In today’s world, the topic of using technology in the classroom can be intimidating. In this monthly column, join one teacher on a quest to discover the best way to meet the needs of her digital-age learners…moving beyond the technology tools to focusing on supporting each student’s learning.

These days, we’re finding more and more webinars, workshops, articles, blogs, and discussions on the subjects of apps for the classroom. The conversation is everywhere. I must admit that when iPads were first released, I was not one of the teachers who immediately jumped on board. It seemed to me to primarily be a consumer-driven product. Meaning, our students would simply be consuming information instead of becoming producers. I think all of us can agree that a worksheet (or a textbook) on an iPad (even though it’s digital) is still just a worksheet. It doesn’t raise the thinking levels of our students. It doesn’t truly engage them any more or produce critical thinkers. Isn’t that what we want for all of our students—to problem solve, analyze, synthesize, and create something new to enhance the learning of others?

However, educators and app designers quickly saw the need to change the types of apps being designed in order to promote high-level thinking in students of all ages. Then we started to see apps that promoted students being producers of content and not solely consumers. This was when I purchased an iPad for my class. (Before you can say, “There’s no way I can afford that in my classroom,” I just want to remind you that there are all kinds of grants out there where you can get the funds to purchase one. I got a grant for ours. It is in use all the time in our classroom.)

I wanted to share with you three apps that can get you and your students started publishing with your iPad, using it to its fullest potential while fostering creativity and higher-level thinking. My fifth graders enjoy using each of these apps when publishing. Although each project can stand on its own, my learners design and create their projects and publish them as part of a larger project on other tools like Weebly, wikis, Prezi, Museum Box, or Voice Thread.

ComicBook! ($1.99 available on Apple or Android devices)

What student doesn’t love creating his/her own comic book? This app is extremely user friendly. The user has the ability to create their own comic book using photos taken on the device. My students enjoy creating their own images and then photographing them for their comic. The app provides the user with different filters for the photos to make them look like the artwork in comic books as well as adding borders, captions, stickers, and graphics within different layouts. The finished product can be saved as a JPEG (image) or PDF making it easy to embed into other tools. You can also share it through email, Twitter, or Facebook.

Although all of my students enjoy using ComicBook!, it is a tool that I have found particularly useful when working with my students who have English as a second language or who are struggling writers. Because it’s not text-heavy, they are able to reach a high level of success in telling a story or sharing an idea by using this app while building a strong foundation in writing and communicating ideas. Being able to create something that their audience will learn from and enjoy gives them the confidence and experience to successfully publish and tackle a more challenging project the next time.

Songify (free; available on Apple or Android devices)

I think every person, at some point in their lives, has imagined being able to perform music live, whether we try out for America Idol or sing into our hairbrushes. We can ignite that feeling for our students with Songify, even if they struggle with carrying a tune. In Songify, the user can record their normal speaking voice and then select the beat or sound that they want. Then the app auto-tunes it and creates a song for them to share with the world.

We discovered this app when my student, Kearston (see last month’s column), decided she wanted to take a poem that she had written as part of her Scientific Method project. Her poem was beautiful, but she expressed to me that she wanted it to be extra special … “you know, like a song.” At that time, we didn’t have an iPad, but I had found this app on my iPhone and downloaded it. She went into the hallway and within a matter of a few minutes had published her song. Everyone was sure that her song was destined to become a top 40 hit. Until that time, my writers began publishing different writing projects in this format. One student loved it so much, he brought in an iTunes gift card and bought the additional soundtracks for the class to enjoy. Now all of my students can become recording artists by writing and recording with Songify.

ReadWriteThink Trading Cards (free; available for iPad)

In addition to becoming a superhero or a world famous recording artist, many of our students dream of becoming famous athletes. Trading cards speak directly to that interest. Much like the ComicBook app, this provides users with the opportunity to create a project that it not text-heavy, but still displays an interesting way to share information. They learn the power of summarizing and selecting the most important thing to write within their limited space.

