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The iPad is becoming a common tool found in classrooms everywhere.  I work with schools across the nation and can honestly say that I haven’t come across a school in the last year that doesn’t have at least one “i-device” available or is planning on having one soon.  Some have carts containing 30 or so of these devices (usually iPads, sometimes iPod Touches), while others have a full 1 to 1 initiative going on.  Some locations are making better use of these devices than others, but in almost all locations a common question i hear is… “How can teachers better use these devices as a presentation tool?”  This post aims to provide a few ideas.

Creating Content to Share

Before presenting content, you must first have content to share.  The iPad offers several apps that an help create content:

• Keynote – This app is the equivalent to PowerPoint for the PC.  While the app is more limited than the full Mac desktop version it still does a nice job
• Corkulous – This app allows you create very visually appealing brainstorm type notes.  Great for class discussions
• Penultimate – One of several notebooks that allow you to draw or write notes
• Whiteboard HD – Turns your iPad into a whiteboard, add diagrams, common shapes, notes and more.

Connecting Your Device

Now of course for this to be useful you need to be able to project the content created in the apps above for your class to see.  The simplest way is get a VGA or HDMI adapter from the apple store.  Plug one end of the adapter into your iPad and the other into your projector.  Note that the first generation iPad is much more limited in what you can project.

Another idea that is becoming more common and is much less limiting is using an Apple TV to stream your content.  The Apple TV is designed to allow you to stream content from your mac or iPad to a TV.  However, you can achieve a similar result for presentations.  Just take your $99 Apple TV and use the HDMI port to hook to your HDTV or Projector (as long as the projector has an HDMI port).  This will allow you walk around the room and present content “wirelessly” instead of being forced to stay close to the projector because of cables.

Finally, if you are in a 1 to 1 situation where all students have an iPad, you can install an app such as Idea Flight.  Idea Flight allows you to remotely control up to 30 iPads on a wireless network.  It also integrates with Dropbox, so you can load your presentation or PDF files into dropbox, connect the other iPads with Idea Flight and control what they see on their device.  So instead of everyone looking at the screen in the front of the classroom, students can just look at their iPad and see exactly what you see.

Collaboration

It’s one thing to project content for others to see, but that’s so web 1.0.  With today’s apps you can create a truly interactive environment with students.  For example, using  something such as lino - http://en.linoit.com/ (use through a website or an app is also available). You can add brainstorming notes to a board and let others within the class add notes to it as well in real time.

Or divide the class into groups and use something such as iBrainstorm.  This allows users with an iPod Touch or iPhone to create a sticky note and “swipe” it to connect to an iPad.  At the time of this writing you can only pair 4 devices up with the iPad, but putting students into groups will help.  Plugging the synced iPad into the projector allows students to instantly see the ideas being generated in each group.

There are also at least a dozen different whiteboard apps that allow you to collaborate with others.  Here’s a nice post highlighting five of them - http://www.readwriteweb.com/biz/2011/07/free-collaborative-whiteboard-apps-ipad.php

Hopefully this will get you started successfully using the iPad as a presentation tool in your classroom or office.  Others ideas?  Please post a comment.

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A common struggle for educators is helping learners respond successfully over time. Going back to the post on knowing your learners, one of the stages of learning discussed was maintenance.  This is the ability of the learner to respond correctly over time after the content has been taught. Here are two examples:

• the learner is able to solve 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication problems when you have moved on to2 digit division
• the learner is able to compose a persuasive essay (while using a word prediction software) when you have moved on to creative writing

Helping learners maintain content over time is essential to their long-term success. There are many different ways to target the maintenance stage of learning. Once practical strategy is Bell ringers (aka warm-ups) and Flashbacks. Both of these are short samples of work covering prior content that is to be completed independently by the learner.  Most commonly, these are problems that teachers have students work at the beginning of the new class period (bell ringers/warm ups) or during times of transition (flashbacks). Here are some tips to guide your bell ringer/flashback use.

