"May I take your picture?" - iPad Photography in the Classroom

Last week we had another introductory lesson for iPad use with our First Grade students, which focused on taking pictures.  We started by discussing why we might need to take a photo of someone.  Perhaps the student might need an image of a person in the story he is writing.  Maybe she is creating a photo collage to demonstrate something learned.  Teachers want to have photos of students to document what is happening in the classroom.  There are so many reasons why we might need to take a picture at school.  Now with iPads in the classroom, it is ridiculously easy to take multiple photographs.

In the classroom – how do you make sure everyone is ok with the picture?  To demonstrate, the First Graders acted out several scenarios and we created a flow chart on the board. 

1. Ask the other person if you can take their picture.  If they say no – stop.  Go find another person and start over.

How often do teachers just start snapping away in class to document the activity? 

2.  If the other person says yes, take the picture, and then show it to the other person for approval.  If he doesn’t like it, retake the picture until it meets his approval.

I know as a teacher, I am often guilty of not doing this step.  When every child asks, “Can I see the picture?” I am thinking that I have 24 kids to photograph and showing each of them the picture will take time.  In reality, it isn’t too much time to show the picture and retake it if the child requests.  More often than not, children are happy with what they see!

3.  Once the picture is taken and approved, tell the other person what you are planning to do with it.  Then show them!

All of these steps may seem like very strict guidelines, but we are looking at a life lesson here.  If children can learn at this young age that they need to ask to first take then share someone’s image first, maybe then as these students get older, they will think twice before posting an embarrassing picture of their friend.

One of my goals for the year is to constantly be aware of when I am photographing the students in my class and letting them know.  I plan on telling the children that I am going to post the pictures to our class website and then showing it to them.  I was able to put this process in practice immediately as we made a grade wide movie trailer for a school assembly last week.  I had to explain to all 48 first graders what was happening, why we were photographing them and retaking several shots when students weren’t satisfied with the initial results.  It didn’t take as much time as I thought it would, and was a nice reminder to me that this is an important practice to demonstrate as we are asking the students to do the same thing.

iPrep for iPads: The Game Plan (and Blogging!)

With a great deal of deliberation, 4x has not launched the iPads yet. We will this week – the fourth week of school.  It is the halfway point in the first six weeks – a critical time for routine setting and generally getting to know one’s students.  We waited for a few reasons.  One, a guiding philosophy is that the iPad is a tool and one tool of many that students are equipped with.  It can be perfect or wrong depending on the task, and our students need to now when to use it and when to put it down. Two, we don’t want the iPads (or any particular technology) to be the center of our classroom or our curriculum so we have been doing other stuff with books and color pencils and paper and glue and scissors and poster board.  The pedagogy is leading, and the iPads will literally follow.

When we do launch the iPads on Monday, we are going in with a game plan.  Our tech integration and rollout plan will include “just in time” digital citizenship lessons taught by our Technology and Idea Coordinator, guided discoveries of apps, introductions to supplementary accounts with GoogleDrive and Haiku, email etiquette and protocols, and the piloting of student blogs via KidBlog.

I've selected a few guiding principles or "professional development mantras" to help me stay focused throughout the year, and I look forward to conversing with colleagues about what motivates and guides them.

           We will focus on introducing open ended, creativity apps through meaningful curricular tasks and assignments. When exploring apps, we give minimal instruction.  There is usually a list of things to find or include; part of the learning process is figuring out exactly how to do so.  They teach themselves, each other, and often their teachers! Once the children know enough about these apps, the goal becomes enabling them to choose how to demonstrate what they are learning.  We want them to select the digital or non-digital method/format that is right for them.  We want students to think: 

• How can I best communicate what is in my head? 
• What project can I manage effectively and efficiently?  
• "What can I do well?"  
• "What risk could I take?"

I am most excited about our KidBlog pilot where students will curate their best work and reflect on their learning. Creating digital portfolios is an important next step - the absence of which left last year's program feeling incomplete. We have heard many good things about this platform, and I am hopeful it will help us achieve our goals. We are currently in the process of developing curriculum on publishing and commenting. Some inspiring work comes from:

http://www.notesfrommcteach.com/2010/09/learning-to-blog-using-paper.html

http://educational-blogging.wikispaces.com/

http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org

If you have blogged with students (especially elementary school students) and have some advice, we would love to hear from you!

