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 The cost of hardbound textbooks and knowing that they will quickly be out of date can also make the purchase of textbooks a painful experience.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.
Green = Good, Red = Bad, * = important
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.
Here are some of my thoughts from a conference I attended at Penn State on one-to-one computing. I will add other thoughts as I have more time.
Wow! The Penn State One-to-One Conference was great. The material was relevant. The presenters were excellent. The format was efficient.
I noticed in the participants list that we were the only Christian school at the event. This conference was really more about innovation in education than about one-to-one programs. The PA public schools have been very innovative in the classroom but I sensed that they struggle with why they are doing it. Christian schools have a reason why, we should be setting the standard for innovation in the school.
Here are the highlights from the sessions I attended:
- Goals of one-to-one must be clearly defined
- The goal should not be to improve test scores
- The goals need to centered around classroom engagement and student creativity
- One of the things that set this conference apart from any other for me was the level of engagement because of the use of technology. Almost every session included audience participation through tools like polleverywhere.com
- Is our goal one-to-one? Why?
- Online Learning
- 28 states have public schools that are completely online, most others are developing them
- Need to read Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen
- Look at Apex Learning, Plato Learning, Aleks
- We need to put greater effort in to exploring existing online offerings and creating our own
- How do we train our teachers to be online teachers?
- What Christian organizations are already working on this?
- Technology Adoption Life Cycle
- Move from Substitution to Modification to Redefinition
- We bounce between substitution and modification, how do we move to redefinition?
- Open Source is key in sustainability
- Chrome, Linux, OpenOffice are all things we already use or watch closely
- We need to look at open content
- Freereading.net
- Ck12 Flexbooks (take a look a the physics textbooks)
- Archive.org
- OpenCourseware (MIT)
- Wikibooks
- blendedschools.net
- Where could we use this content?
- Moodle – Course Management
- Excellent open source course management tool
- We need to setup a pilot for this for professional development and a summer course
Next in the series of posts on the iPod Touch in the classroom is a look at the application iResponse.
iResponse is a great classroom response app. Several teachers here at DCHS have used iResponse and all have been excited with its ease of use and the quick feedback they are able to get from their students.
iResponse can function if two modes. The default mode is one in which a teacher publishes questions to students one at a time. Each student submits their response and a graph can be presented to the class. This is the mode that we have had the most success with. It allows the teacher to quickly gauge students understanding of the material or to engage the students in discussion based on the class responses. Several teachers have used this in preparation for quizzes or tests and have seen improved results on the assessments.
iResponse also has a testing mode. In this mode a bank of questions prepared by the teacher are sent to each iPod Touch connected to that teacher’s session. Students are then able to complete the questions at their own pace and submit the test to the teacher when complete. When the students submit their test they are able to see how they did and what the class average is. We have had trouble in this mode each time we have used it. We end up with a few students who’s tests are not submitted back to the teacher. We have decided not to use the test mode until the app is updated.
The iResponse server can be installed on Windows or Apple computers. It is a fairly simple tool for teachers to learn. The biggest issue is that it opens four different windows on startup and clutters your desktop. It can take a little time to figure out what each window is used for and to get them organized.
Overall iResponse is a great app. It is easy to learn for both the teacher and students. It provides quick and valuable feedback in the classroom that improves students understanding of the material.
iReponse Pro on iTunes
iRepsonse Pro Teacher Application
March 30 2010 by
mvonhof in
Web |
This time of year I start getting questions from parents of new students about our Internet filtering here at 
DCHS and how they can filter the Internet at home. I blogged about our filtering solution at DCHS here. I believe that all parents should take great care at home to limit access to the Internet.
For children who are in elementary school white lists are the best solution. A white list denies access to all sites that are not specifically allowed. This solution works well for younger kids because there is a limited number of sites that they need to get to.
As students get older they need to get to a larger number of sites for school work. As students are first learning to use the Internet for research at home parents should be online with their children. Continue to give them access to the sites they need through white lists and spend time with them online through a parents account that does not have the white list restrictions. This is a critical teaching opportunity for parents and important in helping kids to have a healthy understanding of the benefits and pitfalls of the Internet.
There will come a point in middle school or high school when white lists and sitting down with Mom or Dad are not workable. This is the point at which internet filtering becomes important (although I would argue that it should always be present in the home). I have been pleased with the filtering options from OpenDNS. This service is free to start and offers some additional services for a fee. Because of the way it is setup it filters all internet access from all devices in a household. This allows parents to filter computers, games systems and iPods. Most software solutions are only filtering the computer. Here is a link to a PDF flyer from OpenDNS about filtering at home.
It is critical that students are educated about the Internet at home and that parents take an active role in the online activities of their kids. OpenDNS is a good tool to help parents keep students safe online.
This is the second in a series of posts about the iPod Touch in the classroom. The first post talked about using the device for Internet research. In this post I will look at online testing.
Online testing at DCHS is done using RenWeb, our student information system. I will acknowledge from the start that there are likely much better tools for creating online tests, but this is what we are working with at the current time (Here is a helpful article about assessment solutions from Tech and Learning). RenWeb allows for creating multiple choice and essay questions. If you have ever typed on an iPod Touch you can probably imagine that it is not the right tool for a test that is heavy in essay questions.
