Implementation and Post Course Reflection

Use of the iPads allows teachers to provide rich authentic learning. They enhance engagement and motivation, encourage collaboration and allow for personalised learning.
They are portable, allow opportunities for differentiation,produce work that is aesthetically pleasing and provide a strong sense of ownership. The iPad is a "tool for learning" and can compensate for students emerging skills, for example predictive text function assisting in spelling. They provide a range of peripheral technologies all in one device. Children are able to video, photograph, voice record , access Internet and create products without changing devices. iPads are an intuitive device with a quick start up and can be a catalyst for creativity.

Scrutiny of APPS is essential. Use of an evaluation matrix is recommended.
Instructive games based APPS are suitable to assist with rote memorisation eg spelling and multiplication. They give instant feedback, an element of competition and the ability to prescribe different levels within games.
Productivity based APPS are optimal. These allow for content creation, assist in developing higher order thinking skills and provide a creative and individualised way to allow students to express their understandings. They are characterised by more open ended activities.

When using the iPads the emphasis needs to be on pedagogical approaches and task design, rather than on the technical aspects of using the device.

Considerations:
The iPad is designed as a one on one device. Deployment as a shared device in a primary school setting has significant ramifications:
Exporting students work created on a device.
Management time associated with setting up the device
Establishing iTunes accounts with individual email addresses.
Purchase of peripheral devices such as protective covers and headphones
Efficient methods of installing and updating apps using a school standard.
ITunes licensing agreements and record keeping proof of purchase.
Careful consideration of how to store and share content created on mobile devices.
Use of selection criteria matrix to judge effectiveness of APPS.

With students increasing use of digital media, the explicit teaching of critical and visual literacy skills is paramount.

It is important to give parents and teachers evidence based information about the safe and effective use of mobile devices and where to seek quality APPS. They need to be directed towards learning APPS as an alternative to '"game" APPS.

iPads help facilitate anywhere, anytime learning. With the use of iPads, individuals can exercise greater choice and control over their world of knowledge. The iPad is a significant tool to support and enhance learning by: supporting creativity, engaging learners, allowing quick access to information required, fostering collaboration, offering reinforcement of rote learning of basic concepts and encourage critical thinking and problem solving.

Module 6: Transforming Learning.

Module 6

The use of iPads in classroom is certainly transforming learning.
I really like what the SAMR Model tells us about how to transform our teaching with the use of technology in hope that it allows us to redesign our tasks for students and eventually allow students to complete tasks in a way that was previously inconceivable. I have found this continuum helpful as model in programming conference meetings with peers. I have seen myself over the years move through this model. When I first began to use technology in teaching, it was a simple substitute for another task. For example we would word process our written work. Where as now, I am sometimes left in awe of some of the things my students produce with the use of technology.
I find that technology can transform my teaching especially when working with text types. Rarely these days is the children final product simply hand written on a piece of paper. It certainly does involve the children putting pen to paper, but more often than not a final presentation may be in the form of an e-publication, movie, or audio recording.

Our Stage 2 classes recently went on an excursion to the Sydney Observatory. One of the Apps they recommended was Star Walk. Nothing can replace a real excursion, but what kids could see in their classrooms with the Star Walk was in fact a great deal more than the could see through a telescope at the Observatory. A simple app like this can spark an interest in students who may not have a great deal of life experiences to draw from. These devises are certainly bringing a a rich variety of experiences into the classroom.

Useful Apps From this Module.

Timeline Eons App is great for history students - I will definitely suggest this to my own children in high school. Puts events into perspective and gives them a snapshot of a period in time. I was amazed by the things I "accidentally" learnt while exploring this App.

Skitch- What a fantastic way to annotate photos. Kids could simply use the iPads to take the photos and once they have annotate them. A great way for student s to be able to record their work. A great way to brainstorm- particularly good for visual learners.



Glo Bible has a great feature showing the main gospel writers books in a sequence with chapter headings and a key event in each chapter. This is very helpful for teaches who are needing to quickly search for a particular text. It is also helpful when doing a gospel comparison.