Learning from Setbacks

I just got back from an inspiring  presentation by Carol Dweck, author of Mindset.  In her presentation (and book, which I am thoroughly enjoying reading) Carol talks about two approaches to learning - the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. In a fixed mindset, a person believes that they have a certain amount of intelligence and that's it. In a growth mindset, a person believes that they can always learn, and if they put effort into something they will get results.  Failures do not stop people with a growth mindset.  These setbacks often spur these people on to work harder and make new discoveries.

This got me to thinking about my teaching and learning this year. This has been a huge year of growth for me personally and I have noticed that I am more reflective about my teaching.    One might say I am in a growth mindset now! 

I have been thinking about how we teach and assess children.   If we want our students to learn and grow, then we have to give them ample opportunities to try new things multiple times.  Recently, the Spanish teacher at our school started a project with the students in our class using Book Creator. After the first session with them, she came to tell us the conversations that were happening in her class as the students were creating their books in Spanish.  They weren't afraid to experiment with various things in their books and helped each other throughout the process. As she was talking about the way the children were forging ahead with the project, I couldn't help but think back to the beginning of the year and the first Book Creator books.  The students were afraid to try new things, and wanted  us to talk them through every step.  I remember thinking at this point if it was worth the effort of giving the students this experience.  It took a lot of resolve on my part to find another time for students to experience Book Creator again.  They did, several times, and each time more students felt more comfortable with their results. The ones who were willing to experiment and make discoveries seemed to generate a "can-do" attitude in the classroom.   

Listening to Carol Dweck tonight, I realize again how much impact teachers (and, of course, parents) have on the children in their lives.  If I had let my frustration and discomfort with the project affect the students' access to discoveries, they wouldn't have had the same learning experience in Spanish class.  It reinforced my belief that students need multiple opportunities and ways to show us what they know. Just because they have one setback doesn't mean that they can't learn! Thank you to Carol Dweck for your inspiring words!

“You can put down the iPad…”

OR.... “The Right Tool for the Job.”

 Here are two great tools.  You can accomplish a variety of tasks with either tool.  However, for some jobs, neither the hammer nor the pliers is the right tool.  You can’t paint a wall with either one – that requires a different tool.

 The same idea holds true for any classroom tool, they may or may not be the right tool for every single learning goal we set forth in our classrooms.  You probably wouldn’t use blocks to teach spelling just as you likely wouldn’t use magnetic letters to teach geometry.  So why then would we pull out iPads and try to apply them to every activity in our classrooms?  The answer is:  we wouldn’t.  These are the scenarios to consider when using iPads:

• Sometimes iPads will be the right tool for everyone

Think about the Substitution level of the SAMR model created by Ruben Putendura. 

Everyone in your class might be on iPads to do research, to write papers, etc.  This shouldn’t be the most common scenario however.  It brings to mind images of students lined up in desks, plugged into computers, consuming rather than creating or collaborating.

• Sometimes iPads will be the right tool for some

 This is where differentiation stands out and really helps your students with varied learning styles.  Consider your students when designing projects and offer options for the finished product.  It’s really the learning that happens during the process that counts after all.  Allow students to make a movie, create a cartoon strip, record an original song, make a book, etc., to demonstrate understanding.  

• Sometimes iPads will be the right tool for part of a project            

We love to combine paper/pencil, iPad, manipulatives to investigate an idea or deepen our thinking.  This might be a project that involves creating a book about a math concept.  Students might use a math app or watch a math video (think Flipped Classroom) to get some background content.  They might then use math manipulatives to practice/demonstrate understanding and to find complexity.  The next step could be to choose how they articulate their thinking centered around this project – some might choose an iPad path, others might choose paper/pencil.

• Sometimes iPads might not be the right tool for anyone or any part of a project

In the end, as with any learning goal you have, it is really all about your classroom culture.  What makes sense for your teaching style?  For a given group of students? For the subject matter? For any particular project?  Consider the types of thinking/learning you wish to have your students do: consider different viewpoints, find complexity, deepen understanding, make connections, create, imagine, question, observe, or investigate.  Consider how the iPad can add a dimension to your students experiences that they would not get any other way. (redefinition, SAMR)  And then, give yourself permission to let your students find their own individuality and their own unique way of articulating their thinking/learning.

Questions, Questions, Questions

This afternoon we had a fantastic faculty meeting. Several teachers who use iPads in their classrooms (at varying degrees) talked about some part of their teaching and learning journey when using this new device in the classroom.  I loved hearing how others are integrating the iPad into lessons and thinking about the possibilities it creates for all of us.  Some points that really resonated with me were: 

- think about when to use the iPad - be deliberate in your use as you would with any educational tool; 

- the process of creation motivates - student interest makes them invested in their learning; 

- iPads can help customize the learning for each child we teach; 

- creating innovators should be our goal - where kids get the information from now is not as relevant; 

- don't worry about starting small - go at the pace that works for you; and 

- when getting started with the iPad as a classroom tool, you might be at the substitution phase for a while - this is ok!

