Category: iPad Project

Conference Presentations

Recently, I have had the opportunity to present and showcase the work we have being doing as part of the iPad project at two conferences: the Teacher Education Policy in Europe (TEPE) conference in Helsinki, and the Higher York e-Learning Network conference here at York St John.

Teacher Education Policy in Europe Conference

The Teacher Education Policy in Europe (TEPE) is an academic network that builds on the work and community from the previous European collaborative projects in the field of teacher education policy such TNTEE and EUDORA. The annual conference brings together educational researchers, policy makers, teachers and practitioners from Europe and beyond.

The theme of the 2013 TEPE Conference was Learning Spaces with Technology in Teaching and Teacher Education.

Our presentation slides from the conference can be found below:

Whilst in Helsinki I had the opportunity to explore the city and see some of it’s tourist attractions. Here’s a collection of pictures:

Higher York e-Learning Network Conference

The Higher York e-Learning Network Conference is an event organised by a group of practitioners from York St John University, The University of York, York College and Askham Bryan College. The conference aims to showcase how technology has been used across the Yorkshire to enhance the student’s learning experience. The event covered a wide range of topics related to learning technologies, such as MOOCs, Open Badges, Mobile Devices and e-Portfolios.

Again, I had the opportunity to present on the iPad project and the work that had been done around enhancing the formative assessment environment with students studying Initial Teacher Education.  On this occasion we were joined by two students who had use the iPads (Jack Patterson and Chloe Morritt) during the 8 month period. This session was a (1 hour 30mins) workshop. This meant we had the time to run the activities that student’s the participated in throughout the year with those in attendance.

Our presentation slides from the conference can be found below:

Both presentations were well received and we hope to expand continue and evolve the work we are currently doing the iPads. We have recently submitted a proposal to have a case study published in the UCISA mobile learning best practice guide and we have also submitted an abstract to the iPads in HE conference titled: Using iPads to enhance the peer review and feedback process.

My iPads journey to Holland…

YSJ Rotterdam team
YSJ Rotterdam team

During my second year on the Business Management course I was required to complete a work placement within one of my modules. So, when the opportunity came to go to Rotterdam for this placement, I grabbed the two most important things I would need, my iPad and my passport, and jetted off.

During my placement, I was a representative for York St John as part of an intensive programme funded by the European Commission. In a group of 30 students from 6 European countries we worked together to produce a series of reports, a video, a training model, and a presentation looking at different business values within small to medium enterprises.

For the very busy two weeks I was there, the significance of my iPad became much more apparent. This lightweight technology allowed me to leave my heavy laptop behind when commuting across the city as well as making it easier and faster to access its content. The day to day uses of my iPad mainly included typing documents using Office HD2. Even though this app made it a lot easier to create documents and record notes I think having an iPad keyboard would make it a lot easier to type. As well as this, I will also be investing in Quickoffice Pro HD for my next academic year. It’s more expensive than the basic office package but I feel that the added tools it provides will outweigh the cost. I would reccommend this app to any student who uses their iPad for note taking. I also used the camera on my iPad to capture the events and sights of the trip.

While there, I noticed two other students from Belgium and Hungary had iPad minis with them. After discussions, they informed me that their main uses including receiving emails and making notes. As well as this, they claimed their calendar function was invaluable. It seems there was a lot more recreational use of apps than academic. However, they both agreed that having their iPad made accessing information relevant to their studies a lot easier. Also, having quick access to their calendars meant better organisation for assignments and lectures.

After an intensive and rewarding trip I can safely say that I couldn’t have been as efficient without my trusty tablet!

Our first iPad Cafe!

photo-(small)The iPad project team thought it would be a great idea to have a place for us to meet students from York St John and discuss:

  • how they currently use their mobile devices
  • apps that we use
  • what they think about iPads.

All students that had a device, be it a smart phone, iPad or other tablets were welcome to our meeting. We firstly spoke about the apps that we have discovered as a result of being part of the iPad project:

ReferenceMEReferenceMe - this is a great app for students who need to include a variety of references in their assignments. Students simply scan the barcode of a book using their devices, and the app will create the bibliography and citations in moments. You can also manually enter journal articles. ReferenceME then enables you to email all your references straight to your email account to then copy-paste into your assignment.

