I am just starting the process of evaluating Interactive White Boards (IWB) for our school for next year. I have always watched this technology and have been waiting for it to mature before we adopted a solution. Four years ago we decided to focus on ceiling mounting projectors in each class room after evaluating solutions from Smart, Promethean and EBeam. They all had some wow features but in terms of real day-to-day functionally in the classroom I was not convinced. As I have visited other schools over time I am more convinced that we made the right decision. I see IWBs in many classrooms but it is rare that I see them used as more than a projector. They are certainly capable but only if teachers have training and time to enhance their lessons with the provided software.
We have decided to revisit this area again this summer. I have spent some time doing research and am in the midst of testing various products. As we progress in our evaluations I will keep you up-to-date on what we like and what we don’t. If you’ve had successes or failures with IWBs or have a product you think we should evaluate let me know in the comments.
I have been struggling with a sluggish FTP server on OS X 10.6. The server configuration seemed simple enough. After following the setup instructions in Apple’s Documentation(PDF) I was able to get the server to authenticate users and to send them to the correct directory. The users could log in but directory listing took 3-4 minutes to respond and most FTP clients would timeout. After some searching and trial and error I found that with the firewall turned off the issue was resolved. I found this document on Apple’s Support page that details how to define the passive ports in the ftpaccess file. Very simple solution, if only I had come across it a couple of hours ago.
The future of textbooks is looking brighter. At the Penn State 1:1 computing conference I attended earlier this year one of the presenters pointed us to CK12.org for online textbooks. I had not spent much time at the site until I recently read an article about the State of California approving the CK12 Chemistry textbook for use in public schools. Not long after reading that article I was talking to our Chemistry teacher and she mentioned the need for new textbooks for the coming school year. I pointed her to the CK12 book and she liked what she saw.
You can read more about CK12 and browse their book collection here: http://about.ck12.org/
The concept of the Flexbook is what I believe the future of the textbook is all about. Taking content written by experts and supplementing it with online content. This will allow the textbook to be relevant and alive for the teachers and students. Teachers will be able to adapt the material to their school’s curriculum, using sections of the text that are applicable along with online content and their own material. The ability to share this material with others at no cost makes the model even more attractive.
The big challenge in this is access to the online textbook and online material. Students need to have access to a device like the iPad or a computer. As costs of hardware continue to drop and the availability of material like that from CK12 increases schools will be able to provide better learning material at lower costs.
Before deploying Air Video to our teachers we wanted to test and make sure it was capable of streaming to an entire class at one time. It was a great success. I could say a lot about it but the video below does a much better job. Air Video is a very capable streaming video server/client setup for the classroom!
I had the opportunity to go to school with my 4 year old yesterday and talk to her class about what I do at work. As I was trying to figure out what would keep 4 year olds attention for more than 1 minute I thought about the iPod Touch and the iPad.
I searched for preschool apps and found this helpful site. I downloaded a couple of the apps and found that the I was ready to go with Wheels On The Bus by Duck Duck Moose Design and Preschool Adventure by 3DAL.
Sitting at home the night before I decided that I should also try to teach them a little about computers. I grabbed the iPad, went to Google Images and downloaded some images of different computer components and used Keynote to create a presentation. I was very impressed with how the iPad enabled me to quickly create a good presentation with images and aminations that kept the kids focused (I am actually typing this post on the iPad as well). I also found an app called MeeGenius that allows the download of several children’s books and reads them for you.
As the classroom filled with 14 very awake and excited 4 year olds I realized I would have my work cut out for me. After joining them in their opening activities I was on. I pulled out the iPad and told them that it was going to read them a story. As the story began they quieted down quickly. It was amazing how fast the MeeGenius story got their attention and how well they listened. After the book was finished I talked briefly about what I do at DCHS and then showed them the presentation about the different parts of the computer finishing up with a picture of of the iPod Touch.
I pulled out the case with the iPods and gave them a 30 second tutorial that I’m sure none of them actually listened to, then had them go back to their seats. My daughter passed out the iPods and the kids were quickly up and running. My daughter was able to show them how to get started and the kids spent the next 20 minutes learning colors, numbers and many other things.
The iPod Touch and iPad both proved very capable, not only in the high school classroom, but also in the preschool classroom.
I created a CourseSmart account and browsed through some of the over 10,000 books available. CourseSmart claims that the average student saves $65/textbook but this claim does not hold up in a traditional high school setting where books are used for multiple years. I found a book that I was interested in using for a Python course next semester and requested a demo copy. This is one of the great strengths of CourseSmart. Within a couple of days I was approved for the evaluation copy and with that approval was given access to the fist 25 pages of every book in their vast library. It is a great tool for instructors to quickly evaluate texts.
I was not as excited once I started to browse the book. I have become accustom to the smooth interface of the iBook application and CourseSmart is nowhere near as slick. The books are lower resolution scanned images of the original book. They do not allow for highlighting and note taking is not intuitive. In the positive column CourseSmart books are searchable and your content is available on the web as well as the iPad and iPod Touch. If I where a college student or a high school with a 1:1 program I would seriously consider purchasing my textbooks through CourseSmart.
