#iOS11 - QR Code Reader is Built In

If you and your students have access to iPads, iPhones, or iPod Touches running iOS 11, you can now scan bar codes without having to install a QR code reader app!

Just open the Camera app, point it at the QR code you want to read, and press the message that pops up on the screen to visit the website or file the code links to. It's that simple! I demonstrate how easy it is to use the iOS QR code reading function in the video below. 

I also share my all-time favorite QR code reading app, i-nigma, which is compatible with iOS devices (helpful if you have older devices that can't run iOS 11 or even newer devices that just haven't been upgraded yet) as well as Android (which is great in mixed-device environments like you find in  BYOD/BYOT classrooms). 

If you are wondering why anyone would need a QR code reader in their classroom, take a look at my Pinterest board with QR code ideas or my YouTube QR Code playlist. I update both of these when I come across new ideas, so feel free to check them frequently!

If you have ideas for using QR codes in the classroom, please share them in the comments so we can all learn together.

---

All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Please see specifics on my re-use policy before re-posting/re-using any of my blog content.

Screen Recording is Built in to #iPad & #iPhone Running #iOS11

With the release of iOS 11 in September of 2017 came a great new feature which can have multiple uses in classrooms. The ability to video record what is happening on an iPad or iPhone screen, as well as narrate over the recording, is now a built-in feature of iOS devices.

You may not realize that the screen recording feature is an option because it is not turned on by default when you upgrade to iOS 11. I found out about it through Twitter myself.

Below are instructions for turning on screen recording and using it for the first time.

To turn on the Screen Recording feature, follow these steps:

Tap the Green Circle next to Screen Recording
to enable the function on your iOS device

• Open the Settings app on your iOS device.
• Scroll down Control Center and tap on it.
• Tap on Customize Controls.
• Under More Controls, tap on the green circle with white plus mark next to Screen Recording.
• Screen Recording will now be moved up to the Include section of the Control Center settings.

In the Control Center,
press and hold on the 
Screen Recording button
to bring up Audio options.

Access and use the Screen Recording function by:

• Swiping up from the bottom of your device to bring up the Control Center.
• Decide if you want audio via the device microphone (your voice) on your recording. Press and hold the white circle icon until the Screen Recording options come up. Then tap the microphone to toggle audio recording on and off. 
• Tap Start Recording. You will see a 3 second countdown on the screen. Press the Home Button on your device to go back to your device's home screen during that 3 seconds so your recording will start there.
• You will know recording has started and is ongoing when you see a red bar across the top of your device's screen.
• To end your recording, tap the red bar at the top of your screen. Then press Stop.

Video Demo of iOS Screen Recording

In the video below, I demonstrate Screen Recording on an iPhone. I also share a few tips for making your screen recording projects better as well as a few ideas for how to get the video off of the device once it is recorded.

Slides From the Video

Since I recorded my video on an iPhone, the information on the slides is kind of small! You can view the slides that are in the video below.

Have you used the iOS Screen Recording feature in teaching and learning? Have your students? If so, please share in the comments so we can learn from your ideas. Thanks!

---

All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Please see specifics on my re-use policy before re-posting/re-using any of my blog content.

Mobile Learning in Georgetown ISD

Over the past year, the school district I work for has made tremendous strides in the realm of mobile learning. I am proud of all that our school board, administration, technology department, educational technology staff, and teachers have done and are continuing to do on a daily basis to move students' educational experience forward through integration of district-owned and student-owned mobile devices. Our Engage! initiatives are rolling right along.

And now, a peek into what's happening in GISD...

Yesterday, local ABC affiliate KVUE did a story on our grades 6-12 BYOD initiative. High school Latin teacher Mark Warren and his students were featured, as was our EdTech Coordinator Kim Garcia (my boss). They both did a great job of reperesenting the goals/purposes of the program! I think my favorite moment, though, is when one of Mark's students talks about not really getting homework anymore. See if you can catch what he says about that!





For our opening convocation earlier this year Kim put together a video montage showing what our teachers and students had accomplished in 2012-2013 with iPads that were rolling out across our district. as of the start of the 2013-2014 school year, every teacher in our district has been issued an iPad, and many campuses are bringing in small sets of iPads to use with students. Take a look at how creative our teachers were in a relatively short amount of time; the majority of teachers did not receive their iPads until mid-Spring 2013!




After posting resources and stories about other districts on this blog from time to time, it's fun to get to feature my own district and rewarding to be a part of these endeavors!



*******************************************************************************************
All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Please see specifics on my re-use policy in the right-hand column of my blog before re-posting/re-using any of my blog content.

5 to 6 Hours of Basic Training on iPads? What?

Photo Used Under Creative Commons License

My last post was on the plan the educational technology team in my school district came up with for iPad Basic Training for Teachers. As iPads began making their way into our school district through different avenues last year, we felt it was important to make sure our teachers had a basic understanding of how to use the iPad before we even began to talk with them about using the iPad for teaching and learning.

In conversations with people inside and outside of my district, upon hearing we were proposing five to six hours of training in the basics, we were occasionally met with "What? You want HOW MUCH TIME to do basic iPad training?" The strongest reactions usually came from people who were already iPhone and iPad users themselves.

I'm going to list a few of the reasons we felt five or six hours was the minimum amount of time we needed for iPad basic training. They are not necessarily listed in order of importance, but all contribute to the reasons that prioritizing for this kind of training should be included in any implementation that puts iPads into the hands of teachers for the first time. The same principles can apply to any tablet, laptop, or mobile device you are deploying to teachers.

