The continuing mission, to ....

I love my iPad but it is not the full answer. Even though I am dedicated to using it, I yearn for the full power of a laptop. I have allowed myself flex to do menial tasks like sorting and putting into folders 75 emails etc.

While an ad can recapture productivity times when you just have 5 min before a meeting starts or suring the meeting, it loses in other areas with functionality and data entry.

My goal this weekend was to be creative. I went for a walk with my girls(iPad and a camera in hand). Boy did I feel awkward carrying the iPad in the trails. I did some filming as they played by the strem; however they were more interested in the woods than the ipad( yeah:)

A bit later we fed some ducks and geese. The iPad was functional but I preferred making photos on my point and shoot camera. I held it just off the water to get some creative shots. Not as simple to be creative at the shore with a bulky low res iPad camera.

I have now began to look at telling a story with the raw footage. Walking, talking, ducks, geese, feeding, stills and video.

First up. IMovie (4.99)- easy to use, I would feel comfortable teaching k/1 to make a movie no problem. The finger gestures are easy to learn. I made a movie quickly.

Aha moment - you can transfer the raw movie between devices with iTunes sharing. You can export the final movie to a service like YouTube or the camera roll but you have to wait for it to render. I started it and switched tasks... Returned to have to restart the rendering.

Next. The Avid Studio app(4.99) - pretty powerful. I would not use this with K/1 (at least at first). The expanded features and options in comparison to iMovie allow for much more fine editing and higher quality end product

(high quality end products should not be the goal though. We want students to be able to create and communicate - both do the task and iMovie is simpler to use)

Splice (free and 3.99) (with additional in app purchase for special fx) (iPhone not universal app). This is a very simple to use app. The workflow makes sense. Being an iPhone app that does the same as the first two, I would stick to them on the iPad. For an iPod/ iPhone app, I would use Splice


A turn in a different but relevant direction is to film and event and provide a vice and annotation analysis. Coaches Eye (4.99). Let's you film a clip, then record your review and notes over it. Awesome tool. (I will revisit this looking at tools like Show Me or Explain Everything)

My choice for starting with students - iMovie. (I may move to Avid later with them)
My choice for a project of mine - Avid Studio
My choice if on my iPod - Spilce
My choice for annotating or teaching through the video - Coaches Eye
(in short - choose the right tool at the right time)

Now that I had fun creating, I just want to touch on the why again.

I believe that students need to be creative and be creators. These tools allow a very engaging way to do both.
Reasons to have students create a video:

Exploration / wonder
Review of learning
Explaining learning of a concept
Interviewing
Speech practice
Creative writing coming to life
Practicing oral fluency
Describing a piece of their work - author statement
Public service announcements
(feel free to comment and add to the list)

Life on an iPad 2

I have continued using my iPad as my device if choice. This post will be typed with the iPad and no corrections.

OnFriday I challenged myself to type as fast as I could. I tried a passage with a laptop , I typed 43 wpm. The same passage with touch typing on the iPad 18.6 wpm. Then with a stylus still 17 wpm

So typing is slower but when do I Ned to type large amounts?

Great that it has a 10 hour battery but the iPad gets used 10 hours a day and needs charging before going to work the next day.

My goal this weeks to move beyond caring about data entry. Last week I has the pleasure of wattending an iPad boot camp with Bryan Hughes. Teacher librarian in north Vancouver. Some great new apps and ways to consider their use.

Flowing from data entry though is being productive. The top 5 apps I use tobe productive included:
Mail/ First Class
Calendar
Paper port notes by nuance
Google docs
Dropbox

The obvious reasons fr a mail application apply but the productivity comes from not needing to be connected. I can get so much done in those 5 minutes waiting in line, for the water to boil, or before a meeting starts. I likely gain 2 hours a day having access with a device (I use my iPod touch a lot for that)

Calendar is fat as I don't worry about tomorrow. I always have it in my devices. I also can add information like phone, address, and agendas to the events

PaperPport Notes is much like notes but far better. It allows stickies, voice notes/ conversion, highlights, and drawing all in the same document and syncing between devices

