Tablets in Education Tech 5/11

Tablets in Education

For the first portion of this assignment, I followed Jennifer LaGarde's "Our Nook Adventure."  This series follows her experiences with her school choosing the Nook tablet to utilize in the classroom.  In this series we see four posts that detail that process and the changing opinions that Jennifer had along the way.

Part One:  http://www.librarygirl.net/2010/11/our-ereader-adventure-part-i.html

This post gives a lot of information on the reasons for choosing Nook over Kindle, or iPad.  The major reason that Jennifer chose the Nook over those other brands was that Barnes and Noble offered much more support than anyone else would.  She believed the support would be a necessity in the transition time.  On top of that, the main reason for the tablets was for textbooks and Nook has exclusive rights to certain textbook companies.

The rest of this article explains the exact process they took to activate each Nook.  This process was a lot more tedious than I thought it would be but this blog offers valuable advice in how to perform each step of that process.

Part Two:  http://www.librarygirl.net/2010/11/our-nook-adventure-part-ii.html

This part is basically an update on what Jennifer has learned about the Nooks.  In this part, she describes five things that she has learned so far in the "Adventure."  Judging by this post, it seems that there is still a lot to learn about Nooks and that the services provided by Barnes and Noble were not enough for Jennifer to be 100% confident in her ability to operate the tablets.  This might be a strike against the Nook, but it seems like Jennifer was not terribly phased by the continual learning process.

Part Three:  http://www.librarygirl.net/2010/12/our-nook-adventure-part-iii.html

This was a cool look at how the Nook can change the textbook experience for the students.  Jennifer utilized it in such a way that the students could select which books they were going to read.  They would be provided a list of books that they could select and after they had turned in their selection the teachers would put those books on the student's assigned tablet.  So when the kids came in the next time they had all of the books on their device.

Their was a section after this one that talked about the negative parts of the technology and Jennifer only discussed one negative, the purchasing process was not very practical for them.  They had to put their credit card information into each Nook before they could purchase anything and then they had to delete that info and put it in again on another one.  If there was some way to purchase all of the books on a computer that was connected to the Nooks, it'd be a much less time consuming process.

Part Four:  http://www.librarygirl.net/2011/03/our-ereader-adventure-taking-plunge.html

At this part of the process, Jennifer expressed having a great experience with the Nooks.  But the major issue she had with the process was simply that a classroom was not the target consumer for Nook at this time.  They were not going to bend on policy or change the ordering system for the classroom.  I do not know if this has changed with the eReader market but it seems that iPad has made a focused effort on the classroom.  The next three responses are to articles on iPads in the classroom.

iPad Only Classroom:  http://www.eclassroomnews.com/2011/06/02/new-jersey-district-plans-ipad-only-algebra-course/?

This article is about a school district in New Jersey that has implemented an iPad only classroom for Algebra I students.  They are the first school district in New Jersey to have a classroom like this and they are having great success.  90.5% of students this school district are proficient in Algebra compared to just 60% in non-iPad classes.  The success comes from the extra instruction given through the iPad, which gives the students step by step guidance on problems and offers video instruction.  If that is not enough to surpass paper, the math app that they have is the equivalent of a 950 page textbook.  The iPad is being used with very impressive results in this school district.

Bring Your Own Technology:  http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/04/29/bring-your-own-device-catching-on-in-schools/?

This article begins by talking about the benefits of a 1:1 computer to student ratio in a classroom, indicating that the school provides the devices.  There are clear benefits to the technology, but the cost is very high.  It seems unlikely that school districts across the country will provide technology for their students.  But research shows that 75% of student already own a cell phone or smart phone, which makes the possibility of implementing a BYOT rule more reasonable.  This is a major issue today in education and eventually it will reach a tipping point, probably in favor of 1:1 through BYOT.  The benefits of the technology and the increasing number of students with smart phones seems to indicate that.

iPad Academy:  http://ipadacademy.com/about/

This website provides helpful guidance in the technology of the iPad.  It is created and led by teacher who has plenty of experience in the technological world.  It is set up almost like an online school and the cost for entry into a class is pretty steep (cost for the first class is $39).  What I can learn from seeing this website is that there really is a need out there for people to learn this technology.  People see that the work and social worlds are changing and they are willing to pay that much for a class on something that they could probably get the hang of if they read the owner's manual or went to an apple store.  So what I have learned from this website is that I should make sure I do what I can to learn about this technology (hopefully through a free source).

