My New Blog

I haven't posted for a while for a few reasons. One of them is that I have been unbelievably busy, but that's nothing new for anyone in education. Another reason is that I have discovered Twitter. The main reason is that I have not been feeling inspired to blog as I feel this blog has been a great way of documenting the school's, and my own, journey from early on. I am happy to say things have changed, as they always should, and while we certainly haven't changed direction we are having a play with the course settings. Don't worry, my love affair with iPads has not ended. I still think they are one of the best tools out there for schools but there are some other great ones too. I, just this morning, created a new blog called Teaching with (and without) Technology at KPS. The blog address is www.teachingwithtechnologyatkps.blogspot.com and there I will continue our journey with iPads, talk about some of the amazing tools I use in the Digital Technologies learning area share all sorts of ideas and thoughts - don't worry not just my own. Feel free to follow me on Twitter - I'm not that interesting but I do follow some very cool people - @KpsKreghenz. Oh and don't get too excited about my new blog - I haven't posted anything yet!
 I have used Lulu Publishing to publish a colour paperback copy of most of the blog posts from this blog. It turned out very cool. If you are interested in purchasing a copy go to the link below.

 Fully Bloggin' It @ KPS

My Story

For some reason I have chosen today to share my personal story so here goes, for people that don't already know it, ... I was a misunderstood child ... just joking, I meant my personal iPad story.

I have to admit I have always been a bit of a gadget geek but I have also never rushed out and purchased the latest thing. I like to wait for people to discover and fix the bugs and for prices to come down. The first time I ever saw an iPad was a TV advertisement in early 2011. I wasn't impressed and didn't really see what it had on a laptop, apart from rotating orientation. At that time, in my year 2 class, I had a student with autism. She received an iPad from an autism organisation and her mother bought it in to show me - it was love at first sight. I saw so much potential for the iPad in the classroom. Soon after, I bought my first iPad and I took it to school. I used it with the whole class and particularly with my student with autism. I had to buy myself another one so I could gave a play too.  

As I had been using an iPad in my classroom, when KPS was selected to be part of the early childhood iPad initiative, I was selected to be the school project coordinator. At that time my role was really on the device management and deployment side but, as a year 2 classroom teacher, I also got to use a set of iPads in the classroom. At this stage we had a great time playing with commercial apps but I also created texts for guided reading along with some sight word resources. The following year, at the same time as I moved into a specialist IT teacher role we became one of 10 schools in WA to be regarded as a lighthouse school as part of the ILNNP iPad component. Part of my role last year and this year is to provide support to classroom teachers in their implementation of iPads as a tool in the classroom. This has been provided via this bog, professional development during PD days, staff meetings and after school sessions as well as in class support and modelling.

During the last 2 and a half years that we have been using iPads we have had 1 visit from the Apple Education Team, 3 visits from the ILNNP iPad Consultant and I and another staff member have attended workshops in Perth provided for ILNNP Lighthouse Schools. These workshops and visits mostly provided us with a way of seeing how other schools are using iPads and enabled us to see some of the possibilities. We have also sought out and engaged in Professional Learning by other providers.  All of this was invaluable in our journey but, being quite isolated in Kalgoorlie, we still encountered many roadblocks and issues along the way including planning for deployment, setting up and syncing, working out VPP, engaging and providing support to teachers, wi-fi infrastructure, charging and storage, setting up Apple TVs, ensuring we were using best practice, using the SAMR model and many, many more. All of these issues we had to solve for ourselves but we saw them as challenges, not problems.

For me, it has been empowering overcoming problems as they arise and making sure that iPads are a useful addition to our school. Lucky for me, I absolutely love being a teacher and can genuinely say I look forward to every day with excitement. There is not an evening or a weekend that has gone by in the last 2 years that I haven't spent at least some time on an iPad with the intention of improving how we are using iPads at our school. Initially I spent a lot of time researching and testing apps that we could use then I moved onto finding ways that we could develop resources to differentiate learning. I now spend most of the time exploring web based resources, learning management systems and lesson delivery options along with apps that can be used to develop personalised activities.

