This is a picture the student took of Shipley using Google Earth on the iTouch.

From Google Earth on an iPod Touch

Download

We purchased the following apps: (When possible I purchased multiple copies of the application since we have 30 iPods)
SAT Princeton Review $4.99
AlgebraPrep Equations $2.99
AlgebraPrep Factoring $2.99
AlgebraPrep Graphing $2.99
AlgebraPrep Real Numbers $2.99
Lemonade Stand .99 cents
Word Warp .99 cents
JV idioms .99 cents
More Blanks $1.99
Units – Converter .99 cents
Chemical Touch .99 cents
USA Factbook and Quiz .99 cents
Today in History .99 cents
Art .99 cents

We use the following free apps:
LA
Vocab Wiz
Stanza – eBook reader
Shakespeare
Dictionary and Thesaurus
VocabDaily – Word of the Day
GrammarUp

Math
Math Drills Lite
Math Tricks Lite
Elementary Math Lite
HiCalc Lite

Science
iSeismometer
EpiCentral
Distant Suns Lite

History
Constitution
Declaration of Independence
All The Countries
Maps of the World
USA Presidents

Languages
Spanish Tutor

Other:
FirstClass
iHandy Level
GoodGuide
Pandora
Google Earth

Podcasts and iTunesU Movies
Speaking of History
Grammar Girl
WGBH Earth and Space
WGBH Physical Science
Lit2Go

Technorati Tags: devices, learning

I have FirstClass for all sorts of digital communication. Even my voice mail is delivered to my Inbox. I could work with this system quite nicely as I know where to look for new items and can in fact find items from last year in my mailbox if needed.

But once a day I must travel back in time to my other Inbox where I am given a carbon based product that somehow I must merge into my digital system or try to maintain two systems. I now have a Fujitsu Scan Snap on my desk to bridge this divide. How much time is lost by me doing this conversion and maintainence of a dual system of communication?

Below are two images of what students must master along with Moodle and FirstClass.

Assignment Notebook: Write down all homework (also posted on Moodle with an automatic message in FirstClass if configured to)

7 Rotational Schedule for our need to make more time out of the day/week

How do our students also maintain dual communication systems? When will we drop the one and settle on only one system? What does it take for real change to happen?

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Thank you Durham Academy parents and students for supporting what we do here. In addition, thank you Apple for the competitive pricing that allowed us to update the labs and the teachers laptops with MacBook Pro 13“..

What has me excited for this year?

iPod Touch Cart
I am getting ready to deploy a cart of iPod Touches for use in classrooms. I have been working on setting them up so they connect to our wireless, have the apps on them I want our students to interact with and figuring out how to be legal with the purchasing of multiple copies of apps. Apple does not make it simple to do this purchasing.

Voicethread
Voicethread has gotten much of my time as we have it now for our students. I am getting ready to roll it out with students next week. I am very excited to deploy this learning tool as I see a lot of potential in all curriculum areas. The fact it can be embedded into our Moodle courses make it a natural extension.

Here is one done by students at 5th grade students at The Linsly School done with Melissa Tredenick who I know from our time together in North Carolina. Our students read the same book so I am hoping to share between our students.

Direct Link
http://voicethread.ning.com/video/5th-grade-summer-reading

Yabla
Working with a few Foreign Language teachers to integrate this resource into their Moodle courses.
http://www.yabla.com/
Moodle
The cart or container for all things we do here at school. WDIDBM (What did I do before Moodle?) – Less
I am happy to see this report on Blended Learning Environments
http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/professional_development/meta_research_k_12_online_learning_turns_little_research

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Tomorrow we are visiting DiVE which should be very awesome. http://vis.duke.edu/

In addition, we are hearing from the director of the Virtual Computer Lab at NC State. http://vcl.ncsu.edu/

How do I make our school aware of the power at our fingertips? Where do we find the time? I hope to have students create Alice worlds for reports.

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As this creative project came to a close, students in Sr. Glass and Sra. Harrell’s 6th grade Spanish classes learned about one of Spain’s most famous poets and playwrights, Federico García Lorca. The culmination of the unit was for the students to create a podcast on his poem, “Canción del jinete”. In the podcast, they recite and illustrate the poem with images that they believe capture the poem’s essence.

