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It's no secret. I am a big fan of using iPads in the classroom to improve learning. It's not so much about the iPad itself. It's about what the iPad allows teachers to do. So many times, the iPad is a tool that just gets out of the way and allows for deeper learning. In the following posts, I will be sharing ways that I am using iPads in my engineering class. I will also be sharing ways that I will be incorporating it next year as well as ways that others have been using it. My goal is that this becomes a place for engineering teachers to find ways to incorporate it into their classrooms and labs.
Many schools are are already or soon will be One-To-One with iPads. My school is. When we first went this route, I couldn't see much use for it beyond being a second monitor for our PC lab. At the time, we had single-monitor set ups. Soon, we ended up getting dual-screen set ups. At that time, I just stopped using my iPad for anything other than checking email quickly, playing games, and reading the news in the morning. I just didn't know what I could do. Several years ago, I made a conscious effort to start learning how to use it. I started with just sitting on my couch and playing with it every night. As the months went on, I learned more and more about what I could do. I then started working on actively using it in class. I hate the idea of "shoehorning" a tool into a classroom. It's unnatural and gets in the way of learning. Usually, these cases make everyone wonder why and spend more time grappling with the use. I was on the search for natural uses that led to deeper learning. Here's what I have learned. I was recently reading the book the "4 Disciplines of Execution". It really made me think. This quote below Is quite important in an organization undergoing change. Practices are situational, subjective, and always evolving. Principles are timeless and self-evident, and they apply everywhere. As I go about working in my class, working on curriculum, and generally going about my day, I have to remind myself there's a difference between practice and principle. It's easy to get hung up on the practices. They are right there in front of us. But technology changes. Economies change. Even the needs of students from one class to the next will change. This is all just practice. It's part of the tools used to get to the larger meaning and to the things that we should be valuing.
Principles on the other hand are timeless. This is where the true learning comes in. How we get to the principle, how we maintain that principle, and how we pass those principles on to the next generation are the details that we shouldn't get hung up on. What we really need to be fighting for. What we really need to champion are lasting, quality principles that every child, every citizen, and every one of us should be embodying. If we keep our focus on the principles, the details will take care of themselves. If we hold tight to our principles it will all work out in the end and we will all win. Teachers and schools are always talking about how they want to prepare their students to be leaders. They want students to be able to make the world a better place. These are noble goals. But, there’s a problem. Most schools value compliance. Bells move us from room to room. Grades are given for behaving appropriately. Classroom management is all about students being compliant and giving the teacher what they want. Most students figure out quickly that school is about jumping through the right hoops at the right time. All of this is perfectly reasonable.
I think Shaw is correct, though. Reasonable people are not going to push us forward to make progress. We need students to learn to be unreasonable. Don’t misunderstand me. I am not advocating chaos and anarchy. Look at the quote again. “The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.” Students still have to work with the world to make an impact. As educators, we must quit demanding compliance in all things in the classroom. We need to teach students how be unreasonable. We need to teach them how to support their position. Then students will be prepared to create the change that will make the world a better place. "Learning is what you do to yourself. Education is what people do to you."
I heard and saw this phrase in a number of places over the last week. It really hit home again. Some friends of mine wrote a book series called the Joy of PL. You should really check it out (https://www.joyofprofessionallearning.org). They have the same approach with the name. "Professional Development" is something done to the teacher. "Professional Learning" is something a teacher chooses for themself. As teachers we should be striving to inspire students to want to be learners. Our classes should be more than just a hurdle to overcome or a challenge to endure. They should be excited to come in each day. They should be excited as they leave. Not excited because the bell rang, but excited because it was time well spent. Friend of mine I teach with, was at dinner with her husband the other day. They ran into a past student of her's at the restaurant. The student was going on and on about how much she loved her class and that she was the best teacher ever. This wasn't because her class was a blow off but because it was challenging and engaging. That should be our goal. When students want to be in a room they're choosing to learn. When they're forced to be in our room they're being educated. "When teaching is dominated by specific goals, the educational process becomes static, and there is an unnatural separation between the activity the student engages in to reach the goal and the goal itself."
in other words, if we are focused on a single goal and not the learning, then students will not really get to the thing we want them to learn. All they focus on is the test... at all costs. You can see this effect in people cheating on AP, SAT, and ACT tests. When the test is the entire focus, then reaching that goal at any cost is the way people tend to act. Ironically, the quote above was made over 80 years ago. It seems we haven't learned that being authentic in our outcomes is so much more engaging and motivating. I had a conversation with my curriculum director today. We were talking about our state CTE requirements. The state is putting a major emphasis on certification exams. They are putting this emphasis over the bigger goal of preparing students for future careers. The message coming from the state is that the certification is what makes the career. How sad. Employers don't want people who can pass tests. They want people who can think. People who can be counted on. People who can work with others. Check it out online. Company after company has publicly stated that "soft skills" are more important than technical skills. It makes me wonder if our legislators and state leaders really want all students to be successful.
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About me & this blogThis blog is for things related to my class, PL, coaching, or just teaching in general. You can follow me on Twitter @myakSTEM Archives
June 2021
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