Last spring, my principal at Harper's Choice, in Columbia MD, and I designed a plan for my internship that would focus on the new gradebook program in Aspen. I trained with the county representative as well as another person at my school. Then change, change- my principal was transferred to another school, and then I took a job in Texas and planned a move! During the interview for my new position, I explained the requirements of my internship to make sure that I would be able to complete it here in Texas. My principal was enthusiastic- he promotes technology in the classroom to his teachers and looked forward to the extra assistance I would be providing! I began planning for my internship as soon as I arrived in Texas. At that time, I planned for my focus to be one Web 2.0 tools. However, once the 1:1 iPad initiative with the Technology Cohort was announced and my students would each be eligible to receive one, I knew that this would become the focus of my internship.
In October 2011, the district director of technology began forming a committee to give input into a district policy for the students and parents regarding the care and use of the iPad. I volunteered and helped with editing a draft policy, using my expertise from my Loyola coursework. I was able to contribute thoughtful additions, particularly to the user fees and consequences when students break or lose their iPad, to the draft policy. Those sections were later changed again, but the basic idea requiring financial responsibility and a police report in the case of loss, stood. Each parent was able to access the policy online and submit their agreement and permission online through the district grading software package. This allowed any parent to read it at their leisure and grant permission from anywhere. Alternatively, sessions were set up at various schools, in both English and Spanish, to allow parents the opportunity to ask questions of administrators and sign a paper version of the agreement. Parents had to agree to pay a $40 refundable deposit and grant permission in order for a student to receive an iPad. The student then keeps the iPad until graduation or leaving the district (with upgrades every 3 years) and can apply for the deposit to be returned at that time.
I began planning my internship in November 2011 with my principal, focusing on the teachers in my school who would not be receiving an iPad themselves. I hoped that I would be able to make them more comfortable with using the iPad in class so that students could use them in all their classes. However, not surprisingly, the teachers who were members of the technology cadre were most interested in what I had to share and participated to some extent in all the sessions I offered. I began with a staff survey, that would let me understand the teachers' comfort level with using an iPad and some of the applications, both web-based and app-based, that would help them with their instruction. From the results of this survey, I designed my internship to help teachers experienced with iPads as well as those who were less knowledgeable.
My first official session was on using Edmodo in the classroom. Teachers had been asking me to share the site with them, and this is easily used by teachers with or without an iPad of their own. In this session, I shared how to set up an account, a class, and the abilities to hold an online discussion, post a poll, and just mentioned giving a quiz. The eighth grade teachers took this information and shared it with others on their team; within a matter of weeks many 8th grade core teachers were using the site for both assignments and giving quizzes and tests. The students are asking questions of both teachers and each other about assignments, and answering each other as well. I have helped my other science teachers successfully hold online discussions with Edmodo.
Due to demand, I followed this session with sessions at my school on Basic iPad settings and iPad Apps for any classroom. I followed up every session with an email, giving the teachers who attended a copy of my presentation. These sessions were extremely helpful to those teachers without much experience with an iPad, as well as teachers who were looking for different ways to use the iPad in their classroom. In the weeks that followed these presentations, I spent time nearly every day working with teachers looking to implement the iPad into their everyday teaching. For one teacher, that has meant going completely paperless, using Edmodo and Pages for completing work, handing in or emailing assignments, and returning grades through Edmodo. For other teachers, it has meant using Pages for writing and editing only. I understand that the teachers have to move at their own pace and comfort level, and occasionally find myself reminding others of this as well.
One the more interesting sessions I held was on the accessibility settings that come on the iPad and are found within Pages. It was interesting to find out that the Special Education teachers were not trained on these when the students received their iPads back in October. Most of my special education students do not use the iPad regularly in class, even when it could help them. As a group we went over the ways that the iPad can be set to read to the student, either all the time or only when a correction is made. We also looked at the touch settings and the ways that Pages can define words for students. Most teachers are not as familiar with Pages, so as a group we looked at its editing tools as well. All students received Pages with their iPad, and as a group we should encourage our students to use it to help them.
During a Science team meeting, I shared several apps with the science teachers, although these apps in particular could be used anywhere. I shared the screenshot video tool ShowMe, the online discussion tool VoiceThread, and the flashcard app FlashCards+. I included a short example of each and emailed these to the teachers after the presentation. I later worked with 2 of the teachers to prepare a lesson for a group of visitors using ShowMe to describe the movement of the planets around the sun. The visitors war impressed with the student work and the students enjoyed a different form of assessment in class.
During the actual distribution of the iPad, I found myself working with many students to create an ITunes account and register their iPad into the district apps of AnyConnect and AirWatch. These apps allow the district to filter Web content for students, monitor the use of a device, and locate it in case of theft or loss. These also allow the district to distribute an app electronically to all the devices without individual purchase codes. This has been very time-consuming, particularly creating the iTunes account. I found it easier to work with students in smaller groups of 5 or less, although I did have larger groups of 10-15 at times. A few of my students were able to help the others, and some students came to me even though we had previously never met. By doing this on my time, I was able to alleviate some of the demands on the technology teachers and refer only those with problems I could not solve myself. I had not anticipated this becoming a 3-week process, but enjoyed working with the students in smaller groups.
During this time I created a wiki that would allow teachers to comment on their own uses of technology in the classroom, as well as ask questions of each other. On the wiki I have included all of the presentations I have made, and added some other websites for further reading. Due to a mix-up, this was not made available to the teachers as early as I had planned. However, teachers now have access to the content of the wiki, or may join the wiki to make comments and ask questions. It is my hope that teachers will use this more now that most of our students have their iPads registered with the district. I will be monitoring the wiki regularly and answering questions, in addition to contributing my own thoughts and questions. At this point in the year, the teachers are extremely busy preparing for the state tests in April. I will keep the wiki open throughout the next year; I expect the participation will grow over time, particularly in the fall as school begins and all students receive an iPad of their own.