LiveScribe Pens and Contextualized Math

By Laura Van Deusen

As an adjunct developmental math instructor, I was approached to help contextualize developmental math with the Integrated Energy program in an online format.  This request was to help satisfy part of the TAA Grant.  Now, I’m not the most tech savvy person, but I felt comfortable with Canvas and figured some technology out there would be easy to use to video math problems being solved and then uploaded into Canvas.  (Videos, that is, where I didn’t have to stand in front of a camera.)  After testing an iPad application and the LiveScribe pen, I decided the best choice would be the LiveScribe pen.

Being a visual learner, I know I learn best (esp. with technology) by being shown how to use the item, and then I’ll get it down.  So I have to say my biggest complaint about the LiveScribe is that I found their online technical support (including video support) to be weak.   I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out the best way to use the pen, store and upload the information and then be able to upload it into Canvas.  And even there I just scratched the surface.   However, once I got the basics, I started flying through the videos.  In the video you can hear my voice, and when I start writing, the writing becomes highlighted on the page.  Students can see my “write” as I talk.  They can rewind, fast forward or pause the video as they take the information in.  

Determining Flow Rate

brought to you by Livescribe

Now that I’ve completed these videos for the project, I’ve realized that I could easily make sample videos to put on Canvas for my developmental math classes.  These videos could highlight problems already covered in class, so that students could remind themselves of the process used to solve the problem.  I haven’t done it yet because I handed the pen on to our math faculty so she could test it out for that same reason.   It is a great tool that could have many great uses in a class.  

Study Abroad Journals for Modern Times

By Lauren DeAre

Adjunct Professor of Spanish, Colorado Mountain College

This summer our CMC Spanish Immersion trip set out for four weeks of study in Cuzco, Peru. Students are very busy during these four weeks with four hours of Spanish classes each day, cultural visits in the afternoons and on weekends, relaxing with host families and volunteering in the community. Making time for reflection is an important part of study abroad, allowing students to go deeper into their experience and giving them a chance to process living in another culture. 

A handwritten journal is the traditional assignment for study abroad students, but I've found that this has become an empty exercise for almost any student and especially for students under the age of 30. My students are not used to writing anything by hand and it's tedious to require a certain number of journal entries that will only be read by me and are usually written all in the last few days before being submitted. Instead, the students were asked to create a video that would allow them to reflect on culture, provide unique insight about their learning during the program and, unlike personal journals, their learning and work could be shared with the other students.

This summer, the Peru students followed four steps to create a video journal reflection using CMC's flip cameras, YouTube and Facebook. 

Step 1: Choose a site in Cuzco that has taught you something about Peru and Peruvian culture
Step 2: Write a draft of your video script and submit to your professor for editing: why is this site important? What did it teach you about Peru? What should other students know about this site?
Step 3: Film your video at the site, using your script (be creative!)
Step 4: After your video is posted to our Facebook site, go on and view the videos that your classmates created, post one comment (in Spanish) about each video.


The following video was created by Everett Gardner, a student in the program and who is also a CMC staff member at the Rifle library.

The results from our project were excellent and provided a meaningful way for students to reflect on their own experience and share their learning.

Thoughts on the iPad

By Thomas Kainz

Courtesy of the CMC’s Office of Innovations, I’ve had the privilege of giving the Apple iPad a test spin for a couple of months.  The intent of this “test drive” was to gander my opinion of the applicability and usefulness of this tablet in our classroom environment.   Before we get to my comments I just thought I’d remind those of you whom might not know me too well (or at all for that matter) of my background as it relates to information technology.

I started “playing” with computers just after they hit the shelves as readily available over the counter purchases.  This was back in the late '70s and an entry level PC was a little over $1,000.  As a college student, I had to take a loan out to buy one.  Not having any college courses available for anything PC, I had to buy books and I taught myself how to program.  For the next 35(ish) years I bought, built, sold, programmed and did virtually everything else PC’s.  I currently have a Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology, a Masters in Information Sciences.  My full time position is as a Software Engineer and I operate a PC Service business in Howard.  Oh….. I also teach Information Technology courses for CMC as well as give private lessons. So, on to the review…

It seems that there is a big push as of late to promote the use of tablets in our day to day lives to the point of an ever-growing segment seemingly indicating that this is the death of the typical desktop computer and even the typical laptop.  While that may be the end result in the somewhat distant future, I don’t see getting anywhere close to that point in the near future.  Not that Apple isn’t working very hard to achieving that goal, mind you.  Apple has a long history of leveraging themselves into the educational sector through "juicy" programs for institutions and instructors with the ultimate goal of selling boat loads of systems to the students based off the recommendations and in some cases (God forbid) requirements of their instructors or institutions. Get the educational “system” hooked and that tends to funnel down through the student level. 

