Resources in the classroom | Steps in Teaching and Learning

BYOD – It makes a lot of common sense

October 30, 2011 in Resources in the classroom, tools

Bring Your Own Device

Imagine a classroom with a wide array of laptops, mobile devices and handheld games consoles all at the fingertips of the learners to use during class time. What would be your immediate reaction to this scene? Honestly?

There has been quite a bit of discussion about this very idea among not just educators but those in industry too and there are those who champion it and those that vehemently oppose it. Yet the concept of ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) really isn’t all that new. For as long as there have been tools that could be used in the classroom for learning, learners have attempted to bring their own similar and at times comparatively better tools with them only to see them at first being confiscated, then banned, then allowed with parental consent and finally accepted as the norm. From pens to rulers, pencil cases to calculators schools have taken objection to students bringing their own tools into classrooms usually due to poorly conceived arguments – who will be responsible? (the students will if the school has parents sign a letter of responsibility) some children have, some don’t? (look at ways to provide those that don’t, think can not can’t) theft? (that will always happen, look at ways to safeguard against it). With time and commonsense schools have ‘relented’ allowing learners to bring their own tools into classroom but now learners are faced with a new, more technologically advanced challenge. At home many of them use laptops, netbooks and netbooks for their learning. These devices, in many circumstances, are more up to date and more powerful than the clunky, slow, under performing devices in their schools yet when the learners are at school the same devices are left at home. Schools cannot update their ever ageing equipment as fast as they would like due to cost and rapidly disappearing budgets yet they could have the potential of accessing more advanced tools if they would see some common sense and the vision to make it happen.

What do you think? Do you consider BYOD a way forward for schools?

Tags: classroom tech, inspiration, resource, technology
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Steve Jobs – The Great Innovator

October 6, 2011 in Resources in the classroom

Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011

The iPhone keynote of 2007 made the telecommunications world sit up and take notice. It also made me sit up and say I want an iPhone. My brother was in New York later that year and got me one and I was completely blown away by it. Steve Jobs had the knack to create devices that you never knew you wanted but his real genius lay in innovating the devices that were already around you. I’ve ended up owning a few of these devices and each has proved to be an indispensable tool in my classroom. His innovations, his thinking, his creativity, his never say can’t attitude are all qualities that I admire and hope to instill in my students. Our education systems today may be surrounded by self satisfying political dogma but as Steve said himself

Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

RIP Steve Jobs

Tags: Apple, ideas, inspiration, Inspirational, learning, technology
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Google Gadgets. Are they suitable for classroom use?

September 4, 2011 in Resources in the classroom

Google Gadgets are embeddable dynamic objects created by Google users for inclusion in Google Sites. But the content of many of these gadgets can only be described as totally unsuitable for classroom use and as an administrator of a Google Domain I definitely would not want these gadgets made available to my users. Google Apps for Education provides a difficult workaround that involves mastering some code but luckily enough there is another way to manage gadgets on your domain – the Domain Gadget Directory Manager (DGDM).

The DGDM is a gadget that can be embedded into a site on your school domain and which the administrator can use to control which gadgets users on the domain should have access to. These gadgets are included on a whitelist for all users. You can also blacklist gadgets if required. Once added you can relax in the knowledge that users will not have access to any unsuitable gadgets when they create their own Google sites.

I created gadgets4school to explain how to add the DGDM gadget to your own Google site and as a resource for gadgets that I include in my own Google Domain.

Tags: classroom tech, google, google sites, learning, teaching, web 2.0
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Angry Birds in the classroom

June 20, 2011 in learning, lesson ideas, Resources in the classroom, tools

I decided to use Angry Birds with my class today and I was very happy that I did. We used it as a basis to design our own levels, construct these with card and tubes, test and play them. The enthusiasm and engagement was intense, so intense that the class didn’t want to go to break, nor lunch, nor use the ICT suite! Using the app like this has shown me yet again how powerful games for learning can be in the classroom.

Ideas for use in your classroom.
English

speaking and listening skills are developed as children discuss the design of their levels
explanations (describe how the level was designed)
instructions (how to play/solve their level)
story writing
viewpoints (what is it like from the Pigs point of view)

Design/Technology

planning/researching a game
designing the level
selecting material
constructing the game level
testing the game
improving from feedback

There are options for further learning using the game in Geography (design and draw a map of the Angry Birds world), Science (forces, gravity, habitats), PE (design and create an Angry Birds obstacle course), Social Ed (living together, different viewpoints)

But most of all – IT’S FUN