Absolute Board

One of the free apps I found in the top charts under the Education category is called Absolute Board. It's meant to be used to "sketch and take notes about anything in your mind."

I found this app easy to use. There's an exclamation mark icon and if you forget what the other icons do, choosing this one shows all the labels for the other icons. Then it fades out and you can continue drawing, writing, etc.

I liked being able to choose the colors and line size. The eraser function is quick and easy, and you can zoom in and out in addition to changing the line size. You can also save your board screens and send a snapshot via email. I sent some snapshots to myself and found it easy to add a .jpg extension so I could open it in preview. From there you could save it as a .pdf, insert it into a document (or blog post...) and so on.

It seems like a very flexible app that has many potential uses but I haven't figured out what they might be in a classroom setting. Any ideas?? Please post and share if you have thoughts about applications for this app.

Surprises

My first week with an iPad surprised me. I thought I was going to pick it up and never want to put it down. Instead, the few hours I have worked with it have raised more questions than it has answered.

The first day, I fiddled around with it. I have used an iPod touch so I am comfortable with the touch screen and knew how to do basic navigation from one app to another. I was excited to look through the app store to see what is out there in educational apps. For right now, I can only download the free ones because my limited budget for purchasing apps won't kick in until after July 1. There is a dizzying selection of apps out there, even when you limit yourself to the free ones. I'm a little freaked out wondering how I will keep up with an array of apps that will continue to increase at a steady pace.

I started with the top free Apps in education. But before I get into what I found, I probably need to share the mental categories I have for iPad uses.

Category one - Gaming: The touch screen brings a whole new dimension to gaming. I will admit that I have downloaded a basic Euchre app because I had heard about it from a friend and have fond memories of endless rounds of Euchre when I worked as a summer camp counselor in Michigan. Euchre seems to be primarily a mid-West phenomenon (see rules at http://www.hoylegaming.com/c-16-rules.aspx#euchre) I was excited to find a way to play this game again. My experience playing the game, which lasted for less than half an hour, can best be summed up by saying it just wasn't the same. The banter, the trash talk, the subtle communication between my partner across the table – all of that was missing. And this is my issue with gaming in the digital world: the interaction is primarily with a screen, even if you are playing a game in real time with someone else, somewhere else.

But that is is neither here nor there. This iPad is meant to be for educational purposes, so let's move on to my other mental categories.

Category two – Replacing other resources: The iPad is a wonder of efficiencies. There is a camera, video recording, internet access, music storage, a calendar, maps, a notepad and more – all in one sleek gadget. I can see the value in having one machine do the job of several, but at the same time I know that my classroom already has a camera, a laptop with internet access, maps, paper and pencil for writing down ideas, a CD player, etc. I know a big part of the coming year will be figuring out how to use this new resource effectively, and how to find out how it can do the above stated functions for me better than the technology and resources I already have.

Category three – Transforming my teaching: This is the category I am more interested in. How can an iPad enhance what I am already doing as a teacher and create new and better opportunities for my students? I hope readers will post any suggestions they have to get me started.

Now that you understand more about my thinking, you may not be surprised at my reaction in the app store. Many of the top education apps seem to be variations on material or resources you can already access online or in print. An app that gives me access to TED videos? I can find those videos on the internet just as easily. A world map app? I have atlases of all kinds in my classroom. Leafsnap sounds like some amazing technology, using visual recognition software to allow users to identify tree species from photos of their leaves. But then the little voice in me, relic of my environmental educator past, whispers, “Wouldn't it be better to teach kids how to use field guides?”

I hate to sound like a tech-skeptic, but this first week has me realizing that I am approaching this new opportunity with some high standards. There will only be one iPad in my classroom, and I wonder if it will be more of a tool for me, or a tool for my students. How will they share it? Which apps will work well with which projects? Personally I am more comfortable working on my laptop. And truth be told, it's getting harder and harder to think about what my classroom will look like in September when summer vacation is so close...

I am looking forward to a district training session next week, where I hope to get some direction on how to best use this new tool with students. More after that session.

In which I enter the world of blogging

What is the point of an iPad??

This was my reaction when was first introduced to iPad technology last year. I just didn't get it.

I quizzed my husband, way more in tune to new technology than I am. “So it's just an oversized iPod? What's the big deal?” He has an iPod; I don't. The idea of paying hundreds of dollars for a bigger one made no sense to me.

Over the course of the past year, we have continued to talk about possible uses for an iPad. I am in no way tech-phobic or anti-technology, but at the same time I see how techno-crazed our society has become, observing as an anthropologist might. I have been simultaneously amazed and distressed to see how cell phones have become a compulsive toy many people can't put down or set aside, but rather fiddle with, a constant and nervous twitch. I worry about how my children gravitate toward any available computer screen, regardless of whether it's displaying a Electric Sheep or the dinner recipe I am preparing. I question my own evening routine that is not complete without scrolling through my facebook newsfeed. The iPad craze seems like one more gadget in the great tech toybox of the twenty first century.

Which is not to say that I don't see the potential for an iPad to be useful. If, for instance, I were planning a long trip overseas, the iPad would be an excellent traveling companion: giving me access to email, internet and Skype; allowing me to capture my trip with photos and video; acting as a repository for music and video I would bring with me. And when I got bored on a long train ride, I could play a few levels of Angry Birdies. I get it.

But Apple is claiming the iPad is much, much more. One commerical begins, "If you ask a parent, they might call it intuitive...to the teacher, it's the future.” Whoa. I am a teacher. Is this my future? And what does that mean?

My school district has begun to explore that question. They have made a modest purchase of iPads, enough to put a single iPad in each school for the coming school year. I have been selected to be the teacher in my school that is trained to use the iPad and test it out in her classroom. I will attend the training later this month, but have already been granted access to the iPad itself.

I am being encouraged by my building technology guru to take notes on thoughts, uses, reactions, etc. Actually, he suggested I use the Evernote App to jot down my thoughts. As as writer, I need an audience, or at least the potential for one. Thus was born the idea to take notes, and use them for blog fodder.

This entry was typed on my laptop with all ten fingers, but I do intend to learn how to post to a blog directly from the iPad. (I'm almost positive this is possible.) My next entry will be about my first week with the iPad and how I (mostly) didn't play any games on it. But my primary intent for this blog is to document how I use the iPad with my students in the coming school year and what applications are transformative to how I teach and how they learn. I have the whole summer to get ready...I hope some of you will join me on this journey!