What Are the Must-Have Classroom iPad Apps? Please Share Your List

In my previous post, I included an excellent video that I think captures very effectively how the iPad can transform the classroom into a 21st century learning environment. Larry Mitchell's students are the picture of high engagement as they tackle both normal classroom tasks and authentic learning tasks.

The simple truth regarding any technological device like the iPad is that it's only as good as the applications it is using. My next question is, "What are the best iPad apps for the classroom?" I have written several times regarding those apps that I think administrators should use, but what would be apps to include on every iPad we put in classrooms?  Feel free to share your thoughts below. I hope to share out responses at a later date.

Power of Teachers with iPads to Transform Teaching and Learning

 Back in 2001, Ted McCain and Ian Jukes said this about technology in general:

"We need to rethink what is really important in the use of technology. Amazingly, it is not the technology but the people who use it and their mind-sets that are the critical determining factors."

One thing I notice immediately in this classroom is the emphasis on what students are doing with the iPads, and not the iPads themselves. As McCain and Jukes pointed out, the technology itself isn't amazing, its the users and the mindset they have about its use that is more important.


The students in Larry Mitchell's class are not just using iPads. Any teacher can get kids to do that. What's more important are the high-level 21st century tasks of communicating, creating, and collaborating using the iPads that is our goal as 21st century educators. These students are demonstrating the mindsets of technology users to tackle educational tasks.

Perhaps the real challenge we have as administrators is supporting and fostering classrooms just like these. It is a whole new way of learning.




Observations on Transforming Classrooms with Mobile Devices

• The teacher in this video is knowledgeable about what the iPad can and cannot do. It is more than obvious in the video that the teacher is a knowledgeable user of the device too. He doesn't just hand it to them and tell them to go to it. He facilitates the learning they are doing with the devices.
• Use of the iPad in this classroom is not an add-on; it is an integral part of what students are being asked to do educationally. The iPad is not a toy passed out to students when they've been good. They are using it as a 21st century tool should be used: solving real problems, engaging and creating, and innovating.
• Learning in this classroom is truly individualized. Students are engaged in custom learning tasks that fit their needs and interests.

Thanks again @skipvia for Tweeting this link to me.

Three Cloud-Based Office Suite Alternatives for Schools to Consider

As our technology budgets get tighter, the need to look for more and more ways to save money becomes more and more necessary. Recently during one of our district technology meetings, we discussed how much we could save by not purchasing office suite licenses for new computers next year, and the amount of money to be saved was substantial, especially if we took just a fraction of that money to purchase a cloud-based office suite alternative.

Three office suite cloud solutions that schools might consider using are: Google Docs, Zoho, and Microsoft Office Web Apps. Each offers advantages and features school districts might find useful.

Google Docs

Our district has been using Google Apps for about a year. The transition to Gmail was uneventful and flawless, and now more and more of our staff are taking advantage of Google Docs. Google Docs offers users the ability to create word processing documents, presentations, spreadsheets, forms, and drawings or graphics. Google Docs applications do not have all the features of Microsoft Office or Open Office, but its apps are fully functional and simple to use. I would also add that Google Docs allows users to use real time collaboration and asynchronous collaboration as well. With it, your Docs are stored in the cloud, where you can access anywhere you have an Internet connection. When Google adds offline access to Google Docs later in the year, it will only expand the functionality of this cloud-based suite. In the meantime, you can download a program called Syncdocs. It will backup your Google Docs on your desktop computer, and it will sync those docs on multiple computers as well. You must have some kind of program such as Open Office to access and edit them, but once you’ve done so, it will sync them back to your Google Docs account.

Useful Features for Schools

• Access anytime you have Web connection on any computer.
• Real time and asynchronous sharing and editing of documents.
• Simple to use in comparison to most office suites.
• Docs are stored in the cloud, but can be Synced and stored on your desktop with Syndocs application.
• School systems who purchase Google App accounts for Gmail have Google Docs accounts too, along with Google Sites and other Google products.

Zoho

Zoho offers users three families of applications based in the cloud. Those three families are collaboration applications, business applications, and productivity applications. Within each of those families of apps are individual solutions.

The collaboration applications include apps such as chat, discussions, document sharing, projects and wikis. Zoho clearly offers users more collaborative tools than Google Docs. Zoho also offers business apps and a family of Productivity apps which include applications like a calendar, notebook, and word processor.

Zoho offers free accounts to individuals. They offer pay packages to businesses and their web site states they offer discounts to non-profits.

Useful Features of Zoho

• Offers a large, extensive variety of apps, much more than Google Docs or Microsoft Office Web Apps.
• Users save their documents in the cloud which allows access any time there is Internet access.
• Zoho users can collaborate and share documents also with a wider selection of collaboration tools.
• Offers a complete office suite of spreadsheet, word processor, and presentation program as well.

