Complete (and New Perspectives)

Kites from the Sigur Ros film "Heima"

     So its finished! Two years and my Masters Degree in Educational Technology is done. It feels odd remembering bits and pieces of courses at the beginning: figuring out where the North Bridge was in the map of the inside of a computer; designing a web-quest on the Transcontinental Railroad; creating and exploring new web 2.0 opportunities; and discovering new methods for reaching a variety of learners.
     I could go on and reflect on more than a hundred things I've learned in the past two years, but I don't think that would be entirely beneficial at the moment. What most impressed me; what I most think back on and appreciate above all else are the relationships and interactions with people from all over the US. Yes, they were short. Usually just 8 weeks. But its all about learning new perspectives: seeing things from another point of view; learning what frustrates others; learning what it takes to work together with people you've never met, let alone never seen before.
     21st century learners are going to experience working and collaborating with people of different race, ethnicity, religion, and geographic location if they aren't already doing so. Learning to collaborate - actually working together to achieve a purpose - is not simply about tolerance and respect, its about listening, learning, and opening one's self to the potential of a broader spectrum of understanding. Its admitting that your way may not be the best way, just a possible solution. Its about gaining the humility to accept your own ideas may be embraced, altered, denied, or tinkered with. 
     As an 21st century educator/learner its my responsibility to not simply understand this but to practice it as well. The last two years of online coursework, Skype sessions, discussion forums, and collaborative projects have provided some excellent practice and experiences. Thanks to each of my classmates for having shared. You offered new perspectives in so many different facets of education. You've given me a lot to think about and it will always be greatly appreciated!

  (image collected from http://earthlingsoft.net/ssp/blog/graphics/SigurRosKites.jpeg)
   

Create & Share

   A list created by Kristen Paino on a List.ly page titled Digital Storytelling/Content Creation iPad Apps got me thinking about the importance of the importance of utilizing iOS or other handheld devices for creating as well as consuming. Yes, iDevices are excellent for gaming and there are a ton of great educational games that can and do support standards. But we'd be amiss to start bringing carts of them into our classrooms simply with this purpose.
   Kristen's list contains excellent tools for digital storytelling in several different ways: drawing and writing, narrated slideshows, puppet shows, and more. Creating takes the iDevice a step further (not to mention taking Bloom's Taxonomy a few steps higher!). Like any form of creation it engages the student on a new level with their knowledge and experiences. It lets them interact with what they know in the digital world and provides the opportunity to share those creations on a wider scale.
   Of course creating on any iDevice sometimes gets folks confused with how to get the finished product to somewhere where others can see it. While a few creation-based apps allow you to export to Flickr, Youtube or other video/photo sites, some merely create an image, video, or e-pub (ebook). Dropbox is an excellent tool to link even a whole class set of iDevices together. There's a public folder in Dropbox that will allow you to copy a public link, post it, and share your created content. We use a Posterous blog to share some e-books our 5th and 3rd graders created this year. You'll need an iPhone, iPod, or iPad to view them. So check out the list, try an e-book or digital story creator app and get your kids creating!
 

iDentical iPods: Getting Ready for Next School-Year

  I'm a little particular with the iPods we use during Technology. Because I have students ranging from 4 years old through 5th grade using them,  I've found the organization of folders to be very helpful. The problem though is having 30 iPods synced identically (apps sorted into folders as you see fit). The benefits of this are having the ability to quickly direct students where an app is located (especially in the primary grades) and demonstrating how students can manage their own iPods.
   So the problem still exists: how do we get 30 iPods to look identical? Its actually not a big problem, though the solution is time consuming. Basically, it involves setting one iPod exactly like you want the rest to look like, syncing it to your laptop, letting it backup, then restoring every other iPod to that backup. Here are the steps:

1) Sync 1 iPod with the computer it normally syncs with.
2) Organize that iPod the way you want the entire set to look (hold down on an app until it wiggles. Move one app on top of another to create a folder. Name that folder and hit the home button or create new folders)
3) Plug it back into the computer and allow it to backup and sync.
4) Unplug that iPod and plug in the remaining iPods (if you have access to a charging cart/case use that - if not, you'll have to repeat steps 5-8 for each additional iPod)
5) Right-Click (two finger tap on Mac) on the next iPod in the iTunes sidebar. Select Restore from Backup.
6) From the selection panel, find and select the last backup of the iPod you used in steps 1-3.
7) Click restore.
8) When iTunes completes its restore process, rename that iPod in the iTunes sidebar.  I use Mobile Cart 02, Mobile Cart 03, etc...(click once on the iPod to select, then click a second time to rename). The iPod will now have its unique name but look just like iPod 1.
9) Repeat this process for each iPod.

