Susan Wells's Blog (5)

Participated yesterday in ACU's Exploring Mobile Learning Online Conference, spoke on mobility in K-12. http://www.acu.edu/technology/mobilelearning/conferences/online/index.html

It was interesting to learn that surveys of students at both levels had similar results. Students using mobile devices found learning more interesting and reported they were more engaged in learning. Another reason to listen to our students...

This summer we're experimenting with free web-based software allowing staff to collaborate virtually and at times face to face on projects. The two we've used are Zoho Projects and Basecamp. I'd put out a tweet asking if there were similar products written for the K-12 environment and got back an iPhone/iPod touch app recommendation for SimplyBox, a free browser/collaboration tool. Our teachers are very interested in using these web-based tools for collaborative student projects this fall. We… Continue

A year ago at our school we chose iPod touches as our pilot mobile computing device. We made that decision for a number of reasons but the most powerful decision makers were our students. This was their computer of choice. So many times over the last year I've been asked why we didn't choose another device for our pilot. To our students at our school the choice was so clear, "crystal" as one eighth grader often states.



Digital natives expect their access to information to be mobile;… Continue

I'm not sure if anyone else has run into this but within schools we used to have students listen to books on tape, anyone remember those days? Of course in more recent years we've purchased many audio CD audiobooks to support our literacy departments. With our iPod Touches we've been exploring methods of moving that purchased content into our iTunes account for our students. Although we've not found it to be nearly as easy as moving purchased music...there is a site at aldoblog.com that has… Continue

Next week we'll be presenting our iPod Touch pilot at the NCTIES conference in Raleigh, NC. Our session is titled Touch the Possibilities- Using iPod Touch mobile computers, To enhance... and disrupt... teaching and learning. We'll have iPod Touches on hand for an interactive session on Thursday. We'd love to meet some of you in person if you're planning on attending the conference.