Pages - this is another great app for students. It works just like a word document where you can edit and create documents to record notes, write assignments, etc. However, as we discussed in the iPad Cafe, students with a smartphone may find it limiting to use this app due to the small screen. Pages is a lot more useful on a bigger screen such as an iPad.

WunderlistWunderlist - this is a very good organisational app that allows you to manage and share your daily to-do lists. For example, if you are doing a group presentation you can share tasks and sub-tasks with everyone within your group so they all know what they have to do as part of their contribution.

Socrative -  the app allows teachers to create quizzes with multiple choice or short answer questions so that the class is more engaged in seminars. This app is available to use on the smartphone as well. It’s a great app for teachers to monitor whether students have understood the content of the seminar. There are a student and teacher apps.

The other students then spoke about the apps they use:

124080738ba262197b774c543c69be55Skitch - one of the students  mentioned that she uses Skitch a lot for her studies. She uses it to annotate PDF files. She said it was very visual, colorful and easy to use. This app is also a great one to use in the classroom for students to annotate fellow peers’ posters/presentations.

Eevernote_app_icon_250x250vernote - another student spoke about how she uses Evernote. She uses this app to document her financial data, save her ideas for assignments and take notes on her lectures. She spoke about how she shares her ideas with her fellow peers.

Holly-BibleBible – a theology student mentioned how she uses a Bible app to aid her studies. She finds reading through it on her smartphone an easier way than reading an actual book.

We also discussed how they would feel about having an iPad for their lectures/seminars. Some said that they would find it a distraction and would end up going on social media sites and playing on games. Others said that they were used to multi-tasking and didn’t get too distracted by technology. They said that they would most likely check their Facebook/Twitter account but then be able to get straight back onto concentrating with their work. It depends on the person to whether they would be easily distracted by an iPad or not.

What students said they liked about iPads:

  • Light and can easily fit in your bag;
  • Great for reading books/journals;
  • Fast;
  • Amazing for organizing yourself;
  • So many apps to suit your needs.

One of the students mentioned that she had a an iPad session as part of the iPad project, and she found iPads very useful. She said they were very convenient for looking up information online whilst typing up notes onto the computer. It saved her from having to open loads of tabs on her computer and flicking backwards and forwards to different windows.

Overall, out first iPad Cafe was a success and we very much enjoyed interacting with  students and finding out what they found useful about their own mobile devices. When we asked whether the students if they would like to use iPads in their lectures/seminars they all said they would love to!

We are looking forward to our next iPad cafe! :)

First Business School iPad Session

Last Thursday, 25th April was the first time the iPad project team has been involved in the classroom with the Business School students. It was a session taught by Brendan Paddison on the Tourism and Industries module and facilitated by Lena Henderson from Learning & Teaching Development and myself, a 2nd year Research Assistant for the iPad project.

1st first year Business Management students worked in the groups using iPads to do a collaborative research online and then creating a presentation using Keynote app. When presenting, students filmed each other using a Fuse app that allows us to upload the videos on the YSJ Helix Media Library. This meant students can now view their presentations and review their performance in preparation for their presentation assessment.

Being a second year Business Management student myself, this session gave me a unique perspective into this classroom scenario, as I have previously completed the tourism module which the students were taking part in. It made me aware that something like this would have been so helpful to me when I was in the same situation as they are now. It would have given me the chance to really improve my presentation skills so that when it came to second year I would have been more practised.

The following day me and Lena Henderson ran the same session with a different group of students from the same course. Instead of recording the presentations through Fuse app we decided it would be better to first record through the iPad video recorder and then upload it to Fuse later. This meant we could play back some of the videos straight away in the classroom and discuss and analyse their performance immediately. At the end of the session we used an quiz app called Socrative. The quiz allowed us to gain instantaneous student feedback about the use of iPads in their session. Examples of student feedback attained:

   “Quick and easy, very effective.”

   “They gave access to multimedia facilities previously unavailable in these sessions.”

There have been so many ways in which my iPad has helped me in my classes, from my calendar to ‘office HD‘ for note taking. I think during the second year of the course when you have more work to manage and more pressure with the assignments starting to count towards your final degree mark you can appreciate everything the iPad has to offer and utilise it.

