As most high school students are gearing up for summer break, many teachers and administrators are planning and prepping for the next school year. Part of their planning may include strategies to integrate technology in the classroom through digital textbooks, gaming and social media.

On May 8, the nonprofit Edutopia released “How to Create Social Media Guidelines for Your School.” The free guide, released during Teacher Appreciation Week, is part of a collaboration with Facebook. “Without having a plan and a focus on how you’re going to go about incorporating social media, you’re potentially going to find that you’re not able to reap the benefits,” says Cindy Johanson, executive director of The George Lucas Educational Foundation, which produces Edutopia.

The guide lists steps teachers should take to introduce a formal social media policy—a document that states, in very specific terms, how teachers and students should behave while using social media. The Edutopia primer includes examples from various schools, such as Minnesota‘s Minnetonka Public Schools social media policy, which explains how teachers should protect confidential information, ensure the safety of students online, and more.

Besides examples of policies, the guide also lists seven steps that teachers can take to create a policy and move it through the ranks of school board administrators.

“Instead of starting from scratch, we hope that others can refer to the steps in the primer and also … the real world examples,” says Johanson.

This sharing of ideas is also part of the appeal of social media in the classroom. Teachers can spread ideas beyond their classrooms, and students can collaborate with peers from other classes on projects.

Students and teachers from several classrooms may be able to contribute to a class project, for example, by adding input and ideas via comments on a shared Facebook “group” page. And by following a different set of guidelines from Facebook, teachers can determine the best kind of page to create for a class project—such as a “group” page, which doesn’t require teachers and students to be Facebook friends (and thus perhaps blur relationship lines and even violate the school’s social media policy) to edit the page.

“So often in education, innovation has been isolated within the four walls of a classroom, or within a school district,” Johanson notes. “Thanks to social media, we’re able to share more broadly.”

Students often use social media to collaborate with peers by posting schoolwork on blogs, Facebook, or elsewhere on the Internet, and receiving peer review and contribution, Johanson says.

[Read why the Education Department wants Tweets from teachers and students.]

“It’s much more motivating for students at all levels—especially in high school—to be able to create work, get feedback, and share their work,” Johanson says. “So many educators on the front line are seeing this great opportunity where kids are no longer just creating work for an audience of one—which might have been, in the past, a teacher—but they’re able to produce work that can be shared in a much broader way.”

The reach of social media in the classroom is so broad that it engages not only teachers and students, but it also connects parents to school life, Johanson says.

“Social media creates a much stronger link between the home and the school than we’ve had in the past,” she notes, partially because parents can often see not only their child’s work, but all the “learning that’s occurring in the classroom.”

And although most social media platforms have been around for less than a decade, the parent engagement that it facilitates is a classic, low-tech concept—one that is essential for an effective school, Johanson says.

“A very healthy parent connection and a strong parent collaboration with the school is an important part of being a successful school.”

Read the original article here.

Publishing has gone digital and it’s never been easier for teachers to create high quality and engaging lesson plans for their students. The ability to distribute digital instructional content has been simplified through the new  Association of Alaska School Boards K12 iTunes U site. Through this digital distribution center, your multimedia-rich, place-based/theme-based lesson plans can be delivered directly to student iPads in any school classroom across Alaska, or the world.

The Digital Lessons for Digital Learners (DL2) Contest is an opportunity to turn your lesson plans into digital books and enter them for a chance to win cool prizes for your school and be posted on Alaska's K12 iTunes U site!

• Grand Prize: Ten iPad 2 tablets with padded cases, Bretford Sync Tray
• 2nd Prize: Teaching Station: One iPad 2, Apple TV, 60” flat screen TV
• 3rd: Prize: One round trip ticket + lodging to ISTE 2012 in San Diego

Watch our video tutorial explaining how Pages can be used to make lesson plans into digital books that can be read on an iPad.

NEXT: Read the DL2 Contest Guidelines and learn How To Enter.

DL2 CONTEST GUIDELINES

1. Send an email requesting entry to cdl.dl2@aasb.org. A link to a Dropbox folder will be provided so you can submit your finished digital lesson plans to us.

2. Develop two digital books according to our for iTunes U guidelines a 1-4 week unit of study: a Teacher’s Lesson Plan and a Student Lesson.

3. Upload completed projects to the Dropbox folder.

4. Submission deadline: April 16, 2012.

5. Prizes to be awarded on May 18, 2012 (dependent on number of submissions)

The Digital Lessons for Digital Learners (DL2) contest is limited to Alaska public school teachers currently employed in an Alaska public school district. The AASB Consortium for Digital Learning (CDL) retains sole discretion for selecting winners and posting qualified entries on iTunes U. Entries will be judged according to the DL2 guidelines and iTunes U technical and copyright specifications to be found posted at the links below and on the Association of Alaska School Boards K12 iTunes U site.

