Classroom iPad thoughts

My wife has an iPad.  She loves it.  She reads the New York Times in the morning, has a spiffy Starbuck's app that allows her to purchase coffee at participating Starbucks (they have to have the correct scanning tool,) listens to podcasts, and reads in bed in the evening.  My school IT department has an iPad.  I was asked what I would do with it in class.  I thought it might aid students in learning about Geography during the first unit of the year.  So, I tried to replicate what we had done this past fall.  I used Safari to research volcanic activity in Iceland (there was no shortage of information!)  Then I found a picture I wanted.  I copied (trying to think intuitively here) it.  Next I opened Keynote and began a new presentation.  But, I could not paste the image.  Didn't matter what trick I tried or how many fingers I placed on the iPad or how long I held them there.  No pasting.  Somewhat frustrated, my family decided it was time to walk to frozen yogurt.  On the way, we passed a Mac Store.  Stopping in, I explained my problem.  The helpful salesperson suggested that maybe I should save the photo, then insert it from the photo library.  This worked!  But, the entire experience was so cumbersome, it would require too much work on the part of students preparing presentations.  Then I remembered what bloggers around the world have been saying, "iPad is for consuming content, not creating it."

While mulling over that thought, my wife came in to share some new apps she had found for her iPad.  One was an interactive Alice in Wonderland App.  Objects in the story moved!  This reminded me of all that spiffy new CD-ROM technology of the late 1980's.  I half expected her to show me a Hypercard app!  Now, that would be cool!  What's next?  IPad laser discs?  So, I am back at the electronic canvas again.  How can I integrate iPads to increase student learning?  What content do I want students to consume that an iPad is best suited for?   C'mon web readers.....post those comments here.  If you don't have an iPad, but have an idea, post it.  I'll test it for you and blog the results.

An iPad in the family

Pam's Mother's Day present arrived early this year.  Friday, she began using her 3G iPad.  So far, when she has been able to wrest it from the hands of visitors, spouses (spice?), and child, she has been loading it with books and organizing her recipes.  I have upgraded our wireless network so that the kitchen is now within range.  So....will she ever buy another paper book?  It's a hot topic right now.  Both Will Richardson and Jay Hurvitz have written on the subject.  Will writes that since he found out he can access his Amazon Kindle annotations online (who knew?), he thinks the game has now changed.  Accessing his notes means he can share them with others.  Oh, right now, things are a bit cludgy, and closed systems such as Amazon and Apple make the actual sharing more of a chore, that will eventually come to an end, I surmise.  People will want to communicate their thoughts on a piece of writing, a video, a podcast, and those thoughts will be shared and recommented upon much as many Twitter users retweet their favorite sites of the day.  At the speed at which apps are being developed, this will probably happen sooner rather than later.

Jay is a bit more skeptical, but, then again, he lives in Israel which last week finally allowed Wi-Fi iPads into the country, so he is forgiven for being a bit behind the iPad curve.  Jay is more concerned about the closed nature of Amazon.  How does one share notes if they have no Amazon account?  Actually, it is a good question.  How does one share Amazon notes with those who have accounts?  I know of no way to currently share my annotations unless I move them out of Amazon and that is a substantial amount of work.  Also, I currently use three e-book readers.  I am unable to share annotations between them.

I am, however, as enthusiastic as Will Richardson right now.  Apps are just starting to be developed for the iPad.  I believe an App will appear that lets me share my notes and thoughts on a book with others around the world.  Why so optimistic?  Magic Piano!  This iPad app has a duet feature which allows users all over the world to play piano duets together.  Now, if musicians can do it, can readers be far behind?

Of Wingmen and Pushing the Envelope

Teaching is pretty much a solo gig.  We interact with students and their parents on our own if things go well, but if they don't we need backup....wingmen in fighter pilot parlance.  Recently, I have required backup, and, in both occasions, IT folks came through with flying colors.

