Category Archives: Vision of the Future

Libe 477 – Final Post

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This is my final blog post in my TL diploma (but not my last post ever)! When I think back to where I started a year ago to where I am now, I have not only become more knowledgeable about library organization, cataloguing, Web 2.0 tools and resources but I have gained a new understanding of the education system and the learners I will be teaching, in the library or in the classroom, in the 21st century.

I am excited to be a beginning teacher at time when the education system and the BC Curriculum is being transformed. I have a new appreciation for inquiry based learning and how classroom teachers and librarians can support each and every student in being producers of knowledge who will contribute to the plethora of information available on the web (McArthur, 2009). I’m excited to “thin the walls [of the classroom] and open up all sorts of possibilities for exploration and collaboration” for both teachers and students (Richardson, 2012, p. 111).

There are many themes that ran throughout the TL diploma but one in particular resonated with me. The idea that creativity is not only valued but crucial to success in the 21st century excites me. Will Richardson said that education in the 21st century is not about delivery. “In one word, it’s about discovery” (Richardson, 2012, p. 60). Several Ted Talks that I have been exposed to through this diploma have also discussed creativity. I’m looking forward to helping foster creativity in students; in helping them explore their passions and connect with others around the world; in helping to maintain and expand on the curiosity students enter the school system with. It really is an exciting to be an educator and a student!

The final project in LIBE 477 has given me a first hand taste of an inquiry project. I started this project with fear and uncertainty. I had a vision for the future but it was in bits and pieces. I decided to focus on one specific area – using technology to document learning in math. I wanted my project to be something I could use in the classroom immediately and something that I could potentially share with my colleagues. The way I have designed my presentation will allow me to insert new videos of student made products once I have implemented the tools in my classroom. My initial feelings of uncertainty and fear have been replaced with a sense of accomplishment and a desire to use my learnings in my class.

Next year, it is my goal to start a class blog. I have not been able to overcome one challenge but I am working on adapting to it. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m not sure how I will export the videos and images students create on the iPads to the class blog if the iPads do not have an email or dropbox set up but at the moment, I plan on sharing my students’ products within our class with the projector. Small steps.

In trying out different apps to document learning I have thought of other ways to integrate these apps as tools to achieve learning outcomes. I will hopefully be able to have one iPad at our plant and butterfly observation station to document student learning. I will also be touching base with our buddy class to see if we can incorporate Book Creator into our sessions.

I leave you with my final project – a vision for how we can use iPads to document learning in Kindergarten math. I have uploaded my presentation to Slideshare. There are embedded videos in my powerpoint and to view them you must download the presentation.

Works Cited:

Finish Line. (2011). [image online] Available at: http://akshatrathi.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/the-art-of-finishing/ [Accessed: 28 Mar 2014].

Laplante, L. (2013). Hackschooling Makes Me Happy. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h11u3vtcpaY [Accessed: 28 Mar 2014].

McArthur Foundation. (2009). Re-thinking learning: the 21st Century Learner. Retrieved February 22, 2014 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0xa98cy-Rw UBC library course reserve.

Richardson, W. (2012). Why school. New York, NY: TED Conferences.

Robinson, S. K. (2007). Do Schools Kill Creativity?. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY [Accessed: 28 Mar 2014].

LIBE 477 – Final Vision Contents

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After reading my previous two blog posts, you will know that I am attempting to design a presentation that can be shared with my colleagues that will highlight the benefits of using the iPad to share student’s learning in math.

I decided to create a powerpoint presentation that can be uploaded and shared with Slideshare.  I chose this format for several reasons.  One, I wanted something that could be easily edited in the future when I had better examples of student work to share and two I am fairly comfortable with powerpoint and wanted to spend more time learning the apps than figuring out a new presentation tool.  Prior to deciding to use Slideshare, I considered doing a Prezi as Prezi seems like a web 2.0 tool a lot of people are using.   When I really thought about the purpose of my presentation and what I wanted to include I decided that a powerpoint would suffice. I have used Prezi to do a presentation in the past and was not overly impressed with the style of presentation it creates.