At the end of the meeting, I was full of questions.  How are we going to move forward with our iPad program in the elementary grades? As a younger grade teacher, are there aspects of use of technology that I should be directly teaching? Is exploration of an app enough? Many children find this device intuitive, but what about the children who need a lesson?  iPads are not the only computers that children will have to use in their life. When are they taught to use a laptop? Will parents be expected to take on more teaching of the rote skills of using a Word program for example? Are there enough similarities among the devices that adults can expect children will be able to use any digital device since this is the world they are growing up in?

I love that our faculty is engaged in these discussions. It is very inspiring to hear my colleagues talk of their successes and failures. It's also nice to know that I am not on this journey of exploration alone!

Hindsight may be 20/20, but Planning is Everything!

One thing we are discovering when we plan lessons that incorporate the iPads, is that we need a clear vision for the teacher's plans for the future of the projects. We need to understand how we plan to share this project, with whom, and why.

No longer is it assumed that every final project will be shared on paper, or using glue, tape, or paint. We are even trying to think beyond the printer as the final resting place for student work. Thus far, printer access is only available at Lower School if a document is sent to a teacher and then printed from a faculty laptop. The challenge is to understand how we want to share the projects before they are created, so that we are having students work with apps that interact well with each other, or apps that allow us to upload, embed, and share our work online. 

Once again, it starts to sound as if this article is going to be "all about the apps". But while it seems that you can't discuss teaching and work flow with iPads and not include apps in the conversation, this is another case where, at base, it's all about the planning, the teaching, and ultimately, the learning.  What it really requires is understanding the apps you have available - how they function, how they interact with each other, and how they are shared. You combine this understanding with a clear vision of what the end goal for the project is. With that in mind, you must use reverse engineering to walk backwards through the steps to the starting place. Most importantly, the lesson we learned with technology years ago still stands - try it first! It's not the iPad's or the app's design at fault if the project doesn't end up where you hoped, that fault lies with a lack of planning and careful, step-by-step testing to see if the goal can be met in the least complicated, most satisfying way possible.

I say all this in response to several projects we have launched this fall that have taken us by surprise, and in the end required compromises and work-arounds.

First, there were the research papers that the fourth graders wrote so comfortably in IA Writer which has an expanded keyboard that includes arrow keys and punctuation. However, the teacher planned to print these projects and IA Writer does not include formatting capabilities, so she was unhappy with the look of the final piece. Our work-around was to copy and paste the completed writing into Google Drive, format the document there, and share it with the teacher. This saved her inbox from a flood of documents to download, and since it is in the cloud, it preserves the project for the student as a portfolio piece. Was the teacher annoyed by these extra steps? Yes, but we also clarified her goals too late in the project. We will be prepared to streamline the process the next time. 

Next, a fourth grade teacher wanted to give feedback on student work using a screencast. She chose Explain Everything, uploaded each student's writing project to her iPad, and talked about the writing as she circled corrections, etc. 24 students later she came to me asking how she could share these files. Uploading each as a video to YouTube was too arduous a process, and this is not a product for the ages, just editing and writing suggestions. Explain Everything doesn't easily embed at this point, so there wasn't an obvious way to share them with students.  Our solution was to email them to herself, and upload each file onto her Haiku (LMS) page. Students were able to open these on their iPads in Explain Everything and hear her thoughts. Another decent work around - but next time she may use a different app e.g. Educreations, which would upload directly to the Web.

Most recently we had the challenge of the First Grade Book Creator project. The teachers wanted to share books that the students had already made on paper by photographing the illustrations and having the first grader read his story into the audio files in Book Creator. After long and careful recording sessions, the books were done. Then the teacher asked me if we could create QR codes to put on the real books so parents could access the recordings. Unfortunately, while Book Creator projects can be exported as .pdfs, the audio isn't supported. The only solution was to upload the .epub file to Haiku for parents who own devices that can read .epubs. Not the best work around. In future we may use Explain Everything for this project and upload them to YouTube. 

With hindsight being 20/20 we can see all we have learned through these experiences. What this doesn't solve is the hours of teacher time and anguish when we realized the plans they had didn't match their methods. I am proud of my bold teachers who venture forth to try something new, and want them to be successful every time. Therefore, the planning process will now include a clear, thoughtful discussion of the end goals, and include clarity about the limitations of the apps we are considering.