Living in the 4th Screen

Exploring the use of mobile technology in education and life

Day 2 Apple Summer Learning Institute - Math Apps on the iPod Touch - Awesome

In the current session I am in we are exploring Math apps for the iPod Touch. As a former math teacher I am very impressed. We used 9 Gaps, Math Pad 4, Multiplication, Number Line, and Factoring. 

In the Multiplication App it allows you to randomly play against someone else (anonymously). That was fun.

The factoring app was also very good. Great for high school algebra 1 & 2 courses.

This session only confirms my thinking that the iPod Touch is a very compelling for schools. The cost factor is so low compared to a computer. The device is cheaper and the apps are free or less than a dollar.

Apple Summer Learning Institute 2010

I am in Boston for a few days attending the Apple Summer Institute for Administrators. Apple knows how to put on a good event. Very nice hotel and very good food. They gave us a MacBook, iPod Touch, and an iPad to use for the two days of the conference. The conference centers around how to use Apple products to improve instruction and learning. Being a PC user who owns an iPhone, it has been interesting using their software on the MacBook. I have used Apple products before and I have always liked them. I can't believe how easy it is to use iMovie to create your own movies. My next computer purchase will definitely be an Apple. No surprise that Apple announced today that their MacBook sales are up. Their products are easier to use and more powerful.

Students on their cell phones in the hallway, what was going on in this classroom?

I observed a class the other day and I observed students talking on their cell phones in the hallway, other groups of students sitting at their desks and talking, and later on a popular music video was projected onto the large screen in the front of the room. Some administrators might have been bothered by what I saw, but I thought it was one of the best lessons I had seen all year. Why? The students were fully engaged in the learning. Let me explain.
 
The class I observed was a high school Spanish class. The day before the lesson I observed the students began writing a dialogue between two or three people in Spanish using the vocabulary words they were learning as part of the unit. They continued this activity and began practicing speaking the dialogue. When the students felt ready to record their conversation they went into the hallway and using their cell phone they called the teacher's Google Voice number. Each group's dialogue was stored in the teacher's Google Voice inbox. Since she has each student's contact info in her Google Voice account it associates a phone number and the student's email to each student recording. At the beginning of the lesson the teacher went over the rubric she would be using to grade the recordings. She emphasized that she would be listening to their voice and that they should try to sound like a native speaker. When the students completed the recording she played a Spanish music video. She handed out the lyrics in Spanish with some of the words missing. The students had to listen and fill in the blanks. The next time through the video she supplied a word bank to assist students who were having trouble.

After the lesson the teacher said to me she was sorry that I did not get to see her doing that much. I told her it was one of the best lessons I had seen all year. I think she was somewhat surprised by my statement, but I reiterated to her that for almost the entire period the students were either reading, writing, listening to, or speaking Spanish. The NJ Core Curriculum Standard for World Languages emphasizes the ability for students to communicate in the target language. I must add that this particular teacher is excellent at what she does. She works very hard and has developed an excellent rapport with the students in her classroom. There was absolutely no misuse of the student cell phones. The students were very well behaved.

As a side note our Spring Break was to start in a day and the teacher was going away with her family. She has a smartphone running the Android operating system. Google Voice is a native app on her phone. If she wanted, while she was sitting on the beach, she could listen to the student recordings and send an email or text message to each student letting them know how they sounded. She could have even sent a copy of the recordings to each of the students for them to listen to (For non-Android phones you can access Google Voice via the web). Without Google Voice and student cell phones how would you duplicate this lesson? What would it cost the district? How much time would it take? Would you be able to archive the recordings and share them with the students?

Additional side notes - For this lesson the cell phones worked exactly as they should. The students had no problem using their own phone and at no time did they use the school network. Easy to use and no glitches. How often can you say this about classroom technology.

How do you record student conversations at your school?

Original Historical Documents and Speeches in the Palm of your Hand


MultiEducator, INC. has created the American Dream app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Below is a blurb from their website describing the app.

FEATURING 480 DOCUMENTS, INCLUDING: 90 Supreme Court Decisions, all the US Presidential Inaugural Addresses, the Constitution and dozens of key laws, first-hand accounts and speeches (with 18 Audio Recordings) make this an incredible compilation of primary source documents in American History. Each document entry includes an explanation of the significance of the court decision, law, or key points of a speech. MultiEducator, Inc. has applied its 20 years of experience writing Multimedia History and to the iPhone and iPod Touch. Documents can be accessed chronologically, or often by groups. You can search for a document and save recent or favorites. All of the documents can be e-mailed and thus shared.