Applied Theatre: Utilising Technology to Analyse Workshop Processes

Living in a ever-more technological world we often discover technological tools and apps, that can be applied to many different disciplines and practices. This morning a group of students from the BA Theatre course, who attend the Schools module, were introduced to an app – ‘Coach’s eye‘ to use for analysing workshop practice. The session was taught collaboratively between Kay Hepplewhite, Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Dasha Zhurauskaya of Learning and Teaching Development here at York St John University.

The session began with students creating workshop scenarios that involved teaching younger children and some issues that may be faced when teaching. Using the ‘Coach’s eye’ app on the university’s iPads’, the students could record the workshop and then later analyse strengths and weaknesses of the workshop delivery. The app allows for a commentary to be added over the video, it also allows users to highlight specific areas in the video and to zoom in for deeper analysis.

In discussion after the session many of the students agreed that the use of the technology allowed for a closer critique of how a facilitator delivers a workshop. The app also could be used in general theatre practice for analysing live performances. Kay Hepplewhite asked students whether they would like feedback given through an app such as ‘Coach’s eye’. Many responded with positive feedback for use of the app commenting ‘it’s such an easy form to be able to display shortfalls and strengths of practice’. The videos created can also be easily shared on sites such as YouTube and the University’s Media Library.

Personally I can begin to see the benefits of the integration of technology when trying to analyse workshop process. It also stands as a form of documentation for a devising process for performance. After spending more time using the ipad and associated apps, it will become a useful asset for both an applied theatre practitioner and a theatre maker.

On behalf of the module participants, I would like to thank Dasha Zhurauskaya of Learning and Teaching Development for introducing the technology and both Kay Hepplewhite and John Merrylees for organising and facilitating the session.

Simon Bedwell
www.simon-bedwell.co.uk

Project Update

There has been quite few things going on this week in regards to the iPad project. On Monday, 15th April, Daniel and I gave an invited talk at the Teesside University showcasing two case studies of using iPads for peer review and assessment. We thought the session went well and we got very positive responses from participants, which we collected using Socrative. The slides from the presentation can be found below:

We have worked with iPad Student Researchers on planning the first iPad café, which will take place next week on the 24th April. The iPad cafe will provide students with the opportunity to share how they use iPads to assist there own learning. We have had a lot of interest from students even though it’s a busy exam and dissertation time for many.

Now that the academic year is coming to an end there are only three weeks of teaching left. The iPads are booked out for a number of sessions over those three weeks, including some new ones which we have been planning this week. New sessions include the use of Coach’s eye for video reflection on a Applied Theater module and using ADOC app in OT seminars. Exciting!

My iPad

I purchased my iPad during my first few weeks at university as I saw a lot of people using them during lectures and seminars so I thought an Ipad would also be useful at enhancing my experience at university.

I didn’t use many apps but here are a list of apps I used and what I used them for:

  • Pages – this is a really great app. It’s basically like Microsoft Word where you can create, edit, documents. I still use this app to type up my lecture notes and do any research to share with the rest of the class. Here is an example of me using this app for my studies:

As you can see from this photo you can change the font, colour of text, underline, bold etc etc just like you can in microsoft word, it’s very east to use and I would recommend it to any student.

  • Safari/google chrome - Safari comes with the Ipad initially, chrome doesn’t. I use these apps a lot in order to quickly look up something, access my lecture/seminar slides which then allows me to go through them at my own pace.
  • Calendar – This again comes with the Ipad. It doesn’t sound very amazing but it helps to organise myself. It updates me on any meetings i have, i can set reminders about work deadlines etc. It’s just a great organiser.
  • I also use my Ipad for social reasons such as Twitter/Facebook and emailing in order to keep in contact with friends and tutors at university.

