Sneak Peek at my new iBook out July 4th, 2013 on the iTunes iBook Store. Will include detailed lesson plans and in depth video tutorials for the teachers.
“For the first time in history, we have a technological device that is so intuitive to young children, that the educational possibilities are endless. No longer is technology a hindrance to student learning. However, teachers are struggling to make connections between Apps, the Curriculum and 21st Century Skills”.
First 4 lessons outlined in the iBook:
Lesson 1:
Use the Topia App to develop concepts related to Geography. Students make connections between fictitious worlds and our own. Big concepts explored include sustainability, global trends and interconnectedness. Lesson 2: Use the Tellagami App to develop reading fluency skills. Students developing the ability to give effective formative feedback will also be developed within this lesson. Lesson 3: Use the Hopscotch App to teach students to code. The language of code can be used in many different areas from web design to complex animations and game design. Lesson 4 Use the Formative Feedback App to encourage effective feedback to be given between students. Students will use symbols to prompt effective discussion.
Thanks to all my YOUTUBE subscribers. Make sure you keep checking on my latest teacher ipad tutorials on youtube - http://www.youtube.com/user/appsbypaulhamilton/videos
IPads in classrooms are revolutionary learning devices - but don't forget it is the teachers who make connections with the curriculum and look for unique ways of using Apps in all learning areas. Think outside the square everyone. An example of this is the Topia App. Why not use this World Building App to explore the Geography Curriculum. Big concepts like sustainability and Over population can be explored with students like never before.
1. Your students are authoring and publishing content
Not playing educational games, not touching balloons that explode into number facts and not data processing huge amounts of content.
Instead - creating ebooks, multimedia presentations, podcasting, movie making and taking amazing photographs. Students are publishing for the local school community to view or publishing world wide.
2. Your students are integrating more than 1 App and suggesting App to the teachers
Students are jumping between the Camera App and Explain Everything to personalise projects and assignments. Students are embedding video and audio into Apps that results in rich media presentation.
Students are making connections between Apps they find and learning that is happening in the classroom.
3. Your teachers are talking Apps at lunchtime!
Teachers sharing WINS and great use of technology in the classroom. Teachers identifying and analysing Apps that are purposeful and hitting outcomes and the curriculum. Teachers are using a single App in a variety of different areas.
What's the secret to an effective 1:1 program in schools? Devices? Infrastructure? User agreement? Whilst all of these areas play a role, the classroom TEACHER is the most important and significant ingredient in an effective 1:1 program. Let me be a little more specific. The teachers imagination and creativity, their ability to make connections with the device and applications, their knowledge of the curriculum and the 21st century students who sit in their class. See it is the teachers who see the hidden wonders/magic of an App like iMovie or a web2 tool like Todays Meet. This edition of the appsbypaulhamilton newsletter pays tribute to the creative and innovative teachers in our schools and the impact they are having on young minds across the globe.
Using iMovie in the classroom:
What better way to grab the attention of our students than with a movie trailer. Even better, get students creating narratives through iMovie. This tutorial looks at creating a Narrative using iMovie on an iPad.
Just recently I discovered the world of Podcasting and thought I would use it as a way of discovering great Apps that are out there. I plan to interview Teachers, App Developers and Parents but thought I would start by asking our target audience in this entire discussion: THE KIDS! As Dan Pink suggests we should talk with our students more about what they require/need at school. Here is the Talking Apps with Paul Hamilton first episode. In the first episode, I chat with my 8 year old daughter on her favourite Apps and how they could used at school. Email me if you would like to be on the next show.
Utilizing screen recording animations within an Augmented Reality environment:
Augmented Reality is starting to filter into classrooms across the globe. The Horizon Report is a yearly publication that highlights, analyzes and predicts the ways in which technological advances will change teaching, learning and creative inquiry. The 2013 report describes how and why augmented reality will play an important role in teaching and learning over the next two to three years. Luckily for educators Augmented Reality is available. Using 2 Apps (Aurasma and Explain Everything) you can create your own Augmented Reality experience for your students.
Interesting Observation:
I often get frustrated with those who continue to see the iPad as a solely consuming device. We want our students creating and the iPad delivers creativity and content creation in spades. Our students are using technology differently than we did (and more of it). Anyone who has kids will notice this on a regular basis. As Sir Ken Robinson observes:
“When my son, James, was doing homework for school, he would have five or six windows open on his computer, Instant Messenger was flashing continuously, his cell phone was constantly ringing, and he was downloading music and watching the TV over his shoulder. I don’t know if he was doing any homework, but he was running an empire as far as I could see, so I didn’t really care.”