This week my students were exploring cells. They used the trading cards to create different parts of the cell. This gave them the opportunity to explore a topic from a different perspective, synthesize what they knew, and create something new to share with their peers. With RWT’s Trading Cards, students can use existing photos, or take new ones. My students chose to draw their images and then photograph them. Once they completed their cards, we saved it as a photo and then uploaded it to our class’ science wiki, but students can send them through email or print them. One of my learners commented that it would be cool to be able to embed it into another tool so that you could still have the flipping animation to see both sides instead of just a photo. They are already formulating some ideas of different ways they can put this app to good use.

When you think about using your iPad (or tablet) in your classroom, ask yourself whether or not an app gives your students the ability to reach beyond being consumers and promote them being producers of high quality content. Each of these apps has applications across content areas and age levels. Their imagination is free to explore and publish. Until our students become a superhero, recording artist, or famous athlete, with these apps, we can tap into our learners’ interests while promoting a unique way for them to create and publish their writing.

Looking at these apps, many of us probably already had our students creating some of these activities on paper. But, with technology, we can differentiate the writing instruction to meet their needs and they can now produce, edit, and share their writing with a larger audience much quicker, leaving them time to focus on their next great publishing adventure.

Julie D. Ramsay is a Nationally Board Certified educator, a fifth grade teacher in a student-driven classroom, and the author of “CAN WE SKIP LUNCH AND KEEP WRITING?”: COLLABORATING IN CLASS & ONLINE, GRADES 3-8 (Stenhouse, 2011). She travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog at juliedramsay.blogspot.com.



An App Stop on Their Learning Journey

Global Read Aloud- Character Trading Cards

In today’s world, the topic of using technology in the classroom can be intimidating. In this monthly column, join one teacher on a quest to discover the best way to meet the needs of her digital-age learners…moving beyond the technology tools to focusing on supporting each student’s learning.

When we look at today’s students, it’s easy to recognize that the way that they spend their time has changed. With the constant influx of information and communication, they are more plugged in to the world around them than ever before. Our learners crave the ability to create and design something new to share with others. As we are thinking about them, it’s crucial for us to give them the opportunity to share their learning in a way that’s meaningful to them. How many of us can remember the projects or reports that we did in school? I can clearly see the to-scale model that I built of Stonehenge and the accompanying report that I read to my peers. I also remember the mobile I created of the solar system (which hung in my bedroom long after the project date). I worked for hours on both of those projects. I can still see them in my head. We all have memories such as these…but are these really the kind of projects that our students need to be creating?
As I’ve reminisced with other educators, there is one common theme. All of these were “about” projects—projects that just dealt with the sharing of facts. Was there any really deep learning happening? No. Were we creating, analyzing, or synthesizing information? No again.

With our students, there isn’t going to be much appeal to “tell” about a topic because they are already using the tools to which they have access to create, communicate, and collaborate.

And we need to bring them into our classrooms.

Today, when students are researching, they are building background knowledge. That’s where most of us stopped with our projects. Their research produces text, blogs, videos, podcasts, interviews, and webinars. Many times, they can contact an expert over Skype. They have so many different mediums at their disposal.

Photo: ba1969

Yet, what do they do with all of it? They want to take all of this research and then create something new to share with their audience. Often I have students who want to create multiple projects on their topic and put them into one place to publish. This can very easily become overwhelming. Where does it all go?

Last school year, I had a student, Kearston, who was very creative. She wanted to create multiple small projects on her theme of the Scientific Method (a topic my students chose to dig deeper into and publish for the collaborative partners all across the country). That’s when we started using a tool called Museum Box. It’s a tool where students can create multiple three dimensional boxes within a virtual drawer. On each side of the box, a different type of medium can be placed.

Although Museum Box is a free tool, you do have to register an account. They will check to make sure you are a classroom teacher before your account is accessible. It only took about two business days for the approval of my account.

As the teacher, then you can add your students, who can then begin creating their own boxes. Anything students create must be approved by the teacher before their Museum Boxes are accessible for others to view, giving you control over what is published. Each drawer can have up to three levels, and each level can have up to eight six-sided cubes. That’s a lot of space for content. Learners can add text, graphics, audio, video, and URLs.