This week, Mrs. Hall’s 5th grade students finished their 20th Century History Podcasts which began 3 weeks ago in the Library with Mrs. Longee. Students worked in teams to research and write scripts (reports) to record. Images were used to illustrate their reports along with proper citation.

These projects represent a wonderful illustration of the digital learning that can happen with the software and hardware tools we have available today. As I told the students in each class though, without a script or report, all you have is dead air. Research, writing, recording, illustrating, citing, and preparing products that will live outside of Durham Academy are central to providing a 21st Century learning experience. The critical element of engagement was present in all students as they worked to create their masterpiece. Bravo to all!

All projects and many others are available at http://web.me.com/damiddleschool/MS_08_09/Home.html

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We used all of the “shelf technology” plus some last minute software tools that solved a need we discovered we had.

ID Poems: Check them out at our Digital Locker
Write a poem that communicates who you are and how you have transformed as Pi transforms.

* What’s in your name? You may look up the origin of your name http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/ to add to this activity.
* What does your name mean to you?
* What power do names hold?

Construct your poem as follows:
I am _____________
I am Favorite Animal
I am Favorite Candy
I am Favorite Color
I am Favorite Season
I am Favorite Clothing
I am like Pi….
My Favorite Quote
Name Meaning

Vox Pops: Check them out at our Digital Locker
Collectively the groups came up with at least 3 questions about one of the themes in the book. They then took turns recording each member’s response to the question. These are recorded, edited, and uploaded. In addition to audio Vox Pops, students documented the process with video cameras.

Themes for Vox Pops

* Storytelling
* Find Self
* Man vs. Nature
* Human Relationships
* God/Religion
* Man’s Inherent Nature
* Man’s will to live
* Good vs. Evil
* Rebirth

I am a proud and grateful teacher and happy that we had the shelves stocked.

Technorati Tags: class2.0, devices, learning

We gave the participants an iPod Touch loaded with apps and no one asked how to use it? At least no one said, how am I supposed to start using this thing? What I saw was teachers, administrators, board members just sliding the unlock button and start using it. This is different from when we did a panel discussion and the first question was how to start using a blended learning environment. Just start is the best answer.

I sent the list of iTouch apps that Apple had installed to a teacher at the Upper School who has shown, shall I say, a strong desire to use this tool with his AP Physics students. I have written about him before but this is a classic. He took the list of apps and put them on his iTouch. He found many errors so he told the programmer. Here is a transcript of sorts as I have deleted out the name of the application to protect the person who is creating it and too keep my lawyers happy.

Dear Folks,  I just purchased ++++++++++ from the Apps Store.  I went to the physics section and was, simply put, disappointed and pretty shocked.  You have quite a number of errors or over simplifications of concepts that make the formulas simply wrong or misleading.

1. Your formula for force is stated as F=ma.  Actually, the formula is Fnet=ma.  This is not a trivial point since in any situation where more than one force acts on an object (many, MOST, situations) ma equals the vector sum of all the forces, i.e. Fnet.

2. Your formula for weight states that “g” is “gravity.”  This may sound picky, but “g” does NOT stand for gravity (which is a force) but rather the ACCELERATION DUE TO GRAVITY.  I believe your statement would be much better if you said “g is the acceleration due to gravity.”

3. Your “formula” for Gravity is stated as g=9.8 m/s.  This is incorrect on two fronts.  If you want to give the simple formula for the force of gravity it would be Fgravity = mg…not g=9.8 m/s!  Also, g (as I stated in #2) stands for the ACCELERATION DUE TO GRAVITY.  The acceleration due to gravity at the surface of the earth is 9.8 m/s/s or 9.8 m/s^2.  You have the wrong units for g, the acceleration due to gravity!  m/s is speed.  m/s/s is acceleration.  By the way, you will notice that the formula for Weight and the formula for the Force of gravity are the same…mg.  This is because, as long as you are not accelerating, such as in an elevator or a roller coaster, the force of gravity down on you will equal the force of a scale up on you so that you do not move. Scales read your weight.

