USA Today article on iPads in college

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-08-10-ebooklearning10_CV_N.htm

This link takes you to an article in USA Today which covers iPad use in college. Several colleges have experimented with using e-readers to replace textbooks.

Here is a quote from the article: "Compared with traditional textbooks, the iPad and other devices for reading digital books have the potential to save on textbook costs in the long term, to provide students with more and better information faster, and — no small matter — to lighten the typical college student's backpack."

The iPad has caused network problems on other college campuses. That raises concerns for schools with inadequate bandwidth, my school has problems with the laptop mobile labs when entire classes are online at the same time. I think the wireless network will have to be upgraded in many schools to allow lots of iPads to connect to the Internet at the same time.

Many students interviewed for the article say that they learn better from textbooks than e-readers. They also cite that the iPad provides more distractions to learning than a textbook. This may be even more of a problem for middle and high school students.

Another interesting quote from the article says: "Even then, some evidence suggests students see a downside to 24/7 interactivity when it comes to preparing for exams or doing homework. During visits last fall to libraries, coffee shops and other campus hangouts to analyze how students study, a test-prep company noted that, when it was time to study, cellphones, laptops and Kindles were put away."

Yet another quote: "A host of research over the past decade has shown that even the option to click hyperlinks to related material can create confusion and weaken understanding. One study found reading comprehension declined as the number of clickable links increased. A 2005 review by researchers at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, of 38 studies found "very little support" for the idea that all those links to additional information enrich the reader's experience. A 2007 study published in Media Psychology raised similar concerns about add-ons such as sound and animation."

"Some of the newer devices try to mimic traditional study behavior with features such as the ability to highlight text and take notes in the margins. Still, the gee-whiz technology doesn't necessarily help students study better, suggests a study published this month in Journal of Educational Psychology. Students often highlight too much material, so building a highlighting function into the technology may simply enable students to continue an ineffective habit, the study found. "Worse, they may not even process or understand what they select," says study author Ken Kiewra, a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln."

This posting has a lot of quotes that I want to keep for later review. It is great to see that a large newspaper is exploring the same Action Research Project.

Stanza e-book reader

I have been playing with a new App on my iPhone called Stanza. It is basically an e-book reader similar to Kindle and Nook. It has a "get books" button that takes you to a "catalog" which lists multiple sources for free or cheap e-books which can be downloaded to the Stanza App and stored in its library for future reading. What I really like about it is that Stanza scales the fonts and formats the e-books to fit on the iPhone screen. Many e-books that I have downloaded and dropped into the mbDrive App are not scaled to fit the iPhone screen. Therefore, I think Stanza does a very good job of making e-books easier to read on the iPhone. Another great thing is that it has a large collection of literature classics that are now in the public domain and free to download. This means that Stanza could be a great addition to the English teacher's classroom.

Week 3 Action Research Plan

GOALS:

1) Research the potential impact of educational technology being considered by New Braunfels ISD on improving student achievement.

2) Make recommendations to the Superintendent on the educational benefits of the following technology options:
• LCD projectors mounted from ceilings
• iPod touch classroom sets
• ELMO document cameras (to replace overhead projectors)
• iPads as electronic textbooks.

3) Assess student and teacher reactions to and opinions on these technology options.


Objectives/ Outcomes: Research the impact of LCD projectors on student achievement.
Activities: Conduct Internet research, review scholarly journals, question technology experts.
Resources Needed: Internet Websites
Timeline: July 2010 to May 2011
Person Responsible: Brian Goethe
Monitoring/ Assessment: Review data collected to determine the impact of this technology on student achievement. Summarize this data into a final published format to share with others.

Objectives/ Outcomes: Research the impact of the use of iPods on student achievement.
Activities: Conduct Internet research, review scholarly journals, question technology experts. Also research the availability and effectiveness of educational Apps for the iPod.
Resources Needed: Internet Websites
Timeline: July 2010 to May 2011
Person Responsible: Brian Goethe
Monitoring/ Assessment: Review data collected to determine the impact of this technology on student achievement. Summarize this data into a final published format to share with others.

Objectives/ Outcomes: Research the impact of ELMO document cameras on student achievement.
Activities: Conduct Internet research, review scholarly journals, question technology experts. Compare ELMO document cameras to current overhead projectors.
Resources Needed: Internet Websites
Timeline: July 2010 to May 2011
Person Responsible: Brian Goethe
Monitoring/ Assessment: Review data collected to determine the impact of this technology on student achievement. Summarize this data into a final published format to share with others.

Objectives/ Outcomes: Research the potential of iPads to replace traditional textbooks.
Activities: Conduct Internet research, review scholarly journals, question technology experts. Research possible Android versions of the iPad that may be more cost effective.
Resources Needed: Internet Websites
Timeline: July 2010 to May 2011
Person Responsible: Brian Goethe
Monitoring/ Assessment: Review data collected to determine the impact of this technology on student achievement. Summarize this data into a final published format to share with others.

Objectives/ Outcomes: Assess student and teacher reactions to and opinions on these technology options.
Activities: Conduct a survey of teachers via email and another survey of students in technology classes.
Resources Needed: Survey Monkey
Timeline: September 2010 to April 2011
Person Responsible: Brian Goethe
Monitoring/ Assessment: Survey Monkey will be used to collect data anonymously from teachers and students. The results will be tabulated and analyzed.