1. Only include content/skills that students have demonstrated mastery on already. If not, then you are not targeting maintenance of skill (because there was never a skill to maintain) and you significantly increase the chance that you will have students engage in off-task and/or problematic behavior.
2. Start with where your learners are (even if it means going to a prior grade’s content) and cycle through newly learned content as time progresses. Being intentional will ensure that material taught in September will continue to be included in bell ringers in November, February, and May.
3. Ensure students receive feedback on their work. One big mistake with this activity is that students complete them with no feedback provided. This is extremely dangerous as student errors can be allowed to persist over long periods of time. You can grade and return, or use a digital submission system (like a student response system).
4. Make it fun! You can set class-wide goals for completion and/or accuracy in addition to individual student goals.  Be sure to celebrate learners success when it occurs.

Let us know how it goes! Comment below with any tips for using bell ringers/flashbacks that you have to share.

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Awhile back I made a very short post titled AT vs. IT.  Basically I was just commenting on how it is odd that assistive technology for some students is instructional technology for other students and vice versa.  Sometimes I wish we could just call it all technology and stop the debate.

The purpose of this post is to expand on that previous post and share some information I received last year when listening to Dave Edyburn speak at the Council for Exceptional Children conference in Nashville, TN.  He brought up a couple of points that I believe are worth repeating here.  The first is that there is very little data showing that assistive technology works.  He said, which I believe to be very true, that the primary data we have on AT are the receipts showing how much we spent on it.  There are a number of reasons the data is hard to find.  One of which is that technology changes so fast that by the time a study is ran and published the technology either no longer exists or has been updated with even more features that weren’t originally available. I believe there is much more research that could be done in this area however and appreciate the work that Mr. Edyburn does each year to disseminate information on what research does exist.

The second thing I wanted to repeat from that session (and main reason for this post) was the way Instructional and Assistive Technology were defined through the use of data.  Often in conducting research we use a withdrawal design (we will have a post on studies we ran using this design soon).  The basic idea of a withdrawal design is that you take data with and without a support over time to determine if it is making a difference.  For example, if a student types on a computer with no support, then uses word prediction software while typing does he or she do better?  To know for sure, we would collect baseline data with no word prediction for a set number of times, then take data with the support, without the support, and again with the support.  The longer you continue this pattern the better the data.  The idea is to rule out the student doing better or worse due to a one time circumstance (sick, content that is more difficult than usual, etc…).

Back to the difference between AT and IT…  Going by what was presented in the session, if a student always does poorly without a support, but always performs well with a support then that is assistive technology – the student must have it to perform well.  It is helping them to overcome a barrier.  However, if the student does poorly without the support to start with, then gradually gets better over time after having used the support, that is instructional technology – the technology actually helped the student to be able to perform the task independently over time.

To date this is the best way I’ve heard the difference between AT an IT defined.  And what I like most is that it requires data collection!

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I think back to when I started out as an educator. I had a lot of book knowledge and little experience. What I learned really quick is that there are numerous times that I missed the connection between what I knew was right and how to actually implement the strategy or technology with a particular student. For example, time trials. This is a great strategy targeting fluency, but implementing this with a reluctant learner can be difficult if you are unsure how to proceed. This is where being a team mate, supervisor, or educational leader is critical in helping all educators move forward in effectiveness. Here’s an idea to consider:  follow the direct instruction process with our staff in the same way that we do with our learners in the classroom.

1.  I do

When helping your staff or teammates move forward, model exactly what they are to implement. I actually begin by task analyzing the strategy and providing them a copy before I demonstrate. It is one thing to tell you what you should do (especially in a workshop), but it is at a different level when you can show me with one of my students in the classroom. In addition to demonstrating the skill correctly, it verifies in the mind of the staff member that the strategy/technology can actually be implemented with “this” child. As a consultant, some of the biggest movement I have facilitated with struggling educators is having them see the “stuff” I’m training them on in action in their classroom or building.

