Monday, July 08, 2013

iPad Workshop -- Day 1 -- EdTechTeacher.org -- Hauser Hall/Harvard -- July 8, 2013

The iPad Classroom workshop began today at 8:30 a.m. in Hauser Hall on the Harvard campus in Cambridge, MA.  I did not have 100% of my wits about me and spent way too much time trying to figure out where Hauser Hall is.  May have been in the EdTech materials but I didn't have them with me and there was not a Harvard campus overview map ("You Are Here") to be found.  Thanks to a few kind Harvard-ites, I eventually found my way.

The EdTechTeacher.org presenters are:

Samantha Morra   sam@edtechteacher.org@sammorraThoughts on Education
Carl Hooker  carl@edtechteacher.org@mrhookerHooked on Innovation

This list of the EdTechTeacher Summer Workshops 2013 is available here: http://edtechteacher.org/index.php/summer-workshops/sw2013

The website for my specific workshop is at:   https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Pi71XZJ8nmyIujNteOynbCwgJJ3-cxN505ACaFu3q2w/pub

After round-the-room introductions, Sam and Carl had us do a quick look at Padlet -- http://padlet.com/
where you can create a virtual "wall" that kids can post to by name or anonymously (but cautioned mightily about the anonymous possibility)

and

TodaysMeet -- http://todaysmeet.com/
TodaysMeet sets up a dialog for anyone who knows the URL to the discussion.  It's kind of like a private, members only Twitter feed that you can set up and only have the people you want participating.  One was set up for our workshop but since they only last something like two weeks and then (poof) are gone, I can't include a link here.  However, TodaysMeet does make it possible to produce a .pdf of the TodaysMeet discussion and I have a copy of the comments & resources shared.

Our facilitators had us take a "Getting to Know You" Google Doc survey (form)

Then it was a turn at setting the focus for the whole workshop with the following framework models and EdTechTeacher articles:



Next, Sam covered the basics of the iPad hardware and its basic use with a Google Docs presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1szATI2Nvh86a1xzaMKMMOxme2HVKRds0Jq_gLfuYlB8/edit#slide=id.p
She did a good job of covering those topics and even (at least for me) shared some tips that were totally new to me!

There's also a video introduction by EdTechTeacher at Vimeo:


iPad Basics from EdTechTeacher on Vimeo.


From this point on, we began an exploration of a variety of apps that can help fulfill the curricular concepts noted in the introduction.  Rather than comment on each (at least for now), I'm going to let the list of what we explored speak for itself unless I feel I really have to add a word or two.

Some discussion of the SAMR hierarchy (also above) which was part of the framework discussion.  SAMR & the Schneiderman version (below) are both worth much thought as how to incorporate into curricular design:

SAMR


Schneiderman



In terms of apps, the workshop appears to be primed to cover a great many.  The table below is a snapshot of the apps slated to be covered starting today through Wednesday.


From here on we explored a series of apps that are tools that can be used with an iPad to fulfill the curricular goals that we discussed earlier today.  This list is pretty much up there in the table (above).  Maybe because it's the first day, but, in any case, the standouts from today include:

Evernote -- information gathering and organizing tool

Chirp -- an audio version of the qr code

Socrative -- teacher and student versions -- creating quizzes both "on the fly" and scored-and-stored

ThingLink -- creating "rich" images....images with links and other content that enhance and enrich the images you share

'Twas a full day.  Looking forward to Day 2.

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