Follow the links above to go to the companies website or to the iTunes link. Below is a screenshot from the application.


The growth in mobile computing increases the demand for content to fit on the small screen

In this article, Education Week tackles the growing problem of finding relevant and rigorous content to use in the classroom with mobile handheld devices. Below are some quotes from the article.

In the push for mobile learning as a way to utilize tools that students are adept at using and are enthusiastic about, the quest for creating and finding high-quality content is proving a challenge. But as more schools decide to incorporate portable technologies into the school day, demand is growing for curricula developed with a three-inch display window in mind.

The Florida Virtual School officials are trying to get beyond such simple uses. They have enlisted a team of experts to develop mobile software, in partnership with a commercial provider, that incorporates video, interactive and social-networking features, and Web resources adapted for the devices.

In St. Marys, Ohio, a 2,150-student district that issues mobile phones to elementary students, teachers have put together an online forum for sharing curriculum ideas and resources with members. Teachers there have also organized show-and-tell sessions to demonstrate how they work with cellphones in the classroom.

Apple's App Store has fueled the growth in apps for the iPod Touch and the iPhone. Many of these applications are specifically for the education market. As the use of mobile devices grows in schools the success of the App Store will spill over into other markets. There has already be significant growth in Google's Android market. It will be exciting to see the applications that arise over the next few years for mobile devices.

Continuing to Touch Students

If you use an iPod Touch in the classroom or are investigating their use, below are some links with a host of resources. I continue to be impressed with the iPod Touch. In my mind it is the preeminent mobile device for schools. Not that it does everything a netbook can do, but but it does many things very well and is cheaper than a netbook. It also does things easily that is more difficult on a netbook. Besides, there are tens of thousands of apps for the iPod Touch and many of them are free.

Chris Webb's Space

Wesley Fryer's Handouts

iPod Touch for Special Education Students

Creating Digital Storybooks on the Fly with Sonic Pics

Sonic Pics is an iPhone/iPod Touch app that allows you to create a narrated slideshow. Using the camera roll on your device you can choose which pictures to include in the slideshow. You can then record an audio descrition of each picture and send the slideshow to You Tube or your computer over wifi.

This would be a useful app in a school setting. It would allow students to very quickly record Digital Storybooks and then send them to their teachers. You could use this app in a world language, social studies, English, math, or science class. This app just provides another reason why I think the iPod Touch is a compelling device for schools.

Twitter in the Classroom?

Below is a video about a University of Texas professor using Twitter as part of classroom discussions. Using their cell phones or computers students can post to Twitter and the professor has these responses projected onto a screen in the front of the room. Nowhere in the video does it discuss the interaction between the live in-class lecture and the Twitter posts.

I like the idea that students can post to Twitter, as this probably provides a forum for shy students to provide some input into the class discussion (A point brought out by a few of the students in the video). I also thought it was interesting how the professor participated in one of the classroom lectures via Twitter when she was out of town. The TA led the class but the professor engaged the students in her Twitter posts. That is a nice use of technology.

At the same time I find the 140 character limit of Twitter to be frustrating. The limit makes me feel like I am having a bunch of conversations that get cut off midway through the discussion. Maybe I will feel differently in time as I just started using Twitter with any regularity. I do like the real time nature of Twitter (Last night's updates on the Chile earthquake where way ahead of the mainstream media). I find the hash tags (#) and @ symbols mixed within posts to be frustrating. I have a programming background and understand characters and such, but what about the non-geek world? Can we come up with a Twitter-like experience that is real time, but allows more characters and eliminates these ( #@!&) symbols in the post?

Does Twitter or any real-time feed have a place in education?

 

New Technology in the Classroom

In this WKBT.com article it talks about the Cashton School District in Wisconsin that is using iPods and iPod Touches in the classroom. Below are some quotes from the article:

"If we think about the world that we're preparing them for, it's not a world of textbooks and pencils," says Cashton Elementary principal Ryan Alderson.

The Cashton School District is preparing students by bringing some of the latest technology into the classroom.

"We use the SMART boards or the iPods or the iPod touch on almost a daily basis," says Cashton Elementary teacher Beth Lee.

