iPads as Field Note Devices

The entire 6th grade class from Rye Junior High School recently took a trip up to the Center for Wildlife and Mount Agamenticus in York, Maine as part of an integrated unit centered around science.

Before the trip, students took part in social studies class mapping out their bus routes and the trail system up and around the mountain to calculate the distance they would travel. In math class, they used these measurements to find the total cost for the field trip, including bus mileage and price per gallon of fuel for the trip up-and-back. In language arts class, each student had chosen an animal to research that lives in the transitional forests that hug the the border between Maine and New Hampshire and wrote stories about their animals, and how they have adapted to their habitat and surroundings. Word choice was a focus for these stories, and mini lessons covering antonyms and synonyms were used to express the power of words in painting a true picture in a written piece.

Obviously science class played a major part in this field trip, as students had studied the food web and food chain of different species that live in the transitional forest. Researching and presenting new facts about each others' animals, as well as seeing how they are all connected within the ecosystem was eye opening for some. It was the perfect segway into the field trip to the Center for Wildlife and Mount Agamenticus.

The trip started with an hour presentation at the Center for Wildlife. The students were greeted by a red tailed hawk, a box turtle and a Virginia opossum. All the animals at the Center for Wildlife have been hurt, rescued and helped to either be rereleased into the wild, or in some instances where this is not possible, the animals have found a home right at the Center for Wildlife and can be visited by the public. Before loading the bus again to hike up the Mountain, students had a few minutes to check out the other birds of prey and other Maine animals at the center.

During the climb to the top of Mt. A. students used iPads as field note devices. The brochures for the Center for Wildlife and the Mount Agamenticus Conservation Region were downloaded into iBooks for quick reference. Other apps. such as, Notes, Camera, and Audio Memo were used to record text, speech and video and still images of the hike and the ecosystem. The trail map was also imported into the app Doodle Buddy, so that students could use the drawing tools to trace their routes up the mountain over the trail map image. All of these apps. could be used without a wireless signal.

Upon returning to school, the students (with the help of the 6th grade teachers) uploaded these multi-media files to the local server for editing and selection. A presentation will be created by each group to showcase what they had learned from their trip to York, Maine. Below is a quick clip that I created using Animoto to share the experience.

Interactive iOS Displays

Here is a great little trick for your classroom. Download a free version of AirServer at http://www.airserverapp.com/ and try it out! You can mirror your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to your laptop. Why would you want to do that you ask? Well, if your laptop is plugged into a projector or a TV, you have just created an interactive tablet within your classroom that can be projected in front of the room. At all of the conferences that I have been to lately, and seeing the trends in technology in education, I am seeing the slow death of the interactive white board. It's a said day for me who absolutely loved when my SMART board was installed in my 3rd grade classroom 8 years ago, but I see a new trend in technology in education.

Imagine, walking around your classroom with an iPad or iPod and setting it down on a student's desk, meanwhile you are still talking to the whole group. This has just given the students a heads-up that they will be demonstrating their understanding of the topic at hand in a few short minutes, and sure enough you turn and ask Johnny at his seat if he could show the rest of the students in the room an example of an obtuse angle. Using the iPad and any drawing app that you choose, Johnny draws the angle with his finger and everyone in the classroom sees "the big picture" (pun intended) up on the drop down screen in front of the classroom. Interaction without the delay of having a student get up from their seat, clomp to the front of the room around his/her peers, and only then to realize the white board was not oriented before the lesson. We've all been there at some point if you have had an IWB in your room before.

The cost is great too! For $60, 15 machines can run the program. Compare that price to outfitting teachers with Apple TV's each ($99) and an HDMI cable ($5). Not to mention the hassle of making sure you password protect the Apple TV's so that Mrs. Smith's class doesn't accidentally take control of your classroom's Apple TV during a lesson. It does mean that the teacher laptop is tethered to the projected image, but in the grand scheme of things, it is a cheap alternative with an excellent picture.