2. We do

After the educator has seen sufficient examples modeled for them (through a variety of ways), it is now their turn. Knowing the positive effect of errorless learning, it is key to not watch the educator repeatedly fail. Instead, I coach them through the implementation of the strategy/technology (using system of least prompts — more on that in a later post). This ensures success with minimal (or no error).

3. You do

After the educator demonstrates proficiency during the prompted practice, you allow the educator to implement the strategy without your assistance. It is critical to know that feedback is still required here, you just deliver it following the implementation.

I know this seems like a laborious process when you break it down into these steps. Don’t be afraid to leverage technology to allow you to frequent many classrooms without driving to provide feedback (see one of our studies here). However, intensive work with one educator will result in years of effective work with thousands of intensive learners. 

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A couple of weeks ago I made a post on the top barriers to implementing assistive technology.  In it I discussed the top 10 barriers we found when surveying school districts.  I then put the barriers into categories.  The largest category was guideline and procedure barriers.   This is no surprise because effective implementation of assistive technology usually starts with having solid guidelines in place.  In fact, one of the most requested workshops I do is working with teams to develop guidelines.  I’ve included some of the things I cover in these workshops in this post.  I hope that you find them beneficial and will add any additional resources you find to the comments section below.

Work through the QIAT Matrices

The Quality Indicators for Assistive Technology (QIAT) website contains a wealth of information.  If I were to only use one resource during a workshop on developing AT guidelines it would be this site.  On day one of a 2 day workshop on developing guidelines I will have participants work through the self evaluation matrices available on the site.  This basically takes you through all 8 indicators and provides descriptions of what poor through excellent implementation of each indicator looks like.  Teams rate themselves to see how well (or poorly) they feel they are doing in each area.  This is a great place to start because not only does it get groups thinking, but it also gives me a framework for facilitating the remainder of the workshop.

Do a Google Search on AT Guidelines

It’s tough to start from scratch when developing AT guidelines for a district.  Therefore I always have teams search for Guidelines other districts or states use to get an idea of how they would like the “layout” of their guidelines to appear.  A simple search of “AT Guidelines” will produce results from Michigan to Minnesota, Hawaii, New Zealand and more.

Develop a Flow Chart

Rarely is the expectation that a fully developed set of guidelines accepted by everyone in a district be complete in two days.  However, requiring two days to work on these things better produce something.  At a minimum I like to have a flow chart of what the process will look like in a district.  I like this flow chart to be complete with names.  For example, the top of the chart may be an event (IEP meeting for a student for example).  During this meeting AT must be considered (I use the BEEC AT consideration guide to help with this).  There are typically three possible outcomes from this question: 1.) No AT needed, 2.) AT Needed, Document in IEP 3.) AT may be needed, request consult or evaluation.  Options 1 and 2 are pretty straight forward.  Option 3 requires some work however.  Developing a flow chart will help to know where to go from this point.  For example, a team in a district will likely change depending on the school a student is in, the area of AT needed (communication, writing supports, etc…), and the availability of staff.  Developing a flow chart that shows who is responsible in various situations will be a tremendous asset.  I recommend developing the flowchart in Google Docs or another format that allows everyone to have access.

Disseminate the Information

AT Guidelines will be a living document.  Staff will come and go, modifications to documents will need to be made and up to date information will always need to be available.  Creating a document, then printing and disseminating to all staff will stay to up to date for a few months, however creating your guidelines as a wiki will allow folks to always have the most up to date information at their fingertips.  This is great from a district perspective as well because once a change is made the entire district will have access to it without having to wait for version 1.1 to be printed and released.

