I am not going to lie, I LOVE my iPad. I have everything on there. When I eat my breakfast in the morning, I check my Facebook, emails, the News, the weather, my schedule (personal and school), and maybe even play a game or two. I keep my life organized with this amazing tool. I keep all of my appointments in my personal calendar. I keep a "to-do" list, and it reminds me if I need to do something. I receive and send emails on all of my accounts with one simple app. It has all of my contacts on here so I can easily look up an email, address, or phone number. It even has it's own phone number that can call, but I mainly use this to text my wife while I am sitting in class. I also read in bed before I go to bed at night.
I take and edit pictures and videos with my iPad. In a couple of hours I shot, edited, posted and shared this trailer all from this tablet:
I use this iPad in class and at work. I can read my text books on it, I can download and mark up PDF files from Canvas. I can take notes and even write papers. Online clouds enable me to seamlessly transfer all of my papers and projects between devices like my phone and home computer. I can access the paper from any computer that has the internet and print it from there. At work, I can down load the PDF for my time card, fill it out, then have my supervisor sign it directly on the iPad, then I submit it. I can even create my own PDF files by taking pictures of pages in a book.
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| I put all of my school papers and personal finance spreadsheets on my 7 GB SkyDrive. |
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| I have over 50 GB of free space on my Dropbox where I store my pictures. |
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| My 5 GB Google Drive is used for school projects where I need to collaborate with other students. |
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| Everything that I write on my iPad is uploaded to the 5 GB iCloud. |
This are just some of the online cloud drives that I use to store all of my information.
My family stays connected through digital text. Phone calls are extremely awkward in my family, so we stay in communication over the internet. Facebook and Words With Friends let me know that my family is still alive. If I ever want to contact my Mom, all I have to do is send her a message on Facebook. In fact, yesterday I wanted to thank my mom for some baby clothes that she send up for us. I sent her a message on Facebook, and I said to my wife, "Let's see how long it takes her to see this message." She had seen it before I could even finish my sentence.
I love being able to work with students and teachers via Google Drive. I think this is the way that technology is going these days. Students know how to work a smart phone or tablet before they are in Kindergarten. I see this as a pro and a con.
Pros:
I think it is extremely important for children to know how to run technology. Technology moves SO fast these days and kids need to stay up-to-date to be able to survive in the competitive world. It is a basic requirement for nearly every job to be able to operate a computer. Students need to know how to navigate the internet to find information and connect with others. They also need to know how to type on computers and read digital text.
Cons:
I HATE short hand text writing: "Hey, U goin 2 da party? Yer invited 4 sur :) !" I think it will be very difficult for students to write and spell correctly when they are writing papers if they learn to read and write in short hand. Another con is that giving a device that has unlimited access to things to a student can be a recipe for disaster. Kids also don't take care of stuff. They will drop, break, throw, spill-on, jump-on, spin and any other inane thing you can think of to stuff.
As a teacher, I think it would be awesome to have an interactive PowerPoint pulled up while I am teaching and have the students follow along on their own devices. Textbooks can be on iPads, saving the school money. Papers can be submitted on line, so real paper doesn't have to be used. Real time instruction and help is available. Feedback is a breeze. Technology is the way to go, you just have to be careful how you do it.
Hi Clark,
ReplyDeleteI really admire that you are so current on new technologies. If you are able to integrate that into your teaching, you will really prepare your students to have an advantage in a world that is becoming increasingly digital (as your daily experiences attest).
I also wanted to comment on 'text speak.'As you know, language is always in flux and evolving, and I think that nothing has influenced contemporary language more than technology. It's easy to evaluate new forms of language, such as text speak, as inferior to old forms of language, but if language never changed we would still be using 'thees' and 'thous' and such.
I think that some regions are more receptive to this change in language than others. New Zealand is allowing students to use texting language on end-of-year tests. (See link.)
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2006-11-13-text-speak_x.htm
All in all, it will be interesting to see where new technology takes us in terms of how it influences language. That's great to see you are thinking about these issues.
Thanks for your posting!
Clark--First off, that trailer was awesome. I just got an iPad for Christmas, but I haven't learned how to do things like that yet. I agree with the whole communication thing, too. Two or three years ago, my family was very technology-deficient; now, we communicate through Facebook, texting, facetiming, etc. It's crazy how fast technology is progressing. What once was a luxury is now almost a necessity, and I feel like I'm going to fall behind if I don't jump on board with everything. My students are going to leave me in the dust, too, if I don't stay up to date with the most recent advances. If they're using technology for everything, they're not going to respond as well to the paper-and-pencil methods. Good work!
ReplyDeleteThis was very interesting to me. Honestly, using technology in the classroom can kind of scare me but I agree that it is a great thing for students to know and that for a lot of students, they are probably a lot more comfortable using technology rather than just paper and pencil. Great insight into things that you do with your technology and how it could relate to the students in your class.
ReplyDeleteYour skill with technology is amazing. As are many of our upcoming students, and I think that being able to keep up with them is very important and doing this will include a lot of technology in the classroom. I know in some schools students are already receiving ipads instead of textbooks. I think that being able to have interactive apps on the internet is another great use of technology, this enables students to explore concepts that cannot be explained with just a pencil and a paper.
ReplyDelete