Apps and the Ways RJ Teachers are Using Them, Pt. 1

Sharing the way others at Jesuit schools throughout North America have incorporated Apps into their instruction leaves an impression that they (these other professionals at other schools) have it all figured out. Maybe you feel, "I don't," or "Regis Jesuit doesn't." As mentioned in the Technology Vision post, as well as the "Where are you on the Education Continuum?" post, our colleagues at RJ are doing amazing things ALREADY with their iPads in instruction.  And, if we are to succeed, we have to help one another in a spirit of risk and humor tied to a professional drive to increase learning.  To foster this, I will occasionally, as I hear about them, post ways our teachers are using their iPads in the classroom.  Here are a few:

Candace Busselmeier

"I use Explain Everything (click here to open in the AppStore) for my video lessons.  I track all classroom participation with Class Dojo (click here to open in the AppStore).  When kids are working in class, I use Talkboard (click here to open in the AppStore) to demonstrate problems.  I have also used Nearpod (click here to open in the AppStore) for assessments.  I love that one because I can have kids actually write on it on the ipad and submit it to me, then I can review it and grade it."

Dustin Dvorak

"For my classes I use Explain Everything (click here to open in the AppStore) quite a bit to create either mini lesson or review lessons for before the test that use to study.  I use NameSelector (will open in the AppStore) to do short reviews before we start class (I ask questions to the student whose name is chosen at random.  If they get it wrong I immediately ask the same question to the next student whose name is chosen). I use Class Dojo (click here to open in the AppStore) to keep track of a participation grade when they are working individually and in groups.  I've also used Ubersense (click here to open in the AppStore) and Video Physics (click here to open in the AppStore) to do some slow motion analysis of things in motion but that is more science specific stuff."

Andrew Carroll

"I have been using EduCreations (click here to open in the AppStore) to create videos about noun and verb endings, but got a great idea to use it also for sentence diagraming this weekend."

Personal Note
If you would like to share lesson plans or other ideas you have, please let me know.  You can become a guest blogger on the site, or just send me your idea in an email and I'll post it like I did above.

Note on Two of the Apps Mentioned Above
Explain Everything allows you to create presentations on your iPad.  You create slides (if you have presentations in PDF format, you can import them) and then record your presentation slide by slide. After you have recorded all of them, it will compile all the slides and your recording together into a single video file that you can upload to YouTube or other sharing platforms.  The advantage over EduCreations (basically the same thing but free) is 1. with single slide recording mistakes in recordings are limited to a slide vs. the whole presentation; and 2. you can upload to YouTube or others whereas Educreations posts it on their site and you direct students to their link.

I personally use Class Dojo and find it to be the first time I've understood how participation can be documented and a valid aspect of the grade.  For instance, I can actually bring up a report on any student and state by date which accuracy examples and instances of when a student has been a positive or negative influence in the class.  Further, it is free!

New Apps, App Ideas, and Other Practical Ideas for Use in the Classroom (inspired from the JSEA Technology Conference)

As promised, a more practical post from the Tech Conference:

GradeCam

If you use Scantron for quizzes or tests: GradeCam is an affordable option that would cut out the purchasing of the forms as well as you going to the work area to process the scores.  As soon as a student is finished, you could take a picture of his answers using your iPad and it would immediately give you his result. As more come to you, using your Camera you would have instant results and see, by person or the aggregate, what learning has been missed.

Book Creator or Creative Book Builder

These two apps are essentially ways to create iBooks on your iPad.  The first is more simple with a more intuitive learning curve, while the second is more advanced but can be more cumbersome. 

Ideas would be to have students use one of these apps to create a book as a unit assessment of overall course assessment.  They could use it in a group project to create a student's guide to the course for next years' class, or create a visual glossary or even a resource compendium to help differentiate learning.

EduCanon

Imagine taking a YouTube (or Vimeo or others) video you have created and placing stops during it that bring up quiz questions.  The student answers the quiz question and they get immediate feedback (for multiple choice ones). Once they have answered the question, they are allowed to resume watching the video.  You are given the results, so you can formatively assess the learning as it is taking place in the video.

If you flip the classroom instruction, this might be a way to embed a type of worksheet into the actual video.  At the least, they cannot skip ahead and they are forced to engage in the viewing.  Accessing the scoring data also gives you more focused points for remediation.

