(Re)inventing the Librarian: iPads

Tapping into the natural curiosities of our students with apps to explore information

The advent of mobile devices like iPads and smart phones have ushered in a new heightened era of information for our 21st Century students. With a swipe of a fingertip, endless amounts of information become available to us instantaneously as it streams 24/7 through our devices and into our lives . Access to information at this rate is a double-edged sword: At times a bombardment of messages, information can clutter our lives, leading to increased habits of multi-tasking, and letting go of a critical stance to information in favor of "more" stuff. On the other hand, we now have access to perspectives, events, societies, phenomena, and knowledge from around the globe. Such knowledge adds to our cultural and intellectual wealth when applied in creative ways.

For our students, Google is the main portal to the world of information. As a self-professed Google-lover, I understand the power of an advanced search engine. Do my students? Well...we're working on that. Rather than sending students to "Google it," I'd like to suggest a handful of apps designed for the iPad that foster academic exploration of topics, inquiries, and contexts appropriate for all content area learning. These apps utilize multiple modes of media to enhance and engage. Articles, videos, and resources are easily shared through the app feature, allowing for easy adaptation for BYOD projects where students may access the information from personal devices, including laptops, desktops, and mobile devices. I suggest utilizing these tools when introducing new topics or units to students. In a Flipped or VESTED classroom, these tools fit well into initial previewing and building background knowledge.

The following iTunes apps allow students the opportunity to explore a myriad of topics and content areas, engaging them through authentic connections to the world around them and utilizing mobile technology to access information in rapid time:

iTunes U

According to Apple, iTunes U is the world's largest collection of free educational content. Users can access courses from the world's leading universities. In addition to participating in a course through readings downloaded into iBook, videos, assignments, and podcasts, students can also select from over 500,000 free lectures, videos, and podcasts. Teachers may utilize iTunes U as a tool to introduce a new concept or unit. For example, students may view a demonstration of a heat engine as an introduction to thermodynamics for an upcoming physics unit. Professor David Hoxley of La Trobe University has an entire classical physics course in iTunes U complete with video demonstrations and podcasts.

Other contributors to iTunes U include:

Cambridge University
Harvard University
MIT
Library of Congress
Oxford University
Stanford
Yale

Students have free and unlimited access to ivy league courses at their fingertips.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a free, online collection of over 3,500 videos covering multiple disciplines including K-12 Math, Science, Humanities, and test prep. An Economics student may have questions regarding the Fiscall Cliff and America's economic difficulties. A quick trip to the Khan Academy app could lead him to this engaging and simple video that utilizes diagrams, graphics, and voice-over to explain complex issues.

Khan Academy's popularity is largely due to its simple, direct, and concrete illustrations of difficult subjects and complex concepts. Like iTunes U, students can subscribe to courses to continue their exploration into a specific discipline, topic, or skill.

TED "Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world."

Ever wonder what is so fascinating about the dance of the dung beetle?

Intrigued about the controversies and perspectives surrounding the Second Amendment and gun control legislation?

Perplexed by the tumultuous and fragile relationship between Iran and Israel?

TED Talks capture inspiring, hilarious, creative, and informative talks by people who are pushing the envelope with their theories and actions. Students can browse and search for videos relating to a host of topics related to technology, business, design, entertainment, science, and global issues. TED Talks have been growing in popularity as thousands of videos are shared through social media sites.

TED-Ed is the site's education platform with 167 videos that can be shared, edited, or flipped for classroom use. This video was created by an educator and animator to demonstrate the power of effective introductions from famous authors.

On the TED-ed site for this video, students can respond to questions and explore further resources related to powerful introductions. Educators can even customize or "flip" the video to create a unique lesson for their students.

Personalized Learning

For a little brain candy about the flipped classroom and blended learning check out Sal Khan's Ted talk! (He's much more concrete about it than I have been on the blog :-))

These resources are valuable tools to provide students with opportunities to explore content related topics whether in a flipped, blended, or traditional classroom. Inviting them to explore these resources through their own curiosities supports their natural learning tendencies, allowing for a personalized learning experience. As online learning platforms continue to expand and evolve, soon, public education will need to consider how best to meet the needs of learners who can feasibly enroll him or herself in a free online course and master the content on their own through their own devices rather than the traditional educational setting. Public institutions have begun to integrate iTunes U courses into a traditional setting by creating unique courses for students to enroll in for a personalized experience.

