Assignment+1

=Marian iPad Course =

**//Assignment 1//**

The iPad holds the unique potential to revolutionize teaching and learning in my eighth grade Spanish and Language Arts classroom almost overnight. The more I actively explore and utilize the intricacies of my own amazing device, the more excited I am to begin using iPads as essential teaching tools to motivate and engage student learning. Although the prospect of risk-taking and leaping into the unknown remains a bit scary and daunting, I am confident that my students and I will learn together to utilize the classroom iPad in ways that challenge and encourage collaborative learning experiences and innovation. For these reasons, I selected the following online articles, Web sites, and blogs for their immediate potential to excite, equip, and empower me and my students to embrace the full potential of the iPad in education.

According to Nadel (2010) in his online article “Making the iPad more school friendly” fully integrating the iPad into daily classroom instruction is not a completely seamless process. The purchasing of multiple accessories including protective cases, stands, keyboards, and AVG adapter cables and several necessary pricey applications must be completed before an educator can even begin to use the iPad and its applications fully in the classroom. I am currently grappling with these same challenges as I seek to use iPads in our classroom. Although I am fortunate to have access to a pilot program of ten iPads synched and protected in OtterBoxes and padlocked SyncTray in conjunction with my own personal iPad and the iPads of several students willing and excited to use them daily within our classroom, I am currently unable to project all of the apps on my iPad though my classroom projector. Screen projection is essential to model the initial use of the iPad and the ongoing collaborative use of applications and programs. Therefore, I was thrilled to find Nadel’s article that shares a few steps necessary to equip and enhance my classroom use of my iPad and projector together in exciting ways. Happily, in addition to providing valuable practical tips for educators interested in successfully equipping their classrooms with iPads, Nadel (2010) savvily foreshadows the need for the advent of more recent projection advances: “Until Apple adds the ability to send a signal to a projector it will be a hard sell in the classroom for anything other than one-on-one work” (Apple iPad dock connector to VGA adapter section, para. 3). I look forward to researching Apple’s constantly emerging technology including the Apple TV and other applications like Reflection that promise to enable teachers to utilize more easily iPads in the classroom.

Although the major obstacles to implementing my personal daydream of a 1:1 iPad program or even procuring full time access to a classroom set of iPads is financial, other important challenges and considerations exist. Our district technology office remains leery of Apple’s iTechnology, so fellow teachers and I are piloting our use of iPads mostly on our own. Therefore, I am inspired by the stories of schools and districts that are openly embracing the use of 1:1 iPad programs. Accordingly, McCrea (2011) highlights in her online article “ Prepping for iPads in school” how The Master's Academy in Oviedo, Florida, has begun tackling the challenges of providing each of its high school students in grades nine through twelve with an iPad during the next school year. The private Christian school’s proactive principal, Mitchell Salerno, soon to be associate superintendent, describes how the school has already begun to address the main issues of security, infrastructure, and acceptable use: "We have to teach students how to use these tools. Our content on campus will obviously be filtered, but they also need to know that they shouldn't be accessing [inappropriate] content just because they can." I wholeheartedly agree with Salerno that students need to be taught responsible use of the Internet, and I would love to be a member of a school faculty actively working through these issues with "dialog, conversation and education" (Security, infrastructure, and acceptable use section, para. 3-4). In addition to increasing WiFi bandwidth and offering an optional insurance plan for parents, Salerno and his faculty are focusing on instruction and teacher preparation and “how iPads are going to change the school and the way that students learn” through the implementation of six principles: adaptability, creativity, collaboration, innovation, productivity, and ethics (Instruction and teacher prep section, para. 3-4). Teachers are preparing lesson plans incorporating teaching with an iPad and planning to incorporate Moodle as the main learning management system instead of relying on the use of applications. I am excited to begin my own lesson plans to use the iPad to teach in my classroom and share with Salerno and the teachers at The Master’s Academy the focus on envisioning how the iPad will change our classroom and learning.

Grannell (2010) provides a glimpse into just how radically the iPad is altering student learning at Cedars School of Excellence, in Greenock, Scotland, in her online article “The school that gives every student an iPad.” The school’s principal, Fraser Speirs, immediately recognized the iPod Touch and soon thereafter the iPad as “providing the potential for seamless integration of technology and traditional teaching” (In Depth section, para. 2). Implementing an iPad leasing program through the Glasgow Apple Store, Speirs and teachers alike embraced the iPad and its potential to innovate teaching and learning. Speirs defines the nearly infinite possibilities of the iPad: "This is a device we bought, but it's not just a textbook or an instrument, or a set of art tools – it's all of those things and more" (In Depth section, para. 10). I share Speirs’s view of the iPad as a blank canvas ready to be filled with innovative apps and projects by students and teachers. Fully embracing the iPad and its educational possibilities, Speirs, teachers, and students are actively utilizing apps purchased from the iStore including PocketPhonics for learning letters, Math Bingo for basic computation, iBooks for reading, Numbers for creating formulae, and Brushes and TypeDrawing for artistic projects. Most encouraging to me as an educator is the positive motivational factor for students using iPads, and Speirs describes how teachers are currently witnessing pupils eager to begin their assignments on their iPads "because they have some way of working that's not just 'write it down on a piece of paper' – schooling has become more flexible and therefore more engaging and interesting" (User focus section, para 1). Addressing the classroom management of iPads, Speirs created a wish list for Apple to manage traditional class sizes of twenty-five students: “Apple-enabled iPad administration and access through Apple Remote Desktop, for pulling browser histories over the air, updating apps, locking devices and capturing screens, but without a system administrator having to pay for enterprise-grade infrastructure” (The downside, para 6). As I begin to use our iPads extensively in the fourth quarter, classroom management considerations will become increasingly important, and I hope to learn tips from educators who have already become experts at teaching with iPads in their classrooms.

