Friday, July 13, 2012

An App for the Teacher





Its not so many years since the 'briefcase' was the essential must-have for every self respecting, serious businessman on his or her way to the office. Carrying documents, pens, phone and planner and sending the world the 'I am a serious businessman' message.

Nowadays, things seem to have moved on incredibly. I was recently at an ipad launch in a Danish school where the Headteacher wore shorts, a loose, un-tucked shirt and no shoes to address the conference and only I batted an eyelid!

So, briefcase or backpack?


Many people have an idea that there is a magic list of apps for teaching. I seem to read more and more '100 Essential Apps for Education' on blogs and tweets all over the place.

Having looked at a few of these lists I think that many of them focus on very consumption or task specific apps - i.e those that either deliver information or those that perform some, generally boring, 'school' function such as recording homework plans, sharing files with students or subject specific task.

All of the above are valid functions for the iPad in school, sometimes even interesting and exciting ways of replacing tired routine tasks in a way that is incredibly helpful to the workflow of student or school.

I suppose you could describe such sets of applications as a 'briefcase' of apps; business-like and functional.

However, my set of apps would be a rucksack or backpack; sometimes it contains clothes for the gym, sometimes folders and pens, sometimes art materials, sometimes instruments and even games or toys.

I'm actually not a great fan of lists in the first place but as I look to starting a new school year after the summer I need to reflect on the apps I use and the ones I want to include in the student set for the coming school year.

So without further ado, I begin what shall probably be a number of posts on my essential classroom apps:

1. Pages

At the top of the list is the Apple word-processing app 'Pages'. Any 1:1 iPad teacher would be eternally grateful for Pages and I think it is the kind of app that goes along way to justifying the cost of the device, even if that was all it brought to the classroom.
It's not just that it enables students to type and print their work but it handles text and even basic desktop publishing tasks with a simplicity and ease that produces fantastic results that students are proud of.
Templates are fantastic and intuitive to use and students become almost instantly familiar with many iPad essentials; copying and pasting, replacing and inserting images, link between camera roll and photo library and other apps, spell-checking and text manipulating to mention a few.

Are there alternative apps out there?

To be honest I don't know, and I don't care. For me, at this price Pages is number 1 on the list, or first to be thrown in the backpack.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Simple

Yesterday we were in Newcastle for our second Apple Leadership day.

Once again, it was great to meet educators, enthusiastic for change and progress. I never fail to be inspired by the enthusiasm you meet in the vast majority of teachers and yesterday was no different.

The event coincided with Microsoft's special announcement: the revelation of their new 'Surface' tablet.
It will be interesting to see the impact it will have.

It got me to thinking of the key components that technology must have to successfully embed in our schools today. There may be a number of different boxes that need ticked in this regard; technical things like size, weight, portability and battery life.

Practical issues like cost and, well.. cost.

And educational questions about implementation and deployment. Which is where I would place this wonderful and all-important word:

Simple.

In their book 'Made to Stick' Chip and Dan Heath talk of 'the curse of knowledge', essentially the idea that the more time and effort you have put in to developing a project or product the more you are aware of its complexities and the harder it is to communicate in a powerful, sticky, simple way. For a truly sticky idea, you need to edit the message to its very core.


This, I think is key to the integration of technology in education. 


The core message must be that this piece of tech will become whatever you need. Very few people are switched on by complicated messages about processing power and screen pixels, memory capacity and graphics chips. What does switch us on as teachers and educators is the message that this makes things better, this can bring your maths lessons to life, make your geography projects relevant and interesting, simplify the process of recording your science experiments, create beautiful graphs and charts and give you tools in language, music, art and drama that will make your job easier and your classroom relevant in the 21st century.


We have got the message with iPad, loud and clear. It just works.


This is the job that the new Microsoft tablet must do to be successful. Convince us that no matter our level of technical expertise it will do what we want, with no hassle.



Simple


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Gathering Steam...


Today is a warm and muggy day in Brussels, I think it is even warmer back home in the UK. In Scotland, where people put summer clothes on as long as it isn't actually snowing, any available piece of grass will, I'm sure, be put to good use by keen sunbathers.

As we enjoy the feeling of heating up after a long winter I'm also impressed with how the interest in 1:1 technology in schools is also hotting up.

In Brussels today I'm speaking to a group of representatives from the various education ministries across Europe, all of whom are very interested in how to deploy the iPad in schools in their countries.

There are big questions to answer: When Europe is penniless how do we afford this? Why iPad? Can we increase attainment?

But there are also very powerful messages coming from the grassroots in the countries of many people I spoke to today. Parents, for example, are hearing of schools and classes where children are learning in 1:1 iPad situations and are beginning to make their voices heard in asking for change.

Encouraging stuff.

Above all, I appreciated being with other educators and civil servants who are determined to do the best for their children.

Phew, I may need to remove my jacket, it's certainly hotting up!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Report Card

I've posted a short video of the digital version of our recent report card as many folks have been interested in it.

