Banner Elk Elementary is a small (@175 students) school in a beautiful new building. They are in the first  year of 1:1 with iPads so this is new to many of the teachers. Apple provided professional development that helped the school get started, all agreed the Apple PD was excellent.

The school is using the technology well and the teachers are reporting improved student achievement. A 39 year veteran teacher of grades 1 and K shared that her students have mastered addition with numbers 1 to 10 more quickly than ever, two or more months faster than with her non-iPad approach. Several other teachers shared similar impressions about the iPad and the apps they are using helping students memorize math facts quickly and efficiently. Although we did not see much first hand, we did see examples or hear descriptions of some multimedia (video or slide stack) production used for students to show understanding of science, social studies research or math concepts.

Using McREL teacher evaluation rubric, I would say most of what we learned about thier use falls in the “Accomplished” range with some hints and suggestions of “Distinguished”, see descriptions below:

• Accomplished: Teacher integrates technology with instruction to maximize student learning
• Distinguished: Teacher provides evidence of student engagement in higher level thinking skills through the integration of technology.

When I see “higher level thinking skills” of course I think of the revised bloom’s taxonomy. Most of the iPad use was rather low on the taxonomy. This is not a bad thing. Students need to memorize things and the iPad is helping. I would suggest though that they have some room to grow  and will reap more benefits in the analyze, evaluate, create areas as the staff has more experience with the devices.

I observed students using or demonstrating the following:

•  math apps – game style on:
  • counting
  • 1 to 1 correspondence
  • addition subtraction
  • multiplication facts
  • fraction and decimal value on number line – (I really loved the motion math http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/motion-math/id392489333?mt=8)
• letter formation app
• phonics apps
  • initial sound match
  • sound to symbol
• entering and processing text
• video production, student made end to end
• multimedia presentation examples (keynote)
• drawing app w EC students, square with dimension labels

Teachers talked about or showed the following:

• art apps
• ceramics apps
• iMovie to create research project product (NC regions)
• math videos

http://www.schooltr.com/Teacher_Resources/Lesson_Plans/Lesson_Plan_Steelworks.html – how steel is made, observations of coal and other materials

http://www.strscopes.com/PDF_Downloads/STR_Lesson_Plan_Something_New.pdf – ecosystem study of decaying log, observation of decomposition

http://students.juniata.edu/gillijl04/educational%20technology_files/datainputevidence.htm – list of lessons for older students from vernier

Assessment for learning (as opposed to of learning) has a profoundly positive impact on achievement, especially for struggling learners, as has been verified through rigorous scientific research conducted around the world.

from Five Assessment Myths and Their Consequences
By Dr. Richard Stiggins

I love the idea of Assessment FOR Learning. I was always a good test taker, but it seemed like a game. I don’t deal with negative review well, I don’t think I would have stuck with school if I had not been rewarded with test scores.

research at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/accountability/educators/fastresearchresources.pdf

does this image help you understand why we have so much high stakes testing?

Makes me wonder if the folks up top are concerned with helping the ones below, or do they really think high stakes testing is helping?

and http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcdxxd39_82948b4cct

student centered pedagogy, expert student learners

kinder kids global exchange through voicethread linked on google doc

learning experts or content experts?

let kids be tech tool expert

“The Important Book” to build class community and bio poems

http://westtisbury5.wikispaces.com/

They seem to be doing much of the same “find and repackage information” type schooling with cool tech tools.  So?

http://bit.ly/iste10intlcolb – spreadsheet of ideas? can’t view

http://www2.ed.gov/teachers/how/tech/international/index.html Teacher’s guide to international collaboration

upcoming global education conference, November 15 – 19, 2010 http://www.globaleducationconference.com/

miller@nais.org – he’s from http://www.nais.org/global/index.cfm?ItemNumber=147262&sn.ItemNumber=148035 and looking to get kids getting to work on 20 global problems

iearn project “our footprints our future” – http://of2.iearn.org/

global nomads group – http://www.gng.org/ – doing service learning and will bring classes in

and http://www.committedsardine.com/

living in exponential time, 30 steps get you to a billion

“living on the future edge” their book

based on moore’s law – chip double every 24 months, cost down by half – then revised to 18 months

moore now saying this will continue for 15 to 20 years, others say 100 years, now he’s saying faster, double every 12 months,  now every 6 months

consequences – like distribution of info (news, radio, tv, books, etc)

coming whether we admit it or not

extreme rate of change, in 2022 computers will be millions or billions of times more powerful

phone example, old analog phone to desk to cell, each step so disruptive

recorded music example, phonograph, reel to reel, cassette, cd, ipod

camera

computer

small, better, more disruptive, more things it can do

gps (map) changed the way we travel by giving us more info better

services changing in the same way, ie, shopping, woolwoorth, sears, walmart, online – disrupted retail and killed mom and pop businesses

good resources on blogging with students