Technology as a Tool

After seven weeks (28 actual class days) of working with iPads, netbooks and desktop computers in the classroom in a 1:1 environment, my students have settled into a pretty swell routine. The apps most used by students to get their work done are Safari for Internet research, and Office² HD for creating documents and/or adding them to their Google Docs. For fun I catch students playing Chess or Rush Hour. Along with Doodle Buddy, still a favorite, those are the apps students use the most.

On my iPad I find myself using Office² HD whenever I need to work with documents. I also use Mail, Reeder, TwitBird Pro, Read It Later, Evernote, Wordpress, Facebook, and Dictionary the most. I have used Gusto a few times when I want to edit my HW webpages on my iPad instead of pulling out my laptop. Our tech guy also turned me on to Desktop, which has been great for connecting to my Macs from my iPad, but I haven't used it as much as I thought I would. Having the PDF Reader has also been invaluable since I get a lot of attachments via email.

What I'm most delighted with has been how students work in a 1:1 environment and how well they make use of the iPads for learning. They are truly using the technology as tools. It's not about the technology, it's about learning and working. I filmed a typical day of my students at work. What you see in that video is what I see every day! This is what I was hoping would happen. The technology is no different than books, paper and pencils were when I was in school. This is how it should be. Check it out:

Play First, Work Later

When you bring out math manipulatives you let the kids play with them a bit so that later they can focus on the work of learning with the tool. That was my intent with our new iPads and netbooks. I have lots of ideas I want my students to try out but first I thought I'd let them play. They did ask nicely, after all. :)

I was also curious as to the apps they would gravitate to on their own. At first I was a bit surprised to see kids going to YouTube and Safari. I mean, they could do that on my iMacs. Many were content with YouTube in all of my five classes. Most did try out some apps. Doodle Buddy was a huge hit (Draw Free was popular but I saw more kids use Doodle Buddy). Rush Hour as well. I even got hooked! The chess app was quite popular. Meanderthal made kids curious but the iPads can't take pictures so they couldn't try it out. A few kids checked out Animals HD and the HD Marine Life App. I even had a few kids write a blog! Two were blogs about the iPads and one was actually the current assignment! Here are some of the kids' blogs on the iPads: iPads and Netbooks, The iPads, New iPads, and here's a blog with a Poll Daddy poll and a second student tried it too (it was extremely easy!).

What an awesome play experience! Here are the results of a Google Form asking kids which apps they liked the best.

Here's a video of their first day of play:

The Problem with Google’s Android in Education

----There are no name brand Android devices that can only be used with a Wi-Fi connection. *

----While the app market is getting stronger, education apps are far behind when compared to Apple. *

*there are exceptions

There are many types of technology devices that our used within our schools.  There are three main ways that teachers and students connect to the internet.

1. Ethernet
2. Wi-Fi
3. Mobile Network

Ethernet and Wi-Fi are the two most common ways to connect to the internet, but when it comes to mobile devices Wi-Fi is the number one choice for schools.  I do use my Android phone in the classroom for many reasons and these are listed in my other posts, but I am not very comfortable handing MY phone over to a 6^th grader.  (Don’t get me wrong, I have some very trustworthy students…it just isn’t the best solution)

There are some districts that have allowed phones into the classroom, but they are much smaller in numbers when compared to Wi-Fi.  School districts are hurting so bad financially that I do not see a big jump to phones in the classroom.  Monthly fees and massive budget cuts do not help.  Why can’t the kids just bring their own phones to school?  Most districts, that I know, want to have control of the devices. (What they do and where they go)  There are also many safety concerns with a gadget that has freewill.  So what is the problem? Google and the electronics manufacturers do not have a name brand Wi-Fi only device at this point in time. (September 6, 2010)

I am looking for this device.

So………Apple has the iPod Touch and the iPad. Google has the Archos.  Of course all of us know Archos???  You can find an Archos device at Best Buy, Radio Shack, and online at Newegg, but I am not comfortable with buying an off-brand device.  Dell has the “Streak,” but I can’t find one that is Wi-Fi only.  I have seen some people buy an Android phone on eBay.  They don’t activate the phone and they just use the Wi-Fi.  All of this seems too complicated for the education world to commit to.  The future looks bright for Google if they can produce a nice tablet that fits the needs of most schools.

