iPad Report - Games and Learning

I should have titled this blog post -- First We Play, Then We Learn.

Yesterday I had the opportunity of sharing my iPad with a group of new middle school students at a summer camp I am teaching. You should have seen the room light up when I took the iPad out of my bag. It was like I held in my hand the Holy Grail itself. The students practically fell down and worshiped it.

I wanted to show them how cool it was and how it was going to change education, things like the iBooks and the great educational apps that I have, but all they wanted to see were the games.

"Show us the games Mr. Flick," they all shouted.

Games!

At first I was sort of ticked about this. I wanted to yell "There is so much more to an iPad than games!" But last night I started to think about what happened...

You see, games are everything to these young pre-teens. They live and breath video games. Knowing this can change how teachers can manage these new school technologies like iPads or other PODs (Personally Owned Devices). One of the greatest classroom management strategies is the "preferred activity" of in other words what the students wish they were doing instead of your lesson. I can imagine with iPads in the classroom a teacher can simply say, "Okay class as soon as you are done the XYZ assignment, and I have checked it, you may have 5 minutes of free time on your iPads." Not only would the work be done fast, but it would also be done right, since the teacher is checking it. Classroom efficiency could skyrocket with the iPad!

So back to my story... I showed them the incredible games that the iPad has and then they could finally focus on the educational apps that I had to show them. It was like I had to prove that there were really good games with really cool graphics before they could sit back and take in the rest of the message.

In the end they really were blown away with all of the things I showed them on my iPad, but I had to first start with games.

My lesson from this is such: when it comes to school technology and students -- learning follows interest, and interest usually follows fun. If we show them how fun something can be, then we have then hooked for learning more about it.

Teaching with iPads the Movie (Take Two)

Since the quality of the online video last week about teaching with iPads turned out so poorly I decided to shoot it again so that you could see the apps on the iPad screen. I go through a few of the apps that I feel would work great in our schools and classrooms.

Video Number 1


Video Number 2


Video Number 3

Teaching with iPads Live

Well my first experience using free Ustream.tv to broadcast my live iPad demonstration was a little hit and miss.

Hit: It was really easy to use. I just logged in and clicked "Start Broadcast" the website found my webcam and microphone and started to broadcast.

Miss: The video quality was really bad, mostly my fault I suspect. I was trying to video a projection screen and my cheap little webcam couldn't make it look good.

Using school technology like live Internet broadcasting is sometimes like this. You try it a little -- learn, and then try it again and try to make it better. I am going to order a better camera and come up with a better system so expect to see better quality in the future.

Thanks for your support.

If you want to watch the recording click on the link below:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/teaching-with-ipads

Teaching with iPads Demonstration

I will be demonstrating the things that I have learned about using the iPad in schools this Wednesday, May 19th at 4 PM (US Mountain Time). I will use Ustream to broadcast my demonstration so everyone is welcome to check it out. Please email me any questions that you might have before hand.

I will post the exact information that you'll need to watch the Ustream on Wednesday morning.

See you then.

The iPad in Schools - Week 4

I have finally started to read books on my iPad. The first book I bought was The Element by Ken Robinson, a brilliant book about students and creativity.

First off, buying the book was a breeze. I went to the iBooks bookstore, browsed around for a few minutes, then downloaded samples of about six or seven books. I read the samples and then decided on the book I just mentioned. It took about 10 seconds for it to download.

Reading on the iPad is beautiful to say the least. The screen is clean and sharp, however it sucks in bright daylight. You can adjust the size of the type as well as the screen brightness to find the settings that you like the best.

I have tried to read "ebooks" on my laptop and I have hated it every time. But there is something completely different about reading on an iPad, it is hard say, but it just feels more natural.

The iPad also has a feature that allows me to highlight and bookmark text (see photo above), now if it could just let me dog-ear some pages it would be perfect.

Students are going to love reading on the iPad, truly a piece of school technology to keep your eye on over the next few months. Imagine a student with hundreds of books and textbooks in their iPads that they can access and search at anytime, it is going to be great.

The iPad in Schools - Week 3

Today I want to talk about the educational apps that I like for my iPad. A few weeks ago I wrote about how I hated that there were so many pre-school educational apps and not a lot for older students. Luckily, a lot has changed in only a few weeks.