• If a teaching force is made up of typical adults, chances are only about half of them have experience with a smartphone. According to Pew Internet, approximately 56% of American adults own smart phones (data from April-May 2013).

• Only one-third of a teaching force has experience with a tablet device (data from April-May 2013) and not all of the tablets they have experience with are iOS devices.

• When planning for effective training, you have to assume that as of now the majority of your teachers have not used tablet devices before. If you are an edtech specialist or "natural techie,", think back to times when you have used totally new devices. I remember touching an interactive whiteboard for the first time in the early 2000's. I still remember the trainer saying, "Press harder, you won't break it." Breaking it was a real fear of mine since I had not used that type of technology before. Your teachers have a wide range of fears when adopting new technologies, too.

• Staff members who own personal smartphones and tablets use them for personal reasons, which are different from the reasons and ways these devices will be used in the classroom. For example, how a person evaluates an app they are going to download for personal reasons is very different from how they should evaluate an app they are going to download for use with students.

• Even teachers with smart phone/tablet experience do not know all of the ins and outs of the device. 
• They may have never investigated device restrictions or accessibility settings which might be beneficial in classroom use.
• Have they learned time-saving gestures such as the five-finger pinch for closing an app? (I learned that when I saw someone else do it, about a year after getting an iPad.) 
• What about the hidden-characters on the iPad keyboard, such as the apostrophe you can get if you long-press the comma key or the quotation marks you get when you long-press the question mark key? I didn't know those were there until I watched training materials we had gathered for our teachers. Based on their reactions to our trainings, many experienced iOS users didn't know about them either.
• Several teachers we interacted with admitted they didn't know how to download apps or manage an Apple ID/iTunes account because someone else in their family, often their children, managed their devices for them or did stuff for them when they asked for help instead of showing them how to do it.

• For those who are self-taught on iOS devices, if you added up all of the little bits of time you put into learning how to use your device as you needed to learn it, I would be willing to bet six hours would be a low number for the time you invested. 

• When deploying iPads for teaching and learning, time is not a luxury that exists in terms of allowing teachers to learn the basics "in their own time as needed." They need to be brought up to speed as quickly as possible so they will feel comfortable with starting to use the devices instructionally. Scaffold the "how to" so you can move everyone toward meaningful educational use.

In my previous blog post on iPad Basic Training for Teachers, I explained that we decided to deliver the majority of our training through self-paced online modules. Although our primary reason at the time was the need to reach hundreds of teachers with several hours of training, the online delivery of the training has proved effective for other reasons. It allowed those with more experience to quickly move past information on topics such as "The Parts of an iPad." 

The amount of material covered is best absorbed in small chunks as well. When we trained in person in two three-hour sessions on separate days, at the end of each session, the participants' eyes were glazing over. They needed to be introduced to the different concepts and then given time to experiment and play. And people with existing experience needed to be able to move forward faster. Online modules allow for personalization in learning. We received many positive comments in our end-of-module surveys regarding the ability of the participants to watch the materials online while practicing with their iPads, review the material as needed, and fast-forward through skills they already knew.

One of my favorite bits of feedback was from a teacher who had been a technology specialist on her campus several years ago and now serves as a classroom teacher. She took time to email myself and my boss. Here is what she had to say:

Well, for someone who thinks I am a know-it-all on the iPad, thank you for these trainings! I learned so many things just from Module 1. I can’t wait to finish the training! 

Thanks for all the time you put into these trainings!

As teachers are implementing iPads in their classrooms this Fall, time will tell how effective our plan was overall. But the comment above, as well as multiple positive comments in our end-of-module surveys, make me believe the approach was the right one to take. And I will continue to remind myself of the benefits as I think of the time we're going to have to reinvest to update all of the training materials now that iOS 7 is out!

****************************************************************************************
All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Please see specifics on my re-use policy in the right-hand column of my blog before re-posting/re-using any of my blog content.

iPad Basic Training for Teachers

The Background

Photo Used Under a Creative Commons License

In the Spring of 2013, my school district committed to issuing an iPad to every classroom teacher. The purposes for this initiative were to give teachers an additional tool for teaching and learning and to familiarize teachers with mobile devices in anticipation of more iPads being purchased for classroom use and a grades 6-12 BYOD program coming in the next school year.

This type of initiative is exactly what my supervisor Kim (AKA @DigitalLearners) and I had been waiting/hoping for.

This is why we had been reading everything we could via Twitter and blogs and attending every session we could at professional events about mobile learning and iPads for the past three years.

And yet, when the prospect finally became a reality, it was a little overwhelming. From all of the wonderful resources we had compiled, we needed to come up with a plan to get our teachers up-to-speed and comfortable with using iPads, while planting seeds of a vision for the use of mobile technologies in their classrooms. Most of the iPads would be in the hands of teachers by the end of the semester. Time was of the essence.

Thankfully, we had had a couple of trial runs in the fall. Federal funds had brought small sets of iPads to each of our Title I campuses, and we had put together six hours of in-person training on using iPads in teaching and learning for math and reading intervention teachers at 10 campuses. Additionally, a principal at one of our elementaries had secured funding to purchase an iPad for each of his teachers. With these 35-40 teachers, we asked them to cover some basics that we had posed online, and we did an additional two hours of in-person after school training with them. You can see our training agendas for these in person sessions here.

We were about to distribute iPads to 800 teachers. The timeline and our number of staff members would not allow us to do multiple-hour in-person trainings with all of them. Yet we felt based on our fall experiences that five to six hours of "the basics" was vital to giving this initiative the basis it needed to get off to a successful start. Online training was the only viable solution.

