Literacies for the digital age: Civic and global literacy

This is the ninth in a series of blog posts highlighting the digital literacies our students will need to succeed. This post will provide you with some ideas on how to infuse civic and global skills into the curriculum.

There are thirteen literacies I feel need to be explored, practiced and mastered by students. 

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CIVIC LITERACY

Civic literacy incorporates the use of 21st century skills for staying informed about local, regional, and worldwide events in order to be able to participate and make informed decisions. As with any current news and information, students must be on the lookout for bias and omission of relevant information. These skills can be practiced as outlined in the Information and Digital Literacy blog post in this series.

The civic sites in this post will be United States sites only. As I practice the skill of critical evaluation when investigating sites I recommend, I do not feel knowledgeable enough to add civic literacy sites from other countries. Please add your recommendations in the comment area!

Some resource sites include:

Center for Civic Education promotes citizenship education from PreK-12. There are lesson plans and full curriculums to use with students located on their site. The lesson plans include ideas to support Constitution Day, Independence Day, Voting, Black History and Women’s History Month,  and much more. They also have eight pages of video presentations that can be used for discussion starters or extension activities.

In 2009, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor founded iCivics to reverse Americans’ declining civic knowledge and participation. Securing our democracy, she realized, requires teaching the next generation to understand and respect our system of governance. There are sixteen educational video games and teaching support materials on their site. In addition, there are many lesson plans in the teacher resource area, too.

The Civics Renewal Network is a consortium of organizations who offer access to materials to support the teaching of civics education in schools. The organizations range from the American Bar Association, to Annenberg Classroom, Library of Congress, Rock the Vote, and other well-known groups. The search box on the site leads you to a database of materials found across these organizations. The advanced search allows limiting by subject, grade, issues, resource types, teaching strategies, standards, and organization. The materials are located on the sponsoring organizations site, but this combined search tool allows you to easily find material to use in your classroom!

The Civic Deliberation and Social Action collection from the National Writing Project provides information, ideas, and projects for helping students engage in “rational civic discourse around important issues and can (help them) begin to take action to affect the changes that they see need to be made in our society and culture.”

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GLOBAL LITERACY

Global literacy, according to a professional development publication by Atomic Learning, “incorporates the use of 21st century skills and tools for understanding and addressing issues that have global impact. This includes raising awareness about cultural differences, demonstrating tolerance and respect for differing opinions, religions, and lifestyles, and learning to work collaboratively with others.”

One way to get students to work on their global literacy skills is to involve them in global projects. Here are some popular project sites.

With a social action project, students actively participate in a real-word problem and help improve it.  One good place to look for collaborative social projects is iEarn.the International Education and Resource Network. Each of the projects in their database has to answer the question “How will this project improve the quality of life on this planet?”

The GlobalSchoolNet started off in 1984 as the FrEdMail network, an email system that provided teachers with a place to plan and share projects The GlobalSchoolNet is still going strong today with meaningful, real-world, authentic, collaborative projects. In addition to providing their own projects, the GSN offers a registry of projects where teachers can submit their project to look for collaborators or just search to see what is available to participate in. The advanced search offers many options of narrowing down the project search such as age, curriculum category, type of collaboration, and technology used in the project. Teachers can also search archived projects to get some additional ideas about hosting a new project of their own.

The ePals Projects for Global Communication contains teacher-posted projects from around the world that are looking for participants. The collaboration can be via email, Skype/Google Hangout, or a shared project workspace. Many are language-based projects (i.e. middle school students in Malay who are learning English wanting to connect with English speakers in London and Australia), but some include projects to integrate technology into the Common Core.

Before developing or participating in a global project, one place to check is the WorldSavvy site. This site contains links, an e-newsletter, and background information for teachers on global issues, project-based lessons for students and can help prepare students for a collaborative global project.

