Only 1 iPad in the Classroom? [for additional ELA/Reading specific apps and ideas see Reading on the iPad] Is only one iPad in a classroom worth it? This question keeps reappearing on the EC Ning and in other blog spaces. The answer is easy: YES, especially if the teacher has access to a Mac desktop or (preferably) laptop and a wifi network in the classroom. It is an even larger YES if the Mac device has the most current operating system. If more iPads are in the future, you might want to check out iPad App Reviews and iPad 3C's: Some Planning Questions. Setup and Projection You will definitely need to set up a unique Apple ID (iTunes acct.) with a password that is kept secret from the students. OK - I have apps, now what can I do with them?
A List of Some of The Best iPad Resources for Teachers Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has devoted a lot of its space to iPad and its educational usage. I know Android is not as much covered as iPad but as I have said before my second blog Teacher's Mobile Technology has all the educational apps and tips on how to use both Android and iPad, check it out and subscribe to stay updated about the future releases. Today's post is a culmination of all the hard work we have been doing here during this year. We have curated a list of some of the best iPad resources for teachers and educators. These are resources that we trust as being highly educational and can help you a lot in your daily search for apps to use with your students. Check them out below and let us know what we have missed. 1- Cybraryman's iPad Page I am so impressed by the great work this man does in his website. 2- Teacher's Mobile Technology This is our second blog where we feature daily reviews of the best educational apps for both Android and iPad. 3-Teachers with Apps
iPads for Learning - 21 Steps to 1-to-1 Success CSD-iAchieve iAchieve is Creighton School District’s mobile learning initiative. The iAchieve Project has put mobile technology directly into the hands of students. Using iPads and iPod touches, provides students with enriched learning experiences, opportunities for differentiated learning, and increased achievement in many content areas. The timeline below shows how iAchieve has grown and changed: iAchieve has grown once again. The 12/13 school year is well under way and Creighton School District has once again expanded the iAchieve Project during its third year! Creighton School District is pleased to announce that Project iAchieve has been renewed as an Apple Distinguished Program for the 2012/2013 school year. Creighton School District's iAchieve iPod project is now in its second year! In addition to iPod touches, the Creighton District now has 2 iPad Learning Labs. iAchieve piloted a flipped classroom model supported by 1:1 iPads in a 7th grade math class. Robyn Griffith - Technology PD Trainer
Teaching Creativity - Professional Development for Teachers A few weeks ago fellow Voices blogger Shelley Wright wrote a provocative blog on flipping Bloom’s Taxonomy and beginning the learning experience with Creativity. As the person most directly responsible for our school’s Professional Development I have been wondering what professional development looks like when you turn Bloom’s on its head. Teachers young and old are comfortable with the old model and path. Even if they have never heard of Bloom’s Taxonomy (it happens in independent schools where some young teachers have never taken an education course), teachers are inherently comfortable with the approach the taxonomy lays out. Remembering and Understanding are sooo easy to assess—give a quiz; find out what you student doesn’t know. Ongoing education for teachers in all of Bloom’s Taxonomy except for Creativity is relatively straightforward. Encouraging teachers to teach creativity requires a different approach. Why teachers who create do Creativity so well Teaching Creativity is messy
Top Five iPad Apps for Teaching Across All Content Areas Ever since I was a kid, I loathed back to school commercials. They always showed parents gleefully skipping through aisles of pencils and notebooks as the kids, sullen and dejected, sluggishly followed along. It's a scene we are all too familiar with, and one that creates a negative stigma around school. But what if that scene were flipped? What if the kids were happy and eager to get to school? Is that possible after roughly 90 days of sun and fun? Although this post is a little early for the back-to-school season, consider it an early reminder that summer is near and that, eventually, the start of the 2013 school year will be close at hand. I’m going to share five applications for the iPad that will take the place of student supply lists, provide savings and replace dread with anticipation. Notability While some may argue that there are better options -- and free options -- out there, I find, along with many of our students, that Notability is the go-to application for note taking.
Bloom’s Taxonomy and iPad Apps LearningToday shares with everyone two beautiful posters, that help us remember Bloom’s Taxonomy: the Blooming Butterfly and the Blooming Orange. How do we connect the Bloom’s Taxonomy with the iPad? Following inDave Mileham and Kelly Tenkeley’s footsteps of assigning iPad apps to the different levels of the Bloom’s Taxonomy, I created the following table with apps that I have tested out and am recommending. In order to make the cut, the app had to fulfill the criteria (from Wikipedia and according to the Blooming Orange’s verbs) set out for each level. I want to encourage/challenge you, to take a look at the iPad apps on YOUR iPad and to categorize these apps with the different thinking levels and THEN take the next step to SHARE your list with other educators. Remember: Exhibit memory of previously-learned materials by recalling facts, terms, basic concepts and answers. describenamefindnamelisttell Suggested apps: explaincomparediscusspredicttranslateoutlinerestate Suggested Apps: Create:
How do you teach creativity? Creative Ideas & Inspiration Blog Posted January 3rd, 2013 at 7:00 am by Tanner Christensen If we look at creative thinking as the act of coming up with new ideas (new to the thinker, not necessarily to the world at large), what’s the best way to teach that ability? Is it something you can even teach? The best possible answer – which I’m going to touch on a lot this year on Creative Something – is undoubtedly “Yes!” You can teach creative thinking, but it’s not about teaching arts or expression necessarily, it’s more about teaching students to be curious and how to ask good questions. Here’s why. When you believe that all you need to know is already laid out before you, new ideas will still develop on their own (since it is in our brain’s nature to connect ideas in order to better understand the world around us), but moments of creative insight will be few and far between since you’re content with what you know. Instead, to teach creativity, you have to teach the importance of knowing that we don’t know a lot.