10/11/12. Final iPad Course Reflection.

10/11/12. Final iPad Course Reflection.

Risking a lack of creativity, I've decided to respond to each question individually for this reflection. So here goes....

What has been valuable learning for you?
The most valuable learning I have done during the duration of this course begins with myself and transfers to GEMS' students.

I have learned about myself as a learner, teacher and collaborator.
~LEARNER: I am a visual learner who learns by doing. I don't love taking risks with new things but I have learned that I can handle almost anything as long as I remember that there is support everywhere if I need it.
~TEACHER: Through the independent, exploratory nature of this course I have a new goal of embedding independent exploration time into my daily plans for instruction. MY WAY is not necessarily the RIGHT WAY. There are many possible paths in the process of creating. I have a new goal...stop talking so much and listen more.
~COLLABORATOR: Again, my way is not the ONLY WAY. I have gained a new sense of urgency in teaming with my colleagues. The connectedness that the iPad offers all of us is essential to educational collaboration in the 21st century. With the iPad we have the ability to meet, update, brainstorm and create in record time across long distances. I truly believe that once we become fluent with the use and capabilities of this tool, the sky is the limit for what we can do as a team for our students.

These 3 discoveries about myself connect directly to students as learners, teachers and collaborators. Expectations for students (as described in the Common Core State Standards) are evolving. Educators can no longer expect to simply open up our student's heads, pour the content in, close them back up and expect them to regurgitate this information during formal assessments. Students must be afforded the opportunity to access their learning, teaching, and collaboration skills in creative, authentic and meaningful ways in order to prepare for their futures. iPads and other technology like them are a means to this end.

What plans do you have for using the iPads with your students or in your job?
As mentioned above, , my first plan for the iPad is in collaboration and teaming. I have already begun using the iPad during building-based and SU meetings for note taking, creating & sharing documents, and research. I also plan to use the iPad as a student progress monitoring tool. Several apps that we have explored during this course lend themselves beautifully to documenting/capturing student work and analyzing this evidence in order to make instructional decisions. Using iPads with students to enhance their academic progress and provide them with 21st century learning opportunities in literacy is also a goal of mine. This is an area in which I continue to need support...

What do you feel you still need support with?
I am both excited and anxious when it comes to thinking about using iPads with students. I believe that I can find my way around my personal iPad well enough but assisting students with using this tool for creating and learning is a whole different ball game. I need lots of practice with work flow, vocabulary (iPad Speak) and basic classroom/small group iPad management before I will feel comfortable leading a group of students, especially young ones, into the 'land-of-iPad'. I'm not afraid to try because of what I have learned during this ipad course.

Many thanks to the kind and very patient instructors of this iPad course!

Pam Toof :o)



Sent from my iPad

Last autosaved project - Explain Everything movie file

iPad class fun! Working with my group to make a field trip movie. Very rewarding to figure this out!


Sent from Explain Everything for iPad - http://bit.ly/p9PWRZ

Watch My Latest Lesson!

Click here to view my lesson about Petunia's.

Create and share amazing video tutorials with the free Educreations iPad app:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/educreations-interactive-whiteboard/id478617061?ls=1&mt=8

Sent from my iPad

Love this and just wanted to share...

Bro moves home to VT! Behind on iPad challenges...:o(

So it has been one heck of a busy week for me! I am behind on iPad 'homework' for this week but I did teach my first iPad app lesson...kinda. My brother and his wife are moving home to VT next week (yay!) from California and I taught my sister to use the pic collage app to make a fun collage for them. We found their neighborhood in Laguna Niguel, CA in Stuck On Earth, took a picture of it and then did the same for their new home in Swanton, VT. Then used Photoshop to draw the heart and 'borrowed' a picture from Mark's Facebook page to finish it off. Cute, huh!? Quite different neighborhoods, wouldn't you say? We sent the final result to both of their Facebook walls and they were thrilled with it. My sis doesn't have an iPad yet and fears that she'll become as addicted to it as I am! Heehee. She is a reading specialist also and would love to use in her work with students and teachers.

Storyrobe Digital Story/My Trip to Naples, Florida

I am attempting to email my story robe video to my blog. I hope it works. I found this tool to be user friendly. I tried using it without reading the tutorial. I wanted to see how a student might feel if he/she attempted to navigate story robe without help. The only real issue that I had was figuring out how to edit my voice recording without having to record the entire thing over again. I'm sure there are other issues I will run into as I play with it but this first experience was a pretty good one.