This post could go on forever, but I think I’ve already exceeded the length that most of our attention spans can handle in one setting.  The take away is that successful AT Implementation is dependent upon having solid guidelines in place.  Having 3 people in a district develop some bullet points isn’t enough.  You need buy in from everyone.  Using some of the ideas above in combination with staff meeting discussions and plenty of revisions will eventually get you to that point.  Just remember that we’ve only scratched the surface in this post.  Reviewing all of the indicators on the QIAT website will show all of the areas that must be considered when putting guidelines in place.

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If you remember from our post about Stages of Learning, one of the stages is fluency. The goal in this stage is to increase the ability of the learner to complete a task or skill with greater speed and accuracy. This is important to teach to our learners as many people don’t get credit or acknowledgment for skill or ability because they aren’t able to perform quick enough. Personally, I think this is why many schools see student performance on statewide assessments not measuring up. The problem is not that the learners don’t know the material, but it could be that the learner is unable to perform the skill with speed and accuracy.

So what now?  There are many different strategies to implement. Here is one practical strategy – Time trials.  Time trials involve a small set of problems that must be completed in a set amount of time. From my personal experience, I have found this to be a great bell ringer activity to get the class started. Here are a few tips:

• Keep them short (an effective time trial shouldn’t take 2 hours)
• If you want to give a grade, provide a grade for effort not accuracy.
• Check the work immediately and track progress
• Use goal setting and graphing to encourage better performance
• Reinforce when a goal is met

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Earlier this year I had the opportunity to survey several school districts to learn more about barriers they come across when trying to implement assistive technology (AT).  Instead of just letting folks list anything, I worked with a group of AT professionals to come up with 20 possible barriers, then worked with doc students at a nearby university to put an appropriate survey together.  The goal was to have participants list the top 10 barriers.  Some choices were typical, while others were more of a surprise.  To simplify things, I’ve grouped the top 10 barriers into 3 categories and listed them below:

• Category 1 – Implementation Barriers
• Incorporating AT into instruction across settings (number 1 barrier overall)
• Integrating AT into specific settings
• Number of people available to support AT
• Category 2 – Guideline and Procedure Barriers
• Properly evaluating students for AT
• Understanding the AT process in your district
• Understanding how to fund devices
• Maintenance of products/devices
• Category 3 – Product Awareness
• Knowledge of what already exists in the district (number 2 barrier overall)
• Knowledge of product and devices
• Knowledge of where to find products and devices (outside of the district)

Some of these barriers, such as maintenance of products and devices, could probably go under product awareness (being aware of how to change the batteries), or guidelines (who is responsible for it).   The goal was to list each barrier only once however.  The number one barrier (incorporating AT across settings) is no big surprise, but I found that knowing what already exists in the district being the number 2 overall barrier interesting.

What are your thoughts?  Does this match up with what you see in your setting?  In future posts I will go into detail about possible solutions to some of these barriers.  For example, for knowing what is already in the district you could use Google docs to list items, or a more comprehensive system such as the new web based AT Inventory System we created.

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Response cards are must have tools for any learning environment. This easy to implement learning strategy will make an immediate impact with your students.  Remember that the research demonstrates learning increases as correct responding increases. That is why stand and deliver lecture only (which most educators over-rely on) is such a bad idea. Think about it for a second. How many questions does your typical “lecture based” teacher ask during a lesson? Many times there are relatively few, and the ones asked are directed toward: a) the students who know the answer or b) the students the teacher is trying to get back on task. Not the most effective use of questioning. Recall from your university coursework that the basic unit of learning:

Instructional prompt – Student response – Teacher feedback.

Ensuring that an adequate number of instructional prompts (e.g., verbal, written) are delivered and efficient feedback provided based upon student responding is critical. Response cards help this process be efficient.

Here’s how response cards work:

1. During instruction, the educator delivers a question to the entire class or small group (instructional prompt). This can be a verbal question, written on the board, or even displayed through PowerPoint.