Thankfully, in the bank of resources we had been collecting was this iPad training page from Comal ISD which included this proficiency checklist. Comal graciously gave us permission to adapt their materials, and thus iPad Basic Training for Teachers online was born.

Training Plan

We took our fall experience and Comal's checklist and divided the basics into five one hour modules. Only the first module is delivered in a face-to-face format. Here is how it is organized:

• Receiving an iPad Session (in-person): Apple ID Set-Up, Precautions, and Security
• Teachers view this video which goes over important policy, and they are introduced to the Teacher iPad Proficiency Checklist. EdTech staff assists teachers with creating an AppleID that does not require a credit card.
• Module 1: Vision and Basic Operations
• Module 2: Email, Calendar, Web Browsing, General Settings
• Module 3: App Management
• Module 4: Camera, iBooks, Educreations

Teachers needed to receive credit for completing the modules, so we set up eCourses in our Eduphoria Workshop system which include quizzes at the end based on the proficiency checklist. Basically, it's an honor system where teachers answer quiz questions with a "yes" or "no". Each "question" is one of the proficiencies on the master checklist, such as "I can create folders on my iPad for organizing apps."

We wanted the training resources to be readily available to our teachers on an ongoing basis without the need for a password to access them, so they are posted on our public website (see links above).

You are welcome to use the resources posted on my district's website and YouTube channel in your own trainings. I ask that you credit my school district if you use any district created resources or if you use the organizational ideas of our training. I would also appreciate if you share with me how you use it!

Why?

Are any of you thinking, "Really? Four to five to six hours of training on iPads? They're intuitive, right? Kids use them with little if any guidance. What the heck?"

Good questions! That, my friends, is the topic of my next blog post!

****************************************************************************************
All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Please see specifics on my re-use policy in the right-hand column of my blog before re-posting/re-using any of my blog content.

10 Killer iPad Projects Students Will Love #ISTE13

Notes from ISTE13 Concurrent Session

Holly Dornak and Jessica Dyer, ITS's, Lamar CISD

All presentation resources posted here:
http://icafe.lcisd.org/presentations/10-ipad-app-projects-students-will-love/ -

***Goal is to use the iPad or whatever device it might be to do higher level skills/ higher
levels of Blooms.

iPad Essential Skills - allow students to teach you if necessary!

• Spotlight Search - Kinder on up can do this with training!

• Adding Images to Camera Roll - Using camera, screen shot, Internet images (integrate finding
  copyright-friendly issues here; for example, Google advanced search)

• Taking Video - horizontal, please!

• Action Button - box w/ arrow coming out to send stuff off of iPad

• Turning in Assignments:
  
• Dongle - connect to iTunes; it acts as a USB drive

• Email - generic account or student email accounts

• Cloud Storage - SkyDrive, Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, etc.

• Edmodo

• Showbie- an app where teacher makes accounts and students can turn in
  work from iPad. Go to showbie.com for more info.

Tip: Get the App Apps Gone Free - Gives you a few apps every day. Can use about 1/3 for
education. Many of the apps recommended in the projects to follow may cost money now, but
the presenters first became aware of them through Apps Gone Free.

10 Projects:

1. Build Vocabulary - Skitch     Ex: take pictures of real world objects and label fractions, get a pic off Internet of something you've been studying (Ex: peninsula); trace and annotate.

2. Send Postcards from the Edge - Turbo Collage Lite and Postino     Build front of postcard with Turbo Collage  then make back of postcard with Postino. Can email the postcard to some one. Also send by snail mail for a fee.

3. Go Hollywood - storyboard with Stickyboard (movable sticky notes) or Grafio Lite (limited to 4 graphic organizers) or Poplet Lite. Sock Puppet, Puppet Pals, or ToonTastic to make cartoonish videos; Cute CUT (free; almost as good as iMovie) or iMovie for live video; OSnap! or iMotionHD for stop motion

4. Use Student Instructors - Educreations and Doodle Cast - teacher can record lessons for students to review or have students record presentations or their thinking when completing an assignment

5. Become Thread Heads - Voice Thread - Have students comment on content you or they post or create. Great because it can be easily shared online.

6. Write and Illustrate - Outline, Drawing Pad, Strip Designer, Scribble Press, Little Story Maker, Book Creator

7. Witness and Report - Pocket BMX & Evernote - Have student play game while other students act as reporters. When you first do this, have a game that moves slow or allows for instant replay.

8. Building a Talking Museum - Croak.It! and Scan - Students drew and wrote about a field trip. Posted on bulletin board and put a QR code next to it linked to them reading their report. Also use DropVox to record.

9. Connect to your Community - Make it real-world - FaceTime, Skype (Ex: Talk with a fireman and he/she can give you a tour the fire station. ) Also check out Skype for educators. DigitalWish and SignUp Genius will help manage project connections.

10. Get Social - Edmodo, Twitter, Blogger - Example: @Emilydrocha posts what's going on in her class via Twitter. Check your school's social media policies before jumping into this.

Posted with Blogsy

Not 1:1? There's Still Hope for Implementing iPads! #iPlza13 #not121

At 10:15 am on June 19th, @DigitalLearners and I are scheduled to present Not 1:1? There's Still Hope for Implementing iPads! at the 2013 iPadPalooza Learning Festival in Austin, Texas. Below is our presentation as well as a folder of resource documents that schools implementing iPads in any way, shape, or form might benefit from.

If you can't join us in person, follow the hashtag #iPlza13 for Tweets from the Festival, and #not121 for Tweets from our session.

Also, if you have experience with or tips for deploying iPads in less than 1:1 environments, please share in the comments below so we can all learn together!