Why did I decide to tell this story? Because I want to share that I am thrilled with where KPS is in regard to iPads and I know we can do even better. We have certainly received some support in our journey but most of it has come through hard work and commitment from staff. Our mantra is "Pedagogy first, technology second" and as easy as iPads are to set up and use, they are just as easy to put away when they are not relevant to a lesson. Introducing any new tool to every teacher in a school and making sure they use it appropriately to enhance their teaching doesn't happen without hard work.

My New Favourite App

From what I can work out this App came out earlier this year and I can't believe it has taken me this long to find it. I must have been napping.

Basically it is an iPad app in which you can create animated videos from photos. Nothing new there - we have SonicPics and Animoto (that I still love) but this one is beyond simple! You can choose from thousands and thousands of Creative Commons and public domain still images or you can use your own, it offers eight different story structures with prompts and ideas or you can just go for it, there are five different layouts for your photos, there are 32 different and wonderful themes, there 37 instrumental tracks to set the right mood and video hosting is built in for easy sharing as your finished masterpiece can be viewed an a phone, tablet, computer, etc. You can make your videos private or public and I am sure you would be able to link them to a QR code although I haven't tried this yet - I was too excited about sharing the app.

You just add photos and talk your story and the app makes it all look and sound amazing! Have I convinced you yet? Do you want to know the name of the App so you can grab your iPad and download it immediately? That's what I thought. The App is called Adobe Voice and it is FREE!

Blended Learning

In preparation for our BYOD trial next year, I have been thinking about some of the many blended learning tools that are already useful with a shared model but will be even more useful for a 1:1environment.
The following tools are basically Learning Management Systems - you would need to select one of these to use for the whole class:

Edmodo is an educational website that is sort of a cross between a social network and a learning management system. Using Edmodo, students and teachers can reach out to one another and connect by sharing ideas, problems, and helpful tips.The Edmodo interface resembles Facebook, which makes it instantly popular with students! Edmodo can be implemented by a single teacher for their class, with no technical expertise required to get started.Once you have created a class (or a school) you can invite students and other teachers to join the class by providing a unique code for that class. (It is worth keeping an eye on enrolments to ensure that students are enrolling as ‘students’, not ‘teachers’.) Each student has a unique ‘Parent code’ that can be provided to parents to view only their child’s assignments and contributions to discussions.

 Schoology leans a little more towards being a LMS than Edmodo while maintaining an easy-to-use ‘social network’ interface. Schoology can be implemented by a single teacher for their class, with no specialist technical expertise required to get started. Sign-up, and away you go. As a teacher (or, as Schoology describes you, an Instructor) you create Courses, add materials to the courses – assignments, quizzes, files and links, discussions, photo albums and web pages. Schoology also provides a Gradebook, which is auto-populated with Assignments and Quizzes that you have created for a course. Schoology includes an Analytics feature, where you can check student participation in Assignments, Discussions, and their use of provided course web links.

Classroom is a new tool coming to Google Apps for Education. Classroom will weave together Google Docs, Drive and Gmail to help teachers create and organise assignments quickly, provide feedback efficiently, and communicate with their classes with ease. It will let students organise their work, complete and turn it in, and communicate directly with their teachers and peers. Classroom automatically will create Drive folders for each assignment and for each student. Students will easily see what’s due on their Assignments page, so they can stay on top of their work. Classroom will also let teachers make announcements and start discussions—improving communication inside and outside of class.

The following tools are options for presenting lessons and assessing:

Showbie is a FREE app that can be used to create and collect assignments right from the iPad. You create a free teacher account and you are able to create classes within the app. You receive a code for each class for your students to connect with. It is like a drop box for the classroom. Using Showbie, students can submit pictures, video, podcasts, presentations and other work from hundreds of apps into their Showbie online assignment folder. Teachers use the Showbie iPad app to easily review students’ work and provide rich feedback with annotations and voicenotes.  