It was interesting to watch the students in several classes use the iPod Touch for testing. They initially struggled to log into RenWeb because of an interface that is not friendly to the smaller screen. We also learned early on that we have to force RenWeb into a dial-up mode so that it would drop frames and many of the graphical elements. With the “pretty” stuff out of the way the students were able to get to the test with no problem. As with the internet research a majority of the students preferred to take a multiple choice test on the iPod over the classroom PCs. With a test that had just one essay short essay question the students also preferred the iPod. On a test that required several short answer and essay questions the student would have preferred to take the test on the PCs.
In summary, the iPod Touch is a great tool for multiple choice tests. Tests that require a lot of typing should be done on PCs. The way I would suggest they are used is that the iPod Touch is used as a tool for quizzing and test preparation. PCs or laptops should be used for the actual tests.
The next post will cover the app iResponse.
I have had RenWeb installed on a Windows 2003 Terminal Server for about 8 months. I have not run into many problems with it until recently. The Terminal Server has become a great asset for us as we add more Macs to the network and continue to support older PCs.
RenWeb is not designed to run in a multiuser environment. It installs to the root of C: by default and creates another folder in the root C: to store user files. This creates a problem on a terminal server. Multiple users logged in at the same time will start to overwrite each others data and the application will eventually report errors until you have to log out and back in to get it started again.
I called RenWeb on this issue today and did not get a great answer but at least was pointed in the right direction. I was pointed to this support video for creating shortcuts to a server based install:
http://www.renweb.com/robohelp/wor9365lsiRWN/Shortcut_to_Server_Method.htm
Here is the solution I came up with watching the video:
- Install RenWeb on the terminal server as normal
- Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop
- Right click on the the RenWeb.com shortcut and select Properties
- Change Start In to “C:\Documents and Settings\%username%”
- Click OK
I considered creating a folder RWUser folder for each user but this allowed me to make the changes without having to add a folder for each user and should be future proof as we add additional users to the terminal server. Now if RenWeb would only finish their web app we could move past having to install this Windows only application!
I am going to start a short series of posts on our use of the iPod Touch in the classroom. Now that we have a functional case and Google Calendar setup so that our teachers can reserve the lab we have the opportunity to evaluate how the iPod integrates into the classroom. The first topic is Internet research.
When looking at the iPod’s small screen it is hard to imagine that it could play a role in research in the classroom. However, once you start to use mobile Safari you quickly realize why the iPod Touch has become so popular as a web browsing device. Once you learn to use the multitouch interface, double clicking to zoom in on a section and landscape vs. portrait mode the iPod Touch becomes a capable research tool. Students have been very quick to pick up on these functions. In a history class the students had passed out the iPods and started the research within 2 minutes of the teacher asking them to begin. For the most part the students preferred the iPod Touch to the older PCs in the classroom for the research they were asked to complete.
After watching this type of exercise in a few classrooms this week I think the iPods accomplish the task of basic Internet research well. An assignment that is going to take 20 minutes or less is ideal. Research for larger projects where students students will be writing papers should be done on laptops or desktops (or maybe the iPad).
The next topic with be online testing with the iPod Touch.
We recently purchased 23 iPod Touches to test in the classroom as we consider a one-to-one program from next year. Along with the iPods I was looking to purchase a case that would allow us to protect the iPods as we moved them between classrooms and to charge and sync the iPods. I was very disappointed with the cost of the cases and carts on the market. The 2 options that we found were:
I am sure that both of these are great solutions, but I was not interested in spending
$2,000 to protect $4,000 worth of iPods. We decided that we would put together our own case. Here is our solution:
- Case: we had an aluminum case from wireless microphones around that we used but something like this would work fine. ~$50
- USB Hubs: we purchased four 7 port powered USB hubs from NewEgg. $100
- Power Stip: we added a standard power strip to power the USB hubs.
- Padding: we used foam that was left over from other projects to cut out slots for 30 iPods. We used an electric kitchen knife to cut the foam which worked well. (If you have to purchase a case look for one that has foam included)
After a little trial and error making cuts in the foam we came up with a fairly good solution. Rather than trying to cut out sections the
USB hubs and power strip
same size as the iPods we just made single slits with the knife. This keeps the iPods safe without giving them room to move. We also cutout channels on the bottom of the foam and slits for the charging/sync cable. We daisy chained the USB hubs. After connecting the power and the USB to a Mac Mini iTunes opened and all 23 iPods appeared and started to sync.
I am concerned about a couple of issues. The first is that the foam feels rough and because we only cut slits for each iPod I am concerned that they will scratch over time. I will be watching them closely for signs of scratching. iTunes also seems to have issues syncing 23 devices at the same time. This could be a function of an older Mac Mini that is also recording cameras and playing music during class changes but I have not had a chance to test it. I am not too worried about iTunes because I do not plan to have to sync the iPods frequently. We are looking for tools that will allow the teachers to use the iPods without asking to have content sync’d to them each time.
This might not be as pretty as the Bretford solution but I think that it accomplishes the same task, for about $1,900 less.