You can see the report card here

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Breaking News





I'll never forget the day I came home with my report card.

Mum was always waiting for me and no amount of excuses could overcome the black and white on that page.

One year I borrowed a black biro and changed the 'C's' to 'A's' on the school bus home. I still feel like there's a part of me looking over my shoulder waiting to be nabbed for that one, but there you go, I've confessed, I can relax!

So when the time comes to write report cards in school, I'm always aware of that feeling of dread that can rise in the stomachs of children, usually the ones who have nothing to fear, the ones that do don't seem to mind so much!

But really, if a report card tells pupils or parents things that they don't already know ("What? I'm terrible at Maths?!") then surely the school, and us as teachers are doing something wrong.

Also, if the report card is just a mushy set of generally positive fuzzy remarks, then is it really a valuable document?

So what should the report card be, if anything?

Well, in an ideal world, reporting to students and parents is an ongoing dialogue. We share progress informally in emails, chats at the school gate and informal meetings after school. We also open our doors to parents setting up formal interviews with staff to discuss specific areas of concern.
Students are involved in the process, feeding back comments on their learning via formal and informal reflections on their progress and target setting the steps they should be taking next, all of which is documented and often shared publicly on websites and blogs to celebrate achievement.

So, a report card?

This year I have been tossing these thoughts about in my head and have developed a new format for my reports to take account of the 1:1 iPad environment in which my students learn, but also to try and deal with some of the concerns above.

I wanted the document to share the life of that student whilst they were in school with the parents. I wanted somehow to use the document to open the walls of the student's experience whilst in school to parents and family and let them experience something of what the year has meant.

I also wanted the document to relate the successes and challenges each student has faced over the year as related to national guidelines and targets and make them accessible to parents.

Lastly, I wanted the students to have a voice in the report, able to give their own views and opinions.
So, I decided to use iBooks Author and create a digital report for each child. I printed a pdf copy so each student had a paper copy to take home but also published each report to the student's device.















I included photo galleries, taken from the class blog and work submitted via email from students, video reflections from the class 'reflection booth' and a video comment from me at the end, as well as tables showing progress and descriptions of experiences students have had over the year.

























They went home yesterday.

I have received a number of excited texts and emails from parents.

Here's one that just came in:

'...Oh my goodness. I've just had a look at the reports. They look spectacular. An awesome first..'


But they must have taken ages surely?

Yup, they did. Possibly too long to do in the same way again unless I find ways of minimising the workflow. Perhaps creating the skeleton template at the beginning of the year and having the students work on their own report over the year? I'll need to think about that.

But one thing's for sure. At least this year, my report card meant something.

A+

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Double Espresso!




Sitting in a trendy coffee shop after dinner in the setting sun by the canal in Copenhagen - I know - things could be worse!

Thinking over the past couple of days here in Denmark.

It's a beautiful place. Architecture, climate and countryside. Easy to see why Denmark consistently ranks as the happiest country on earth.

The thing that gets to you very quickly, and powerfully, is how laid back everyone is, from the hippy types I walked past in bohemian Christiania to the teachers I spoke to in the rural countryside near Aarhus, there is a relaxed, almost laid back approach to life which is infectious.

What is more impressive, however, is that this chilled approach is coupled with a powerful decisiveness that mean that decisions are swiftly and confidently made, and (it seems to me) big visions are evaluated and backed wholeheartedly once their value is assured.

It's a powerful combination - and one if not used to seeing at a local authority level.

So often the horizon is obscured by the pedantic problems (often really the particular bugbear of specific individuals) that lie in the foreground.

With reference to the iPad in education, the case for its benefit to schools is increasingly made. The questions are moving away from 'why?' to 'how?'

What is most desperately needed is the ability to keep that horizon in focus and make the wheels turn until we are there.

Unfortunately, where the Danes, with all their relaxed cheerfulness, are getting it done (I was preceded yesterday by a Mayor who had been very resistant to the idea of iPad in her schools but, once convinced became an enthusiastic advocate and pushed the whole project forward) we are not. Local authorities refuse to see the big picture because of 'the way things are' and that is precisely the problem.

We'll never get to the way things should be for our children and our schools unless we change the way they are now.

So I'm sitting in a Danish coffee house, enthused and inspired... and slightly depressed.

Double espresso please.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Gothersgade,Copenhagen,Denmark

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Inspired by Denmark.





I'm in Denmark.

The invitation came to speak at the iPad launch near Aarhus.
5000 student devices and 500 teacher devices.

The attitude hear toward the integration of technology is so refreshing.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Monday, January 30, 2012

iTunesU

Briefly.

I had a first glimpse of what lies under the very sleek bonnet of iTunesU this week.

I suppose I have been slightly apathetic towards 'U' in past years as I saw it mainly as the domain of US universities who could upload course materials so that everyone could follow the Stanford course on 'App Development' for example. I couldn't see that, beyond being an interesting tool for sharing such content, it would shake up life in a smaller institution like ours.

