ETRU Hub

I’m not going to bore you with the details about the iPad because if you read this blog, chances are you have already read the many reviews out there. What I will say is that the screen is fantastic and applications load very quickly in comparison to my iPhone 3G.

What really matters is how the iPad will fare in everyday use in a school environment. It is patently clear that this is a great tool for busy Headmasters/Headmistresses; the ability to respond to emails on a large keyboard, view diary events/reminders in a familiar format and to edit/present documents in a lightweight package is something they will cherish. My Headmaster will be using one as soon as we receive our batch from Toucan.

Of greater interest to me is its potential in the classroom. Applications like iStudiez Pro and Todo clearly show the iPad’s ability to help organisation (the students and myself) and applications like eClicker can help in assessing students quickly and easily. What really excites me are applications like Alice, The Elements and Wired Magazine. Rich interactive content practically leaps out of the screen, giving clear indicators of the way future textbooks/educational resources should be redesigned to be more engaging with tightly woven learning activities. By this, I mean a way where completing a chart/graph can be done within the application and shared with the teacher, class or the world by publishing the work to a virtual learning environment or the web. Not radical stuff but it removes the steps that often occur where students move from textbook, to page, to computer and then to the web.

Doug Belshaw and I have a few interesting ideas for History applications that we are putting together for the iPad over the summer based on rich interactive content with a strong thinking skills element (living graphs are an example). If you are a publisher and are interested, get in touch. My aim is to trial it with my students next academic year as part of the school’s mobile learning/Apple Regional Training Centre project and everyone is welcome to come and see what we are doing.

Where should I be?

Typically for this time of year, I have put off doing non-essential things like updating this blog to focus on the ‘business end’ of the year. My IB History students have now finished their exams, I have marked/moderated the A2 History coursework and I have been prepping my Year 11/Year 10 for their GCSE exams. The hardest thing I have had to do this term was coming to terms with the fact that I am not Rick James and should not attempt to sing ‘Super Freak’ to help a student’s Music Technology coursework (I have asked him to use the ‘autotune’ function liberally). If it were not part of the Assistant Head job description, I would never have done it (I am praying it does not make it on to Youtube).

Another enjoyable but less terrifying aspect of my work this term has been the reading and planning in preparation for the mobile learning project that will be launched at school this year. I am really looking forward to see how we will use the technology to enhance the learning of the students and to the professional dialogue surrounding it; there certainly is a ‘buzz’ around the proposal and I hope to elaborate on the specifics in a few weeks. As a happy coincidence, the Languages Department have bought into the idea of mobile learning and are moving towards a new Language Lab next year that will be made up of iPod Touches and Flip Video cameras. Combined with the upcoming use of the new information management system and Moodle across the school, it is easy to be carried away with big plans for the future and forgetting the pull of the immediate. I was reminded of this earlier this week when I returned an iPod Touch to a student. He clicked on it and I noticed a strangely familiar picture on his screen. He noticed and said, ‘It makes it easier to find out what class I have’. He had taken a screen shot of his timetable from the school website and saved it as a background picture on his iPod. Genius.

Innovative and effective ways of teaching and learning using mobile technology is great, but sometimes it is more than enough if it can help you get to where you need to be. I went back to my office and did the same thing. Now if only I could find out a way for cover lessons and appointments to show on it…

Image: Leo Kan @Flickr

The school has its mock general election today with the staff and the students voting. The results will be uploaded to Google Schools UK Election site and I am looking forward to seeing the result. I will write more later on but think the image made in Comic Life Magiq will help…