Blogging on the ipad is something that I really don't enjoy doing. I have used the Blogger app on the iPad, but I must admit that I actually prefer the interface when just using the safari view. I find it easier to format not using the App however it can be a convenient way to blog on the run.


What I'm loving about using the iPads in the classroom is that they are becoming an indispensable tool. They facilitate communication , collaboration , research and are a great time saver and enabler of greater achievement. I find it frustrating when we need to rely on a school iPad roster and have to wait for our time to use the devices. I understand that this is the way we have to work in the primary classroom where one to one is not yet in place. However, I see a one to one ipad device as being the way of the future in the primary classroom. They must be there on hand to be used by the children as a tool for learning, just like pen and paper is. Waiting for a roster to use them frustrates me as it limits That is my challenge - how I can provide my students with access to the devises in an equitable way. Is BYO the way to go? It has certainly made me think about the direction we take as a school when it comes to budgeting for future resources. 12 months ago, I only saw the iPads being used in classroom by teachers without a specific purpose. I would be annoyed when I would walk into a classroom and see students simply playing Temple Run. I wasn't initially sold on the devices as a learning tool. However the further I have investigated their potential, I have certainly changed my opinion. The iPads are only as powerful as the teacher leading the learning and the quality of applications or tools on them. With the right tools , the students learning can be transformed.

Edu Tech Congress Reflections

Earlier this month, I was fortunate enough to attend the Edu Tech Conference at Darling Harbour.  I came back from the two days with my mind spinning. It was affirming as I could see that much of what was being discussed was already happening in my classroom. However at other times I was boggled as to how I could make these changes happen. However it was reassuring  to know  that my vision was being  backed up by the research and data provided by others.

Allan November highlighted that the revolution that we are experiencing is not  in technology. The revolution is a fundamental change in pedagogy. He allowed me to reflect on who owns the learning in my classroom, my students or I ?  He made me feel more confident in my ability to let go of control and allow a shift in who takes responsibility for the learning. 

November discussed the flipped classroom. He challenged us to consider ways to reengineer homework. I loved his phrase “Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent.”  He reminded us that students want choice and need immediate feedback. He encouraged us to teach our students to be reflective learners.

Stephen Heppell too, highlighted the need to make students reflective learners, moving them away from being content based learners. He encouraged us as teachers to learn about how we are learning. He told us that we can’t build better learning for students, but we can learn better with students.

I loved Sir Ken Robinson’s idea that in education we are dealing with vast rich resources of talent and capacity and as a teacher, we need to go looking for it. Ken Robinson inspired us with his concept of creativity being a function of intelligence. He challenged me to think about how creativity is intertwined with critical judgement. We need to teach the power of evaluating ideas. He also encouraged us to have greater conversation while providing open-ended collaborative task. Sir Ken highlighted the fact that the new digital technologies have given us the tools but tools are neutral - it is the task that is performed by the creator is that is creative. The technology is only as powerful as the creative capacity available by the operator.  Once again, we hear of a change in pedagogy being more critical than the technology.

Greg Whitby highlighted the importance of making school relevant to a child’s life. He challenged us to ask questions about what we are doing and why? He encouraged schools to go from an ‘ I know” environment, to a “We learn” collaborative community.Greg wants us to reflect on how structures, processes and environments either support or hinder authentic learning. What we do is not an experiment but should be founded on contemporary research and data.

Dan Haesler’s talk was engaging! It did what he wants our students to do.. be engaged. He defined engaged as a sense of interest, curiosity, and absorption. An engaged individual is able to pursue goals with determination and vitality. He made me think about how I can encourage my students become intrinsically motivated. Through autonomy - giving them choice, through mastery -  encouraging them to strive to improve and through a sense of purpose - showing them that what they do has relevance in their world.

However the thing that I think that all teachers can do without even thinking, as suggested by Dan, is not to answer the students questions. Ask them another question to get them to find the solution! This is so easily done if they come armed with an ipad!

One of the workshop I attended was about tablet technology in the classroom.  Yes the session was sponsored by an android based company, however the same message was coming across no matter what device was being used. Mobile devices are the way of the future. (Despite this,  a quite vocal congress attendee walked out on the presentation because it wasn't pushing the ipad as the recommended mobile device) I just wish the ipads were compatible with Flash! The issue of bring your own device was also the talk of the congress. But I think that the emphasis should be on what is done with the tool, rather than the tool itself. That's what i am enjoying about the past modules - it's what i can put into place!

