Top 5 iPad Apps for Teaching Across All Content Areas

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Photo credit: barrettelementary via flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Ever since I was a kid, I loathed back to school commercials. They always showed parents gleefully skipping through aisles of pencils and notebooks as the kids, sullen and dejected, sluggishly followed along. It's a scene we are all too familiar with, and one that creates a negative stigma around school. But what if that scene were flipped? What if the kids were happy and eager to get to school? Is that possible after roughly 90 days of sun and fun? It is, and at Burlington Public Schools, we have seen it over the past two years during our iPad launches at the high school and middle school.

Although this post is a little early for the back-to-school season, consider it an early reminder that summer is near and that, eventually, the start of the 2013 school year will be close at hand. One of the elements that is changing dramatically at both Burlington High School and Marshall Simonds Middle School is back-to-school supply lists. Those long laundry lists of items that parents must purchase for their son's or daughter's classes are something that students dread, and for some parents, these lists can be a budgetary hurdle every summer. But it doesn't have to be that way. The iPad can eliminate many of the items purchased each year and save schools and parents hundreds of dollars annually.

I’m going to share five applications for the iPad that will take the place of student supply lists, provide savings and replace dread with anticipation.

Notability

While some may argue that there are better options -- and free options -- out there, I find, along with many of our students, thatNotability is the go-to application for note taking. One of the primary reasons I like this app is because of the workflows that teachers and students can create in order to retrieve, annotate and submit work. Plus, Notability integrates Dropbox, Google Drive and Boxdrive. If teachers set up a shared folder with their class via Google Drive, students can access their documents, annotate them and push them back to their teacher via a privately shared folder. In other words, this is a big step toward the paperless classroom. Also, students can open PDFs from any website in Notability and annotate directly on the PDF.

A note about Notability:I would strongly endorse Evernote here as well. However, the connection between students and teachers in Notability, along with Google Docs and Dropbox integration, put it slightly above Evernote. One feature that puts Evernote ahead of Notability is the ability to access the application and features from multiple devices and platforms.

Haiku Deck

Haiku Deck is one of my favorite applications for a variety of reasons. The primary reason is that it is free and really boasts clean, intuitive design. Along with the crisp interface, students and teachers can access Haiku Deck presentations directly from the app and via the web. When building a presentation, users can search for images from within the app and embed them immediately. The app also allows users to take pictures and upload from the camera rolland from Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, and Picasa accounts. Users can play their presentations directly from the iPad, email them, and share with Facebook and Twitter.

Edmodo

Edmodo is a one-stop shop for all of your classes. The highlight of Emodo's learning management system is that it presents a clean, familiar design for teachers and students. Teachers can set up multiple classes and can connect and share documents, assessments, etc. from the iPad app or web-based interface. Our middle school iPads don't travel home with students, so this application's web-based access is a big plus. Any teacher can also assign and create small group projects directly in his or her Edmodo page. This allows both teachers and students to stay organized in one place and follow along with the progress of individual and group activities. Edmodo also connects teachers directly to their Google Drive for quick transfer of documents. Overall, Edmodo gets a lot of good reviews from both our teachers and students. Plus, our parents like this option because they can monitor what the class is doing, receive updates and stay up to date with assignments and projects. And the best part about Edmodo: it's free.

ShowMe

The ShowMe application is a dynamic presentation and creation application that is free. ShowMe provides an iPad app and a web-based interface for accessing the ShowMe database as well as your own presentations. This application integrates at all levels ofBloom's Taxonomy and allows teachers an opportunity to create lessons, remediation options and accessible references for student review. One of our Spanish teachers, Ms. Abbott, uses this application consistently in her classes. She creates ShowMes for her lessons and makes them public so that students and possibly other Spanish teachers can use them. In my digital literacy class, one of my students, Gabriella Gonzalez, created a ShowMe sharing a story about her life. There are so many ways that teachers can incorporate this dynamic tool across grade levels and content areas. And again, it comes free.

