Minding the Gap

“Mind the Gap” is the automatically voiced instructions for London’s tube riders to avoid tripping over the gap between the platform and the subway car. Essentially, it’s a warning to be extra careful in the transition spaces of the public transportation system. As technology moves from specialized rooms in the 60’s, the cubicle in the 70’s, the den in the 80’s, the living room in the 90’s, and here we are today with real computing power and interface tools that do real work anywhere.

What used to be segue moments in my teaching day: waiting for the next class to settle in, moments in a class where some students are completed a set of questions and others still working, waiting for a meeting to start, these moments are now made productive with the iPad. Using SplashTop to control the computer that is connected to the projector, I can pass the iPad to a student to type of freehand in a solution to a problem. On the other side of the coin, when students who have trouble with a solution they circle the area that they find difficult, and it helps to focus the class and help “clarify the difficulty”. Identifying and being sure of the area of difficulty is a great first step to build a conceptual path to a solution. While not the main workhorse of the class (at this point!), the iPad does provide an excellent tool to pass around and add to the level of communication in a class.

In the sports world, the iPad has several apps that I have taken advantage of. Collecting and recording basketball stats has been a boon for letting the team know exactly how they are doing. The feedback is supplied during and after the game – this is used to make both offensive and defensive adjustments depending on shot percentages from certain locations, fouls, and turnover stats. The portability of the iPad is key for all this as it enables the stat collecting to happen from the bench, as opposed to the scorer’s table. This allows for feedback for the coach and player to happen in real time, and not just at the end of quarters or play stoppages.

There is more to follow, but as of now I no longer mind the gaps in the teaching or coaching moments, as these are now converted to productive times!

DB

The duty dog bites

I have built and trialed a spreadsheet that I built in numbers for male duty. The spreadsheet has:

• Pictures of the students (and their geographic location in dorm)
• Drop down menues for student status (in, out, away, sick, ect)
• Effort grades for each student
• Sports choices
• Phone List
• House parents e-mails

The following are cogitations that I wrote after the first duty trial:

Blog Notes: Duty

Last night I trialed my duty spreadsheet during duty.

There were a number of kids away and. It was nice to be able to check them off of my spreadsheet during the day so that I would know that they were gone when prep started.

I need to have a few more drop down menu options for eventualities, though more options will mean more clutter when I am trying to quickly check them in.

I would like to be able to reset the drop downs or store the info I collected and then start a fresh set of data. This will involve linking the spreadsheet with another sub table, but would be worth it's I think.

I am in the process of getting a sports list that would allow us to keep track of what sport each student was in. This would come in handy at 2:30-3:30.

Of course it would be great to have this pad update something more accessible to all online, I will look into shared online formats of spreadsheets for the iPad.

I would love to have the house parent e-mails hyperlinked, but "numbers" seems to be unable to do that.

I would like to have a way of resetting the check boxes for future uses on future duties.

I hope to streamline the formatting a little too, so that there is no lag when I open the effort grade spreadsheet (ie remove unwanted/unneeded fields)

Anyways for those of you who would like to have a look at it follow the link below ... Ooops. If you would like to check it out, come and see me, there is sensitive information on the spreadsheet that shold only be accessed by KES staff. Gee, self publishing certainly makes it easy to put lots of personal info out there really quickly and easily. All you have to do is click "share with the world".

Ruminations as a first time user (Jan 16) *Rejustified*

So far the transfer from excell to numbers seems to be going fairly well. Some of the previously unconsidered advantages of a digital dorm attendance will include:

-quick search for names to find a students room quickly -drop down menus for quick attendance/qualifying of students where abouts.

-Links to house parent's emails for quick notes a to them.

I have used the pad quite a bit this week. The portability of the device allows me to type this bog entry from the front seat of the bus (barring minor car sickness). Some of the technologies I had not considered using it for that cam in handy include -chess timer -quick document camera for capturing pages from a book and then displaying them on my white board -movie playing remote. I was able to stop and start a movie repeatedly from the front of the class, without having to go to my desk each time.