My powerpoint presentation allows me to embed videos that I have found on the web and videos I created of sample products.  However, I discovered when I tried to upload a sample powerpoint to Slideshare the embedded videos won’t play.  A user needs to download my presentation before they can watch the videos.

I selected several apps I wanted to test out for my powerpoint presentation (I wanted to include three samples).  I do not have my own iPad and the school is closed for spring break so I borrowed a family member’s.  I wanted to try out Draw and Tell and Explain Everything because I knew we had them on our school’s iPads but I soon discovered that they cost money.  Since I don’t own this iPad I know I would never use these apps again so I changed my plans and decided to try out several free apps.  Because I was using a family member’s personal iPad an email was set up and I could easily email the videos I created to myself which I could then embed in my presentation.  However, I can see how I could run into a problem if I had used my school’s iPads.  An email address is not set up on the iPads and we have not downloaded dropbox.  If I was to get dropbox approved for the iPads, would I then need to make sure I signed out the same iPads every time so that I would need to set up our class dropbox on every iPad?  I’m not sure how I would get the videos off the school iPads onto a class blog.  Any ideas?  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have one iPad for the class or even a class computer!  Think of the possibilities.

While some of the apps I tried were not what I expected by trial and error I discovered several ways I could use these tools throughout my instruction.  I’m planning on using Skitch for our plant and butterfly unit as well as in the block centre.  Book creator was a little complicated for simply documenting a math activity but I could see this being used with our buddies.

Overall, I haven’t run into any major problems but I do wonder how I can share work from school iPads and export the products to a class blog without dropbox or an email being set up.  How do other schools do this?  Do they have one email account or several?  Do they have one dropbox or several class ones?

LIBE 477 – Final Vision Rationale

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In my last post, I decided I was going to focus on finding a meaningful way to incorporate iPads into our math lessons.  I want to focus on using iPads to share and demonstrate students’ learning in math with the class and the world beyond our four walls.

Assessment for learning is a buzz term in our district and in education right now.  According to the BC draft curriculum for digital literacy we are “[moving] toward meaningful descriptions/collections demonstrations of student learning” (Ministry of Education, 2014).  Using iPads for documentation and sharing will allow students an opportunity to reflect on their learning.

In the 21st century students must “develop proficiency with the tools of technology,” “design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes” and “create, critique, analyze and evaluate multimedia texts” (NCTE, 2013).  Using iPads to document learning in math will not only develop these skills but it will also allow students to “ask questions, work with others to find answers, do real work for real audiences and add to the storehouse of knowledge that the Web is becoming” (Richardson, 2012, p.61).

I was reading a blog post on langwitches.org about iPads in a Kindergarten classroom.  The students drew a picture for a subtraction story, used the Show Me app to take a picture on the iPad and then recorded their voice explaining their story.  The teacher posed some interesting questions for the reader.  One question in particular was “could the same [learning] have been accomplished by keeping students’ illustrations analog?” (Langwitches, 2012).  My initial response was yes, the students could have stood in front of the class and explained their picture.  This made me question the intention of my project.  However, after some reflection I realized the iPads added to the learning in a way analog illustrations did not.  The students put their stories on their blog for other people to see and comment on.  The students were practicing using digital tools at a level appropriate for their ability and the work could be used as part of a student portfolio because their voice had been recorded.  Students could revisit their work at any time and reflect on their learning.

For my project, I will be exploring a few apps that will allow students to document their learning and I will create some sort of presentation, perhaps a Slideshare or Prezi, that will allow me to communicate my learnings to my teacher colleagues, in particular those who teach Kindergarten.  This presentation will communicate my vision for 21st century education as it pertains to math, technology and documentation. In my presentation I want to explicitly explain how using iPads in the classroom for documentation in math can benefit the students, teachers and even parents.  I want to explain how the skills developed by using iPads for documentation are critical in the 21st century.  I hope my presentation will inspire others to look at the ways they are using iPads in the classroom.