Google docs has been amazing for our team. We organize events collaboratively, have registrations for events and download the lists to print name tags etc. so easy and shared access - anywhere with wifi

Dropbox. I can't say enough about it. It has changed the way I store information If I need to use it once, I don't put it in the cloud. If I just want an archive, such as a YouTube video, I store it locally, the best part is that the three of us on the team all have a shared Dropbox folder, we all can work on our documents and see them to answer questions for others when we aren't there. I even have a share now with my wife to keep some documents accessible at home or work for us both

I don't think I can live without these tools anymore. It does say some things about my life though. I rely on the technology and expect it to be there. To quote Lisa Domeier de Suarez, 'Internet access is the new electricity'. A teacher at a nearby school was allowing students to bring in their devices. They could take pictures of their notes or homework, until the admin heard about it and said,'they would have to discuss it.' which meant. Once I talk to your teacher the answer is no. Sad that a passionate knowledgable educator making connections for his students got shut down.

Just try to have an electricity free school.

Living on an iPad.

I have tried very hard to just use my iPad as my computing device for the last two days. It really is challenging. I dietary and prepare by enabling print sharing the night before. It configured at home but not within the district network. Took some MacBook time to try tweaking but to no avail(I have submitted a service page and will see if that provides an option)

I needed to break from the plan to:
1. Try tweaking a printing solution
2. Create a fireworks logo that needed printing. Since I had one that needed editing it was easier than creating a new one in a new software.
3. I also needed over the last two days to print.

Printing is not going away. When I work with teachers new to iPads I ask why you would need to print. I have now got several answers..
Printing posters for bulletin boards
Printing expense claims ( that I have to attach receipts and submit))
Printing a document requiring a signature
Printing an attendance sheet for a workshop. (I could have used an app and have them sign in on my device; however I would then dedicate a 500 device to act as a $0.05 piece of paper and not be able to use it myself while they sign in.)

Beyond the basics...
Multitasking
I am trying to be true to the concept; however, I find myself wanting to 'quickly' do some multitasking work while I was on my laptop to print. It brought to my attenttion that I multi task heavily. If a website takes time to load, I move to another task. If a file is uploading, I switch and do something else. If I am answering email, I like to have my calendar open at the same time (without switching)

Creative work ...
I haven't had time to do any today... My IPad is being used as a small laptop without a tactile keyboard. I am doing quite well atyping and allowing autocorrect to do its magic. Still slower than using a keyboard (when I am focused on typing I can type 60 wpm). Currently I am able to type about 30 wpm on the iPad. The iPad is not the best typing device. I personally miss the tab key, the underscore on the main keyboard, and cursor keys

Internet ...
Most websites are working fine. You learn some quirks like entering dates on calendars that are not optimized for mobile devices - zoom and slide etc. We are doing a pedometer challenge in our building and that site must use flash as it just appears blank. If it was just me, I would use a different site, but I have to use the site provided. (and they dont have an app).

I needed to edit a web page but the wysiwyg editor did not show properly on the iPad I managed to accomplish it but not as easy in a full browser.

I didn't realize just how much I did in emails / paperwork in a day. It was harder to be as efficient getting my regular work load done. That is real aha though.

I need to spend more time in the classroom. We have several key events coming up that require a level of productivity, but I will stick to using iPad. It will force me to think differently.

What if the iPad was the only device available to a teacher, a student, a class. Should it be wasted on productivity.... Perhaps there are other ways to get the desired result on an iPad by doing it differently or to quote APPLE Think different

Off to finish my emails today. Tomorrow I will do my blog without backspace for corrections...

iBook Author - Where is the real power?

I was very excited to hear the foreshadowed Apple announcement changing the textbook world.

http://www.apple.com/education/#video-textbooks

This has the potential to change learning resources in the same way that the printing press did almost 600 years ago.  The printed word became accessible to a broader audience.  Now the multimedia world will become accessible to a broader audience.