-a interactive manipulative (math) for students that, with the help of splash top, can be easily projected so that the whole class can watch it. It is also handy to plug it directly into the projector and display it that way.

-notes display for myself at the front of them class. I write my notes out on the white board and I find that I can do this a lot faster using the pad, via splash top, when I am writing.

-quick referencing facts a via a search engine. I can quickly and easily search a fact for my students from the front of the class.

-homework check allows me, again with splash top, to enter my grades directly into my spreadsheet as I rove in the classroom.

After having used to for a while now, I don't even mind the keyboard. The interface, zoom/pan is also excellent, though it would be nice to have better control of the fine motor adjustments on the screen. Perhaps a stylus ...

Students really enjoy seeing the new technology in the class they get quite excited by the possibilities that it presents. One student recommended that I use splash top with my laptops web cam to "spy" in the class while I was out for a moment. Since I used splash top in the class, about a dozen students have also got the program. In a few weeks time I will have to ask them if they use it regularly and if so for what? 

The technology certainly has made me more popular, but how can I maintain this high ... I suppose I will have to continue to ask for the latest technologies to keep me current and "with it" as the kids say. All joking aside the use of these technologies does send a clear message to the kids in my class room. "you should have one of these if you want to participate fully in all the fun" ... I hope apple is giving us a deal for all the free advertising we are giving them. Even my use of apps will influence students choices and buying habits. In short we are role modeling the use of this technology to students, the more we misuse it or use it ineffectively (for the sake of itself) the more we pass those choices on to our students.

somethinghasgonehorriblewrong

I have just learned another valuable lesson. Justifications created in Notepad do not transfer to this blog page

Ruminations as a first time user (Jan 16)

Blog notes: so far the transfer from excell to numbers seems to be going fairly well. Some of the previously unconsidered advantages of a digital dorm attendance will include: -quick search for names to find a students room quickly -drop down menus for quick attendance/qualifying of students where abouts. -Links to house parent's emails for quick notes a to them. I have used the pad quite a bit this week. The portability of the device allows me to type this bog entry from the front seat of the bus (barring minor car sickness). Some of the technologies I had not considered using it for that cam in handy include: -chess timer (for chess club) -quick document camera for capturing pages from a book and then displaying them on my white board -movie playing remote. I was able to stop and start a movie repeatedly from the front of the class, without having to go to my desk each time. -a interactive manipulative (math) for students that, with the help of splash top, can be easily projected so that the whole class can watch it. It is also handy to plug it directly into the projector and display it that way. -notes display for myself at the front of them class. I write my notes out on the white board and I find that I can do this a lot faster using the pad, via splash top, when I am writing. -quick referencing facts a via a search engine. I can quickly and easily search a fact for my students from the front of the class. -homework check allows me, again with splash top, to enter my grades directly into my spreadsheet as I rove in the classroom. Other notes: after having used to for a while now, I don't even mind the keyboard. The interface, zoom/pan is also excellent, though it would be nice to have better control of the fine motor adjustments on the screen. Perhaps a stylus ... Students really enjoy seeing the new technology in the class they get quite excited by the possibilities that it presents. One student recommended that I use splash top with my laptops web cam to "spy" in the class while I was out for a moment. Since I used splash top in the class, about a dozen students have also got the program. In a few weeks time I will have to ask them if they use it regularly and if so for what? The technology certainly has made me more popular, but how can I maintain this high ... I suppose I will have to continue to ask for the latest technologies to keep me current and "with it" as the kids say. All joking aside the use of these technologies does send a clear message to the kids in my class room. "you should have one of these if you want to participate fully in all the fun" ... I hope apple is giving us a deal for all the free advertising we are giving them. Even my use of apps will influence students choices and buying habits. In short we are role modeling the use of this technology to students, the more we misuse it or use it ineffectively (for the sake of itself) the more we pass those choices on to our students.