You may want to consider getting a stylus. You can read reviews by clicking on the links in this post.

When you open the app (which works only in landscape view), the toolbar shown below appears. In addition to drawing and erasing, images can be imported from your Photo library on your iPad.

How could this app be used in education?

• Teachers could create screencasts of topics for students to watch. The screencasts could be assigned for previewing prior to coming to class (as in "flipping the classroom"). To learn more about flipping, read Think Tank: Flip-thinking – the new buzz word sweeping the US and The Flipped Classroom Network.
• Screencasts could be viewed by students for reviewing material covered in class.
• If each student or group of students had an iPad, they could be assigned to create a screencast on a particular topic, which then be viewed by the teacher and other students in the class (either at the ShowMe web site or at the class’s web site).

]]> http://learningdigitally.org/blog/archives/576/feed 0 http://learningdigitally.org/blog/archives/567 http://learningdigitally.org/blog/archives/567#comments Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:51:43 +0000 Jerry Johnson http://learningdigitally.org/blog/archives/567 In a post of Tomorrow’s Professor Mailing List, Richard Felder answers a letter in which the person indicates that their teaching evaluations by students when active learning strategies are used and that the students want to be taught using passive techniques such as lecturing.

Felder explains that "An important part of our job as teachers is equipping as many of our students as possible with high-level problem-solving and thinking skills, including critical and creative thinking" and that "well-implemented student-centered instruction is much more effective than traditional lecture-based instruction at promoting those skills."

It’s important that the students know why you are using the active learning techniques. Felder states, "If you tell them you’re doing it because research has shown that it leads to improved learning, greater acquisition of skills that potential employers consider valuable, and higher grades, most will set aside their objections long enough to find that you’re telling the truth."  (See Felder, R.M. (2007). Sermons for grumpy campers. Chem. Engr. Education, 41(3), 183-184, http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Columns/Sermons.pdf.

Additional questions that he asks are:

• "Did you use the new method long enough to overcome the learning curve associated with it? It can take most of a semester to become comfortable with and adept at active learning, and if you’re using a more complex technique such as cooperative or problem-based learning and you’re not being mentored by an expert, it might take several years."
• "If you got unsatisfactory student ratings, did you check references on the method to see if you were doing something wrong? For example, did you assign small-group activities in class that lasted for more than 2–3 minutes or call for volunteers to respond every time? (See Reference 4 to find out how both practices can kill the effectiveness of active learning.) The bibliography suggests references you might consult for each of the most common student-centered methods."
• "In your midterm evaluations, did you specifically ask the students whether they thought active learning (or whatever you were doing) was (a) helping their learning, (b) hindering their learning, or (c) neither helping nor hindering? If you do this, you may find that the students objecting vigorously to the method are only a small minority of the class. If that’s so, announce the survey results in the next class session. Students who complain about student-centered methods often imagine that they are speaking for most of their classmates. Once they find out that very few others feel the way they do, the grumbling tends to disappear immediately."

Here are some references provided by Felder:

1. Felder, R.M., and Brent, R. (2007). Cooperative learning. In P.A. Mabrouk, ed., Active Learning: Models from the Analytical Sciences. ACS Symposium Series 970, Chapter 4, pp. 34–53. Washington, DC: American Chemical Society, http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Papers/CLChapter.pdf
2. Felder, R.M., and Brent, R. (2009). Active learning: An introduction. ASQ Higher Education Brief, 2(4). http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Papers/ALpaper(ASQ).pdf
3. Prince, M.J. (2004). Does active learning work? A review of the research. J. Engr. Education, 93(3), 223-231, http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Papers/Prince_AL.pdf
4. Prince, M.J., and Felder, R.M. (2006). Inductive teaching and learning methods: Definitions, comparisons, and research bases. J. Engr. Education, 95(2), 123–138, http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Papers/InductiveTeaching.pdfTags: learning, resistance, lecturing, passive, active. (Inductive methods include inquiry-based, problem-based, and project-based learning.)

]]> http://learningdigitally.org/blog/archives/567/feed 0 http://learningdigitally.org/blog/archives/565 http://learningdigitally.org/blog/archives/565#comments Fri, 17 Jun 2011 18:10:26 +0000 Jerry Johnson http://learningdigitally.org/blog/archives/565 In the article, "Have Technology and Multitasking Rewired How Students Learn?" Daniel Willingham, he states that he hears two suggested ways technology has changed the way students think. Some have suggested that without the multimedia that technology provides, students will become bored. Some have suggested that technology has allowed students the ability to multitask.

