iPads k-2

1-11-12 - Wednesday

We have now had two days of iPad use so far

A couple of notes –

1.     We limited the number of apps we installed so that each would be investigated before either the teacher or the student moved on. With too many apps we have found that some are looked at for 10 seconds and they move on – mile wide inch deep.

2.     Our regular meetings/informal discussions will be launching points for new apps

3.     Before each preliminary introduction I meet with the teacher to explain the use of some of the apps – some have experience most don’t but all are very very receptive and excited about their use

Kindergarten – the class was split so they were introduced 11 students at a time – structure was important – with 30 minutes available they started by playing with a specific app – just to familiarize themselves with the device – Next step was to learn how to – TURN THE VOLUME DOWN – not surprising.

            With the intitial familiarization complete it was time to move on to an app called “my story”. Here the students can create a short book by drawing a picture and adding text – see below

1. Intro window,  2. pages in story, 3. exported to ibooks, 4. other pages in iBook

 The next day, Tuesday – we introduced them in one of the second grade classes. Most of the students had either seen or used an iPad before so the “how to use” component was not needed. Structure still was required and they eventually settled on either “MathBingo” or “stack the states”

The other second grade teacher followed and had some excellent comments about the iPad.  We discussed the philosophy of the iPad – is it a toy or tool, are the students to be passive learners or active ones – how can we avoid having them associate the iPad with toys and/or games. At home we might use the iPad as a game tool when we require some “quiet time” or we can use it as a learning tool. On the education side the teachers are actively involved in the use of the iPad – assigning a task to be completed and continuously roaming the room to make sure that the students are working. We are making sure here to deisgn lessons that cause the students to be active, to investigate to ask questions and find solutions. We are rethinking our teaching methods to use this new tool. So this is where we are – working on finding great apps, sharing them when we find them, sharing how we use them, talking about better ways to use them. So the seed has been planted – next steps teach, collaborate, meet, take a step forward à end result students who are excited to learn via pen, paper, computer, iPad …

K-2 iPad roll out - day 1

Today we introduced iPads to the Kindergarteners. Wow! Over the next week the students in grades K,1 and 2 will all begin to use iPads in the classroom. We were so fortunate to receive some funds that allowed us to purchase an additional set of 22 iPads and a cart to store them in. Their use will be shared based upon a schedule that we developed with those teachers who were using them. Basically the classes have one hour blocks assigned to them each week. We thought that this was much better than the sign out system – (which is how allocate the use of the current upper school laptops). It allows them to be certain of the availability of the device.

We spent some time over the last month creating the roll out plan. As usual the details took time and the syncing of the apps did as well. We are looking into CASPER (An IOS device management tool) to help but until then we are working with what was given to us by Apple. What is great is the wireless syncing and the wireless automatic download of new apps (Unfortunately limited to 10 devices per iTunes account). We are looking into a more efficient means of syncing the apps, but until then we will manually sync.

Apps – We have pre-loaded the iPads (2’s by the way) – with several apps – that we decided would be a good start for general use across K-2. What is one of the most important pieces is the collaboration – there are ½ a million apps available and therefor critical that we all can help search and define those best suited for the students. I will be observing and meeting with the teachers both individually and collectively to assess and determine next steps. We will meet as a unit monthly to talk about lessons learned and any new apps that were discovered – this is the gold!! I will post the Apps that we went with shortly.

Below are a few pictures of the students in action on day 1  (click on pictures to make larger)

Thanksgiving IOS update

11-27-11

The students turned in their iPads so that I could upgrade them to IOS 5 over the Thanksgiving break. During the summer I had configured them so that they could be synced using the cart that we had purchased. I thought that because of the carts ability to hold 30 iPads, we should be able to expedite the roughly 15 minute per iPad process. So much for that idea – when 30 were connected to the host computer it could not handle the multiple syncing and took a bit longer – it took 3  days to get them all synced and required constant user input from me – Again I was hoping to set it and forget it.

Once all had been synced we found that two had lost data – for some reason the iPads thought that they had to be restored shortly after plugging them in - 1 student and 1 faculty.

Once the sync had occurred – we found that the facetime was reinstalled (we had removed it using restrictions due to overuse) and we also had to go through a few screens on each iPad to set it up again – more time

Final Lesson – Budget extra time

One of the new features of the IOS 5 is cloud storage and syncing wirelessly – the wireless syncing should be rather useful. When I sign on to the same Wi-Fi as the student I can see all the iPads – could be good when we want to add an app.

Friday Update

11-18-11

The big issue with iPads lately is the students leaving them outside their lockers. During the typical day it’s not much of an issue because the location is on campus and remote but as we have guests on campus they are open and could potentially be stolen. If they are found we take them for 1 week. I have had about 10 at any given time for a while – it is beginning to taper off so hopefully it will die down soon – the students miss their iPads.

