Recently my environmental science iPad pilot class used the Pages app (yes, the same program Mac users are familiar with) to create invasive species posters. These are not just any posters, but “NOT Wanted” posters. I can’t claim this is my idea, as environmental science teachers have issued this assignment for years–just do a quick Google search. The basic idea was to produce posters about invasive species on our campus made in the spirit of old west (USA) “Wanted” posters for notorious criminals.
NOT Wanted Poster Example
My students were able to create beautiful posters with relative ease on the iPad2. Then, I had the students put up the posters all over the Kindergarten Hall in our school. After about a week of letting the younger students see the posters, my students came in to teach a brief lesson on invasive plants. The students designed and led the lesson.
Senior Teaching Kindergarten
Then, the older students organized the students into groups and took them outside to tag the invasive plants pictured on the posters. Each student was given a small piece of colored flagging tape to tie around a plant.
Tagging Invasive Bamboo
The Kindergarteners were told that they were tagging the plants so that older students could come cut them down on Earth Day. And, indeed, older students from our service club came out to remove the invasive plants.
Students Remove Wisteria
Did the iPads make the difference? No, of course not. But, it was nice to be able to create and revise the posters without booking the computer lab. My students, most of whom had never used Pages, loved the Page app and were impressed with the professional looking posters they produced. Me, I was thrilled to see my seniors engaged at a time of the year when they are ready to check out…
*You can read more about the project and see a slideshow of the students in action here.
Last week we took our first assessment (scored or graded) quiz on Socrative. Things went well. We had used the app several times, so the kids were comfortable with the software. I was comfortable with the software as we had no glitches thus far. This time I did not project the results on screen, just on my computer (see video clip below). I kept the quiz short, about 10 questions (8 multiple choice, and 2 short answer). Students logged in to my “room” (a number I gave out when prompted by the app). For this first try I made the quiz teacher-paced.
Students answered questions easily, and we finished in about 12 minutes. When it was over, I asked for some feedback. Most of the students said it was a positive experience-that they preferred this to a paper quiz.
The positives were:
1. Immediate feedback (at least on multiple choice)
2. Ease of use
The negatives were
1. Waiting on other students to finish a question
2. Typing on the iPad (a few students still hate it)
3. You can’t go back to a question and change your answer (rethink)
Only a few kids expressed the negatives. I could easily address #1 and #2. Next time I will make the quiz student-paced. I can also pull out a keyboard dock or two for my slowest typing students.
The quiz results were emailed to me in an Excel Spreadsheet (click on screen shot to enlarge). All answers are easily organized by student name (always the first question on the quiz). The only thing I had to do was count up correct multiple choice answers and grade written responses.
Socrative Quiz Results
Once I finished grading the quizzes, we reviewed the answers in class. I projected the spreadsheet (names hidden) and we discussed correct answers. I guess one final drawback is there was no piece of paper to hand back to the kids for them to study. Perhaps I could print something (as a pdf) for each and email it to them in the future?
Overall, I think this is a solid app for quizzing students–much easier to use and much more robust (typing) than using Senteo clicker systems or using student phones for Poll Everywhere.Check out the 1 minute video clip of my class using the app below. What do you think?
About a month ago, I wrote a post in which I cast doubt on schools as institutions that foster innovation. Since then, I was asked to serve on a committee that was charged with pursuing innovation at our school. My first thought was not about innovation, but creating the conditions to allow for more of it. So, I suggested we start by looking at things we could “kill.” No one really liked that term, so how about things we could “retire.” Seems to me that is the first step is to “clear some ground” if we are to have the room to “grow” new programs…
So, what are your school’s antiques? What can go first?
Two recent releases for the iPad2 just shifted my environmental science class a bit more towards being a paperless course. If you are here for the first time, note that I this is the second iPad pilot class I’ve run for my school-a travel-study course in Costa Rica this past summer and my current environmental science class. I had found plenty of apps that replace most tools in a student’s backpack (notebook paper, pens, calculator, etc…). But, the two pieces that were missing were apps to replace our printed texts and printed tests. Two weeks ago, I found those two pieces:
Paperless assessment: Socrative
Socrative is a FREE app that does a nice job allowing teachers to host quizzes or tests using iPads as “smart response systems.” I’ve tried to get eClicker and other “smart response” apps setup, but kept having issues connectivity. Socrative was simply and easy to set up. There is a teacher app (or you can run the assessments from a laptop) and a student response app. Last week I used the app for a preassessment quiz (formative assessment) on toxicity. It was a great tool for figuring out what my students already knew, and it also stimulated great discussionas we took the quiz. It was fabulous-no student could hide or had to wait (with hand raised) to be called on by me. My favorite feature is that Socrative puts the responses by student and question into an excel spreadsheet file and emails the results to you! So, I have yet to use the app for a graded (summative) quiz or test, but I can see the potential.