Can you see it?  A tablet that works seamlessly with Google docs, plays flash video, and has all the educations apps just like Appl…….cough…cough.  Wait a minute.

Google has a lot of apps. Don’t they have wonderful education apps like Apple?  The short and simple answer is NO.  Android’s marketplace doesn’t have a category dedicated to education like Apple does.  There are app review sites for Android, which help in finding some good apps. (There are some reviews on IEAR too and I hope this will grow soon)  The biggest problem for Android education apps is that there is no device that is well suited for the classroom.  Apple has devices in the classroom and developers create for that market.  Small numbers of Android devices in the classroom equals small number of apps in the Android marketplace.  It seems like elementary math to me and as many number crunchers Google has, you would think someone at Google could calculate this.  I am just a lowly 6^th grade teacher and I was able to make this calculation!

To answer a Scott Meech question from the IEAR Podcast  #3.  Is there a return policy on Android Apps?  Here it is from Google-

Refund policy
You have 24 hours from the time of purchase (not download) to return an application purchased through Android Market for a full refund. You may only return a given application once; if you subsequently purchase the same app again, you may not return it a second time.

As always…if you have any questions you can contact me.

Zack Gilbert

also posted at-   www.normaledtech.com

http://twitter.com/zgilbert



Great Star Watching App

Just recently I spent four days in beautiful Lake Crescent with Math and Science teachers from the Olympic region in WA state. I brought my iPad and one app in particular made a huge impression on many teachers. Star Walk.

At $4.99 it's well worth it if you're into watching stars.

We would start by the lake facing west. As the Sun set we'd bring out the iPad and launch Star Walk.

The first screen to pop up gives you rising and setting times for the Sun, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn plus Moon phase info in a visually stunning format as seen below.

By clicking the X in bottom right hand corner you are brought to the view of the skies. The picture below shows the western horizon as viewed by people in WA state. You can a dotted line which shows the ecliptic or path of the Sun. Since this screen shot was taken at 10:14pm (PST) the Sun is below the horizon and out of our view. You can see where the planets are and as you move the screen view different constellations come into view. We were lucky enough to have a green laser to point at the stars so we could easily see which stars we were pointing at. Green lasers can be a bit pricy, I got mine for about $80, but if you're a star watcher and will be watching with other people I highly recommend getting one. I just checked the site where I ordered my green laser pointer and they're down in price. You can get one as low as $49 from Z-Bolt (and no, I don't work for them). Without a green laser it's difficult figuring out which star people are pointing to. With the laser you can actually see a green beam of light extend up into the sky to use as a sky pointer!

Each night we'd go out and enjoy pointing out the stars as the iPad was passed around with the green laser. And all this with no wifi signal whatsoever! Great summer fun!