Google Drive

A year ago I would not have endorsed Google Drive or any of the Google apps for iOS. However, the Google apps development team had a good year blending their apps into the iOS platform. Whether or not you are a Google apps for education school, Google Drive is a great place for students to begin learning how to use the cloud as well as archive and access their work in multiple places. Plus, Google Drive for the iOS has recently launched the ability to collaborate with other users on a document or spreadsheet in real time. Users can also upload (and download) photos and videos directly from their iOS device and save them in the cloud. Students can use this application to work on a collaborative project in school, take notes, and then access that same document or spreadsheet from any computer that boasts an Internet connection.

And that's it. Add these five applications to your back-to-school lists and eliminate everything else!

Technology Integration Made Easy

One of the big misconceptions about the iPad is that teachers need to seek out applications tying directly into their content area. The simple fact is that even in the absence of apps, the iPad comes out of the box with a wealth of resources. Add a wi-fi connection to the equation and you've got yourself and your classroom a pretty dynamic resource. The five applications listed above only add to the ease of connecting and sharing in your classroom. Each application can be integrated across all grade levels and content areas.

The one thing to remember when approaching technology integration for the first time is that you don't have to completely change your way of teaching. Teachers are and always will be the content experts in the classroom regardless of the technology or tools integrated. Adding the iPad only enhances the learning opportunities for teachers and students alike.

This blog is part of a series sponsored by Herff Jones.

How do I teach a new app to the students?

Authored By Thea Morris

How do I teach a new app to the students?

I don’t…

Well, sort of…

Let me explain….

With productivity apps like iMovie, Keynote, Pages, iA Writer, and Show Me I give the students time to explore and ‘play’ with the app prior to a learning activity that I know is coming up that will be using a particular app. I begin the lesson by saying to the students that I would like them to have some fun with this new app. I just give a quick overview and show some things what the app can do and then I send the students off to experiment on their own.

While this exploration stage is going on I observe what the students are doing and listen to their conversations. It is amazing to observe these students apply their 21st Century thinking skills and direct their own learning through trial and error, problem solving and collaboration as they openly discuss what they are doing with their small group peers. These young wired brains are quite fearless and the notion of risk-taking is very natural to them when it comes to working with their iPad.

I also enjoying watching what experimental things they create as they explore the new app. For example, when I had my students familiarize themselves with the app Show Me, I had one student create a ‘Tic Tac Toe’ game and proceeded to find other students to play the game with. In a short period of time several students were into creating their own Show Megame boards. My initial reaction was to judge this choice as being evidence of poor quality use of learning time but I immediately changed my mind when I say what the students did with it. The app was relatively easy to learn so the focus became on the game. The students did not turn on the record button while they played the game but they did review it afterwards. What I marveled at was how they intuitively engaged in metacognitive thinkingand reviewed the strategies they used with each turn. They were teaching themselves where to place the X or the O in order to win the game. That was a teachable moment that we teachers always look for and it reminded me of watch a ply back on a televised football game where the sports announcer goes over a play and the viewer can watch the drawn circles and arrows on the screen.

After the students have had their exploration and play time we use the Apple TV which I wrote about here for some of the students to show and share what they discovered about the app. They turn on mirroring on their iPad and teach the class some aspect of the app. The students then quickly check out what was shared on their iPad for a little practice time. The number of show and shares varies but I usually have from 5-10 students contribute something, depending on the complexity of the app.

With this system for teaching apps I have created an environment of a community of learners. Not only are my students engaged in self-directed discovery and learning, they are teaching each other and they are teaching me as their teacher. I do not have the time and nor do I want to spend hours becoming an expert on every single app. I prefer to have my focus be on the learner and the learning and how to effectively integrate the apps on the iPad to support a deeper understanding and high level of learning skills.

