1:1 Laptops and Seamless Integration: Peek into the Frontier
Howard Levin, The Urban School of San Francisco ; On Twitter: howlevin
Howard has 7 years of experience with a laptop program at USSF. Ultimately with a 1:1 program, the goal over time is for the technology to recede into the background so that the laptops exist merely to support learning in core classes ("making the laptop disappear").
We are living with a new paradigm - everyone can capture information and images at any moment with cameras, video cameras, iSight cameras, etc. Think of technology not as it exists at this very moment, but what is possible in 5 years. For those interested in Tablet PC, Levin predicts we will have write-able screens for all comptuers eventually. Quell fears that laptops will reduce communication - Levin has found that in fact the opposite is true.
Recommendation to watch the film
Born into BrothelsConsider the four key categories (in Levin's mind) of how laptops can support learning: ORGANIZATION, COMMUNICATION, INFORMATION & PRODUCTION
Some concrete examples shared during the presentation:-Using Inspiration for non-linear concept-mapping (note-taking tool) Ex - tracking the three most important events of 1979 in the Middle East - extremely detailed outline in Inspiration as pre-organizer, research organizer for report
-Use and exchange of audio files in foreign language
-Symmetry and rotation using SMARTBoard
- Archived notes with the SMARTBoard can be crucial - helpdul to pull up previous day's visuals
-Students giving feedback to each other (Google Tools)
-Record musical instrument playing, email or submit online (Music testing via email)
-Programs like GarageBand can easily archive and record progress of music performance or speaking (f.language or elem.) over time
-Trapeze lesson - wearing motion sensors to track speed, velocity, etc students went to trapeze school. With personal laptops, the students own their data. They can upload immediately, make graphs, etc and play with the data at home
-Virtual Chemistry Lab (irYdium?)
-Tools to support traditional art - traditional mediums, inspiration for ideas, students video and capture friends then edit in iMovie, looking for inspiration. They pull stills and create art from it
-Verbal essays with iStop Motion & Animation in science (molecules, gaining and losing electrons, what happens when temperature shifts- drawing of thermometer reading going down) - using visuals to explain with auditory capturing
-Speech to text software - big buzz at Urban