It's not just at the high school level, First and second graders practice their arithmetic on the iPod touch, and are already learning the basics of Microsoft Publisher.

"By using technology it really does individualize their instruction," says Alderson.

For example, an entire class could watch a video together, but the iPod touch allows each student to take in the information at his or her own pace.

This is just another example of a school using iPod Touches in the classroom. I like the quote by the principal that they are preparing the students for a world that is not one of textbooks and pencils. Imagine what our world will look like when our current 1st and 2nd graders enter college in about 10 years. By that time the current iPhone will be an old relic.

What about your school are you preparing your students for a world that will not be one of pencils and textbooks?

Ohio School Improves Test Scores with Mobile Phones!

Some 600 students in the St. Marys City Schools in Ohio were given a mobile phone, courtesy of Verizon Wireless, reports the Just Another Mobile Phone Blog. Kyle Menchhofer, the technology coordinator for the district knew there were not enough computers in the district for students to have any measurable time on them. He felt they had to prepare their students for a world where computer fluency will be a necessity.  According to the blog post Menchhofer also said the following:

“What we wanted to do was to level the playing field for these kids,” said Menchhofer, “To give them the most positive education experience possible, we knew we had to get creative and look for support from the community.” 

“Our vision is for students to experience learning anytime, anywhere,” said Menchhofer.

Using the Verizon phones with broadband connectivity and GoKnow! Mobile Learning Software, they piloted a program in the district. The district has seen improvements in test results. A participating third-grade class increased its overall math score by an average of 3.36% in just 18 weeks. A comparative group without the cell phones only increased their averages by 1.65%.

As I posted in my last post I think mobile handheld computers is the direction schools should move in. As cheap as netbooks have become they are still more expensive than using mobile phones or iPod Touches.

Reach out and Touch someone

If I was still a Technology Coordinator, a position I held for 6 years in one district, I would be looking into the iPod Touch very seriously. The iPod Touch is Apple's versatile little handheld computer that packs a punch. If you are unfamiliar with the iPod Touch, think of it as an iPhone without the calling capabilities. The device has Bluetooth and WIFI connectivity on-board. It can run basically all the apps that are available in the App Store on iTunes. A week does not go by that I do not read a story about some school district that is doing something very unique or cool using these devices. At times I feel I could devote this entire blog to just educational uses of the iPod Touch and never run out of things to write about. 

Why do I like the iPod Touch for schools? First the device is cheaper than netbooks, and a cost effective option for budget conscience schools. It can fit in your pocket. It has pretty good battery life. The Safari browser works very well for surfing the web. The Voice Memo app allows you to record and post podcasts very quickly. There are so many cheap and or free apps available for the iPod Touch when compared to a netbook.The device does not have a camera so it removes the concern that schools have with students misusing cell phone cameras and the like, on unsuspecting staff or students. It can be used to play videos and podcasts.

Are there tasks and skills that you cannot do on the iPod Touch that you can do on a netbook? Yes. Absolutely. An equally comparative question to ask is - Are there things you can do very simply and easily on the iPod Touch that you can't do on a netbook? Yes. Absolutely. The decision comes down to what are your goals and the answers to questions like:

What do you want your students to know and be able to do by the time they graduate?

What are your learning outcomes?

What budget constaints do you have?

What will the students actually do with the devices during the school day?

When I was the technology coordinator for a school district I standardized the tablet pc we used. This way I was able to train all the staff on the same machine and the early adopters were able to train fellow colleagues as well. Having the same machine provided tremendous advantages in many ways. It was the same way when I issued every student in my Honors Algebra II course a TI-89 graphing calculator back in the 90's. Since all the students had the same device it allowed us to explore concepts we never would have without the devices. I could assign different homework assignments knowing they all had a graphing calculator. Similar things could be done if every student was issued an iPod Touch. The possibilities are endless. 

Louise Duncan has a post on her blog Personalising Learning with the iPod Touch that provides links to a host of things you can do with the iPod Touch. Give it a look.

LearningA-Z, the company that created Reading A-Z and Raz-kids, recently uploaded 111 leveled readers in the iTunes App store (Click Here for iTunes link). K-6 students can now practice reading at their ability level using their iPod Touches! Many of the readers are free.

If you are in a decision making position about what devices to purchase for your district I think you should give the iPod Touch a serious look.