How I Teach a New App to the Students…. Lessons Learned… Lessons Shared

 

 

Ways to evaluate educational APPs

Written by Tony Vincent

http://learninginhand.com/blog/ways-to-evaluate-educational-apps.html

I am conducting a series of workshops in Florida and was asked to share a rubric to help teachers evaluate educational apps as part of the workshop. In 2010 Harry Walker developed a rubric, and I used his rubric (with some modifications by Kathy Schrock) as the basis for mine. (Read Harry Walker's paperEvaluating the Effectiveness of Apps for Mobile Devices.)

I kept in mind that some apps are used to practice a discrete skill or present information just one time. Others are creative apps that a learner may use again and again, so it's a challenge to craft a rubric that can be used for a wide span of purposes. I tried to make my rubric work for the broadest range of apps, from drill and practice to creative endeavors, while stressing the purpose for using the app.

My rubric also emphasizes the ability to customize content or settings and how the app encourages the use of higher order thinking skills. Admittedly, there are good apps that are not customizable and focus on lower order thinking skills. Factor Samurai, for example, is a fantastic game for identifying prime and composite numbers. It would be nice if the app had flexibility to adjust difficultly, but it's still a good app if it is relevant to the learning purpose.

Here's what I chose to spotlight in my rubric:

Relevance
The app’s focus has a strong connection to the purpose for the app and appropriate for the student

Customization
App offers complete flexibility to alter content and settings to meet student needs

Feedback
Student is provided specific feedback

Thinking Skills
App encourages the use of higher order thinking skills including creating, evaluating, and analyzing

Engagement
Student is highly motivated to use the app

Sharing
Specific performance summary or student product is saved in app and can be exported to the teacher or for an audience

An app’s rubric score is very dependent on the intended purpose and student needs. The score you give an app will differ from how others score it. Again, apps that score low may still be good apps. But, it is handy to score apps if you are making purchasing decisions and/or have multiple apps to choose from.

Download the Education App Evaluation Rubric.

Perhaps more useful than a rubric is a checklist, so I developed one. I based my checklist on one created by Palm Beach County Schools and Edudemic.com. The checklist addresses both instructional and technical aspects of an app. For simplicity of purchasing, my list favors free apps and apps that do not have in-app purchases. Don't get me wrong, there are certainly fantastic paid apps.

The bottom line is what makes an effective app is one that does what you need it to do. And it's even better if it does it an inexpensive and engaging ways. There probably isn't an app that would receive all checks on my list, but in general, the more checks, the better the app is for education.

Here's my list:

• Use of app is relevant to the purpose and student needs
• Help or tutorial is available in the app
• Content is appropriate for the student
• Information is error-free, factual, and reliable
• Content can be exported, copied, or printed
• App’s settings and/or content can be customized
• Customized content can be transferred to other devices
• History is kept of student use of the app
• Design of app is functional and visually stimulating
• Student can exit app at any time without losing progress
• Works with accessibility options like VoiceOver and Speak Selection
• App is free of charge
• No in-app purchases are necessary for intended use of app
• App loads quickly and does not crash
• App contains no advertising
• App has been updated in the last 6 months
• App promotes creativity and imagination
• App provides opportunities to use higher order thinking skills
• App promotes collaboration and idea sharing
• App provides useful feedback

Download the Educational App Evaluation Checklist.

I welcome your comments as my thinking about what makes a good app, my rubric, and my checklist are all a work in progress.

Other educators have also put thought into evaluating educational apps. I'd like to point you to more rubrics and checklists.

Critical Evaluation of an iPad/iPod App is a yes/no checklist and has a place to write a summary of the app. It's by Kathy Schrock.

The Mobile App Review Checklist is from Palm Beach County Schools and Edudemic.com. It provides a yes/no checklist within Curriculum Compliance, Operational, and Pedagogy categories.

Mobile Application Selection Rubric is from eSkillsLearning.net and is a simple chart with criteria like aligned to Common Core Standards, Levels of Difficulty, and Various Modes of Play.

iEvaluate Apps for Special Needs is a detailed rubric specific for selecting apps for students with special needs. It's by Jeannette Van Houten.

iPad App Assessment Rubric for Librarians is from the Chicago Public Schools Department of Libraries. It's a Google Forms template you can use to collect app assessments.

