What's with the tablets?

Since last year, the market for tablet (iPad and others) has dramatically increased. In fact, according to a recent article, there are more tablets and handhelds being sold than personal computers and laptops (SmartPhones pass PCs in sales). Within the context of this article, I would like to talk about two that have been very popullar in the news lately - the Motorola Xoom (Zoom) and the new Apple iPad. The reason for comparing these two is simply the specs are about the same.

What do they both have or don’t?

Both the Motorola Xoom and Apple iPad 2 have front and rear facing cameras. How cool is that! Imagine students being able to video tape examples of things they are doing in class. Imagine where students could go and interview people for projects, all with a tablet. Both say that battery life can last a full school day - Apple states the iPad will run for 10 hours - Motorola states the Xoom will run for 9 hours.

They both are missing some things. Apple has had a chance to improve since it’s first revision and has made some big improvements - lighter, thinner, and faster than the previous version. It still is missing the ability to support flash for web pages. Apple designs all of the hardware and the operating system from the ground up. All the research is done on the Apple campus. They invented the iOS, the operating system that runs on it’s iPads and iPods. On the other hand, the Motorola Xoom is built on the Android Operating System for tablets, Honeycomb. The Android Operating System is built by Google, which is sells to third party vendors like Motorola. Since Motorola did not make the Operating System, they have added cost that consumers will have to pay for. The Android System is really gaining popularity and Google has even launched an app store much like Apple has the iTunes store. There really is an “app” for almost anything.

Back to Education

So, imagine the possibilities of these devices in the classroom. Imagine a student carrying one that houses all of his/her textbooks. Imagine that same student creating a movie or a documentary about a specific subject. Imagine then, that student projecting and presenting to the entire class or even the entire school. Just think of the possibilities! A recent article I read even suggested the possibility of students bringing their own devices to school. Just like you have a list of “materials” needed each year for particular classes, maybe you have a list of “apps” students need to provide for your class. Each app is between $1.00 and $2.00, unless a very specific app is needed, in which the cost of the app could vary. A lot of educational apps are even free.

How to pick?

I tell those who are seriously considering purchasing these devices to go check them out first. There is an Apple Store in Omaha and you can go and see how this device works. Apple also has put stores inside of Best Buy stores. So, you could go to Best Buy and check out the Xoom and the iPad and compare them to each other.

The Future

A lot of companies are devoting time and money into smart phones and tablets and there is a huge competition among developers. Then, there is competition on the app side to develop an app that everyone needs. No matter what you or your school decides to do though, make sure you have a plan and are willing to follow through with it. The better the plan, the more bang you’ll get out of your technology purchases.

Gearing up for NETA 2011!

Each year as the NETA (Nebraska Educational Technology Association) conference approaches, I get excited about all the possibilities this two-day conference offers. Each year, NETA brings in some very good keynoters and offers a wide variety of break out sessions. I am always amazed at how the conference unfolds each year.

Going to NETA?:

As in the past, you can use NETA’s website (http://netasite.org) to find and select sessions that you are interested in attending. When you go to the website, look for the session search link, click on it, and you can look at the “Schedule-at-a-Glance.”  Rushton Hurley will be a keynote and featured speaker this year at the conference. We featured his website in a past newsletter (http://nextvista.org). On Friday, attendees will get to pick between Tony Vincent and Richard Byrne. We featured Richard’s website in the newsletter also (http://freetechforteachers.com). If there are several teachers going from one district, you might consider selecting sessions you each can attend and then collaborating on notes. Another idea would be to use a Google Document in your district to take notes on sessions you attend. After the conference, your district representatives can use the document as a source for technology improvement in your district.

There are also “strands” for folks who have particular needs. A strand is a series of sessions that highlight a particular technology topic. The NETA Conference includes strands both days for tech support specialists, laptop environments, assistive technology, and more.

I find the conversations going on in the hallways between sessions, at the dinner table, and even during sessions are very valuable. Teachers and administrators from different districts get together to discuss how their schools are using different technologies. Questions get asked and a healthy discussion ensues. Those are conversations that cannot be replicated in your district. 

Not going to NETA?:

Even if you are not able to attend the NETA conference, you still can become a member or follow the conference online or both. To become a member without going to the conference, simple go to the NETA website and click the Membership button on the left. The cost of membership per year is $25. By attending the conference, your membership is included in your registration. If you do not wish to become a member, but still want to get some benefit out of the conference, you can follow the conference online. NETA uses multiple forms of social media during and after the conference. You can follow by joining the NETA facebook page, checking NETA out on Twitter, Ning, YouTube, and Flickr. The keynote presentations are recorded (if allowed by the speaker), which can be viewed via a podcast at a later date. Featured presenters are also recorded. And, if you happen to find a session you really wanted to attend, the presenters can be contacted and you can get their handouts. By doing a session search on the NETA page, you can find the session and download any materials associated with that session.

What else do I need to know about NETA?

