Tag Archives: 1:1 computing

General, School Media Specialist

Bringing Professional Development and Tech into a 1:1 District

Photo by Ben Rosett - Unsplash.comMuch is made of the effect a 1:1 move has on students in a school district. But what about the teachers and administration? How are they affected and what can they do to better handle the change? This is the premise behind Edutopia’s piece about bringing professional development into a 1:1 district. In the article, they focus on the Salisbury Township School District and its mission to not only bring 1:1 devices to the students in the district but also change the mindset of its teachers and administration as well.

[1:1] requires a shift in mindset and in the daily practices of school leaders, teachers, and students. In order to support school leaders and teachers to become their most effective at using digital technologies with new pedagogies, it is vital that a district support the digital transformation through varied building-level and district-level professional learning opportunities.

Changing the mindset and daily practices is no small task, but Edutopia gives us some helpful hints:

  1. Align PD goals with 1:1 program goals – with goals clearly defined, professional development efforts can be fine-tuned.
  2. Rethink use of human resources – rethink the human and financial resources dedicated to supporting change.
  3. Personalize the PD program through differentiation and choice –  adult learners come to the work environment with a variety of knowledge.
  4. Instructional Technology Cohorts – professional development took the form of a cohort model over three years.
  5. Summer Academy – professional learning offerings has been provided for professional and support staff.
  6. Conferences and Workshops – encourage staff to attend conferences and workshops offered outside the district.
  7. Learning for School Leaders – school and district leaders meets monthly in a lunch and learn format.
  8. Evaluate PD efforts to meet developing needs – professional development should be monitored and evaluated to stay relevant.

Read the whole article now!

Image credit: http://unsplash.com/BenRosett licensed under CC0 1.0
School Media Specialist

Don't Forget the Cost of Connecting Your School to Wi-fi

wiresAnnie Gilbertson writes: “As more schools move to equip all students with a computer, one cost is often overlooked—getting those computers connected to the network grid. The Los Angeles Unified School District is planning to spend over $500 million to upgrade servers, pull wire, and connect antiquated schools to a data grid, all a necessary part of its huge effort to supply 700,000 students and teachers with an iPad. But the price tag is high because costs start far from the building, out on the street.”… Who is on the team in your school thinking about these issues?

Read the full blog post at http://tinyurl.com/klwpqgw
Marketplace, Feb. 3

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Is 2014 the Year of the Tablet?

ipadDevices come and go, but strong content and good pedagogy remain at the center of what has true  impact on student learning. I truly enjoyed a recent  Digital Shift blog post, where Christopher Harris beseeches schools to slow down to do careful planning. He goes on to warn schools to not give in to the seductive lure of the hardware—as Harris says, “so pretty, so shiny.” He goes on to say we must resist the siren call of tablets and focus instead on instructional objectives. Gather good “lessons learned” from the full post at http://tinyurl.com/k2ce4ww

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

My Report on the iOS (iPad) in the Classroom Event

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The following observations, musings, and missteps are from my perspective, and by no means capture the brilliance of the presenters or the content at this well-attended  event! Your humble reporter…..Patricia….

Sartell Middle School hosted this free, three-hour Apple event on Wednesday, November 14th (we did an earlier blog post about registration). The event was fast paced and invigorating and many people identified new learning they could apply immediately. I will share a few of the highlights, including the areas where I observed audience engagement and excitement.

Things I Learned about iOS 6

  • Once you move to iOS 6, you can’t go back
  • 200 new features
  • Can lock the device into a single app (to contain students)
  • Guided access allows you to lock parts of the screen while in an app (student control)
  • Your Google Apps will no longer crash with this operating system.

Two hours was spent on short presentations from representatives from Central MN schools. Schools  included: Becker, Sartell, Little Falls, Milaca, and St. Cloud. Presentations were modeled after the famous TED talks, and the presenters did a great job.  It was so inspirational to see a 39-year, veteran teacher (Milaca)  energized and excited about new ways of teaching the subject he loves (biology). Most districts admitted that some teachers are very engaged, others struggle more, so there is plenty of coaching and assistance still needed. A few highlights from the talks or the Q & A that followed:

  • Becker has been doing its 1:1 iPad initiative for several years now, and they are taking pause to ask teachers which apps they use the most. Then, Director of Instructional Technology Ryan Cox, hopes to help teachers develop deeper skill levels with those apps. The three apps that rose to the surface in Becker are: Socrative, Edmodo, and Showbie.
  • I have always wondered how elementary teachers share a complicated url and get their little fledglings safely to a website. Angie Kalthoff, Technology Integrationist at St. Cloud Schools shared that she uses an app called Chirp!
  • An Apple rep shared that if you are looking for an app for moving files around more easily, you may want to invest in Good Reader, the true “swiss army knife” for these tasks!
  • “Release the hounds” became a popular phrase with presenters. When trying to make this shift in education in integrating technology, the teacher cannot possibly know everything ahead of time. Teachers are masters of the subject area, but often need to challenge the students to figure out how they might use a specified app to do their subject-specific-project work. In other words, “release the hounds!” and have them report back to the class! Students love it….
  • I am going to bite the bullet, spend $10, and buy the Keynote app for doing presentations on my iPad. Enough with finding a workaround solution already.
  • Just when I thought I knew something, I learned differently. I assumed that all schools who are doing the 1:1 initiatives, were also doing flipped classrooms, when in fact, Little Falls, who has also been 1:1 for a few years, has deemed that flipped classroom will not serve their purposes! Moral of the story: Stay humble in what you think you know in any given moment!
  • Sadly, I thought I had found the app of my dreams….in a mad scrawl I wrote down, Touch Feel Go, and it was an app that enables you to take a picture of a pdf, which turns the doc into a form that you can type directly into. Then, you can email the doc, or drop it into Dropbox too. Unfortunately, I can find no such app. If you were at this event and can solve this mystery for me, please save me by typing in the comments field to this post. Thanks!
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Youth Should Read More Non-Fiction

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Read this blog post as a reminder of the value and charm of getting kids hooked on nonfiction as well as fiction. As more schools move into 1:1 computing and away from print textbooks, it is inevitable that the role of non-fiction becomes more important. Read the post from the SmartBlog on Education, then weigh in here in Leave a Reply  field below. Question: What percentage of your collection is nonfiction?