Maybe more significant than evaluating the app itself is evaluating how the app supports instruction that infuses technology to create a powerful learning environment. The Arizona Technology Integration Matrix is a rubric for teachers to assess their level of technology integration across five elements of meaningful learning environments.

Arizona's matrix is based on the Florida Technology Integration Matrix. Like the Arizona version, Florida's features detailed explainations, videos, and lessons.

Best and safest websites for kids!

Use this link for safe apps.

http://m.commonsensemedia.org/website-lists

Virtual Field Trips: Maybe even better than the real thing.

Check out this link on virtual field trips.

http://m.commonsensemedia.org/educators/blog/virtual-field-trips-maybe-even-better-than-the-real-thing

How to Guide Parents in Homework Help

Written by Cathy Vatterott

Homework can be a major source of strain on relationships between schools and families. It can cut into family time and be stressful for the family member who feels responsible for proctoring homework completion. In Rethinking Homework: Best Practices to Support Diverse Needs, Cathy Vatterott provides guidelines for designing homework policies and tasks with purpose and about how to communicate homework reforms to families. Here she suggests ways to guide parental involvement in homework.

Most parents are unclear about what their role in homework is supposed to be. They often get different messages from different teachers as to what and how much they are supposed to do. They need more guidance and more communication from the teacher about expectations, but they also want teachers to respect what they as parents are willing and able to do in the homework process.

Parents should be encouraged to be less involved with the child's actual homework task and more involvedin communicating with the teacher—writing notes when students don't complete work, asking for adaptations, or documenting how much time the child spent on the task. Parents should be encouraged to be observers, not enforcers (Goldberg, 2007).

If the child cannot do the homework without help, parents should be directed to stop the child and write a note to the teacher. If doing homework with their child is causing stress or conflict, parents should be directed to stop helping (Margolis, 2005). Parents should inform the school if they believe their child's homework load is excessive.

It is logical to expect parents to be somewhat more involved at the elementary level, less involved at the middle school level, and rarely involved at the high school level. During middle school, parents should be encouraged to wean their child off their homework help. Parents can be instructed to tell their children, "It's time for me to quit helping you with your homework" or "Mom's not taking algebra this year" (Vatterott, 2005). At the middle and high school levels, parents should back off tasks such as correcting mistakes, proofreading, or reviewing for tests. By this age, students should be self-checking and working with classmates to study or peer-edit. Homework advice for 7th and 8th grade parents should be "Don't touch it, don't pack it." At the middle and high school levels, teachers should work with students directly to make sure homework is completed and turned in. This assumes, of course, that school strategies are in place to prevent the student from failing as a result of incomplete homework (see the discussion of homework support programs in Chapter 5).

When designing homework guidelines for parents, wording is important. The phrases parent guidelines orparent options suggest a voluntary process, that parents have choices in what they will or will not do in regard to homework. Parent expectations, however, indicates that teachers expect parents to do certain things, meaning that if parents don't do those things, they—or their children—may be judged poorly. An example of suggested guidelines for the parent's role in homework is shown, below.

Suggested Guidelines for Parental Involvement in Homework

Parents are encouraged to …

• Ask their child about what the child is studying in school.
• Ask their child to show them any homework assignments.
• Assist their child in organizing homework materials.
• Help their child formulate a plan for completing homework.
• Provide an appropriate space for their child to do homework.

Parents may, if they wish …

• Help their child interpret assignment directions.
• Proofread their child's work, pointing out errors.
• Read aloud required reading to their child.
• Give practice quizzes to their child to help prepare for tests.
• Help their child brainstorm ideas for papers or projects.
• Praise their child for completing homework.

Parents should not …

• Attempt to teach their child concepts or skills the child is unfamiliar with.
• Complete assignments for their child.
• Allow their child to sacrifice sleep to complete homework.

