April 24, 2014
Reflections:
Megan - Some 7th grade boys struggled with making an iPad movie/trailer. The difficulty was incorporating the requirements of the project into the film. The end products were very fun - the boys were very engaged while creating working with the technology. Some felt limited by iMovie, wanting to use instead to use Educreations or ShowMe.
Julie - The 8th graders had to create a flyer that all students were excited about creating. Next year there needs to be more help troubleshooting the printing issues. Being an overachiever, Julie also did a project with the 7th graders using spreadsheets, which was "slick as snot" according to her. She had to learn it herself first, which solidified her own understanding.
RoJean - Kidblogger was a fun project with the 5th graders. They loved reading the senior blogs, which sparked their own interest in their own blogs. Being able to use photos and respond to each other (and the seniors) helped keep them engaged. There was some trouble with typing directly into Kidblogger - copy and pasting was a better option.
Scott - Creating the Prezis for SLCs was very successful, and the students are now successful at "App Smashing." The presentations were much more vibrant than students have created before. The major hang-up was having tech issues with linking to the appropriate apps. 6th grade was unable to use the iPad to create the Prezi. It worked for the presenting, but not the creation.
Lori - Huge successes for Genius Hour! The kids had freedom to use any platform, and that gave them incentive to learn something new. Blogging was also effective as it shared their process and progress (which was the graded piece). Most students had a combo presentation of board and digital. Next year more time will be built in so there is opportunity for students to comment on their peers' blogs.
Overall:
Technology was able to bridge the gap between upper and middle school. Kept students engaged, and excited about the learning and showing what they know. Bettered their ability to troubleshoot on their devices. Kids are more invested and on task once they are hooked. Giving them the freedom to explore was not the classroom management issue we feared. It did teach us how to manage the classroom differently and more effectively when they are on the devices. Long range, getting computers in 7th grade is valuable as many editing options are being lost on the iPad.
