Today was a successful tablet day in class! First, I think it's important to note that we have decided we don't have to use the tablets for EVERYTHING, like we were trying to do last semester. Ironically, as soon as we stopped worrying about it, everything works beautifully.
We had students using Edmodo to access course material and using the feed. All 7 students took two polls that Curtis posted since the last class, and we were able to use those anonymous data in class discussion.
I posted the url for an Ecological Footprint quiz that I use every semester, and all 7 students + Curtis and I were able to link to it, and take the quiz without any delay or concerns.
Curtis also discovered that if you switch Angel to PDA mode, that Angel works perfectly on the ipad. It's simple and plain, but that doesn't matter at all when it works! Most students chose to open the lecture powerpoint on their ipads and follow along.
Though we just used the tablets for enhancing lecture today, and doing a short activity, having the mobile devices in the hands of every student felt good. A couple of Edmodo posts were made during lecture, which is what we want. It will probably take a few class periods to break the habit of not using your mobile device during class!
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Spring Students get their ipads!
This semester we gave the students ipads. We wanted to try out this other common mobile device, see what we would need at the college to support them, and get a look at the Apple app store in order to have more ideas for Dave's app class.
So far, so good. Simply the fact that Curtis and I have been through this twice made our first day much more successful. We spent the entire day on the tablets...
...getting students signed up for an apple id, a google account, and an edmodo account. Curtis did a quick lesson in "How to use the ipad" to get everyone up to speed. I felt like everyone was really ready to go home and personalize their devices.
We stumbled upon a sort of mobile LMS called Edmodo www.edmodo.com . It's for K-12, has mobile apps for both apple and android, and seems incredibly user-friendly. We really liked the facebook-style discussion stream where we could post assignments, quizzes, alerts, as well as other typical facebook items.
After playing with it for a few days, we decided to use Edmodo for our courses this semester instead of try to rely exclusively on Angel. We will use Angel for the gradebook and to keep a record of all posted assignments.
Students don't seem particularly excited to have an ipad vs. an acer android tablet, though I will say there didn't seem to be as many "How do I make it do ____" questions as there were with the acers last semester (though that might be that we/Curtis didn't know the acer as well as the ipad). Of 7 students there today, 1 has no smart phone, 3 have iphones, and 3 have android smart phones. I am going to query them later in the semester regarding which devices they are using to access Edmodo since it is available on every device!
So far, so good. Simply the fact that Curtis and I have been through this twice made our first day much more successful. We spent the entire day on the tablets...
...getting students signed up for an apple id, a google account, and an edmodo account. Curtis did a quick lesson in "How to use the ipad" to get everyone up to speed. I felt like everyone was really ready to go home and personalize their devices.
We stumbled upon a sort of mobile LMS called Edmodo www.edmodo.com . It's for K-12, has mobile apps for both apple and android, and seems incredibly user-friendly. We really liked the facebook-style discussion stream where we could post assignments, quizzes, alerts, as well as other typical facebook items.After playing with it for a few days, we decided to use Edmodo for our courses this semester instead of try to rely exclusively on Angel. We will use Angel for the gradebook and to keep a record of all posted assignments.
Students don't seem particularly excited to have an ipad vs. an acer android tablet, though I will say there didn't seem to be as many "How do I make it do ____" questions as there were with the acers last semester (though that might be that we/Curtis didn't know the acer as well as the ipad). Of 7 students there today, 1 has no smart phone, 3 have iphones, and 3 have android smart phones. I am going to query them later in the semester regarding which devices they are using to access Edmodo since it is available on every device!
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Wastewater treatment flow chart works well!
In the science class pilot, we studied the municipal wastewater treatment process (what happens to clean the water that goes down your shower drain and gets flushed down your toilet). For some reason, the steps of this process are often confusing to students, and I was hoping that using a flow chart app on the tablets would help our group of students understand the process better. I usually try to do some sort of lecture and activity prior to actually going to the wastewater treatment facility in hopes that the students will get more out of the tour.
My idea was to use a flow chart app, create a series of boxes that contain the steps of wastewater treatment, share the screen with students, have them put the steps in order and send their finished flow chart back to me. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a free flow chart app on the android that would let me share the steps I created with the students.