Nearpod allows teachers to construct presentations using the Nearpod website and deliver instruction to students by pushing content out to multiple devices at once.  The teacher can control the presentation from a master iOS device, while students follow along on a class set of iPads. To enliven instruction, teachers can also embed multiple choice questions, polls, videos, quizzes, open-ended questions, and web-links in their presentations. It is also possible to pay for a gold membership so that lesson can be presented in a way that let's students work at their own pace or for homework.

Blendspace is an online multimedia Web tool for teachers and students to create presentations, WebQuests, projects, online courses and more! Blendspace is integrated with Edmodo and, in your lessons, you can pull resources from YouTube, Dropbox, Google Drive, Flickr, Website Links, My Computer, Bookmarks and more! Multiple choice questions can be embedded into lessons.

Socrative is a smart student response system that empowers teachers by engaging their classrooms with a series of educational exercises and games. Our apps are super simple and take seconds to login. Socrative runs on tablets, smartphones, and laptops.

ThingLink

I came across this app a long time ago and I could see huge potential but I didn't really have a chance to have a proper play. I have now had a bit of a play and I love it. What a great way for students to present a report - about anything at all! You can add web links, text, links to youtube clips just from an image. What is even better is it is web based so can be shared so easily.

The one I have pasted below is a quick muck up of the type of thing you might get students to create - but with much more research and more links and facts. I created my image in PicCollage, saved it to my camera roll and accessed it through the ThingLink app. It took me a total of 30 minutes and the app is so easy to use.

Animals of the Amazon

Game Making on iPads

As the way I use iPads has evolved over the past couple of years I find that I most value the iPad as a tool for  personalising learning, for assessment and for collecting evidence of student achievements and for promoting student creativity. For these purposes apps such as Edmodo and Nearpod are invaluable for personalising learning and apps such as Book Creator are invaluable for collecting evidence and artefacts and apps such as iMovie, PuppetPals, GreenScreen, Tellagami are excellent for student creativity. For assessment, their are so many options such as apps that collect data when students sign in, taking screenshots of students' results on an app and using screen casting apps like Educreations and Explain Everything to record students' understanding of various concepts.

My favourite way to assess is to have students create games for other students to use. This way games are created that are relevant to the content being taught in your classroom and you will see from how well the game is created, how well the student understands the topic. TinyTap has been (and still is) one of my favourite apps to use for this purpose. The only problem is the games are not editable so if students do make a mistake when they create their game, while you can still use this to assess their understanding, they then need to remake the entire game for it to be useful. I recently discovered another excellent app that can be used for this purpose.

StickAround, unlike many of my other favourite apps, is not free but it is well worth its $3.79. It is available on Apple's Volume Purchasing Program which takes is back to $1.90 if you purchase over 20 copies. I won't go into details about how StickAround works because there is a great deal of information on the website at www.learninginhand.com/stickaround. The website contains video tutorials, user guides, a blog and more. Basically you use StickAround to create puzzles on any topic. Some suggestions they make on the website are:

• place locations on a map
• tag parts of the body
• place items where they belong on a chart
• complete a graphic organizer
• annotate the water cycle
• label people in a photo
• diagram a sentence
• associate powers with the branches of government
• sequence events on a timeline
• associate words and definitions
• label the parts of a plant
• put words in alphabetical order
• fill in a Venn diagram
• match photos of animals to their habitats

What a great way to assess student understanding! These puzzles are fully editable from the project page so, if students do misunderstand the concept, their games can then be fixed. Once completed and repaired, puzzles can be saved to non-editable versions and they can be shared using GoogleDrive.

Obviously TinyTap and StickAround are also more than excellent for creating personalised games/puzzles for students to play.

iPad Continuum

At KPS the iPad Committee has spent the last couple of meetings developing a document to help teachers map their own progress in their use of iPads as a tool for the classroom. This document is focussed not so much on how students are using iPads but more on the types of lessons teachers are planning and is organised as a continuum, with each stage building on the last. Hopefully this will make it easier for teachers to reflect on their use of this amazing technology and see what else they can do to ensure they are using the iPad to its full potential for the benefit of their students. The document is pictured below.