HOW TO ENTER THE DL2 CONTEST

1. Watch our YouTube video tutorial How Create an ePub Digital Book Using Pages to learn how to use Apple's Pages application to turn your lesson plans into digital books.

2. Download the Sample ePub documents to use as templates for your Lesson Plan Digital Book by clicking on the links below. You will need these documents because they contain Paragraph Styles that are NOT in a regular Pages document. The sample documents include necessary Paragraph Styles and other formatting attributes that are optimized for Pages to export to the ePub format. 

• Sample Teacher Lesson Plan (Pages document)

• Sample Student Lesson (Pages document)

3. Download and review the DL2 Contest Materials by clicking on the links below:

• DL2 Contest Poster (PDF)

• DL2 Contest Guidelines (PDF)

• DL2 Appendix A - ePub Book Structure & Copyright Info (PDF)

• DL2 Appendix B - Contest Scoring Guide (PDF)

• CDL iTunes U Content Providers Guide (PDF)

Questions about the DL2 Contest? Email us

MINNETONKA, Minn. –  Backpacks are lighter this year for ninth graders at Minnetonka High School.

“I have most of my textbooks in iBooks,” said 9th grader Rachel Marks. That not only makes her load lighter, Marks can highlight text and digitally assemble all of her notes in an iBook, something she can’t do in a school textbook. It’s just one aspect of a pilot program Minnetonka High School unveiled this year — to put iPads in the hands of students.

“We’ve long believed in technology as an accelerator of learning,” explained Julie Carter, Executive Director of Technology for Minnetonka Public Schools. The district has been digitizing its curriculum for the past decade, and was looking for a way to put that information in the hands of students. Laptops had drawbacks, including price, so when the iPad came along, Minnetonka took notice, and developed a plan that hinged on a key requirement.  “Identifying a group of students that we could work with to have a controlled experiment where we could see, ‘How does the technology change the learning experience for students?’” said Carter.

Minnetonka started by issuing iPads to half the 9th grade class, and using the other half of the class to compare. Teachers quickly noted some changes for the iPad group.

“Student engagement,” said English teacher Sara Martinson.  “They seem to be more involved in what they are doing.”

The district also saw fewer D’s and F’s in the iPad group, as well as fewer late and missing assignments.  Armed with that information, the district proceeded to give iPads to the other half of the ninth grade.

Now, teachers are incorporating the iPad into daily use.  Science teacher Drew Danner says it doesn’t work for everything, but many applications are proving useful for students, including one that allows students to take tests and have their results recorded in real time.

“Now they can go back on their practice tests or their quizzes and they can look at, ‘Hey, I need to work on this certain set of problems,’” said Danner.

Danner is also able to plug important dates and assignments into students’ Google calendars, which they can pull up on their iPads anytime they want.

Students’ work is saved in “the cloud” so if an iPad should break, or be lost, the work is accessible from any computer or internet device.  Carter says so far, there have been few issues of screens breaking, and no iPads have been lost.

Looming in the future for Minnetonka, the need to purchase new textbooks for two core subjects. At $100 a pop for a traditional copy, Apple’s recent announcement it will be offering more textbooks at $14.99 in iBooks could prove to be a real cost-saver for the district.

If this year’s pilot project continues to go well, Minnetonka hopes to use iPads at the 10th grade level, and continue expanding from there.

Minnetonka has created a series of tutorials for students and teachers to learn how to use and take care of their iPads.

Read original article

Paper textbooks could be a thing of the past as school districts are pushed to go digital. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski challenged schools and companies this month to get digital textbooks in students’ hands within five years.

The Obama administration’s push comes two weeks after Apple Inc. announced it would start to sell electronic versions of a few standard high-school books for use on its iPad tablet. Digital books are viewed as a way to provide interactive learning, potentially save money and get updated material faster to students.

In Wisconsin, many Fox Cities school districts have adopted digital textbooks and are test-driving programs for use of electronics in the classroom.

The Neenah Joint School District launched a program last year that placed iPads into the hands of sixth-graders and selected fifth-graders across the district. The Menasha Joint School District bought HP netbooks for seventh-graders and has halted all purchases of paper textbooks.

Student have responded positively to the new technology, especially since it allows students to learn at their own pace, said Peter Pfundtner, director of technology in the Menasha school district.

“Kids are working on their homework into the wee hours of the night because they want to,” he said. “We forget that kids love to learn if they have some influence over what they’re learning.”

