The NPR Technology program does a segment on the use of clickers in higher education. Listen to the podcast. A follow up comment by one of the newscasters caught my attention. She asked how do clickers support critical thinking skills.

The 1:1 Apple laptop program drives much of the learning at HIS giving students and teachers access to numerous software programs, online tools and the Internet. From early morning through the evening, our community of learners uses their laptops to communicate, gather information, organize their day, generate learning projects, and expand the learning community.

Students start their days by checking their Google email accounts for any messages from fellow students and teachers. The next step is to log in to our classroom management Web resource named Moodle. Moodle is a virtual learning place where teachers post homework assignments and use several tools like forums, wikis and Web site link directories to manage their courses. Moodle also brings our community together by listing important dates, links to our student-created videos and online photo slideshows.

Accessing information is central to the learning expeditions our students and teachers take together. Whether venturing forth in teacher created WebQuests or pursuing one’s own questions, the laptops make inquiry learning a significant part of our curriculum. Online textbooks, simulations and Web site resources add to the information rich environment.

The student MacBooks come with the iLife suite of multimedia software programs that provide the instruments to:

-edit and manage photo collections
-shoot and edit video
-create multimedia presentations
-generate original musical scores for multimedia projects
-record and edit podcasts

Moving into the evening, students check Moodle for assignments and updated information from their teachers. They might log into their Google Documents account to revise an essay they are sharing online with their teacher. Or maybe they are just starting an essay or video project so they go to their Mindmeister concept mapping Web site to brainstorm their ideas which can then be reviewed by their teachers. Finally, it is time for reflection and seeing what is happening in the world. This is when students check their favorite news sites, think about their learning and go to their blogs to record their thoughts.

Video Lab Report: Brent Loken, our Director of Curriculum & Innovation and teacher at Hsinchu International School shared a couple student e-porfolios with me the other day. While we promote writing across the curriculum, Brent decided to offer his students a multimedia way to report their laboratory results. As we are an Apple 1 to 1 school, the students just used the internal video camera on their laptops and recorded into iMovie.  They could “show and tell” exactly what happened in their respective lab experiences. This is a nice alternative for our ESL students who are moving along with spoken language and sometimes need an outlet other than writing.

The Writing Process: My students recently spent several weeks going through the writing process to produce personal narratives.

The students did their writing in Google Documents and shared their work with me and classmates who helped them as peer editors. It was so easy for me to go through each draft adding comments and questions into each student’s document. I enjoyed seeing the comments by their classmates as we formed our learning teams to help one another with the writing.

What I also liked was that we were not in the documents to edit the words, grammar, etc. as so many Language Arts teachers do. We were partners using the language of the 6 Traits offering guidance but not taking over the writing. Once the students completed their final draft, they went in and deleted all the comments. I could then go into the history of the revisions and see the progress and thinking of the students as they worked through the writing process.

I also enjoyed saving time! We saved so much time not dealing with paper. Access is instantaneous and no papers are lost on the way to school.

Mind Mapping 2.0: My wife Margaret and I have been big proponents of using mind/concept maps for a long time. Our tool of choice in our last school in an elementary environment was Inspiration.

We really enjoyed the power of using visuals with our elementary and ESL students. Now that I am working with MS and HS students looking to help them collaborate, I am moving on to 2.0 mind mapping tools. There are many choices but at the moment, I am using Mindmeister. It doesn’t offer the graphics but I am guessing that they would not use them much if offered. The students create their mind maps for various research, writing or just reflective purposes and then they share them with me. I can monitor their thinking and add comments. My 7th graders are starting a WebQuest on Africa where each student with a partner shares a common Mindmeister mind map. They are diagramming their questions and using the note tool to record their research and potential answers to their questions.

MacBook Camera:  While I am pushing my students to make sure they have a camera that can take still and video recordings, we are finding that their MacBooks can be pretty versatile photography tools. As Brent Loken’s science students use their cameras and iMovie software to record their science lab reports, we are finding numerous other ways to enhance learning via the MacBook camera.