 

Works Cited

Kindergarten Math on the iPad…Many Questions…. (2012, June 14, 2012). Langwitches Blog, [web log] Retrieved from: http://langwitches.org/blog/2012/06/14/kindergarten-math-on-the-ipad/ [Accessed: 17 Mar 2014].

Ministry of Education. (2014). Draft digital literacy standards. BC: BC Government, p. http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/dist_learning/dig_lit_standards.htm.

NCTE Executive Committee. (2013). Ncte definition of 21st century literacies. [report] p. http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/21stcentdefinition.

Richardson, W. (2012). Why school. New York, NY: TED Conferences.

LIBE 477 – Final Vision Project Scope

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Kobe drawing

Image from Flickr

In LIBE 477, we have been asked to create our vision for the future of 21st century education.  Our project can be tailored to any audience we choose and can focus on a topic within the broader topic that is relevant to us.

Currently I am kindergarten teacher and will most likely be one for the next few years.  I have decided that I want to complete a project that I can use in my classroom immediately.  I started my new position in December and have just introduced the iPads to the students in the beginning of February.  I started small and incorporated them into our Math Centres.  I taught the students how to search for apps and choose between a list of pre-selected apps that practice math concepts they have already explored with manipulatives.  To say the students are engaged when using the iPads would be an understatement.  They are mesmerized and are for more capable than I initially gave them credit for.  However, I know that the iPads could be used to transform their learning in addition to allowing them to practice math concepts.  I wonder how I could incorporate iPads into students’ mathematical learning in a more meaningful way?  When I was thinking of this question, I thought of the groups of students who instead of using the iPads are scattered around the classroom using manipulatives to explore math concepts.  Often the students who are building, creating, collaborating and producing products with hands-on manipulatives are doing exactly what we want users of technology to be doing – building, creating, collaborating and producing!  While the iPad group is content playing their practice games, the manipulative group is busy trying to find someone to share their new found knowledge with.  Sharing is such a huge part of the 21st century.  We want our students to be producers of knowledge; to share their knowledge with the world.  I have often reflected that I don’t gather the students around enough to examine and discuss students’ creations.  My inquiry project will be an exploration of how I can incorporate iPads into our math centres in a meaningful way that will allow students to share their learning with the class and potentially the world beyond our four walls.

 

As a side note on the journey of this inquiry project:

I never really understood how those students felt who weren’t able to get started on a project. I’m not going to lie.  I often felt that they were just stubborn and didn’t want to work but as I am attempting to start this project Carol Kuhlthau’s stages of inquiry came to my mind (which I had learned about in a course last semester).  Perhaps these students were stuck!  They had no idea where to start and the thought of an open topic paralyzed them!  At the thought of doing an inquiry project for my vision for the future I felt apprehension, uncertainty, anxiety and doubt (hence the reason it took me so long to get this post up).  All of these feelings are common in the first three stages of Kuhlthau’s model. While I have felt these emotions when embarking on other projects I have never felt them to the extent I felt for this project.  I’m sure by the end of this project I will feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment as Kuhlthau’s model suggests.  This project really feels like a capstone project for this whole diploma by bringing everything I have learned about inquiry, 21st century and digital literacy together.  I’m glad this is one of my last courses I chose to take.

Works Cited:

Kwan, M. (2010). Kobe drawing. [image online] Available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aperturismo/4488285832/ [Accessed: 16 Mar 2014].

Library.humboldt.edu. (2014). Humboldt state university library: at your fingertips — information competence in the professions. [online] Retrieved from: http://library.humboldt.edu/ic/general_competency/kuhlthau.html [Accessed: 16 Mar 2014].