The Appleton Area School District has been committed to a program it calls the Classroom of the Future, which is discussing the best way to introduce digital textbooks and online learning into existing classrooms. Tech integration specialists have been placed in many schools in the district, and more will be added soon, said Kevin Steinhilber, chief academic officer for the district.

“We really see technology as a tool that allows students to access information and more appropriately engage them as learners,” he said. “It allows all students to continuously learn.”

Digital Learning Challenge

Many school districts are considering a Bring Your Own Device-based program that would allow students to bring in a laptop or tablet computer from home to use in the classroom. It’s a cost-effective model for school districts that don’t want to shoulder the cost of replacing digital platforms, but creates a question of access to students who wouldn’t own such a device.

“We have to ensure that all students have access,” said Mary Pfeiffer, Neenah’s school superintendent. “We have to ask, how are we going to support those families that can’t afford the technology?”

Obama’s administration released a 67-page “playbook” to schools that promotes the use of digital textbooks and offers guidance. The administration hopes that dollars spent on traditional textbooks can instead go toward making digital learning more feasible.

About $8 billion is spent annually in the U.S. on textbooks for children in kindergarten through 12th grade, said Jay Diskey, executive director of the school division of the Association of American Publishers. Most paper textbooks are priced at an average of $50 to $175 apiece. Digital textbooks, on the other hand, now hover around $15 apiece.

Diskey said textbook companies have been working for the past five to eight years on the technology to transform the industry, but in many cases, schools simply aren’t ready.

“The industry has embraced this, but the difficulty does lie in the fact that schools are not yet fully equipped with the hardware. We hope that they get there soon,” Diskey said.

Many schools lack the broadband capacity or the computers or tablets to adopt the technology, and finding the money to go completely digital is difficult for many schools in tough economic times.

“For some districts who have not prepared for this, a five-year focus could be very ambitious,” Pfeiffer said.

Appleton Xavier High School, for example, spent $80,000 on an existing wireless network and would have to invest even more to gain an infrastructure that would support digital learning, said ACES/Xavier Educational System President Tony Abts.

ACES/Xavier has embarked on a three-year plan to update technology in its schools. Within two years, it plans on having a laptop computer lab for every 100 students in its schools, spend more than $12,000 to replace computer monitors in elementary schools and add Smartboards to classrooms, at a cost of $1,740 each.

Xavier, whose students are being used to research how best to implement technology, will download two digital textbooks each this year, Abts said.

Support of Teachers Critical

School districts worry about the cost and time commitment that will be required to train educators to use the technology effectively.

“A big piece of the success or failure of such an initiative will be the support of classroom teachers,” Appleton’s Steinhilber said. “They need that ongoing professional development because they haven’t been taught in the same way we’re now asking them to teach.”

Pfeiffer said the Neenah school district will provide professional development assistance for teachers to keep laptops and iPads from becoming “glorified notebooks.”

“The most important app we have is our teacher,” Pfeiffer said. “We need to determine how our teachers can balance the use of technology with social integration in classes.”

But for many school districts, there’s an undeniable pressure at both the federal and state level to evolve.

Students can use the textbooks for video explanations to help with homework, they can interact with molecules, and they can manipulate a digital globe to see stories and data about countries, said Karen Cator, director of the Education Department’s office of education technology.

Much of that capability was showcased Jan. 30 in Wisconsin’s Digital Learning Day, sponsored by the state Department of Public Instruction. It offered real-life applications of online and eBook learning in classrooms.

Menasha school district students were featured in the presentation, which included online learning tools such as an interactive chemistry set or trigonometry assignments online.

“When a student reads a textbook and gets to something they don’t know, they are stuck,” Genachowski said. “Working with the same material on a digital textbook, when they get to something they don’t know, the device can let them explore: It can show them what a word means, how to solve a math problem that they couldn’t figure out how to solve.”

Read original article

As debate continues over whether schools invest wisely in technology — and whether it measurably improves student achievement — Mooresville, a modest community about 20 miles north of Charlotte best known as home to several Nascar teams and drivers, has quietly emerged as the de facto national model of the digital school.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Sixty educators from across the nation roamed the halls and ringed the rooms of East Mooresville Intermediate School, searching for the secret formula. They found it in Erin Holsinger’s fifth-grade math class.

There, a boy peering into his school-issued MacBook blitzed through fractions by himself, determined to reach sixth-grade work by winter. Three desks away, a girl was struggling with basic multiplication — only 29 percent right, her screen said — and Ms. Holsinger knelt beside her to assist. Curiosity was fed and embarrassment avoided, as teacher connected with student through emotion far more than Wi-Fi.

