I spent a good deal of the summer holidays in the South Island. It seems from the people that I have spoken to on my return, that it was a good thing that I did! The weather up here in Auckland was less than summery and was very wet. In the South Island we baked, it was great.
I have created a time lapse video from the trip and you can see it below. Why share a ‘holiday’ video on an education blog? There are free apps for the iPad that enable time lapse projects to happen in class. A web cam and Sam Animation will turn any computer into a time lapse camera. The point being that from recording how the earth rotates to watching flowers bloom, takes time. Time lapse allows students to see what might be an abstract concept happen because this slow process can be sped up through time lapse. Sure there are plenty of time lapse videos for them to look at on the Internet, however if they were to create them for themselves, they would have a greater understanding of the time frames involved. The advent of digital cameras, web cams, free apps and software now make this once technical skill a simple reality in the classroom.
On a different note, each scene in the following video represents an hour of time, where I could do nothing but relax, let the camera do its stuff and marvel at the beauty around me.
I have spent the day with the students of Upper Harbour Primary. We have been looking at using tools such as the iPad to capture change over time using apps such as those highlighted here. They will be using their iPad or iPod’s next year to capture this kind of change over time. The web cams in their computers can also be used to record time lapse videos really easily by downloading and installing the free version of Sam Animation from Tufts University.
The following site has some good examples of time lapse in the wild, to get students thinking about what they could make the focus of their time lapse work. However, speeding up the world of the slow in the class or the school environment is made easy with the techniques I demonstrated to the students today. Once I got home I set up my camera and took the following study of the clouds.
I purchased an iPad last week and have spent the last week or so checking out it’s potential for learning.
There is no doubt that the app store has a plethora of tools that meet the enrichment layer of the e-learning strands. But I have been looking for tools of collaboration and publishing. I will be posting my reflections on this great content consumption tool over the next few weeks. What I am looking for is the other layers of e-learning and how this tool can facilitate this in the classroom. Watch this space.
What you should know is that this post has been written on the iPad via the Wordpress app… So easy content creation is an option…
As July approaches and New Zealand can finally get its hands on an iPad, videos like the following allow us to plan just how we might use it. Just think of the classroom applications too!
Today I had my first play with an iPad. I have been building up reservations about it in the days prior. Comments from Fiona in the last post pointed out that the unit is a content reciever and not a content creator. Content creation and publishing is what we want for education. The chatter seems to be more about what it can not do and what it is lacking, rather than what it can do. Today I tried to use tools such as http://vocaroo.com and http://fotobabble.com and the lack of an Adobe Flash facility on the iPad rendered these sites useless. However, on the fotobabble page I was prompted to download the fotobabble app from the app store. Online tools such as Vocaroo and Fotobabble are brilliant for students to create and publish content quickly and would be the kind of utilities that I would want to use with a tool so mobile as the iPad.
It is the locked in nature of it that worries me, all programs to be installed on the iPad will either be created or vetted by Apple. Today as part of the discussions about its functionality for education purposes, or lack of it, we were developing workarounds using Drop Box etc. These solutions are clunky at best. The iPad can not surf freely due to the Flash embargo, maybe I am missing the functionality point here and am wanting to bend the device to meet a need it was never intended to meet, but still, not supporting Flash? I have heard that Google docs can be viewed but not edited, what is the reasoning behind this? I had hoped that this tool would prove to be a boon for education, but in this first iteration it is too locked down, why I am not sure, other than pandering to my dark Orwellian marketing theories that I could entertain on behalf of Apple.
If the machine can enable content creation, if the installation of third party software via the Internet is enabled, if open surfing to Flash enabled sites occurs, if it gets a camera and a USB port, the iPad still has the potential to be a real winner. As you can see from my images it is smaller than an average NZ school exercise book and almost as thick, it is light and very intuitive to use the tools and apps we have been allowed to install were fun, but not educationally significant, early days I know. I liked it. I liked its feel, weight and interface. It lacks the educational substance, and freedom that I personally desire. But who knows by the time the 3rd black sweatered and overly orchestrated launch comes round it might be a tool that has education potential without clunky work arounds.
I am working in two different schools tomorrow. In the morning I am working with teachers on an induction programme I have developed to get new staff up to speed with the systems and technologies specific to that school. The aim of the programme is to ensure that the individual teachers get up to speed as fast as they can, to ensure that students do not experience a time and service delivery lag as one teacher swaps out of a class and a new one walks in.
In the afternoon I start working with a new client. We will be working on their e-learning initiatives for the rest of the year and specifically focusing on 2011. We will be starting the ball rolling by getting the e-learning policies and proceedures in place. Getting the foundation right is critical for e-learning success and again I have developed a range of tools to guide senior management through this process.
However, our afternoon is likely to be hugely overshadowed by the new iPad that the school has just purchased via the US. The school and I are very keen to see how we can exploit this tool for the education market and we believe that we are the first school in NZ to implement this tool. I have already been approached by an iPhone developer who is keen to also develop apps that can be distributed via the app store education specific software tailored for the iPad. Tomorrow should be fun.
As you know I regularly write for Interface Magazine and my latest article in the latest issue has just been published and by pure serendipity, Apple have also published their newest advert for the iPad at the same time. The article I wrote focuses on the iPad (not sure I like the name) and its potential (and all the touch screen cloners to follow) to be THE education tool for e-learning. Not that it was designed for that purpose, but it is so obviously a winner concept in the classroom that this technology is sure to revolutionise the e-learning landscape for the years to come. Roll on the roll out in New Zealand.
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