---

Presentation Slides
If you click or tap the Open in New Window icon at the right end of the orange bar, a new tab will open in your web browser. You will see a larger version of the presentation and be able to access any notes made on the slides. The details are in the notes!




Resource Documents
Click or tap the blue box below to access supporting documents. A new tab will open in your web browser.

Search for Mobile Apps Using Google

Yesterday I learned from a TCEA Tweet that Google has launched an app search feature. What a cool tool for those of us working in mobile learning environments - whether they be individual teacher devices, pods of classroom devices, 1:1, or BYOD - to use to explore app possibilities without having to log into an app store first!

I played with app search a little and made a quick tutorial video to show you how to access it and an idea I had for combining it with Google's advanced search feature. Hope this is helpful to you! If you have any other ideas for using Google's new app search, please share below in the comments.

School iPad Implementations: What Would You Do Differently?

My school district is taking a step into the world of using iPads in the classroom with a small, targeted implementation of a pod of iPads on several campuses.

"Yea!" and "Oh my gosh, how do we do this in the best way possible?!"

There are several great posts about implementation Dos and Don'ts out there, like these from Tony Vincent, Carl Hooker, and Terice Schneider. I'm curious, though, to see if others in my network have some advice for a first time iPad deployment.

If you have implemented iPads in any way, shape, or form, then I would love to hear what's the ONE thing you would do differently if you could go back and start over again from the beginning. Please share in the comments section below. If you have written about this elsewhere, feel free to leave a link back to your own post.

Thank you in advance for sharing! Teachers and students in my district, and in the schools and districts of many others who find this post, will benefit from your experience.

Parent Concerns in a 1:1 iPad Initiative

Used With Permission
 Under a Creative Commons License

Last Sunday, I received a note via the contact form on my blog that was a first for me in many ways. It was the first time I had ever been contacted by a parent via my blog, the first time I could not put a comment out of my mind until I had addressed it, and the first time I ever thought about the impact a school's 1:1 take-home technology initiative could have on a family.

With the permission of the parent, I share here the note she left for me, slightly edited to keep her identity confidential:

My son was issued an iPad. I wasn't able to make the iPad meeting at school. I am in panic mode. I want to embrace the new technology but I also want to know how I can set limits. Before we had strict "screen time" rules. Now he just says he's doing homework or studying but it is taking all night (4-6 hours) so I'm convinced he's being distracted by other things on the iPad. I miss him, he is always plugged in when he is home. 

Your name came up when I searched under School District, iPad. Can you point me in the direction of a good book, article or person who might help? 

Thanks

In all of the amazing things I've been reading over the years about 1:1 initiatives, this was a side of the story I had not read about or managed to consider on my own. 1:1 should bring a paradigm shift to the classroom, but it can also impact family dynamics in a profound way.

The phrases "I am in panic mode" and "I miss him, he is always plugged in when he is home" tugged at my heart. I went to church, hung out with friends for lunch, and ran some errands, but all day I was thinking about what, if anything I could say to help this parent.

Below are the contents of the email I sent back to "Ms. Jones", again edited slightly for confidentiality.  It really was this long and this detailed! I share it here in hopes that it will stir your thinking and provide ideas to educators and parents on how to support students in the home aspect of  implementing of 1:1 learning.


Hello, Ms. Jones,

This email is in response to the comments/questions you left for me via my blog at http://edtechsandyk.blogspot.com. 

I am glad you see the potential of this technology for your son's learning and that you reaching out for answers in a situation that is new to the teachers, students and parents at your son's school!

iPads in education are very new (the device itself has only been out since March 2010), and I can't think of a specific book or article at the moment that would address your concerns. Based on my overall experience as a former classroom teacher and now an edtech specialist, I have a few suggestions for continuing to address the situation you described in your comments above and seeking balance for your son and your family. This email started getting long so I separated my ideas into sections below.

Communicate With Your Son's Teachers

As a former classroom teacher myself, I cannot stress enough that one of the most important things you need to do is communicate with your son's teachers. Share your concerns with them just as you did with me in your comments above.  Ask what kinds of activities you should be expecting to see him doing for homework on the iPad and how much time you should be expecting him to spend on homework. 

As you approach his teachers, remember that  teaching and learning with the iPad is new to your son's school and his teachers. Everyone is excited by the possibilities of the impact this technology can have on learning, but they are all in the process of learning the best ways to do it together. Approach this conversation from a perspective of being a partner with your son's teachers in his education.

I would also ask if there is a way to gain access to any resources that were shared during the iPad meeting the school held and/or if the meeting was recorded for parents who could not be present.

As an aside, you may be helping other families in this process. There may be others with your same questions who have not spoken up yet. It is possible your son's school and teachers are not aware of these issues yet, and they need to assess if this needs to be addressed in future parent communications/outreach.

Communicate With Your Son and Set Limits

Continue talking with your son about your concerns. Even though the school is providing this wonderful learning tool, it is still not healthy for him to be buried in the screen all night. Your son may push back on some of your comments, but that's partly his age. He is internalizing more of what you say than you may realize.

As your son's parent, I believe it is still your right to limit screen time if you feel your son is spending too much time with his iPad. Realize he probably does need it for homework, but if he was not spending four to six hours on homework pre-iPad (as a former middle school teacher that amount of time seems excessive to me), he is possibly being distracted. His distractions may be non-productive "play" time or they could be self-directed learning. Either way, he should be focused first on completing his assignments. 