“This is not about the technology,” Mark Edwards, superintendent of Mooresville Graded School District, would tell the visitors later over lunch. “It’s not about the box. It’s about changing the culture of instruction — preparing students for their future, not our past.”

As debate continues over whether schools invest wisely in technology — and whether it measurably improves student achievement — Mooresville, a modest community about 20 miles north of Charlotte best known as home to several Nascar teams and drivers, has quietly emerged as the de facto national model of the digital school.

Mr. Edwards spoke on a White House panel in September, and federal Department of Education officials often cite Mooresville as a symbolic success. Overwhelmed by requests to view the programs in action, the district now herds visitors into groups of 60 for monthly demonstrations; the waiting list stretches to April. What they are looking for is an explanation for the steady gains Mooresville has made since issuing laptops three years ago to the 4,400 4th through 12th graders in five schools (three K-3 schools are not part of the program).

The district’s graduation rate was 91 percent in 2011, up from 80 percent in 2008. On state tests in reading, math and science, an average of 88 percent of students across grades and subjects met proficiency standards, compared with 73 percent three years ago. Attendance is up, dropouts are down. Mooresville ranks 100th out of 115 districts in North Carolina in terms of dollars spent per student — $7,415.89 a year — but it is now third in test scores and second in graduation rates.

“Other districts are doing things, but what we see in Mooresville is the whole package: using the budget, innovating, using data, involvement with the community and leadership,” said Karen Cator, a former Apple executive who is director of educational technology for the United States Department of Education. “There are lessons to be learned.”

Start with math lessons: each student’s MacBook Air is leased from Apple for $215 a year, including warranty, for a total of $1 million; an additional $100,000 a year goes for software. Terry Haas, the district’s chief financial officer, said the money was freed up through “incredibly tough decisions.”

Sixty-five jobs were eliminated, including 37 teachers, which resulted in larger class sizes — in middle schools, it is 30 instead of 18 — but district officials say they can be more efficiently managed because of the technology. Some costly items had become obsolete (like computer labs), though getting rid of others tested the willingness of teachers to embrace the new day: who needs globes in the age of Google Earth?

Families pay $50 a year to subsidize computer repairs, though the fee is waived for those who cannot afford it, about 18 percent of them. Similarly, the district has negotiated a deal so that those without broadband Internet access can buy it for $9.99 a month. Mr. Edwards said the technology had helped close racial performance gaps in a district where 27 percent of the students are minorities and 40 percent are poor enough to receive free or reduced-price lunches.

“Even in the downturn, we’re a seller’s market — people want to buy homes here,” said Kent Temple, a real estate agent in town. “Families say, ‘This is a chance for my child to compete with families that have more money than me.’ Six years from now, you’ll see how many from disadvantaged backgrounds go to college and make it.”

TEAMWORK Cameron Parnian, left, and Gordon Muhlestein pondering a lesson on their school-issued MacBook laptops. Photo: Jeremy M. Lange for The New York Times

Mooresville’s laptops perform the same tasks as those in hundreds of other districts: they correct worksheets, assemble progress data for teachers, allow for compelling multimedia lessons, and let students work at their own pace or in groups, rather than all listening to one teacher. The difference, teachers and administrators here said, is that they value computers not for the newest content they can deliver, but for how they tap into the oldest of student emotions — curiosity, boredom, embarrassment, angst — and help educators deliver what only people can. Technology, here, is cold used to warm.

Mooresville frequently tests students in various subjects to inform teachers where each needs help. Every quarter, department heads and principals present summary data to Mr. Edwards, who uses it to assess where teachers need improvement. Special emphasis goes to identifying students who are only a few correct answers away from passing state proficiency standards. They are then told how close they are and, Mr. Edwards said, “You can, you can, you can.”

Many classrooms have moved from lecture to lattice, where students collaborate in small groups with the teacher swooping in for consultation. Rather than tell her 11th-grade English students the definition of transcendentalism one recent day, Katheryn Higgins had them crowd-source their own — quite Thoreauly, it turned out — using Google Docs. Back in September, Ms. Higgins had the more outgoing students make presentations on the Declaration of Independence, while shy ones discussed it in an online chat room, which she monitored.

“I’m not a very social person, but I have no problem typing on a keyboard,” said one of those shy ones, Chase Wilson. “It connected me with other students — opened me up and helped me with talking in public.”

In math, students used individualized software modules, with teachers stopping by occasionally to answer questions. (“It’s like having a personal tutor,” said Ethan Jones, the fifth grader zooming toward sixth-grade material.) Teachers apportion their time based on the need of students, without the weaker ones having to struggle at the blackboard in front of the class; this dynamic has helped children with learning disabilities to participate and succeed in mainstream classes.

