Over the last year or so I have become an advocate for using mobile devices in the classroom. Mobile devices like the smarthphone, iPad, & iPod touch have helped educational technology spread in classrooms due to their enormous popularity, lower prices, and size for mobility.
However, over the last few days I've become aware of some problems with mobile devices, that all teachers should be cognizant of and try to avoid.
Mobile devices were originally designed and created for 1 purpose...Content Consumption! Although many of these devices are now acquiring more apps, like iMovie that allow for creation and productivity, the entire platform of mobile was built on consumption. Let's go back to the Bloom's Taxonomy. Where would you put digital consumption? (Pretty hard question, wouldn't you say?)
While I will continue to be an advocate for mobile devices in the classroom, I am now making a more concerted effort to help teachers find ways in which students can do more creating. Whether that creation happens with the mobile device or traditional computer doesn't matter, so long as the student gets the opportunity to learn how to use technology to create and be productive.
A quick example I have are QR codes. They've infiltrated many schools in the last 2 years, and most teachers love the lessons they have done with them. But lets ask this question..."If all your students do with a QR code is scan it with their phone, what have they learned to create?" Lets be more open to students helping us create more elements of our lessons and consequently new skills that teach our youth the power of creation vs consumpiton.
A generation of consumers who don't know how to be producers is a dangerous imbalance in any economy. Let's make it a goal to let students do more creating with technology. Creating websites, blogs, documents, presentations, movies, music, art, newscasts, podcasts, timelines, web 2.0 things, etc. Creation requires knowledge, ingenuity, creativity, and discipline. Those are the higher order skills that we are striving for as 21st century educators.
Showing posts with label Mobile learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mobile learning. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Changing the World
Today I have a guest post from blogger Marina Salsbury, who discusses a new $99 tablet designed specifically for education. Guest posts are always welcome. Please drop me a line if you are interested.
As technology continues to grow and further develop, its reaches and depths are also expanding. Currently, technology is involved in all aspects of society and is seeping into new arenas as well. With this development has come the advent of new technologies to be utilized in new ways and different places.
One area that has benefited from the advancement of technology is education. Research shows that technology offers education several advantageous opportunities. Any variety of technology benefits education by further involving students in learning, engaging students in group work activities, and increasing student-to-student as well as student-to-teacher involvement. Technology also enhances resource availability as well as offers new learning opportunities, potentially decreases educational costs, and expands the teaching and learning horizon.
According to Online MBA, designing a product today must make life easier by responding to needs that customers didn't know they had. Marvell has the answer for all this by asking, “What is the most beneficial, cost-effective, usable piece of technology on the educational market today?” The company has recently introduced its newest piece of technology, the Moby tablet, and is launching a campaign to restructure and the intersection between technology and education. At $99, the Moby, in conjunction with the Mobylize initiative, is aimed at offering a quality product at a feasible price to align the focus of education in line with today’s changing societal progress.
In its attempt to create and offer this quality product, Marvell designed the Moby with a variety of useful features. The Moby contains a Marvell Armada 600-series microprocessor. This piece ensures expedient and reliable internal processing and operates at one of the highest level of processing. The design also offers a video chip equipped to achieve 1080p video as well as some 3-dimensional graphics. The system itself is capable of processing on either the Microsoft Windows or Google Android operating system. The Moby also offers the option of a 10-inch or 7-inch screen size to offer variability in the method of presentation.
While the Moby serves a range of purposes, it's designed to serve as an educational piece. The Mobylize phenomenon is a specific mission of the Marvell company to enable and empower teachers and students by expanding the current horizons of tablet computing. To do so, the Moby is configured to facilitate different varieties of learning interactions. For example, by linking the tablet to different devices, the system will be able to facilitate guided instruction activities in which the teacher leads and the students follow. Such learning might include a manipulative digital experiment or web-based lesson. The Moby can also facilitate collaborative learning by allowing students to work together via interconnected tab interfaces or group work activities. The Moby's offerings are also age-specific to garner optimal interaction for all students. To include parents in the learning process, this tablet also offers a parental organization piece that allows the parent to track the student’s grades, homework assignments, activities, and other important involvement. For the teacher, the Moby has features that permit specific lesson structuring, grade recording, noting calendar events, and other important organizational features. The educator features place all the teacher’s important information and abilities all in one easily-transportable place. The Moby is literally taking the classroom to a whole new virtual world.