But, it's about baby steps and becoming comfortable with the sheer amount of information available, learning to control and manage the continual stream, and then become producers of solutions and innovations. iTunes U, Khan, and TED are leading facilitators of information collection and production.

The Adventure Begins...

Well, we've gone and done it. Fossil Ridge has taken the iPad plunge. Last week I had the pleasure (along with my faithful helper, Mme. Morgan) of unwrapping, setting up, and synchronizing thirty iPads for the Ridge. Now, this process was not nearly as neat and productive as you might first think. Before we deploy our iPad fleet for classroom use, I wanted to provide some background and explanation for how multiple iPad devices are managed in schools and on our campus.

First of all, when Steve Jobs and Apple first conceptualized this laptop-mobile device, they did not anticipate it would have such a tremendous draw in education. In his 2010 keynote in which he introduces the new tablet device that would revolutionize the mobile device industry and technology in education, Jobs discusses the need in the market for a "third category device" one that blends the portable, compact quality of the iPhone with the speed, productivity, and functionality of a laptop. Jobs does not mention anything about a vision for the devices in institutions, including education. His presentation continues as he highlights the iPad's unique features that allow the user to create a highly personalized experience (email, iPhoto, background, etc.).

10 Biggest Questions about iPads in the Classroom

Schools immediately jumped on board the iPad boat, purchasing the hot commodity for teachers and students. In fact, the very next day journalists and educators were speculating on the impact the iPad will have on education. Flooding the app market for education specific tools that would engage students at higher levels of thinking, creating, collaborating, and sharing. Apple, however, was not prepared for the education market, and so when schools ran into issues regarding deployment, the mobile device company that focused on a personalized experience for its customers needed to do some back-pedaling to consider how to support a multi-user educational platform.

[Enter site #1 that helped me wrap my brain about iPad deployment in schools]

http://www.scoop.it/t/ipadsineducation
A collection of deployment guides and resources for schools including a presentation on the role of iPads in schools, Apple's VPP program, and integrating technology into instruction.

25 Ways of Using iPads in the Classroom by Degree of Difficulty

The Scoop It site led me to this fantastic collection of resources realted to iPads in K12 education curated by Kathy Schrock. There are lots of lists of suggested apps generated by multiple schools.

http://www.schrockguide.net/ipads-in-the-classroom.html

Kathy's site led me to the graphic on the left from an article posted on Edudemic.

Oh, the rabbit trails are endless!

But I digress...back to our deployment.

Initial roadblocks...

1) iPads are designed to be unique and personalized for their users--the functionality of the iPad (synchronized email, contacts, calendars, apps, iTunes, etc.) does not transfer to school models where iPads are used by multiple students.

2) iPads are designed to be managed through a home computer, one at a time--Schools who purchased thirty or more iPads for classroom use struggled to painstakingly sync and manage each device, one at a time--a very lengthy and monotonous process (speaking from personal experience). Today, we have a MDM (multiple-device-manager) and a nifty little application that allows a school's device manager (me) to upload content and manage multiple devices at one time--Apple Configurator.

Not only do we now have an application that cooperates with iTunes so that the devices can be managed all at once, but we have a nifty piece of hardware that stores, charges, and syncs them all, too!

3) Purchased apps are intended for personal use, with the understanding that they may be shared on a handful of devices in a home or family--In the beginning, educators and schools got away with a lot. Schools created an iTunes account, purchased a single license app for 2.99 and then loaded it onto thirty or more iPads. Apple got smart to their ways, however, and implemented volume purchasing for institutions.

http://wafflebytes.blogspot.com/2011/11/ipads-in-classroom-volume-purchase.html

Now you may be asking, "why the heck do we need to understand all of this, Audrey? Just give us the devices and let's do it!"

It's important to understand the intention behind the iPads and the process we use to manage and distribute them so that you can better implement them in your classes, taking full advantage of their potential.

So, here's a little narrative of the process that involved the initial set up and deployment of our iPads, including the top sites and resources that saved our sanity and provided us with a healthy little collection of apps ready for classroom use!

They are here!