Professional Blogger Post

Professional Blogger Post

For our assignment to comment on a professional blog, I chose Clay Burrell, creator of Beyond-School.org.  He has a section on that blog where he provides commentary on classic literature for high school kids.  The idea is to make it exciting and relevant to high school students.  I chose to read his first  post in his series on Gilgamesh.  After reading his post I was disappointed.  It seems that all of his efforts to build up the story of Gilgamesh also take a swipe at Christianity.  He seems to think a lot of Anush in the story and frequently compares him to God, saying that Anush is a better god.  I commented on this post, asking Clay how he could have such high praise for a god who flooded the world, not because of immorality, but because the people were being "too loud."  To me, Clay does not seem to understand the grace God offers.

GAIN 5/4

1.  Strengths and Weaknesses of Google Docs over Word

• Strengths
• Items are saved to the cloud.  This means that the student can be more mobile, not tied down by hardware.  They can save a document at school and open it up in their living room.
• It is very easy to collaborate on a document.  Each person can literally write their own piece of the paper on the same document and the participants do not need to be in the same room.  On top of this there is a useful revision history tab that keeps track of all changes.
• Google Docs is free.
• Cans be utilized on any device, not just Chromebook.
• Functions much like Word, which is a system most will be familiar with.
• Weakness
• The biggest strength of Google Docs is its major weakness.  The fact that documents must be saved to the cloud can be inconvenient and potentially unsafe.  For example, yesterday I had to drive to McDonald's simply to access the Google docs account.  In regards to safety, anything that is saved to the Google Drive can potentially be hacked.  Of course this is a possibility on Word, but there are measures that can be taken to insure that those files are kept safe and these measures cannot be taken by the consumer with Google Docs.

2.  Common Core

There are at least three standards addressed in the Graham book that Google Documents emphasizes.  These standards are...

• Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
• Use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.
• Write routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames fora a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.  (Graham, 42)

3.  Collaborative Document

There were a couple of takeaways I had from the collaborative effort.  First, it can be difficult to find an internet connection at times, which throws the whole process for a bit of a loop.  This is maybe the biggest flaw with Docs.  Other than that I was very happy with how the collaboration worked.  Our inputs were very responsive and the interface was a lot like Word, which was helpful since that is what I am most familiar with.  

TECH 5/4

Tech 5/4

1.      The tablets that the school uses may be used in a variety of ways, so the ideal tablet will have access to apps, book, internet, newspapers, video, and music.  The problem is that none of the tablets offer all of these at the same level and with a low cost.  So then the essential pieces need to be determined. 

a.       The most practical use of the tablets may be simply to use them as an alternative to textbooks.  This would save the school money in the long run and it would make the texts more accessible to the students, while requiring them to carry a smaller load. 

b.      Another issue is cellular capability.  It would be great to have tablets with cellular capability for students who do not have internet access at home and for when the internet connection is rocky at the school.

c.       Apps would provide a wide base of possibilities for use in the tablets for education.  Apps would potentially fill in the gaps of tablets because they are the result of hundreds of niche groups finding very specific uses for the tablet.  Ideally, our tablet would provide a rich source for education apps.

d.      Magazines and newspapers are useful in a variety of classrooms so this would also be something desired.

e.       Videos, along with learning apps, may be the thing that pushes the classroom into the next generation of education.  The internet offers an abundance of learning resources today through groups like, Kahn Academy and Crash Course.  Videos can become an important part of the learning process for students as they can simply pause and rewind the video if they are unclear.  So video capability should be high on the list of requirements.

f.       Music may not need to be as high on the list as videos because if something is public domain it is usually very easy to find on YouTube anyway. 

2.      For the rest of the assignment, only the larger devices will be considered.

3.      IOS

a.       Positives

                                                              i.      Has the most apps specifically for learning and these apps are not available in other operating systems.

                                                            ii.      The system is easier to use if one has not had experience with tablets.