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Do you teach civic and/or global literacy in your classroom? Share with us on Twitter! #kathyschrock

Literacies for the digital age: Tool literacy

This is the eighth in a series of blog posts highlighting the digital literacies our students will need to succeed.  This post will provide you with some ideas on how to help students attain the tool literacy skills they need.

TOOL LITERACY

Tool literacy, the ability to manage and create information, is all about using software tools to help support the other literacies. This is sometimes called computer literacy or technology literacy.

Managing information using online tools in a digital space is an important skill. Here are some quick tips that can help students (and you) manage their information overload using Web clipping tools, curation tools, RSS and newsreaders, and synchronous communication and backchannel tools.

One way to keep student’s information organized is for them to use Web clipping tool such as Evernote. Evernote runs on desktops and via an iPad and Android app, and allows the student to take notes, record audio files, insert images, and much more, and the notebooks with the information remain synced across all their devices. Classroom ideas: Evernote for educators Livebinder

There is a clipping tool made especially for schools. It is called EduClipper and it has been developed by Adam Bellow of EduTecher.  The created EduClip boards are easily shared and there is an iPad app, tool. Classroom ideas: Creating digital portfolios with Educlipper

Many educators use Pinterest, for their Web clipping tool, which works with the browser, iOS devices, and Android devices. Classroom ideas: 37 ways teachers can use Pinterest in the classroom

One iPad app I have started using is Pocket, which downloads the items I add to it. This is a great way for students to have hard copy of what they have found. It works on computers, iOS, and Android devices.Classroom ideas: How to use the Pocket app for classroom research

Pearltrees is an online curation and organizational tool and an iPad and Android app with a social component. You can search, link to other’s pearls, and organize your own into meaningful areas for you. Classroom ideas: Visual social bookmarking with Pearltrees

One tool that I have been using for a lot of years, and that has now been released for many platforms, is Microsoft’s OneNote. With the ability to easily create notebooks, add images, text, embed files, and draw, OneNote is now my tool of choice for keeping myself organized and for curation across all of my devices. Classroom ideas: OneNote for educators Pinterest page

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a very important tool for students.  RSS allows the user to gather (also called aggregate) many of their data sources in one place. The tool that gathers the information in one place is called a newsreader. One of the most popular newsreaders is Feedly. Feedly has plug-ins to the major Web browsers and an iPad and Android app, too. Classroom ideas: Using RSS in the classroom

RSS can be used for many purposes to support teaching and learning as well as personal items of interest. It saves the student the time to visit that blog or news site or even Twitter and has all of the information just flow into their newsreader. I love this video by wydea which explains RSS in a practical way!

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Students should also become proficient with real-time audio and video conferencing, collectively called “synchronous communication”. Both Skype and Google+ Hangouts are samples of that. And this can be done via a tablet, too. Classroom ideas: Skype and Google+ Hangouts

Knowledge of some simpler online tools to use as a backchannel or a planning space is useful for students to know. I asked my Twitter PLN to post to a TodaysMeet page with some ideas of how students might use it for planning. Classroom ideas: 20 ways to use TodaysMeet in the classroom

And, an old favorite, Wallwisher, has reinvented itself as Padlet. It works perfectly as a backchannel tool through a Web browser on a tablet or computer. Classroom ideas: Interesting ways to use Padlet in the classroom

81Dash is another backchannel tool and is intended for education. You can create rooms and open them when you need them and even have a conversation in the room. Classroom ideas: Backchannels in the classroom

What tools do you use to support tool literacy? Let us know on Twitter! #kathyschrock

Literacies for the digital age: Information and digital literacy

This is the seventh in a series of blog posts highlighting the digital literacies our students will need to succeed. This post will provide you with some ideas on how to infuse information literacy and digital literacy skills into the curriculum.

INTRODUCTION

Information literacy forms the foundation for all of the other literacies. Students need to know how to state their information need, search for it effectively, evaluate what they find for validity, and utilize the information they find.

There are many information literacy models available and many include a component of the best ways to conduct research on the Web. Let’s look at one of these processes.

