Some of the most promising work with iPads has been done by those working with young students and those seeking to figure out how tablets can benefit students with disabilities.  As noted in Part 1, the intuitive interface of the tablet can be learned quickly by youger students, especially if they are too small to have a familiarity with (or even understanding of) a keyboard.

Apple has a page on its assistive technologies, and the state of Maine has developed a good resource for helpful apps. About.com and even MatchaCollege.com include helpful lists, as well.

However, as students get older, a central piece (perhaps the central piece) of their larger education is their ability to convey what they are learning through effective writing.  There is also a quickly growing interest in the power of collaborative writing tools, as with Google Docs.  As I frequently mention in my presentations, when students write or create projects that other students will see, they want their work to be good.  When the work is solely for the teacher, they want it to be good enough – for the grade they want, for it to be done, etc.  Getting students to take pride in their writing is both important and challenging.

In crafting a message, whether it is an essay, the script for a video, or a cover letter for a careers project, one must be able to easily move among paragraphs, revising sentences, and altering or adding new transitions to make the larger message all the more effective for the reader.

It turns out that at the moment, iPads are pretty bad at this.  There are apps (Apple’s Pages, for example) that are solid word-processors, but they come at an extra cost ($9.99, as of writing), and don’t allow for the online collaboration a desktop/laptop user can experience with Google Docs.

One might guess that the Android devices would do much better on this front, given that Android and Docs are developed by the same company.  However, one guessing this would be wrong.

On either tablet, editing a document in Docs is at best annoying, as one does not have the ease of going beyond single lines to other parts of the document that those brought up on a mouse-driven system expects.  Even worse, most basic formatting tools in Docs are simply not available when one is working on the tablet – you can type text on one line, period.  This will surely improve over time, but for the moment, collaborative writing on any kind of tablet is terrible.

If one agrees that crafting writing well is at or near the very top of the list of educational goals for students in high school and perhaps also middle school, then tablets seem a poor choice to be a student’s primary device.  If, however, other systems are available for writing, and other strengths of the tablets occupy large amounts of the time students are doing research, experimentation, simple media development, and the like, then tablets might be just fine as the primary device.

A promising alternative to tablets is the Google Chromebook, a laptop-like device which serves to get students online, period.  Once in the cloud, they can browse, take notes, use web apps, and more, knowing that if anything happens to the Chromebook, their files continue to live on in web-based accounts.  Additionally, these machines are fast (booting up in eight seconds), automatically update, and have few extra costs for schools – all benefits that get one past the worst headaches of laptops and netbooks.

It may be that on the near horizon we’ll have products that incorporate the strengths of both tablets and Chromebooks or similar devices, and if so, it will make purchasing decisions all the easier for schools with a variety of needs.

Based on what is available now, though, a school seeking a 1:1 device can look in certain directions for a front runner, with the iPad a strong choice for elementary and younger (when the school has resources and patience for apps purchases), and the Chromebook a solid choice for secondary schools where writing is a focus.  Special environments may require the strengths or costs savings of any of the products considered so far, as their educational needs and budgets dictate.

Discussion:
What devices are you using?  Which groups seem to benefit most from them, and why?

Want More?
Part 1: More and More Mobile: iPads, Schools, and Whether There’s a Meaningful Match
Part 2: Apps Markets and Android Tablets
Part 3: Whom Tablets Benefit and Why

Winners of the US Forum will advance to Athens, Greece for the Global Forum!

Here’s how this works:
Phase 1: Apply for ShiftED 2012 by March 16
Phase 2: Semi-finalists are selected by March 26
Phase 3: Semi-finalists present at ShiftED 2012 on April 7
Phase 4: Finalists go to the US Forum July 31-August 1

Apply today, your chances of being selected are very good. All applicants will receive free admission to ShiftED 2012.

Go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/shifted_2012 to access the online application. 

