Planning For Effective Teaching & Learning with Mobile Devices

So you and your students have received mobile devices! Now what? How do you start planning for a year of effective teaching and learning?

Key Questions and Comments:

• (06:35) We help schools and school districts with both a conceptual framework of how to maximize the iPad as a consumption device, but also as a curation platform, as a creativity device, and also as a connection platform for sharing and collaborating with others.
• (08:08) In working with the iPad and mobile devices, a fundamental question is: How can students demonstrate their knowledge/understanding/mastery of curriculum content through the production of these presentation or projects or reports using these different modalities?
• (13:16) No longer do kids want to just share stuff with their teacher; in fact, they think that’s pretty lame if I’m the only one who’s going to see it. They want to be able to share it even beyond their own family…they want the actual world to see it…They know that the potential is there for the whole world to see what they’re doing, and that is so valuable to them.
• (18:51) I think the most important thing from the administrative perspective is making sure that [educators] know they are supported in being creative, themselves…and that they have the opportunity to take risks and try things…
• (21:36) There was a big concern when we met with parents in the beginning of the year who found out that their kids were going to have iPads…We have common assessment across all the disciplines, so we were still hitting all the standards that the other teachers were hitting, we just had a different way to reach them and a different way to enhance the curriculum.
• (24:51) How do you protect privacy of the students and still share the work that the students are doing?
• (29:08) ‘Is there evidence that we’re augmenting, maybe even redefining the learning experience with students?’ That’s the prism through which we evaluate all technology. It’s not about the devices, infrastructure or bandwidth–it’s about what’s happening in the classroom, and are students learning?
• (33:42) Using this device isn’t about specific apps or solely word processing…find educational apps that are more production-based rather than consumption.
• (35:31) If the technology is being used effectively, it’s being used to give kids more opportunities to be creative, collaborate, and do critical thinking…One of the great promises of technology (in particular, 1:1 technology) is the possibility for individualization, which–without the technology–can feel really, really daunting.
• (36:58) Question from Livestream: How do I control a student to stay on task when a device is in their hands?
• (40:15) In terms of classroom management, the best strategy is a good lesson…many successful tech-integrationists put students at the center of the learning process.
• (43:52) Question from Livestream: What is the best way for kids to collaborate on work, using their mobile devices?
• (49:33) What kinds of administrative support & teacher training is going to be needed in terms of distributing mobile technology into classrooms and 1:1 programs?
• (52:58) It all doesn’t need to work or be perfect on Day 1…I’ll look at this September next June, and I guarantee that what we’re doing has advanced.
• (55:15) The challenge is taking something that’s new and trying to use it in ways that play to the strengths of the device, but also augment the experience from the traditional pen-and-paper environment.

From this Series:

• Part 2—Getting Going with Mobile Devices: Workflow, Organization, and Fundamentals
• Part 3—Preparing Parents for Mobile Learning
• Part 4—How Great Teachers Reinvent Their Classroom

View the Conversation
During the broadcast, the conversation also took place on Twitter using the hashtag #connectedlearning.

Guests for this webinar included:

• Tom Daccord is an educational technology speaker, instructor, and writer who has worked with schools, districts, colleges and educational organizations in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. A former social studies teacher who instructed in a laptop classroom for seven years, Tom has been featured in the Boston Globe for his contributions to teaching with technology and invited to Singapore by the Ministry of Education as an “Outstanding Educator in Residence.”
• Suzy Brooks is a 3rd grade teacher in Falmouth, Massachusetts and an Instructor with EdTechTeacher. Her work in blended learning, student engagement and social media has been featured by EdWeek, ASCD and the NEA. Additionally, she serves on the Massachusetts ASCD Board of Directors, and the Discovery Education Leadership Council. Her classroom blog, Third Graders, Dreaming Big is a comprehensive resource for families and educators alike.
• Todd Curtis is the Sudbury Public Schools Assistant Superintendent in Massachusetts. In addition to his school district experience, he has served as a principal in the Shrewsbury Schools, an Adjunct Professor at Lesley University and as a Mental Health Counselor at Cambridge Health Alliance.
• Jason Heim is a Physical Science teacher at Blake Middle School, and a core part of the school’s iPad pilot.

Resources for this webinar:

• EdTechTeacher.org
• Tools For Teachers: iPads, Apps, and Mobile Devices
• Slide Show: Navigating the Year in a 1:1 Classroom
• Educreations – share video lessons with your iPad or browser
• Edublogs.org – education blogging service
• Explain Everything – iPad App
• Kidblog – blogging service for students
• Modern Lessons – free, tech-focused mini-courses
• Notability – iPad App
• Hillbrook iLab – example of innovative classroom design
• DraftIn – online version control tool for writers
• Subtext – iPad App
• Google Presentation: “ReThinking On Task”
• Edudemic article: “When To Put the Tech Away in Your 1:1 (Or Any) Classroom”
• Suzy Brooks: “iPaddling in the BYOD Classroom”

Photos/ DMLcentral.net