You may have to make a rule that at 8:00 PM or 8:30 PM (or whatever you feel is a reasonable amount of time before his bedtime) the iPad gets put on the charger for the evening and doesn't get used again until the morning. The charging station should probably not be in your son's bedroom if you choose to do this. A rule like this will hopefully help your son focus on getting his homework done before the "iPad put away" deadline. You will also have to be firm on the deadline; he may have to suffer the consequences of a few incomplete assignments or low test grades before he adjusts his time management. (If you choose to do this, please be in contact with his teachers about it so they will understand why some assignments may be incomplete.)

Put Some Supportive Structures in Place at Home

Used With Permission
Under a Creative Commons License

Establish a homework area in your house that is NOT in an isolated area. Perhaps at the kitchen table or in the living room. It should be an area where other members of the family will at least occasionally be but where there won't be distractions. Realize this may impact how the rest of your family utilizes the space during homework time. For example, if there is a TV in the room it might not be on during this time. Homework should always be done in this area whether it requires the iPad or not.

Over the course of the evening, check in once or twice with your son.  Ask him what he is working on for his homework and ask him to show you how he's using his iPad to do it (if he is using the iPad at that time; check in even if he isn't using it!). If you can do this in an "I want to learn about the iPad and how it's helping you learn" attitude as much as possible, as opposed to an "I'm policing you" attitude, the communication will probably go better.

As Time Goes On, It Will Probably Get Better

Realize that with time some of the "newness" of the iPad will wear off and your son should grow in his ability to self-regulate. As he matures, you may be able to back off on a few of your rules. I would probably keep some structure in place at least through the first semester, then re-evaluate in the Spring.

I am reminded of a presentation I attended this summer where high school students talked about their first year in a 1:1 iPad environment. They said the day the iPads were issued, lunch time was silent because everyone was buried in their screens! But over time the novelty wore off and people started talking with each other again. The students also noted that even in class they were sometimes distracted by their devices, but they learned quickly that they couldn't afford to continue being inattentive and still keep up their grades. Your son is in middle school, but with time and your support, he too will grow and mature in his technology use.

Concluding Thoughts

Ms. Jones, you may have gotten way more than you were asking for in this email. If that is the case, I apologize. But your questions/concerns struck a chord with me and I wanted to share what I was thinking. I've been thinking about this response all day!

I hope you find these suggestions valuable and that you will reach out to your son and his teachers to partner in finding solutions to your concerns.

Good luck as you and your son move forward on this new learning frontier!

I was relieved to receive the following reply from Ms. Jones yesterday:

Hi Sandy

I was blown away by your response. Thank you so much for taking the time to help a stranger. Of course you may quote my original email.

Like you, I believe many parents are facing the same issues. I really appreciate your advice and plan to implement some of your suggestions.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Thanks again,

Ms. Jones

Yay! I didn't completely overwhelm her, and I can't wait to hear back from her!

What Would You Say? What Are You Doing In This Arena?

What other advice would you give Ms. Jones and parents like her who undoubtedly have similar questions? Do you disagree with any of the suggestions I made?

Used With Permission
Under a Creative Commons License

Keep in mind, the child being able to say, "I'm working on my homework" is somewhat of a game-changer when it comes to supporting and setting limits. How easily could you tell your child to just put the technology away when it could be impacting their grades?

If you are in a school or district that is doing one-to-one, are you making parent/family support part of your implementation, and if so, how?

I hope you'll contribute in the comments section below!

iOS 6 Update

Notes from TCEA TECSIG Fall 2012 Breakout Session
October 4, 2012
Austin, Texas

Speaker: Brittney Van Zant, Apple Senior Systems Engineer

Over 200 new features in iOS 6. These features are relevant to education:

Accessibility System Preferences

Guided Access - Can set up home button to toggle on and off with a tripple-click. Can disable hardware buttons and disable touch so an app just runs w/out user interference. You can also select only certain areas of the screen to be touch-sensitive.

Speak Selection - Enable this so selected text can be spoken

Restrictions with Apple Configurator (Supervised Devices Only - Prevents iTunes Sync):

• Allow/Disable removing apps
• Allow/Disable use of Game Center
• Allow/Disable iMessage
• Allow/Disable iBookstore
• Allow/Disable iBookstore explicit content
• Allow/Disable Configuration Profile Installation
• Enabe Siri Profanity Filter
• Single App Mode - Locks user into a single, specified application (Think Pearson TestNav). Specified application launches at boot if device is powered down.
• Global Network Proxy for HTTP - Route all web traffic through a web proxy for filtering

Profile Manager 2 - Use with Mountain Lion server - Pushing config profiles over the air

• Profile-Based management
• Over-the-air updates
• Mobile device management
• iOS and OS X
• Self-service portal
• Web-based authentication
• Up to 5000 devces per server
• Gatekeeper settings
• Unified passcode policies

Apple Apps

• iWork - Ability to open a doc, presentation, or spreadsheet in another application (Ex: Dropbox, GoodReader)
• Garageband - create custom ringtones and alerts for iDevices. Run GarageBand in Background. So can record while running another app. Ex: Hit record then open an iBook to record a student reading.
• iMovie - Create movie trailers. On iPad, open precision editor to create split audio edits. Create a slidewhos by sharing photos from iPhoto for iOS. Tap help for guided coach while using app.
• iPhoto - Tags, smarter cropping, ink effects, better sharing options, journal enhancements, support large photos
• iTunes U - new single day view to see all of your posts and assignemtns on single page
• Find My iPhone - New lost mode sets passcode on lost devices.
• iBooks - Suport for iOS 6 restrictions

Apple Configurator - has not yet been updated to use configuration profiles but it will be soon.

iOS 6 EDU Deployment Guide - Coming Soon!