Willingham states that there is some truth in the first suggestion but none in the second. The focus of this post is to discuss the first suggestion and ignore the second since no one can truly multitask.

Is technology needed in order for a student to be engaged? And how is technology best used to engage students?

Willingham explained in "Why Don’t Students Like School?" that a good way to engage students is to pose solvable mental problems. These problems are not necessarily puzzles but rather can be activities that present students with mental challenges such as when listening to a story and attempting to anticipate what will happen next.

"In order for technology (or any instructional tool) to increase student engagement in academic content, it has to aid in presenting problems as both challenging and solvable."

"…there is nothing inherently interesting about the technology (at least once the newness wears off ); students are not interested in all software or all hyperlinks. It’s the content and what the user might do with it that makes it interesting or not."

As always, the bottom line is that the design of the instruction is more important than the technology.

]]> http://learningdigitally.org/blog/archives/565/feed 0 http://learningdigitally.org/blog/archives/548 http://learningdigitally.org/blog/archives/548#comments Sun, 12 Jun 2011 04:44:43 +0000 Jerry Johnson http://learningdigitally.org/blog/?p=548 Showme is an iPad app that is development that I think will be a great app when it is ready.

You can learn more about it here at TechCrunch.

Here’s an explanation and a review of the app:

iPad stylus pen review, finding the best “handwriting” stylus for touch screen devices – from iMedical Apps, Feb.1, 2011

Drawing on the iPad: 12 touchscreen styluses reviewed – from MacWorld, May 6, 2011

Smartphone and Tablet PC Software from PhatWare Corp..

If you want whiteboards that have a handle on them, go to WhiteboardsUSA.

Clipped from: home.comcast.net (share this clip)

In my opinion, in order to make this type of teaching effective, students need to have read the textbook before class and the instructor needs to have a lot of questions for the students that engage them in higher order thinking. The book, Lecture-Free Teaching, has some ideas as to how to implement this approach.

In her article, “Teaching and Learning in an Interactive Classroom,” Dee Silverthorn indicates that she does not advocate getting rid of lectures entirely since there are some concepts that are difficult for the students to learn and by presenting the information to the students, the professor has the opportunity to ask and answer questions.

Getting Things Done Explained to Students
Study Hacks: Demystifying Sustainable Success
How to Become a Straight A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real Students Use to Score High While Studying Less

To help organize their tasks, students should get some task management software. I personally like ToDo for the iPad which syncs with ToodleDo.

Here’s what you need to do.

1. Go to http://vue.tufts.edu/download/index.cfm and set up a new account if you don’t already have one.

2. Once you have created an account, you will be taken to a page where you can download the Applet.

3. The applet will be downloaded as a zip file. Unzip the file which will create a folder called vueapplet. Place the folder in your DropBox Public folder. You can rename the folder if you like.

4. One of the files within the vueapplet folder is named “index.html.” In order for others to create a concept map using the VUE applet, you will need to get a URL that will access the index.html file. The instructions for getting the URL can be found on DropBox’s site on this page. Give this URL to others and they will be able to create a map using the VUE applet.

In order to create ebooks with Pages, go to Apple’s support page found here. Interestingly, in the section “More details on using ePub,” it indicates that video can be embedded in the document. What it doesn’t state is that audio files can also be embedded into your ebook.

If you decide to create an ebook using Pages, which states that you need to download the file, “ePub Best Practices.” You can use the document as a template or import the paragraph styles from the ePub Best Practices document into a new or existing Pages document.

One of the nice features about videos embedded in an ebook in iBooks is that you can choose to make the video full-screen.

In the “old” days of educational technology, we asked students to create Powerpoint or Hyperstudio files. But now they can create multimedia ebooks that can be read on an iDevice.

Course Notes – http://www.coursenotesapp.com/ – With this app, you can organize your notes into multiple subjects, export them via email, transfer note sessions with other CourseNotes users, track assignments and ToDo lists for each subject, and build your own dictionary. In upcoming versions, you’ll be able to add drawings and images into your notes. $4.99

Audiotorium – http://audiotoriumapp.com/ - This app will allow you to create audio into your notes. You can also share your notes with friends. (As of this writing, Audiotorium is not available in the App Store so I don’t know the price. This site has some photos of it.

