Consumers vs. Producers

My wife and I have noticed a trend with our two youngs boys, ages 7 and 4, when compared to us growing up.  On weekend mornings, especially saturday, my wife and I can remember rushing downstairs to watch the great lineup of saturday morning cartoons.  My boys however, rush to the macbooks, iPods and iPad.   They play games, make music (or at least try very hard), put on concerts with the iPod blaring Queen or AC/DC.  All of this while we  are trying to enjoy a quiet morning coffee.  My wife just doesn't understand it.  Having read Don Tapscott's book Grown Up Digital I think I do, at least a little.

In his book he talks about the Net Generation and their much different relationship to media, due in large part to the ubiquitous nature of the internet and technology.  Previous  generations had a much more passive/receptive relationship with the limited media of the day.  We sat on the couch and watch TV, listened to the radio or read what was written in the newspapers/magazines.  Other than the occasional letter to the editor, the mass population had no way of actively participating in the creation of media.  We could only sit passively and receive the media message from on high.

Flash forward to the past decade and the explosion of the Web 2.0 and the masses now have a means by which they can create media.  Think of Youtube, Wikipedia, blogs, podcasts, twitter, social networks, etc...  There has been a monumental shift in the way we interact with the media.  We are no longer passive when it comes to media, we actively create it and share it.  For many this has been a very uncomfortable shift, mistrust and disdain are often symptoms of this discomfort.  Our youth, however, find this new relationship with media to be completely natural, like breathing.  The technology is no longer a barrier to media production, but is often an enabler.  Most video editing software includes a button that allows you to upload to Youtube, or share on Facebook and Twitter.

So the issue with my boys is not that they are spending less time with their media than we did, but spending their time differently.  We would sit and enjoy the show, for my boys they are the show.

This is what I believe to be the fundamental element in the effective use of technology in the classroom. We as teachers need to understand our students' relationship to media, not only as consumers but as producers, and turn that to our advantage instead of fighting against it.  We need to understand that in this we are not necessarily the experts.  This might be frightening for some, and just like in the media industry there will be mistrust and disdain, but the potential for meaningful discussions with our students about the process of learning is the key.  Since we no longer control the creative process that can be used  in learning activities, we can instead focus our efforts towards helping the students evaluate, analyze and synthesize their learning.  That is higher order thinking and that is the 'holy-grail' of education.

iPads in the art class

We received our iPads just before christmas break, so to help teachers familiarize themselves with the iPad we sent many of them home with one.

One of the first teachers to get back to me after the break was our Art teacher (hi Rosie).  I had gotten her the Artstudio app.  Here is what she was able to do with it:

Quite simply, this is fantastic work.  She is not a technogeek, but she found the app easy to use and intuitive.  She especially liked the ability to zoom in quite closely to work on some fine details.

She was able to modify the brush style and pixel sizes.  She could easily modify colours.

But more than anything it wasn't what she could do with it that made her so excited.  It was what she could see her students doing with this.

With the magic of the Undo button, she strongly believes that students will be more confident to try out new techniques and ideas.  On paper if a student makes a mistake it could potentially ruin hours of work.  This tends to make students hesitant to try new things.  However, with this app, all a mistake  costs you is the effort of pressing the undo button.  If anything this might be the biggest benefit from using the iPad in the art room.

She also sees a major saving in materials.  As with any skill, different art techniques require practice.  This app presents them with an excellent means of practicing without using up reams and reams of paper

One more benefit is the ease with which this app allows students to share their work.  As with many apps, students can email their work to themselves, their teachers, family and friends.  It is also very easy to post student work to the school website.  This is a great opportunity for students to showcase their work.

Thanks for reading,

and don't forget to talk nerdy to me:)


Artwork created by Rosemary Gough

iPads in special education

The special needs of learners is always at the forefront of any teachers mind when preparing a lesson. I was interested to find out how the iPad might help.

I've found two apps that make the iPad excellent for our spec. ed. students.

The first one is Dragon Dictation. This comes from the makers of Dragon NaturallySpeaking, who for years have been making speech recognition software, widely used in schools. This app is currently free for iPod and iPad users. Now I don't have much experience in spec. ed., but our lead teacher in that department (Hi Chris), thinks highly of it. Students can speak into the iPad's built-in mic, and the app will record and convert it to text. You then can copy and paste, email, or even post to facebook.