Confession--the iPads have actually been on our campus, sitting in boxes in my secret storage space for longer than a week or two. But before you clench your fists and wave them at me understand that the process of unwrapping, setting up, and syncing the iPads is nothing like the process a personal user undergoes. This was not a project I could spend five or ten minutes at a time between my other duties and roles. I needed a solid day, with my office and the library closed, to immerse myself in the tools and processes I mentioned above. (Yay, for STAAR retesting!)

With the library closed and my faithful helper, we went about the task of unboxing, unwrapping, labeling, and plugging in all thirty iPads into the Bretford PowerSync Cart. This took us a little over an hour.

Ummm...everything is plugged in, why aren't the dang things charging?

PowerSync Cart

And here was obstacle #1 in the great 2012 iPad deployment. We unplugged and replugged any chord and outlet we could find, flipped the switch on and off, unplugged the cart, and repeated about five times. I called my fellow librarians who I thought had the same cart...they didn't. I got on the website for Bretford and found their support form...I was not about to sit and waste my time waiting for an automated response from an electronic form...a little more digging and we came across an actual phone number.

The solution? Easy-peasy. Remove the bottom dividers, reach back, and jiggle the power cord to the cart, plug in the wall, flip the switch...and voila! We had power. This took about another hour of our time.

Two hours into our deployment day and we hadn't even started the iTunes process.

It's helpful when you have a working iTunes account.

Obstacle #2--no access to iTunes. It seems that our campus iTunes account (which had never been used) had been tampered with, and we needed a new account. Well, this involves setting up a new Outlook email account, which involves calling 1200, which involves waiting for 1200 to decide who the job should go to, which ends up being the "mail" team, otherwise known as the "male" team (no offense guys)--who is notorious for dragging their heals and taking their time.

How the heck do we get all of these tools to play nice?

While waiting to hear back about iTunes, we read and re-read, and read again the directions on using Apple Configurator and the Bretford PowerSync cart. [Enter website #1 that saved my sanity].

Our iTunes delay did allow us to think about the profile we wanted to create for the devices. Apple Configurator not only allows you to upload and manage the content on the iPads, but it also allows you to enable and disable its features to create profiles. For example, the student profile we pushed out to all 30 iPads allows for use of Safari, the built in camera, and it is automatically connected to the Student wifi. Students cannot, however, change the wifi settings, delete or purchase apps, or access iCloud or photo stream. Nice!

With a few minor interruptions involving COW carts, students sneaking into the library, and lunch we were still waiting on that Apple ID so we could register the devices and download content!

While we are waiting...what ARE we going to put on these things?

Thank goodness for Mme. Morgan's type A personality. The two of us split up and scoured blogs, Pinterest board, websites, and Twitter for lists of recommended apps for education.

[Enter in several more sites that helped us further explore iTunes and the world of apps]

http://appsineducation.blogspot.com/p/maths-ipad-apps.html
apps organized by content area

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/blooms-taxonomy-for-ipad.html
apps organized by Bloom's taxonomy

http://pinterest.com/gcisdtech/ipads/
Pinterest board for iPads in the classroom maintained by GCISD

http://www.apple.com/education/ipad/

Apple's own iPads in education page.

http://ipadeducators.ning.com/

Ning for iPad educators. Includes deployment plans, blogs, apps, tutorials, and more!

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=26195

the MEGA collection of all things iPad for teachers, students, and schools. Click on the tabs and subtabs across the top. LiveBinder is a virtual three-ring binder. Cool tool.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/50-resources-for-ipad-use-in-the-classroom/16126

Another MEGA collection of 50 resources (links and apps) for iPads

Here's the final result (also posted on the Fossil Ridge collaboration site): our beautiful spreadsheet.

But...still waiting on iTunes.

Finally, let's load these babies!

With the assistance of Lisa Ham, Aron Rister, and Tomi Deevers, our new and improved iTunes account arrived at the end of our deployment day. It took less than an hour to download all of the-preselected apps. It took another hour (the next day) to do the initial set up and registration for all thirty devices and then sync and load the apps from iTunes.

Final touches...

Our final step in preparing the devices for initial use involves manually organizing the apps by functionality and content onto screens so that they are classroom ready. This step must be done one-by-one...thank goodness for savvy student aides!

And the final product: