Diigo is a great tool for many uses. You will discover how you find it most useful, but here are a few main ways:
Oxley College uses a software program as a live database of its curriculum. It goes by the name “Atlas Rubicon.” As a new member of staff you are provided with a log-on.
You can get to Atlas by either entering the URL http://oxleylearning.rubiconatlas.org or navigating to it from OxleyLearning (http://oxleylearning.org and use the dropdown menu).
Once you are at the Atlas site, use the select menu to find your name. Select it and the first time you will use the default password. This is sent to you in the Welcome email message. When you log-on with this you are immediately prompted to change the password to one of your own choosing. Please make it one you will remember. If you happen to forget, notice the “Click here for password reset” link.
If you would like a basic overview to the Atlas interface, there are a range of Help files. Of particular interest might be the “Basic Navigation” video.
Look to your Faculty Leader for help in learning how your colleagues use Atlas to Develop and Browse units of work.
The following were the core apps we installed on every iPad. Staff have experimented with many others, but these found the most use across faculties.
I teach music to high school students in years 7 through 12.
There are a great number of music Apps available at present, and these are continually changing and increasing.
Considering the three main components of the music syllabus: composing, performing and listening; seemed a sensible way in which to approach the possible integration of iPads into the music classroom.
As a creative tool, the iPad has a great deal to offer.
My experience with students in years 7-9 has been with GarageBand.
Year 8 task – to compose/arrange a short piece that demonstrated their understanding of popular music structure, using GarageBand.
Students were already familiar with this program on the classroom computers, and this task was initially planned for the classroom.
About five students asked to use their own iPads and I saw this as an opportunity to compare the experience.
The App version is very similar to the original, but also includes “Smart” instruments that provide a whole new and engaging interface for data entry into a song. Users’ level of musicality certainly dictates the extent to which these “smart” instruments can be used.
Both share an exceptional User Interface.
The results were similar, but the process was more interesting. Students using the iPad version were far more enthusiastic to share their progress, perhaps due to its portability. Students also worked more quickly on the iPad.
However, exporting songs at the end of the process required syncing (which we did not do) and the ability to edit MIDI is not available on the iPad.
I would certainly revisit this using sufficient iPads to enable the whole class to have access. The problems with sharing the student’s finished results would need to be considered, but students could present their work as a class presentation.
There is SO much that I would like to be able to do!
Music is one area that has resonated with individuals, companies and institutions generating resources for making and learning about music. In my App surfing have found a number of potentially useful applications that could easily be incorporated into the everyday learning at different year levels.
Composition applications can be divided into sequencing and notation.
GarageBand is an application that provides instant access to sequencing.
Notation on the iPad is challenging given the inherent inaccuracy with the data entry and limitations of the applications, which are often poor cousins of their desktop equivalents. I have preferred to stay with computer based programs such as Sibelius for this reason, as it currently provides a more valid experience for students (and teachers). However, this will not always be the case and the potential is as yet untested.
Any number of virtual keyboards are available
GarageBand has “smart” instruments that allow students with limited instrumental skills to make acceptable music with keyboard, guitar and drum sounds.
MSO Learn is a site released by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra that contains excellent audio samples, descriptions and pictures of orchestral instruments, as well as links to recommended listening examples.
Nachtmusic is an interactive score reading and listening application that allows you to follow Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. The future of this more interactive score reading is exciting.
iRealBook is a comprehensive collection of jazz and other standards, complete with the ability to preset chord charts that are transposable, and a playback engine that reproduces the songs. This application also allows you to enter your own chord progressions, creating your own song with the ability to be able to hear it played back.
Dr Jim Frankel of Soundtree has written many blog articles on the subject. In May 2011 he published a blog of available applications for music, titled ‘Making Music with iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches‘. There is no doubt that, since the publication of this informative list, there has been countless more added to the list.
The challenge for us as educators is to be aware of what is available and useful and purposeful in the pursuit of the education of our students.
The level of distraction of other applications that may be present, typically on a students own device, is a significant issue. Ensuring that students remain on task as they use devices that increasingly isolate them from others is also an issue that needs careful consideration in the development of use policies.
Students in Technology spend 4 semesters over stage 4 in a rotation of modules. These include graphics, woodwork, cooking, and model making.
In model making the students design their dream bedroom and learn skills in perspective drawing which is followed by a three dimensional model using cardboard.
During semester 1 2011 I introduced the iPads for 4 lessons to enhance the students understanding of a basic computer aided drawing (CAD). These lessons took place in succession during the Generate Ideas stage of the design process – before lessons on perspective drawing or making.
The iPad app that the students used was Home 3D. It is a simple program that is easy to follow. The introduction took about 5 minutes and then I ask the students to explore the possibilities and capabilities of the app. The first project required students to produce one bedroom with windows, doors, furniture and if required a wardrobe that can be within the room or as a walk-in adjoining. I then challenged the students to figure out how to make a double bunk, as it is not in the furniture provided. It requires them to import two single beds and hover one over the other.
At any stage of the design they are able to transfer it from a plan/layout drawing into a three-dimensional walk through interaction.
I have a motto in my class that the students need to learn how to be independent learners. They have options when solving problems. The first option is to ask a friend, the second option is to ask the audience (ask more than one person around them) and the third option is 50/50. They can come and ask me what to do as long as they have one idea already. I explain it is like asking their mother for their socks before they even look for them. I don’t help unless they have put some effort into options.
The students complete a new design – a layout of their own home. This helps with their visual spatial understanding of how one room flows into the next. The dimensions of their rooms are not important.
The students were limited to the design of the furniture available. There are options to purchase further pieces of furniture but it would be ideal to allow the students to design their own. A white cube/box is available which students can replicate to make things like kitchen benches.
The following post links to the main resources developed through the AGQTP project “Digital Learning with iPads.”
With latest version of Android Honeycomb operating system.
No 3G capability (but coming so you may want to wait) (can be tethered to phone / USB broadband)
TechnoBuffalo Review by someone who likes both
This market is still growing with new models coming out regularly. A survey of reviews usually suggests that few tablets approach the ease of use and functionality of the iPad2 with (at this point) the most viable alternatives being the ASUS Transformer and Lenovo ThinkPad (see below).
Most laptops and netbooks do not have adequate battery life for a whole school day. If you plan to use one of these that meets all the other requirements, you must be able to use backup batteries, not rely on re-charging.
The bottom line is:
Lenovo ThinkPad (Toshiba Thrive preferred except for pen)
Asus Eee Pad Transformer vs Toshiba Thrive Comparison
I teach Secondary English at Oxley College. I encourage the use of different technologies in the classroom and was excited at the prospect of exploring the capabilities of the iPad. Initially, I felt that the iPad was limited as I could not transport files via USB and did not have access to word processing. I thought that it might be useful only for web searching and we already had computers which could download websites much faster.
After a few months ‘playing’ with the device myself, I discovered the ease and convenience of cloud storage with dropbox.com and the ability to annotate and share web sites with diigo.
I chose to use the device with my Year 10 class during a close study of Macbeth. The class had previously completed a unit on humour where students had contributed to an academic blog so they were used to the tone and language required for sharing their ideas respectfully.
In previous years students would read the play as a class and use post-it notes to annotate the text. This year I identified an online version of the play, bookmarked it in diigo and invited students to share it. Using iPads the students read sections of the play in pairs and annotated it via diigo. This way they were able to share and respond to the ideas of other students in the class and to questions and ideas that I had added to the text. The text was projected onto a screen so that annotations were visible to everyone throughout the five lessons we used to read through the text. Students were then required to compare annotated scenes with film versions which had been uploaded to the school web site.
I would run this activity again as many of the students found it invaluable to be able to read and exchange ideas in this way. It was beneficial for quieter students who might not contribute during class discussion. In future, I would spend more time adding questions and sentence starters as support and higher order thinking questions for extension so at the task was better differentiated. I would also encourage students who wanted extension to bookmark other sites and essays on the text with some comments recommending them to other students. I would set much clearer goals for each lesson so that students knew when they had achieved a target.
Unfortunately, I think the novelty of the iPad was a distraction to some and only a few students actually added annotations to the text. This will be overcome as they become more familiar with tablet devices. I can imagine that, for some students, this will be a fairly constant issue and a challenge for the teacher to monitor which applications are being accessed by every student, particularly when they each have their own device.
Because our final task was an essay comparing Shakespeare’s text with some film versions it would have been useful for the students to access YouTube. Students could take screen shots and annotate these using Pages or Word. This is a very real issue for English as visual literacy is an essential component of our courses.
The students learn about the structure of the Earth, the theory of Continental Drift, plate tectonics, Earthquakes, volcanoes & tsunamis
Students are introduced to Ipads and search Google for images of the layered structure of Earth, gathering information about the composition, thickness, and temperature of each layer.
They can combine this information and save to Dropbox or google documents etc.
Students open GE and scroll around, viewing the Earth for features that may indicate ‘cracks’ in the crust called tectonic plates.
They should look for significant mountain ranges, undersea ridges and trenches.
On a photocopied map of the world draw lines to represent where they think boundaries are – compare with neighbours
Go to www.jacplus.com.au and navigate to Dynamic Earth topic and eLesson on continental drift. Students watch video and make notes of the super continents.
On GE, students add layer from:
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=13277&site_id=1
and watch what happens over time to Pangaea, Laurasia & Gondwana. *see NOTE below*
NOTE: Ipad cannot add kmz files as layers and they need to be saved into a google maps account first, unless they are opened up directly form a website. GE does not seem to be able to display and manipulate this file as a PC or Mac computer running full GE can.
It cannot measure distances, as this would be a useful process involving key skills, to measure the distance that India has moved over time compared with, for example, the separation of S.America & Africa.
Students can record a timeline for Continental Drift and, with improvements to GE, can measure changes with time.
Students open GE and add layer from: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/virtualtour/kml/Earths_Tectonic_Plates.kmz (or similar – this page is incomplete when opened on Ipad GE). They can use the file to identify the type of boundary at different locations: S of Japan, W coast of S.America & N.America, Himalayas, Mid Atlantic.
Discuss what is occurring at each boundary, and then take notes on the 4 types of boundary, giving examples.
Open GE and add layers* from USGS – select layers that show Mag 7 & 8 from 2011. Get students to identify patterns in the location of EQ. Historic data can also be collected from other key EQ.
Focus on one event and add layers with data, eg. Christchurch, Japan etc.
Formation, effects of EQ can then be discussed and taught.
As above but with volcanoes – source layers from appropriate sites showing volcanoes this year or from history. Analyse patterns in location and identify anomalies (volcanoes over hot spots such as Hawaii). Discuss & teach formation, type and effects of volcanoes.
NOTE: these lessons can be interspersed with other lessons to cover content including videos from clickview.
The big issue with these plans is the inability of Ipad GE to be able to run kmz files, add layers independently, and measure distances.
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