District Prepares for iPad Pilot Program
1. Reference information
News Article by Leo Shaw, “District Prepares for iPad Pilot Program,” in Manhattan Beach Patch July 20, 2011.

Link: http://manhattanbeach.patch.com/articles/district-begins-preparations-for-ipad-pilot-program

2. A brief description of the case
About 40 teachers from the Manhattan Beach Unified School District are assimilating iPads into their classroom culture for the 2011-2012 school year.  This program is presented as a pilot program exploring the possibilities of integrated technology.  Middle and high school subjects will install textbooks and apps specific for that class, while elementary teachers will use the iPads at least a minimum of one hour a day in the classroom.

3. The purpose of the innovation
The primary goal of the district, according to the article, pertains to enhancing students’ educational experience through the use of video, e-texts, and various educational apps.  Additionally, they are hoping for collaboration and an increased participation in class projects.

4. The technology and resources involved
The district will be purchasing 20 mobile carts, 20 laptops (assuming MacBook Airs), and around 600 iPads (each cart will hold 25-35 iPads).  Additionally, the selected teachers will undergo a total of three days of professional development.  The pilot program is expected to cost the district about $500,000.

5. What prior skills and knowledge are required of students
While the article does not mention anything specifically about the skills and knowledge students need to bring to the table, this reviewer holds that little to none will be necessary.  Students today have grown up in a digital world, practically every one of them either own an iPod Touch, iPad, or iPhone, or at the very least know someone who does and has used it.  Therefore, it should be expected that students will immediately have the skills to use the technology from the start.

6. What are students asked to accomplish exactly
Students will use the iPad as an extension of the classroom experience itself.  Homework, learning applications, and projects will all be completed through the iPad.  Students will be able to read their textbooks on the iPad, and collaborate on assignments.

7. What are the procedures of the project
For students, this program will take place over the course of the year.  There are no specific procedures for them to follow; for the goal of the program is to integrate the iPad into their academic life.  For the educator, there is an application process.  The article does not specify what responsibility the involved teachers’ hold. 

8. What are the advantages of the project
In the present culture of social media, integrating iPads into a school curriculum is most definitely forward thinking.  I believe this pilot program will work very well, for they are attempting to blend things students already do in their social realm with what they do in the educational realm.

9. What are the disadvantages of the project
The primary disadvantage that I noticed from the article pertains to an observation that the students will probably not be allowed to take the iPads home with them.  I’m making this assumption on the fact that 40 teachers will be in the program and only 20 classroom carts were purchased.  I believe this limitation will not allow the program to reach its full potential.

10.  What types of effective instructional strategies are included
The instructional strategies used will vary from class to class.  While the article gives no specifics as to how teachers will choose to utilize the iPads, I foresee a strong focus on collaboration and project-based learning.

Implementation of podcast and clickers in two biology courses at Los Andes University and impact evaluation in the teaching-learning process

1. Reference information
Journal Article by Maria C. Montealegre Ortiz, Diógenes Carvajal, Andrés Holguín Coral, Ricardo Pedraza Barrios, Carlos A. Jaramillo Henao, “Implementation of podcast and clickers in two biology courses at Los Andes University and impact evaluation in the teaching-learning process,” in Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 2 (2010): 1767-1770.

PDF Link: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B9853-5016P5K-9J-1&_cdi=59087&_user=10&_pii=S1877042810010219&_origin=&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F2010&_sk=999979997&view=c&wchp=dGLzVzz-zSkWl&md5=a2ed59d808b298d09627ece0a5a601b5&ie=/sdarticle.pdf

2. A brief description of the case
College professors at Los Andes University desired to offer a unique environment for students taking Immunology and Biology courses.  They began by first looking for technology that would suit their needs of creating and capturing video.  After this, they explored various audience response systems for classroom use.  To gage the impact of their endeavors, surveys were created using a four level agreement/disagreement scale with the middle level eliminated to avoid neutral responses.

Their findings show 95% of their students felt the use of the technology enhanced their learning by helping to support the concepts they were learning.

