I facilitated two 135 minute discussions around the use of iPads in the classroom with teachers and administrators from the Brecksville-Broadview Heights City Schools (BBH) back at the end of August as part of their staff in-service day. Rather than deliver lecture style presentations over a ton of apps, I decided I wanted to create a more meaningful and engaging learning experience to use with the BBH staff.
The concept for the two sessions was to remix ideas and content I had seen used before in other professional learning settings. The first was an idea that I was familiar with from attending and leading conversations at Science Leadership Academy‘s EduCon. It involved the use of a conversation protocol to help guide the session. The second was drawn from a Media Scavenger Hunt that Dr. Wesley Fryer had put together for a session he led called “Simple Ideas for Powerful Sharing.” The final idea was adapted from something I’d seen David Jakes use as part of his What If? presentation series.
One of the things I’ve been looking into lately has been mobile content creation. With the rise of the tablet, I’m finding k12 and adult students are eager for opportunities to learn just-in-time with their device of choice. From an instructional design perspective, this means that to deliver to any & all devices, you’ve got to be looking towards HTML5.
My developer colleagues at the University of Akron’s Center for Literacy cringe every time we talk about HTML5 and designing apps for iOS and Android. To them, HTML5 is a giant step backwards in terms of the complexity and richness of web apps that could be developed with other tools (RIP Flash).
They feel that in the HTML5 arena, animations are stripped down and much less interactivity is available. They are mostly right here. HTML5 has limited the types of instructional interactions we can offer all ages of students in the online environment. As we begin to design web-based user experiences in HTML5, we are essentially creating a duel interface that can be run through a desktop or laptop browser AND a mobile browser. Until mobile devices have processors equal to their desktop/laptop brothers, we’ll never be able to offer as rich of a learning environment on any type of mobile device, yet we are still going to develop custom digital content for mobile…
Educators from across Ohio came together in Columbus today, as Ohio became the 14th state to become a “21st Century Leadership State.” The Ohio 21st Century Skills Summit was a day of learning, leading and celebrating Ohio’s dedication to developing a comprehensive 21st Century Skills educational implementation plan. The following are my notes from the day long event (which I took on my iPad using Evernote). Items in BOLD are my own personal thoughts, all other items are quotes or paraphrases from the various speakers.
Today an email landed in my Inbox from the good folks at eTech Ohio that I thought I should share. “Free PD to Go from eTech Ohio,” was the advertisement in the Subject line of the communication. Formerly Ohio SchoolNet, eTech Ohio is the organization that serves as the main hub of all things educational technology in Ohio. From the eTech About Us page:
As a state agency, eTech Ohio is dedicated to enhancing learning by developing programs and using best practices to serve learning organizations while acquiring, integrating and sustaining educational technology.
It is our mission to provide the leadership and support that promotes access to and use of all forms of educational technology needed to advance the education and accelerate the learning of the citizens of Ohio.