Be careful with Mobile Device Management solutions that say they can push out paid apps. Pushing out paid apps is not supported by Apple and it often breaks when you update the app.

1:1 iPads and Digital Learning in Belton ISD

Image Source

On Tuesday, June 19th, 2012, I attended iPadpalooza at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas. This conference about all things iPad in education was co-sponsored by Eanes ISD and TCEA.


The first session I attended at iPadpalooza was presented by Instructional Technology Coordinators Terice Schneider and Vicki Ventura of Belton Independent School District. They gave an overview of how Belton began experimenting with BYOD and small 1:1 implementations over the past two years, culminating in opening a brand new middle school (grades 6-8) with 1:1 iPads for students in the 2011-2012 school year. Belton ISD is very generous to share information about their innovative projects. You can get a good synopsis of what has been happening in their district on their 1:1 initiatives web page.  Terice has also been posting some very insightful, practical implementation information on her blog. These are both valuable resources anyone considering 1:1 programs of any type should bookmark and refer to regularly!

Full Disclosure: I have a great deal of faith in the information Terice and Vicki share because I was privileged to work with them for several years when I was a  classroom teacher and campus technology facilitator.

In addition to the wonderful resources I've linked to above, here are my notes from their iPadpalooza session.

Lessons Learned from and Tips for 1:1 Implementations

Staff Development is KEY!!! It's much harder to fix the mistakes you make in staff development than to do it right the first time.

Belton is paying for most of their implementation through the Texas Instructional Materials Allotment (IMA). Some district funding also has to be kicked in. They are no longer buying things like dictionaries and calculators because apps can do these things. They still have calculators for state testing until the Texas Education Agency recognizes the home button can now be disabled in latest version of iOS, essentially locking students out of other apps on their devices.

When Belton tried BYOD, use in classroom was at teacher discretion. Devices were not being used. When 1:1 iPads were being implemented at a brand new middle school, only FOUR teachers volunteered to go to the new school where this was happening. The rest were assigned to the new campus. (Read between lines: There was a strong reluctance to implementation at the new campus).

Teachers also had to transition from Windows PCs to Macbooks with only  1/2 day of training in addition to several days of learning about the iPads and integration approaches. Teachers were VERY STRESSED. There were tears. Coordinators learned from this not to try to do too much too soon when it comes to staff development. Take baby steps!

Leadership is key - Principal and superintendent must be on board. You can tell somebody what to do, but you can't make them believe something. You have two choices - move them to a new position or convert them. They had one teacher with 40 years experience and she volunteered to move to the new school and embraced the 1:1 model. Other teachers with similar years of experience retired after training because it was too much for them.

After the school year began, district tech staff had to back off a bit at their middle school and allow teachers to build a culture (they were at a brand new campus building a new culture on top of everything else). Encouraged simple implementations like posting handouts to their websites that the students could download. Or making flashcards for review. Allowed teachers to explore and reach back out for more training when they were ready for more.

By the end of the implementation year, approximately 80% of the middle school teachers were able to move into truly using the iPads in instruction. Give teachers permission to start with supplementing, then replacing, then truly changing instruction. Teachers do not want to look stupid. Give them permission to learn with and from their students.

Next year, the high school is going 1:1. Gave high school teachers iPads ahead of time. Did four one hour sessions to get them comfortable with the iPads. Teachers can do Facebook, Pinterest, etc. - whatever will encourage them to get comfortable with the device. In summer staff development, brought in teachers from middle school to teach the high school teachers. Having experienced teachers teach other teachers provides more credibility and opportunity for sharing practical tips. Training of the high school teachers has been a marvelous experience and drastically different than the middle school teacher training of just a year ago.

The district had a budget of $40 per iPad for apps at the middle school.

Vicki and Terice have an iPadU (staff development) agenda and other documents which they will gladly share.  Belton will let us use/steal everything they have. We can email them for editable copies of their stuff. Many of their resources and their contact information can be found on this web page (also look for more pages in the left-hand navigation of the website.)


Digital Learning in Belton ISD


In spite of the challenges of the first year of large-scale implementation, the 1:1 initiatives have been fruitful in Belton ISD. The video below gives a great overview of the impacts felt by students and teachers alike.

1:1 iPads In A Third Grade Classroom

Photo Source

On Tuesday, June 19th, 2012, I attended iPadpalooza at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas. This conference about all things iPad in education was co-sponsored by Eanes ISD and TCEA.


Laura Wright, a third grade teacher at Eanes Elementary School, gave a wonderful presentation with many practical tips for implementing the use of 1:1 iPads in an elementary setting. Ms. Wright used the iPads in her classroom during the 2011-2012 school year. Each student had access to an iPad, but the devices did not go home with the students.

On her website, Ms. Wright provided a synopsis of all of her tips in a downloadable document. She also posted a video which gives you a peek into daily life in her classroom. You should check these out; this teacher knows her stuff and I learned a great deal of practical, useful information from her.

Practical Tips for Using iPads in the Classroom (My Notes from the Presentation)

During the presentation, Ms. Wright asked us to download an app called Nearpod, which is a relatively new app. Free. Using this app, students see on their iPad a presentation which is being sent out from the teacher's iPad. Students cannot advance the presentation because the teacher is in control of the presentation. Nearpod can deliver tests and videos  and also be used to take polls. There were some glitches with Nearpod during the session, but Ms. Wright says overall it has worked well and is still a new app that is continuously improving.

Ms. Wright stressed that you need classroom routines in place before using iPads.

In the classroom, students use textbook stands for their iPads. They use the small size of these stands.This keeps the iPads out of way of other student materials. But keeps iPads on desks all day so as not to lose teachable moments.