 Another quick tip for staying organized with iPods that look the same is giving them a numerical lock-screen wallpaper. Tony Vincent (Learning in Hand blogger and mobile tech extraordinaire)  has a number of photo sets with numbers specifically for this:
http://learninginhand.com/blog/wallpaper-ipod-touch-with-numbers.html
1)Create a photo album in iPhoto or in a folder in Windows for the Number Wallpapers.
2) in iTunes with your iPods plugged in, select Pictures from each iPod's menu. Locate the album and allow it to sync to each iPod.
3) On the iPod itself, locate the newly synced photo album, select the iPod's number and set it as the Lock Screen wallpaper.

8 iOS Apps for the Summer!

   With summer coming, parents are getting ready to have their kids at home ALL THE TIME! iPods, iPhones, and iPads will certainly be getting a workout with new apps.  As a technology teacher, one of my pet peeves is seeing iPods loaded with nothing but mindless games. (Not that there isn't a place for them, its nice to get lost in a good game of paper toss every once in awhile!) I understand the need for games, but at the same time there are some great apps that kids can have fun with and be engaged in learning away from school. I teach elementary-aged kids so this list will target that group, however some apps can certainly be used by anyone:



1) Bugs and Buttons
Price: $2.99
Age Group: Kindergarten-1st
I learned this year that kindergarten students loved sorting! Add creepy cockroaches and bees and its all the better! This is a fast-paced, graphic-rich game of sorting, yep, bugs and buttons! Oh, there are bug races too.

2) Finger Physics
Price: $.99
Age Group: 3rd Grade and up
Balance, Puzzles, Problem-Solving, and tons of levels. Its one of those time-consuming games but in an engage-the-brain way.

3) Paper Bridge
Price: $.99
Age Group: 3rd Grade and up
Another puzzle game. This one gets tricky pretty quickly. There's a tutorial prior to level 1 that infers the idea of a "Truss Bridge". Good problem solving again!

4) Puppet Pals HD (iPad) and Puppet Pals Pocket (iPod/iPhone)
Price: Basic Edition is Free, Director's Pass is $2.99
Age Group: K-5
The basic edition provides 1 theme with characters where the director's pass provides a lot more options (not bad for $3). Kids can also create puppets out of their own photos and create their own puppet show with recorded audio. Get the imagination going with this one...lots of fun!

5) Sonic Pics
Price: $2.99
Age Group: (K-3 with guidance) 4th Grade and up
If you're going on a family vacation or just going out to the park, put the iPod to use by snapping some pictures and putting together a narrated video about it! Do your kids create stories on their own with sketched pictures? Photograph them and put them into Sonic Pics. Have them read and record their story.  A great way to tell digital stories and save memories.

 6) Survival
Price: Free!
Age Group: 2-5
This is probably the best free app I've seen in awhile. Created by the ARK organization for the protection of endangered species. Learn about lots of interesting animals, sharpen your reading skills, and try to survive for as long as you can! Oh yeah, this fits in really well with (at least South Carolina's) 2nd grade science standards on classifying animals (mammals, reptiles, fish, etc...)

7) Flip It!
Price: $2.99
Age Group: Kindergarten and up
Remember drawing a stick figure walking or skateboarding in the back of a notebook then continuing the motion on the next pages 'til you could flip through it? That's what this does. Add background images, colors, duplicate pages, etc... Great for sequencing and planning out stories. Plus its just a lot of fun to make animation.

8) Comic Life (iPad only) Check out Comic Touch for iPod/iPhone
Price: $4.99
Age Group: 2nd grade and up
Create full comic books telling original stories or documenting your family vacation. These developers know how to make a great app. Excellent tools, pretty straightforward to use and lots of templates to create memories.


That's it for now. Most of those are apps that we've used in our school over the last year or two. The students have really shown engagement with them and created some excellent projects. So, if you've got a phone, try out one or two (or all) of these apps with your kids over the summer. Give them a challenge then show off their work to the family when they're finished...or better yet, share it with the world!