Prezi video

Here is a tutorial I created for my 10th graders. We are beginning to work on research. This was a huge help. I found myself saying the same thing again and gain, but now I can just send them to a video. 

I created a Prezi, then I did a screen recording as I played the prezi. I uploaded it to You Tube, but I also synched it to the video on the iPads. 

Bye Bye Clickers

I think that I have found an app to replace my Active Expressions clickers: Socrative.

I was originally planning to use Lan School to monitor students and poll them about content. I decided that it was more than I needed. Since the students have their iPads flat on the desk most of the time, it is pretty easy to see what they are working on, unlike laptop screens that can hide Facebook easily. As long as I am up and around the room, they are staying on task. Since I don't need it to monitor students, I only need it for polling students.

I have a set of clickers that work great for keeping students engaged by asking them multiple choice, short answer, and true/false questions. I found that with the iPads, I wasn't using them because it seemed like too many devices to keep track of during a class period. I love the way the Active Expressions works, and am hopeful I can find apps to replace all of the functions I was using.

Socrative was extremely easy to set up. I created an account and downloaded the apps to the iPads. Ready to go in 10 minutes! I can verbally ask questions and have them answer with the app, or I can create a quiz for them to take at their own pace or my pace. My first attempt was great and it was simple to e-mail me the results after they finished. I also loved that they can take the quiz, then hand it to another student to take as soon as they are finished. This will come in handy with my large classes since I only have 30 iPads.

Back from break with a dilemma

So, I am in love with my iPads, but it is a challenge to figure out how to do some things like turn in work. I have run through many different programs, but keep running into problems.

Moodle- I like the way this program functions for teachers, but not students. They don't have the option on ipads to upload files. This means that they are limited to using the online text for assignments which is not a friendly view for them. It is also a big challenge for anything that needs formatting. The other problem I run into is collaboration. It isn't a very good tool when I often have students working together on assignments.

Google docs- I like the collaborative aspect as well as my feedback options. My big concern is having so many students working on it at the same time. We have enough problems with wireless and bandwidth already. Another thing I want to be pushing is more video and audio, and I just don't know how well that will work.

Dropbox - This could work well with net books, but not with an iPad. There are few apps that will upload to Dropbox (Paperport) and none of them are very good with essay formatting. All that they can really do with the app is look at assignments they already have in there.

Evernote- On a computer, this works great, but on iPads, you can only share your notbeooks with another to view work, not edit. This presents lots of challenges in terms of student feedback. However, I am a really big fan of the audio options with this. I like the idea of students showing their understanding in ways other than writing on occasion.

Wikispaces- This is my current favorite. I am really liking the way my students are using it as a collaborative tool. They did great work with the discussions for our class novel, and it has been a great way for them to work on projects in small groups and pairs. It has great options for feedback as well. My concern is with their independent summative assignments. I want to have a place for them to do some assignments that are not available for the rest of the class to see.

Pages- This has a great look for text typing, but the issue is with turning it in. There are several options, but none of them are ideal. I can't seem to get iTunes to work without me having to take too many steps to see each student's assignment. It shouldn't be more that a click or two to go from one student's assignment to the next. I tried to play with iWork and iDisk, but found the same problem. I know that the e-mail option is the way to go, it just has some issues as well. Since each iPad is shared between 5 students, I don't want them to use their own e-mail addresses; they regularly forget to log out of things. I have decided to try creating a new e-mail address for each iPad so that the students can send their work as a PDF. If you send as a Pages or Word file, it requires saving before opening. I am looking for the fewest number of steps.

Here is my plan:
Wikispaces- This is where I can keep all of the class notes, calendar, and practice/formative/group work. I like to use the discussion posts for short things like exit slips, discussion, topic ideas, and grammar practice.

Pages- All summative/independent work will be done here. They can e-mail their work to me as a PDF and cc their own e-mail. I can "reply all" to give them feedback. If they want to work from home, they can use the same e-mail feature to send their work back and forth.

Tip of the day - rotation lock

My seniors are preparing presentations, so I have been trying to think about tips that will help them when they hook their iPad up to the projector. When I have been showing things to them I noticed that I am constantly struggling with keeping the iPad level while talking. This trick will help them to focus on what they are saying rather than how they are holding it.

To lock, the rotation, you can access the option through the task bar that opens when you do a four finger swipe up. Once the apps are up, do a one finger swipe to the right. You will see an icon on the left for screen rotation. Tap it to lock or unlock.

My original plan was to show them how to do this through the settings. It was a student in my first period class who showed me this shortcut. I love it when the kids teach me.

Tip of the Day - screenshot

My tip for today was how to take a picture of your iPad screen. If you click the home button and the sleep button at the same time, the iPad will take a photo of the screen and send it to the camera roll. This is turning out to be a great tool for my seniors who are working on multimedia presentations. They are taking pictures of an internet page then opening it it Doodle Buddy to highlight what they want to show in their presentation. They are putting their presentation photos in an album then using it as a slideshow in their presentations. I am so excited to see 3 classes of presentations that don't include a single powerpoint slide!

Collaboration is a tool

One question I keep running into is about students seeing each other's work. People are worried about what will happen when students have access to their peers' work. This should be an advantage, not a concern. With regular access to the internet, students will always have access to others' ideas. This is a reality of the 21st century, and it is our responsibility to prepare students for this reality. We need to learn how to use this to our advantage rather than fighting it.

I am regularly using wiki spaces for students to turn in their work on iPads. They have the ability to see what other students are doing. What I am finding is that they actually don't look unless I tell them to. I designed an activity for my sophomores where they uses online discussion to further their understanding of the novel as we read through the chapters. When we finished the novel, they did a reflection about their own thinking of the novel then searched through the online discussions to research what other students thought. They will be working on a paper that combines their own thinking with that of their peers. This is synthesis of ideas, not cheating. This is actually a much more difficult skill than simply analyzing the novel.

Tip of the Day - close open apps

Today, we talked about how to see which apps are running by using a four finger swipe up or double clicking the home button. If you hold you finger on an app for about 3 seconds in this task bar, they will wiggle and you will see a red button on apps that are running. Touching the red button will allow you to close apps that are running. I explained how hitting the home button only navigates you away from apps, it doesn't close them. Some of the iPads had every single app running, and they were still working great! One last warning I gave them was that on the home screen, the black button that appears when you hold down on an app will delete the program.