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ShiftED 2012 and the Microsoft sponsored US FORUM

ShiftED is a forum that addresses the question, “How can we leverage technology – especially the technology already in place in schools – to create more meaningful, effective learning experiences to prepare our students for the 21st century?” ShiftEd 2012 will showcase the work of semi-finalists who apply to the US Forum as well as Milton Chen, author of Education Nation: Six Leading Edges of Innovation in our Schools, as our keynote speaker. In the afternoon, Microsoft will provide professional development on technology integration in the classroom.

The Microsoft Partners in Learning US Forum is part of a worldwide program from Microsoft Partners in Learning. The program recognizes innovative educators and schools implementing 21-century skills in the classroom and the school community with the goal of improving teaching and learning. The Forum seeks to showcase creative and inspiring examples of how educators and schools are using technology. The US Forum will be hosted on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA, July 31-August 1, 2012. It focuses on how educators and schools engage students to solve difficult problems while inspiring creativity and, ultimately, preparing students for the future.

Usually, educators need to apply in a national competition to attend the forum. However, Microsoft has reserved for us THREE spaces for educators! That narrows down the competition significantly! We are hosting a regional competition to identify THREE people (you?) to attend to represent Silicon Valley. There is no fee to attend the US Forum and travel arrangements will be paid for by Microsoft.

We would like to encourage educators to apply, describing a project where Microsoft technology was used in an innovative way.

Currently many classrooms are using their teaching time explaining concepts and then the “home” time is for homework or the problem solving phase. This often leaves students frustrated as the time they most need help, when solving the problems, is the time they are away from the classroom. Salman

Salman Khan has created tsunami waves in the education world by producing bite-sized videos that explain everything from Algebra to Credit Default Swaps at his free online Khan Academy.

Here, Khan uses his trademark “chalkboard” sketching approach to explain how the idea of blended learning — combining technology like online videos and software with classroom instruction — works.

Discussion:

1. How are you using blended learning in your classroom?
2. Are there drawbacks to having students watch videos at home and solve problems in the classroom?
3. What aspects of blended learning do you like the most?

In Part 1 we looked at purchasing concerns with Apple’s iPad.  Is the situation any better for one wielding an Android-powered tablet?  The answer is a definite, “Kind of.”

I should note that in talking about Android tablets, I refer to those running Android OS 3 (Honeycomb) and later, as earlier OS versions were specific to phones and had little that allowed it to take advantage of a tablet’s larger screen.

The first issue with cost, of course, is the price of the device.  When Motorola released the Xoom and let the waiting world of the technorati know what its price would be, though, the disappointment was widespread among those who assumed devices running the open Android OS would be cheaper than the iPad running Apple’s proprietary OS.  Instead, Motorola priced its Xoom almost exactly in line with the iPad, perhaps on the assumption that the rapidly growing base of people in love with their Android phones would act with the same any-price-is-fine mentality that the Apple faithful often exhibit.

Nope.  Turns out that many of the Android folks were more likely to move toward the established successful product when the price point is the same.  Imagine!  Additionally, with a huge lead in interesting apps to buy, consumers couldn’t quite get why going with something untested with limited options for apps was a good move.  Why this wasn’t obvious to Motorola at the time is anyone’s guess.

Samsung and others followed with Android tablets that over time have become cheaper and cheaper, and lo and behold, it turns out that as the price drops, more people become willing to take a chance on a different system.  Economics 101, it is.

For the individual consumer, the cheaper entry point is one side of the coin, with the other being the breadth and cost of apps.  In this case there are two things that quite quickly strike the tablet-wielder, and contrast between the iPad and the Androids is stark.

First, there are more and mostly better apps available for the iPad.  That is natural enough; with a substantial head start and a single, solid system for developers, there should be more available.

The second point, though, works much more in Android’s favor.  When one looks around Apple’s App Store, one can find free apps, but most things tend to have a price tag.  When in the Android Market, however, one is flooded with free stuff.  There are certainly apps that cost something, but they seem to be in the minority.

