Tip of the Week: 5 Ways to Screw Up an iPad Deployment

I spent a lot of time over the last few weeks working with a ton of teachers. Great conversations. Lots of learning. And not just a little frustration on the part of the teachers.

Much of the frustration centered on their iPads.

Getting work from kids is too hard.

There’s too much I have to keep track of in terms of classroom management.

We can’t get the apps we need.

The tech people won’t open up the ports on the server so the iPads can talk with each other, printers and projection devices.

I get it. It’s not easy.

But I think many people, especially admin types, do expect it to be easy. They expect the iPad to revolutionize the educational world. Kids will love them. Teachers will love them. Test scores will go up. Behavior problems will go down.

You can almost see some assistant superintendent in his office, gleefully rubbing his hands together in anticipation:

This is the silver bullet we’ve all been waiting for.

Here’s a secret. iPads are not the silver bullet. Hardware and software won’t change education. Teachers and quality teaching will.

But . . .

Tip of the Week: Podstock is a family of learners

Let’s be absolutely clear about this.

This is a commercial. Plain and simple. It is a blatant attempt on my part to suck you into the Podstock family. And I feel pretty good about that.

But if you don’t think you need to be part of an energetic, accepting, supportive, tech-loving, always learning, vibrant, sharing group of people, I’ll understand. Go about your business.

But . . . if you’re even just a little bit curious? Then read on, my friend.

Tip of the Week: Text messages from the past

A couple of weeks ago, while catching up on a massive backlog of RSS feeds, I ran across a handy tool that seems perfect for helping you integrate Common Core ELA stuff into your instruction.

Created by Russell Tarr and shared out on the incredible Free Technology for Teachers blog (do you think Richard Byrne ever sleeps?), the Classtools SMS Generator does a great job of recreating the look and feel of an ongoing text message conversation. Kids can immediately relate to the idea that two people would use this sort of medium to share information back and forth.

Social studies in the age of Siri

Twenty years ago if I had asked a kid who the 16th president was, I would have likely gotten a blank stare and a shrug of the shoulders. Ditto with stuff like the capital of Idaho, when the 14th Amendment was passed, and where the Treaty of Versailles was signed.

The shrugging of shoulders was mostly my fault. I taught in a very traditional style, with my focus on basic content. This method encouraged the memorization of a few facts just long enough to pass the unit test.

I didn’t know any better – it was the way I was taught and it was the way I was taught to teach. In that sort of classroom, long term retention and actual application of knowledge just weren’t going to happen.

We know better now.

Realistic problems. Collaboration. Analyzing evidence. Creation of authentic products. Integration of fiction and non-fiction. Use of technology. Formative assessment.

This is 21st century social studies.

Google Story Builder – one more cool tool in your toolkit

Just over two years ago, Google used the Super Bowl to highlight a very cool tool they had created called Search Story that used their Search feature to, well . . . tell a story. I spent a few minutes sharing how you might be able to use Search Story to help kids summarize all sorts of information and to discuss historical people, events, and ideas. I thought about how you could use it to create hook activities or have kids create end of unit type products.

The bad news? Google is no longer supporting Search Story.

Sigh.

But . . . they’ve created a replacement. Google’s latest fun tool called Story Builder is up and running.