The vast majority of my students have already had experience of Apple multi-touch devices and I didn't anticipate any difficulty in them having the capability to use them in my classes. But we are naive if we believe that students will be able to automatically use them for work without making our expectations clear. Most students have only played with this type of device up until they appear in a classroom and a shift of approach as well as a slew of new skills becomes essential.

The (in my view obsolete) theory of digital natives and immigrants has no place for me at all anymore: in my classroom with a set of students, learning to do and an iPad each, we are all immigrants of sorts. For now, no one is more than a few minutes' expertise ahead of anyone else. For students and teachers that can be liberating, exciting and unsettling in equal measure!

Navigating through the paradigm shift

My first task was to group desks together in my classroom, and when we have iPads in use I have in place a simple set of routines.

• I model everything needed to get students started, but not the finished product I am hoping for.
• I remind everyone about the learning behaviours we expect.
• Students have a learning buddy who is their wingman. Any problems, technical issues, 'how do you...?' questions have to go to the learning buddy first. If they can't work it out together, they can ask me.
• Creative problem solving and independence get lots of praise from me.
• I leave plenty of time at the end of the lesson to do checking and cleanup. Week 1 left me and my colleagues frazzled with shouty ends of lessons that damaged all the good feeling generated earlier in the lesson.

I have been continually surprised over the past fortnight by the range of levels of confidence and knowledge that my students of all ages (11-18) have with the iPads. What is certainly true is that iOS certainly isn't hardwired into all their brains. Many are born and bred PC / Blackberry so are utterly bemused by Apple architecture.

It has been a busy few weeks in the MFL department at Berkhamsted. We have seen the class sets iPads arrive and everyone in the team has now used them in lessons. I thought it would be a good time to share some initial thoughts about the experience thus far!

The Students

Unsurprisingly, the students love them. Some even jump and squeak and clap their hands when they find out it's an iPad lesson (and that's just my Year 10 boys...!). I was fairly sure we'd get a positive reception from the students but did have nagging doubts about them viewing the iPads as toys rather than learning tools. On the whole there have been very few niggles and I'm really pleased. I did also wonder if with the speed of technological change iPads would already be old hat and the kids would give them a lukewarm reception. Quite the opposite in fact: the iPad2 still has more than enough cachet to warrant awe from teenagers. Phew!

The Learning

Students have done some gorgeous digital work with the iPads and I am really pleased with the initial quality of output, especially from some KS3 classes. I am currently looking at the best means of organising a digital showcase of work from the department and will keep you posted. Apps that have been quick wins include Screenchomp, Soundcloud and Google Docs. Staff have noticed with slight frustration that activities on the iPads can take longer than they would in exercise books, but I am sure that this is to do with students having to learn how to use a new tool as much as anything else. Interestingly very few of our students have done more than play around with someone else's iPad and do not own their own. I can now assuredly say that being Angry Birds pros does not mean they can intuitively do everything they need to in lessons!

The Teachers

My team in MFL have varying levels of confidence with ICT and I have been really pleased with how they have got stuck in. I left things very open and did not set any expectations about how often they should use the iPads. I just put up a shared Google Doc for booking the iPads and let them get on with it.

Result: over two weeks 57 classes were taught across the two sites using iPads. 

Being able to teach a lesson in their classrooms with all their usual expectations and resources and adding a layer of technology on top has certainly been rewarding and we are finding the benefits of a hybrid approach to technology: books and paper resources share desk real estate with the iPad very well.

Planning for learning with iPads takes some doing and it has been an important lesson to us all to learn to test out our lesson ideas beforehand. It's amazing how many websites contain Flash elements, for example. We've also had to work out protocols for behaviour, use of the cameras and app signups as we go. There is a lot to think about!

The CPD

One of my main tools for supporting my team is a private Google site which we use for sharing ideas, resources and feedback. We pass on links to good work which can be used as models for students attempting tasks for the first time. I am posting beginners how-to guides for different apps and we are collaborating on issues and glitches so people can avoid repeatedly falling into the same traps. The site has also become a hub for debate and discussion on the value of ICT and the direction of change for learning with technology.

It's been a successful start to the project and we are certainly enjoying ourselves whilst being very aware of the steep learning curve. On a personal note is it so easy for edtech enthusiasts like me to sit with an iPad in isolation and enthuse about all the great stuff you could do in classrooms with it. It is another thing altogether to look at your packed scheme of work, your busy schedule, your ICT-cautious team members and actually make the kit part of your teaching landscape every day. In the best possible way, the difference is not to be underestimated!

Chris,

After your CPD session on engagement and involvement I started thinking about how important an authentic audience for student work in MFL can be. Year 7 in particular work in a very sterile bubble, without the language necessary to communicate in an authentic way with the outside world... or so I thought.