Following up on the 3 ideas I had in the last post

1.     I received the Apple TV and immediately connected it but quickly found out that you cannot just get an HDMI to VGA adapter cable – you need to actually order a converter box to perform the D to A conversion. I ordered the box and hopefully we will be on track next week.

2.     I have decided to video myself using an app, post it to YouTube and then catalog it on the WIKI – the link is here https://hdssharedresource.wikispaces.com/APPS.

3.     I have not followed up much with the eBook checkout other than posting the question to a user group. I had one person who had/was having a bad experience with Overdrive (the e checkout option for library) and several others that seemed to be having some luck with it – we will certainly be exploring it.

Too Much

11-14-11

Some days the flood of ideas, requests, opportunities is just overwhelming – not in a bad way, rather in an overexcited way. So today

1.     iPad broadcasting to the Smartboard/projector – I was playing with my iPad this weekend when I found that I could mirror the iPad on the TV via Apple TV. This would certainly be useful in the classroom but is there an app that can do it? If so the $99 cost of Apple TV would not be justifiable, if not then we need to use this. There are many teachers that would love to broadcast to the board. The students could share their work if they chose to.

2.     iPad apps and wiki collaboration  - I have been struggling with all the apps that are available and how to share them. We want to have teachers (all now have iPads) to find and share any apps that are useful. I have been working on a wiki to help this sharing and will let the teachers know of it at the next faculty meeting.

3.     eBook and Kindle library book checkout – Our head librarian came to me 5 minutes ago and talked to me about electronic checkout of books for our library. I had heard that the public library was doing here but now we might have the opportunity to house electronic checkout right here. The company is called Overdrive and we will be doing a little research on this.

Collaborate Anywhere

11-10-11

The amazing thing about the mobility of computers and iPads etc is the ability to stop and have a meeting anywhere anytime. An example – today I was on my way to my room when our Latin teacher came up to me to show how the students were using their iPads to video a skit, place that video into Keynote and assemble slides and multiple videos to then show to the class. The issue was how could they share the videos so that they could embed others videos into their own Keynote presentation. We were looking at emailing them to themselves then opening in dropbox etc. We ended up videoing on the iPad, editing in iMovie, sending it to the camera roll then uploading to dropbox where any student could download the movie to import into their Keynote presentation – ALL on the iad!

SO – On the spot once we had solved the problem, the teacher videotaped me walking through the steps so that we would not forget it, then we uploaded that video to youtube to view.

Video below (you tube link is http://youtu.be/mYcHnuB2o74)

2 month review

10-31-11

The iPads have now been in use at the school for 2 months. The students have lost a few styluses, several have found ones that they like more than those handed out, and the teachers have begun to request apps that they would like downloaded onto their iPads. We have just improved our wireless system and as far as connectivity goes we are good. We have 47 8^th graders using these devices and about 15 of their teachers. The teachers are really doing a wonderful job of integrating them into the classroom and the students are showing that they are capable of properly using this new device.

            I was surprised to find that in the Algebra class that I teach 4 out of the 8 students still complete their homework on paper, of those 4, one felt that there was little benefit in the use of the iPad. This is obviously a surprise but is not the case with the balance of the 47 students. It does warrant some further investigation which I will be completing this month.

            We also recently gave iPads to the k-4 teachers here at school. We spent an afternoon reviewing the features of them and discussion their use in the classroom. What we specifically said was that we will be collecting them again just after Christmas break and that if they were used as a paper weight or as a useful tool either was acceptable. The intent of course was not to burden them with additional work but rather to support them. Additionally I would be visiting the classrooms to share Apps and use that I was able to discover. This seems to be working well and we do have a couple of early adopters who are really helping the other teachers.  What I am also finding is that in order to really be able to help the teachers I have to know and understand their curriculum. So over the course of the year I am going to really make an effort to learn how they teach. I will have to do this across the board with all our grade K-8 in order to really be effective – looks like a several year target.

           

I just attended a leadership workshop and as we happened to begin a discussion on the iPads a few of those at our table began to talk about how their “leaders” had initiated the iPad use. What she said was that the iPads were just given to them with an expectation that they incorporate their use into the classroom. There was really no formal direction given and many felt overwhelmed by this new expectation. As a result she and a few others have begun to meet to discuss and share the opportunity for using them in the classroom. This is something that I had really hoped to avoid here at Harbor Day School and while we might have been able to mitigate it a little, as I look forward I must focus my effort on this. As a note we also introduced a whole new website this year which has pushed the staff as well.