the scores of students who took the writing portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).  Their scores were much better than those who are not using technology for writing assignments regularly. 

In short, it's more evidence and research to support the facts.  We need to give our students the skills they need to take them into the 21st century.  Not just for use while they are in school, but to take them into the career choices they will make in the future. As the article states, the on-line assessments are just a "wake-up call".  What we decide to do with it is up to each individual district.  In my 25 years at McBain, it's been my experience that we like to be ahead of the curve.

Five Ways to Waste the Potential of Classroom ipads

. Five Ways to Waste the Potential of Classroom iPads

In this helpful article in Edudemic, tech consultant and former high-school history teacher Tom Daccord lists mistakes he’s seen schools making with iPads in classrooms and points the way to more-effective use:

• Focusing only on content apps – Some teachers think iPads are useless if apps in their subject area aren’t available. But a Latin class, for example, could use apps like VoiceThread to record students speaking Latin or having a collaborative discussion about Cicero. Students could use Animoto for a lively student presentation on Latin vocabulary, or the Socrative app for a Latin quiz, or Explain Everything to create a grammar tutorial. Daccord says there are limitless possibilities across subject areas using four basic types of apps: annotation, screencasting, audio creation, and video creation.
• Unprepared teachers – To ensure that tablet computers are used effectively, teachers need some serious PD, says Daccord: “Decades of research has shown that when teachers have access to new technologies, their instinct is to use new technologies to extend existing practices. Without guidance, iPads become expensive notebooks used by students in very traditionally structured stand-and-deliver classrooms.” And giving teachers their own iPads to play with outside school is poor preparation for effective classroom use. They need training on workflow issues like cloud computing, the interaction of different apps and file types, file format compatibility, file conversion tools, all-in-one management solutions, and translating these concepts so students can use them.
• Treating iPads like computers or laptops – “iPads are devices meant to complement computers, not replace them,” says Daccord. iPads simply don’t have equivalent functionality. They are best for helping students (especially young students) kinesthetically connect with their work by zooming, rotating, pinching, or swiping. iPads can also be used to take pictures, record audio, and shoot video. Students can use them to tell multimedia stories, screencast the solution to math problems, create public service announcements, and simulate tours of ancient cities. “Active consumption, curation, and creativity suit the device,” says Daccord. “Stand-and-deliver teaching does not.”
• Having multiple students use an iPad at the same time – “Carts that rotate through several classrooms force teachers to take time away from learning, create a nightmare of student accounts, and often focus attention on workflow systems rather than learning,” says Daccord. If funding shortages make one-on-one iPad allocation impossible, he recommends putting full class sets into a few pilot classrooms for an entire year – and pick classrooms whose teachers will use the iPads to their fullest extent.
• Not explaining why we bought all those iPads – “Letting the purchase speak for itself isn’t enough,” says Daccord. “Districts need to explain why they’ve invested in these devices.” Their use has to be in service of teaching students essential skills, taking advantage of “the incredibly immersive and active learning environment the iPad engenders and the unprecedented opportunities to develop personalized, student-centered learning.” School leaders should make the case that with these devices, students literally have the world at their fingertips – “and the only limitation to what students might do in this vast space is the vision of educators.”

“5 Critical Mistakes Schools Make With iPads (and How to Correct Them)” by Tom Daccord in Edudemic, Sept. 27, 2012; Daccord can be reached at tom@edtechteacher.org; the article is at http://edudemic.com/2012/09/5-critical-mistakes-schools-ipads-and-correct-them/

 

One-to-One Computing has benefits, pitfalls

This article has some good points that Teachers and the Administration need to buy in or you could see declining results

http://www.fwdailynews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9629:One-to-One-Computing-has-benefits,-pitfalls&catid=90:grace-housholder

Numbers...Numbers...It's always about the numbers

I think that we are all on the page that 1:1 computing is the way to go. Here are a few interesting articles and statistics about 1:1.

E-School News Link

"Sixty-nine percent of the schools in the study reported that their students’ achievement scores on high-stakes tests were on the rise. Among schools with 1-to-1 computing programs, that figure was 70 percent. But it was 85 percent for schools with 1-to-1 computing programs that employed certain strategies for success, including electronic formative assessments on a regular basis and frequent collaboration of teachers in professional learning communities."

"In fact, a strong principal and strong district leadership are among the most important variables when it comes to implementing education technology and transforming schools, which suggests that change management training is especially important for principals involved in large-scale technology implementations."

 Then we get down into the PC vs. Mac(or even chrome book) debate which I'm sure we all have thoughts on. I found this really neat website that has some very interesting points for both sides as well as a little bit of humor.

Here is the link to that site

Just to leave you with an interesting quote from another article on the debate.

"Honestly, I think a mix of machines is good because many don’t have the choice of what they work with in the workplace. If we are are really worried about preparing students for the “real world,” then they need to learn how to use both Mac’s and PC’s. Sometimes, school administrators, tech guys, and teachers let their personal preference and prejudice get in the way of what is best for the students.The student that knows how to use both Mac’s and PC’s is going to be ready to work in the world of computer craziness."