In the words of Mobylize, “By improving technology adoption in America's classrooms, we can give students the power to learn, create, connect and collaborate in entirely new ways”.The Moby will ensure that the initial step is taken and, in turn, will change the world (of education at least).
As technology continues to grow and further develop, its reaches and depths are also expanding. Currently, technology is involved in all aspects of society and is seeping into new arenas as well. With this development has come the advent of new technologies to be utilized in new ways and different places.
One area that has benefited from the advancement of technology is education. Research shows that technology offers education several advantageous opportunities. Any variety of technology benefits education by further involving students in learning, engaging students in group work activities, and increasing student-to-student as well as student-to-teacher involvement. Technology also enhances resource availability as well as offers new learning opportunities, potentially decreases educational costs, and expands the teaching and learning horizon.
According to Online MBA, designing a product today must make life easier by responding to needs that customers didn't know they had. Marvell has the answer for all this by asking, “What is the most beneficial, cost-effective, usable piece of technology on the educational market today?” The company has recently introduced its newest piece of technology, the Moby tablet, and is launching a campaign to restructure and the intersection between technology and education. At $99, the Moby, in conjunction with the Mobylize initiative, is aimed at offering a quality product at a feasible price to align the focus of education in line with today’s changing societal progress.
In its attempt to create and offer this quality product, Marvell designed the Moby with a variety of useful features. The Moby contains a Marvell Armada 600-series microprocessor. This piece ensures expedient and reliable internal processing and operates at one of the highest level of processing. The design also offers a video chip equipped to achieve 1080p video as well as some 3-dimensional graphics. The system itself is capable of processing on either the Microsoft Windows or Google Android operating system. The Moby also offers the option of a 10-inch or 7-inch screen size to offer variability in the method of presentation.
While the Moby serves a range of purposes, it's designed to serve as an educational piece. The Mobylize phenomenon is a specific mission of the Marvell company to enable and empower teachers and students by expanding the current horizons of tablet computing. To do so, the Moby is configured to facilitate different varieties of learning interactions. For example, by linking the tablet to different devices, the system will be able to facilitate guided instruction activities in which the teacher leads and the students follow. Such learning might include a manipulative digital experiment or web-based lesson. The Moby can also facilitate collaborative learning by allowing students to work together via interconnected tab interfaces or group work activities. The Moby's offerings are also age-specific to garner optimal interaction for all students. To include parents in the learning process, this tablet also offers a parental organization piece that allows the parent to track the student’s grades, homework assignments, activities, and other important involvement. For the teacher, the Moby has features that permit specific lesson structuring, grade recording, noting calendar events, and other important organizational features. The educator features place all the teacher’s important information and abilities all in one easily-transportable place. The Moby is literally taking the classroom to a whole new virtual world.
In the words of Mobylize, “By improving technology adoption in America's classrooms, we can give students the power to learn, create, connect and collaborate in entirely new ways”.The Moby will ensure that the initial step is taken and, in turn, will change the world (of education at least).
Monday, November 7, 2011
K12 Students Need Email...
Students in K12 schools need more access to email! It has become one of the most used, if not the most used, form of communication in the workplace. It is a skill that today's students will need to master if they are to be effective communicators in their future careers. We've all been on the receiving end of emails messages that range from unprofessional to vague, to unclear, to perhaps even threatening. Unless you're this person's supervisor, it's difficult to help them see the problems with their email etiquette. What are you going to do, reply back to Bob and say "Hey Bob, your emails are so vague they leave the rest of us wondering if their are any lights on upstairs."