Vernier Video Physics (Math/Science)

Using the Camera, a student can record something in motion and the data analysis within the program will draw trajectory, position, and velocity graphs for the object.

An instructor from Brophy uses this to prove gravity and acceleration, and then has students discover the laws of physics with motion in the AngryBirds universe. 

The Grading Game (English)

Competing as an "evil" English teacher bent on giving students terrible grades, the "player" gets writing samples and a time limit.  The goal is to bring the grade down finding mistakes in grammar as quickly as possible.  Teachers have found this to quickly increase student capacities in writing.

ComicLife or Comics Head Lite (English, Theology)

Create comic strips on the iPad. 

If you are having students create story outlines, have them take pictures enacting key scenes and use the bubbles or captions of the comic strip to analyze or provide grounds justifying why the scenes they select are crucial in the development of the plot.  Limit it to two pages to force their evaluative capacities.

TI-Nspire Calculator and Keynote (Math)

For Math: have students find real life examples of 90 degree angles or other concepts, take photos of them, highlight the area or lines the image represents. Using the Inspire app, have it analyze the data and then insert this analysis into a Keynote presentation.  This can become a creative unit review and integrated into future physics or architecture lessons, can add application and depth to learning.

iPhoto (English, Fine Arts, Languages, Science, Social Studies, Theology)

Have students take photos that can express the meaning of vocab words or key concepts.  Using iPhoto and the Web Journal feature, have them create a photo glossary of terms/concepts for a unit.  With the sharing feature, this could be done as a group project or with peer review. 

iMovie (Social Studies, English, Theology)

Using Ken Burns documentaries as examples, have students use photos in the iMovie app and by adjusting the effects and adding in recordings, have them create their own documentaries of a time period.

iCircuit (Science)

Create and experiment with circuit design/analysis.

TimeLapse (Fine Arts, Science, any project with a visual aid)

Turn your Camera into a time lapse camera.  Set the length of time to "record" or just set it to take a shot every 5 seconds, you can use this to show the progression of something over time.  

Imagine setting this up to record dissection or the creation of an art piece. Every five seconds a photo is taken and at the end, it makes this into a movie. Import that into iMovie and they can give audio commentary on the dissection/piece of art.

Another idea stems from RCA Animate.  Have students create a graphic in the stop-motion style to be used to present ideas/concepts.

Holomic or AirMicroScope (Science)

The first, Holomic, turns an iPhone into a microscope, even an electron microscope.  You can also do blood or allergen analysis.

The second, AirMicroScope, turns the iPad into a microscope.  With the click of a button the teacher is able to send an image of a cell into every students' Camera Roll.

SmartMusic (Fine Arts)

Students can come home, practice music on their instrument (voice included) and the software will record and analyze their performance.  The student will even receive feedback on how to improve.   

Some Notes from the JSEA Tech Conference, Part 2

As we fly back from the Conference, I am filled with gratitude for the opportunity to hear from colleagues around the country, and Canada, who have dedicated so much of their talents to the work of Jesuit education.  One of the things I learned from my time being a Jesuit: what animates all of us in this work is the momentum of grace which infused and organized Ignatius' heart and mind.  Whenever I find myself in the company of colleagues who have been given the opportunity to slow down and share what gives them (and us) joy, the challenges faced at work reorient not on the struggle, but on the chance at helping students discover the beauty of thinking.  This "other-centeredness" is an aspect and fruit of that "momentum of grace".

The overall impression I bring from the Conference is that we (in this profession where the goal is not teaching, but learning) must continue to support one another, seek the best in one another.  At times I lose sight of the purpose of our vocation: learning.  Fundamentally, I believe this device on which I'm composing this post can foster learning, and that must become its primary purpose.  So, how do I achieve that?  How do I reconstitute my use of it from entertainment device to a tool that can stimulate thought and offer creative expression to MY learning?  If I cannot find it in this use for MY learning, how can I offer it as a tool for OTHERS' learning?  This question is one I will wrestle with, and I hope we will wrestle with it together.

