Great App Reviews

It can be overwhelming to find the best apps for your classroom for your money. Teachers often are dealing with small budgets for their classrooms. There is a great site that gives a lot of examples of ways to use technology in the classrooms. It has podcasts and other valuable resources for teachers. It also has a great App Review section. Here is the link to that section: http://teachercast.net/appreviews/ .
Just to give you an example of the type of reviews you can find on the site, I have included one of their reviews below.

As you can see, they include a lot of great information, as well as, images from the app. I hope this helps you as you are searching for great apps to use in your class.

iPad Case Update

This last week I wrote this post about the custom iPad cases we are trying to make for iPads for this coming school year. Yesterday, I was able to meet with ADR Packaging a local a manufacturer of custom corrugated, foam, and wood packaging products. Meeting with them was very helpful in finalizing a plan for the insert for the cases. Below is an image of how we plan to place all of the items inside the case. The grey color is the foam. The case should accommodate 10 iPads in Otterbox defender cases, one 10 plug power strip, 1 apple TV, remote, and cord. The configuration seems nice. We are having a prototype built, and should be able to test it out on Friday. We are still trying to decide if we are going to drill a hole for the power cord for charging, or just charge them with the case open.  

How do you use your iPad?

Please take a quick second to answer this poll question. If you have other things you like to do, add them as a comment to the poll or the post.

Promoting Fluency With Ipads

This is a great idea on how to use ipads to promote fluency in reading. Check it out:

App Review Podcast

Here is a app review podcast for some educational apps by Appy Hours 4 U entitled Hot Apps 4 Literacy. Please give it a moment to load.



Have you used any of these apps in your classroom? What did you think of this podcast?

Custom iPad Charging Station

We are rolling out many iPads this coming school year. As part of the process, I have been tasked with finding the best solution for a charging station. There are several prebuilt solutions available, but they are very expensive. We have decided that each of our stations need to be able to accommodate 10 iPads. Here is an example of a prebuilt cases we have looked into.

 












The route that we have decided to take is building our own cases. Currently we are in the process of deciding which box to use. The box that we are leaning toward is this box. It is very sturdy and should accommodate 10 ipads. We are planning on having custom foam inserts made to house the iPads.

This should save us a considerable amount of money and will allow us to customize the cases as we want. The other thing we still need to decide on, is what power strip we are going to build into our cases. So many decisions, and we are running out of time. We need to have these cases ready to go before the coming school year. 

Are any of your schools using multi-charge iPad stations? If so please post in the comments which one they are using.

Examining Generational Differences

Looking back and forward at history is a very interesting thing.  I have not done any studies or research to make me an expert by any means.  After reading these articles I wondered which side was correct - are there truly the generational differences that SEEM to be evidenced in today’s young people? I must admit that I do think (without research - just by my own observations) that today’s youth are incredibly talented when it comes to learning, navigating, and deciphering technology.  There are clear levels between my grandparents, my parents, myself, and even my children in terms of comfort with using technology and how quickly a new technology is learned.

That being said, I was convinced by McKenzie’s points against the Pensky article.  His claims are unsubstantiated by any kind of real research or study.  Each generation has differences from the previous generations that have come before it and technology is not the only area in which these differences are noted.  For example, track athletes continue to set new records and have accomplished unimaginable feats in their sport for athletes that were competing decades ago.

In dealing with a colleague that was convinced of the digital native argument, I would probably agree that today’s youth are much more advanced and capable with technology that any previous generation. However, this gap in achievement is just like in many other fields such as sports and education. Maybe it is just a typically generational thing- each generation differs from its predecessor not just in dress and slang but also in accomplishments. That it is what comes with the changed world we live in and what is deemed as valuable in society while we are growing up.  Those things that are most important in the society we live in, get a greater emphasis in our lives from an earlier age and thus we can see that in the difference from one generation to the next.  So in conclusion, yes this generation is a digital native.  I would tend to say that it is not because they were born with a different type of brain but rather that the world they were born into is a technological world.  They, like all other generations, have adapted to the world around them in order to be successful.

As an educational technologist, I highly recommend that education adapt to meet the needs and climate of this generation of students - since they are living in this type of world and this technology is all around them in every part of their life, it should be a part of their education as well, even at the expense of requiring teachers to learn and adapt.