I recently read some interesting information that was compiled by Project Tomorrow, a nonprofit organization that surveys K-12 students, teachers, administrators, preservice teachers, and parents nationwide to understand the trends in student learning. In 2008, they surveyed 281,500 K-12 students.

“When Julie Evans, the CEO of Project Tomorrow, gives presentations to higher ed leaders, she discovers that they are usually interested in the students that will be going to college in a couple of years – the high schoolers. But she explains that “looking at the middle school students or upper elementary students – in grades 3 through 8 – is actually a better instructional tool for them, because those kids have a very, very different view from their high school peers.”

“As example of those differences, she points to their viewpoints about online learning. ‘The traditional, conventional theory is that high school students take online classes because they want to get college credit and they want to have a class that fits into their schedule. But when we look at middle school students, they’re more interested in blended learning – where they take a traditional class with a teacher and then also have an online component.’

“Her point: ‘If I’m a college CIO (chief information officer) or CTO (chief technology officer), and I’m only thinking about the 100 percent online class that my students are looking for, then I’m not properly preparing for that next generation of students coming up, who want a blended approach. I want to be building for kids I’m going to see five-plus years from now.’”

“Evans lists nine attributes that characterize these students:
- They’re self-directed in their learning.
- They’re untethered from traditional education.
- They’re expert at personal data aggregation.
- They engage in the power of connections.
- They create new communities.
- They’re not tethered to physical networks.
- They prefer experiential learning.
- They’re content developers.
- The process is as important as – and sometimes more important than – the knowledge gained.”

“Ultimately, Evans says, “students want to define and direct their own educational destinies.” That will, she explains, require schools to develop new kinds of learning spaces, move to more social-based learning, tap digital resources that add relevancy, and move learning beyond the classroom walls, whether those walls reside in a district or on a campus.”

Here’s my take on this – Many of these characteristics such as being expert at personal data aggregation, they engage in power of connections, and they create new communities are features that tell me they are very comfortable in the online world. The fact that to them “the process is as important as the knowledge gained” tells me that they would prefer to learn by doing rather than by listening to a lecture or even engage in a discussion. They are content developers. They like to create and experience what they are learning.

So how do we change the learning environment? As already indicated, hybrid learning may help. Connections and learning communities are not made (or at least not as easily) in 50 minute periods. But learning that can be accomplished anytime, anywhere using mobile, portable devices that have wireless access will allow these students to thrive.

1. Are there ‘champions’ with power and influence in the institution who recognize the importance of technology for conducting the business of the institution?
2. Does the institution have an advanced, comprehensive technology infrastructure that enables all staff, students and faculty to access computers, networks, software and services as required?
3. Has the institution digitalized its administrative services, and can staff, students and faculty access administrative information and services easily over the web?
4. Has the institution identified a clear, strategic rationale for the use of technology within the institution?
5. Has the institution identified additional financial resources or reallocated resources to support the integration of technology within the institution?
6. What proportion of staff, students and faculty are using technology and for what activities?
7. How innovative is the use of technology, particularly for teaching?
8. What level of support and training is given to instructors to ensure good quality teaching when using technology?
9. Are students learning better and getting better services as a result of technology integration?

Turning Technologies ResponseWare is versatile but there is a subscription fee that each student must pay. Also, the system pings Turning Technologies server once each second so you have to make sure your network will be able to handle that amount of traffic.

The eClicker by Big Nerd Ranch is limited to 32 clients (students). The Host application (for the instructor) costs $24.99 but the client app is free. The system is WiFi-based so an Internet connection is not necessary since the teacher can set up a wireless network (easily) if he or she has a Mac. (I don’t know if it is easy to set up a wireless network with a Windows computer.)

The app that seems the best (from what I can see) is iResponse Classroom Responder System. The app for the clients costs 99 cents and the host for the instructor’s computer is free. There is a Mac and PC version and there is a basic and Pro version for both platforms. The iResponse system is also WiFi based. Instructions for how to set up a wireless network with a Mac as well as instructions for using the software are available.

mondaydots in education: student generated content model from jeff monday on Vimeo.

The first question to ask is “will the learners be consumers of content, producers of content, or both?”

