Friday, August 9, 2013

Starting off on the iPad journey

Why do this?

I have been teaching chemistry for  25 years and I realized the times are changing fast!  So I decided to take the plunge into the foreign world of technology.  I say foreign because I am not a "digital native."  But really it is not so foreign.  In my life outside of teaching chemistry at a 2-year college in Southern California I like to build my own furniture.  In woodworking I use lots of tools.  That is the way I look at technology in the class room.  It is a tool to help construct something just like I use a table saw to help construct a chair.  In the chemistry classroom I am helping to construct minds.

iPads seem to me to be an outstanding tool to help my students learn chemistry.  This blog will be a chronicle of my experiences using iPads in the classroom.  I plan to talk about the failures and the victories.  I hope to share new insights for those that choose to try this tool in the future and hopefully I will be able to encourage those that are a little afraid to take the chance.

I am going to include some of the "boring details" since that might help someone else who wants to do something similar to what I am doing.

How I got started with iPads in the classroom.

I got my first iPad in 2010 and immediately saw the value of it for the classroom.  I started using screencast technology to put out "mini lectures" that my chemistry students could use to review short concepts or learn the material better.  For years I have heard my students say, "Can you please repeat what you just said?"  Screencasting helps put out quick review lessons.  Using an app on the iPad, I can write on a small "whiteboard" while I record my words.  This can be done so easily it is quite fun.  If a student emails me a question I can answer it with a screencast and post it for all my students to see. I like to use ShowMe, but their are many other good screencasting apps.  Here is my ShowMe page.



I remember a student about 15 years ago asked me in an email to explain some particular chemistry concept.  I needed to write out a chemical equation with subscripts and chemistry symbolism but was unable to in a short time to send over an email.  At the time I wished there was a way to write directly onto the screen rather than typing.  I went to the "tech guy" on my campus and he told me about tablet technology and Camtasia.  So into the sound booth I went for several hours at a time writing on a tablet, hoping I did not go over the time limit.  Then the little videos had to be rendered into a codec that was postible on my website.  Here is the result of what I called my "Mini web lectures".  I did those from about 2002 to 2006.  It took a loooong time.  And then the codec is outdated so it is not always compatible. But THE STUDENTS LOVED IT!  I even had students from other professors rave about the web lectures.  But then my tech guy found another job and I was unable to create any more.  Then in 2010 I get this iPad that I can do my web lectures in just a matter of minutes!


In the Spring of 2011 I got an iPad 2.  As a member of the California Teacher Advisory Council a branch group of the California Council on Science an Technology, I was given an iPad along with the rest of the council.  We were charged with the task of exploring its use in the classroom.

Yikes!  What did I get myself into!

One day in April 2013 I was walking down a hallway and ran into one of our Science Engineering and Math Division secretaries.  She asked me, "If you could buy anything for your classroom what would it be?"  I very flippantly replied, "I would want 30 iPads!"  She then told me to write up a proposal.  Yikes!  what did I get myself into!





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