As a solution, I used a free app called flow.app lite
http://www.appbrain.com/app/flow-app-lite/air.de.candylandstudios.flowlite
to design my steps, then I used a HDMI cable to hook up the tablet to a mobile LCD projector (our classroom LCD projector is too old, and doesn't have an HDMI port). One student manned the tablet and the class worked as a group to organize the steps and put arrows between them. It was a nice use of the tablet! The students could easily move the icons around the screen without needing a clunky computer/mouse. I was disappointed that I would need to buy the full version in order to share the incomplete flow chart I had created in flow.app, but I think it ended up working very well. The students understood the steps better that ever before because they worked as a group to figure out the steps. I wish my classroom had an HDMI hookup; I would do more of these sorts of activities in all of my classes!
My idea was to use a flow chart app, create a series of boxes that contain the steps of wastewater treatment, share the screen with students, have them put the steps in order and send their finished flow chart back to me. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a free flow chart app on the android that would let me share the steps I created with the students.
As a solution, I used a free app called flow.app lite
http://www.appbrain.com/app/flow-app-lite/air.de.candylandstudios.flowlite
to design my steps, then I used a HDMI cable to hook up the tablet to a mobile LCD projector (our classroom LCD projector is too old, and doesn't have an HDMI port). One student manned the tablet and the class worked as a group to organize the steps and put arrows between them. It was a nice use of the tablet! The students could easily move the icons around the screen without needing a clunky computer/mouse. I was disappointed that I would need to buy the full version in order to share the incomplete flow chart I had created in flow.app, but I think it ended up working very well. The students understood the steps better that ever before because they worked as a group to figure out the steps. I wish my classroom had an HDMI hookup; I would do more of these sorts of activities in all of my classes!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Project Suggestions for Android Tablet Apps (Math Related)
I have two suggestions for the app project that I feel most math instructors can make use of especially the first one and the second one could be also used for general public as well as math faculty.
1) I thought it will be usefull to have an app where we can enter the equation of a curve and a point where we would like to draw a tangent line to this curve at. The app that I will find very useful in my calc class, should first show several secant lines drawn to this curve around the point we entered and then draw the tangent line to the curve. At the end of all this an animation of all these together i.e. the secant lines and the tangent line would help tremendously with the derivate understanding of the students. A visual tool like this one communicates the idea of the derivative much better than the limit definition I put on the board.
2) My second suggestion is an app that calculates where best to sit in a movie theater. I have the computations and the needed parameter research part of this project typed up already I'll be happy to e-mail it if there is any interest. Briefly; the app programmer will calculate the best seat in a theater by maximizing a viewing angle. I thought I could use such an app to increase the understanding of certain trig methods in my trig or precalc class. In my precalc class I have shown briefly how the students can get the formula for the viewing angle depending on where you sit in the theater. But that is as far as we were able to go I'm hoing the app could do the rest for us i.e. either graph the viewing angle formula or differentiate it and give us the best seat in the house along with a graph or a derivative equation. Using these I can eleborate further mathematical ideas at play.
1) I thought it will be usefull to have an app where we can enter the equation of a curve and a point where we would like to draw a tangent line to this curve at. The app that I will find very useful in my calc class, should first show several secant lines drawn to this curve around the point we entered and then draw the tangent line to the curve. At the end of all this an animation of all these together i.e. the secant lines and the tangent line would help tremendously with the derivate understanding of the students. A visual tool like this one communicates the idea of the derivative much better than the limit definition I put on the board.
2) My second suggestion is an app that calculates where best to sit in a movie theater. I have the computations and the needed parameter research part of this project typed up already I'll be happy to e-mail it if there is any interest. Briefly; the app programmer will calculate the best seat in a theater by maximizing a viewing angle. I thought I could use such an app to increase the understanding of certain trig methods in my trig or precalc class. In my precalc class I have shown briefly how the students can get the formula for the viewing angle depending on where you sit in the theater. But that is as far as we were able to go I'm hoing the app could do the rest for us i.e. either graph the viewing angle formula or differentiate it and give us the best seat in the house along with a graph or a derivative equation. Using these I can eleborate further mathematical ideas at play.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
What did I do with my Acer?
Answer: Not a whole lot.
It was a great e-reader and Web access device, certainly. I didn't see much potential for using a single tablet in my beginning Spanish classes, so I pretty much played with the machine in my capacity as a computer nerd.
As a language teacher, though, I have been giving a lot of thought to how tablets might be used in language classrooms, and several possible uses have occurred to me.
One of the activity types most likely to fit well with tablets is the "information gap" activity. One popular language learning/teaching website defines an information gap activity as "... an activity where learners are missing the information they need to complete a task and need to talk to each other to find it. " (www.teachingenglish.org.uk/knowledge-database/information-gap)
The tablets seem to be a great way to provide information to individuals or small groups interactively. For example, one student (or small group) might get a tablet loaded with (or directed via the Web to) information that a travel agent would typically have. The other student(s) would have questions or checklists that help them collect travel information they need to make a decision on vacation plans.
There are many such activities throughout language teaching, at all levels of skill. Tablets seem ideally suited to supporting learners' needs during those activities. Such support could take a variety of forms:
Perhaps a bit more pie-in-the-sky, but still possible and definitely useful, would be the use of augmented reality (see Wikipedia entry). Foreign language "treasure hunts" might require students to get up and move around the classroom, or even parts of the campus, as part of their information collecting tasks. I can imagine a variety of real-world tasks that would work, for example, understanding and following directions (e.g., "go to the end of the hall, then turn right"). Instructions and other signposts could be displayed virtually on the tablet, allowing instructors to create multiple activities that would not require taping up signs in the real world, for example.
Of course, I'm assuming that departments or programs will have access to a set of tablets and dependable wireless access in their classrooms. I don't think we're at the point where we can require students to have a tablet or a smartphone as part of our course's required materials. I do think that a Spanish 101 or 102 class with eighteen students and six or seven tablets (not counting the instructor's) could make good use of them. Doing so would require strong technical support (especially dependable and relatively fast wireless access in the classroom) and perhaps some custom programming of apps and/or websites to support the activities.
I'm tempted to flesh my thoughts out further and submit an Innovation Fund proposal next semester. To that end, any questions and/or feedback on what I've posted would be greatly appreciated.
Best End-of-Semester Wishes and Happy Holidays.
Ray
It was a great e-reader and Web access device, certainly. I didn't see much potential for using a single tablet in my beginning Spanish classes, so I pretty much played with the machine in my capacity as a computer nerd.
As a language teacher, though, I have been giving a lot of thought to how tablets might be used in language classrooms, and several possible uses have occurred to me.
One of the activity types most likely to fit well with tablets is the "information gap" activity. One popular language learning/teaching website defines an information gap activity as "... an activity where learners are missing the information they need to complete a task and need to talk to each other to find it. " (www.teachingenglish.org.uk/knowledge-database/information-gap)
The tablets seem to be a great way to provide information to individuals or small groups interactively. For example, one student (or small group) might get a tablet loaded with (or directed via the Web to) information that a travel agent would typically have. The other student(s) would have questions or checklists that help them collect travel information they need to make a decision on vacation plans.
There are many such activities throughout language teaching, at all levels of skill. Tablets seem ideally suited to supporting learners' needs during those activities. Such support could take a variety of forms:
- presenting what students need to know to carry out their part of an activity and what they need to find out from others taking different roles in the activity (please note that while this is also easily done on paper in a relatively straightforward way, an app or web page delivered via tablet could selectively, and algorithmically, present the information over time and/or as discrete steps while the activity is in progress)
- recording students findings during an activity
- providing language support during activities via dictionaries and links within the activities to useful vocabulary and language structures
Perhaps a bit more pie-in-the-sky, but still possible and definitely useful, would be the use of augmented reality (see Wikipedia entry). Foreign language "treasure hunts" might require students to get up and move around the classroom, or even parts of the campus, as part of their information collecting tasks. I can imagine a variety of real-world tasks that would work, for example, understanding and following directions (e.g., "go to the end of the hall, then turn right"). Instructions and other signposts could be displayed virtually on the tablet, allowing instructors to create multiple activities that would not require taping up signs in the real world, for example.
Of course, I'm assuming that departments or programs will have access to a set of tablets and dependable wireless access in their classrooms. I don't think we're at the point where we can require students to have a tablet or a smartphone as part of our course's required materials. I do think that a Spanish 101 or 102 class with eighteen students and six or seven tablets (not counting the instructor's) could make good use of them. Doing so would require strong technical support (especially dependable and relatively fast wireless access in the classroom) and perhaps some custom programming of apps and/or websites to support the activities.
I'm tempted to flesh my thoughts out further and submit an Innovation Fund proposal next semester. To that end, any questions and/or feedback on what I've posted would be greatly appreciated.
Best End-of-Semester Wishes and Happy Holidays.
Ray
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Some mini-app ideas
For chemistry:
- An interactive periodic table that would allow you to view physical and chemical properties of any element by touching its chemical symbol.
- A graphical tool for visualizing the kinetics of chemical reactions.
- An app that allows the user to set the dissociation constant of an acid or base to see how that acid/base would look in solution (the higher the constant, the more molecules are dissociated). Could also have a concentration slider control and a pH display.
For biology/physiology:
- An osmosis simulator with controls for setting concentrations and degree of permeability. May have graphical displays showing the change in concentration on both sides of membrane.
- A simulator for studying electrical and concentration gradients across a membrane.
- An interactive biological cell. Tapping on an organelle would give you information about its function, associated pathologies, etc.
I could come up with dozens of more ideas, but that would be a nice start!
- Dave
Sunday, December 4, 2011
my android tablet experience
a couple of years ago, i checked out an ipad from the library to test it out and hated the experience. the device was slow and unresponsive, heavier than i anticipated and couldn't do much in the area of productivity and communication. i could browse the internet, but couldn't see any sites with flash. e-commerce sites were out due to the cumbersome on-screen keyboard (i could make a purchase at least twice as fast using a laptop). email was out as well since typing was a chore. so what's left? games? not for me. e-book reading? no comparison to my kindle, which was lighter and easier on the eyes (no glare). so i returned the device rather disappointed.
after testing the acer android tablet, i feel exactly the same way. the acer was slightly faster than the ipad, but so what? it did have a USB port, so i was able to transfer a movie from my laptop to the acer. but i had to convert the DVD to MPEG before i could watch it on the acer (which took more time than you can imagine). and the quality of the image was not nearly as good as on my laptop. so once again, i ask myself: why bother?
next, i went hunting for apps that could have educational value for graphic designers or visual artists. the shopping experience was not a pleasant one as many of the free apps i tried were amateur creations. also, many apps are designed for phones (with small screens) not tablets. and it wasn't clear in the market place which is which, so i wasted a lot time downloading useless stuff.
"white board" was one such app. at first glance, it looks like an excellent sketchbook app, but it was obviously designed for phones. i never could figure out how to expand the menu area without exiting the application. of course, there was no instructions to help me out.
next i tried "sketch notes", a simple sketch book with 3 paper choices plus the ability to save sketches. but the icons were impossible to "click" on and changing tools was painful. once again, no instructions to help out.
"tab notes" has some possibilities. it's a simple sketch book that seems to function quite well, but there was no option for blank paper (only paper with lines). i also couldn't figure out how to delete or organize saved pages. of course the trial version has "trial version" in big bold type across the app, which prevented full enjoyment of the experience.
"color buddy" is a color harmony selector app with ability to save palettes. it's a nice idea, but with a very clumsy interface and no interactivity (as in adjusting base color with a slider). color harmony rules could have been designed with visual examples instead of labels to make learning color theory easier.
i would not recommended any of these apps to any of my students.
as for possible projects for dave bock's class, i would like to see a simple color harmony app created with a visual interface. it would be the same general idea as "color buddy" but less complicated than adobe's "kuler" which is a desktop app built into adobe illustrator (there is an android version but it costs $10). the entire goal would be to help beginner artists choose harmonious color schemes using pre-programmed rules. color theory needs to be taught visually and through trial and error, so an interactive digital color wheel with sliders seems like the obvious choice.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)