Kearston created a couple of Vokis because as she researched the history of the Scientific Method, she learned the importance of Aristotle and Sir Francis Bacon, which she felt was crucial for her audience to understand her topic. She also wrote a poem, which she published as a song using an app called Songify (available for iPhone, iPad, and Android). She included photos, a joke, fun resources, her own science lab, a Wordle, writing, and graphics. Kearston curated the best resources she found and added them to her own creations to share with her audience. By providing her with a tool that supported her learning, her final project was an amazing 48-item resource that she created and curated (be sure to click on each box to see each of the six sides).

As amazing as her final project was, it didn’t come without a few hiccups along the way. When students are trying to manage content, the sheer amount of what they collect and then create can quickly get out of hand. We learned that for this to be successful, like any other project, it required some planning. Kearston realized that much of what she created fell into categories. She grouped like items together onto the same box. You’ll notice that a majority of what she included in her Museum Box was created by her, extending her learning beyond that “about” stage of the project. She only included additional resources where she felt they would improve upon the learning of her audience.

So as your students start digging into building background knowledge, moving beyond the “about” to create projects with higher order thinking, remember that sometimes, the solution to our publishing challenges can really be inside the box—especially if it’s a Museum Box.

Julie D. Ramsay is a Nationally Board Certified educator, a fifth grade teacher in a student-driven classroom, and the author of “CAN WE SKIP LUNCH AND KEEP WRITING?”: COLLABORATING IN CLASS & ONLINE, GRADES 3-8 (Stenhouse, 2011). She travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog at juliedramsay.blogspot.com.

In today’s world, the topic of using technology in the classroom can be intimidating. In this monthly column, join one teacher on a quest to discover the best way to meet the needs of her digital-age learners…moving beyond the technology tools to focusing on supporting each student’s learning.

One practice that motivates our students today is the opportunity to have their voices heard for an audience larger than just that of their teacher. If you have learners like I do who struggle with the English language, exceptionalities, or the ability to read, it can be a challenge to find a way for them to successfully share their ideas with others. How can we provide a safe learning environment for all of our students where they feel comfortable with sharing their ideas?

I have the answer for you…Twitter. Now, I know that many of you may think that this is a tool solely for following celebrities and what they had to eat for breakfast, but hang in there with me for a minute. Twitter is really about who you connect with on there. If all you connect with are celebrities tweeting out the inane parts of their lives, there isn’t much educational value there. But what if you could connect your students with students from all over the world? Think about it as pen pals that your students can have conversations with and receive responses from almost instantaneously. I think anyone can see the potential learning opportunities there.

Where do we begin?

Let’s start at the beginning. Go to Twitter’s website and create an account with a user name, an email and a password. One thing that I would suggest is that you set up a dedicated account for your class (ours is @RamsaysClass). If you want to connect and build your own personal learning network, you need to set up an alternate account (mine is @JulieDRamsay). Remember that anything that is typed, or tweeted, must be within the 140 characters or less. That includes letters, punctuation, and spaces.

If we want our students’ voices to be heard, there needs to be an audience. Now that you have a class account, you need to find other classes with whom your students can connect. When I first started about four years ago, it took some time to find other classes that were using Twitter. Luckily, some clever educators created a Global Class Twitter wiki where educators can add their information and begin to connect their classes. It’s divided into lower primary and upper primary. There is a nice combination of veteran Twitter teachers and newbie Twitter teachers. And because this is community, you have a built in support group if you come upon any challenges.

Before gaining access to Twitter, my students begin composing tweets on paper. At the end of each day, they hang their paper tweets outside our classroom door. We have a many discussions about what a quality tweet looks like, the content included, our audience and our purpose for tweeting.

To transition to using Twitter, we discuss proper procedures for accessing it. Even though some teachers prefer to have Twitter up on a desktop, the easiest way that I’ve found to mange this within our classroom is a Twitter app that I’ve downloaded onto my smartphone. Because of our discussion, they know that they need to have permission to get it off of my work area. They sit at that table, open up that one app, and compose their tweet. Once finished typing their tweet, they show it to me before we push "send." That way I know everything that is being sent out from our class.

