How lucky that Tony Vincent’s class of 5th graders were each given a palm held device. Many educators think it would be awesome to have an iPod touch or iPad for each of their students - and it would - but it can be intimidating thinking about how to make them relevant to content standards, as well as being able to justify the expense to the school board. I appreciate the statement that it isn’t so much about the mobility of the device as it is about students having the ability of learning to connect using tools that are readily available. I think that's really what being able to connect, collaborate, communicate, and be creative means for 21st Century learners - despite the device you use.
Take me, for example. Last night I used my home IBM compatible lap top to draft my blogs. In the morning when I turned on the lap top, it was downloading upgrades and I couldn't figure out how to re-start, cancel, shut down, WHATEVER. No problem, I have a Mac desk top computer in my 'home office", a.k.a. small closet space. This computer has 'froze' with tabs I left open the day before. I only know how to shut it down, so I did, but couldn't figure out how to turn it back on! NO PROBLEM. I can go into my classroom and complete my work. Okay, I am the epitome of MOBILE!
The beautiful thing to remember is that by using Google documents, it doesn't matter where I work or which computer is cooperating with me, my work is there. This is a tremendous improvement from flash drives and sending documents by e-mail. As Google automatically saves as you go all your edits are current.
I loved his five minute video on how he used the iPod touch as an anchor for a PBL project on the role of the Vice President. It hit on the essential questions for student research but also was engaging and flashy. Students would love using all the apps and, by the way, be immersed in learning along the way!
I especially liked that he developed the rubric for the project with his students. This will end up in my Lesson Plan!
Take me, for example. Last night I used my home IBM compatible lap top to draft my blogs. In the morning when I turned on the lap top, it was downloading upgrades and I couldn't figure out how to re-start, cancel, shut down, WHATEVER. No problem, I have a Mac desk top computer in my 'home office", a.k.a. small closet space. This computer has 'froze' with tabs I left open the day before. I only know how to shut it down, so I did, but couldn't figure out how to turn it back on! NO PROBLEM. I can go into my classroom and complete my work. Okay, I am the epitome of MOBILE!
The beautiful thing to remember is that by using Google documents, it doesn't matter where I work or which computer is cooperating with me, my work is there. This is a tremendous improvement from flash drives and sending documents by e-mail. As Google automatically saves as you go all your edits are current.
I loved his five minute video on how he used the iPod touch as an anchor for a PBL project on the role of the Vice President. It hit on the essential questions for student research but also was engaging and flashy. Students would love using all the apps and, by the way, be immersed in learning along the way!
I especially liked that he developed the rubric for the project with his students. This will end up in my Lesson Plan!
Great to hear how others are able to integrate these concepts into their own classrooms! I would love to see how we could pull together a larger project based curriculum that would align to standardized testings. It seems that the students are so engaged with this model, they do do not realize how much they have learned. Overall, it's engaging, collaborative and using "cool" tools via the internet or iPad/iPod.
ReplyDeleteIt is great that we can be so mobile and connected. It is so helpful when it all works, but when it doesn't it is very frustrating. We had trouble with our internet last week at school off and on all week. Google Docs doesn't work. I was supposed to do a website inservice for staff that had to be rescheduled and we couldn't post to our class blog. Technology...the more we like it and use it, the more we have to scramble when it breaks.
ReplyDeleteI agree that using google docs and cloud services is really helping people to become truly mobile without being tied down to a particular device. I also agree that despite the device, most important are four C's. Hope your computer trouble doesn't keep you down!
ReplyDelete