 

21 Literacy Resources For The Digital Teacher

by Kimberly Tyson, Ph.D., learningunlimitedllc.com

Update: This post was originally published in February, 2013

If you follow this blog, you know that I believe effective vocabulary instruction is just about the most important instructional activity for teachers to get right. For lots of reasons. Vocabulary influences fluency, comprehension, and student achievement. How’s that for starters?

In addition, a broad vocabulary is important for effective speaking, listening, reading and writing.Vocabulary is a foundational component of an effective K-12 comprehensive literacy framework. And, vocabulary plays an important role in the Common Core State Standards.

I’ve posted previously about the importance of effective vocabulary instruction and developed a popular Infographic featuring the “Top 10 Characteristics of Effective Vocabulary Instruction.” Since a broad vocabulary program includes both direct and indirect word learning strategies, the following online tools can be easily integrated to support word learning.

In today’s 21st century classrooms, digital tools should coexist alongside more traditional tools. Online tools, compared to their more traditional counterparts, provide a broader array of information about words and word meanings. In addition, some tools allow teachers to easily customize words so that students can practice, review, and play games with content or unit-specific words. Digital tools allows students to:

• hear pronunciations;
• read words in a variety of authentic examples;
• view photos and images related to words;
• reinforce word learning through interactive games;
• play with and manipulate language;
• discover rhyming words; and
• collaborate with classmates to create virtual words walls.

The following digital tools show promise to support word learning, review, and play with language. I’ve grouped them into four categories: Reference Tools, Word Clouds, Games and Review, Word Walls and Virtual Field Trips. They’re not listed in any particular order, so check out the entire list. Like other digital tools, they’re not all created equal. Choose tools carefully to support standards and learning goals.

21 Literacy Resources For The Digital Teacher

Reference Tools

1.  Lingro

Lingro is a cool tool for both the “wow” factor and for its usefulness. Simply type in a website address on the Lingro website and it instantly turns the website into a clickable dictionary that translates text in 12 languages. Lingro hides in the background until students need it. To use, students simply click on any word and several definitions of the word are instantly displayed. I could see this as very useful tool for just-in-time support forEnglish language learners.

2. Lexipedia

Looking for a visual thesaurus? Then Lexipedia is for you. Simple to use. Just type in any word and Lexipedia instantly displays the target word along with other words. It also color-codes the words by both parts of speech and relationships. As you hover over a word, a complete definition is displayed.

3. Shahi

Shahi, as described on the website, is a visual dictionary that combines Wiktionary content with Flickr images, and more! An absolute new favorite for me. Besides serving as a non-linguistic tool, I can also see this as a very useful tool for English language learners.

4. Snappy Words

Similar to Lexipedia, Snappy Words is another visual thesaurus. Teachers may want to introduce several of the thesaurus tools and allow students to select which works best for them. The visually sparse, cleaner display of Lexipedia works better for me.

5. Visual Dictionary Online

Check out Webster’s visual dictionary which is simple to use. Type in a single word or choose a theme that also includes many sub-categories from which to choose. Even though Webster’s is simple to use, there is a downside to this tool. After typing in a word search, 4 or 5 Google ads quickly appear above the definitions. Distracting. Yuk. It’s so clunky I almost didn’t include this tool.

6. Word Hippo

An all-in-one reference tool, Word Hippo does the following: defines a word, provides a meaning, provides a word that is opposite, pronounces a word, provides rhyming words, places the word in many different contexts, and translates the word. Whew! That’s a lot.

7. Wordnik.com

Wordnik has the look and feel of a traditional dictionary with a twist. Along with the definition, students can see images related to the word, hear related sounds, and even see tweets with the target word highlighted. The “related words” feature is particularly helpful. Wordnik also features a “Word of the Day,” “Random Words,” and pronunciations of words.

8. Your Dictionary

Your Dictionary bills itself as providing simple, straightforward definitions and the easiest-to-use online dictionary. That’s about right. Sometimes simple is good. In addition to providing a definition, Your Dictionary also includes a thesaurus and places the word in varied sentence examples.

