We started Day 2 by chatting a bit more about Showbie. I can't believe results that high school teacher Erin Dunn-Keefe had in her classroom using Showbie. Missing assignment rate dropped from 5.21% to .63% ??? That is a huge improvement. You can't argue with numbers like that. It's time for our board to step up and realize that this is the way of the present & the future. Technology's presence will only continue to grow in our schools, and all children need equitable access to it in the classroom. I love hearing stories like Barb told us about Bridgewater High School and how they have a 1-to-1 iPad ratio. Being in a school that has ONE iPad for the school to share, I can't help but wonder what kind of lessons and experiments the kids in my class could be doing if they all had iPads. Hopefully in the near future, we'll get to find out!
Some additional quick notes on the day:
1) While finishing up our first presentation, Tim, Jude & myself used Videoscribe to create a cover page for our comic book. What a cool, but frustrating app to use. I loved the little introductory video that we were able to make; I think it added a neat dynamic to our presentation. However, the fact that our 10 second video took over 12 minutes to upload was a deterrent. If I were to try using this app with our one iPad in our classroom, it would take an unreal amount of time for our entire class to upload videos.
2) I loved hearing Barb say that AT is about enhancing performance of individuals with disabilities and providing independent access to a task. It's not cheating! It's important for us to remember what it is we're teaching. We're not required to teach students to add or subtract solely on paper; any way that they can express their method of learning is valid. If they require technology to express their thoughts and opinions, let them use it! It's not cheating, it's enhancing student performance.
3) Lastly, I enjoyed our SAMR (not SMAR...lesson learned!) activity, but I could use some more practice enhancing my lessons to redefinition. I feel as though if I were teaching in a school like Bridgewater High, that it would be much more reasonable to reach the "redefinition" stage of SAMR more frequently than I will be able to at my current school with it's minimal technology. That being said, it's something to strive towards!
4) The reading process is an enormous process! There are so many more steps than I originally thought of. Attending to task is a critical part of the process. Being emotionally and physically prepared to sit down and read will greatly influence whether or not you will get anything out of sitting down and reading for a period of time. It's amazing how the early influences in a child's life can set them up to succeed or struggle with reading. Having a 14 month old at home, I've been very aware of the importance of early reading in a child's life. We read each day together and this class reinforced how important that time is!
Cheers,
Chris
I find the learning curve a little frustrating but at the same time it is what some of our students will go through when learning new APPS. I do get frustrated when the technology let's you down. For example the presentations showing two pages would have been easier to see the details if they were only one page at a time but we didn't stop to fix it. To be honest I don't know that I would have been able to but it seemed like most of the class did know how to fix it. To stop to get the APP running the way it is meant to or "just right" is time consuming. I can only trust that my students will figure these things out which will enrich their learning.
ReplyDeleteI too experienced a measure of frustration with the apps as well. My group had a vision in our head of how we wanted our presentation to take shape but difficulties with the apps (both technological and user related) meant that our vision wasn't necessarily completely realized in the final product. After the fact I was able to draw the parallel that my experiences probably closely mirror many of the daily struggles that my students face. Oftentimes, my students may know what they want to present to me but for various reasons or difficulties their product doesn't properly convey their level of understanding on a subject. So I definitely agree that the proper use of AT would definitely allow our students to truly display their level of comprehension (once all the bugs have been worked out of course!)
ReplyDeleteAn insightful observation. It was frustrating when our final product did not reflect our initial vision. Often this occurs in my classroom when students are completing projects, especially when technology is involved. I find myself walking a fine line between encouraging students to produce their best work and encouraging them to get their work in on time. I do not want to deter their creativity but I also want them to learn the importance of time management and deadlines. It is a balancing act.
DeleteI, too, found the statistics around the use of Showbie to be interesting. I did, however, find using Showbie to edit documents a little cumbersome on the laptop. I recently watched a teacher at my school use Google Classroom with her students, and it was great! I almost feel that Google Classroom is a better option considering the technology that I have access to at my school. Google Classroom was quite simple for the students (grade 3) to access and use. Every student got a personalized copy of the assignment, and it saved automatically as they worked. When they were finished, they just clicked "Done" to submit the assignment, and there was an "unsubmit" option for students who were a little too hasty with clicking the done button! If we had a class set of iPads, Showbie would be a good option, but considering the technology in my school, Google Classroom seems like a good alternative to achieve the same goals.
ReplyDelete