True learning is creative! … iPad, please! | IPAD 4 SCHOOLS The iPad empowers students to create products within any subject context, physical space and even on the move. This is why the iPad is so important in transforming education into a genuine learning experience, not a knowledge absorption space. This well known Ken Robinson video has, for a while, indicated the importance of creative process in learning. Creating is important because during the process of creating something new, a student is: the owner of that processfully immersed in the experiencegenuinely engageddriven by and personally connected to the learning objectives Under these four circumstances, you create truly life-long learners, who are intrinsically motivated by their own demands and ideas. (picture via @gcouros) Common misconception 1:“My subject’s not creative” Many teachers do not see creative process as part of their subject. Common misconception 2:“I can’t grade & compare different creative output styles” What exactly does grading do for a student? Like this:
18 Enlightening iPad Experiments in Education You know from experience that when you enjoy a subject, learning about that subject is easier, more fun, and you retain the information longer. Getting kids to enjoy learning is more productive to education efforts than spending more money, lengthening school days, you name it. This is the reason many educators are excited about the possibilities inherent to the iPad. More than 600 school districts in America have brought iPads into the classroom. Had they waited a bit longer, they could have taken advantage of studies like these to know whether the iPad movement is the wave of the future of education, or a waste of valuable resources. Motion Math in Class: An assistant professor of education at USC’s Rossier School oversaw this study looking at whether having students play a learning game to teach them fractions increased their knowledge. Oklahoma State University iPad Pilot Program: OSU experimented with iPads in five classes in the fall of 2010.
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. Having a computer to which the iPad can sync is not absolutely necessary, but it is a Best Idea. 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?
dotEPUB — download any webpage as an e-book iPad opetuksessa - ryhmittelyä aineittain Askolan lukio pyysi kertomaan iPadeista opetuksessa. Lähdin rakentamaan ensin pp-esitystä, mutta sitten totesin, että asiat ja ajatukset on ehkä helpompi järjestellä blogipostauksessa. Tässä siis jonkinlainen hankkeen "väliraportti" aineittain - ei kuitenkaan mikään tyhjentävä postaus. Postauksessa olevat ohjelmien (app) linkit avautuvat suoraan iTunes Storeen, josta ne vo tallentaa iPadiin. Linkit tässä blogissa oleviin muihin kirjoituksiin aukeavat uusiin ikkunoihin, joten pääset vilkaisemaan ne helposti ja palaamaan tähän takaisin. iBooksiin voi ladata ilmaiseksi kirjoja, joista on tekijänoikeudet ovat loppuneet (Juhani Aho, Maiju Lassila, Minna Canth, Aleksis Kivi jne.). MATEMATIIKKA Calc Pro HD:tä voisi varmaan tituleerata symboliseksi laskimeksi.
iPads can’t improve learning without good teaching Pt 2 – Writing Used with permission from Debbie Ridpath Ohi at Inkygirl.com ( ) Writing and technology has been a controversial subject for many traditionalists in education. “Spell check stops children from learning to spell”. “All students do today is copy and paste from Wikipedia and Google searched articles.” ” Children need to handwrite all their drafts”. The key words in that last sentence are of course publishing and writing. Which leads me once more to the star of “Mr G Online”, the iPad. I’ll preface this discussion by saying that many of my suggestions can certainly be carried out on laptops or indeed desktop computers. What is writing? A breakdown of genres, their processes and products I’m not going to use some perfectly expressed term written by literacy professors to impress anyone. Now originally, communication was verbal. iPADS AND WRITING Specific apps allow for effective and engaging planning. The Composing/Editing stage Final thought
Dark Side of the iPad ~ Collecting student projects is difficult! Since its release the iPad has garnered arguments regarding whether it is primarily a device for consumption or creation. I have always believed that it is a device capable of creation. One simply needs to consider apps such as Avid Studio, DemiBooks Composer, Pages, Keynote, Minecraft Pocket Edition, Art Rage, SketchBook Pro, Comic Life and many others. These and many other apps all allow the user to tap into their talents and produce output of which they can be proud. Of course the iPad is also a worthy consumption device. [Note: A number of readers have begun adding comments below which may also interest you. The Dark Side Yet, the iPad has a dark side. Which interface!? Imagine that the students have created an elegant report in Pages, a short movie in Avid Studio or a sketch in Art Rage. Transferring files is not easily accomplished, if at all. Why? So, what are some of the stumbling blocks? Educators and other iPad users have written about this dilemma. This is madness. iTunes DropBox
Tips for iPads in Classroom We are starting our second year of having iPads in our elementary classrooms, our Title I CCJH classrooms, and some of our AJHS classrooms. We've created a list of tips for managing the equipment in our classrooms. Tip 1: Team decisions regarding equity Will you break the cart up across your grade level? If so, who will host the cart in their room? Each of our carts has its own MacBook Air computers dedicated to your iPads. This list of tips is a good starting point, but I'm sure there are many items I've missed. What tips would you add to this list?