After recently implementing the use of iPads in my MFL department, we have been working on generating some lovely digital content. I shared some of the little descriptions of clothes my class had made using Screenchomp on our iPads this week with my followers on Twitter. I was thrilled when the app developer for Screenchomp replied from the US, congratulating my boys on their great work. I showed the boys the tweet today and they were so chuffed - it was lovely. I'll definitely look for further opportunities to share great work with the world beyond the school walls as the confidence and sense of pride it brings to the kids is a real pleasure to see.

Thanks again for being the impetus to try it out!

Laura

I received this mailshot this morning from the lovely folks at Solutions Inc.

Interested in finding out about scope for the Apple TV with wireless setup and iPad I sent a cheeky email to our Director of IT and our Director of e-learning.

The results had me crying with laughter. This is the best email I've had in a long time!

_________________________________________________________________

From: Laura M Knight
Sent: 16 November 2011 10:04
To: Sacha van Straten; David Pacey
Subject: FW: The Ultimate iPad kit for Teachers

Dear Father Christmas,

I have been VERY GOOD this year so please can I have the nice things in the picture?

L

_________________________________________________________________

From: David Pacey
Sent: 16 November 2011 10:38
To: Father Christmas
Subject: FW: The Ultimate iPad kit for Teachers

FYI

_________________________________________________________________

From: Father Christmas
Sent: 16 November 2011 11:51
To: Laura M Knight
Subject: FW: The Ultimate iPad kit for Teachers

Dear Laura,

I am sure you have been a very good, but you must remain so till Christmas to ensure some level of delivery. However if you want to supply me with a budget code to use for any such purchase then you can be bad and not affect any such presents

With the very best of Regards
Father Christmas

_________________________________________________________________

My Year 10 boys did what they love best today. They managed to take our lesson about French regions off on a complete tangent and we got talking about our iPad project in MFL.

The animation and excitement in their entire demeanour when talking about the iPads was an absolute pleasure to see: they literally can't wait to see how we are going to use them in class.

I showed the class the set up on the 'master' iPad; the one which we have used to test the applications and model the settings. They thoroughly approved of how I have put together the packs of applications by skills and then the authentic materials are in language-specific folders. They were even understanding about the limitations of sharing the devices and that no, installing Fruit Ninja was not an option.

No, Alex, really; Fruit Ninja isn't helpful for language learning, even if we call it 'Ninja de Fruit'.

*Stern look*

Charmingly they were really excited about drafting and redrafting writing and audio work, especially in preparing for controlled assessment. Several boys talked about how creating, editing and sharing a podcast-style recording would help them with memorising their speaking work. Others were really keen about the more collaborative (and competitive) aspects of learning using Google docs simultaneously when we are working on summaries, annotation tasks and brainstorming.

What really made me smile was the request from several of the boys to come in at lunchtime to make their own learning activities for the iPad. They loved the idea of creating little vocabulary games online for younger students and one boy said he wanted to learn about coding and how to create apps for the iTunes store himself.

Such enthusiasm for taking ownership of this tool is hugely exciting and I am really thrilled that my students are so engaged in the project. Long may it last!

This week I have been reading a lot about BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). It offers a solution to the fact that schools have been spending a fortune on hardware for far too long (be afraid, RM, be very afraid) and perhaps it's time to invest in connectivity and network architecture instead. Given that most schools' tech budgets simply won't stretch to providing kit for 1-1 all at once, and that so many students and their families own devices anyway, a BYOD model has got to make sense, right?

What I really like is that the BYOD paradigm is very real world. No really, it is. Schools are not all new shiny academies with perfectly designed spaces and systems for ICT. One size doesn't fit all in complex sites with old buildings, small classrooms and one double plug socket in the corner of the room. BYOD allows teachers to teach 'proper' lessons, not just facilitate ICT rooms. Students can sit at ordinary desks in ordinary chairs facing the front of the room, not the wall.

Yuck.

BYOD allows schools to consider finance options according to context, be flexible about the approach according to the needs of students and find the best way to work with the teaching spaces they have. At this point some teachers will leap to their feet with tales of how kids in their school don't have the cash for this.  I don't believe that schools in challenging areas should dismiss BYOD out of hand either: there are affordable solutions that could be subsidised. It's a case of priorities after all. Students in the highly deprived area I used to work in would happily spend a small fortune on their mobile phones and games consoles. It's only a nudge to re-categorise that type of spending to include school use too. And yes, for those who really can't afford it, schools can provide support through subsidies. Link the subsidies to a motivational rewards system and you might be able to raise aspirations too.

So what if students rock up to lessons with different devices with different operating systems, capabilities and software? Run a virtual desktop through a web browser and it won't matter if the children have a top-of-the-range MacBook Pro or an entry level notebook.

