Celebrating our Success with 1:1 iPads

Yes, we have had some major snafus (can anyone say "passwords"?), but the fact is the students and teachers have embraced our new technology and are changing how instruction is delivered. From day one. We have much to be proud of and a lot still to learn. With this blog, we will create weekly posts that highlight our achievements, demonstrate how teachers are using technology in their classes and offer ideas and solutions for better technology integration. 

Tech Tips - 

Making resources available offline

Something that we need to consider as we use the iPad as a tool in our classroom is how to make assignments and resources available to the students offline. Many of our students do not have wi-fi at home, making it impossible to complete assignments that require access to the Internet. The easiest way to work around this issue is to consider a note-taking app. Many of you have already chosen an app for notes, but my recommendation is PaperPort Notes. Students can open Google Drive documents or documents from the web to annotate, complete or edit offline. The advantage of PaperPort Notes is that it has a built in recording feature. This provides UDL and accommodation options for every student.

Google Drive documents can also be set to be available offline. However, they become view only, with no editing or comment features regardless of how the document settings are set-up.

Maximizing Google

Google forms have been one of the most often used tools at the beginning of the school year. From QR code passes to formative assessments, the limit is usually only your imagination. In the videos below, Mr. Keith Zimmerman, Senior math instructor, demonstrates the Google script Flubaroo and how he uses it to grade an assignment or quiz in a Google form and gives a helpful settings tip for uploading your Microsoft files to Google Drive. Thank you for sharing your expertise!

          

 

Featured App 

The iPad app Ask3 from TechSmith is based on the notion that students should ask or attempt 3 ways to answer a question for going to the teacher for help. In reality, the application creates a formative assessment tool that is very powerful. Below AHS math teacher Mr. Steven Koch demonstrates how he uses Ask3 in his high school math class and Mrs. Rebecca Wildman demonstrates how she has used the app in her classroom to connect with students on a reading activity when she was absent. The app is free in the Apple App Store.

            

 

Twitter Friday Follow 

As you build your PLN on Twitter, Follow Friday is a fun feature. On Fridays, people tweet out a recommendation of someone to follow using the hashtag #FF. This week I recommend @alicekeeler. She is a Google Certified teacher who posts helpful tutorial and reviews of Google features and tools. You can also visit and/or follow her blog TeacherTech. A word of caution, Alice does host and participate in several Twitter chats, so you may end up with a lot of posts in your feed!

Moving forward with Moodle

Merging Moodle and iPads presents some challenges as we wait for an official app to come out of beta testing. One tip to make the two more compatible is to use the Page resource in Moodle instead of linking or uploading documents, videos and presentations. This allows students to view without software incompatibility issues. Thank you Miss Burns for identifying this problem! 

Hint: if you are embedding Google products that you created (Docs, YouTube videos) you need to set the share option to "Anyone with the link".

 

Library News 

The process of converting the library media center to a library learning commons has begun. As we work with 1:1 tools, we need to provide learning spaces that support our online and blended learning initiatives. Thank you for being patient as we rearrange shelving and space configuration. Students can check out books during the conversion, but classes are not being booked. Look for Teen Read Week contests and introduction to the space, including creating a library folder with library and apps, during the week of October 13-19th. In the meantime, I would love to feature books with curriculum connections in your class. Give me a call or e-mail a topic or subject and I will pull some choices for you. Let's get them connected and reading informational text!

EX: Books connected to AP Stats