Feb4

The App I’d Love

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The App I’d Love

I’ve been using iPads, both iPad 1 and iPad 2 for about a year and a half. I’ve been using laptops as a teaching tool for about 12 years and in a 1:1 configuration since about 2003. That said, I’ve seen the power technology can have to transform teaching and learning.

One of the most powerful applications I’ve seen has been using OneNote to share notebooks, teacher to teacher, student to teacher, and student to student. At first, it was a content exchange tool. Teachers would set up notebooks for students, embedding assignments, weblinks, and resources. OneNote made it easier for students and teachers to exchange information without having to worry about lost data (exchange was network-based so viruses and hardware damage became irrelevant). As application expanded, students and teachers began to see another use – student-enhanced, even student-created textbooks. Essentially, teachers would make core resources, such as online textbooks,simulations, and reference sites, available, and students would create mash-ups of these resources, focussing on their own learning needs. These textbooks can include images, videos, links, text, and handwritten and drawn content. Think of a science lab notebook combined with a stack of science textbooks containing all desired forms of media. This notebook can be shared teacher to student or student to teacher. Feedback and collaboration are part of the process.

Imagine how excited I was to hear about iBook creation software, a tool to create content. I’d love to see something similar, in an app form, made available to students with a tool for sharing as the content is created. Think an app that allows snipping of web content w/attribution, embedding of online resources such as video and web pages, accessible to multiple authors for collaborative creation. Oh yeah, and put it on a device all kids have.

Would anyone else see the value of such a tool for instruction, or am I just imagining how powerful this could become?

Feb3

Too good not to share 02/04/2012

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Too good not to share 02/04/2012

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.