Tutorial on how to create a virtual green screen project

I created this tutorial using SnapGuide:
http://snapguide.com/guides/create-a-virtual-green-screen-project

Show what they Know

In iCafe this week we talked about using iPads to allow students to demonstrate their understanding. Two great quotes come to mind when thinking about this topic "You don't really understand something unless you can explain it to your Grandmother." Albert Einstein and "If students are sharing their work with the world, they want it to be good. If they are just sharing it with [the teacher], they want it to be good enough." Rushton Hurley

Letting students create on an iPad is such a simple and effective way of finding out what they know and understand after a unit of work. Just some ways to do this are having students:

Create games using TinyTap, Keynote, Stick Around
Make digital stories using BookCreator, Keynote, Animoto, Haiku Deck, LittleStoryMaker, SonicPics
Create screen casting lessons using Educreations, Explain Everything, ShowMe
Make movies using just the video camera, iMovie, greenscreen, virtual greenscreen
Create tutorials using iMovie, SnapGuide

Other apps that can be used to show understanding include a Tellagami, PicCollage, PhotoCard, StopMotion, Skitch.

It doesn't always need to be the teacher deciding what students should create to display their understanding. Leave it up to them to decide and then share their creation with the world through blogs, websites, YouTube, in app sharing etc.

Follow by Email

For those wondering how to follow by email I have attached a photo of where to find the button.

Using Book Creator to Demonstrate Learning

iPads are excellent devices for students to demonstrate their learning on. There are so many 'power' apps that you, or students, can choose from to use in this way. To demonstrate what they know about a topic students could create a movie, a presentation, a poster, a book, a comic strip, a game and more. If you are unsure of students' abilities you might like to tell them which app you want them to use and work your way through a collection. The idea is to get yo a point where you can ask students to 'show you what they have learned' using the iPads.

One way that works for so many concepts and so many learning areas is having students create a riddle book. The link below is to a very simple book I created about planets of our solar system. The great thing about such a resource is that others students can use it to test their knowledge.

Our Solar System

Digital Storytelling

One digital storytelling tool that I don't think I have talked about enough is Animoto. It is an online and mobile video creation service that makes it easy and fun for students to create and share amazing videos using their own images, words and music. You can sign up and create dynamic presentations for free or there are a couple of paid options with more options. As always, I use the free version.

After choosing a theme (this will determine the look and feel of the video), simply upload images and to the video editor. Next, you personalise your movie with text and music— Once you’re satisfied with the layout, click the produce button to be amazed.

Animoto can be integrated across the curriculum so it is the perfect digital storytelling tool for the classroom. For example, biographies, field trips, book report projects, movie trailers and more can all be created quickly and easily. A great feature is the ability to sign up for a teacher account and add up to 50 students. This way you get Plus for free for 6 months and the ability to save the finished product to the camera roll. Or you can just share the link on your class blog.

What a great way to inspire creativity in your students by giving them the opportunity to showcase their knowledge in a fun, innovative and educational way!

I created a quick video to give you an idea. This one is very basic and took my 2 minutes to create.

Digital Creations by KPS Students

Kim's Random Thought for the Day

There is no question that, in education, there is huge emphasis on stardardised testing and data collection. If the only reason you are using the iPad in your classroom is to improve test scores not only are you not using the iPad to its full potential but you are probably not going to see a huge improvement. We all know you cannot find out everything you need to know about students through 'tests'. We also know that the best way for a student to fully understand a concept is to teach someone else. If you are already a great maths teacher, using the iPad so students can practise the skills is not really going to help them, or you. Using the iPad for a student to demonstrate their thinking or create resources to teach others will allow for learning and assessment at the same time. Improving the, in part, surface learning that is needed to complete a written test is not using the iPad for its potential. You only have to glance at the Australian Curriculum to see the broad and deep knowledge embedded into the learning areas, general capabilities and cross curricular priorities. This is where the potential of the iPad comes into its own.