For schools with enough money for devices but not apps, therefore, the appeal of the Android side of the equation strengthens significantly, as long as enough interesting apps for their purposes are available.

Google, the developer of Android, has released enough strong apps itself to keep the Android tablets competitive.  These range from solid tools for Gmail and Google’s Calendar to Sky Map and Google Goggles.

This raises the obvious question for schools wanting to purchase tablets: What do we want the tablets to do?  If the answer is weighed toward highly-developed third-party apps, one would lean toward the iPad.  If the answer is a need to browse sites which use Flash and integrate smoothly with most Google tools (see the next part) one would lean toward an Android talet.

This is a far-from-static situation.  As more apps are developed to be sold on Android tablets, schools will be watching to see if there are edu-friendly methods for purchasing.  If they rely on a “freemium” model, in which a solid free version allows one meaningful use of the app before buying a full-featured version, all the better.

Whatever the questions and answers are for given devices, it is hopefully obvious that they should be answers that the teachers know from meaningful trials of various devices.  Teachers need plenty of chances to explore the systems and try out the apps.  They should also be able to tap into online communities and resources to continue to develop their understanding of the capabilities of a given device.  They should have a clear idea of how they will use whatever is bought.  And ideally, they should be ready to regularly explore what’s possible, both with each other and also with the students, who can be strong partners in helping make productive educational use of the device.

Discussion:
Have you considered an Android device for your school?  If so, what struck you as its strengths and weaknesses?  If you decided to go with it, what does it do that cemented the decision?

Also check out
Part 1: More and More Mobile: iPads, Schools, and Whether There’s a Meaningful Match
Part 3: Whom Tablets Benefit and Why
Part 4: Resources, Collaboration, and Contributing to the Community

Image Source: Engadget

For over six months, a group of teachers connected to MERIT  has given the Motorola Xoom a serious look.  By and large, this is a group that knows the Mac and Windows OS for desktops and laptops, has solid experience with iPads, and carry iOS devices, Android phones, or both.

Their mission has been to see how the Xoom – the initial Android competitor to the iPad – might work in educational environments, and to get to know what applications might serve teachers and learners best.

I’ll write several posts covering what we’ve learned so far, and to begin with, I’ll speak to the strengths and weaknesses of the device which blazed the trail: the stunningly successful Apple iPad.

Most readers in this space will be familiar with the iPad.  It hit the scene less than two years ago and arguably shook the computer industry more forcefully than anything since the first Macs twenty-eight years ago.  You have likely played with an iPad and noticed its smooth, even intuitive interface, and perhaps you have watched how easily young children, no longer burdened with the complexity of a keyboard, can get to what interests them easily.

You may even have one.  If so, you’ll know that these cool doodads are fantastic for reading mail, watching videos, playing games or browsing the web (when the web sites don’t use Flash), though this may be improving with new browsers.  Careful writing on the device, though, is another matter we’ll cover soon enough.  Those of you who own these will also know that it’s very, very easy to go the App Store and spend a dollar or two or five buying one or more well-reviewed apps.

It is this last component – the ease of the impulse buy, a few dollars at a time – which makes this the perfect device for anyone holding Apple’s stock and planning an active retirement.  These tablets cost plenty to begin with, and bring mountains of dollars to and through Apple, especially given the way Apple controls apps purchases.  The device is cool for the consumer and lavishly lucrative for its maker.

Our question, however, is rooted in a very different space – the school campus as opposed to the couch or the coffee shop.  The school user is not typically the one in the organization with the ability to purchase applications, or even the install them.  Buying apps for one iPad is simple and tends not to dent the wallet in any major way.  But if you have an iPad for every student, and a thousand students on campus…

The purchasing complications for a school are obvious, but are easily overcome if the school plans well and has plenty of resources.  As one who travels around the country visiting schools and working with teachers, I have found schools where the planning is solid, but in the last few years it’s been the rare school with pockets deep enough to meaningfully cut loose with the iPad as students’ primary devices.