“There are students who might not have graduated five years ago who have graduated,” said Melody Morrison, a case manager for Mooresville High School’s special education programs. “They’re not just our kids anymore. They’re everybody’s kids — all teachers throughout the school. The digital conversion has evened the playing field.”

Many students adapted to the overhaul more easily than their teachers, some of whom resented having beloved tools — scripted lectures, printed textbooks and a predictable flow through the curriculum — vanish. The layoffs in 2009 and 2010, of about 10 percent of the district’s teachers, helped weed out the most reluctant, Mr. Edwards said; others he was able to convince that the technology would actually allow for more personal and enjoyable interaction with students.

“You have to trust kids more than you’ve ever trusted them,” he said. “Your teachers have to be willing to give up control.”

That was the primary concern that the 60 visitors expressed during their daylong sojourn to Mooresville in November. “I’m not sure our kids can be trusted the way these are,” one teacher from the Midwest said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid trouble back home.

Thomas Bertrand, superintendent of schools in Rochester, Ill., said he was struck by the “culture of collaboration among staff and kids” in Mooresville and would emphasize that as his district considered its own conversion.

“There’s a tendency in teaching to try to control things, like a parent,” said Scott Allen, a high school chemistry teacher in South Granville, N.C. “But I learn best at my own pace, and you have to realize that students learn best at their own pace, too.”

CURIOSITY Backpacks line a hallway at East Mooresville Intermediate, a favorite stop of educators. Photo: Jeremy M. Lange for The New York Times

Mooresville still has some growing pains. In one ninth-grade social studies class, a video that easily could have been shown on a large screen instead went through the students’ laptops, several of which balked, “Unable to find proxy server.” One fourth grader, having to complete 10 multiplication questions in two minutes for the software to let her move on, simply consulted her times tables, making the lesson more about speed typing than mathematics. And those concerned about corporate encroachment on public schools would blanch at the number of Apple logos in the hallways, and at the district’s unofficial slogan: “iBelieve, iCan, iWill.”

Mooresville’s tremendous focus on one data point — the percentage of students passing proficiency exams — has its pitfalls as well. At November’s quarterly data meeting, there were kudos for several numbers whose rise or dip was not statistically significant, and no recognition that the students who passed by one or two questions could very well fail by one or two the next time around. Several colorful pie charts used metrics that were meaningless.

“I realize the fallacy of looking at one measure,” Mr. Edwards said in an interview afterward. “We look at scholarships, A.P. courses taken, honors courses, SAT scores. But the measure that we use is what the state posts, and what parents look at when they’re comparing schools moving here.”

After three years of computers permeating every area of their schooling, Mooresville students barely remember life before the transformation and are somewhat puzzled by the gaggle of visitors who watch them every month. (“At times it’s kind of like being a lab rat,” one 11th grader said.) But Mooresville understands its growing fame in the world of education, much of which has yet to find the balance between old tricks and new technology.

“So,” Ms. Higgins asked her English class after the bell rang, “you think you’re going to like transcendentalism?”

“Only if you’re a nonconformist,” a student cracked.

Read original New York Times article

A proposal expected to be discussed during the 2012 Alabama legislative session is one that, if passed, would put 21st century technology in the hands of all high school students in Alabama.

Sen. Gerald Dial (R-Lineville) and Rep. Jim McClendon (R-Springville) announced in December their plan to propose the “Alabama Ahead Act” in the legislative session, which convenes Feb. 7. The proposal suggests purchasing pen-enabled electronic tablets for each student in grades 9-12. The tablets would allow students to use digital copies of textbooks instead of the traditional printed copies.

“Some will ask, ‘How can we afford to do this?’ My answer is, ‘How can we afford not to,’” McClendon said. “If our students are going to compete in a 21st century job market, they need 21st century tools.”

“With our recent investments in statewide broadband services, we have a unique opportunity to include digital-based education options in our schools,” Dial said. “We have delayed purchasing new textbooks for years. The books we expect our children to use are in shameful condition, and some students cannot even bring their books home because multiple classrooms share them. The Alabama Ahead Act will fix that.”

The legislators suggest paying for the tablets by selling up to $100 million in bonds.

Area schools have all embraced new technology, and teachers and students are already using the new tools in many of the classrooms.

John Hill, a Talladega High School English teacher, helped lead a group of students in preparing projects for last year’s technology fair. The groups all used Hill’s iPad2 to complete the projects, which all showed how the most popular tablet on the market is useful in the classroom.

