Digital Learning Reimbursement 2- Mobile Device Features

I will start this off by saying that this is not the most interesting video.  22 minute long tips and tricks videos get to be too long for me, personally.

However, at 18:15, I learned a trick that I did not know.  If you are taking a picture of something (be that a whiteboard that you will soon have to erase or a picture of a student's artwork), you don't have to necessarily push the circular button, but push the volume down button.

One thing that he says at about 20:00 is that you can't undock keyboard and then move it up or down, however, if you put your finger on the keyboard down thing (The button that you held down to undock the keyboard) where the 5 "groves" are and move it up or down, the keyboard does move up or down.

At 21:00, he talks about shortcuts for typing.  I think that is a really good thing if you know your unique writing quirks.  For example, if you always end an e-mail the same way "Thanks..." or "Thank you...", you could just put a quick shortcut like "Th..." or "TU..."

Another tip that was not in this video was the fact that if you use all five fingers, put them on the screen and bring them together, it brings you to the home screen.

One that he alluded to that I use all the time is using the four fingers to slide between apps.  He only shows that if you use four fingers and move them up on the iPad, the list of open apps will appear, but if you use the four fingers and swipe left to right, you can switch easily between two apps.  This is especially helpful if you are writing in Google Drive and need to quickly find out if the word you want to use is a word or not.

Digital Learning Reimbursement 1 - Getting Started

I currently use my iPad for paperwork purposes such as putting together IEPs and collect student data.  Due to the fact that I do not feel comfortable sharing my iPad with my students, it has not been used for many educational purposes.

However, I had figured out a way of using it in math class.  There is an app called "InkPad" which is basically a drawing pad.  Instead of using whiteboards, which is what I had done for the entire year, I would bring over my iPad and show them how to do it on that app.  You can draw the numbers with your fingers and everything.  I found that I very much appreciated it.

The next part that I would like to reflect on revolve around several quotes I read a while ago:

"Students today depend upon paper too much. They don't know how to write on slate without getting chalk dust all over themselves.  They can't clean a slate properly.  What will they do when they run out of paper?"      -Principals association 1815

"Students today depend upon store bought ink.  They don't know how to make their own."    - The rural American Teacher, 1929

"Ball point pens will be the ruin of education in our country."    - Federal Teacher, 1950

"Until technology is reliable and cheaper, teachers should stick to paper assignments and the classroom should not spill over onto computers."    - High School Journalism Class, 2008

"If we keep doing what we're doing, we're going to keep getting what we're getting."    - Stephen Covey

I understand and recognize that many people are hesitant to embrace technology.  However, if we keep doing what we're doing, then we keep getting what we have.  I don't know about you, but we need to change something up.

I am most flabbergasted by the 2008 quote.  That is a quote from 2008, not from 1998.  I could understand that argument if it were the year 1998 and computers were still frustratingly slow pieces of technology that not many understand, but in 2008, computers were faster.  There was Facebook, there was online blogs.  

We had gone past the point of Technology 1.0 (Which is defined as non-interactive reading of an online article) to Technology 2.0 (Which is defined as the time in which we became able to talk back to an article, to make comments on articles that we liked or didn't like and what we would say).

Are there flaws to technology?  Without a doubt there are flaws.  However, it is our job as educators to not only teach them literacy in reading, but online literacy as well.  To teach them not only social skills needed face to face, but social skills needed online.  To teach them  not only mathematics, but how mathematics makes these games they play or sites they use.  We must embrace technology for what it is: the greatest engagement tool out there.