9. MathWords

Math Words is a simple-to-use online dictionary specifically for math terms and formulas. This dictionary appears most appropriate for intermediate and secondary students.10. A Math Dictionary for Kids

A kid-friendly math dictionary. I like the simple, bright appearance that includes visual examples of each term. This math dictionary seems to be appropriate for elementary students.

Word Clouds

11.   Wordle

Type (or copy & paste) in a chunk of text or individual words and Wordle generates a word cloud of the key vocabulary based on word frequency. Wordle can also be used for many varied purposes – check out these 52 ideas for using Wordle to support learning.

12.  WordSift

Similar to Wordle, students type (or copy & paste) in a piece of text and WordSift sorts the text based on word frequency.  The visual thesaurus that displays beneath the words is a nice addition in WordSift. With the visual thesaurus, students immediately see how words are grouped semantically. A useful addition, I think.

13. Tagxedo

Tagxedo is a word cloud app with style! Tagxedo provides a good deal of customization for users. For example, if teachers or students want to create a word cloud in a shape such as the apple shown above, then Tagxedo is the right tool for the job. For younger students, Wordle is much more straightforward to use; however, older students will love the customization Tagxedo provides which includes colors, shapes, fonts, and themes.

Games and Review

14.  Flashcard Stash

While I think that flash cards are sometimes poor practice, students can benefit from instant recognition. Fluency, if you will, with a specific set of words. Now, if understanding doesn’t go deeper than instant recognition, students are in trouble. Teachers can sign up for a free account and create flashcards to coordinate with units of study.

15.  Vocabulary Games

While I’m not a fan of word searches for review or “seatwork,” this website also includes a wide assortment of other vocabulary games that can be used on a SmartBoard for review purposes. To make a tool like this more effective, be certain to review the meaning of words as students play games.

16.  Vocabulary Spelling City

A beefed-up version of vocabulary games, Vocabulary Spelling City includes many more game-like activities useful for reviewing words. A number of teacher-made lists are included such as analogies, compound words, math words, and many more. The free version seems to include about 5 activities and teachers can save lists. “Teach Me” pronounces words and uses each word in context. Teachers can use pre-selected sentences or create their own. Vocabulary Spelling City is a useful tool for students, teachers, and parents. While there is both a free and paid version, Vocabulary Spelling City seems like a natural for PTA funding. The classroom paid version allows students to practice in school and at home as well.

17. VocabAhead

VocabAhead is a useful tool for secondary students and teachers. Short videos – 30 to 60 seconds – accompany each word and make this tool stand out among others for secondary students. The Study Lounge, for students, features leveled word lists (grades 6-12) and SAT word lists. Students can view videos, hear pronunciations, practice, take quizzes, play games, track performance, and more. In addition, teachers can create their own word lists for students. Custom word lists can be embedded in a blog or class website which makes integration and review a snap. Apple and Android apps are also available for free download.

18. Free Rice

At Free Rice, students can practice matching words to the correct definition, and donate rice at the same time. For each correct answer, the United Nations World Food Programme donates 10 grains of rice to a country in need. How’s that for combining word learning with social goodness? When a student plays, there is a visual display of rice (see image) which is added to a bowl each time the student makes a correct response. Free Rice includes subject area lists in Geography, Science, Math, and others. It is leveled so students can play at just the right level of challenge for them. Note of caution: Free Rice may be addicting to youand your students.

Word Walls & Virtual Field Trips

19. Wallwisher

Wallwisher is an online space to create a collaborative, digital word wall. Getting a leg up on the more traditional word wall, Wallwisher allows users to create sticky notes that can include text, images, links and videos. Teachers can embed this into a classroom website or blog which makes it a go-to collaborative space for students. For primary students, teachers will probably want to create the wall with words and links for students. Older students will get the hang of it fairly quickly. A great, collaborative tool and virtual classroom space to build online references and key vocabulary for content units.

20. ThingLink

ThingLink is a tool for making images interactive. To use, simply upload an image, identify hot spots on specific parts of the image, and add text or web links to the image. In the classroom, teachers could use ThingLink to launch a unit by introducing students to key vocabulary or students could design interactive images as they become more familiar with vocabulary. There are many possibilities; I’d love to know how you use ThingLink to extend and deepen student learning.