I have no doubt that students viewing videos adds worth to the educational experience. However, how do we optimise the students experience so that we go further once the video is finished. Traditional note taking is limited. In my experience it is the posing of questions that we want our students to do so that they build a deeper understanding of the concepts. Also, allowing students to find and add content to the lesson needs to be encouraged. Using Today's Meet allows for this. Can students watch media and pose questions at the same time? Absolutely.
Using Video to give Formative Feedback:
Giving effective feedback to students has one of the highest impacts on student learning. As Professor John Hattie states: “Feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning and achievement” and “This evidence shows that although feedback is among the major influences, the type of feedback and the way it is given can be differentially effective.”
In my experiences video feedback is one of these highly effective methods. Using video as a form of feedback allows: student-student feedback, teacher-student feedback and self feedback.
Upcoming Professional Development for School Leaders:
Looking forward to presenting at the Leading a Digital School conference at Crown Casino in Melbourne next term. My 2 sessions will be on Augmented Reality in Education and 21st Century Skills V Technology. Those who have a leadership position in schools should definitely attend! For registration details visit:
The IWBNet website HERE
Free teacher tutorials.
Don't forget to check out my free teacher tutorial channel on youtube. It is approaching 40000 views and has plenty of useful and practical tutorials for teachers.
About Paul:
Author of the iBook Augmented Reality in Education, creator of the Science AR App, the critically acclaimed educational app Formative Feedback for Learning and the revolutionary iBook series My Prep Year, Paul is changing the way digital content is being delivered in schools. Apple Distinguished Educator Class of 2013. Paul is a leader in the implementation of Augmented Reality in schools to improve learning outcomes, Professional Development of staff with integration of ICTs, and has expertise in the implementation of mobile devices into pedagogical frameworks.
Sat down in a funky little cafe in St Kilda this morning (for breakfast) reflecting on a wonderful teaching and learning conference I had just attended over the past 3 days. A young family joined us at the table next to us. The father began analysing the menu whilst the Mum reached into her oversized handbag and pulled out the child's pacifier. The pacifier was a little larger than the normal one. The pacifier was an iPad, an amazing tool that I use on a daily basis with my students and the staff I mentor.
We use the iPad in a plethora of ways from digital storytelling, world building, multimedia presentations, Augmented Reality, student feedback giving, observational record keeping.......I could go on and on.
Not a doubt in my mind the iPad is tool, that when used by motivated students and innovative educators, learning is both enhanced and engaged in.
Back to the family sitting next to me. Mum and Dad converse openly. Child does not make a sound for the entire meal.
Time to fly back to Queensland, family sits a couple of rows in front of me. This time Mum and Dad and 2 children. The first, a boy 4 years of age and the second, a young female toddler. Both parents hand over an iPad each to their children. Over the course of the flight both children say very little, but I watch closely. Both are watching movies and using coloring in Apps.
So what's the problem?
Our world is changing, and the world our children will enter into during and after school is much different to that of our generation. Firstly, we passively consumed Media. We watched TV and later consumed the Internet by browsing websites. Secondly, the work place required a different set of skills to that our children will require.
We are entering a time in history where creativity and divergent thinking is what our children will require in the work place. As Dan Pink states:
"The future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind: artists, inventors, storytellers-creative and holistic "right-brain" thinkers whose abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who doesn't." I recently viewed a concert on Youtube. The concert was a little different.
This needs a little explaining.
This is a real audience.
The singer is completely virtual.
The concert was sold out in 3 countries.
and
A team of individuals created this character collaboratively using completely open source and free software. No ones owns this character. Anyone, or more likely group, can create a concert using this free software.
I could give more examples. Wikipedia. Who would of thought the largest resource site would be created and fed by us, hobbyists and enthusiasts who don't look for payment or recognition. Wikipedia succeeded because we are changing and the world is changing. Microsofts plans for a CD encyclopedia (ENCARTA), hiring the best academics and writers in the world, was blown out of the water because it didn't involve us. We are creators and collaborators and we own the Internet.
So why do I have a problem with iPads. Young children are being kept quite by iPads. Young students are being kept quite using iPads in a passive and extremely unnatural way. This is the problem Parents need to address. We are fostering an environment that is completely foreign to the generation coming through. We are fostering skills that will be (currently are) obsolete.
I see greatness with tools like the iPad. I see naturally innovative and creatively blessed minds using iPads in creative and innovative ways. Unfortunately I also see something else and it worries me. Paul
Proud to announce Augmented Reality in Education featured on the iBookstore in the Made with iBooks Author category and the New Category.
Download below.
https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/augmented-reality-in-education/id641019829?mt=11