We already have access to the individual pieces of information and media; however, there hasn't been a crisp way to staple all the resources together.  Now there is

I have already read some criticism that the power of the multi billion dollar textbook industry will still remain with the publishing giants.  While I can see that as try for content rich textbooks that have every detail for entire courses, I see greater potential outside of the publishing companies.

I see the real power being brought to the students and teachers.  As a teacher I can now create custom content for the course I want to teach.  (Unfortunately, this is still living in the old paradigm of teacher experts but better than a business as the expert).  The most amazing power will be what students can create.

A huge frustration for me is when teachers create an awesome wiki with their students, then ask how to erase it all at the end of the course.  Why do we make students start their learning journey at the beginning.  All current innovation is built on previous innovations.  Why should 'textbooks' of the future delete those previous learnings?  Wouldn't it be better to create a 'textbook' resource with a class, then have the next class spring board to adapt old learning and explore new learning.

Please don't waste previous student's learning.  Acknowledge and honour the previous learning and move forward.  Textbooks are dead resources from a snapshot in time.   The content in a textbook is not the value; the process of learning and engaging with the content is the value.   Living iBooks can and should develop a life of their own

Literacy isn't enough: 21st Century Fluency for the Digital Age - Lee Crockett

Lee has warned us that he will be speaking very fast....

Following up from yesterday's presentation (that I didn't attend)

Kids are fundamentally different. Classical conditioning. If you put apes in a cage, and spray if they reach for bananas, soon other apes will prevent any ape from going for bananas. You can replace all apes one at a time will prevent any ape from going for the bananas. The apes learn

TTWWADI - That's the way we've always done it.

This is true of modern day axle width for trains - goes back 2300 years ago from a Roman War Chariot - The chariot was just wide enough for two horses rear ends. Today the Solid Booster Rockets are built to the same 4' 8.5 Inches because they are shipped by rail. The most complex piece of machinery built base the specification on the size of two horses butts.

Education has a lot of TTWWADI.

Why are kids in our classrooms ???? they have no other choice.

There are 5 skill sets in education and life today

1. Obsolete Skills

- once valued - sharpening swords, milking horses, candle maker

2. Traditional Skills

- once important - less mainstream - still valued - handwriting, dewey decimal system

3. Traditional Literacy Skills

- Reading, Writing, Numeracy - Traditional Communication Skills

- just as important today as they are an essential foundation for 21st Century Skills

4. Modified Traditional Literacy Skills

- Emphasis has increased based on the digital culture

- Reading is no longer a linear passive activity

- Writing is no longer reading and writing a report on what you read

5. New Skills

- emerged or are unique to the Digital Age

- This are critical in the world today - online communication - social media

Schools continue to train students to be consumers of content; now students need to be producers and prosumers of content. Students literate with 20th Century skills only will only be prepared for our past and not their future. (What a great quote)

Students need to move to fluency in 21st Century Skills. Fluency is at a level that you no longer need to think about how to do the skill

1. Technological Fluency - you know how to use excel and use it to calculate and think - the focus is not on the hardware, it is on the headware

2. Media Fluency - Beyond creating a podcast or taking a photo - It is about looking critically at the medium and how it is being used to communicate and shape your opinion. Measuring the effectiveness of the message communicated with the media.

3. Information Fluency - Unconsciously and Intuitively interpret information

a. Ask good questions

b. Acquire

c. Analyze - authenticate, arrange, understand bias

d. Apply - within context of real life, real world problem - write a blog, - vision into practice

e. Assess - product and process.

Traditional Literacy and 21st Century Fluency need to both be taught in a structured and valuable way. Our job as educators should be to teach lazy (progressive withdrawl) - empower our students to be independent learners and thinkers with 21st century thinkers - provide them with the skills and knowledge to succeed in the outside world.

Our job is to plan for learners to graduate no longer needing us for them to succeed.

To have learning stick (learning triangle) we need to have students teach concepts to each other and apply it. Now they will remember 90%

Today's students are not the students that schools were designed to teach. Today's students are not the students we were trained to teach. If we don't change how we teach, it is us that has the learning difficulty

http://committedsardine.com/resources.cfm

Kevin