When I returned from Israel, I dove straight into teaching one of my favorite units, Trip Planning.  Students select a country from the Eastern Hemisphere and plan a minimum one-month trip there.  Using Google Maps, Calendar, and Documents, every part of this project is electronic.  Students work at school, then continue, using Google Tools, at home.  This year, we ran into glitches from the start.  On the first day of the project, kids couldn't use FireFox to create either maps or calendars.  A quick visit to my IT department provided the reason.  During my Israel Fulbright, there had been some bad behavior around screen sharing so a decision was made to "manage" student accounts.  Whatever default management settings Apple has, it makes it difficult to use FireFox or Safari to create calendars and maps in Google.  Fortunately, I found that quitting and restarting Safari worked if every step were done in the correct order.  That meant instead of 2 steps to create a Google calendar, seventh graders were required to follow 5 steps.  While troubleshooting this issue, we found that Chrome had no problems at all creating and saving documents.  Within two days, my IT folks had loaded Chrome on the laptops and kids were (and are) back at work, diligently planning their trips.  Catlin Gabel's IT department once again proved their flexibility and ability to support teachers, no matter how busy they were.

This weekend, I was working in Prezi, a super presentation software for those long past tired of Powerpoint and Keynote.  I attempted to upload an audio file, but didn't realize I needed to include an image in it so that Prezi would recognize it as a flash video file and react appropriately.  Stuck, I began searching the Prezi forum, certain I was not the only person ever to commit this silly error.  (Note to self:  READ the online directions BEFORE inserting clip!)  I added my sad tale of woe to another post.  Within a day, Prezi employee Lior had responded and not only fixed my presentation by removing the offending file, but she also gave me instructions how to delete the information from Prezi's xml file, zip it back up, rename the extension, open it again using Prezi's offline tool, and upload it back to Prezi.  It was like having a private Prezi lesson!  Again, I was grateful for Prezi's quick response to my problem, and Lior's ability to solve it so quickly.

Occasionally, teaching at the limits of technology means getting nicked by the sharp, bleeding, edge.  It is nice to know that tech support can be both local and global.  And, of course, as with all good tech support, both Lior and Catlin Gabel are invisible to my students.  I, as their teacher, know that I am only as good as my backup......and I have excellent folks watching my back!

Students demonstrate future tools

Whenever I am curious about what tools our students will be using in the future, I find it helpful to ask seventh graders.  Monday, the nice folks at Lonely Planet released a great marketing idea.  They made most of the European City Apps free to help out all the people stranded by the Icelandic ash cloud.  These apps usually cost around $10 each.  I told the seventh graders who were planning trips to European countries (trip planning is everybody's favorite unit, and a great way to end the year) about the Lonely Planet deal.  Of course the kids who had iPhones or iPod Touches with them wanted to download the Apps immediately.  It was great watching them use these tools so responsibly during class.  They are more excited than ever to plan their trips, Lonely Planet has made these students very happy, and of course, they all went home and told their parents about the cool apps they downloaded at school.  Another very clever piece of marketing on the part of Lonely Planet.  It is great to watch kids working on their laptops, listening to music with headphones (or watching YouTube videos of the countries to which they are planning trips), with their iPhones/Touches next to them running travel apps.  The future of education tools looks very bright indeed.  Photos to be posted tomorrow.

Education and Retail Sales

Catlin Gabel needed rechargeable batteries.  I needed exercise.  So, off I trundled to Office Depot to purchase AA rechargeable batteries using my Star Teacher Card.  At the store, I found the 4 packs of batteries were sold out.....but there was an 8 pack of the same batteries.  I asked a store worker if I could purchase the 8 pack for the price of two four packs.  Office Depot would have MADE MONEY on the sale since the 2 four packs would have cost more than the 8 pack.  To my surprise, Office Depot declined to close the sale.  But, they offered to check if another store had the product I wanted.  I thought, "Silly people, this product is being advertised as "green" for Earth Day, and you want to send me DRIVING through the city in search of batteries!"  I left the store, still on foot, and moseyed on down to Radio Shack.  Here, we had the opposite problem.  4 packs were sold out, but there were two packs.  You can guess what happened next....Yep, Radio Shack didn't want to sell me two 2 packs of batteries for the 4 pack price.  Finally, I completed my 2 mile walk to Batteries Plus where the four pack was more expensive than Office Depot, but not by much AND I was able to purchase rechargeable 9v batteries at the same time!  So I charged $68 and walked on over to Home Depot to pick up plants with Pam.  I enjoyed the walk on a sunny morning, but the next time I need batteries....straight to Batteries Plus!  Those other stores need to work on the customer service end of their business.....The picture....Noa enjoyed the day, too.  And, she is a budding (pun intended) photographer.