Cell Phone Scavenger Hunts

When I was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art a few weeks back one of my colleagues told me her 25 year-old son comes to the Met to play scavenger hunt types of games in the museum. I have heard from other educators who have done this type of activity. They take a group of students to a museum or a zoo and give the students a list of clues. When the students find the object in question they either send a text with the information or send a photo. I imagine this would be a fun way to make sure all your students made their way around a particular museum and took in all the wonderful sights. 

Liz Kolb, on her Cell Phones in Learning Blog, recently mentioned a resource called SCVNGR. This service allows you to participate in or create your own mobile scavenger hunts. This service works with basic text messaging so you do not need a smartphone to use  it. Follow the link to Liz's page for some useful ideas to use scavenger hunts with your students or go to SCVNGR's website to learn more about the service.


Thinking of purchasing mobile computing devices for your classroom - Here is what you need to know.

A post over on the moblearn blog walks you through some steps to help you make a decision regarding which device to purchase for your classroom or school. I like the focus on outcomes instead of just what the best device is. It does depend on what it is you want your students to learn and do.

Below is a snippet from the post:

Do you want your learners to be consumers, or creators of media? 

long term, helping your learners to be “creators” is always better and can be applied to a wider range of learning situations. (Think writing, filing, reporting, synthesising information, publishing.)  

Follow the link above to read the full post. There are some good ideas there and it will definitely get you started in your search for mobile learning devices.

Abilene University Embraces Mobile Technology in a Big Way



I have mentioned the iPhone initiative at Abilene University here and here, but it was in reference to something else and not the entire initiative the University has undertaken. In the Fall of 2008 Abilene University gave each of the incoming freshman an iPhone or iPod Touch.

The ACU website says the following:

Freshmen use their iPhones or iPod touches to receive homework alerts, answer in-class surveys and quizzes, get directions to their professors' offices, and check their meal and account balances. Applications from Apple's online App Store helped many teachers discover new ways of teaching their courses.

The University created a mobile portal called ACU Mobile. The portal allows students to connect to campus news and calendars, course documents, various forms of media, and serves as a pocket guide to local events, restaurants, and sporting events.

The University filed a report about it's findings during the 2008-2009 school year. The report mentions two students who began developing apps for the iPhone. It talks about professors who used podcasts to augment their classroom instruction. You can follow the link to read through the full report.

I like the approach ACU has taken. They standardized on a device and built a mobile portal to provide content that is optimized for the mobile device. I know there are pros and cons on device standardization but in my experience when you have the same device it removes a lot of barriers to wide scale adoption by your faculty and important stakeholders. As a teacher if I know all students can access my podcasts easily then I will invest the time in creating them. On the other hand if I have to spend my time helping kids access information via a number of different devices and entertain excuses as to why they could not get the information, then there is a chance I might not get involved in using the technology in the first place. Ease of use and access are key ingredients when undertaking a major technology initiative like ACU has.

iPod Touch taking Minnesota classrooms by storm



According to this article on TwinCities.com the iPod Touch is taking some Minnesota classrooms by storm. Below are some quotes from the article:

Jean Stai, a teacher at Somerset Elementary School in Mendota Heights, had to impose little discipline as her kids lost themselves in Word Salad, a vocabulary program, TanZen, a geometry app, and States and Capitols, among others.

Her biggest challenge appeared to be prying the kids from one app so they'd switch to another. The students were handed sheets with short, personalized lists of apps each had to try.

"They're so engaged," Stai said. "Suddenly, it's not so horrifying to study your facts tables. It is like a game. What would be tedious with paper and pencil is no longer so with bright colors and things moving around."

Ms. Stai's school purchased a storage and charging cart on wheels for the classroom set of iPod Touches. The cart charges the iPods and can be used to load apps onto each iPod. In he school teachers take turns signing out the cart.

The article states that more and more Educational experts are embracing the iPod Touches and in some cases using them as replacements for laptops.

The article also mentions Jon Smith, a fifth- and sixth-grade special-education teacher at Gibbs Elementary School in Canton, Ohio. He uses the iPod Touch with his students who have learning disabilities. Since using the devices he has asked his superiors to purchase more of the devices. 