Paperless texts (digital texts): iBooks 2 for iPad
On January 19th, Apple launched the first interactive digital texts for high school/college students with the release of iBooks version 2.0.1. Until that day, I had issued a printed environmental science text with the iPad2 tablets early in the semester. My goal was to switch to the first truly digital text, Our Choice, for second semester. This innovative app/digital text was first released in April of 2011 and showcased in this 5 minute TedTalk by Mike Matas (Push Pop Press). The only issues I had with Our Choice was that it was not specifically written as a text for students, and that some students might consider it biased due to the book’s publisher, Al Gore. When Apple launched iBooks 2 recently, I decided to go with the environmental science text they offered (see Apple Store for more math and science options). While not as quite as interactive as Our Choice, the book is a decent first cut at a digital text for education. Students can easily manipulate chapters and pages and images. Vocabulary is hyperlinked to definitions. Students can highlight texts, and even type “sticky notes” within the pages. There are even multiple choice questions preloaded at the end of sections and chapters for kids to self-quiz. I can see how the second generation of these texts will quickly come closer to Our Choice (more embedded video content and interactive graphs).
So, what does all this mean for my class, my school, my profession, my planet?
*For my class, we are moving closer to having everything traditionally associated with a backpack inside an iPad2.
*For my school, this is one of several pilot projects at various grades to test the waters of a 1:1 tablet environment that is bound to arrive on our shores in the next few years.
*For my profession, I’m not sure….are we all bound to be slaves of Apple? Will other options appear soon? What do you think? I know there are already critics of the new digital texts. I think many of them are focusing on what the current version is, not what it can be. What is more powerful is that Apple release iBooks Author, and now teachers can become textbook publishers!
*For me, I am excited–particularly for our planet. Trees provide so many critical services for the planet like biodiversity, habitat, oxygen, carbon storage, soil protection, cooling….Why do we want to continue to ruin perfectly good trees by printing paper books?
Yup, that’s my catchy title. Did it work? If you are here, keep reading and then push back…
I’ve been following other educators on twitter for 3 years now, and I see so much chatter about innovation in education. I even got asked to sit on a group to discuss innovation at our school recently. So, that got me thinking. I threw out the question to a weekly independent school group known as #isedchat: “everybody is talking about innovation, but who is doing it?” That discussion happens every Thursday night at 9pm, and that particular topic was presented last night. You can find the archive here.
There was a lot of back and forth about innovative practices. In the end, I was not convinced we do anything innovative in education. And I mean innovation in the sense of implementing totally new practices (after they are invented)-not in the sense of doing something new at a particular school. With respect to new technologies and social media tools, so much of what we do seems to be doing old things with new tools. Many schools are encouraging teachers and students to adapt and change methods or employ new technologies, but I am not convinced that leads to innovation. I say that having run two 1:1 classes with iPad2 tablets over the last year. You can read about my first attempt here, and my second attempt here.
I DO think we can cultivate the conditions for teachers and students to be innovative. We can cultivate those conditions by encouraging teachers and students to take risk (without fear of failure), to tackle authentic tasks (problem based learning), and to be creative when problem solving. I think we have the responsibility as educators to foster innovative thinking, but I am not convinced that traditional schools are the environment in which innovations arise. Why?
One reason schools do not serve as hotbeds of innovation was made event by Josie Holford, Headmaster of Poughkeepsie Day School. Schools are conservative institutions- we tend to teach methods that have worked well in the past. I know some have written about the innovations delivered by “outliers,” those that are wildly successful despite not completing a traditional education.
A second reason is that schools issue grades. Can you imagine a school without grades? If grades are the reward, then teachers and students are reluctant to try methods (take risks) that may endanger grades.
In the end, schools that do NOT offer grades may offer the best chance at cultivating the conditions for innovation and producing innovators. Poughkeepsie Day School is one of those schools:
What do you think? It is unlike most schools will abandon grades like Poughkeepsie Day. Short of doing that, how do we create conditions for innovation?
I’ve been on the road during the last week. We take our entire junior class (130 kids) to the Florida Keys this time every year for some experiential learning about mangrove and coral reef ecosystems. If you are still doubtful as to the power of social media in education, check out the trip blog and/or the trip Twitter hashtag #pdskeys11 and/or our UStream channel.