NETA is also an ISTE affiliate. ISTE is the International Society of Technology in Education. The NETA organization joins with approximately 70 other affiliated technology associations around the world. The mission of ISTE is to advance excellence in learning and teaching through innovative and effective uses of technology. For schools and districts, ISTE has released NETS (National Educational Technology Standards) for teachers, students, and administrators. Not familiar with these standards?  You can check them out at the ISTE site (http://iste.org). ISTE also offers resources, such as books, from it’s online store for districts.

See you at NETA!

What My Son did over Christmas Break

For some of us, Christmas break is a time of relaxing and spending time with family and friends. For others, it involves projects of varying kinds.   As parents, we find ourselves asking what to do to keep our kids occupied during their time off from school. We don’t want our kids to necessarily sit around and do nothing, but we also don’t want to make them do things they are not interested in doing. I would like to share with you how one of my sons chose to spend his break.

Motivation: It all began with a contest on Youtube.  My son is a big fan of Legos, and was browsing videos of some neat Lego creations.  Another kid about his age had issued a challenge for others to build a Lego candy machine and post a video of it to his Youtube channel.

Process: My son opted to build a Starburst candy machine that would give you a Starburst for a nickel. It took him several days of trial and error to build the machine, but when he finished, he had accomplished his goal: a Lego Starburst machine that would take no other coin than a nickel. It even has a trash dispenser for the wrapper. He used his iPod Nano to record a video of the project, he used iMovie to edit the video, and published the video to Youtube.

Outcome: He won the contest!  He was very pleased with the result of his hard work.  The interesting part is, the prize was recognition - a recommendation from the contest host to “subscribe” to my son’s Youtube channel, and almost 300 views of his video to date.  Of course, this success lead to several other Lego creations with videos on his own Youtube channel.

What’s the educational point? This is a great example of how kids learn in the 21st century.  In this case, video (Youtube) was used as the delivery of instruction in coming up with Lego project ideas. It was also a tool in accomplishing his goal, and was an excellent method of evaluation from his peers.  

How can teachers use video to motivate students?  The great thing about using video is it can be used cross-curriculum. From creating video book reports to viewing science experiments, from creating history reenactments to viewing specific steps in a building process, using video to deliver instruction or to record student work is a powerful technology tool!  Teachers can create a Youtube channel for their classroom’s videos with very little effort.  Is Youtube blocked at your school? There are a host of very similar video sites available to educators for free, including schooltube.com, teachertube.com, and nextvista.org.

Website of the month:  Next Vista for Learning  An online library of free videos for learners everywhere. Their goal is to gather a set of resources to help you learn just about anything, meet people who make a difference in their communities, and even discover new parts of the world. Next Vista for Learning wants to post your educational videos online, too. Everyone has an insight to share and yours may be just what some student or teacher somewhere needs!

Lego Starburst Machine

My son wanted to build a candy machine out of legos. He found a way using some videos from YouTube and using some of his own intuition. Here is his Lego Starburst Machine. Enjoy!

My Top Five Tech Tools

After reading the recent NETA newsletter, my friend and colleague, Jason Everett (ESU 10), wrote an article about what he calls “The Top Five Tech Tools for Teachers.” As I read his article, I asked myself, “What are my top five tech tools?” What do I use almost daily or often enough to be considered the top five? So, here are my Top Five Tech Tools:

Number One: As I write this article, I am using Google Docs. I cannot begin to share how helpful this application has become in my work. I can put up a document as a draft and invite members to collaborate. I use Google Docs for meetings, for handouts at workshops, and for gathering my thoughts to share with others. For me, it is all about collaboration. The more I can get people to collaborate with me, the better my writing becomes.

Number Two: My blog. I use my blog (http://grobke.blogspot.com) to communicate the things I write and make them available to anyone in the world. It provides a public space for my thoughts. It allows me to get feedback on what people think of my ideas. There are all kinds of blogs out there for people to follow - educational blogs, personal blogs. Blogs for moms and dads, etc.

Number Three: iChat. iChat is a Mac product, but I can use the same type of app on my Windows machine using AIM instant messaging. It is a place where I can help people troubleshoot problems they may be having with their computer or simply to offer advice. The nice thing about this software is that it is instant communication vs. waiting for an email to arrive. With email, I have to respond, then wait for a response. With iChat, I can continuously converse with other people. I can even have more than one conversation at a time. Talk about multi-tasking! Try it out for yourself and iChat with me at robkeg@mac.com.

Number Four: My iPod Touch. I am finding that my iPod Touch can do everything I can do on my computer, only the screen is a little smaller. I use it when I go to meetings because it is a more mobile device than my laptop. I can use it to access my email, to iChat, to look up my Google Docs. It is all integrated and synced with the things on my computer. All my calendars and contacts are stored on my iPod Touch as well. I use it to download podcasts to listen to while I am traveling. With the new iPod Touch, I can even use it as a video camera as well as a digital camera.

Number Five: My cell phone. I don’t leave home without it! Few people disagree on the value of their cell phones today. If you have a smart phone, most can do all of the tasks mentioned above for the iPod Touch.  Droids and the iPhone are easily the top two smart phones on the market today. Since I cannot use an iPhone because of service restrictions, I carry a simple cell phone with me and use my iPod Touch for the things an iPhone can do.