Update:  I received the following e-mail from Office Depot Monday morning:

Thank you for contacting Office Depot.   Because the nature of your inquiry requires additional research, we are escalating this to our second level technical support team.   A Technical Support Representative from our second level technical support team will research your inquiry and contact you directly within 24 hours. Thank you for your patience and understanding and I apologize for any inconvenience.

Moving On (Back to Reality!)

This will be the final post to this blog.  It provided space for me to reflect while participating in the Fulbright Distinguished Teacher program.  I am, however, motivated to continue writing....so, I have moved all of these posts to a new blog, which can be found by clicking here.  I have enjoyed the global interactions with all those who have posted, lurked, and confessed to reading the stories I have told.  Let's keep the dialog going.....see you online at dadnoa.blogspot.com

It takes a village.....

Not exactly an original title, but appropriate.  It is time to say goodbye, for now, to Israel.  The official part of my Fulbright is at an end.  In two days, I'll be back in Fenway working with an eager group of seventh graders.  A fellow blogger wrote recently that it is important to thank people.  OK, this is going to take a while, but here goes....In no particular order.....Thanks to Paul A. for working the back end to make sure Catlin Gabel would continue to run smoothly in my absence....to Pam and Noa for being willing to head off on an unknown adventure....to Richard, Faith, Johny, David, and Daisy for making sure we had all the tech tools we needed and for maintaining the long distance backups, etc....to Kabir for taking the medieval plunge....to the class of 2015 for allowing me to leave in the middle of the year....to my C&C for trusting that I would return in time for the end of the year and for finishing the yearbook page...to Ruth, Tamara, and a host of others at Mofet for making sure I was well-taken care of in Israel.....to Augusta, Lamese, and the wonderful staff at AED for providing the framework for this Fulbright Program....to Kristin and the staff at Vanderbilt for making sure I had enough to read in Jerusalem....to Rafi, Eleanor, Alicia, Sarah, Reuven, and Susan for meeting with me, shepherding me in the right direction, and allowing me to tag along as they went about their days....to the students and staff at all the schools I visited for showing me the best side of Israeli education, students working hard under the guidance of terrific teachers....to Ribhe for making sure we always had enough halva....to the security guard outside Tal Bagel for making us feel welcome in the neighborhood and for proving that people don't have to speak the same language in order to communicate...to Efrat for making Noa feel "grown up."...to Elaine, Chaim, their children, and their friends for making us honorary Yemenites, showing us how joyous celebrating Shabbat can be, and feeding us amazing foods....to Ahmad, Manal, and the kids for showing us the Israeli-Arab side of the equation.  We needed to spend more time with you.  To Dad and Louise for being willing travel companions north and south.....to the staff at Cafenetto in Mitzpe Ramon for the most delicious lunch in the desert....to Benedict for serving the best breakfasts in Israel.....to the entire staff at Cafe Restobar for making us feel at home in Jerusalem.  We invite you to join us in Portland and wish you good luck with the birth of your second daughter...to Moller for the GPS unit.  It worked like a charm....to all of the Egged bus drivers who worked tirelessly to get me to where I needed to go and back home to Jerusalem again, even when I was exhausted, you kept me safe and sound....to Marilyn, s, Mom, and friends all over the world for responding to blog posts.  You kept us all motivated to write more, observe more, record more....to Spencer for keeping us connected to Portland....to Jeff for pushing me to write regularly, and not just about education in the classroom sense...and, finally, to Jay and his family for showing us the ropes, making us feel at home, answering unending questions, and pushing all of us to explore Israel in our own ways.  A huge thank you to everybody who I have left unnamed because I am still enjoying one more day in the fine Jerusalem spring.   One final note.....this blog will be moving to a new site in the near future. All of the posts from this site will still be there, but I think a new title is in order as this chapter is ending.  Stay tuned for Peeking over the Edge....Goodbye for now to Jerusalem and Israel, hello to Portland and the USA.