Assignment#6: Class Researchers

Sandy Jordan recently sent the following note to the technology department:
"Today was my first day with JH math students, and rather than dive right into the boring organizational stuff with the kids, I decided to start off with a discussion about what math is, how it has developed, why it has developed - the more philosophical side of it.  In each class, the discussions have been great, but an interesting thing happened last period.  This group (Jennifer and Tony's class) all showed up with their iPads.  As different questions came up I realized the kids were looking up information to add to the discussion as fast as they could.  From "when did zero first appear" to "what were African cultures doing mathematically hundreds of years ago," they were generating and trying to answer questions in an incredibly engaged and active way.  It was fabulous.  That immediate access to information kept the conversation going, made them more involved in the lesson, and helped them dig deeper faster.  They were looking for facts, but that opened the door for ruminations and discussion about the "whys" behind the "whats."  It was a great experience for me (and I hope for them!), and really illustrated some of the many, many ways this kind of technology is going to change how we teach."

For assignment #6, we would like you to assign a class researcher each day for a week in at least one of your classes.  Let the Daily Researcher(s) use the iPad and be in charge of answering any questions that arise in your class. Write about your experience in your comment.

Open Thread

 Comment on this post when you:

• have information to share
• want to ask a question of the whole group
• have an "Aha!" moment
• find a fabulous App that everyone should know about
• anything else pertaining to the ipad that doesn't fit into the other posts

(Summer) Assignment #5: One Transformed Classroom

Everyone found some really useful articles and blogs for Assignment #3.  We highly recommend that you go back and check some of them out.  Brian E. found the video below that features a classroom that uses the iPads from opening to closing bell.  Watch the video and then think about what it would be like if you had more than one iPad in your classroom.  In your comment to this post, write up a daily schedule (or weekly schedule if you are in HS and teach the same course throughout the day) for your classroom and describe how you would incorporate the iPads in each activity.

(Summer) Assignment #4: This would be great if....

All of us have found apps that are great, but don't quite fit into our curriculum.  For this post, please share an app for a subject that you don't teach, but you would definitely use if you did. In your comment, please put the name of the app, the cost, a brief description, and how you think you would use it. 

Reminder: summer assignments are due on August 16th.

Assignment #3: iPads in the News

For this week's assignment, we would like you to search the web to find a relevant news article or blog entry on iPads in Education.  When you find something that would be beneficial to others participating in this pilot, add a comment on this post.  Please put the name of the article, the source of the article (or the blog name), and what you learned.  If you want to include a link, please see the directions under the "Apps, Apps, Everywhere" post).

 

Apple Distinguished Educators will be sharing their experiences integrating different combinations of iPad, iPod touch, and Macbook into their teaching to enrich learning across subject areas and grade levels.  They'll walk you through how they got started, what they have implemented, and the incredible results they have achieved. They'll also share samples of student work and provide demos of technology solutions they are using. Throughout each webcast, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions and interact with the presenters to learn more about incorporating their innovative approaches into your own teaching this fall. Each webcast is 1.25 hours long.

Click here to learn more.

Apple retail stores also offer free weekly classes called Getting Started with iPad2 and Going Further with iPad2.  Click here to learn more.

DropDav going to paid accounts only

If you had set up your apps to share to WebDav using the DropDav service, you probably got the same email I did, informing you that they will now start charging $5/month for the service. Current free users will have a 14-day trial period. If you don't renew, your account will expire.

We are going to look into other options for the WebDav service, but if anyone else has any suggestions, please post them here. Thanks!