Trip UStream Channel
We used all these social media tools to keep parents up to date on our adventures. Kids send back their version of the trip, and we send ours!
We are about 12 weeks into the school year, and about 9 weeks into an iPad pilot with my environmental science students. I’ve been trying to shift to a paperless classroom, allowing students to use iPads as “digital backpacks” for all their school needs. Here are some highlights and Apps used thus far:
1. Productivity. The kids have been using GeeWhiz! to mange our suite of Google Docs applications. This seems to be going fairly smooth, but there are a few glitches (see collaboration below also). One glitch is students cannot open attachments from mail in Google Docs, so they have to do that in Apple’s Mail application. This app makes it easy for me to distribute the syllabus, project instructions, and supplemental notes. With the exception of tests, I have pretty much gotten rid of paper in this class for this semester!
2. Presentation. I’ve issued several “mini-projects” where kids have to prepare short presentations to help teach topics or review content. The students have used Keynote, Explain Everything, and Pages with little to no training to prepare 3-5 slide presentations that require some research. Here is a short post showing a student projecting from his iPad2 using an interactive whiteboard (Explain Everything). With a iPad VGA adaptor any student can hook up to the projector and share their work!
3. Publishing. One year-long project for this environmental science class is raised rainbow trout for release in a local stream. Students are taking turns writing updates using the WordPress app at our class blog. The WordPress app has been pretty easy to use, but we have been disappointed to learn that we cannot upload video taken with the iPad2 directly into a blog post authored on the iPad2. Maybe future updates of the apps will allow us to do more than just upload images and text. Since we use the tank to teach a 1st grade class on campus about stages of animal development, the blog is one way for that class to stay abreast of changes between their visits. Please check out the blog and give them a few more hits on their ClustrMap.
3. Collaboration. We’ve been using collaborative spreadsheets in Google Docs (via G-Whizz!) to enter water quality data and observations during a ten-week artificial ecosystem experiment. Unfortunately, the mobile version of the Google Spreadsheet is limited in that it only allows one member (has to designed “owner”) of the team to enter data from an iPad. Occasionally, for no obvious reason, the owner of the spreadsheet gets locked out on the iPad also! This does not seem to be an issue with the desktop version.
4. Science Stuff. I have been researching science apps all fall, and have amassed quite a list. Several folks have Google Docs lists going out there and are soliciting app recommendations via Twitter. I’ve only used a few thus far. First, we used the Owl Pellet Activity app from Carolina Biological Supply Company for background info/videos on the owl pellets were were dissecting. After the dissection activity, students used the iAnnotate PDF app to write up their lab findings and analysis questions. Second, we used the Google Earth app to examine the concept of “ecological islands” (fragmented and isolated habitats) within our school grounds and surrounding area. Third, we used the LeafSnap app to attempt to identify some native tree species on campus. This app uses facial recognition software to compare pictures of leaves taken by students to a known database (see below). Neat idea, but students really need some basic training on tree identification and leaf anatomy before using the app. Just like with a Google search, students are apt to go with the first few search results!
Student using LeafSnap to ID a tree
5. Assessment. Thus far, this is a fail for me. I’ve found eClicker and Clicker School apps that could give me the ability to use the iPads as interactive response devices and perhaps for formal assessment. I tried eClicker, but realized too late all iPads needed to be on the same wifi network. Since faculty have a separate wifi network from students, I need to drop to the student mobile network and try again. More on that subject later. If I can find a solid assessment app that lets me have individual student accounts, I might yet eliminate paper from my class.
Of course, I would love to hear from other teachers (esp. science types) on useful apps…
Here is an image of one of my students using the Explain Everything app and a projector to review concepts before a test. Now every iPad2 can be a “smartboard.”
I’ll try to upload a short video of the app in action soon.
I ran the OS5 update on my on iPad last week, as well as all app updates. I wanted to check out any glitches before running updates for the students. This past weekend, I finally ran all updates for my 8 students. It easily took 30 minutes per iPad-I would hate to be doing this for a class of 30!
I imagine most teachers have some tech staff who can assist with the process, but if you want to manage this process yourself (and have a machine you are “slaving” the iPads off of) it is not hard. Here are the steps:
1. Hook up.
2. Run OS5 update when prompted-it will backup and restore all apps, settings, and files. This takes a while.
3. Add/remove any apps and sync.
4. Eject iPad2.
5. Install app updates. Since we are restricting use of the app store I had to go into settings and turn on installing/deleting app, then turn them back off before giving to the kids.