Yes, there are free apps, many of which teachers are using effectively.  And yes, Apple has made some progress building a system for buying in volume.  My colleagues who manage iPad deployments, though, complain that it is a cumbersome system that still requires money few schools have been able to set aside.

I introduce this series of posts with the admittedly lengthy purchasing perspective because, like any use of school funds, we must understand the costs when looking at a given device for our teachers and students.  Knowing what they cost, we can then stop and compare what we want to accomplish with what the device provides.  And once we know that, we can see if there are alternatives that are cheaper, that do what we want as well or better, or both.

Have you dealt with iPad purchases?  If so, what worked well, and what was difficult?  What other devices did you consider before going with the iPad?

More?

Part 2: Apps Markets and Android Tablets
Part 3: Whom Tablets Benefit and Why
Part 4: Resources, Collaboration, and Contributing to the Community

Credit: LearningToday.com

It was about eight years ago that I discovered Bloom’s taxonomy. I was in college taking an online course called “Teaching for Online Learning” in which we used an educational psychology book as a foundation for discovering and creating our own online teaching environments. Sandwiched between Piaget and Vygotsky was Benjamin Bloom.

I found the framework very helpful for classifying which stage in the learning process I was in. I also found it helpful because it gave me the ability to analyze the various levels of instruction and learning that happened in my slew of college courses. Some professors preferred to disseminate knowledge, others preferred to help you dissect and analyze it. Even further some professors allowed you to understand, evaluate, and create a new synthesis from the knowledge (those we’re my favorite instructors).

It’s easy to implement this framework in your own class, simply look at your lesson plan and determine which of the following verbs you’re allowing your students to do. The lower on this list you go, the deeper your students are engaging with the material.

• Remembering: Retrieving, recognizing, and recalling relevant knowledge from long-term memory.
• Understanding: Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining.
• Applying: Carrying out or using a procedure through executing, or implementing.
• Analyzing: Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose through differentiating, organizing, and attributing.
• Evaluating: Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing.
• Creating: Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning, or producing.

Discuss Below!

• Do you use Bloom’s taxonomy in your classroom? If so, how?
• What are some of the benefits to using this framework? What are the drawbacks?
• What are some of the most innovative frameworks that help improve your teaching and student learning?

When Benjamin Bloom and a team of educators first conceived the classification in the late 1940′s, they probably never imagined the impact their work would have over 50 years later. While other theories and systems have come and gone, Bloom’s taxonomy appears to have become the most commonly used standard in many educational settings. In the 1990′s, Lorin Anderson and a group of psychologists updated the taxonomy in the hope that it would have more relevance for 21st century students and teachers, transforming the nouns to verbs and making some other seemingly small but significant changes. An interesting account of the history of Bloom’s Taxonomy can be found at Mary Forehand’s page at The University of Georgia.

Download The Blooming Butterfly poster as a pdf for your classroom or online classroom.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/flipped-classroom-ramsey-musallam

They provide an easy-to-use web based tool that enables you to create questions, collect answers and show the result in real time.

These polls make presentations more interactive, engaging and fun.

1. Create your question

Creating a question is easy! Just go to the mentimeter.com start page, type your question and with the click of a button your question is created. Add the alternatives and pick a theme and voilá — you are ready to go!

2. Instruct your audience to vote using their smartphone (or computer)

When the user goes to m.mentimeter.com in their mobile web browser they are asked to provide a Vote ID. The question will be displayed in their phone together with the choice at hand, letting them vote without effort.

3. Present the result

The presentation view has several different themes for you to choose between and is automatically updated when new votes are received. If you want to hide the results when the audience is voting that option is of course included. You can also turn the question off if you want to control the time when the vote is open.

Additional Polling Options

• Polls.cc – SUPER SIMPLE, requires no registration, connects to social media easily, results not displayed realtime (example)
• WiFli – a neat and sophisticated polling option using Google Docs developed by Math teacher Andy Schwen
• ClassPager - Easy SMS Classroom Polling
• Tricider – Easy brainstorming and voting