“My students did a video newscast as one of their projects for the technology fair,” Hill said. “They videotaped it with a small hand-held camcorder, transferred the files to the iPad and then used iMovie to cut it up and to add on text layers so they could have their names on it, credits and other things. (The iPad2) has its own video camera, so they actually could have recorded (the newscast) with it, which was the plan, but with (having just) the one, I needed to be able to pass it around, not have one group just (using it) the entire time.”

Another group used the iPad2 to pull together a project on volcanoes, which was something the students were studying in science class. The students were able to use a bulletin board-type application called Evernote, which allows students to pull not only text, but also pictures, maps and graphs from various internet resources and store the information in one place.

Teachers and students throughout Talladega County schools are using iPads and other various technological upgrades daily.

The technology upgrades are funded through several sources, according to Jennifer Barnett, an English and history teacher at Fayetteville School. Talladega County schools have chosen in recent years to use federal Title I funds for purchasing technology such as iPads.

“In Talladega County, any of our schools that have elementary grades in the school, they’re known as a Title school,” Barnett said. “Fayetteville would be an example because it’s a K-12. All of our middle schools and all of our elementary schools (are Title schools). Unfortunately, there are a handful that have no title funding, so you’re going to find not as many resource dollars to do this. Like all funds, they’ve been cut. A huge number of our schools have chosen (to use the funds) to purchase technology over the past five or six years and in lots of different types of technology. You see things like SMART Boards and projectors … computers and laptop carts and iPads and handheld devices. You see this in most elementary schools in our county, most of our middle schools and some of our high schools.”

Dial and McClendon suggested the use of digital textbooks would save schools money over time because they are less expensive than printed textbooks. Area schools are already giving students the option to receive textbooks in the digital format for many of their classes.

Michael Robinson, technology coordinator for Sylacauga city schools, said there are advantages to digital textbooks over traditional print copies. However, he does not see the cost being significantly less than the printed version.

“I personally don’t foresee school e-textbooks being significantly cheaper than the traditional textbook because the publishing companies want to make a profit,” Robinson said.

The cost may not be the only factor to consider when weighing the options of purchasing digital or print textbooks.

“The advantage of e-textbooks are no older, outdated books,” Robinson said. “An e-textbook doesn’t have the risk of pages coming off the binding, tearing or have pages missing, and e-textbooks — especially science and history — can be continually updated with current events and discoveries. Another advantage of e-textbooks is the interactive capabilities. Going back to a science e-textbook, students could zoom in and out, spin and move the pictures, watch videos and go to websites related to the lesson. And, like current e-readers, students can get the definitions of words they don’t know by simply touching the word.”

Hill said several classes at THS have given students the option of downloading .pdf versions of their textbooks on home computers.

“When we got our new sets of textbooks a couple of years ago, we went with the technology option, which gave us all of the literature and the grammar books in .pdf format on a CD, so that students could take them home if they wanted to and put them on their computer,” Hill said. “The iPad reads .pdf format. We can easily drop their entire textbook onto the iPad.”

Barnett said using electronic tablets strictly for digital textbooks is not the best use for the devices.

“I don’t think that’s the biggest benefit for iPads and other handheld devices,” Barnett said. “I think that is a benefit. I actually think that if your school is fortunate enough to be similar to my classroom where you have a one-to-one (ratio of students to computers), the concept of textbooks is going to be completely outdated.

“The most important, most significant aspect of having a computer is learning loads about any particular topic (whereas) a textbook is very narrow on any topic. I would definitely not use the argument that we need to put digital, handheld devices in a classroom because this is a great way to provide a textbook. I think we need to get rid of the notion of textbooks, (and) the concept that a book can tell you everything you need to know about a topic.”

Winterboro is one of the schools using iPads and other technology in 21st century classrooms. Principal Craig Bates agreed with Barnett that the iPads at WHS are used for much more than just digital textbooks.

“We have an English class that’s reading ‘The Great Gatsby.’ (The e-books are) less expensive than paperback books,” Bates said. “We also have the audio book as well.”

Barnett and Bates both lauded the iPad’s use in English classes, especially for students with learning disabilities or those who struggle with reading. With the digital version of the book on the iPad, the audio version and study guides for the book, which are available with some apps for the device, a student is able to listen to the book and follow along on the tablet.

“They’ve got the book, audio book and study guides all in one place,” Bates said. “It’s really neat.”

Reading, writing and arithmetic are not the only areas where technology can be useful in education. Some coaches in the area are using iPads to streamline keeping score and statistics for games throughout the year.

Mike Gibbs, baseball coach at Sylacauga High, plans to keep his team’s stats on the iPad beginning this season. In addition to the bookkeeping ability of the iPad, Gibbs said the tablet also has uses during practice.