CourseSmart is off to a good start making textbooks available online. I hope that they are able to work with the publishers to convert these texts into true ebooks that utilize the benefits of current ebook readers. As online courses with their animations and video meld with traditional textbooks these tools will be even more appealing and will truly start to change the face of learning.
I have been using the app Instapaper ($4.99) on the iPad for a few days and have really enjoyed it. Simple concepts like this make the iPad a great device for learning. Instapaper is a free website with $5 app that allows you to download online content for later reading. In the past I have done this by emailing myself links, using Evernote or starring things in Google Reader. Now I just use the bookmarklet and the content is saved to my Instapaper account and synced to the iPad the next time the app is opened. When I find a few minutes of downtime I do not have to search for the content I had glanced at earlier, it is already synced to Instapaper. I can see this being a great tool for teachers and students who want to refer back to web content for tests and quizzes or homework reading.
One of the reasons for considering the iPad for a 1:1 program is the concept of electronic textbooks. Watching students carry 10 pound backpacks around all day, seeing textbooks fall apart and having students forget to bring books home all make the concept of an electronic textbook very appealing. The cost of hardbound textbooks and knowing that they will quickly be out of date can also make the purchase of textbooks a painful experience. Another struggle with regular textbooks is trying to maintain the correct number of books vs. students. This can be especially difficult in a block format like we run at DCHS.
Take all these issues and the concept of an electronic textbook becomes very appealing. An etextbook solves most of these issues, except for cost, easily. As publishers consider etextbooks for high schools I think that pricing will also be an incentive. At this point it is not because the models are geared towards college students who only use the book for a semester. A hardbound book may cost $150 and the ebook may only be $50/semester but for the high school who expects to get 5-6 years out of a book the ebook ends up costing more. This, of course, allows for schools to update texts more frequently and manage course sizes without concern for the numbers of texts. However, I don’t see that high schools who use texts for more than 3 years will see a cost savings under the current model.
While all of these things are interesting, to me the most exciting opportunity for etextbooks is the potential for the text to come to life for the student. Having an platform like the iPad will allow textbook publishers to include at minimum hyperlinks to web content for the course. I can see the line between online courses and the textbook blurring as publishers add video and animation to the textbook. I am looking forward to seeing a publisher who pushes the textbook to the next level and brings the content to life for the student.
I spent some time with weekend with an etextbook from CourseSmart. I will let you know in a later post how it went.
I had a short whiteboard session with a few of the guys today debating the merits of the netbook and the iPad for a one-to-one program. Rather than type it out I’ll just post a picture. Basically they both have positives and negatives and it is easy to argue in either direction. I have yet to commit to either platform although the iPad would be an easy sell if it had Flash and the ability to edit Google Docs. Given the addition of those two tools it is the perfect one-to-one platform, but it is hard to commit to without either of them.
I have been using the Apple iPad for 2 1/2 weeks now and thought it was time that I write down some of my thoughts. Overall I love the iPad. Since receiving it I have not used my laptop except in the office. I’ve stopped even bringing my laptop home during the week. On weekends I still pack it up but it hasn’t made it out of the bag. I have found very few things that I am not able to do with the iPad. Here are my thoughts:
Keyboard: I have grown to love it. I am using it now even though I have a bluetooth keyboard in my bag. It does take some getting used to but once you do it is easy to type over 30 words/minute on it.
Size: The size makes it feel a lot like a book. I don’t like carrying it around without a case. It seems like it could easily slip out of my hand. The screen size makes it very easy to browse the web and read books. I haven’t found myself wishing it was a different size.
Reading: I have enjoyed reading books on the iPad. This comes from someone who though it was an ok experience reading a complete book on the iPhone. The iPad has quickly become my preferred ebook reader.
Battery Life: It’s incredible. You really can use the iPad for over 10 hours without charging it. It makes it far better than a laptop for travel.
Web Browsing: Not having flash is still a bummer. It is getting better but there are still too many sights that use flash. This is not a deal breaker for me but it would be nice. Other than flash I prefer to use the iPad for basic web browsing. It feels very natural to use the touch screen. I’ve also noticed that because of the size apps are not as important. On the smaller screen the app was needed, on the iPad the web app usually works fine.
Productivity Software: Pages, Numbers and Keynote are all very capable tools. They have a way to go before they match the desktop tools but for most work they are fine. My biggest issue is Google Docs. You can not edit docs or presentations. You can edit spreadsheets but not very well.
Email: The built in mail app is great. With the coming unified inbox in the next release it will be even better. I still like Google’s Gmail interface the best but this is a close second.
Overall I have enjoyed the iPad more each day. It is an excellent computer for media consumption and a capable tool for creation.
I am just starting the process of evaluating Interactive White Boards (IWB) for our school for next year. I have always watched this technology and have been waiting for it to mature before we adopted a solution. Four years ago we decided to focus on ceiling mounting projectors in each class room after evaluating solutions from Smart, Promethean and EBeam. They all had some wow features but in terms of real day-to-day functionally in the classroom I was not convinced. As I have visited other schools over time I am more convinced that we made the right decision. I see IWBs in many classrooms but it is rare that I see them used as more than a projector. They are certainly capable but only if teachers have training and time to enhance their lessons with the provided software.