Teachers don't dictate what brand of shoe a child wears to school. Whether they are in Primark or Prada makes no odds. Shoes are shoes. Why should the hardware be any different?

 

All this claptrap about bullying and accentuating the haves and have nots is irrelevant. Children are slapped in the face with all those comparisons on a daily basis with everything from their PE bag to their pencilcase. They have been carting around mobile phones, games consoles and mp3 players for years with all the complexity and competition that those items bring with them. Why would their computer hardware be any different?

It is up to us to make sure that there is a framework whereby everyone has kit that does the job of helping the students learn. The instinctive response to initiatives like this is over-cautious and controlling when in fact, now more than ever, flexibility and openness to multiple solutions has to be the way to go. A virtual desktop, a robust set of security systems, a really positive ethos about learning and enough confidence to roll with the punches will make BYOD a reality in a lot of schools this year, including ours. Bring it on!

Last week I spent a very interesting afternoon as part of the team from Berkhamsted presenting to the Girls School Association ICT group for London on what we have been working on in the Department.

Photos can be found here thanks to @svanstraten.

My presentation is here.

I really enjoyed talking to the group about the decision making process leading to choosing iPads for the department, and the plans we have in place to move learning forward using these devices.

One of my key messages, which I must attribute to Fraser Spiers, is that iPads do not represent our technological future in education. They are the device of the present. Our planning has to be flexible enough to deal with that, however uncomfortable it may be!

The other week I asked for some volunteers from my Year 8  group to come and have a look at the new ASUS Eee-Pad Transformer and tell me what they thought of it. Thrilled with the idea of offering their expert opinions, they turned up at lunchtime full of enthusiasm and curiousity.

Firstly I showed them the tablet and they quickly worked out how the dock works. Initial Ooohs and Aaaahs about the coolness of having something that was both tabletty and netbooky led on to concern about the robustness of the hinge mechanism in a classroom environment.

They then looked at the interface, speed and resposiveness. They liked the feel of the tablet and thought it was pretty quick until we got the iPad out and put them side by side. Then, it looked remarkably sluggish by comparison. We played Angry Birds side by side with the iPad to see how the same game felt on the two tablets and whilst the boys liked the wide-screen feel, it was difficult for them with child-sized hands to manage the tablet without a cover or stand. They were forced to hold it in portrait mode rather than landscape, therefore losing all the widescreen benefits.

Interestingly they felt that overall, the  ASUS had a lot going for it. The students could see themselves using a device like it in lessons as having the dock made it seem more like a workhorse than its more playful rival from Apple.

Like me, they were worried about battery life and speed: two areas where I worry that the ASUS doesn't deliver. It's such a shame, as I said to a colleague on Twitter: I really wanted this tablet to be a real contender for the education market. I'm not yet convinced it is!

PS. If you want to win an ASUS Transformer for yourself, all you have to do to enter the competition is go over to http://techinstyle.tv/ and comment on one of the blog posts reviewing them!

Instructions? Whatever.

I don't read instructions for kit any more. Any gadget I buy or even try, I expect to be so intuitive that for the general functions I shouldn't need to squint through flapping bits of paper in eight languages to get it moving. I'm pleased to report that the ASUS didn't disappoint. I had it up and running in no time, connecting with ease to my home wifi. And the best thing? I didn't have to plug it into anything. No fiddling around with passwords and iTunes. No obligatory syncing with the mothership! Yay!

I still haven't plugged it physically into anything apart from the mains to charge it and am happily getting everything I need from the cloud. Result.

Android 3.0 Honeycomb

The little guy had a big responsibility here given that this was my first proper Android experience. I've never even owned an Android device and so was cautious about how easy adapting would be.  The whole thing was incredibly painless. Downloading apps from the Marketplace is a pleasure, especially when so much is free! The ASUS is very quick to respond and pretty agile switching between apps. It's pretty, moves fluidly and the touch interface has all the sensitivity I hoped for.

Handling

The Asus is a slightly odd shape. It's long and thin, making its proportions more comfortable to manipulate and hold in a 'landscape' rather than 'portrait' position. It's a nice weight but not as light as I had expected, being of a more plastic construction than the iPad. Typing feels comfortable, especially thanks to the joys of a proper keyboard layout significantly superior to the iPad which includes numbers in the default keyboard. No shift or toggle required! Simple things like that are so pleasing when entering passwords, addresses and all those really ordinary bits of data that become that bit less of a palaver.

What's next?

What the Year 8s think. They take no prisoners when it comes to gadgetry so this should be interesting!

It's no secret with my students that I like it when they use digital media to make learning more interesting. Anything that helps grammar rules to stick is a good idea in my view, so I was really pleased when one of my Year 10 students made this video about the Perfect Tense in French.

http://youtu.be/CyAuW0pPOhM