What we really want is a way of delivering our course material to the students who pay to come here. We want to be able to deliver them in such a way as to make the practical business of teaching and administering a course simpler for both student and teacher.

iTunesU has now revealed itself to be just this.

Simple, smooth mechanisms for gathering course materials, sharing assignments and accessing files, linked seamlessly with iBooks store and iTunes and readable on any iOS device. It offers teachers the chance to do things better and easier than before.

The impact remains to be seen but we start to see what all the fuss is really about surrounding the recent Apple edu announcements.

Exciting times.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Monday, January 23, 2012

The Times Are They A'Changing

I speak as a teacher of upper primary and sometimes lower secondary school students.

So we have the big education announcement from Apple, a revolution in textbooks, a way of authoring high quality books for iOS devices from your Mac and iTunes U becoming a way of distributing our courses.
So what to make of it all.

On the face of it, slick and beautiful interactive textbooks, an intuitive and powerful way of creating the super resources and a very handy environment for sharing them with students and the world.

Very nice.

I'll be the first to compliment some of the new tools and I'll certainly be using them. My student report card, for example, this year will be written entirely in iBooks Author and include video and audio of myself and true students.

I am left, however, with an ever-so-slightly sour aftertaste.

Textbooks?

Is this where the revolution is headed? Have we challenged the old ways and methods only to create new electronic digital versions?

Did anyone else notice that in the promo videos last week all the teachers featured were in classrooms of individual desks in rows with interactive whiteboards at the front from which they taught. A sort of digital 'chalk and talk'.

Sorry, but if all the genius of the iPad is reduced to a screen for an interactive textbook that is using a mallet to crack a nut.

My esteemed colleague, Fraser Speirs, sees the marketing genius of Apple behind much of my objections. The people who hold the purse strings of education are the 55+ generation who value the textbook as the zenith of educational materials and to such people, the demo of last week may finally convince them that the iPad is indeed worthy of significant investment for todays youth. If so, Apple, I salute you, and hope that this is indeed the key that will open the door to 1:1 programmes that will put this magical device in the hands of kids all over the country and the world.

But for those of us who are fortunate enough to teach with it. Please do not tame it to a meek textbook reader, however beautiful those textbooks may be.

Friday, January 6, 2012

'Friends, Romans, Countrymen...' Julius Caesar, Great Teaching and the iPad

I loved Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar'.

 I used to study it in school aged 15. The classroom was so dull, we sat in rows, the walls were bare and the desks were unsteady and spotted underneath from the chewing gum of thousands of kids that had been there before.

The time I spent in that classroom was some of the happiest hours I ever spent in school.

The play soared through epic themes of betrayal, love and friendship and as we read and debated the ebbs and flows of the plot and the relevance of the themes, the time just flew. I was disappointed when the lunch bell rang.

The reason was a great teacher.

She knew her subject and was so passionate about it that it was infectious. She ran a debate masterfully, allowed us to grapple with the big questions and directed us so subtly that I'm sure we all felt we were discovering the ideas that came into our heads for ourselves and what a powerful feeling that was.

 I suppose my point is that the teacher made it. Not the environment, not the space, not the adherence to any sort of 'magic' formula. She did not, for example, share with us our learning goals at the outset of the lesson, adhere to a strict time frame or use any 'active-learning' strategies. And there were only the well-thumbed scripts - no technology.

 She stands out, in my memory, above almost all the teachers I ever had or saw. A great teacher.

So should we all, can we all be great teachers?

I shall speak only for myself. I do not think that I am a great teacher in this way but I do aspire to be great - surely all teachers should?

 I am enthusiastic, I feel I am a good communicator, passionate about much of the content I teach and good, after 15 years, at reading and responding to the children in my class. I am interested in current ideas, love co-operative and active learning and perhaps best of all, I teach in a 1:1 iPad classroom, with the vast resources that that brings to the fingertips of every child in front of me.

I do strive to be my best and would love to be great. But strip all of my super ideas, cool tech and modern strategies away would I be so great? I'm not so sure.

 At Cedars we get requests all the time:

 'Can you give us a list of the apps you guys use in Cedars?' 'What apps do you use?' 'Can I just make a note of the app you are using?'

 Even though we frequently tell people not to bother trying to make furtive notes of apps they see being used on their tour of the school, we'll give them a list at the end of the day, they still feel the need to make scribbled notes in notebooks or on iPhones.

So here's my point:

 After over a year of teaching with 1:1 iPad, I am convinced of this, the iPad can impact teaching and learning in a transformational way, but it is not a substitute for great teaching.
It has to be there to help, to explain, to help create and bring to life. It is not there to teach.

 So, may 2012 be the year where schools everywhere, teachers great and aspiring to be great have the joy of 1:1 technology. May we be blessed with iPad filled classrooms.

 Not to take the place of great teaching but to enhance and help great teaching and learning for 2012.