Virtual Green Screen

Some of us have been having a great time with green screens at KPS recently, using the app Green Screen by Do Ink. We purchased a kingsize green sheet and hung it on a wall. Students had a fantastic time using the green screen to add an authentic background to their research project presentations. They were able to transport themselves anywhere they wanted to add effects to their presentation. While it took me a few attempts to work out the app, the students, as usual, amazed me with their skills.

What is really exciting is the discovery we made today. It was actually another teacher at the school, Krystal, who thought of it first. She asked if she typed text on a green background could she then use the app to put a video behind the writing. After some discussion we decided there was no reason why it wouldn't work and, if it did, it would open up so many possibilities.

We went home and Krystal tried the text option and I was keen to see if the same concept would work in PuppetPals. I'm pleased to say both ideas worked. We both used Keynote to create our 'virtual green screen' on because, by inserting a shape on the page and turning it green, we could then turn the page into an image with a simple screenshot.

There are so many possibilities. I'm excited!

The Power of Using Book Creator with EALD Learners

Book Creator in an amazing app that has very few limitations when you start getting creative and thinking outside the box.

Here are just a few ideas of ways Book Creator can support you to support EALD learners in your classroom. These ideas can also be used for lower ability students.

Create ‘talking’ books in Book Creator that EALD students could use to reinforce learning while other students are working on more difficult tasks. Include word, picture and audio where possible. These books can be sent to iBooks so that they are safe from accidental editing. Some ideas for the types of books that might be helpful are:

Books that focus on classroom vocabulary-

Books with photos of other students – showing class seating plan.

Books that reinforce maths concepts with pictures of manipulatives, money, clocks etc.

Books that focus on the text types you are exploring in your classroom.

Alphabet books as you teach letters and sounds – these could be added to each time you cover a sound with this student.

If you want the book to be more interactive you can start to add some questions and answers with interactive links so that students receive immediate feedback.

You can have the student read the book in Book Creator and create matching activities where students need to match words to pictures.

When students are ready to begin ‘creating’ for themselves they could draw pictures to display their understanding, they could illustrate sentences in a book you have already created, they could type the text to match a photo with a spoken sentence. They could record themselves reading a sentence that has been written on each page. They could create an entire book working alone or with another student.

There are so many other ways Book Creator can be used with EALD learners - hopefully these few will start you off.

The TPACK Framework

At KPS we use the SAMR model by Dr Ruben Puentedura to ensure technology is integrated successfully into teaching programs. This Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition Model looks at one method of exploring the impact of technology on education. It shows a progression that adopters of educational technology often follow as they progress through teaching and learning with technology.

http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/archives/2011/10/28/SAMR_TPCK_In_Action.pdf

Another framework that identifies the knowledge teachers need to teach effectively with technology is Technology, Pedagogy and Content Knowledge (TPACK). This framework takes a broader look at the integration of technology by showing the equal importance of pedagogy, content and technology.

http://tpack.org

Reproduced by permission of the publisher, © 2012 by tpack.org

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge is meaningful, skilled teaching with technology (or without if that is the better option). It is different to the three concepts alone because a deep understanding of all three is required to combine them and produce pedagogically and technologically sound learning based on strong knowledge of content.

Digital Portfolios for Self Reflection

I have blogged a few times about digital portfolios, particularly in the early years. The reasons for portfolios that we have explored are to replace paper portfolios, assessment for reporting, evidence for parent meetings, to monitor improvement etc. One reason we are yet to explore is for students to engage in self assessment and reflection. Older students could definitely be given the responsibility of maintaining their own digital portfolios.