For more information and create a free account, see below.

http://www.zoho.com/

Microsoft Office Web Apps

Users with a Microsoft Office Web Apps account can create an Excel spreadsheet, Word document, PowerPoint presentation, or a OneNote notebook. Users can also share their documents with other users too. Keep in mind that these applications are scaled down in capability from the Microsoft Office Suite applications you might be accustomed to on your desktop. If you happen to have Microsoft Office installed on you computer, it is possible to to open and edit these same documents with your desktop applications too. You can also sync and upload those documents to a Skydrive account, which is Microsoft’s cloud storage solution. I also have 25 GB of storage on the Skydrive which is considerably more than either Google Docs of the free Zoho account.

Useful Features of Microsoft Web Apps

• Offers the ability to share documents like both Google Docs and Zoho.
• Documents can be stored on the cloud-based Skydrive.
• Offers users the OneNote online notebook app.
• Offers users a complete office suite of word processor, presentation solution, and spreadsheet solution.

The 2011 K-12 Horizon Report placed the adoption of Cloud-based solutions on the near adoption horizon for good reason. As our technology budgets shrink, we are forced to find cheaper and more efficient solutions to our technology needs. Using a cloud-based office suite might be just another way to minimize our technology costs.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/web-apps/

Using Cloud Applications in Schools: Two Important Concerns

With our education budgets being cut to the bone, we have no choice but turn to cloud-based solutions. PC Magazine offers some guidance  in the link to the article below as your school district begins to make some decisions regarding cloud services. Two of the biggest questions many school leaders have about turning to the cloud for applications and data storage is “Can your trust these applications to a) Keep your data secure and b) Keep your data from being lost?

Can cloud providers keep your data secure? Perhaps PC Magazine says it best in answer to this question. “If your primary concern is making sure nobody ever sees your data, then perhaps you shouldn’t store it in the cloud.” While cloud storage offers encryption and they tell you no one person inside the company has access to your data, there is no way to verify that it is true.  On the other hand, these cloud providers store their data in massive server farms, and for them to do something that breaches the trust of their customers is definitely bad for business.

Can cloud providers keep your data from being lost? According to PC Magazine, the chances of you losing your data is probably greater on your own personal hard drives and devices than with a cloud provider. With all the server farms and redundant systems and backups that these companies employ, the loss of your data is extremely unlikely to happen. And again, losing customers’ data is certainly not in the company’s best interest.

The reality is simple. Technology sometimes fails, so there is no guarantee with any solution, but in times of tight budgets, cloud providers might just offer the tools we need and the savings we need.

PC Magazine's "The Best Web Apps and Online Services: Get the Most Out of the Cloud"

Technorati Tags: cloud computing,educational technology,technology leadership

School Leaders as Obstacles to Transforming Schools Using Mobile Devices

“The globalization of information, technological fusion, new strategic alliances, and personal computing power for the masses will transform learning and education in much the same way as it is transforming the way we work and play.”

Ted McCain and Ian Jukes, Windows on the Future

 

McCain and Jukes penned that statement in 2001, just before the massive influx of Web 2.0 technologies and the proliferation of smart phones and mobile computing devices. They predicted that everyone would have access to personal computing devices. While they might have called those personal computing devices PDAs (personal digital assistants), the were right on target about personal computing devices being in the hands of just about all our students. The cell phones young people carry today are in every way much more sophisticated computing devices than the PDAs that existed ten years. Yet, has access to these devices really transformed learning and education in the manner McCain and Jukes predicted? Regrettably, I think the answer is no.

 

We have not fully taken advantage of the transformational nature of these devices because of several obstacles that only school leaders can remove.

 

Below are three obstacles that have prevented the educational leaders from capitalizing on the transformational potential of these devices.

 