The iPad revolution in education almost naturally lends itself to collaboration among educators excited to share lessons, ideas, apps, success stories, and tips. The sheer wealth of information available online at our fingertips is almost overwhelming. However, the true stories of student learning and engagement though use of the iPad are both heartwarming and encouraging to educators like myself who seek to equip all students with an iPad in the classroom. For example, I discovered Kristi Meeuwse’s (2012) humorous and insightful blogs on the Web site: iPads in education: Exploring the use of iPads and eBooks in schools and colleges, and I was delighted by the successes she and her students have experienced in their kindergarten classroom this year using iPads. One little girl Jayde, though only six years old, is already writing her own niche blog for other young girls about dolls, rainbows, and cheerleading using the Kid Blog app on her iPad (Jayde Talks Blogging). After perusing several other blogs detailing how to project wirelessly, what apps to use to teach English and Spanish, and countless other practical and priceless tips from educators already using iPads in their classrooms, I was inspired to create a complete overhaul of my fourth quarter courses. As the fourth quarter begins this year, I would like to revamp my teaching and daily use of the iPad to include Spanish students working in pairs to complete daily lessons and speaking, reading, writing, and listening activities directly on their shared iPads. Daily and cumulative performance assessments will be immediate and meaningful as students will use the video and audio recording capabilities to capture their successful usage of the Spanish language. I plan to continue to create lessons in SMART Notebook and export them as PDFs to my classroom Web site. Using the wireless connection, students will upload the files into iBooks and / or iAnnotation to manipulate the files in ways that meet their individual needs rather than simply projecting the images onto the screen and viewing them as a whole group. Students will be able to progress through the lessons at their own pace rather than moving on when the majority of students are ready to complete the next slide or workbook page. The potential truly to individualize and personalize instruction is awe-inspiring. In addition, my Language Arts students will soon begin the fourth quarter DEADLINE magazine project in which students become editors-in-chief of their own fictional magazines. Students buy and sell articles, advertisements, and other miscellaneous items with peers across the entire eighth grade class and ultimately publish a magazine to share with peers, teachers, families, and friends. In an effort to modernize this traditionally paper, pencil, and computer based project, I would like to find a way to allow students in pairs to use the iPad to create a digital magazine in iBooks or other app and maintain the collaborative aspect of this engaging project. Since the fourth quarter officially begins next week, I will need to work quickly indeed! However, the iPads in education Web site has already become an invaluable source of inspiration and practical advice that I will certainly use to help me accomplish my goals.

As I think beyond the fourth quarter to next year, I am already wishing to acquire a classroom set of iPads to use in the 2012-2013 school year. Luckily, grants do exist, and teachers are willing to share their insights into how to assist one another in gaining access to iPads in schools. One such educator is Jennie Magiera (2011), who in her blog I don’t have iPads: Writing iPad/technology grants on her Web site Teaching like it's 2999: Technology in education blog: redefining the (digital) classroom, shares her own story of how she wrote a grant for 32 classroom iPads and also offers practical advice to fellow educators on how we, too, can apply for iPad grants. Magiera suggests first contacting our school districts’ technology education department since many districts have set aside funds specifically for technology including iPads (para. 1-2). Although my own technology department has not been keen on the use of iPads in the past, perhaps talking with our director again, especially after I have assessment evidence from the fourth quarter to share how students have utilized the iPads in innovative ways, will reap rewards in the purchasing of a class set of iPads. Magiera provides a list of grant writing and fundraising sources and details exactly how to write a successful iPad grant, advising teachers with tested words of wisdom: “Take a step outside of the box and consider how the specific technology can support each subject in an effective way. Understand that this may mean a complete change in the way you teach - and it will be quite an adjustment for you and your colleagues” (para. 4). This Apple Distinguished Educator not only provides specific advice on what details to include in an iPad grant, but she also links to copies of her own funded grants. I am inspired by Magiera’s successes and will certainly follow her sage advice when I am ready to apply for my own iPad grant in the near future.

References

Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M., Soderlund, L., & Brizee, A. (2010,

May 5). General format. Retrieved from @http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

Granell, C. (2010, December 30). The school that gives every student an iPad. In Depth: How

iPads have transformed the classroom. //TechRadar: Deep into Technology.// Retrieved from @http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/apple/%20the-school-that-gives-every-student-an-ipad-915539?artc_pg=1

Magiera, J. (2011, May 11). I don’t have iPads: Writing iPad/technology grants. [Web log

comment]. Teaching like it's 2999: Technology in education blog: redefining the (digital)

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">classroom. Retrieved from @http://teachinglikeits2999.blogspot.com/2011/05/idont-have-ipads-writing-ipadtechnology.html

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">McCrea, B. (2011, April 28). Prepping for iPads in school. //The Journal: Transforming through//

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">//Technology.// Retrieved from @http://thejournal.com/Articles/2011/04/28/Prepping-for-iPads-in-School.aspx?Page=1

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Meeuwse, K. (2012, March 12). Jayde talks blogging [Web log comment]. Retrieved from

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">@http://ipadeducators.ning.com/profiles/blogs/jayde-talks-blogging

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Nadel, B. (2010, October 6). Making the iPad more school friendly. Retrieved from

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">@http://blogs.scholastic.com/techtools/2010/10/making-the-ipad-more-school-friendly.html