                                                          iii.      The apple stores offer some assistance.

                                                          iv.      Offers cellular.

b.      Negatives

                                                              i.      Does not come with flash.

                                                            ii.      Most expensive operating system

Android

Positives

                        Can be used in a variety of tablets (Kindle, Nook, generic)

                        Barnes and Noble has exclusive rights to some textbook companies.

                        The Nook is the most supported device.  Barnes and Noble staff will come in to the school and train teachers as well as offer support at any of their 1400 stores.

                        Kindle has the most total titles.

                        Negatives

                                    No cellular for Nook

                                    Kindles are not supported in the larger Android market environment

            Microsoft

                        Positives

                                    Has Microsoft office, which will likely be a familiar system.

                                    Is something of a laptop hybrid, has a keyboard.

                                    Large memory space.

                        Negatives

                                    Largest tablet (not necessarily bad thing)

                                    Since it is so close to operating like a laptop, it really will not educate the students in the use of tablets.  If we want them to learn how to operate tablets, this might not be the best option.

www.librarygirl.net/2010/11/our-ereader-adventure-part-i.html

From this article, I learned that the big factor in favor of Nooks is the support that Barnes & Noble offers.  They will send staff to the school to train teachers and they will offer face to face assistance in any of their stores.

http://allthingsd.com/20110718/amazon-tires-taking-the-kindle-to-school-again-with-textbook-rentals/

This article is about ho kindle is getting into the textbook industry by creating a rental system.  This system will charge people based on the amount of time they will be using the product.  This is an important step for a company that already dominates the ebook market.

http://www.ipadinschools.com/338/ipad-changing-schools/

The author of this article believes that the Ipad will do a lot to change education.  He writes about the vast number of education apps available and provides a number of articles that show how there are many schools moving to use Ipads in their curriculum.

           

Uses of Ipads in education

            I learned in this section that the major reason for switching to Ipads is their implementation for textbooks.  On a tablet, a textbook is cheaper and there are more ways to interact with the students with the text.  I also read in this article, www.eclassroomnews.com/2011/06/02/newjersey-district-plans-ipad-only-algebra-course/ that a New Jersey district is planning on going to an iPad only curriculum for their algebra course.  They are doing this because they believe tablets are the way of the future in education and a way to produce higher achievement.

                                   

In this article,  http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/05/interesting-ways-to-use-ipad-in.htmlutm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29&utm_content=Google+Reader orhttps://docs.google.com/a/tonykrug.info/present/edit?id=0AclS3lrlFkCIZGhuMnZjdjVfNzIxZ2RrNWp0ZDg&pli=1 I learned about several free apps for the iPad that can be used by teachers.  There is Class Dojo, which allows the teacher to award merits and demerits electronically.  There is Remind 101, which is essentially a texting system designed to give teachers the ability to remind students of upcoming events and encourage them.  And then there is Trello, a project managing app.

4.  Cellular is essentially mobile data.  This is data that is being used away from WiFi or when the WiFi is not connecting for whatever reason.  One can purchase mobile data with a plan that will normally last two years and provide 250mb, 3G or 5G of data.  Data can also be purchased on a prepay and postpay plan.  The benefit of mobile data is that a student would not have to be near a WiFi source to access the internet.  It would be advisable to have cellular if the intended use of the tablets will require the students to access internet, because there are still many students that may not have internet in their homes.

5.  The best option in my opinion is to use the Android operating system and one of the tablets in that system.  This is a good option because Android is an inexpensive system that has both the Nook and Kindle offered under them.  I believe from their the Kindle is the best option.  Amazon offers the largest number of books and the renting option puts it over the top as the best choice.  Not to mention the Kindle offers cellular service which will be helpful for students who do not have internet in their homes.  

Hello!  My name is Thomas Hodges and I have just graduated from Johnson University and now I'm pairing my history degree with the MAP program in the hope that I will be a high school teacher one day.  I am from Columbus, Ohio, where I began my college career in Fire School.  I wanted to be a firefighter for years but when I got the opportunity to teach in Sunday schools and youth groups I realized that I really enjoyed teaching young people.  So this pretty exciting!  We are on the cusp here!  Only 14 more months and we all can fully enter the teaching profession!