So I realize it’s really only been a couple of days since I posted my Week 1 Reflections, but since today was technically the end of Week 2 and we had such a fabulous tech day, I thought I’d tell the story today.
Since our horrible experience last Friday trying to get our Dropboxes all figured out, we’ve had some pretty successful days with our iPads. Today was a particularly great day, with many great ideas flowing about how we could enhance our learning by using our iPads to record our thinking.
On Monday, we started an investigation in math that was focused around my son, Riley’s, allowance.
Riley’s Allowance Problem
Now, the math involved in this problem was not difficult; the focus here was on using clear and concise notation to record thinking, as well as revising your work before “publishing” it for others to see. We focused on making sure we followed all of the directions and did the whole problem (which is a great skill to review since we’re doing state testing starting in about a week and a half. 🙂 )
Kiddos spent two days working on the problem and then creating their posters. After everyone had a poster, we did a gallery walk where groups were responsible for leaving feedback for others related to how well they accomplished each of those goals. They left plusses and deltas for the group to consider as they revised their poster later.
Revising based on what classmates said about their poster.
One of their “deltas” was that they had too much white space and not enough numbers. They added in equations to show how they got their answers.
Creative use of paper scraps as “white out” to cover parts they needed to change.
Don’t you just love the combination of “old school” and “new school” here? IPads right alongside big ‘ole paper and markers. 🙂 They’re using one as a calculator and the other has a screenshot of the original directions where they did their draft work before the poster.
Adding headings to each section (which classmates thought included too much writing) helped their thinking make more sense.
Then, I gave them one more direction: make a video to summarize your post-its, share your revisions and explain why they would help learners better understand your poster. Pretty cool, huh? Here’s what they did next:
I’m trying to decide when to mention that it took SIX STEPS to get those videos from where they were recording to being able to embed them on this blog post!! WHAT? I’m sure some of it was me not knowing some details about Dropbox (where I was hoping to be able to upload the videos so I could have access to them on my computer after school), but honestly, some of our biggest problems come from the filter that our Minis have embedded on them. Obviously an internet filter is a necessary thing to have, but so often it also keeps us from efficiently doing what we need to do as learners. So…the videos went from kiddo iPads where they were recorded——–>they were sent to me through iMessage (which ended up being the only way we could figure out to export them, and by the way, we had to set up before we could use today)——-> then I learned how to upload them to the Dropbox app on my Mini so I could access them———>then I had to download them to my computer, since the Dropbox they were in is not the same as my personal Dropbox linked to my computer—–> then they were uploaded to YouTube——-> and THEN they could be added to my blog. Are you tired yet?
That definitely wore me out a little. Surprised I had any energy left to even write all these words! Is that crazy to anyone but me? PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE tell me if you know an easier way to get video from kid iPads to a usable form for me. I want to use them more often for things like this, but I’d love to be able to do it without so much work. 🙂
(And so here I was going to add a really SUPER idea that my friend ZB had today about how to show our thinking about poetry, but surprisingly the examples I wanted to share are still on the iPads where we recorded them today. Just didn’t have enough hours in the day to figure that one out. Hopefully tomorrow. 🙂 )
20somethingkids and 1kookyteacher 
Great project. The use of old and new was very thoughtful; the temptation now that they have the iPads would be to have them make the “posters” on their iPads, but I think that would have gotten in the way of the collaborative process and their content. I don’t think every edtechie would agree with me on that (some I know would suggest that you should have found a meaningful way for them to design a poster through an app), but good job on your restraint.
As far as the videos – they all seem pretty short. Why not just have the kids email them to you?
OR
Have kids upload to a dropbox folder that they have shared with you (and you could share the folder with yourself to your computer or mini; whichever they DIDN’T share with), then access the file from that shared folder and upload to YouTube.
I should have mentioned all the things I tried before those six long steps. They were too big to email, and it didn’t give us the option to Dropbox. Well not at first. Now I know how to have them do that, so we’ll use it next time! Thanks for the suggestion!
This is so exciting to read about! I am exhausted just reading it, so I cannot imagine how you felt after the process of uploading everything – and writing about it! Keep sharing (when you have time) and I will keep reading! I love learning from you. 🙂
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