Following a hugely successful inset last week where we had the whole day to use iPads, I wanted to recap on a couple of areas. One student asked a teacher this week if we have had a staff training on Showbie as now everyone is using it. (Nothing like students helping me evaluate the impact of CPD!)
Showbie formed a central part of the day. We looked at the following digram to think about how our traditional workflow can be improved by using the iPads. You then saw in the workshops how that workflow is used with a class of students.
Some staff had asked me to share the screenshots where I showed how to sign up to Showbie (as students), how to join a class and how to upload work. These are below:
I know that we threw a lot of ideas and information at you during the inset day but I want to leave you with one more thought (not mine but one that I agree with)
Digitisation and digital pedagogy in teaching design
What we must try, as schools, as educators, as learners, is not simply using tools, nor rolling out the whizz-bang jazz hands apps to impress students or observers.
If that means using a pen and paper because your students are revising something and you believe that memory and cognitive gains are promoted by written tasks, then you’re on the right lines for a digital pedagogy approach, just as much as if you choose to use some app in an innovative way to explore and extend learning. If, however, you are using pen and paper because you couldn’t be bothered with collecting in an Explain Everything task, or because you’ve always done this task with pen and paper, that is clearly not pedagogically sound. Equally, if you are using an iPad app just because they’re there, or in hopes of impressing an observer, without considering the aims, processes or consequences of using the app, that too is failing in digital pedagogy.
We need to systematically examine both tools and teaching for their learning value. In this way, teaching and learning drives the use of technology, rather than the converse. (Daniel Edwards) Original article here