The student/teacher relationship, however, lends itself very well to training youth the proper skills, practices, and etiquette for using email efficiently and effectively. If students were required to communicate with teachers via email they would be able to practice many of the skills below:
- How to create a distribution list & when to use it
- When/Why use "Reply All"
- When/Why use CC & BC
- When/How ineffective email can be and how to avoid miscommunication and other common problems
- Knowledge of attachments and file types
- How/When to sound formal or professional
- How to keep email organized
- How to to differentiate between texting and email
- Using email with mobile devices
- How to keep your email secure
It's not necessary for elementary school-aged kids to have email, but students should be fairly proficient and comfortable with the tool before they get into high school. I tried to find estimates on how many schools/districts provide their students with email accounts, but was unable to find any reliable data. However, it has been my experience that the majority of public education institutions still do not provide students with an official email address.
There are many ways for schools and districts to provide email to their students:
- Google Apps for EDU (free)
- Microsoft Live @ EDU
- Gaggle.net - Has some great filters built-in that filter language, attachments, topics, etc.
I consider email to be one of the most basic 21st Century Skills that today's students need to know, and yet many of our students don't use it at school. It's time to bring this skill deficiency to table and address it. Let's use email with our students and train them in an environment where they can make mistakes with consequences that won't cost them their jobs, or more.
Monday, August 22, 2011
BYOD: Best Student Apps 4 Back 2 School
This time of year is easy to find lists recommending the best apps for students. So I figured I ought to throw my hat into the ring as well. Please share your suggestions as well by leaving a comment.
- Google Search -IOS-free; Android standard
One feature they didn't talk about in the video is search by voice. It's so much faster than typing in on a small iPhone screen.
- Evernote - Free - (web, Mac, PC, IOS, Android, etc.) This is best note taking app bar none. It's features include handwriting & text recognition, even within a picture. A student could snap a photo of the whiteboard or a PPT. Then all your notes are searchable by any keyword in the note or photo. (see my post on Evernote for cooks & home ec.)
- gFlash+ - Free (IOS, Android & Blackberry) - Flashcard app allows you to convert Google docs into flashcards. Also compatible with Quizlet.
- Dictionary.com - Free (web, IOS, Android, Blackberry) - Every teacher wishes their students always had a dictionary with them. (Winner of the 2009 Best Apps Ever Award)
- Dropbox - Free (web, IOS, Android, Blackberry) - Store your files in the cloud and then retrieve them on any internet connected device. (Note: the files are not stored on the device itself, so if you lose an internet connection, you will not be able to get your files)
- eReader - Kindle - iBooks - Google Books
Kindle - Free (every platform) - With the cross platform ability of Kindle you can't go wrong.
iBooks - Free (IOS) - Allows storage of ebooks & .PDF docs; ebooks can also contain video.
Google Books - Free (IOS, Android, Web)
- Grammar Guide - $.99 - Having a grammar reference tool is an essential for many classes.
- The Chemical Touch - $.99 (IOS) - Interactive periodic table of elements
- Homework: Myhomework & ihomework:
Myhomework - Free (IOS & Android) - Great homework app "tracks your classes, homework, and projects so you never forget an assignment."
ihomework - $1.99 (IOS & Mac) - Manage your courses, homework, grades, deadlines and more.
- iFormulas - Free (IOS) - Formulas for Algebra, Calculus, Chemistry, Geometry, & Trigonometry.
- History: Maps of the World - Free (IOS) - Collection of high resolution historical maps.
Thanks to all my colleagues on Facebook for lending a hand with the apps above.
With the hundreds of thousands of apps out there, this list is opinion. However, you can make it better...
- If you are a teacher, please leave a comment below with the subject that you teach and the apps that you recommend for your students.
- If you are student please add your favorites as well by leaving a comment.
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