Today in my Organic Chemistry Class we fired up the iPads for the first time! I told my students I expected complete failure. Something just had to go wrong, I was sure. Would the WiFi in the room work with all of those iPads at once? Would the checkout system work? Would some student drop an iPad? Would it take forever to check them back in? Would the students think the whole project is stupid?
Well, practically nothing went wrong at all!
When I had them log in and go to the web, all were able to, yay!
I decided to start by playing a "team building exercise". My high school Science teacher buddy Jeff Orlinsky at Warren High School told me about the app called "SpaceTeam." It is for 2-4 players and can be done over WiFi or BlueTooth. The team members have to perform multiple functions to keep their spacecraft flying. One team member gets instructions that he or she must tell the other team member, who performs the actual task. It gets pretty nerve wracking and team members must learn to depend on each other. Now these are sophisticated college students planning on becoming doctors and engineers. They seemed to love the game, uh, exercise, and I had a hard time trying to get them to stop and do "real" science.
I told them that I wanted them to learn how to use the app "TouchCast". This is one of many free "Screen casting" apps. This app allows the creator to integrate features such as video, whiteboards, stills, audio, and much more into a single multi-media presentation. Each student was directed to get their own TouchCast account so that when they uploaded their presentations I could easily find them. I also created a google form and emailed that link to them. They were simply to put the url of their TouchCast page onto the form. The form then generates a spreadsheet which I can easily access.
They spent the lab period doing their experiment (re-crystallization) and at the same time practicing with TouchCast on the iPads. They seemed to be pretty occupied with the whole experience.
Although I do not have a whole lot to show for my day in terms of a finished project, the day went much smoother than I ever imagined.
Here is one of the first TouchCast videos created by one of my students.
One student used both his iPhone and one of the iPads to create this video of the experiment. I believe it was mostly with his Phone.
Question - How was your student's reactions when you brought out the iPads? Were they excited/annoyed/hesitant? From what I have seen, students are usually uncomfortable with change. Was that the case with you?
ReplyDeleteMary,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your question! I think it boils down to three things: trust, expectations and a little fun.
I don't introduce the iPads the first day or even the first week. The best place for me to use the iPads is about a month into the semester. This is due to the curriculum. A wise mentor told me don't let technology drive the education, curriculum drives education. So that gives me time to get to know the students. I think if the student knows and trusts the teacher it goes a long way. Trust is the top priority for me. Then I think it is important to lay out clear expectations for the students. If they know what is expected of them it will lower their anxiety. I have serious students and they want to know what is expected of them. If I don't know what my expectations are because it is the first time doing something then I say that we are going to try out an experiment when I bring out the iPads. I just try to be honest. I also try to give them a good example of past student work that met my expectations. This makes things clear in their minds. My lower/younger students tend to be less anxious. But my older organic students can be a bit too perfectionistic and that causes a little anxiety. So I introduce the devices by playing a game/app called SpaceTeam. That game really gets the adrenaline rushing and makes it really fun and lowers the tension. Then we get on with the business. Interestingly by the end of the semester in my organic chem. class half of the students got their own device. So I guess they saw the value of the iPad in the end.
Thanks again,
Where do you teach?
Jeff Bradbury
Jeff,
DeleteThank you for your reply. I actually do not teach (yet!) but I am almost there. I am very interested in the progress of technology in classrooms, because I expect that by the time I teach, technology will already be a big part of the classrooms. I am very interested in reading about your journey, please keep it up! Thank you for your time.