Here is a list of apps I like for schools and students:
Drawing Pad - a great little app that allows students to draw anything their little imaginations can think of.
Magic Piano - a fun piano app that have different types of keyboards for students to tinker with music notes.
Math Magic - an app for the younger students who want to practice their general math skills.
PianoMan - a guitarhero-esk type app that allows for dueling piano keyboards, it is loaded with a lot of classical music.
The Elements - if this is the future of textbooks, then count me in. When I want to amaze people with my iPad this is what I show them.
Star Walk - another beautiful app that shows what is possible.
SoundPaper - this app allows student to record lectures and classes while they take notes.
PaperDesk - better than SoundPaper because you can sketch on it as well as make different notebooks.
iBooks - reading books on the iPad is incredible, the screen is crystal clear and easy to follow.

I still believe that the iPad is a game-changer when it comes to school technology. I imagine a day when the only thing that students will need to bring with them to school is a tablet PC. I don't know if it will be the iPad but it is going to be a fun competition to watch.

The iPad in Schools - Week 2

Well I have had my iPad for two weeks, so now what do I think about it?

Truthfully, I am still amazed at how great this device really is. If I had to put a factor on it, I would say that the iPad is turning out to be ten times the computer I thought it would be, but there has been some disappointments, let me explain...

Apps:
I have been buying apps like crazy, in fact I think I am addicted. Every day I check to see if there are any new apps that I might need (or not need). I do not like using iPhone or iPod apps on my iPad, although they do work and you can make them bigger to fill the screen, they just don't look anywhere near as good as native iPad apps. So far there have been no iPad educational apps that I like. There are a ton of apps for pre-schoolers, things like shapes and letters, but I am yet to find any apps for my elementary-aged kids that I like -- let me take that back there are a few...

National Geographic Atlas
iHomework
DrawingPad
Magic Piano

That's it, four apps. I am still looking for great math and reading apps.

Books:
I haven't bought any books yet, I hope to buy a few this week. This is actually the part of using an iPad I am most excited about.

Battery Life:
Nothing compares at how great the battery in an iPad is. I have used it for three days without recharging and the lowest I have ever gotten it to is 30%. Finally, there is a device that can last all day at school without recharging.

Popularity:
I didn't really see this one coming. Everyone loves to come and check out my iPad when I am out an about. Kids to grandparents come over to me to see what it is all about. Who knew I could be so popular by just owning an iPad. Finally I am cool! I hope the honeymoon never ends.

Keyboarding:
I am now used to the on-screen keyboard and type nearly as fast as on a physical keyboard. I was going to buy the keyboard attachment, but now I wont.

Bottom Line:
I still believe that the iPad is a game-changer, it is truly a piece of school technology that could change everything for our students. This next week I am going to put it in the hands of students and see what they think of it and watch how they respond to it.

Teaching with the iPad

My iPad finally arrived and I couldn't be more excited. Sure it is cool and new, but what really gets me is what it could mean for education. Let me explain...

Digital Books: This past January when I was flying to Florida to speak at FETC I sat next to a man who had a Kindle. We started to talk about technology and he showed me the 112 books that he had loaded on his digital book reader. He let me hold it and I was amazed. 112 books in something so light. I couldn't help but think how heavy the six books were in my carry-on that was shoved above my head. "Yeah, but I love to highlight, scribble in the margin and dog-ear my pages (a librarian's worst nightmare)." I explained to him. He then showed me how he could do all that. But the most amazing part is what he said next. "The one thing you can't do with a paper book is search the text. I can search my whole library in seconds." He was right, imagine the day when our students have every library book pre-loaded onto their iPads! No waiting to check out a book, no two weeks to return it, it is just there for the student to use any time they want.

Educational Apps: Although I have only had my iPad for less than 24-hours, my 13-year old son has already taken it over and has filled it with great apps: graphing calculator, spelling test, math prompts, a periodic table that really cool. There are thousands and thousands of great edu-apps.

No More Back Packs: Have you seen the size of the back packs that students take to school? They are huge and heavy, full of text books, notebooks, and library books. In a few years they will just have an iPad, no need for a locker or a back pack, everything will be in their iPad.

What an exciting time to be involved with school technology!