I have found the Ipad incredibly useful. It is so quick and efficient, I carry it everywhere with me and I would be completely lost without it! Before I started this project I didn’t really know the extent to which the Ipad can enhance learning for students and teachers, I keep learning about new apps and it really is amazing the potential and Ipad has for students and teachers. Here are some apps that I think are particularly useful for students/teachers:

  • This is called ‘Socrative’ and it really is an amazing app. Teachers can log on to this app and create multiple choice questions, quizes, short answer questions and then students will have to enter the room number for the test that the teacher has set up and then they will be able to have a go at answering. This is great for instant feedback to see whether students understand the work that has been covered and its just a really fun and interactive way of enhancing learning within the classroom. No one likes to just sit and listen to a tutor for a long time, having to engage in something always helps to enhance ones learning. I therefore rate this my number 1 app for students and teachers!
  • This eClicker presenteris ‘eClicker’ it is much like Socrative. eClicker is a personal response system that allows teachers to poll their class during a lesson.  It provides teachers with the real-time feedback they need to be sure their messages are being received.  Developed for smartphones and laptops, eClicker leverages the hardware already in the hands of many students providing a low cost polling solution for the classroom.
  • This is ‘skitch’. It’s a very good app for annotating presentations, posters, notes and whatever you like. Here is a youtube video which shows skitch in use:

 

YouTube Preview Image

I think it is important to show other students how they can make the most out of their Ipad – there is much more to it than just playing games! I personally think Ipads are a great way to interact with students, I think it would bring a bit more excitement to learning.

TEPE Conference paper accepted

The iPad project has had two pieces of good news this week. Firstly, myself and two tutors from Initial Teacher Education Anita Backhouse and Ian Wilson have had a research paper accepted for the annual International TEPE (Teacher Education Policy in Europe) conference in Helsinki.

“The Teacher Education Policy in Europe (TEPE) is an academic network that builds on the work and community from the previous European collaborative projects in the field of teacher education policy such TNTEE and EUDORA. The annual conference brings together educational researchers, policy makers, teachers and practitioners from Europe and beyond.

The theme of the 2013 TEPE Conference is Learning Spaces with Technology in Teaching and Teacher Education.” [1]

Our paper titled ‘’Enhancing the formative assessment environment through the use of mobile technologies” looks at the work being done with the second year ITE students. It focusses on two key research questions:

  1. Can mobile technologies support the development of effective assessment and feedback?
  2. Can these assessment and feedback skills developed in a supported environment impact on students’ reflections on their own classroom practice?

We our currently in the process of writing up the findings and we will make it available on the blog once complete.

Finally, as you can see from the image in the right hand side of the blog we were successfully selected to appear on the list of Tremendous Thesis and Dissertation Resources on Online PhD Program website.

[1] Teacher Education Policy in Europe Conference (2013) [Internet], Available from: http://blogs.helsinki.fi/tepe-2013/ Accessed [9 April, 2013].

App of the Week: TED

TED brings together talks from some of the world’s most fascinating people: education radicals, tech geniuses, medical mavericks, business gurus, and music legends. TED is devoted to ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’.

As well as informative, inspiring and fascinating presentations there is also a new beta section called TED Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing, which aims to bring together carefully curated educational videos.

I asked the Technology Enhanced Learning team to select their favourite TED videos for sharing in the post, and this is what they have chosen:

Phil – William Kamkwamba: How I harnessed the wind

Daniel – Kevin Allocca: Why videos go viral

Mark – Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense

TED is available to download from:

android_app_on_play_logo_small ios-appstore-1

Windows Store: http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/ted-app/02ee19ae-d910-47d5-80e0-435f9b3c1852

What is your favourite TED video, and why? Let us know in the comments section below…

Phil

Blog nomination

The iPad project team received some good news this week. The York St John University iPad project blog has been nominated as to be on a list of Tremendous Thesis and Dissertation Resources that will be published soon on OnlinePhDProgram.org.

Here’s a copy of the email we received:

“I’m writing to share the news that iPad Project Blog has been nominated to be on a list of Tremendous Thesis and Dissertation Resources that will be published soon on OnlinePhDProgram.org

We strive to connect students with higher education opportunities and sources of information about different paths of graduate study. We’re constructing this list as a tool for our readers who are interested in, or already pursuing, masters and doctoral level studies. Your site could make a great entry on this list.

We’re still looking for other sites to consider for inclusion, so if you could email me links to any site you think is a great resource for someone working on a thesis or dissertation, I’d greatly appreciate it.”

It’s great to get recognition for the work we have been doing on the project and a nice start to the Easter Break. :)