Mobile devices can be used not only for consuming information but can also be used for creating information as well. The keyboard of devices like the iPhone and iPod Touch allow limited keyboarding but the new iPad with its larger built-in keyboard and optional keyboard attachment should allow students to more easily create text.

Brown points that when we first adopt a new technology, we too often don’t envision new opportunities that the new technology will provide. For instance, in the early years of the Web, courses on the Web were nothing more than “shovelware,” instructors’ lecture notes converted to HTML with maybe some added photos. When one tries to duplicate online what is being done in the classroom, it doesn’t work. (See Conquering the Content: A Step-by-Step Guide to Online Course Design, Engaging the Online Learner: Activities and Resources for Creative Instruction, Empowering Online Learning: 100+ Activities for Reading, Reflecting, Displaying, and Doing.) Brown states that “We need to look instead at the capabilities unique to the new technologies. Look at the devices students are using every day, look at what these offer.”

The key thing to consider when considering uses of mobile devices is portability. While a laptop can do many of the things a mobile device can do, a portable device makes it much easier to accomplish these things. Here are a few examples of things that could be done with a mobile device:

• Record lectures  (See how the iPod Touch can be used to record audio.)
• Personal Response System (“Clickers”) – Turning Technologies’ ResponseWare
• Blog
• Contribute to a course wiki
• Listen to instructor-generated podcasts
• Subscribe to iTunes U videos
• Learn Human Anatomy through University of Utah’s Body Electric
• Create narrated slide shows with your photos using SonicPics
• Create a mind map with iBlueSky or iThoughts
• Create a personal wiki with VoodooPad and export to your iPod Touch or iPhone (Mac only)

Getting Started
Brown suggests that when you getting started considering implementing a mobile learning initiative, you should invite both “believers” and “non-believers” in order to provide an ongoing discussion about both opportunities as well as challenges. She also suggests that institutions begin with a pilot project or two. And institutions should provide as much support as possible to the faculty involved in the pilot project. 

Decisions to Make

Define Your Objectives – Brown suggests you ask why you want a mobile learning initiative and how you will know if you have reached your goals?

Define Your Audience – Who are the learners who will be involved in the mobile learning initiative. How will they be supported? Who is responsible for oversight and day-to-day operations of the mobile learning initiative?

Faculty Development – Who is responsible for training and supporting faculty in the appropriate use of mobile devices in the educational process? 


Further Thoughts
One of things that I’m afraid most college courses don’t do is develop a community of learners. Rather, students come to class, listen to a lecture and engage in some class discussion, and do homework. Although the class time provides an opportunity for discussion, this may be limited depending on the size of the class. And each class is typically only 50 minutes long. Will all students get their questions answered? Maybe or maybe not, depending on the complexity of the subject matter. If the class involves expressing opinions, will everyone have a chance to express their opinion? Maybe not if the class size is large and/or the topic has many facets to it. But if learning can be extended beyond the classroom, learning can become richer. Yes, learning occurs when a student reads his or her textbook and completes homework assignments but this activities are largely done individually. And a textbook doesn’t provide any interactivity (or at least not very much).  And a textbook only provides a linear explanation of a topic while a mobile device could allow a learner to access a variety of sources that could be compiled and organized by each individual learner. Tools such as Evernote (which works with both browsers and mobile devices) would allow learners to easily collect and modify information from Web sources, and even add voice annotations. 

This article points out that although mobile learning is a topic of interest among educators, very few have implemented it on their campus. Judy Brown, the founder and former director of the University of Wisconsin system’s Academic ADL Co-Lab offers some suggestions and factors to consider if a college is considering mobile learning.

She suggests asking if you want students to be consumers of content, creators of content, or both.

Of course, three  devices that can enhance the mobile learning experience are the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPad. To get ideas of how to implement the iPod Touch (and the iPad) into education, here are a few sites:

• iPod in Education Wiki
• iPod in Ed

This camcorder could be handy in an educational setting because of its small size but I wonder how it compares to something like the Flip Mino in terms of ease of use, importing of video, and video-editing software. The Flip MinoHD – 120 minute model cost @229.99 while the Sanyo camcorder will cost $299.

Some interesting scenarios in the form of videos, including the ability of the SmartPen to translate words to other languages can be seen on this page called Sneekpeek.

For individuals who have more than one computer and they need to keep file synchronized, Drop Box allows you to easily keep the files in synch.