Hey, check out this video I created using Storyrobe, a digital storytelling application now available on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

http://app.storyrobe.com/tmp/phpls55mv-7_20_12.mp4

Visit iTunes and buy it today http://itunes.com/apps/storyrobe


Sent from my iPad

Sharing a story with you

Wow! This a terrific tool for composing a story!  Authors compose, illustrate and read using their own language and ideas to create authentic texts that are easily shared with whomever they wish.  Now this what I'm talking' about!  Our students will love this, and so will we.  The sky is the limit with this app for learning and monitoring that learning.  Genre structure/feature studies, story grammar, concepts about print, vocabulary, g.u.m, sequencing, character development, spelling application,... You name it, we can cover it using this tool. 

This is a story shared with you by the StoryKit iPhone application.

Click here to read the story.

Sent from my iPad

Check out my Scribble Press book: The Craziest Dream

This was fun! And VERY timely (take a looking at my reflection from last week). The only thing that concerns me is the ability to erase over and over again. Perfectionists may have a difficult time leaving a drawing/page a move on. I could have spent hours on this story. .....I want to make one with photos next.

Check out my Scribble Press book: The Craziest Dream:

http://ebooks.scribblepress.com/book.php?g=BKLTYSJG


Sent from my iPad

Dictation w/PS Express & Pic Collage

Here is a shot of my dictation experiment. I love combining the apps that we are becoming familiar with. I am finding that creating takes very little time, especially the more fluent I become. There is huge potential here for our students to move quickly from project to project...discovery to discovery. We can cover a whole lot more in a short amount of time due to the efficiency of these apps!

Talking Pictures Challenge

This first week of challenges was great fun. I was very excited to use my own photos, things that are meaningful to me, to create visual texts/stories. As I began reading through the material on visual literacy I immediately began to realize that my 'old school' definitions for terms like 'text' are in need of a face-lift. My gutt response to the definition of visual text as "anything from diagram to documentary" sent me on a google search for the definition of text. This is what I found...http://www.answers.com/topic/text. The gist of this is that my reading teacher understanding of what text is (the printed word) needs augmenting to fit into 21st century education. I'm very glad to know this! In regard to the challenges this week, I am VERY excited to use all of these visual tools with students. My reading students have always created hand-made books using their own language, drawings, stickers, and handwriting. These original books are meaningful and motivating for my early and struggling readers. This past school year my students used digital cameras to take photos for illustrating their books...I thought this was a big step into the 21st century! Well now, it seems that there are LOTS more tools out there for my kids to use in text creation and I can't wait to give them access to them! Pictures With Text and Pic Collage are two tools that I believe are very easy to use, will foster independence and empower students. I look forward to discovering more!

Try this video preview quiz! :o)

Created using Pic Collage. http://pic-collage.com

I'm in the process of using photo shop, pics with words and animoto to show you one of my summer projects.  Can you guess what it is?!  Stay tuned for the story...

Sent from my iPad

Digging deeper...

Created using Pic Collage. http://pic-collage.com

I began this collage just by choosing a picture from our first day of class (our picture/video treasure hunt). Then I started playing with the color on photo shop.  The result is this study in color.  I'm not much of an artist but pic collage and photo shop makes me feel more like one!

Sent from my iPad

Challenge Part 2a. :o)

Check out this video I made with Animoto: Smile

Sent from my iPad

Challenge Part 1c...last one for now!

Challenge Part 1b

Challenge Part 1a

Cutie Pututie!

Video email attempt

This is Frank demonstrating 'movement' during our treasure hunt on our first day of class. Heehee. Hope this works. First try emailing video.

Project Pam

This week my exploration with my iPad has turned inward. I won't bore you with all of the details but...at the end of this school year I promised myself that I would work on improving my health. This year especially I noticed my energy level & stamina were low and I felt 'yucky' ( for lack of a better term). It was harder than ever to keep up with my students! So 'Project Pam' had to begin this summer. Well, lucky for me this iPad is exactly what I needed to get started. I spent last weekend exploring various websites with tools for tracking health goals. After hours of browsing, I decided on Livestrong.com. It is affiliated with the Lance Armstrong Foundation (minus the performance enhancing "supplements"). It is a phenomenal site with too many features to include in this blog. I have tracked my activity, water & food intake for 5 days successfully AND easily due to the portability and friendliness of my iPad. I bring it to the grocery store, on day trips,...basically anywhere. I record everything and don't miss a beat! Now, my next experiment is to compare the Livestrong website to the Livestrong app for iPad. I have downloaded the free Livestrong 'Lite' app and used it for a day or 2. It is less extensive and pretty but very functional. There is an upgrade for $2.99 that I may try if I can tear myself away from the website! Oh-ps- a friend of mine is doing this with me and we are communicating our triumphs and challenges using our iPads. So cool. I hope everyone has had a great July 4th week!