This is something you would need to have a play with in your own class to discover the method that would suit you best. As we have, generally, one iPad per three students at KPS I would envision three students having a portfolio in Book Creator on each iPad. Obviously there would need to be strict rules about not going into other people's portfolios. To help students organise their information effectively and to ensure that reflection takes place, a template should be developed. This template should give students guidance but still allow them to reveal their own creativity and personality. In portfolios students can include digital work samples from the camera roll, photos of non digital work, videos of activities such as listening and speaking activities, in app drawings, audio or text reflections, screen shots of task descriptions and/or rubrics.

At the end of each term or the end of the year the portfolios can be kept by the student in the form of an ePub.

Sharing with YouTube

Recently at KPS we have been talking about the importance of using iPads to create rather than consume and about students using them to demonstrate their learning, collaborate with others and share their creations. Having been using iPads at our school for over two years it is important that we continue to evolve. Those teachers who have been at the school for our entire iPad journey really need to be exploring g new and exciting ways of using iPads that they can share with others.

One excellent way to share digital creations is via YouTube. I would recommend creating a YouTube channel for your class and sharing it with parents as well as making it public on the web. It is a fantastic way for students to receive feedback on their work. Privacy does not need to be a problem because, generally, students's faces would not be in projects they are creating to demonstrate their learning and there is no need to include their full name.

Creating a YouTube channel is very easy but I will add photos below to show the steps.

Build Your Own Adventure Stories

Something I have been playing with lately is using the interactive links in Keynote and BookCreator to make build your own adventure stories. In both of these apps you can create links from text and/or pictures to other pages in the same document. (This also work in PowerPoint on a PC). They are heaps of fun to make but, of course, the real value is in having students create them. They could easily be linked to History or Geography topics and can be as complex or as simple as you choose. With younger students, this would be a fun whole class activity.

Digital Portfolios

It is a tradition in early childhood classes to send each child home at the end of the year with a portfolio that documents the fun and learning that they experienced over the course of the school year.  These generally contain multiple photos, work samples and description of learning outcomes.

I recently attended a digital portfolio workshop with the intention of discovering a better tool to use to create digital portfolios than what I was already suggesting. We did look at a couple of tools but my preferred one is still Book Creator as it is so simple to use.

With a digital portfolio, not only can you add photos of students and photos of work samples you can also add audio recordings, video recordings, digital creations and audio or written notes from the teacher.

Books made in Book Creator can also be shared with parents in a couple of ways:

The first is as an e.pub that can be viewed on any device - this could be shared with parents using GoogleDrive or DropBox.

The second is as a printed or emailed PDF - in PDF form, digital recordings and digital creations can be shared via QR Codes.

If I was in an early childhood class I would set up a book in Book Creator for each student in my class and add content along the way. No gluing, no cutting, no bulky books.

Apps for Inquiry Based Learning

When looking at inquiry based learning it helps to think about the types of apps that could you useful at each stage. Here are some apps that we either already use at KPS or are free. For upper primary students this may be a list that they could use to make their own decisions about the most useful apps.

PDF of apps for inquiry based learning

Two Eyes, Two Feet

I came across the following section of a post that I really liked under the title of:

5 Tips for Classroom Management With Mobile Devices

Posted by The Committed Sardine Blog on March 10, 2014

Two Eyes, Two Feet

Carl Hooker, an educational technology innovator on the cutting edge, coined the phrase “the two eyes, two feet app” in response to faculty and administration concerned about inappropriate use on cell phones, tablets, and/or laptops. The biggest shift for educators when technology enters the classroom is that you cannot be static or stable. The best way to ensure that students stay on task is to walk around the room, look at the work they are doing, discuss and engage with them about their progress. The more active and mobile you are in the classroom, the easier it is to ensure that your students are on working on what they should be. If you notice that children are quickly closing browsers windows when you come near or “double tapping” the home button on their iPad (a sign that they’re switching apps) then take the time to investigate what the student is doing and have a discussion with them if necessary.

Week 5 iCafe

In iCafe in week 5 we looked at some ways of using iPads to create content for students, some ways of using iPads to assess and finished up with a bit of a look at students creating book reviews.