“There are several game apps available for use and the iPad lets us use it, plus it has video that can be recorded and watched immediately for teaching points during practice time,” Gibbs said. “The iPad gives us the opportunity to email results to many people, including newspapers, immediately with game stats and cumulative stats as well. We can print out the paper scorebook as often as we need to.”

Gibbs said the Aggies plan to use both the electronic scorebook on the iPad and the traditional paper scorebook this season, but hope to eliminate the paper scorebook next season.

Students at Munford are also using technology outside of a classroom setting, according to MHS teacher Anne Hopkins. The school already has one 21st century classroom that has a one-to-one student to computer ratio. Hopkins said the school would soon receive 35 iPads for instructional use.

“Because of our partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, we plan to use the iPads for project-based learning instruction that is centered around the environment,” Hopkins said. “We have a 100-set outdoor classroom amphitheater, two huge greenhouses, six 1,000-gallon fish tanks and a three-tier wetland. We already use these outdoor learning opportunities often, and we plan to further them as our students gain more access to technology. The iPads will assist in research, virtual field trips, communication with experts, etc.”

Area educators who are using the current technology have all seen ways to implement it in the classroom. A growing number of classrooms in elementary, middle and high schools in the area are equipped with iPads and other technology, which were purchased with grant money over the past few years. The teachers and administrators gave mixed answers when asked if the proposal by the two legislators would be a good use of state funds.

“It’s a catch 22,” Robinson said. “While we want to continue moving Alabama forward in all areas, not just technology, after several years of proration, we also need the funding to return to lower class size, buy buses, classroom supplies and pay for professional development.

“There are a myriad of curriculum, technology, inventory and financial questions and concerns that must be worked out before e-textbooks and tablets become mainstream in education.”

Barnett, a self-proclaimed advocate for technology in education, has some reservations about the proposed bill.

“It would really sound weird for somebody who is such a huge advocate for technology in education to say I’m not sure, but I will say I’m not sure, because I think the plan for the use of these devices is as important as the plan to purchase them,” she said. “Just the information, let’s put a device in the hands of all the students, is not enough for me to say wholeheartedly let’s go for it.

“I would want to see a plan for using them. I would very much appreciate our legislators asking our teachers and possibly bringing together a panel of teachers to listen to, to allow them to talk to them. I’m talking about teachers who have some experience with this, with technology, the place technology has in our classrooms, to hear them, to help them construct a plan. I believe, no more should I write legislation should they write the plan. I strongly believe that it would be in the best interest of all involved – students receiving them and legislators trying to make a decision to vote on it — for them to have a plan for its use.”

Barnett and Bates both would like to know more about the plan for training teachers to use the devices in the classroom. Many teachers in Talladega County schools have received and/or are going to receive training on the iPad. Barnett and several other teachers and administrators in the county will be helping train those teachers, but the veteran educator also said the best training is hands on, where the teachers take the devices home and use them, figuring out how they work in their everyday life as well as how they will be used in the classroom. She said the plan to train the teachers across the state on how to use the devices would be as important as the plan to purchase the tablets.

“The general rule in education is that you would spend 20 percent of the cost of any item on professional development,” Barnett said. “I would like to see the professional development plan that spends 20 percent of the budget for purchasing this item. Let’s say you’re going to spend $1 million … I need to see the plan to spend $200,000 to teach teachers how to use them. The expectation that they will know (how to use the devices) is unrealistic.”

Read original article from The Daily Home

When the 2011-12 school year began, students in about 600 districts nationwide returned with a new piece of tech: their own personal Apple iPad. Since the iPad launched last year, some schools have replaced textbooks with E-books. Programs in two thirds of the 600 districts are new for this year; others started these “one-to-one” programs, in which schools provide one iPad for each student, soon after Apple released the tablet in April, 2010.

[Learn about an Iowa school's one-to-one program.]

Thousands of college lectures, videos, and textbooks are already available on Apple’s iTunes U store. Recently, major K-12 textbook manufacturers have started releasing their products electronically as well. Earlier this year, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt released an iPad app for Algebra 1 that combines its standard textbook with interactive content. Similar apps for Algebra 2 and Geometry are forthcoming. Each iPad app costs schools $59.99, a savings of $13 off the company’s hardcover textbook.

In a pilot program in four California districts, students who used the Algebra 1 app outperformed students who used traditional textbooks, according to teachers at one of the pilot schools.

Tablet computers are more than electronic textbooks. With their fast processor, Internet connectivity, and large touch-screen display, tablets can function as powerful graphing calculators, video players, and photo editors. The website iPad in Schools has a list of dozens of apps that can be used in high schools.