21. TrackStar

TrackStar, a free online program, allows teachers to collect a series of websites and annotate them so that students can follow an online journey. With a little work, teachers can create a visual vocabulary field trip for students. Teachers determine topics which support units of study. TrackStar is a great way for students to experience multiple exposures to words in varied contexts (a characteristic of effective vocabulary instruction).

Back to School with iPads: 5 Steps for the First 5 Days

http://www.edutopia.org/user/49983

School is just about to start, or has already started, and you have been armed with iPads for this year. Whether your students will be 1:1 or you have access to a handful of shared devices, the expectation now exists that these tools will be put to good use. So now what? How do you get started? What can you do in thefirst five days of school to get going on the right foot?

1. Set Clear Expectations

Students will be excited about using iPads from the beginning. As teachers, a goal should be to make sure that students understand how these new devices fit into your classroom curriculum and culture.

Shaelynn Farnsworth (@shfarnsworth), a high school English teacher from Iowa, provides her students with a set of expectations on the first day of school. While these guidelines are written for her 1:1 laptop classroom, the word "iPad" could be substituted. Rather than being a compilation of do's and don'ts, Shaelynn's list provides students with a framework for establishing classroom culture, also touching on broader concepts such as responsibility, citizenship, and respect.

Third grade teacher Suzy Brooks (@SimplySuzy) writes:

I am committed to teaching students the value of these expensive tools, and how important it is to take care of them. It is also critical for my students to use them responsibly, so we can hopefully expand the use of 1:1 devices to more classrooms in the future.

To provide her elementary students with a concrete representation of responsibility, she created iPaddling licenses last year. Much like earning a driver's license, Suzy's third graders must demonstrate their understanding of the "rules of the road" and pass a skills test before earning the right to use iPads independently. Consequently breaking the rules can result in a license being revoked.

(Click to enlarge.)

 

Image credit: Suzy Brooks

Regardless of your students' age, take advantage of the first few days of school to include them in conversations about class expectations. This is also a good time to initiate discussions about responsible use and digital citizenship:

• How do we represent ourselves online?
• How do we interact with others?
• What are our community expectations and responsibilities?

If students play a role in the creation of class rules, expectations and policies, then they will be more likely to adhere to them.

2. Get Organized

Bringing iPads into the classroom raises numerous questions about organization and iPad workflow, particularly when working with shared devices or elementary students who do not have email. However, before diving into the challenges of distributing content to students and collecting work back, let's consider some of the broader questions associated with getting students, and yourself, organized at the start of the school year.

• In a 1:1 environment, how will students organize apps, notes and projects on their iPads?
• What naming conventions will you use if students are working on shared devices or turning in projects to shared folders within a cloud storage platform such as Google Drive, Dropbox or Box?
• How will you curate students' work -- especially when they have physical as well as digital projects?

Similar to how students need help organizing paper-based binders and notebooks at the start of the year, they may need assistance organizing themselves digitally. If they are using apps with a folder or notebook structure such as Drive, Notability or Evernote, consider organization across the curriculum. If all of your students follow a similar organizational structure from the beginning, it will be much easier for them -- and you -- to find their work as they begin creating more and more content.

In addition to providing students with a consistent organizational scheme on their devices, consider a standardized naming scheme for files and projects. Brenda Doucette (@doucetteb) teaches her middle school students to name all projects with the same format: section-lastname-project. Because her school has a shared model with iPads, this allows students to easily find their projects when they return to the device. In 1:1 settings where students might all be sending work to a shared folder, it makes identifying individual projects significantly easier and prevents overwriting each other's work if they happen to use identical file names.

Beyond organization, think about curation for reflection and assessment. The first week is a great time to organize Google Drive or Evernote to create digital portfolios before students start generating a lot of content -- both physically and digitally. As teachers, we need a system for curating student work and curriculum resources, which may exist as links, digital files or printed materials. iPad can capture pictures of student work, audio reflections, video representations, text and links. During the first five days, develop a system for where and how to put everything.