• Holding on to outdated paradigms of technology’s place in education.  Too many school leaders, from principals to superintendents to state leaders still view technology as a whole as some kind of “add-on” that is expendable. Also, as McCain and Jukes pointed out ten years ago, “For the most part, computers are still being used to reinforce old ways of doing things---we simply have powerful devices  that allow us to work faster and more efficiently.” Since computers were placed en masse into classrooms, education leaders have developed a vision of technology that sees computing devices in the form of desktop machines, and ignores the computing power students carry in their hands. It’s time for school leaders at all levels to embrace all technologies, from desktops to cell phones,  and learn to capitalize on their full potential to transform both teaching and learning.
• Holding on to outdated beliefs about teaching and learning. Just look at the push for merit pay and accountability movement, and it is easy to see that much of our education policy is still wrapped up in old, outdated beliefs about teaching and learning. Making scores the product you want educators to produce transforms schools into 20th century industrial institutions where the quality of learning doesn’t matter; what matters is only the result. Too many administrators, political leaders, and teachers still view learning as the product of a teacher standing in front of a class directing student learning like a musical conductor. That kind of teaching fits well for 20th century learning, but by adhering so strongly to this belief ignores the fact that students hold in their hands one of most powerful learning devices yet invented, the mobile phone. As long as school administrators believe that learning is something imparted rather than something to be engaged in, they will continue to ignore the potential of mobile devices and hang on to mobile device bans.
• Fear of giving students access to these devices in school settings. This is perhaps the most irrational obstacle of all. Our news media does an excellent job of reporting all the bad things that can happen when young people use mobile devices. Not a day goes by that some news outlet reports on a cyberbullying incident, or a sexting incident, both somehow tied to the use of mobile devices. These reports add up, giving school leaders the impression that mobile devices are an evil that must be kept out of schools at all costs. This leads to the development of policies banning or severely limiting their use in school. In effect, school leaders toss out the most sophisticated computing device yet, that has the power to transform teaching and learning, all to make themselves feel like they are taking measures to make kids safer. The truth is, it is not making kids safer, and these bans are not really keeping the devices out of schools, nor are they preventing young people from engaging in their use while in school. It is time for school leaders to reassess these bans, and implement policies that encourage students to use the devices and to teach them how to use them effectively and responsibly.

 

One of the biggest obstacles to capitalizing on the potential of mobile devices is not access, for most students have a cell phone when they do not have adequate health care, or even good clothing. The biggest obstacle to fully taking advantage of the ability of mobile devices to transform learning and education are school leaders and policy-makers themselves.

Technorati Tags: cell phones,cell phones education,mobile devices education,school leadership,school administrators,cell phone policies,mobile device policies,technology leadership

In Celebration of Ralph Waldo Emerson's 208th Birthday

May 25, 2011 marked the 208th birthday of poet, essayist, lecturer, and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. As a former English teacher and lover of literature, Emerson is one of my literary heroes. I still treasure my copy of his complete essays. No other author has influenced my own world view than him, yet that sounds in some ways anti-Emersonian, for he writes extensively about the importance of not relying on bards or sages in discovering truth. He advocates looking for truth within our own experiences. Still, his thought has strongly influenced my life and my career as educator. Below is an excellent documentary on Emerson from cultureunplugged.com. Also, I've taken the liberty to include some of my favorite Emerson quotes, though he would probably advocate I post my own quotes instead of his.

"The world exists for the education of each man."

"To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men---that is genius."

"Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind."

 "No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution; the only wrong is what is against it."

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

NC State Senate Budget Puts NC Education in "Race to the Bottom"

This week, the North Carolina Senate released its version of the state biannual budget, and Senate Leader Phil Berger seemed to take it as a "bragging point" that they had actually decided spend more on education than the NC House. He especially pointed out their effort to reduce class sizes for grades 1-3, but apparently, that measure seems to be a ruse to deflect attention to what the real damage to education his budget will do.

Real Damage of NC Senate Budget

• Overall budget cuts will shave $500 dollars off per student spending state wide, bringing North Carolina closer to the bottom of per student expenditures in the nation
• Budget calls for adding 1,100 teacher jobs in grades 1-3, but it 
• eliminates 1 in 5 assistant principal jobs,
• all teacher assistant jobs grades 1-3
• cuts non-teaching jobs (secretaries, custodians, etc.) by 15%, 
• cuts support staff (guidance counselors, media specialists) by 5%  
• combined with discretionary cuts (those cuts where the state sends the money to school systems and then asks for it back)15,000 to 18,000 school employees across the state will lose their jobs.
• Learn and Earn and Virtual School cut by $6 million
• NC Science Olympiad funding eliminated
• North Carolina Science and Technology Center funding eliminated
• 30 technology related positions at the state department of instruction eliminated
• Funding for North Carolina Center for Advancement of Teaching eliminated
• Funding for High School Teaching Cadet program eliminated (a program to get high school students interested in teaching as a career)
• $12.5 million cut from teaching training, from an already non-existent budget
• Funding for NC Teacher Academy (entity that provides teachers with high quality professional development)
• $13 million of drop out prevention grants eliminated
• Funding for teacher Professional Standards Commission eliminated
• Merit pay plan but not funded next year, but when funded will give teachers a 2-3% pay raise based on performance (that performance has yet to be defined and plan created)
• Funding eliminated for any new North Carolina Teaching Fellows scholarships (a successful scholarship program to recruit and get high school graduates to become teachers)

The real damage to public education in North Carolina is in the details of this budget. Thanks to Phil Berger and his colleagues in the state Senate, these cuts should push North Carolina back a long way educationally. Corporations looking to move to North Carolina to set up shop, might want to take heed, because our state is clearly in the "Race to the Bottom" with budgets like this one.


Source: Public School Forum of North Carolina