If you have not read the latest NETA newsletter, it is full of useful information and you can get it for free at the NETA site (http://netasite.org). Click on Resources on the left and it will take to the newsletter section. As you think about my top five tech tools, I’d like to ask what are your top five tech tools?  Do you introduce them to your students? If so, then ask your students what their top five tools would be.  And finally, I’d like to ask if you are using the tools in the classroom that students use outside of school? Do you have a plan to implement any of these tools into your curriculum? Is your school thinking about ways to allow these tools inside your school if they aren’t currently allowed?  These are all questions that schools should be considering. As always, I’d enjoy having this conversation with you, your district, or your technology committee.

You've Got Text

Remember that movie, You’ve Got Mail!, with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan who get connected via email? E-mail has become a natural way of communication. We can easily send messages to many people and communicate to them our concerns, questions, or comments on whatever topic interests us. Have you ever thought of how adults use email vs. students? Is email losing its ability to be an avenue for communication? Is it more about using cell phones and text messaging? Or, what about smart phones and the ability to video chat with others through software? I know that my own children would rather text than send an email. They get immediate feedback from a text message vs. an email that may take days to get a response.

There are many positive ways to use cell phones in the classroom. But, as we think about using them for education, we must consider their relevance for the curriculum. In order to be effective, there has to be an outcome. Cell phones can be engaging and fun if used effectively. And, we can use that time to teach appropriate uses of the technology.

There are also ways in which students use cell phones negatively. Students are using cell phones to bully other students. They do this by sending obscene texts or obscene photos to other students they may not like. They also use their social networks to take more “jabs” at each other. As parents, teachers, and administrators, we need to watch out for this kind of behavior. The bully is no longer the big kid on the playground. There have been several recent stories relating to this very issue. Ones that really disturb me are adolescents who end up taking their own lives. One example is the story of a 13-old girl in Florida who committed suicide after an explicit cell phone photo she had texted to a boy was forwarded to several other students. You can read the full version of this story at http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34236377.

Each year, the Nebraska ESU’s sponsor a contest for “Internet Safety.” The contest is sponsored by the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office and concludes in April. Our goal is to get the word out and help students understand the “risk” of rude behavior online. There are numerous organizational web sites whose goal is to help students understand these risks. In fact, Anderson Cooper has interviewed students regarding the very issue of Cyberbullying. You can see the episodes on AC360˚. One of his episodes is titled, “In a Wired World, Children Unable to Escape Cyberbullying.”

I believe we (parents, teachers, administrators) have a responsibility to teach appropriate uses of these technologies - cell phones, online social networks, and Internet behavior. It can be effectively integrated into our curriculum if done appropriately. Many futurists predict that every student will have a digital device (a phone) to carry with them to school in five years. Are we prepared for this as educators? Instead of “You’ve got mail”, perhaps we should start saying, “You've Got Text!”

Oct 2010 tech news

Interactive Whiteboards
I recently ran across an article by Robert Marzano on the effective use of Interactive boards in the classroom. It was interesting to note that in that article, he states, “using interactive whiteboards was associated with a 16 percentile point gain in student achievement. Using voting devices was associated with a 26 percentile point gain in student achievement (along with interactive whiteboards). A third feature is the interactive whiteboard reinforcer - applications that teachers can use to signal that an answer is correct or to present information in an unusual context. These practices were associated with a 31 percentile point gain in student achievement.”

After reading that, I wondered how many schools in ESU 4 have whiteboards? And, how many of those are effectively used? Interactive whiteboards have been around for many years, but if we as teachers and learners do not take time to use them properly, then you may not see any gain in student achievement at all. In fact, Robert Marzano states, “As is the case with all powerful tools, teachers must use interactive whiteboards thoughtfully, in accordance with what we know about good classroom practice.”

There are lots of ways, fun and exciting, to use whiteboards in the classrooms. Many schools already have them. Some are using MOBI’s and other hand-held devices which are just as engaging as interactive whiteboards. Get the students moving, get them collaborating, get them discussing important concepts. Then, use the interactive board with voting devices to engage them fully. If used appropriately, you will see some dramatic results. It all takes time and training. If you need any help, feel free to call or email.

For the full article, check it out at http://bit.ly/9HlRMW

Upcoming Workshops
Sept. 27 - Tech Plan Update starting at 9 AM
Sept. 30 - tcadre meeting starting at 9 AM
Oct. 18 - NSSRS work day beginning at 9 AM
Oct. 22 - tcadre meeting starting at 9 AM
Oct. 26 - eInstruction workshop starting at 9 AM with Dustin Frank
Oct. 29 - ANGEL workshop starting at 9 AM
Dec. 10 - Using iPods/iPads in the classroom beginning at 9 AM

Website of the Month
This web site of the month is more for secondary teachers, but has lots of opportunities to enhance your classroom. The Khan Academy features over 1600 free video lessons on math, science, technology, and other subjects. Check it out at http://www.khanacademy.org/