Module 5 Multimodal Literacies

This module has taken me a bit longer to complete because it has given me the opportunity to try a heap of things In the classroom K -6. I have my own Year 5 classroom, but part of my coordinators role is to work within classrooms k-6. My focus this year has been ict and  critical literacy. This post is mostly a reflection of how my module learning have been implemented at my school.

Dragon Dictation is simple to use. We have tried to use it in the classroom with a literate Year 1 autistic child who just happens not to like to write! We have been able to get him to record his thoughts and stories which are then converted to text. 

Found that external  microphones were not needed.. Kids managed to record themselves . Even when recording in classrooms, their voices could still be clearly heard.

Kids have loved the Miss Spider series. Level of engagement  are high- a few kids were distracted by the interactive features rather than focus on the text. Cost of purchasing multiple books is an issue. Not many quality free books around. 

Our Choice interactive book is phenomenal. Good to use with a small group and project on an interactive whiteboard.  

This is the format school text books should be taking. Most at the moment seem to be PDF  versions of the text rather than rich media inserted within the text to allow for student interactivity. Schools need to pressure the publishers to give more.

I used Dragons  Jumble Dream with small groups in Years 1 and 2. They worked through these activities with complete engagement. It always amazes me how little teacher explanation is needed. Just tell them the name of the App and off the  kids go.

Love digital story telling on the iPad. I introduced  Puppetpals to a  Year 2 class. I watched a small group of children creating a story and  It was interesting to see  that they went and grabbed pencil and paper and began to script their story prior to starting. This quality of this groups work was of a much higher standard than the others who just used the app. 

It proved to me the importance of the work that needs to be done using traditional methods and then allowing the App to improve the final product.  

I also have been using My Story with my Kindergarten group. The children create a written story and then with the assistance of their Year 6 buddy, they publish their story using the My Story App. I particularly like the kinder kids being able to read back their story and record it in their book.

Eastern Region CEO have provided me with a really exciting opportunity. It involves an iPad training day for staff and students next term.

I will be exploring iMovie over the next few weeks with a combined workshop with our adjoining high school. The day will be presented by Mac1 with students  from Years 2 to 10 being taught how to use GarageBand and iMovie.  Its great to be able to combine with our neighbouring school.  A great way to share resources and expertise.Another useful app that some of my Year 5 students are trying out is iMotion HD. This app allow the students to create stopmotion style movies.

I love working with the iPads because they are so intuitive. I can takes photos, video, voice record, work with iTunes and all on the one device I can create a product and publish it. No need to download. 

At the moment, I am working with a Robotic company testing their products for them in my year 5 class (www.roboteshop.com) I am also using the Edmodo App to assist with classroom communication. I can take photos of the kids products and video them in action. Within a few moments, I can instantly upload these and  the kids and their parents have access to it all.  I'm really pleased that CEO updated their acceptable use agreement, because it makes doing things like that possible for me.

I used the "teachwithyouripad" wiki. It is  a valuable site to find good primary literacy resources. Found a number of free story chime books which I will install on our school set of iPads. It also made a recommendation for a book creation App called Build a Story . I bought it for about $5:50 and then tried it out. Thought it was great as once I completed the story, it can be emailed as a PDF file and even printed out if needed. I evaluated it using the five finger evaluation process and the only down side I found was that it occasionally shut itself down as I was working. I then lost pages that I had not already saved. It isn't cheap but I think it would get a lot of use in a early learning.

Wow Flipboard. Great potential. I find that twitter tends to be my greatest source of updated information in technology. Actually this is the only reason I use twitter. Once twitter is opened up in clipboard, a whole new world opens up too. I just opened it up for the first time and got totally lost in it- going from one story to another - one useful link to another useful site. Being able to see the article in full was so helpful. Such an intuitive app and definitely something that will become part of my daily repertoire! 