This is just one of many articles that I come across on a weekly basis of schools using the iPod Touch as a learning device in the classroom. I do not consider the Touch as a replacement for a laptop or netbook, but when one considers the cost factor, the amount of apps, and the ease of use, the iPod Touch becomes a very compelling device. As I have mentioned before students do not seem to have a problem with screen size as some of us adults do. They have grown up with small screens on their electronic games and are used to it. 

If I were making decisions on whether to purchase netbooks or iPod Touches I would be asking what exactly the students will be doing on a day to day basis with the devices. I find that in many schools students go to a computer lab or use a laptop cart  just to search Google for information. Searching Google can easily be done on an iPod Touch. 

 

The picture above is from TwinCities.com.

Mobile Computing, Text Messaging, and Special Needs Students

My brother visited with his son over the holiday break. His son has special needs. He attends a regular public high school but does have an IEP. My brother commented how good text messaging is for his son. The physical act of texting helps with his son's fine motor skills. The mental task of thinking of words and typing them out on the mobile keyboard is another useful skill. His son might not sit at a keyboard and type out a paper, but he will text his friends. I told my brother that when I was a district technology coordinator I read lots research about technology and education it was pretty clear that technology can be very useful for the special needs population. I must admit that I never thought of texting as a way to help out special needs students. My brother also stated that he wants to get his son an iPhone so he can use Dragon Dictation. His son uses Dragon Naturally Speaking at home and at school on a desptop computer. My brother thinks having a mobile version of Dragon would be helpful for his son's development.

In a related note Yumi Kubo has created an augmentative and alternative communication app for autistic children that is available on the iPhone. The app is called Voice4u and offers 130 pictures of objects for autistic children who have trouble expressing themselves.Parents can add up to 1,000 words in addition by creating their own pictures and sounds. Below is a quote from their website:

Voice4u, is a revolutionary AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) application that helps individuals to express their feeling, thought, actions and things they need. It is a perfect solution for learning and communication for autistic individuals and people around them. Also highly recommended for SLPs, teachers, parents, children and adults with developmental disabilities, stroke, or traumatic brain injury.

Follow the links above to see screen shots or download the app from iTunes. I think you will see more and more of these type of apps for special needs students. The power and mobility of the iPhone o riPod Touch lend themselves to these types of applications.

Mobile Technology at the University of Washington - It is about the community

The University of Washington has embraced the delivery of mobile content for it's faculty and students. The University serves over 65,000 students, faculty, and staff. The University noticed that around 90% of the 15,000 handheld devices connecting to its network were running the iPhone OS. This led the University to develop it's own app for the iPhone. Below are some quotes from a business profile on Apple's website

“Our students and staff are global, and we need to be connected wherever we are,” says David Morton, Director of Mobile Communication Strategies. “The community, because of its nature, is always on the go.”

“Whether a student is sitting at a desk, walking across campus, or halfway around the world, we make sure they are part of the university community,” Morton says.

"The community isn’t defined any longer by where we are,” says Grant Kollet, Director of First-Year Programs at the university. “It’s not about place; the community is about activity, and the activity depends on communication and interaction ... "

I like the quote from Grant Kollet above. I think he is right when he says the education community is not about where we are. He says it is about activity. I like to say it is about access. The internet and mobile technology is changing the nature of how we learn. It is no longer limited to professors in ivory towers. As online learning continues to expand where and how a student learns will become less important.The key is in educating students how to access the information and how to sift through all the data and determine what is relevant information and what is simply noise. I think that is the challenge for educators as we move forward. 

Podcasting, iPadio, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Today I had the privilege of chaperoning a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with two other faculty members and 22 students. I have not been to the Met in almost 25 years, sad to say. For me it was a very moving experience. I plan to go back very soon with some of my own children.

While at the museum I took part in a conference call. The conference call involved a discussion around using cell phones in the classroom in general, and specifically about how ipadio can assist with that practice. Besides myself, the other people taking part in the conference call that was broadcast live via ipadio, were Giles Bryan and Mark Smith from ipadio (profile link here), and Benjamin Wilkoff, an Online Learning and Technology Resource Specialist with the Douglas County Schools in Colorado ( profile link here). It was an invigorating conversation as we talked about how to use ipadio in education. I spoke about how some of the teachers at my school have used ipadio in our world language classes to capture students speaking in the target language. For me ipadio is Podcasting made simple. As I said before in one of my posts, with ipadio, if you can talk you can Podcast. You can listen to today's conversation below.