iPad vs. PC

We are transitioning from tablet PC's to iPads in our school, so for the time being I have one of each to work with. I've been trying to get acquainted with the iOS realm, but I still go back to the laptop for some things. Here are my thoughts of the day:

Why I like my iPad:

It's lighter and easier to carry around.
The screen resolution shows off my photos nicely.
I can take photos (other than of me).
It's easier to scroll up and down on the attendance screens. (Hardly a big deal, but something I do several times a day.)
Word files for quick grading in Moodle open up instantly.

Why I like my tablet PC:

Typing! Much easier to offer comments in grading on Moodle.
Full functioning of all the apps I use. (Pretty important.)
Much easier to navigate around on the web and between apps, at least so far. (I'm learning...)
The screen doesn't get smudged constantly.

Animoto rocks!

I had not used Animoto in almost three years. I've experimented with Movie Maker and Photostory, tools that allow more control, but are also more time-consuming. Coming home tired from helping out at a two-day retreat, I just wanted something quick and easy to make my photos into a video that would help students remember their experience.

Just upload the photos, pick out a song, and -- thank you very much --within a short time the result is one snazzy video. Animoto does all the work!

IPad camera

If I keep writing here, eventually, there will be much about Apple and iPad, since our school is making the switch from tablet PCs to iPads for freshmen next year, and that's where many discoveries will be, I'm sure.

I took my newly issued iPad to keep tabs on my e-mail at a school overnight retreat that I was helping to supervise. I also took my little Canon Elph to take some photos, but since I had neglected to charge the battery, it lost charge halfway through the retreat. I thought I was done with picture-taking.

And then I remembered my iPad, with the supposedly great camera. So, I took a bunch of shots with that, too, and some of them turned out very nice. Now I need to ponder how those cameras might be used for learning with those freshmen next year.

Newly noticed on Moodle

A colleague pointed out a feature that I need to explore more: "lesson," which allows for a step by step process that a student can do on her own. We have been tossing about ideas about creating lessons that could fit in a general way into the curriculum of a course to use during teacher absences. The thought is that we could create these lessons and have them available for any teacher of a particular course.

Another thing that seems to have just popped up for us is "rubric." Create a rubric for an assignment, and click, click, click, the assignment has been evaluated. Definitely worth a look. When I have used rubrics I have delivered them by e-mail or on a wiki, but this seems to be a most hassle-free way to get the information to the student.

A mini project

Frosh are doing some web research about the life and times of Jesus. They put information on a Wikispaces project page that classmates will be able to view when they present tomorrow.

This is just a little in-class exercise, but it's also a chance to practice some useful skills, so I required paraphrasing rather than copying, links to sources, and both attribution and permission for photos.

Skills in searching and getting things uploaded to the wiki also got a bit of a workout. I made two Jing screencasts to give help for some of this, and students watched them as needed. It seemed to work well as an alternative to taking class time for demonstrations. In the future I may assign watching these very brief videos as homework.

Further reflection on Today's Meet

I paid attention to the comments and questions as students typed them and to student responses, and sometimes I would interject comments of my own. Since there was not time to attend to everything yesterday, we revisited the feed today. There were a few errors that appeared, not just about what was being read yesterday, but about concepts we had already studied. I found this to be useful a way of checking on understanding. It gave me the chance to clear up a couple of misconceptions that I might not otherwise have been aware of.

Today's Meet again

I tried something else with Today's Meet today. The frosh have a quiz that I delayed until tomorrow, but I also wanted them to get some reading done in the chapter, and knew that preparing both things would be a bit of a burden. It is very rare to spend class time reading, but today that's what we did. At the same time, though, the class kept a running commentary on what they were reading: comments about what they found interesting, and questions about what they did not understand. After some beginning silliness, they got down to business and made some good observations and addressed each other's questions. I answered questions, too, when needed, and before class tomorrow I will go back to see what got missed that we need to discuss.

I asked at the end how many found the method helpful, and most of the class raised their hands. Two students voted that it was more distracting and not as helpful to read in this way.