2. Students respond via one of the 3 different types of response cards

- write on response card (a small piece of dry erase board, a sheet protector with a piece of blank paper in the sleeve)

- printed response card (see attached below)

- digital response system (a individual remote that allows students to individually respond and their response displays on the screen)

3. Teacher provides feedback on student responding. Be immediate, specific, and consistent.

Now what? Practically, I use the 80/20 rule. If 80% or more of the learners respond correctly, I move forward and will catch up those who didn’t during small group work time. If less than 80% get it right, then I do whole group reteaching. This allows us to be instructionally efficient – moving forward when the students are ready and camping out when they are not. Remember, student performance is what should drive out instruction. It is critical that we know our learners. Using this strategy will help you get some time back in your schedule.

Want to know more? Here are two literature reviews that have uncovered the effectiveness of response cards.

Horn, C. K. (2010). Response cards: An effective intervention for students with disabilities. Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 45(1), 116-123.

Randolph, J. J. (2007). Meta-analysis of the research on response cards: Effects on test achievement, quiz achievement, participation, and off-task behavior. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 9, 113–128.

Want to give it a shot? I’ve attached a .pdf of the Response Card I’ve used in learning Environments. Just print it off and fold it in half. Your ready to go!

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Basic Task Management Apps:

Clear - .99 cents at time of writing – Clear is another very basic app.  You can manage multiple lists and prioritize items on those lists unlike the Reminders app.  Somehow this app is just fun to use.  It has a very clever interface and is easy to manipulate.  The standard theme shows items at the top of the list with a red background (these are a higher priority) and gradually changes to a lighter color as you get further down the list.  To move an item, just hold down on the item and move it whichever direction you would like.

Apps better suited for projects:

Wunderlist - Free – Although Wunderlist does’nt allow you to create sub-items it is not short on features.  Wunderslist is free and is available as an app, web based application or installable software on a mac or pc.  Once you setup an account your lists sync to the cloud and are available on any device you use.  In addition to the basics, you can also share lists with other users, which is great for group work.  You can also email items from Wunderlist, or send an email to Wunderlist with items to add.  You can add notes, change the look and much more.  

ToDo by Appigo – $4.99 – ToDo – ToDo is a more robust task management app. In addition to the basics (adding items, reminders, prioritizing, etc…), ToDo allows you to add multiple reminder alerts, create sub-tasks for items, add notes to tasks complete with clickable phone numbers and links, advanced searching and much more.  

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If you have ever heard us speak at conferences or workshops, I’m sure you will recognize this quote (and many variations) we often repeat over and over – “Technology without Strategy will lead to poor outcomes”.  Though we will dive into this deeper in a later post, I wanted to share a foundational principle for meeting the needs of ALL learners.  Before you select the technology, you must identify the strategy. Before you select the strategy, you have to know where you learners are in regards to the content/skill you are teaching! Knowing this will allow you to make the best instructional (including when, what, and how with technology) decision for each learner. Haring, et al., 1978 was one of the earliest to dive into these stages and it has moved forward with a few minor changes through the years. Here they are (drumroll please!): Acquisition, Fluency, Maintenance, and Generalization.

Here’s a scenario from when I was in the classroom. I was teaching multiplication facts to middle school students. I taught one of the fact families and gave a quiz. They got them all wrong, and I was frustrated because they were doing them successfully during the week! Where did I go wrong? Well, it was all about generalization.

I taught this	But tested this

My students weren’t able to “generalize” the vertical presentation of the multiplication fact to the horizontal presentation. Read below for more information about each stage of learning along with a couple of examples.

Realize that your learners can be at different stages with different content and skills (at the acquisition stage with some content/skill and at the maintenance stage with something else). This is not a one-time assessment, but rather a systematic process that needs to be ingrained in your teaching.

I’m sure you are asking yourself what’s next after knowing where the learner is with a content/skill? In my multiplication fact teaching example, I should of “sampled the range” during the instructional process. We’ll be posting some strategies in the coming weeks for each stage. Until then, if you have any strategies that you have used and can connect it to a specific stage of learning, feel free to share in the comments section of this post.