Toontastic Free

I am very excited to share that Google has purchased Launchpad Toys and has made this fantastic storytelling app free to all users. Previously the free version was very limited and you could purchase extra scenes and characters, making it a bit expensive for a whole school. Completed stories can be saved to the camera roll and shared. Another fantastic Launchpad Toys app is Telestory. Students can star in their own mini TV show, practising their speaking and listening skills. These movies can also be saved to the camera roll. Two fantastic apps.

If it's Not About the Device What is it About?

If it's not about the device ...
Certainly at our school, when we started out, it was about the device and that device was the Apple iPad 2. Of course we all believed very strongly in educating every child and in the importance of preparing students for the 21st century. We also saw so much potential in the iPad for supporting students with disabilities, for motivating and engaging students and for students to demonstrate their learning. But, at that stage, these were quite separate things and we still looked at lessons that incorporated iPads as 'iPad lessons'.

This brings me to the point of this post. I absolutely, totally 100% agree that it is not about the device and today I was pondering ... then, if that's the case, is the device totally necessary and, if so, what is its purpose? By the way, now I'm not talking specifically about iPads but personal devices in general including laptops and tablets (I prefer iPads because that's what I know).

I now see these devices as enablers and below are some of the things they enable us to do at KPS. Of course, there aware so many more but these are the ones I see as most able to transform education.

At KPS iPads:

Provide students with a whole heap of different ways to demonstrate their learning;
Provide a way to cater to students of varying abilities;
Allow for total personalisation and differentiation of lessons;
Allow teachers to develop original content for their students;
Provide a way for teachers to share content with each other;
Provide numerous ways for teachers to provide feedback;
Encourage collaboration between students both locally and globally;
Allow students to share their learning, their knowledge and themselves;
Provide a way to reach a global audience;
Allow for on the spot quizzes, discussions and surveys;
Act as a student response system;
Reduce the amount of paper wastage;
Provide tools for authentic assessment;
Allow the creation of artefacts of learning;
Provide teachers with evidence to support judgements;

Making Learning Objectives Clear

As we know learning objectives are a vital part of a successful lesson and need to be explicit. Something else that is really important is that these learning objectives are made clear to students. For effective learning to take place, students need to understand what is being learned. Learning objectives help clarify to both the teacher and the students what needs to be achieved for the lesson and also help students become more active and self-directed learners. This transparency models metacognition to students and gets them thinking about heir own thinking and learning.

Learning objectives can be presented in many different ways and called many different things but they generally need to include an action verb and be stated in student friendly language. It is an absolute must to use a plenary session at the end of the lesson to review the lesson objectives and the learning that has taken place. Below are some ideas for setting useful learning objectives:

• Use the WALT (we are learning to) and WILF (what I am looking for) approach or SWBAT (students will be able to).
• Use a combination of longer and shorter term learning objectives.
• Make the learning objective clear to students at the beginning of the lesson and during the lesson.
• Use an element of challenge e.g. 'By the end of the lesson you will be able to name 5 internal parts of a computer'.
• Revisit learning objectives during the lesson through questioning and discussion.
• Use language that conveys an expectation of success.
• Try to stimulate enthusiasm e.g. 'Your challenge today ...'

A New Year

The start of a new school year is always so exciting with the opportunity to get to know a whole new group of students. There are heaps of excellent 'getting to know each other' games and so many iPad apps enable students to develop pieces that share who they are.

I like the idea of developing something to revisit at the end of the year. One idea I really like is just a short video recording of students introducing themselves, sharing something they like and naming something they would like to achieve during the year. The teacher would need to create one to show the class first to model the format as well as confidence in front of the camera. These short movies could all be compiled into an iMovie and saved for the end of the year.

Apps that are very popular right now are journal type apps that require you to take a photo or video every day/ week etc. for a period of time. Some of these apps are Photo365, Project365, ProjectLife, Video365, 1second everyday etc. Something else cool to do would be to start at the beginning of the year and take a photo or video every day/week/month to show at the end of the year. This could be just a random shot or one taken in the same location.    

A Venn Digram of Some of my Favourite Tools

Deciding on a Why

After finally finding the time to read Simon Sinek's book "Start with Why" I have decided it is time to articulate my "why" (even though I know this is a back the front way of doing it I figured it's never too late). The problem is, according to Sinek, while you can choose many "hows" and "whats" over the course of your life your "why" stays the same. I think, though, this is probably the case for organisations but, as people, it can take a while for us to find out who we are and get to our "why".

I absolutely love what I do. I love working with children, I love the idea of improving how children are taught, I do love technology and I strongly believe in ensuring children who are somehow disadvantaged have the same opportunities as more advantaged children.

I don't think my why is about technology necessarily, it's definitely about children and I'm pretty sure it is about education although there are times when I have thought about pursuing other areas to do with children's rights. So, thinking about why I am a teacher, why I am technology leader, why I became curriculum leader, why I run iLearn@KPS, why I run iCafes, why I believe in global education, why I love iPads ...

My Why: Because children are the future and all children deserve an education that exposes them to the possibilities, helps them to exceed their potential and prepares them for the future.

Thinking Ahead - 2015

When I look back at the school year, I can see that lots of fantastic stuff happened but I want 2015 to be even better. Is it reasonable to expect every teacher at KPS to achieve the shift in thinking required to use iPads and other technologies effectively? Is it reasonable to expect every teacher to use these tools to transform learning rather than to enhance? I really think it is, especially when the support is there in many forms and when there is no teacher turnover. I get that iPads are another thing on a very long list of high expectations for new staff but that is not an issue this year. In this post I will focus on the early years.

I do get that there is a (very small) place for consumption apps in Kindy and Pre-Primary but I also know that students benefit more from games, books and other resources that have been developed for them and with them. The time spent searching for an app that teaches a concept exactly as we do would be so much better spent creating resources. TinyTap, Stick Around, Book Creator, Keynote, Educreations, Explain Everything are all excellent tools for creating interactive content. Also iMovie, AdobeVoice, Thinglink are just a couple of many tools that could be used to introduce a topic in an engaging way.

What I would really like to see this year is teachers in the same year group collaborating more on making these resources. All of these can be shared with each other in some way. If, each week, each PP teacher makes two games there will be six new games every week. These games might also be great for other year group teachers to use with students who need extra support and students in PP, who need extending, could benefit from resources developed by year one and two teachers. I believe there is a lot more room for the sharing of resources around the school using tools such as iTunesU, GoogleDrive and other cloud based tools. 

Just think, when we get this happening really well, we can start sharing with other schools!