iPads in Science - by Al Gonzalez

(Click on any image on this post to see it full size.) This is a cross post that I started on my blog as a plan for using 12 iPads in the Fall of the 2010-11 school year with my middle school Science classes. I teach three 6th grade classes and two 8th grade classes. Here's what I'm planning to use on the 12 iPads. On the bottom dock of the main screen, next to the Safari, Mail and iPod links, I've placed a link to my 6th grade Moodle page, a link to my 8th grade Moodle page and a link to our classblogmeister blogs. Students can access my Moodle documents and links and resources as well as their blog accounts. With Cinch students can even create podcasts to load onto their blogs. Along with Cinch I also had to get Blue FiRe cause it's great for recording. Sadly, they can't create glogs or prezis on the iPads but that's why I'm glad I have iMacs and PC's for students to be able to do those as well. At least that's what I thought until @NMHS_Principal reminded us that CloudBrowse allows you to view flash content on the iPhone and iPad. We'll see if prezi and glogster will work. I'm planning to use twitter in class so I got Twitbird Pro. I love having class discussions where more than one student can "talk" at a time, especially the quiet, shy ones. Go backchanneling! I tried using Moodle chat this past year with students in their small teams and after a slight hiccup it became a huge success! For an RSS agregator I find Reeder to be fantastic. The Weather Channel Max (TWC Max+) for the iPad is awesome and kicks butt of the iPhone version. It's going to be great. I got my school a Google Apps account and with the Documents2 app students can access their Google Docs or share their work from Documents2 via FTP or via a web address. It's a pretty nifty app. Photo Pad allows us to share pictures using Flickr so I'm excited about using that app too. I'm sure students will find Dragon Dictation useful, my 7 year old daughter loves it but she enjoys all the errors it makes :). I also have a Science glossary, ScienceVL, and a regular Dictionary with Thesaurus (dictionary.com). Google Earth for the iPad, a calculator app, PCalc Lite, a timer app, iLab: Timer HD, and a unit Converter app, round out the main screen. [Addendum: After trying out Tweetdeck for the iPad I'm not happy with it. It crashes constantly and I can't add a Facebook column and I couldn't even figure out how to delete a column. Maybe I'm missing something. So I've deleted Tweetdeck. I've also decided against Read It Later, it's great for me but I'm not sure students will need it. Same thing with the Delicious Bookmark app. So those three are gone. Add to the list Dropbox. I would need to buy another app because I can't use Documents2 with Dropbox so I've decided to keep Documents2 and delete Dropbox.]

On the second screen I have some Science apps. One of my absolute favorites is The Elements app, which is the most incredible way I have seen to learn about elements in the periodic table. There are some fantastic periodic table websites out there but this app blows them away! The Star Walk and Solar Walk are also very cool and along with the moon phase app will be very enjoyable and helpful for students. The BrainPop app is pretty cool and I'm curious about the Bug Sim app (pictured below). I haven't tried it yet, but it's a simulation game (the only game I have on the iPad cause the learning apps I have are fun enough, right?) "for Darwinian Evolution, specifically through survival of the fittest." [Okay, so I tried Bug Sim. Not visually stunning, the bugs are multicolored one or two pixel square boxes. Fainter, smaller circles represent food. You choose how many bugs to start with, how much food, and how food regenerates. You can even add up to two gardens of Eden with quickly regenerating food supply. Then you let it run and see what happens with a graph showing population growth and decline. It also shows births, deaths, and mutations. I think i will try it with my 8th grade Life Science classes.] With Animation HD students can create animations to use on their blogs or wikis. Ezimba is a cool app for students to add effects to photographs. Another creative app. VideoScience has some great videos of science experiments and labs. So along with DNA Lite, Molecules, Insects HD, Animals HD, and HD Marine Life 2 I think students can do some fun learning (had to find stuff for my 8th grade Life Science students). MeAnderthal is just fun (too bad you can't take pictures with the iPad, we really need that feature added). GoDocs is good for viewing Google Docs (viewing only as I discovered after buying it). Then iBooks, Kindle and Stanza round out this second screen. After reading iPad in Education I added the Photopad app to this screen for photo editing to go along with Ezimba.

The third screen is as yet undeveloped. I have some apps here that I am using this summer but don't plan to use with students. HistoryMaps is cool so I'll keep it for my students who appreciate history like I do :) I added some more apps to fill up this screen after reading iPad in Education. I added Comic Touch Lite (the free version), Draw Free and Doodle Buddy to help students create what they need for their blogs or wikis. I also added 3D Brain, Brain Tutor and 3D Sun for some fun Science. And I gave in and added a game. The free version of Rush Hour. So I can't wait until October! :o) Please let know if I'm missing anything or if there's a cool iPad app I should try.

Since writing this post I've added a few more apps that I'm looking forward to testing on my kids to see how they work.

I've added 3D Cell Stain for my 8th grade Life Science classes.

I've also added the following:
GoodReader,
Qikcrossword,
GroupBoard,
iDraft,
Sundry Notes,
Idea Sketch,
Free Emoji,
Adobe Ideas,
Caster Free,
SparkVue,
Firefox Home,
GPS Tracker, and
GoToMeeting.

Those are the latest I want to try out. Don't know if they're must have or not. I'll see which ones work or are even needed when I start using them with students.