At the other end of the spectrum we have Speak it! This app will take any text and convert it to speech. If a student is researching online and has difficulties reading, he/she can copy and paste the text and the app will read it to them. The app will also read PDF and email.

The app also allows you to save them as audio files. A neat feature allows you to slow down or speed up the speaking, as well as change the size of the font. The app also highlights the words as it reads them, so that students can follow along.  It is well worth the 1.99$, especially if you push it out to multiple units.

What makes these apps even more appealing for students are how discreet they are. Unfortunately, students with learning difficulties often feel shame and will avoid using help to avoid appearing "dumb". Using an iPad is cool, and other students wouldn't even realize they were using assistive technology. That in itself might be the biggest benefit of iPads and iPods for spec. ed. students. It removes the stigma and replaces it with a "cool" factor.

Is an iPad an iPod on steroids?

I was at my son's swimming lesson the other day, when a good friend (Hi Jared) asked a good question: How is an iPad not just an iPod touch on steroids?

It took me a few seconds to jumble some kind of answer together, but it got me thinking.  I remember when the iPad was first announced, I was skeptical about its usefulness.  I already had an iPod and used it alot in my classroom.  I would let my students record their presentations, I would record my lessons and post them online, I would use it to research and write notes.  I just couldn't see what an iPad could offer that would make it more useful.

Then, this summer, I pre-ordered one for my wife (Hi babes).  It was our tenth anniversary and I thought it would be a good gift.  She wanted something to surf the web, keep up with her email and facebook.  That was one of the big selling points of the iPad.  It wasn't until we got it that I started to see how the iPad might fit into a classroom.

There are two main points that make the iPad more useful and effective than an iPod: Multitasking and the iWork productivity suite.

Multitasking is a new feature on the iPad.  It allows you to go from one app to another without closing it.  This is great for students doing research online.  They can find their info online and then switch over to Pages to work on their assignment.  Before this you had to close the app, open the other, do your work and then start all over again.  If you think about how much back and forth is done between your research information and your actual work, it is a huge time saver to multitask.

iWork is comprised of three separate programs: Pages (word processor), Keynote (slideshow presentations) and Numbers (spreadsheet).  This represents a huge advance over what the iPod touch has available.  On the iPod you have Notes, which allows you to jot down quick notes, but it doesn't have the versatility and functionality of a full word processor like Pages.

I could probably go into more details, and I'm sure I will at some later point, about the iPad, but if I was asked again about iPads, iPods and steroids I would know what to answer.  The iPad is not an iPod on steroids, while it shares many commonalities with the iPod, it has moved beyond it.

Let me know what you think,

and don't forget to talk nerdy to me :)

First project

We are now back from the Christmas break and have 3 weeks until exams, Yikes!!!

My grade 11 Ancient History class has 2 research projects and an exam to prepare for in that time.  The first project is a group one, where students have to create a trivia board game.  They get to choose between Medieval Europe or Islamic Africa.  They can imitate an existing game, or invent one of their own.

The iPads have been great in class, it allows them to surf the web and find info.  I've directed them to our school board's Virtual Library, where they have access to licensed encyclopedias and periodicals.  Of course Google and Wikipedia are also popular destinations.

This part allows for me to have conversations with students about sources and their reliability.  How do you know that what you are reading is correct?  What can you do to verify the info?

It also forces students to think about how they search for their info, once you get to Google or Wikipedia, what do you type into that search box?  How do you get to the info you are after.  These are the important things I hope they take from this class.  This is what will serve them in the long run, not knowing who was the English king in 1066.

One challenge has been to keep them focused.  Facebook is a first stop after turning it on.  Instead of beating my head against that wall I've given them the first five minutes to satisfy their craving and then ask that they focus on their work.  I've also imposed mini-deadlines.  This project requires that each group member prepare 15 trivia questions, so by the end of today's class they needed 10 done, otherwise they were coming back to finish at lunch.  That worked quite well.

I'll be back later with more on how the project is going.