This week I am away on an offline vacation. Rather than let the blog be dormant or rerunning old posts I decided to give some other people a chance to share their experiences and ideas with you. I hope you enjoy the posts.

Integrating
technology was not new to me, but the iPads were. The first thing I did
was to explore many  of the Apps that were available to use in a
variety of applications. I looked at apps that helped  learn math facts,
others that let you create books, video and music, and still others
that let you download and read eBooks.  I had intended to try it all. 


Including
the MacBooks, my goal was to use this equipment to create online
portfolios of student work to motivate students and to allow parents to
follow their progress throughout the year. We started with publishing  a
creative writing assignment for Halloween. Each child followed the
writing process in planning, drafting, editing and publishing their own
story. They learned how to create a webpage, took photos of their
illustrations and posted both. During the process they learned how to
use Dropbox,  how to upload pictures from iPads and then download them
 to use in a blog. We worked through many problems, and their resolution
and enthusiasm grew with each success. They learned to value each
others opinions and to rely on each other for support.


Then
we started blogging…and writing took on new importance to the class.
 The students began to take charge of their own learning. They started
blogging about class activities. Later they took on a new role as a
character from our novel and their blogs became her diary.

I had started a blog as well to experience it myself and to record and reflect on our progress.
“We
started to blog with the idea of blogging once every week or two. We
now blog every day we are together. The kids are always looking for more
ideas to blog. They write more now. They are more creative in their
blogs and they are always busy taking pictures of their work with the
iPads to publish their work in their blogs.“
From My Blog at the time  (Blogging a Class Changer)


About
this time we finished our Literature Circle novels and started a new
project. We worked in our groups of four  to create a video of the
books. The students  rewrote the book as a play, created sets,
characters and scripts and used the ipads and MyStopMotion to create
animations of the books. They used iMovie to do voice overs for them. I
showed them briefly how to use the app and gave them very basic
instruction on iMovie. They took up the challenge and became directors,
actors, and producers.


“We
jumped in feet first and again the class surpassed all expectations. We
all started together but soon leaders emerged and as problems were
encountered, solutions were found. Everyone was proud of their finished
movie and gained a deeper understanding of the elements of a story. As I
watched and listened I realized just how important this was to them and
marveled at their new found expertise in setting and character
portrayal. ” (Reflections on Innovative Learning year 1)


We
also took on the researching of the building of the CPR and its
importance to B.C. We watched several YouTube documentaries on the
building of the railway and took notes. We then set out and found old
pictures of Immigrants working on the railway and the dangers they
faced. We used Book Creator to meld our notes and pictures and created
voice overs for the books.  I wondered if students would emerge from the
project with more than just  technology skills and they impressed us by
answering questions on their books, When I asked them if making the
book helped them learn they said .”Yes, cause the information keeps
traveling around your head when you need to  use it.”

I
am amazed at all we have accomplished and how we have grown as a team.
Technology has become entwined in my daily classroom routine. I don’t plan how and when to use technology.
On any given day, you will find some of my class filming or doing voice
overs as others are drafting and still others are blogging. Some are
busy taking photos of their latest artwork or making illustrations for
their blogs. Some may even be using the time to finish up some Math or
scrapbooking. We have many projects on the go and we are often all in
different stages of creating. We have blocks of work time and students
help each other, teach each other, work together and  technology is just
another tool in our crayon box.

As
we worked through each project I worried about the time involvement for
each. Were we taking too long?  Was each project and effective use of
time? Would students finish with a deeper understanding of the content
they used? How could I evaluate each student’s learning effectively?

It
is gratifying to know that the students  think they have learned more
and have a deeper understanding of the content we set out to learn
about. They felt that they would remember more about the topics than if
they had just read about them, answered questions, or written reports.

My
personal observations of the time they spent actively engaged and the
collaboration required in creating the movies, books, and blogs would
mirror those of the class.


“I
have learned as much as I have taught and am excited to try new
projects next year.  Each new project we finish seems to open a new door
of possibilities for another.” (Reflections On Innovative Learning Year1)


We never got to those Math apps or any of the other teaching apps. In
May I erased them from the iPads and we are all happy filming, writing,
taking photos and building portfolios. We used Pinterest to bookmark our
work and highlight out portfolios Our adventure has just begun. We are
already looking to next year.


Linda Dyck is currently a grade 4 teacher in Surrey B.C. I have integrated
technology in my teaching for over 20 years and have given many
workshops on how to do so. I am a past president of CUEBC and was
Conference Chair of TELED, a  twin International conference on
technology integration in Victoria, and New Orleans. I participated in
Ministry of British Columbia investigation into k-12 requirements for
the successful integration of technology in schools. As part of this
year long investigation I was one of the co-authors of the final report Conditions For Success. I appeared on Working TV in a documentary on the pros and cons of using technology in elementary school.