Objectives/ Outcomes: Make recommendations to the Superintendent and the Technology Director based on the findings of my Action Research Project.
Activities: Finalize Action Research Plan and schedule an appointment with the Superintendent.
Resources Needed: Appointment time with Superintendent. Published version of my Action Research Plan to present.
Timeline: May 2011
Person Responsible: Brian Goethe
Monitoring/ Assessment: Observe the reaction of the Superintendent to the proposals of the Action Research Project. Document which technologies are ultimately purchased and put into use at NBISD.

Need OS X to create apps for ipods

I did some research on the Internet to determine if it was possible for teachers to create their own custom education applications for iPods. This would be the ideal way to create an application to use with your curriculum to ensure that students are learning what you want to teach. I was planning on spending some time learning the programming language to determine if it would be possible to hold an in-service, professional development training session to teach educators to build custom Apps. I found out that you need the SDK (Softward Development Kit) which is a free download from Apple, which uses the Xcode programming language (based loosely on C programming) or the Cocoa touch language. The main problem is that all Apps must be created on an Apple/Mac computer. Apps cannot be legally made on a PC running Windows according to Apple's rules for App development. This was rather disappointing for me to learn.

I also noted that there are several Apps on the App store that offer to teach you how to create an App. One that looked interesting was Jiggy which has several Utube videos showing how to use it.

Since I do not own a Mac and have no intention of buying a new computer any time soon, I will not be able to pursue my interest in creating a custom education at this time.

Android versions of Pads soon

I did some internet research after chatting with Charlie Roberts on possible Android versions of Apple's iPad. I have been tempted to rush out and buy an iPad because I love my iPhone so much. Earlier last year I bought an Acer netbook to take with me on trips. I found it easy to upgrade to 2 GB of Ram, but the screen was small and did not scroll easily for use with several games and applications I enjoy using. I ended up selling the netbook a few months later because it was just sitting around on my desk unused. However the idea of a smaller and more portable version really interests me for use as a book reader and email platform. The iPad currently costs $500 or more and that is a bit too much for me when a book reader like Nook or Kindle only costs $200 or less. My iPhone does a good job of checking email for me. Therefore, I was leaning toward purchasing a Kindle after reading the positive reviews of how easy it is to read due to the glare reducing screen.

Now I think I will wait until Black Friday and see what comes out for the Christmas season. Many companies have recently announced that they will be offering "Pads" based on the Android operating system before the beginning of next year. (It is interesting to note that they have all abandoned the Windows operating system and gearing the devices to use Cloud based programs -- this is something worth studying in more detail.) Here is a list of companies that will offer the new Android based iPads: Archos, Matricom, Camangi, Asus, Dell, Cisco, Olive, Lenvo, HP, Acer, and LG. Several of these companies already have working versions offered for sale in China. The current versions costs between $200 to $300 which is far cheaper than Apple's iPhone. I think Charlie is right again about the future of technology in schools going to Android Pads that cost less than $200 in just a few years.

Suggestions from Charlie

Charlie Roberts is the District Technology & Media Director for Washington County Schools in Saint George, Utah. I asked him for some suggestions for my technology integration project. Here are some of his thoughts.

I avoid posting on blogs, but I will share with you some thoughts regarding your statements and questions. First of all, Millcreek was very much leading edge with regards to technology thanks to you and Terry. Most of schools had no where near as much funding for technology per teacher as Millcreek. Although we have projectors in nearly every classroom many teachers here still would love to have a document camera (ELMO). I see both the document camera and the projector as a main-stay for classrooms for several years to come. Interactive White Boards (IWB) is another tool many teachers desire, but I do see this being replaced rather soon by Interactive Projectors (two birds with one stone.) I also believe that "pads" similar to Apple's IPAD as becoming a predominant fixture in classrooms within a couple of years. They will be running Android as the OS and will cost less than $200. We will use them to replace textbooks, i.e. textbook content will be loaded to the pads and we will not purchase hard copies of textbooks. The only thing going in the closet right now are very, very old computers and CRT monitors.

blogs and internet sites

I have decided to compile a list of blogs and internet sites related to my topic of technology integration in education.

Here is the list of links:

http://www.onlinedegrees.org/top-100-technology-blogs-for-teachers/

http://jenverschoor.wordpress.com/

http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/

http://ilearntechnology.com/

http://blog.classroomteacher.ca/247/integrating-technology-in-the-classroom-wish-list/

http://www.wtvi.com/teks/04_05_articles/educational_blogging.html

http://www.techsavvyed.net/

http://edutechcput.wordpress.com/

http://www.ct4me.net/technology_integr.htm

http://bestonlinemastersdegrees.com/2010/top-50-education-technology-blogs/


iPod specific links:

http://projects.minot.k12.nd.us/groups/chris/weblog/5ce29/Why_an_iPod_Touch_in_education_.html

http://blog.dyknow.com/blog/integrating-technology-in-the-classroom

http://www.teachingnews.co.uk/2010/07/ipads-and-ipods-in-education-part-2/

http://213.232.94.135/ipodined/links.php?cat.all

http://www.principalspartnership.com/iPods.pdf

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6456395.html