In presenter's classroom, students get all their materials out in the morning and randomly go to iPad cart to get their iPad out. (Don't create a line of kids at the cart!)

Keep iPad in textbook stand on inside corner of desk. Less chance of iPad getting knocked on the floor.

Plug ear buds into iPad all day long even if they aren't used: keeps iPads muted when using apps. Use a hanging wall chart w/pockets to keep ear buds organized.

Ms. Wright does not recommend using iPad on flat surface because students can't type and have eyes on teacher at the same time.

"Grab and close" to get students to get out of an app. iPad cover needs to be closed so you know the students are listening.

If you have snacks in your classroom, if you can get junk on your iPad from your snacks or has any liquid, it can't be on the desk with the iPads.

Selected students called "Tech Teachers" help peers in classroom. Teacher does not need to know everything about every app.

Took an hour a day to explore apps with students during the first week of school. Ask individual tech savvy students to investigate an app for you before you decide to use it with all of the students.

Use collaboration and let students help each other. There will be movement in your classroom.  An atmosphere of learning and collaboration will evolve. Exciting if you allow collaboration to happen.

Personalize! Give them control to change their screen savers. Ms. Wright noticed students would change their screen savers throughout the year based on what unit of study was going on. Students will take more ownership and better care of the iPads if it is personalized.

Ban the word "play" as in we are going to "play" with the iPads today. Distinguish between home use of personal devices and school use of this iPad.

Use art programs for math warm-ups every day. Let students share their favorite art program. If they are more comfortable with an app, they will use it better and learn better.

Post QR codes around the room for search engines and large units of study. Create a safe path to Internet sites! (This works well with a small group of iPads too if you are using them in a center.)

Presenter says since she's had iPads she has not set foot in a computer lab.

Settings & Apps Ms. Wright Recommends:


In iPad Settings go to General - Accessibility - Multiple settings to help kids with special needs (or anyone). Turn on AssistiveTouch - can create new gestures for someone with motor issues. But Assistive touch in general puts a home button on your iPad screen. You can rotate, lock screen, etc.


Ms. Wright has a single email address/iTunes account assigned to all of her iPads. Uses that to download apps and it goes simultaneously to all iPads in the classroom


A Fact Every Day - App that engages Kids.

Glow Draw - favorite drawing app for math warmups. Black screen and glowing colors for doing the warm-ups.

Math Bingo - Consistently rated as a top math app. Uses every day for skill building and saw improvement in test scores. Has kids use this during warm-up time each day and record their scores so they can improve their score each day.

Arcademics - students can play racing learning games and compete against each other. Most are 99 cents but sometimes they come up for free.

Scribble Press - Another drawing app. Includes built in books you can create from.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also be interested in my previous posts on teacher experiences and student experiences in 1:1 iPad classrooms.

Teacher Experiences in a 1:1 iPad Environment

On Tuesday, June 19th, 2012, I attended iPadpalooza at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas. This conference about all things iPad in education was co-sponsored by Eanes ISD and TCEA.

Early in the day I attended a panel where I heard the perspectives of four students who had been participants  in a 1:1 iPad pilot which took place at Westlake High School during the 2011-2012 school year. You can view my notes from that panel here.

After hearing about the pilot from the student perspective, I was eager to hear from teachers who had been involved in the project. So, for the last session of the day, I attended a teacher panel. The panel included three English teachers and one science teacher, who told a little about their experiences and took questions from the audience. Below are my notes on the thoughts/experiences which they shared.

A little background: Because of the timing of the approval of the pilot and the time needed to purchase the iPads, the 40 teachers involved received their iPads approximately three weeks before the 2011-2012 school year started. For the majority, this was their first experience using an iPad.

The Teachers' Experience

Two paths to take - embrace it and run with it even thought it is scary or forget it and let others take all of the risks.

Be willing to look foolish and collaborate. Students will have to help you. A mental shift has to occur. Teachers are no longer the keepers and disseminators of knowledge but become facilitators of learning. iPads kick this shift into high gear. (Emphasis in this paragraph mine because that comment stood out so much!)

Academic integrity issues come up. It's possible students can take screen shots of your online quizzes and share with students later in the day. So, put different questions on quizzes for each class.

One trick is reorienting the desks so teacher can see the screens during certain types of activities. It's also important sometimes to say "put your iPads away" when they are not necessary.

Part of the role as educators is fostering face-to-face communication. Closing the iPad and looking people in the eye to converse is important sometimes. Don't feel pressure to have the iPads out all the time.

If the iPads are going to be out, what are we going to be doing with them that makes them useful to learning right now? It takes time to understand this and shift curriculum in the classroom.

Initial misconception was they had to do everything all the time every day with the iPad. It's ok to take baby steps. Take on one thing at a time. First, focus on getting content to the students via the iPad. Then, tackle collecting work via the iPad, etc.

Students are really forgiving as teachers are learning the iPads and like to help.

It's ok to tell the kids to "power down" when they need to focus on you in the classroom. Get their faces out of the screens.

In science one teacher had about 75% of her kids doing things completely paperless and turning in assignments through New Annotate or Google Docs. Sent assignments back to them with grades and comments.

iPads were really beneficial for "backpack filers" (the students who traditionally keep everything "filed" [stuffed] in their backpacks). Now teacher can tell them it's probably on their iPad and if they can't find it they can download it again from the website.

Establish expectations early on. For example, they WILL use their school issued email and they WILL set it up correctly. Put a correct name in there so the recipient knows who is sending the email. English teacher says she will focus on this requirement at the start of next school year instead of giving students the choice to use school or personal email throughout the year. It won't be ok to say, "Oh, I don't check my school email."