4. Your formula for “Gravitation,” which is Newton’s more complex and general formula for Gravity, is TOTALLY wrong and confusing to boot.  You have written it as…”6.67 x 10^-11 Nm^2/kg^2.  Newton’s General Formula for the force of Gravitation is: Fgravitation = Gm1m2/r^2  where G is the Universal Gravitational Constant and is equal to 6.67 x 10^-11 Nm^2/kg^2.

So, your formula for Gravitation is actually just the value for G (number and units)!  G is just one part of the whole formula used to calculate the force of gravity between two objects, m1 and m2   a distance, r, apart. For example, this formula could be used to find the force of gravity by the sun on the earth.

5. Your “Basic eq’s of Motion” lists 4 formulas on one screen with a very rudimentary explaination-to the point of almost being useless.

I am a physics teacher.  (Maybe you guessed that by my comments!) I have encouraged my students to download your app as I thought it would be a nice resource for all the relationships we use in the study of nature through the “prince of sciences”.  Your app is significantly deficient in the number of physics formulas it covers and it is very disappointing to see the very poor proof reading that went into those formulas.  Just for fun, I have attached a formula sheet I use in my classes for Mechanics.  I hope they offer you a glimpse of what your app could do if more time were spent refining it-at least in the physics section.

I’m really not trying to be obnoxious here and I certainly don’t take any delight in telling you about all your mistakes.  But, I am now in a situation where my students have a ticking time bomb app on their iphones and itouches.  I will correct what you have written for them, but it would be very nice if you repaired these formulas.  It would, as a minimum, save you from having to receive harangues from physics “know it alls” like me.

Sincerely, Louis Parry

This of course leads to a major concern as to whether the applications being written are akin to what wikipedia once was for some folks. Who are the folks writing these applications?

What follows is the response from the creator of the application:

Mr. Parry:

Thank you for sending me these vital corrections. 

To begin, I completely understand your frustration and anger – you and your students have paid for an app, and with it should come the most correct information. I apologize for failing to do so. I am, myself, a high school student, and I am constantly refining ++++++++++ for maximum accuracy. Having physics next semester, using any of these “formulas” would land me a lost credit.

All of these inaccuracies will be changed immediately, and will add/remove/correct/change as per your attached PDF. Expect an update within the week (Apple takes around that long to approve app updates.) 

Thank you very much for the heads-up: you have gone a long way to improve the app for everyone. Please keep in touch if you would like any additional formulas added or have more comments. I would be delighted to send you some promo codes so more of your students could download +++++++++ free of charge. Just shoot me an email.

B.

Lou just shared with me that he is helping him to understand the formulas. That is how we will teach in the future, no one will know who is the expert but we will all be responsible for fact checking and helping to improve each others work.

Technorati Tags: class2.0, devices, learning

Background: Matthew is new to our school this year and I had not really had the chance to work with him. He is a good student but quiet in how he goes about his day. In many schools, students like this become invisible. I wondered about Matthew as I did not know his story. While I do not yet know his whole story, I do know that his mind is capable of the themes Daniel Pink discusses. He worked hard on this project with very little (I mean little) help from me other then showing him a tool or a trick (Alpha channel in Keynote). The rest he did with dedication and the sticktoitness of a digital engaged learner.

The tools he used were: Keynote, Skitch, Garageband, Paper (Romeo and Juliet were drawn by hand an scanned using a Scan Snap 300), and of course our Moodle Blended Learning Environment where he shared his project as a QuickTime movie for his classmates.

Watch this project and learn about Romeo and Juliet Act 2 – Scene 2 as well as how our students are using their whole mind to learn

Download
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I was very interested in his brain research and how it impacts our students. It is amazing to me that schools are not paying as much attention to this as needed.

He suggests the following remedies:
1. It is time for educators to catch up. I have heard for over 16 years the refrain of “I am just not good with technology”. Truth is you must be better then you think as what aspect of your life has not changed in the last 16 years? Still standing in line to deposit your paycheck or get cash?

2. Teachers Must Teach to the Whole Mind: If you have not read Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind.

Why should I list them here: Get his handout and read it as we all need to Understand Digital Kids. As Ian would say, taking notes while he is speaking is so 20th Century!

Technorati Tags: learning, NCAIS