If you work with others, you can create a Shared folder, which will allow others to access the files. They can be shared with either Drop Box members or non-members. See this Web page for more details.

Free accounts come with 2MB of storage.

One of the things to think about is that if you put a file in the Drop Box that will be on your computer, you will have moved it from its original location so it would be best to put the original in the Drop Box and then put an alias in the folder where it was originally.

By default, the information is kept private on the Web but you can make it public.

A number of video tutorials are available here. The Getting Started Guide can be found here.

With the free account you are allowed up to 40MB of uploaded files each month. With a Premium account, which costs $5/month or $45/year. the amount of uploaded files allowed is 500MB. There are other advantages of upgrading to the Premium account. Click on this link for more details – Premium account.

You can also embed widgets into your Web pages such as the one below.

“…technology has not yet transformed education:
- Student expectations about the educational experiences (e.g., connected, participatory, engaging) are not being realized
- Rather than introducing 21st century skills, technology is often being used to automate outdated education paradigms

In other words, technology is in the main just being added-on to the traditional classroom experience. Thus, while there are ‘pockets’ of innovation, technology is not being used for systematic change.”

Later, Bates states “Where are the ‘pockets’ of innovation? The area with the most potential is the use of Web 2.0 tools, such as blogs, wikis, virtual worlds, and mobile technologies such as phones, cameras, and iPods, that allow learners to collect, create, share and evaluate their own learning materials.”

The state of e-learning, 2008

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Technorati Tags: projector

“As of version 1.0, ScholarPress Courseware gives you the ability to create entries in a schedule in the Schedule page, add items of various media to a bibliography in the Bibliography page, and assign those bibliography items to read (or create other types of assignments) in the Assignments page, and edit your course information in the Course Info page.”

If you are not already familiar with Google Apps, you can go to the introductory page to learn more about them. One of the really nice apps is Google Docs since it allows a group of individuals to collaborate on a paper.

If you need to collaborate with anyone or if your students need to collaborate, these are tools intended for that purpose although, of course, you can use them for your own personal work.

Since Microsoft Live Workspace is a “competitor” to Google Apps, I was interested in the review found at http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/office_live_workspace_vs_google_docs_feature_by_feature.php that compares these two.

If you read the comments posted in response to this article, you’ll notice the one particular comment that points out that the article failed to discuss some of the features of Google Apps not found in Microsoft Live Workspace.

So that you don’t have to figure out which comment I am referring to, here it is:

Google Docs is far better than Office Live, especially thanks to its real-time collaboration and mobile access. There are some any other features of Google Docs that should have been presented, such as the chat feature in spreadsheets and presentations or the integration of Google Docs with other apps (you can schedule an event in Google Calendar from a doc, you can integrate a doc in the brand new Google Sites wiki-like application, you can transform a Google Notebook into a doc, you can use a Google Spreadsheet as a web-based bookmark storage thanks to its integration with Google Co-op subscribed links, you can also published in Blogger directly from a doc, you can use a Google Doc spreadsheet template to upload a complex Google Earth map – see Google Earth Outreach, you can access from Gmail a Google shared spreadsheet even if it has been sent as attached email, etc.).

You missed so many advantages of a very web-based workspace, and you seem to ignore that Google is preparing to launch a Google-Gears enable version of their suite that will let you access and EDIT shared docs OFFLINE directly from your Internet Browser. This has been officially announced and is currently tested by Google teams.

MS Office Live is a “workaround” to retain users. To keep Office is to play against the “in the cloud” computing trend, which is the future of collaboration. If you like a continually improved editor, don’t wait years for the next Office version: Google release amazing features every week!

• Learning/Teaching Principles
• Design and Teach a Course
• Solve a Teaching Problem
• Use Educational Technology
• Try Something New
• Research Projects
• Other Resources

Here are the main points that I got out of this podcast:

“The goal of distance education, in my experience, is not to replicate the in-class experience but rather to go beyond what is possible in a conventional classroom.”

She used Mediasite which provides a video of the instructor along with the corresponding Powerpoint files but with a little ingenuity, something similar to this could be done using Keynote, Garageband, and iMovie.

If there is video on the Web (i.e., You Tube, Google Videos, etc.) and you want to create some text or hyperlinks that relate to certain objects within the video, go to Asterpix to see how easily this can be done.