**If you are unfamiliar with this project, check out my first post introducing my pilot project with LearnPads and comparing them to iPads. One challenge facing any teacher/building/district with tablets is establishing a workflow. How do I get material to students as well as get it back from them. Often times a cloud storage tool comes into play. Google Drive offers many scripts for creating and monitoring shared folders. This is great for GAFE schools, but what about non-GAFE schools? If you are lucky enough to have the newest version of the iPad, you are able to use AirDrop to quickly distribute work to your students. Furthermore, your students can use AirDrop to send the completed work back to the teacher. The pitfall of this is those schools that have older version of the iPad with no AirDrop. The LearnPad offers a very useful feature called Hand in/Hand out. While my class has been using Dropbox as the hub for our paperless workflow, we have been experimenting more and more with the Hand in/Hand out feature. Hand in/Hand OUt Below is an example of how quick and easy distributing work to students can be using the hand in/hand out feature. During our math class we were learning about number grid puzzles. Below is an example. I modeled a few problems to demonstrate the connection between a puzzle you might do at home with mom/dad and a number grid puzzle. We talked about the number grid being the completed puzzle, but we had to fill in these funny shaped pieces with their missing numbers. After modeling a few, we did some together to practice applying our understanding of patterns on the number grids. My first graders were picking up on this new skill and needed some individual practice to check for understanding. I used the Windows snipping tool to quickly cut out only the puzzle pieces that I wanted from the slide below. Once snipped, I can save them as an image. After I had snipped each number grid puzzle piece, I opened Word and created a new document. I inserted both snipped images into the document and then saved the Word document as a PDF file. I then opened up the LearnPad portal. From my dashboard view, I was able to select the devices that I wanted to send this PDF file for students to complete. This was especially nice since some students were absent. I was able to select only the tablets that were present that day. I clicked on "select a file to send" under the Hand Out option. A box appears to locate the file on your computer. Once you find and select the file, a progress bar is displayed to show the upload progress. In addition, you will see little paper icons shoot to each tablet icon in your dashboard letting you know that those tablets have received the file. A notification pops up on student tablets letting them know they have a new handout. They simply click the notification and the file automatically opens up in the annotation app for my students to annotate. I would love to say that I always have everything printed or saved for students to work on. However, you never know when a teachable moment will arise. Since my students quickly grasped this new skill, I needed a quick informal assessment to determine if anyone was still struggling. Using the snipping tool, Word and the Hand out feature of the LearnPad, I was able to create and distribute an assessment in less than two minutes. One big reason I think the LearnPad stands out above the iPad with the workflow management is that you don't have to buy a brand new tablet to have this feature like you do if you want AirDrop on the iPad. Share This:
0 Comments
I recently attended the Iowa 1:1 conference #i11i in Des Moines. I attended a session presented by Leslie Pralle Keehn and Erin Olson. Their session was titled Out My Window #omw1314. This presentation was a great hands on workshop where participants got to apply what was being discussed. Upon returning to my classroom the next day, we had a writing assignment that would allow my first graders the chance to practice adding descriptions to their writing. The original plan was to work on adding descriptions to student created make believe characters. My class has been piloting a class set of LearnPad tablets. It just so happened to be a beautiful day outside. We decided to scrap the original plan of make believe characters and apply the Out My Window project to our lesson. Why not create a project where students were able to write about a personal connection while still practicing adding descriptions. Students took their tablets outside and snapped a picture of their favorite piece of recess equipment. Once everyone had an image, we returned to the class to begin our descriptive writing. My students used the Aviary photo editing app on their LearnPads to annotate over the top of their image. Typically we spend the week brainstorming, drafting, editing, and revising before publishing a final piece. Along the way there are lots of students that need support and pushed to complete the assignment. I was amazed at what my first graders were able to do with this project. The only guidance I gave them was to add descriptions about the following: 1) What you do on your image, 2) What you hear, and 3) How it makes you feel. Students were totally engaged throughout this process and not one student needed assistance with brainstorming what to write. I am always blown away with the power of a PLN. I attended a great session with two tech leaders that I had talked with more on Twitter than in person. I was able to take their ideas and apply it to my own classroom. Providing my students with a task that provided a personal connection alleviated a lot of the struggles typically experienced with early writers. Below are some of the final results that my students were able to produce in a short amount of time. Their final products were published to their blogs. A great reminder how important it is to given student choices and provide authentic opportunities to apply common core skills. Share This:**If you are unfamiliar with this project, check out my first post introducing my pilot project with LearnPads and comparing them to iPads. Assessing: 3 optionsI think it is a safe bet to say that all teachers use assessment tools to gather data and inform instructional decisions. Whether it is formal, digital or just observations, assessing student understanding is weaved into a teacher's pedagogy. With time being a critical asset to all teachers, having some digital options for collecting data can be a huge time saver. As I have implemented both the LearnPad and iPad, I have tried a variety of digital tools that can assist in gathering that valuable information to guide instructional decisions. However, the biggest game changer to date has been having a connected device in the hands of all my students. Regardless of the LearnPad or iPad, the digital tools I explain below are one piece of the puzzle to promote 1:1 learning environments. Option 1: SocrativeWhether Socrative for IOS or for Android, this tool allows you to create a digital classroom to collect feedback from students. Students do not have to register. They simply type in the virtual room number of their teacher's classroom. You can create multiple choice, true/false or even short answer assessments. One nice feature is the ability in add pictures to your questions. You can give quizzes in self or teacher paced modes. It is a very simple and intuitive user interface for creating and administering assessments. You can even share your created assessments. A popular feature is running assessments in "Space Race" mode which creates a little competition. When assessments are completed, you