Adventures in Twitter...kinda

My exploration for the past several days has moved away from game apps a bit and focused more on connecting/communicating with iPad. As I mentioned in a prior blog I have ventured into the land of tweeting. I shared with Steve in a blog last night that I have found Twitter to be initially confusing and difficult to follow during multiple member chats. While participating in a fwsu action plan live chat last week I had difficulty following conversations. This was mostly because tweets appear as soon as they are written and therefore responses to questions and comments are mixed in with each other. I found it difficult to follow one thread of conversation. (I'm guessing this could be because I am used to 1:1 chatting on facebook) The chat that night appeared to end with very little conclusion/resolution.

Having said this, I'm guessing that there is much more for me to learn about twitter and once I become more fluent I may end up very happy with this communication tool. In fact, on a positive note, I opted out of joining in the weekly action plan chat last night so I found the thread today, read the tweets and added in my 2 cents. I didn't have to participate at 8:30 last night in order to have my voice be heard! Now that is pretty cool. And, while reading through the tweets, I realized that the thoughts, comments, and questions are archived and will be very important to return to in committee conversations (i.e. Professional Development planning...Julie & MJ!)

I've included a picture of what the action plan chat thread looks like for you. My tweet 'handle' is #PSu72310. This chat is public and ANYONE can join in. Just create a Twitter account, give yourself a name and go! Don't be afraid of it. You don't have to participate in chats if you don't want to. You can just follow along and see what others are saying. BONUS: you can follow fun tweeters like you favorite movie or rock stars if they tweet!

Better picture of Reader?

Trying for a better picture of your blogs on Reader. Let's see how this goes...and then I need to recharge this iPad. Draining the battery with Blitz game this week. Rainy days are fun now! Heehee

Google Reader

Got all of your blog spots into Reader. It really is a faster way to follow my GEMS friends! The links that Dayle gave us under Module One on our class page are very helpful. I set this up using my iPad and it really didn't take long, as long as you're good with cutting and pasting! Give it a try.

Final first week post..social apps

In with the old and in with the new. I have downloaded Facebook app onto this ipad within which I have had a wall for several years. I like fb because I can keep up with old friends. Almost 200 'friends' have been chosen by me to keep in touch. I feel safe using Facebook due to the fact that I can control who sees my posts, information and photos. I just check my settings periodically to ensure my privacy. Now, I have to admit to avoiding Twitter, mostly because I feel like one social network is enough to manage and keep up with. However, this spring/summer fwsu teachers and admin are tweeting about our new action plan so I have given in and joined Twitter. There is, in fact, a chat tonight at 8:30 re the action plan so I think I'll participate for a short time on my iPad. I have the option of how long I participate in the chat and it will be relevant due to the fact that I was just at a meeting today where we talked about the action plan. Attendance at the meeting was low so maybe missing committee members will chat tonight. I will let you all know what I think about Twitter. I'm keeping an open mind!

Dogs -a matching game

Cute games but can be boring. The same pictures are used for each game. I would to see lots of different pictures.

Dog Pile Pinball

A rather fun game where you have to use both touch screen and iPad movement to score. Takes coordination and multi tasking!

Observations & Questions

My hand hurts... Holding the iPad in one hand and typing with the other each day this week is causing discomfort. I really don't want to develop carpal tunnel (sp?). So I am trying to remember to change positions frequently. Question for you all...how come I can't get emoticons to publish in a comment? I sent Carol a cute one and all that came up was a dud. Booooo Sorry I missed the Mc D's party. Looks like you all were having a great time!

The Dog Days of Summer

Hello fellow iPad learners! I am experimenting with emailing photos and I appear to have a theme. This week my littIe 19 lb. Boston terrier and I have been dog sitting 2 hairy, slobbery, adorable newfoundlands belonging to close friends of mine. That's 319 lbs of dog under one roof, sucking up all of the air-conditioning! Being immersed in doggydom this week I've been exploring apps for dog lovers in the store. I have downloaded some fun stuff, most notably a pinball type of game that requires multiple talents in aim and dexterity that I may master with time. I am going to play this game in a bit and attempt to post a score! How fun is this!

Doggy Daycare

iPads in hot cars...?

So the temps are supposed to be scorching hot mid week. I'm wanting bring my iPad along in the car but should it spend anytime locked up in a hot car? Thoughts anyone? Ps- I am noticing that spending money to 'upgrade' apps that were originally free is enticing and could be dangerous! 😉

Forgot a title last time...

This is taking some getting used to but I'm loving that homework doesn't feel like work. Guess that's why I'm blogging on Friday night at 10pm. Is this how our students feel when they get a digital device in their hands?!

Testing 1, 2, 3... I think I'm in! How'd I do Dayle?!