Other points of consideration from the Conference:

When asked, if given 5 minutes to give reason for adopting a 1:1 environment, some answers struck me.  1. Our students' lives are, and will continue to be, saturated with technology.  I may like that or not, but it is true.  So, how do I find God there?  How do I take this reality as it is, not as I want it to be, and look for God?  How can we see in this tool, in this world, new revelations of God's Spirit?  If I presume God is here, then what?  Ignatius challenges us to find God, so this is our task.  2. In many ways the advent of Twitter, smart phones, Snap Chat, and so many other technologies are becoming increasing factors of importance in teenagers' lives, yet if our sole message is it doesn't belong at school, "just turn it off", are we meeting them where they are at?  Are we helping them Find God in All Things?  3. A central obligation we (may) have is to help our students learn to use freedom wisely.  By going 1:1 we will begin that patient work of learning discernment in a new age.  4. Our mission is to be immersed in the world, meeting God here, and part of this is recognizing in a society where the rich and poor are becoming ever more disconnected, pushed farther away from each other, this ensures all our students will start to have more equal access.  This is not access to video games, even if they believe that is the largest reward of this whole enterprise, it is that we are now assuring each of our students has a more level playing field in responding to the world of tomorrow.  This is justice, to reduce the digital divide from our students with means compared to those without.  They of course have to embrace this opportunity, but at least this can offer them a less disparate playing field in technological "native-ness".

These are my more meaningful recollections of the time in Washington, DC.  My next post will be more practical - it will be a list of apps and ideas associated with those apps for actual implementation in our classrooms.  

Some Notes from the JSEA Technology Conference in Washington, DC - Part 1

The JSEA Technology Conference has been enlightening, a time for many handling the concerns of technology and Jesuit education to collaborate.  Today, we started with a series of reflections and discussions setting the context of our current students (produced by Michele Williams):

Take a look at some of those statistics, and think, what will the future look like?  What will be obsolete in our classrooms by 2018, 2023?  How will this impact us as educators?  What world are our students in that we cannot begin to imagine yet we have to relate to, and educate within?

We also had a discussion on the role of technology and the reasons why, as Jesuit schools, we need to realize the overall educational shifts due to technology.  We had homework:

"Read, watch, or listen to one of the following:

Why School? How education must change when learning and information are everywhere, by Will Richardson [Kindle] [TED Talk]

Stop Stealing Dreams, by Seth Godin [Kindle] [TED Talk]

NMC Horizon Report: 2013 Higher Education [full report] [infographic summary]

What is the future of technology in education?, by Matt Britland [TheGuardian]"

These are great resources to generate conversations - I would only recommend adding in Sugata Mitra and his S.O.L.E. initiative [TED Talk 1] [TED Talk 2]

Please look at some of these great resources.  If I could force all of us to read one book, it would be Why School by Will Richardson.  It is very short but incredibly powerful in my own reflection as to why educate with technology.  Even more, it is a great treatise on the purpose of education today.  It is brilliant, in my mind.

I'll write more later, but wanted to send this update out for you all.

Regis Jesuit Technology Vision

Many people might currently be experiencing the increasing anxiety of seeing technology become more prevalent at RJ without comprehending, “how are we going to do this?”  In order to alleviate some of your concerns, here is the overall vision of the next three years, including some minimum expectations for next year.

Overall, think of the goal for this year being developing some confidence in your use of the iPad.  Right now, that might mean for some of you the ability to read and send email, steadily increasing into the use of some apps (Pages, Keynote, Camera, etc.) or features of the iPad (Airplay with AirServer on your laptop).  Others are experimenting with the Canvas or SpeedGrader apps, using Safari or Chrome to post or grade assignments, or using Dropbox for file management or Socrative to administer formative assessment.  For all of us, the plan is during this year (highlighted by the training in February), you will learn how to use the basic iWork (Pages, Keynote, Numbers) and iLife (iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand) suites, and you will start to see what is possible regarding curriculum transfer (Canvas) and curriculum design (iPads).  We are neither expecting or demanding that everyone adopt a “flipped learning” environment.  As a matter of fact, there is no one right way to use the iPad in the classroom.   There are many ways and ways that each of us will adopt as we continue to learn more ourselves.   The minimum expectation for next school year will be that you: 

1. Post assignments and grades on Canvas; 
2. Redesign one assessment incorporating the capacities of student iPads; 
3. Administer one quiz in class using the iPads (can be through the Canvas app, or using programs like Socrative); 
4. Redesign one homework assignment that is based on what an iPad can do, its capacities as opposed to the capacities of pen and paper; 
5. Utilize AirServer one time in class to project either your iPad or having a student project his/her iPad onto the projector screen (audio and/or video not required).  