Creating Content
Apps that are ideal for creating differentiated content that is totally personalised include TinyTap, Zondle, Explain Everything and Educreations. With Zondle the content is developed on a PC and then accessed by the students through the App. Another fantastic way to create personalised content is by creating Beat the Teacher Resources. My favourite way to do this is be creating the pages first in Keynote, taking screenshots of the full page and then adding audio in SonicPics and sending the completed slide show to the camera roll. Beat the Teachers can be used for any problems that students need to work out mentally such as sight words, times tables and mental maths. They are a terrific resource that can be shared across iPads via the camera roll.

Assessing
The fact that it is an all in one device makes the iPad the perfect tool for assessment. The camera can be used to take still shots or movies of students or their work. These can be used to map progress or provide evidence of achievement. Screenshots can also be used to monitor progress when students are working on apps or a photo of screen is needed but cannot be sent by the app. Explain Everything and Educreations can also be used to record students explaining their reasoning as they work through a problem. An excellent way to compile evidence such as photos, movies and screenshots is using a book making app such as Book Creator. Creating a book for each student in the class would be an excellent way of creating a digital portfolio on each child. Text and audio notes can be added.

Book Reviews
I love the idea of having students review the class books, create QR Codes from those reviews and place the QR Codes on the front of the books to share with others. Verbal reviews can be created using audio recordings developed through most voice memo apps. iMovie Trailers are an excellent way for students to create book trailers and give their opinion of the book at the same time.

That was pretty much week 5 iCafe in a nutshell (or should I say - in an iPad case)

More on Nearpod

After a couple of weeks using Nearpod with a paid Gold Membership I am convinced it is worth the money. Using the "homework" option for lessons in class has allowed, particularly the older students, to work at their own pace and has totally freed me up to work with those who are struggling or those who need extra support with their behaviour.

Nearpod is definitely the right option for me, as a specialist across the school, because there are no class lists or student log-ins. They simply join the session with a 5 letter code and then add their name as they join. If I had my own class I would definitely give Blendspace more of a go but, as I already said, I am very happy with Nearpod as a resource in a blended learning environment.

Book Creator for Anecdotal Records

I watched a presentation by a teacher named Gabrielle Trinca on the AITSL Website - The Learning Collective. It was an extremely interesting presentation about contemporary teaching and project based learning. One thing she mentioned, though, that was quite unrelated was an idea with book creating Apps that I hadn't actually considered. At KPS we use Book Creator to create books for students and to have students create books. Another idea is to use Book Creator to keep records about students. A book can be created for each class member and photos, videos, written notes and audio notes can be added to the book. What a great way to keep digital records and have evidence for assessment!

Quizzes

After such fantastic success with Kahootit the first couple of times I used it, I have now encountered some difficulties. The last two times I attempted to use it the students couldn't join - very disappointing but I will try again.

This week I have been trying out NearPod which, like many of my favourites is an app and also browser based. Excellent for blended learning and similar to Blendspace, but with less options for uploading material but more options for quizzes, NearPod is quite easy to use. You need to make the lessons in the browser version, easier on a PC, and then students can log into your lesson through the app or browser. They need no ID etc which makes life easier, you just start the lesson and they type in a short code. I used it with groups from year 1 to 7 with very good results - 100% engagement. With a free membership you can do all of the above but I am going to sign up to a gold membership for a month. This allows you to set the lessons for homework. I will use this to make the lessons more self paced, particularly for the older students.

Quizzes in a Blended Learning Environment

For the last couple of weeks I have been really exploring the various ways I can use technology to present quizzes. My current purpose is to pre-test the students but I have found that there are some really good formats for a variety of purposes. I thought I would share what I have discovered so far.

I had great fun with Web-based Kahoot today. This is a type of student response system. You need to create an account and then create your quizzes. These are multiple choice and would be fantastic for mental maths, spelling and many other things. The presenter displays the quiz on an IWB or even a screen mirrored from their iPad and students log into Kahootit and use the game pin shown. They read the question and answers on the big screen and the select the corresponding answer on their computer or iPad screen. When all students have answered it shows a leaderboard and is ready for you to move on. Students get a higher score for answering quickly and it shows them if they were correct or incorrect on their scree . Teachers can download the results to excel. The boys loved the competition side of it!