The great thing is that if you have an extremely rigid schedule like I do, this takes up almost no time in the school day. My students usually tweet while class continues. Once done, the student returns to his/her learning activity.

The World at Our Fingertips

When I first started using Twitter for my class, I wanted to provide my students’ parents a window into our daily activities. I wanted to eliminate that old conversation:

Parent: What did you do at school today?
Student: Nothing.

End of conversation.

Now, with Twitter, the parents know what is going on in the classroom. They can also see photos of the different activities throughout the day. (Side note: You must remember to get the proper permissions before you include student writing and photos online. Our district has a release form that every student's parent must sign when they enroll each year.)

What surprised me was the learning that occurred in spite of my limited vision. My students set the expectations of what would be deemed a good tweet. They all agreed that since we have people following us from around the world, some of who do not speak English as a first language, we needed to use conventional English, not “text speak.” Instead of just reporting the events of the school day, they wanted to start posting cross-content brainteasers and questions to see if their parents could answer them. What they didn’t expect were all of the other learners who began answering their questions and asking their own.

For example, one of my students tweeted about some of the simulations we were doing in social studies as we were studying the American Revolution. A class in the U.K. responded by asking, “What’s the American Revolution?”

My students were shocked. “Why wouldn’t they study the American Revolution? It was fought against them.” That led to an in-depth discussion of why they wouldn’t study that part of history. This made my students realize that it was important to look at history from different points of view. After that discussion, my students proceeded to share some of the interesting parts of the American Revolution with their counterparts in the U.K., always remembering our discussion.

The great thing about Twitter is you never know what tweet will lead your students off on an amazing discovery and some really rich learning. With Twitter, every child can find success in sharing his/her thoughts or ideas. It’s only 140 characters. If they struggle with reading, writing, or the English language, they can take the time to find the right words to express their thoughts. It makes word choice very deliberate and meaningful. The exchange above all came about because of a tweet from an ELL student with exceptional needs who struggled to read or write. It impacted the learning of all of the students in both classes as well as any of the other classes who were following our Twitter feed.

Another time, my students were doing a countdown marking time until we had our Innovation Day. A class in Toronto asked us, “What is Innovation Day?” My students attempted to answer their question and then realized that there was just too much to share in 140 characters. So, they came up with the idea of creating a wiki where they could document and share everything that they did on our Innovation Day. It gave their learning a new dimension because they knew it was their responsibility to take photos, shoot video, and embed their projects into a wiki in order to truly teach another class about our Innovation Day.

My learners have done Twitter book reports that have led to book club discussion through Twitter. They’ve discovered new authors through book recommendations from other students. They’ve tried out new tech tools that can enhance their learning. They’ve looked at math problems and solutions from a different perspective. They’ve learned to explain the relevance of every learning activity in which they’ve engaged. And they have all learned about different communities and gained an understanding of the global community and that in spite of our differences, there are a lot of similarities too.

So if your question is “Why would you tweet?,” my response is “Why wouldn’t you tweet?” The learning potential through this tool is immeasurable. Most importantly, it gives every child in your class an opportunity to successfully share their thoughts, ideas, and questions with students from all over the world.

Not bad, for a tool that many have written off as a waste of time, huh?

Want some further information on using Twitter? Check out these resources:

• Why Should I Tweet on Twitter?
• Twitter Strategies
• Twitter Strategies Part 2
• Twitter Tutorial

Julie D. Ramsay is a Nationally Board Certified educator, a fifth grade teacher in a student-driven classroom, and the author of “CAN WE SKIP LUNCH AND KEEP WRITING?”: COLLABORATING IN CLASS & ONLINE, GRADES 3-8 (Stenhouse, 2011). She travels the country to speak, present, and facilitate workshops in applying technology to support authentic learning. Read her blog at juliedramsay.blogspot.com.



App, App, and Away... Creating a Class of Superheroes, Recording Artists, and Famous Athletes

Creating Curators of Content with Museum Box