This post must sound so disjointed- I've been taking notes as I have been working through the module ....and that's what I do.... Jump around a lot. Says something about the way students must learn with these emerging technologies! 

Module 4 Reflection: file sharing

Last term at school , I introduced Dropbox to my staff. Most staff members have now set up their own Dropbox account. I have created a shared school file for our staff. Within this we have created a number of folders for different KLA's and a variety of projects. I find it particularly useful in sharing resources with staff. Simple things like timetables, policies, and staff meeting minutes can be easily shared. Saves massive amounts of paper from being used and good for sharing with part time staff as well.
I also find Dropbox helpful in me transferring files to school from home. I can be working on something at home and then go to school and open it up. Good bye USB. With the mobile app, it's great. I can open my files on the run, even with my mobile phone. My files go with me where ever I go. Problem with these mobile apps- it's hard to switch off from work!!!! Today I tried to annotate a PDF file shared with me through dropbox and then put it onto my blog.

Module 3 Reflection: "Learning With Apps"

I found that the break down of the app suggestions for developing ilearn skills , was a great resource to use. It was a good starting point and alerted me to some apps that I could immediately use in the classroom. I have been able to try out the "My Story" app with a Kinder class. We are currently starting to implement a paired writing program with Kindergarten and Year 6. As the children are writing their stories with their buddies, they are publishing their texts using "My Story". The children are combining the use of photography and drawing to create their stories. Each week as they finish their story, they continue to add it to their continually growing buddy book. Some students have even started to read back and record themselves using the app. It is intuitive, inexpensive and the children needed very little instruction. I am currently exploring best ways to share the children's stories. After evaluating a few apps with a colleague, she has decided to try using "Toontastic" to enhance critical literacy and multimodal skills. It also passes the five finger test of being connected to the curriculum, intuitive, appealing and inexpensive. It also has clear directions and prompts for the children to use and listen too. I also have been exploring "Inspiration". I plan to use it in Religion classes this week. I'm going to get the children to work in collaborative groups and record responses to proposed questions on it. I only have the lite version of it. After I try out the lite version with the kids I will decide whether to upgrade to the full version. I'm finding that before spending the school's money on an app, I tend to buy it for myself to see how versatile it is. It gets very expensive for a school having to buy one app for each individual devise. As our collection of app collection grows, I think it is important for us as a school to keep a current list of apps that we install on the school set of ipads. It is essential that the ipads are as uniform as possible in a primary school. Teachers need to be able to direct a student to a particular app knowing that the children will be able to access it no matter which device they use.

Module Two Reflection

Opps,hubby not to happy with me. He just noticed that I deleted some of his bookmarks (his work related ones).. I thought I was just taking his bookmarks off my ipad and thought that they would stay on his - but I was wrong - stupid cloud!! So luckily I started Modules Two this evening - I've now learnt how to organise my bookmarks into folders - that will make life easier,(and give me less need to delete his.) I've also gone and changed my privacy setting in Safari. I'm hoping that now the annoying advertising that has been coming up in my gmail side bar, will stop. I checked out the ipad users guide and was particularly interested in information about charging the ipads and maintaining their battery life. They suggest doing at least one complete cycle of charging per month. They also suggest that you should adjust brightness levels, minimise use of location services and turn off push notifications. The built in app that I have found to be popular with students is photobooth. I haven't deliberately used it as part of a class. However I always have to have a laugh when I check the camera roll after lessons to see what the kids have left behind! The built in app that I get a lot of use from, is Note. It's so easy and convenient to use. I tend to use it at inservices and to record staff meeting minutes. It's great for jotting down ideas when on the run and I know I'm not going to lose that piece of paper. So easy to email it back to myself if needed. However more recently I have started using "Evernote" as a preference. The camera feature is the biggest difference I have found having my new ipad.It is a feature that will be used a lot in the classroom. I also love having ibooks. I'm finding that my ipad is becoming my biggest organisational tool at work. I can fill my ibook library with all my CEO policies and my school publications all in the one place and I don't have to go rummaging through my bookshelf to find the document I need. My colleagues and I have been in the process of evaluating new suitable apps for when our new ipads arrive at school, so Im really looking forward to starting module 3.