The “kit” I was handed consisted of the iPad, a protective case with an attached keyboard to make typing easier, and some accessories.  Handling the iPad when it was out of the protective case / keyboard, I found it to be difficult to hold on to.  Apple did a very good job of making the iPad very sleek looking with the aluminum back plate and the very beveled edges but in my hands it always felt like it was going to squirt out and onto the floor and in fact, that did happen a number of times.  After the first time it happened – luckily I was sitting on the couch at the time so it had a very cushioned landing – I was ever afraid of using it while walking around on anything except soft surfaces.  In actually using the tablet, I found it to be unacceptably slow with more than a decent lag time when starting a new program.

While there are an overabundance of available apps for the iPad, in searching around specifically for apps related to education and even more specifically to an instructors use, I didn’t really come across any particular app that had functionality which couldn’t be found in a program meant for the typical Windows-based desktop or laptop computer and which, in most cases, outperform the iPad app as well.

I realize that iPads and other tablets are the latest "thing" but I as well as other IT professionals feel that for what they have to offer to the typical student, they are too limited in their functionality and they are overpriced for what they do.  If you follow the industry, you'd find that there's about to be an explosion with various tablet like devices which, based upon their functionality alone, put the iPad to shame.  I would hold out that for the student who can afford an iPad, they would be best to hold off for a few more months and put their investment into something more practical and better performing.  

I watched a video recently where a number of IT professionals and a few higher education administrators had a round-table discussion about this very topic.  The colleges first tried the iPad in their respective environments believing the hype that it would be a great tool with assisting their student’s day to day academic lives.  After the first test period, they found while the students were able to make "some" use of the tablets, many found the tablets to be very restrictive in the functionality they offered.  During the second round of tests, they tried a less expensive Android based tablet but once again found the students complaining that when they needed to do "real" work, they found it couldn't be done on the tablets.  The end result of the college’s experimentation was that the students preferred to have a less expensive yet better performing laptop than the tablets.  While they felt the tablets ended up being great for social networking and internet surfing, etc. they were not so good for actually doing the work they needed to do... spreadsheets, presentations, data base functionality and so on.

So, the bottom line on my take of the iPad in education:  As long as Windows-based programs dominate the business sector (for better or worse), we as instructors need to be teaching using the tools which are reflective of that domination.  Additionally we should, as much as possible, work diligently towards assisting students in keeping their educational costs to a minimum.  When a student can spend less than $300 on a laptop which would functionally be leaps and bounds ahead of what the iPad would allow them to do, we should consider that to be the more logical choice, especially given the ever-growing segment of laptop/tablet convertible units not only available now but those coming in the very near future.

Turn Images into Interactive Lessons with ThingLink

By Loretta Driskel

ThingLink is a website tool I came across during my Game Elements 4 Learning class that I took during the summer of 2013. It was an excellent class because I could set my own learning goals and move at my own pace over the course of a month. I did not delve too deeply into the course but I did read much of the handouts provided and picked up a few ideas and tools for my students and for faculty.

This website is a great resource for a flipped classroom. You will notice that as you point to each video related resource logo in my creation, you can click on the URL to the resource and it will take you to the website where you can learn about the tool. I plan to add a short audio blurb about each resource so faculty will know which tool might fit their needs. Then the Office of Innovations can use this Thinglink to inform our faculty about some of the resources supported by Innovations in Teaching & Learning.

So take any picture, any picture at all, and you can make it interactive just by adding what they call "tags"-try it OR have your students try it as an assignment. You can browse for many more examples to get some ideas. Also here are some that could be used by elementary students, these were created by my classmate-she is very clever, huh?