Socrative is an app that is specific to quizzes and feedback. There is a teacher version and a student version and both are free. You can develop multiple choice questions as wells as short answer questions that can include images. This, too, works on iPads or computers and responses can be displayed on the board as they are entered. Socrative quizzes can be student paced, so they move on after each student has answered, or teacher paced. Results can be downloaded.

Quizzes that you can make on Edmodo have a nice range of options for the types of questions you can use such as multiple choice, short answer, fill the blanks, matching the answer. You can also add web links and files.

Blendspace is an excellent tool for blended learning. In the lessons you create you can include a huge range of resources such as YouTube clips, Educreations, photos, we pages, files from Dropbox and a Google Drive and you can add text. The quizzes you can make in Blendspace are just basic multiple choice but excellent to check for understanding. Blendspace is also a free app that is available in Edmodo and once you have assigned the app to your class or to your groups you can create resources and share them through Edmodo.

I will continue to explore tools for creating quizzes and other blended learning resources and hopefully add some more information as I discover it.

Thought for the day

"Here’s to the crazy ones — the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do." Steve Jobs 

Starting Fresh

To start the new year we have once again cleared the iPads of content based apps and set them up with a good selection of  apps for production, not consumption. Here is the list of apps that we are starting the year with. Of course, during the year teachers will be downloading some free apps for particular purposes and we may make additional purchases.

iMovie

PhotoCard

Doodle Buddy

Pic Collage

BaiBoard HD

Zondle

Tellagami

PuppetPads HD

TinyTap

Strip Designer

Qrafter

Skitch

Socrative

Explain Everything

K9 Browser

Little Story Maker

Toontastic

Kidblog

Sock Puppets

Google Drive

Popplet

iFunFace

Educreations

Edmodo

Aurasma

Book Creator

Keynote

SonicPics

Back to School

It is still a couple of weeks ago but I'm sure there are some teachers thinking about what they will do with their students in that first week. With this post I will focus on some ideas for those "getting to know you" and "what I did in my holidays" type activities.

Just starting with some basic ideas -students could use:

PicCollage to introduce themselves by including a photo of themselves, images of their favourite things and text that describes the things they enjoy. The teacher would make one first to model the expectations. Once each student has created their own and sent it to the camera roll, they could be made into an iBook using Book Creator. Students could add audio to their page and you have an iBook to keep for the year.

Popplet to create a mind map about themselves, adding photos and information. This could also be made into an iBook.

Popplet to create a timeline of their holidays.

PhotoCard to create a postcard of somewhere they visited during their holidays or, for those who didn't go anywhere, somewhere they would like to visit.

Other apps that are excellent for first day activities include iMovie, PuppetPals, Explain Everything, Strip Designer, Tellagami and iFunFace. So many possibilities.

The simple video camera is also very useful. Students in their groups of three could take turns interviewing each other and ask questions about their holidays, themselves and their hopes for the year. (One interviewer, one interviewee and one filming - then swap)

The thing I like best about all of these ideas and apps is that the creations can be combined and published. If I had my very own class this year I think I would have each student make three projects - one that introduces them, one that retells their holidays and one that describes their hopes for the year. I would then combine their three projects into an iMovie. I would then have them create a self portrait (using real paper and pastels). I would use this as the trigger for their movie, using Aurasma or stick a QR Code link to their movie on the sheet. Voila! The first of many interactive displays for the year.

One idea that involves a bit more collaboration is to create a wall on Padlet and have students make "wall posts" about their holidays or about themselves. If they include their aspirations for the year this would be something great to reflect on during or at the end of the year. Padlet would also be a great place for students to post personal learning goals.

These really are just some basic ideas and I'm sure you, the readers, will have far more creative ones. I would love you to share them!