A part of the Hsinchu International School culture is that students should be sharing and presenting their learning to the school community as much as possible. As they complete their work in the second year of their “Institutes” (Institute I is grades 7-8, Institute 2 is grades 9-10, Institute 3 is grades 11-12), the students are required to present their efforts to reach the five student learning outcomes that are central to the school.  The advisors for the institutes work with the students to document their learning and to then prepare their presentations. As we get closer to the end of the year, each student will practice his/her presentation in front of the other institute students. We will have them bring their MacBooks to the podium to record their efforts. They will then have the videos to review at home using the provided presentation rubric. We won’t be dealing with the hassle of using a camcorder and having to transfer footage to each student in some form or other. The footage will already by on their hard drives. Going digital leaving out the normal in this case digital tool for the more flexible laptop will save lots of time and energy.

My wife Margaret reminds me of our previous SOS discussions where we spoke about making connections around concepts. With many of our schools using the Understanding by Design approach to curriculum design, our focus is on concepts in the form of essential understandings. Margaret points out that real critical thinking comes into play as students learn about the hierarchical nature of concepts and their connections to other ideas. From a teaching perspective, we can look at how to facilitate the process of students taking the steps to and gaining understanding of concepts. One big tool teachers have used for a long time is concept mapping. Inspiration and Cmap digitally provide the means to create and save mind maps on our computers while newer Web 2.0 tools like Bubbl and Mindmeister (among several) offer the additional benefit of collaboration.   

Another way to look at how to connect is with hardware and the Web. As a handheld user for many years, I became a reader of gadget blogs like Engadget and Brighthand hoping to one day find an article describing a tech company that was going to create a learning tool for the education market. This hybrid wifi-enabled computer, phone, camera, GPS, tablet device would come with a software package focused on the needs of students and educators. The reason for asking for such a Swiss knife handheld is that if students are to really be at the center of the learning process, they must have ubiquitous access to the Web as well as the means to gather data on spot, process and then publish it.

Are we there, yet? The business market has some very expensive connection tools that one wouldn’t probably feel comfortable giving to students to keep. We are getting closer with some of the products coming from HTC as well as Apple and even Asus with the EEE PC. The EEE is helping to drive the costs down. Battery life continues to be a problem for many handhelds while the Microsoft mobile operating system doesn’t come close to offering the smooth functionality of the Apple iPhone and iTouch platforms. 

Yet, the signs look very positive. I look forward to my sons having such a device when they ask a science, historical, etc. research question wherever we might be and they want to take a photo/video of something interesting and they simply want to know where we are and where we are going.

The EEE catches my attention because I have followed handhelds in education for many years using Palm and Pocket PC devices myself. I was always looking for a hybrid device with a big enough screen (at least 3.5 inches), solid operating system, camera, input for probe device, keypad, wifi with software comparable to what the students use on their workstations or laptops. There have been a few devices that come close that usually include phones (something I would want for MS and older students) but the cost generally was close to $1000 US.

What jumped out at me this past summer was the iPhone and more recently the iTouch iPod. With Apple’s strong support of the educational market, I have to believe that they will develop a device aimed at our students and their learning, generative and communication needs. While we wait, I think the Asus EEE deserves a closer look.

The form factor is clearly larger than the handheld category but one gets a keyboard that fits student hands and a 7 inch screen along with a built in camera and wifi. The cost is kept low with the Linux OS and open source or free software. The graphical shortcut start page makes it easy for the first time Linux user to access the available software. What gets me thinking is to combine this small device with a form fitting case that is satchel-like for students to hang on their shoulder whether in school or out in town. The key is making it truly ultra portable so that it will support ubiquitous learning and computing.

Asus has already announced that version two of the EEE will be coming out in April. While I am an early adapter for new ideas and teaching strategies, I am one to wait until at least the second or third generation of a hardware device comes out. I look forward to seeing what bugs are worked out and how Asus might focus even more in making this tool work for the education market.

To see the EEE PC in action, take a look at the video review provided by Wil Harris (a regular guest on  TWIT) at his new tech review site ChannelFlip.