What Is Interactive Learning? A Quick Guide For Everyone The classrooms of today are far from what most of us would consider traditional. In addition to the lack of chalkboards and the abundance of high-tech devices, many classrooms even conduct their lesson plans entirely online–giving whole new meaning and accessibility to education at several different levels. This practice is often called distance learning , though the process involved is anything but distant. With online learning media and education tech tools, learning experiences become more engaging and interactive than ever before–allowing students to be truly in control of how they send, receive and interpret information. This practice of layered learning comes with multiple studies to support its efficacy; these studies in turn are helping propel the application of this teaching technique in schools across the country. The Roots of Interactive Education Educational Apps: Learning at Your Fingertips Want to learn Spanish, brush up on geography skills or manipulate models of atoms?
An introductory guide to iPads for Teachers I’m delivering some iPad training to a school tomorrow, so thought it might be useful to collate some of the links I’ve been putting together for the session. The session is concentrating mainly on teachers using the iPads for their own professional use, rather than being used as a classroom resource, but a lot of the apps below will be suitable for use by students too. I’ll do another post sometime of great apps for different subject areas. Here’s some of the useful apps I’d recommend investigating. Some are free, others the price of a pint or so. File storage / Transfer Dropbox Dropbox is probably one of the most useful applications I’ve used in years. Other apps also work with Dropbox too. Word Processing / Office Capability Documents to Go Microsoft have yet to release an Office app for the iPad – so there’s a need to look at alternatives. The spreadsheet would make it possible to set up grade books and student record sheets without having to buy additional gradebook applications. Content
10 iPad tips every teacher should know Over the last couple of months I have just about switched from my trusty old laptop to the iPad as my primary work computer. Basically, the iPad does everything I could do on my PC and a great deal more through all of the apps available specifically for teaching. As a result of this, more of our staff are fronting up to work with iPads as they can also see the benefits in using a tablet for conferencing with students, checking email and using with their interactive white boards. The first questions I get from new users are generally "What can I do with it?" I think we have covered in detail more than once many of the great apps that are out their for education so today we are going to look at 10 tips are specifically useful for teachers who use an iPad. So here are a few tips that you might find useful. Disable In-App Purchases Use iCloud to sync your calendar, events and emails. iCloud is a terrible beast that is aimed at getting users to purchase a premium plan. Take an iPad screenshot
8 Great Free Web Resources Focused on Using the iPad in Education The popularity of the iPad in our schools continues to grow, and with it, the proliferation of related web articles, tips, how-to's, and so on. This week we searched out some excellent free Internet based web sites and resources dedicated to the use of the iPad in the instructional setting. 1. Here Apple has put together links to apps grouped by Academic Subject. 2. 3. iPadCurriculum.com ( This is a unique site, in that it has a great side bar for searching for content. 4. iPadinSchools.com ( This site is a blog and resource listing, and a set of resources worth being aware of are their collections of apps organized by grade level. 5. 6. 7. iPadagogy YouTube Channel ( This is the only YouTube video channel we found that is dedicated specifically to “videos of useful apps for education”. 8. Bonus!
iPad a Solid Education Tool, Study Reports | Gadget Lab More and more schools are jumping on the digital bandwagon and adopting iPads for daily use in the classroom. Apple’s education-related announcements yesterday will no doubt bolster the trend, making faculty tools and student textbooks more engaging and accessible. But today another data point emerged, demonstrating that the iPad can be a valuable asset in education. In a partnership with Apple, textbook publishers Houghton Mifflin Harcourt performed a pilot study using an iPad text for Algebra 1 courses, and found that 20 percent more students (78 percent compared to 59 percent) scored ‘Proficient’ or ‘Advanced’ in subject comprehension when using tablets rather than paper textbook counterparts. The study was conducted at a Riverside, California, middle school from Spring 2010 to Spring 2011 using HMH’s Fuse: Algebra I app. Similar pilot courses and iPad programs have cropped up all over the country, primarily in private and boarding schools, and select universities. Go Back to Top.