These are very basic things that will be minimums to build your capacities.  It is expected that you begin to see technology as a tool that is more than a replacement for pen and paper or bookshelves, but that with Canvas, the iPad, and digital textbooks, there is the opportunity to do more with our curriculum and pedagogy that has been previously available.

Again, this does not mean next year the expectation is that you are using technology all of the time in your classroom.  You must have the independence and vision to discern when its use will assist and/or enhance student learning and when it will not.  But this also demands that we, together, start to grapple with the difference between not using it because, "I don’t know how to use it" and not using it because, "I know what it could do, but other learning objectives demand another choice."  This is a difficult process of calibration and training, and we are fully aware of this.  Thus, the message today is: It’s okay.  We are taking it slowly and want to increase your capacities so that you can thrive in your development with these technologies.  We are scaffolding our community’s calibration and training (for this is not about any ONE of us, it is about us together learning and assisting each other) to help us achieve a consistent and intentional incorporation of technology into our curricular goals and professional pedagogy.  

Year zero (this current academic year) is planned to achieve the above results.  To get there, we are bringing in Apple and Eduscape Learning to train us in February.  Further, a new position has been created called Department Techs (for a list of who they are, see below). These peers will serve two roles: 

1. Animate your use of technology by serving as sometime trainer, sometime resource, sometime problem solver, and sometime brain-stormer; 
2. Assist in getting feedback back to us (admin, Kenny, Jason, Kathy) that helps our planning and training for you.  

These Department Techs will be holding department trainings on various apps between now and Feb. 18th (the date Apple and Eduscape will be here), because this is mandated by Apple for that training (we are required to train you to basic competencies in Pages, Keynote, Numbers, iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand).

Year one (next year) has the expectations as stated previously (the five minimums).  As you continue to gain confidence in the device due to training and exploration, our goal is that you begin to see how to creatively begin to adjust your curriculum and even look to what it would be to redesign it with the iPads in mind.  We will have more training from Apple, Eduscape or another organization (already budgeted and planned) in order to facilitate this process of envisioning curricular possibilities that are available due to an iPad being in the hand of every student.  A crucial part of this process will be our collegial environment of sharing ideas, working with one another to build flexibility in our capacities with the iPad, risk taking and brainstorming with assessments and homework, and a spirit of support in trying to improve the learning community here by using effectively, and with discernment, technology.

Year two and three then have as general goals creative curricular design and building our school into a community using technology (faculty, staff, and students) to learn, together.  

Finally, to move from relying on outside trainers (they have their place, but are expensive), we will be increasing opportunities for faculty, especially Department Techs, to go to conferences to help them bring back to campus more iPad and technology ideas specific to departments (there is a reason I don’t teach math and some of my ideas might not be suited for the math room).  This will animate our creativity and competency, focus it in our subject area, and foster our commitment that no one person can perfect the use of technology in his/her classroom, it will take us working together from all ends of the technology adoption spectrum to turn our school into a successful 1:1 environment.

BD Dept. Techs:

Andrew Carroll

Bill Kehrman

Bruce Raymond

Bryan Timme

Candace Busselmeier

Dana Bauer

Dustin Dvorak

Mark Heidenry

Matt Klassen

Ryan Katz

Ryan Taylor

GD Dept. Techs:

Will Cropper

Erin Cassidy-Cernanec

Kirsten Landry

Tim Bauer

Jennifer Meyer-Rose

Katie Mihalco

Christine Oliver

Linda Kozler

Carol Ann Sass

Feel free to ask Kathy or Jason any questions you may have – we

know you likely have many.  You may also talk with or ask your department’s Department Tech and they may have answers for you.  

How to Redeem Codes in the App Store to Install New Apps

If you have ever received a code for an app that you need to "redeem" in order to install it on your iPad, and you weren't quite sure how to do this or you've forgotten how to do it, I've created a tutorial for that.  Click here to download it.

Here are the steps:

1. Open up the "App Store" on your iPad

2. It will open to the "Home Screen".  You need to scroll to the bottom.

3. At the bottom, click on "Redeem".

4. It might ask you at this point to enter your Apple ID.  This is a password and account you set up with Apple when you received your iPad.  We do not have access to that password, so if you have issues you will need to contact Apple.

5. You need to tap on the space where it says, "You can also enter your code manually".

6. After you have tapped on that section, you will enter in the Redemption Code (listed above).  Then, tap on "Redeem".  If it works, it will download and install the app.  If it does not, it will tell you the code does not work (or something to that effect).