21appleslearning in the 21st centuryFiled under: mobileGoodnight iPad - a lovely video parody of Goodnight Moonvia youtube.com
inspired by Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown comes Goodnight iPad, a video by Ann Droyd (note the joke author). Almost hard to watch, but apropos to modern life! via @fredbartels Amazon announces 11,000 libraries to lend out Kindle books. More gamechanging.
Wow, in an incredible marketplace move, Amazon announced that later this year over 11,000 libraries will offer the ability to take out books on any Kindle (the actual device, iPad, iPhone, Android phone, etc). You will be able to highlight and annotate in the books. Then, if you check that book out again, or buy it, it preserves your annotations. It is definitely worth thinking about as schools watch e-reader developments. I personally have read 10 books via the Kindle app on my Android phone. I have loved it, but have some critiques. That is for another post, I suppose. Here is the article on Amazon's website, although via an odd URL that they seem to use for news releases. Mobile devices (phones, tablets, etc) should change education. But how can we do it well?
Mobile devices have become so powerful now it is hard to believe. All of the photos and video in this post were shot on my HTC Evo phone by Sprint. Most, if not all, of the middle and upper school students I work with have phones of this caliber. As a technology director I'm often thinking about how standardized systems support ease of adoption and support in schools. At my school every teachers in the middle and upper school has the same laptop, in the lower school, the faculty have the same laptop. Each student in grades 8-12 has the same laptop in each grade. This means teachers know what students have, and the tech team can easily support them as the knowledge needed is limited by the limited models.
But, if the real issue is certain generic capabilities of the tools (photos, video, writing, audio, Internet access), perhaps standardized equipment is not necessary. I am not convinced by this, but am somewhat enchanted by it. People using their own tools in ways that they are comfortable with. Will that meet the needs of teachers trying to utilize technology for higher-order learning? I don't doubt that it could, but I struggle with how to be strategic in an institution doing it. Are you letting people bring any device to school? Giving them access to your network? Letting teachers manage dozens of different ways of approaching lesson objectives? What are the advantages? What are the drawbacks?
(download)
Google Reader released for AndroidGoogle Reader, an excellent blog/RSS reader is now available as an app on your Android phone. I have recently come back to Google Reader to keep up with blogs, and I highly recommend it. I have some general categories like photography, education, 21cl (21st century learning), but I love being able to put blogs in multiple categories. For instance, I have a category called, "must read." Screenshots are from the Google Reader blog announcement. Scan the QR code below to instantly get to the download section of the Android app store. 
Sesame Street Song: There's an App for That via @specialkrbvia youtube.com
Oh my, Sesame Street even has to make songs about apps! It's frightening/amazing how different childhood is from just a few years back... Exploring QR codes in schoolsvia technosavvy.org
From @abowllan comes a link to this thought-provoking article by Tim Wilsonabout what might be possible in schools using QR codes. I think the case is a little overstated in the post, but it's fun to think about nonetheless. If you don't know what a QR code (that bar code-looking item) is, the article explains that, too. Mobile Learning Lesson Plans from Scholastic and AT&T
Here are a few lesson plans from AT&T and Scholastic on how to use mobile devices for curricular lessons. I like the concept, but how we ensure that there is equitable access to the hardware? |
|