3. The purpose of the innovation
The primary goal of the educators involved was to make their classes more interesting and dynamic in order to better facilitate learning through increased motivation and interaction.

4. The technology and resources involved
The software utilized in this case pertained to Camtasia in order to record lectures, Turning Point 2008 hosted and captured classroom responses, and the media was all pushed through Blackboard in order to reach the students.  Additionally, PowerPoint was extensively utilized to guide the lectures.  These slides were included into the class lecture videos and they housed the questions students answered via clickers.

5. What prior skills and knowledge are required of students
Students taking these classes required little knowledge to utilize the technology.  The use of Camtasia and Turning Point, was solely on the end of the instructor and using a clicker to answer in-class questions is practically self-explanatory.  The only aspect that may require a prior understanding would be accessing Blackboard and installing the class video podcasts on their personal media player.

6. What are students asked to accomplish exactly
Students were asked to first utilize the videos.  Second, students were to interact with the lecturer through clickers.  And third, in order to gage the effectiveness of the use of technology students were asked to answer a brief questionnaire.

7. What are the procedures of the project
The project consisted of recording each class lecture and making it available for students to access.  For this study, the students were asked to use the available media and then following the class were asked to reflect on their experience.

8. What are the advantages of the project
Against the traditional classroom setting, the ability to review an entire lesson is immeasurable in value.  Additionally, the implementation of an audience response system into the standard lecture based classroom allows for instant assessment and therefore providing a dynamic aspect to a traditionally linear class.  95% of the students believed that the addition of the videos was an excellent way to reinforce their learning, and it was observed that the audience response system was beneficial to both student and teacher interactivity through the promotion of active and involved participation.

9. What are the disadvantages of the project
While there are no direct disadvantages to the use of technology in the project, I wonder if it could have gone further.  Having the ability to view a lecture is a helpful course supplement, yet this feature has little additional merit.  I would much rather have the students use Camtasia to create their own learning projects.

10.  What types of effective instructional strategies are included
This case study outlines four pedagogical practices that aided the learning process:

1. Continuous connections over the entire semester.  Teachers were able to better connect each class period with the previous and following classes due to the recorded classes.
2. Teachers were able to take more interest in student learning than in previous settings.  The addition of technology allowed for an enhanced interest in the student learning process.  Concepts that were unclear could be tackled practically immediately; this resulted in an increase in teacher motivation.
3. The use of real world situations.  Quizzes and tests took on the role of reinforcing the learning process through the application of class topics presented in real world situations.  Teachers were no longer testing knowledge, but actual application of that knowledge.
4. The teacher became a dynamic performer.  Under this technology teachers were finding that they had to deliberately and consciously perform to the topic.  By this, they realized that their voiced inflections and physical actions were just as important as what they were saying.

Overall, I appreciated both guest speakers in EDU 653. Its very beneficial to hear from real world people using these Web 2.0 technologies in order to facilitate learning.

Students will be graded on the following rubric (created using rubistar.4teachers.org):

In alignment with the Arts Education Content Standards for Michigan, students will compose a short piece within specified guidelines (ART.II.M.M.4) and begin to understand the effectiveness of one’s own composition through a post-project evaluation of their peers’ projects (ART.III.M.M.5).

I’m looking forward to this upcoming school year, I’m hoping a mostly project-based aspect to teaching will increase student understanding.

Reflecting back upon the past school year, I concluded that appreciation can only come through the creation process and that the creation process is mutually connected to their understanding of musical theory. Consequently, I decided that 8th grade music for the 2011-2012 school year will be focused on teaching through composition. To accomplish this, the class will be taught primarily through project-based learning and Web 2.0 tools.

For instance, their first project will be to create an introduction video, presenting who they are. We will begin by composing 30 seconds of music in Sony’s Acid Music Studio. The music must convey a mood which properly captures who they are. Following this students will go to Animoto.com and combine their music with pictures of themselves, creating a 30 second slide show introducing themselves.