Nuts and bolts of using the iPads are not always intuitive for the students. Example: setting up correct servers for apps and WebDav (the app used to access shared network folders). One teacher says she will spend the beginning of the school year getting a lot of those things set up. Through trial and error this first year, they learned a lot about better ways to roll out the iPads.

Teachers also have definite thoughts on when the iPads are taken up. District technology decided to take them up a week before school was out, but finals weren't over. There was some "civil disobedience" as a few students opted to keep their iPads past the turn-in date so they could study properly.

Not all students are proficient with or prefer the iPads; some still prefer paper. One teacher tells students it is their responsibility to print the documents out at home if they prefer paper. She thinks as students get iPads earlier in their high school careers (Eanes is expanding the program to include all freshmen and sophomores next year) comfort levels will increase.

Even with all of the awesome apps, email is one of the best tools they have. They work a lot with kids on proper format, using school email not personal, etc. Some students changed their personal email accounts after being allowed to use them and realizing that their addresses weren't ones that they would give to an employer or professor. (Example one teacher gave was "sexygirl34" as an email address she was not super comfortable sending to.)

Science teacher says she often lectured from apps instead of her PowerPoints. For example, when looking at anatomy of foot, she can use an app to turn a 3D model on her screen and talk about it. Better understanding for students!

Science teacher really loved Google Docs for making quizzes for her students. Used Flubaroo script to set up automatic grading. There is a YouTube video for learning to use this.

Teachers are saving tons of time in the copy room. Electronic docs also good for making corrections if a mistake is found in a handout.

English teachers use Notability app to organize student documents.

40 teachers in pilot this year, so there were no specific campus requirements for how much teachers needed to do with the iPads. As they move forward with all students receiving iPads, more requirements may come along. It was a good way to start since they were figuring things out on the fly.

Kids are still kids, even with iPads. Sometimes you have to say "time out" and take the iPad away if they are off task. It's part of them growing and learning.

More on the 1:1 iPad Teaching and Learning Experience

The panel was amazing. I truly enjoyed the honesty of the questions and the answers and getting a peek into the transformation that the teachers experienced during their 2011-2012 school year.

If you would like a similar peek in addition to my notes above, I encourage you to watch the video below. It was put together in January of 2012, just half-way through the school year, for a presentation to the Eanes ISD School Board.


WIFI Update from Westlake Chaps on Vimeo.

Student Experiences in a 1:1 iPad Environment

On Tuesday, June 19th, 2012, I attended iPadpalooza at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas. This conference about all things iPad in education was co-sponsored by Eanes ISD and TCEA.

One of the sessions I attended was a student panel. Four rising seniors from Westlake High School shared their experiences as part of a 1:1 iPad pilot which took place at WHS during the 2011-2012 school year. During this pilot, Eanes ISD issued iPads to all juniors and seniors and a few sophomores, over 1000 students in all. Forty teachers were also involved in the initiative, which challenged all parties to integrate mobile computing devices into teaching and learning.

Below are my notes from the student panel. First, each student shared his or her favorite apps for learning. Then, they took open questions from the audience. The students were very articulate, and I enjoyed learning about their experiences, both the positives and the negatives. Overwhelmingly, the experience leaned to the positive!


The Students' Favorite Apps

Note: As the students plugged in their iPads to the projector to demonstrate their favorite apps, I loved seeing the personal apps they had installed - Facebook, Netflix, etc. Score some points for personalization!

Goodreader - Annotating app. Allows highlighting and taking notes. Usesd it in math for writing on test reviews. Used it in reading to annotate novels, readings, etc. Allows you to toggle between documents easily.


iBooks - Can also annotate and highlight and add notes.

SidebySide - Allows you to open two windows next to each other. Example shown was two web browser windows.

WHS has an app called Self Service so students can pull down apps that were purchased for them by the school/district.

Wolfram Alpha - great for math. Has calculators for math and science. Was able to do intergrals in Calculus. Nice big scientific calculator keyboard.

Graph Calc HD - type in equations, graph them and compare the graphs

iMovie - created presentations for class assignments

Splashtop - connects your iPad to a computer via the Internet. Example - forget Word doc on computer at  home. Access computer via Splashtop, then get the Word doc off of home computer and drop it in Dropbox, then access document in Dropbox app on iPad. Or Email doc from home computer. Helpful for using things that go beyond capabilities of iPad. Photoshop, etc. Can hook to multiple computers.

WebDAV Nav - Access network shared folders from you iPad. This was provided by the school. Example - PDF of French textbook accessed this way.  Avoids copyright issues of putting textbooks online.

In Class - For class organization. Includes a calendar. Set due dates for assignments that will remind you with something needs to be turned in. Keep notes and save documents within the app. Put in profiles for each of your instructors. Room numbers, office hours, etc.

Audio Note - Allows you to record lectures in class and take notes. Example: Listen to teacher speaking and review the PowerPoint.

Quizlet Deck - Electronic flashcards. Can find card decks created by others and use them too. Compatible with Quizlet.

NoteTaker HD - When teachers provided PDFs, students could use a stylus to take notes.


The Student Experience

At this point, I stopped taking copious notes and started capturing the students' comments on their experience via Twitter. Below I have embedded a Storify which I used to preserve their thoughts. The Tweets are presented in slide-show format. Click the arrow to the right of the slide numbers to move through the show.

If you enjoyed the information in this post, you might also be interested in my post about Teacher Experiences in a 1:1 iPad Environment.