These desirable features also make tablet computers a potential source for distractions. The iPad has access to thousands of games and all major social networking sites. According to the Associated Press, many high schools that have implemented one-to-one programs are trying to decide whether students should be allowed to take their iPad home and are devising plans to make sure students are on task while using the devices in school.

Schools that are trying out iPads for the first time this fall have a good model to follow: Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop High School in Minnesota bought 375 iPads for its students shortly after Apple released the product, according to a Marketplace article. In the first year, 22 iPads were lost or broken at the school, but the iPads have helped engage students, cut down on paper, and allowed absent students to keep up with classwork.

Read original article in US News & World Report

In 2005, Talbot County Schools, located on Maryland’s eastern shore, launched an innovative initiative that provided a new laptop computer to each ninth grade student for use at school and at home. This video documents the initiative’s evolution into an example of systemic change within the school system that has resulted in significant positive outcomes for students, families, teachers, administrators and the community. Superintendent Karen B. Salmon, school administrators and teachers involved discuss the project’s philosophy, goals, and migration from drill and practice instruction to experiential learning. Watch video.

As society grows increasingly digital, being conversant in code—the language that makes websites, games and apps run—is quickly becoming the new literacy of our time. Columbia University students Zach Sims and Ryan Bubinsky believe that using a computer is the equivalent of knowing how to read, and knowing how to program for a computer equates to the ability to write. Their start up company, CodeAcademy is a free, easy, interactive and fun way to learn how to code with friends, while tracking and sharing personal progress. The site has attracted close to 1 million users and $2.5 million in funding from tech investors. In this video interview Zach and Ryan discuss what it takes to launch a company with the huge vision of teaching the world how to code.

 In just the past couple of years, Salman Khan has built a huge following for the Khan Academy. He’s created more than 2,700 free educational videos that have been viewed tens of millions of times over. In the very foreseeable future, teachers will be able to upload their own videos to the Khan Academy website, but also be able to create their own “knowledge maps” or repositories of content for their classes, using videos – within or outside of the Khan Academy – and all of Khan’s analytics, and reporting tools, in order to customize their own curricula.

Over the course of a few short years, Khan has accumulated a vast library of education videos that are now used in schools and homes across the country. As of today, there are more than 2,700 videos on the Khan Academy site. All of them have been created by Salman Khan himself, with the exception of those produced by the SmartHistory team who Khan hired a few months ago.

But no man is an island, as they say, and Khan is opening up his academy – at least in part – to the great Internet expanse.

In the very foreseeable future, teachers will be able to upload their own videos to the Khan Academy website, but also be able to create their own “knowledge maps” or repositories of content for their classes, using videos – within or outside of the Khan Academy – and all of Khan’s analytics, and reporting tools, in order to customize their own curricula.

Khan describes it this way:

“In the first iteration, let’s say you teach gender studies at U.C. Berkeley. You could put up your own videos, exercises, and everything you want for the class. Plus, you could leverage all the tools we have – a dashboard, analytics, reporting tools – and you could create your own island for your own class.”

Eventually, the site will serve as a highly curated repository of educational videos – those considered valuable by Khan and his team.

“The deal will be, you can use our tools if we can put your stuff onto our noncommercial public domain,” Khan said. “We don’t know how it’ll turn out, but we suspect there will be some amazing things put up.”

And rather than big buckets of random videos, Khan hopes the site will house, for example, “the definite course on technology,” which might be a combination of a few different people’s content.

“We have all these fancy tools and modules we’re building that are just supporting my videos. Why can’t it support someone who’s teaching a different language, or quantum physics, or gender studies,” he said. “We want to expose our tools so that everyone can use them to help kids learn at their own pace,” he said.

But the curation part of this effort is key. Though there will be a “Wild West part that someone can dig through if they’re in the mood,” he said the designated subjects will be heavily curated.

Khan will also hire a few new teachers and expand the topics of coverage to go beyond his specialties in the STEM field and into the arts and humanities. Stay tuned to hear who these personalities might be.

The most recent influx of cash came from the $5 million donation from the O’Sullivan Foundation. Khan has also received funding from other sources: Reed Hastings, founder of Netflix donated $3 million; Scott Cook, co-founder of Intuit, and his wife donated $1 million; Google last year donated $2 million; and Bill Gates has donated more than $5 million in total over the last few years, Khan said.

And now with this new crowd-sourcing project, the 3.5 million unique visitors every month is poised to explode.

Read more about Khan’s plans to launch a hands-on project-based summer camp.

Visit the Khan Academy website.

Read the original KQED MindShift article