Additional projects will include recording themselves either singing or playing an instrument; displaying music in ABA form; composing in Major and minor; and utilizing non-traditional sounds. The final projects will all be displayed on their personal blog. The overall effectiveness of this shift in my teaching will then be evaluated and assessed in two ways: 1) Over the course of the year an observation may be derived through an advancement of thought and understanding found in their weekly music journals; and 2) the quality of their final project demonstrating the music composition process from start to finish. Distinctions between the 2011 and the 2012 8th grade class should be apparent.

While I do not yet have a Twitter account, I will most definitely have one by this fall.

Overall, I feel the EDU 653 project went well.  There were individual requirements we all had to complete and then come together and create the final product.  This is one aspect that I personally need to structure better into my own lessons.  While my students did have some individual aspects, they did not end up fitting into the final project as I originally envisioned.  This project helped me work through that and gave me a better perspective for next year.

Here is the link to my team’s Amazon review of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, by Will Richardson.

Also a link to my review of The Innovative School Leader’s Guide to Social Media: Recruit Students, Engage Parents, and Share Your School’s Story, by Dr. Brian J. Dixon.

Now the next step would be to connect the iPad wirelessly to a projector and leave the intermediary computer out of the equation entirely, but so far there is no way to do this

UPDATE: 6/6/11 Apple just announced an update to AirPlay specifically for the iPad 2 … this is at least a better alternative, for it does truly cut the cord (what I want), however at school I do not have a HD ready projector, nor do I have a 2nd generation Apple TV; but it is a step in the right direction.

5/21/11 – 3:55pm

~ I just began an experiment in Wikipedia for EDU 653 – The Read/Write Web.  I just finished editing the Wolfberry (the Goji Berry) entry in Wikipedia to see what will happen.  I created a very minor change, to see how long it would take for someone to notice.  I’ll keep a running log here to see what happens over the next 48 hours.

Original Sentence:

The number of seeds in each berry varies widely based on cultivar and fruit size, containing anywhere between 10–60 tiny yellow seeds that are compressed with a curved embryo.

Edit:

The number of seeds in each berry varies widely based on cultivar and fruit size, containing anywhere between 100–600 tiny purple seeds that are compressed with a curved embryo.

UPDATE #1: 5/21/11 – 4:10pm

~ Let’s just start by saying I’m shocked!!!  It’s only been 15 minutes and my alteration has already been fixed.  I also received a message from a member of Wikipedia, the most surprising part of this experiment is that this member’s profile (the one who reverted my change) is a Botanist!

My Thoughts

While I did expect my minor edit to eventually be noticed (maybe a week), I didn’t even consider a 15 minute turn around time.  While this experiment does not effect my overall view of Wikipedia (see Problem: Us or Wikipedia?), I do take comfort in the realization that people are apparently on top of things on the Wikipedia site.  However, I wonder how far I can take this.  I want to take this experiment to the next level: the message I received claimed that my change wasn’t accepted because a source wasn’t cited.  Therefore, I will now attempt the same edit, but this time with a false source.

UPDATE #2: 5/21/11 – 4:33pm

Added a false reference… let’s see what happens

UPDATE #3: 5/21/11 – 4:55pm

Adding a false reference seems to have done the trick… my edit has passed the 15 minute mark of my previous experiment.

UPDATE #4: 5/21/11 – 5:35pm

My edit has once again been fixed!  At 5:25pm, about 50 minutes after adding a false reference, my edit was once again changed back to the original information.  I can only say, that I’m happy to note that the Wikipedia community appear to be on top of even the most insignificant of changes.

They list 6 principles which entice our minds and which lead to a sticky idea:

However, it was the section following which truly amazed me. They explain that the person holding the idea has knowledge that the listening people do not have. In a sense, they are “cursed” with this prior knowledge; their idea must overcome an obstacle they didn’t even foresee. Therefore, the authors explain their book is aimed at overcoming this “curse” and make a idea even stickier.

I am excited to read the rest of this book. As a teacher, getting ideas to stick into my student’s minds longer than it take to take a test is highly important. Reworking the way in which we teach in order to better focus on providing the knowledge our students need to succeed in the the world is the pinnacle of our field.