can choose to email the report or even save it as an Excel file. Socrative works on almost any connected device. Option 2: Exit TicketExit Ticket is a new tool that I have only recently started using. There is an IOS as well as Android version of the app. The more I use this tool the more I love it. It's user interface for the teacher is a little more complex than Socrative. However, it is very feature rich and customizable based on your needs. Below is a screenshot of a completed assessment. One amazing option of Exit Ticket is the ability to view the same information below in real time as the assessment is being administered. Much like Socrative, you can set up multiple choice, true/false and free response. Socrative allowed you to insert images with your questions. However, Exit Ticket not only lets you insert images with your questions but also with your answers as well. Option 3: Google forms + FLubarooFlubaroo is a script that auto checks submitted Google Forms. This is definitely a prime example of working smarter and not harder. Google Forms allows you many options for creating assessments. You can add videos, images, multiple choice, short answer and more for your questions. You can even have multiple pages and create actions based on how a student answers a question. So if a student answered one question incorrect, you could have it take them to a second page with some similar questions to provide some alternative options to demonstrate their understanding. We have used this combination for the entire school year. Students watch the daily math lesson and then take a quiz via Google Forms. I run the Flubaroo script which auto grades the quiz. From this information, I am able to group students in math based on their needs according to the Google Form assessment. IN CLOSING These three options are great digital assessment tools to add to any teacher's toolbox. Just like any piece of tech, there is no Swiss Army knife application that does it all. I use a combination of Google Forms/Flubaroo and Exit Ticket based on the skills and curricular areas I want to assess. As I mentioned earlier, I think these three tools help reinforce the benefits of student learning and teacher pedagogy in a 1:1 environment. Not that this couldn't be done in environments that are not 1:1, but the ability to gather real time data puts those classrooms at an advantage when implemented with integrity. **If you are unfamiliar with this project, check out my first post introducing my pilot project with LearnPads and comparing them to iPads. We have been learning about the vowel digraph "oo" as in the word cook. We practiced with this vowel digraph as a whole group frequently throughout the week. In addition, students had the chance to demonstrate their understanding of this new digraph by creating a picture quiz for their classmates to complete. Above is an example of a completed product made by a student. There were pictures posted around the classroom. Students had to snap a total of three pictures. One of the pictures had to be an example of the "oo" digraph while the remaining two pictures did not. When they were done snapping pictures, they had to label each picture with a number. Their final picture collage was added to their blogs. The next day, students spent time looking at all their peers' posts about the "oo" digraph. They left comments with their guess as to which picture was an example of the "oo" digraph. By completing this activity, students had to apply their understanding of the digraph as they sorted through pictures. In addition, by posting it to the blog, students had to differentiate between the images as they made their guess as to which number/picture combination represented the "oo" digraph. So how did my students accomplish this activity. I needed a way for them to snap the pictures, put all the pictures on the same page as well as be able to write a number under each image (1, 2, 3). Check out the methods below that could be used on both the iPad and LearnPad. Pic collage--LearnPad or iPad PicCollage is both an IOS and Android app. It allows you to snap pictures or add them from your library/gallery. You can then add text to your collage. Below are the steps for creating the collage that my students would have followed. When students had the image saved to their camera roll, they would then open up their blogging app (Edublogs on the LearnPad and Kidblog on the iPad). They would then publish a new post with their newly created collage. LearnPad: Lensoo Create App Below is an example of using the Lensoo Create app to create a pic collage. You are not recording with this screen casting app but using it as a blank canvas. You can see the directions below for completing the "oo" assignment with Lensoo Create instead of the Pic Collage app. iPad: Educreations App Below is an example of using the Educreations app to create a pic collage. You are not recording with this screen casting app, but using it as a blank canvas. You can see the directions below for completing the "oo" assignment with Educreations instead of the Pic Collage app. Share This: **If you are unfamiliar with this project, check out my first post introducing my pilot project with LearnPads and comparing them to iPads. As my students have been using the tablets in my classroom, we have been working on a paperless workflow. You can see how the paperless workflow can be done on the LearnPad as well as on the iPad. When my students have finished annotating a PDF assignment, the app they use allows them to export their completed annotation as a .jpg file. This file is saved into their Dropbox folder which is shared with my personal account. By having students save their completed work into the shared folder, I am able to access their files on my own devices, record my feedback and export the video feedback back into each students' folder. There are two methods that I have used to complete this process. I have used the Explain Everything app on my iPad. This app allows you to bring images in directly from Dropbox. This means I don't need to save the images to my camera roll first. Once I have the image opened in the Explain Everything app, I can annotate over the image and use a point to highlight items that need some brief reteaching or praise. Once my feedback is done, I then export the finished product into the student's folder. **The reason I chose the iPad as the winner was based on Explain Everything being accessible on the iPad. It is an Android app as well, but there is a different process for obtaining paid apps on the LearnPad marketplace. One problem with Explain Everything is that it cost money to purchase the app. Another alternative that I have used is the TechSmith Snagit extension for Chrome that recently enabled screencasting. I am able to open to open Chrome, open the web version of Dropbox, open the student's file, view the original size of their file, open the Snagit recording option and provide my video feedback . The only downside to this option is that when I am done, the video is automatically saved to Google Drive. This means that I have to go into my student's Dropbox folder and upload the video file into their folder so they can see the video feedback I provided. If we used Google Drive as our cloud storage workflow option, this method would work seamlessly. It still is a great FREE option for providing video feedback. Explain Everything OptionTechSmith Snagit optionShare This: |
Andrew FenstermakerInstructional Technology Coordinator | Innovation Coach | Google Certified Innovator | Presenter | Blogger | Adjunct @UiowaEducation | Owner @kids_f_i_r_s_t |