Clara’s Thinglinks

ABC Phonics Poster

My Farm

Solar System

Loretta Driskel
Instructional Designer
Colorado Mountain College
 

iPad/iPhone uses for teaching

By Katia Curbelo-DelValle

Hello! Although I loved the idea of getting “jiggy” with the iPad in the classroom, and using it to show my students in language courses (Spanish and Italian) and communication courses (Public Speaking) neat ways to understand and practice the skills they were developing in the classroom, I found my inspiration came too late in the semester. It would have been a fun possibility if I had an idea of how to create activities, and use it as a fun and useful tool for the students and myself. First, I didn’t consider the tiny, but important fact that: I had never used an iPad or even an iPhone…so my skills were basically in ‘discovery’ mode. Second, it was already mid-October when I got my hands on the iPad lent to me by the awesome staff at Office of Innovations, so the time frame to ‘start’ using it came at the end of the semester.

 So! If you’re thinking of getting a try out of the iPad let me suggest a couple of cool websites and ideas to ‘deal’ with this ‘tool consideration’ previous to asking for it – and hopefully it will be useful not only to follow through with activities, but to use it as a class management tool for you! A plus side is that after having the iPad with me, I ended up getting an iPhone, and have discovered that it might actually be quite fitted for many of us as a tool in class with students. Check out the ideas and suggestions below, and think of them as well for the iPhone (or a smart-phone). These are both excellent tools you can ‘teach’ about and with for your students' sake.

 USES for iPad and iPhone (or other tablets/smartphones) 

The camera: it’s just so useful! Either to record voice, video, or just a quick “click” to take a picture of the whiteboard material. Had several students do this with their phones, and immediately send it over to their email accounts. You can find some other ideas here: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/48293871/ns/technology_and_science/#.USfKM6FAQzM


AhCounter: counts how many times the speaker uses “Ah, um, er”, counts repetitions, and even interjections! Best thing--it’s a free app for the iPhone and iPad.

















Hello-Hello Spanish (it’s available for various other languages, even English for ESL students) it’s a free-app that I’d recommend for my Spanish Language students. It provides a basic form of understanding meaning and words.















SITES TO CONSIDER 
I thought I'd provide some links to sites and blogs that list or describe apps for use on an iPad/iPhone/iPod in the classroom and out of it, with several objectives of use for your particular purposes.


The edtechteacher blog It has a great set of charts divided by objectives of the iPad use in the classroom you might want to consider. Check it out: http://edtechteacher.org/index.php/teaching-technology/mobile-technology-apps/ipad-as 











iPads in the Classroom (Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Everything Blog): this particular blog article will provide you with various possibilities for different subjects and objectives (it lists over 50 other articles and videos on iPad uses in the classroom) – check it out!
http://www.schrockguide.net/ipads-in-the-classroom.html 


Apptivities a great little blog with many useful ideas on how to apply the apps in class activities. Check it out! http://www.apptivities.org/ 













Looking at the possibilities these technologies permit, I have to say that as a language and communications instructor, I was so looking forward to experimenting directly with the students…but the time was up for the iPad! I truly hope this blog entry becomes a useful ‘start up’ place for each of you. Good luck!

 --Katia Curbelo-DelValle

Using the iPad in your Classroom by Joanne Yantz

By Joanne Yantz

Using the iPad was a great experience.  I found it to be very useful in the classroom.  The app Corkulous was very useful in my Business Communication and Report Writing Classes.  One of the requirements for the course is that the students must make a presentation.  We used Corkulous when the students were organizing their presentation.  They then used those ideas to make their final power point presentation.
This is a terrific app for all students in many different disciplines.

Corkulous app for the iPad

Another  app that I found to be quite interesting and useful was iThoughtsHD.  This is a mind mapping tool for the iPad.  Mindmapping enables you to visually organize your thoughts, ideas and information.  This is definitely a great app for Comp. I classes.

iThoughtsHD app for the iPad

There are many apps available that are specific to a discipline. I found these apps could be used in many different disciplines.  They are very interactive and make the learning more interesting for the students.  They are worth checking out.  Good luck as you investigate more apps for the iPad and share those with the rest of us on the blog.