3. Start with Small, Meaningful Activities

The multitude of available apps can make getting started seem completely overwhelming. And while some educators may be comfortable with just letting students play to see what they might discover, others may not be ready to let students loose on the device.

One of the great benefits of iPad is that you and your students now have access to a photo and video camera. Leveraging only the camera app, consider the following activities to get started.

Teacher Activities

• Take a picture of each student as he or she enters the room on the first day of school to use in student portfolios, to create avatars, or for future projects. These photos could be used for a back-to-school slideshow or as an end-of-year retrospective.
• Create short video tutorials to demonstrate how to use specific apps, explain classroom procedures, introduce faculty members, or give virtual tours of the room or building.
• Record a quick video greeting of each student introducing themselves to play back throughout the first week. This might be a less intimidating way for new students to talk about themselves to their peers, and it could be incorporated into a later project.

Student Activities

• Ask students take their own self-portrait to document the first day of school. These images could be used in projects later in the week, or at the end of the school year as a visual for reflecting on what has been learned.
• Have students create a short video of themselves describing their hopes, objectives or aspirations for the year. This video could even become a virtual time capsule. Imagine high school seniors reflecting on where they think they will be in 12 months, or eighth graders contemplating their last year in middle school.
• To encourage collaboration, students might interview each other about their summer, share thoughts about the new school year, review summer reading books or discuss favorite iPad apps. Foreign language teachers or ELL/ESL instructors could use this as an initial opportunity to practice vocabulary and pronunciation.

Particularly in elementary classrooms, there may be concerns about student privacy associated with taking pictures of young students. Suzy Brooks teaches her students to take pictures only of their classmates' feet. As an unintended consequence, she discovered the colorfulness of their shoes, which provided excellent prompts for descriptive writing, poetry projects, story starters, question generators and more.

4. Include Time for "Tech 10"

While iPad is incredibly user friendly, that does not mean students know how to effectively use the device to support their learning. In fact, Rebecca Davies wrote a wonderful post last spring, The Digital Native Myth: Why we still need to teach kids HOW to use the iPad. During the first week of school, consider building in a "Tech 10," ten minutes set aside every day to teach specific iPad skills.

Older students may need to learn how to install Safari bookmarklets for tools such as dotEPUB or PrintFriendly, as well as how to connect their devices to cloud storage apps like Drive, Dropbox or Box. For younger students, adding a web clip to the home screen or using speak selection to hear text might be new concepts, and all students can be introduced to organization and naming systems.

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Image credit: Shawn McCusker

Shawn McCusker (@shawnmccusker) created aTech Signup sheet for his high school students to use in his 1:1 iPad classroom. Last year, they maintained the sheet as a Google Doc. This year, Shawn is having each student keep track in Evernote. By the end of the first week of school, students should be all set up with accounts to support the first few months of school.

5. Start Creating

The power of iPad is how it can be used as a creation device. This does not imply that students need to create massive projects right off the bat, but you should start considering how they might leverage a few tools to begin demonstrating their knowledge and understanding.

Older students could use a screencasting app such as Explain Everything orEducreations to show their problem solving in math review, create a video about a summer reading book, or publish a Public Service Announcement (PSA) about appropriate iPad use in the classroom.

All about Gage 

Photo credit: Matt Gomez

Younger students might use a drawing app such as Doodle Buddy to share their favorite things about the first day of school, or create an "All About Me" project such as this image of Gage from his kindergarten teacher, Matt Gomez.

Not only does jumping into creation help students realize the power of iPad as a tool to support their learning, but it also provides teachers with an opportunity to differentiate assessment, scaffold skills, and learn more about their students.

Getting Started

The first week(s) of school can be daunting, particularly with an influx of new devices. There is nothing wrong with starting small and using iPad as a crutchfor support, mobility and access. However, the goal for integrating these devices should be to redefine the learning process and transform your classroom.