In order to begin their research, students need be able to ask the right question. Of course, the overall context of the research will be determined by the unit being studied in class, but there are some standard information literacy steps students can use to develop the query they will research in order to gather their information.

• Students should create a list of keywords about the topic
• They should then create a question that is not too broad or too narrow.
• Students should list the places for gathering their information. This may include the the Web, subscription databases, or experts in the field.
• They should conduct some cursory research to make sure there will be information available for their topic.
• If necessary, they should re-work their question.
• Once they begin the research in earnest, students need to become familiar with the critical evaluation of information in order to determine the credibility, validity, and authority of the information they locate.
• Students also need to gather their assets and remember to cite their sources
• NoodleTools has a wonderful flowchart-like, hyperlinked page, Choose the Best Search for Your Information Need, which allows students to consider the type of thing they are looking for (i.e. controversial topic, background information, primary sources, etc.) and leads them to specialized search engines and directories to use.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

The development of the essential question that will guide the student through the research process is also an information literacy skill. How do you engage students with questions and, at the same time, encourage them to think about using this technique when determining their information need?

Grant Wiggins describes what an essential question entails in an article on his Authentic Education site. Wiggins states essential questions…

• cause genuine and relevant inquiry into the big ideas and core content
• provoke deep thought, lively discussion, sustained inquiry, and new understanding as well as more questions
• require students to consider alternatives, weigh evidence, support their ideas, and justify their answers
• stimulate vital, on-going rethinking of big ideas, assumptions, and prior lessons
• spark meaningful connections with prior learning and personal experiences
• naturally recur, creating opportunities for transfer to other situations and subjects

Teaching students how to develop an essential question to articulate their information need can help.  ASCD offers a chapter from the McTighe and Wiggins book, Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding, on their site which provides a practical way for teachers to learn the best ways to create these questions, and can help you explain the process to students.

Having students look at samples of essential questions can be useful, too.  Here are some resources to help.

• Each day, the Essential Questions site presents visitors with a random list of twenty-five essential questions.
• The TeachThought blog has a giant list of essential questions by broad subject area, such as social justice, adversity, conflict, and utopia/dystopia.

SEARCHING TIP

There is one thing about Google search that has changed and you should make students aware of. In 2011, Google began giving you results based on some of your searching habits. To avoid that aspect, you should have students conduct a verbatim search. Here is how they can do this.

Once a user conducts a search, they need to click on SEARCH TOOLS – ALL RESULTS – VERBATIM and the search is refined to include all of the results, not just those tailored to searching habits.

CRITICAL EVALUATION

The skill of learning how to evaluate information is a practiced one. Once students look at information with a critical eye, using a form or online tool, they begin to internalize the things they need to think about.

I have come up with these five over-arching questions.

1. Who wrote the pages and are they an expert?
2. What does the author say is the purpose of the site?
3. When was the site updated and last created?
4. Where does the information come from?
5. Why is the information useful for my purpose?

And here is an expanded version of the “5 W’s of Website Evaluation” that you can print out and put up in your classroom or put on your blog!

I have also created evaluation sheets for all levels that students can use when beginning the process of looking at Web sites with a critical eye. Those forms and many additional resources can be found on my Critical Evaluation page on the Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Everything site.

LOCATING IMAGES

The Creative Commons project has helped immensely with the ease of finding images that can be used in a research report or project.  The Creative Commons project allows content producers to explicitly state how their content may be used. These creators make a determination of whether their asset may be used commercially or just non-commercially, can be transformed into a new product by someone else, and, if they allow transforming of their work, the creators can also require the person who made the changes to apply the same CC license to their new creation and allow others to edit the new work.

When creators upload images to Flickr or a video to  YouTube, they can pick the combination of permissions they want to allow for the use of their creation, and the Creative Commons license is published. Here is what a sample license looks like:

The Creative Commons site has a search engine that allows students to search by license terms, but the three places that students usually search for information and images — Google, Flickr, and Bing — now also have Creative Commons-licensed image searching built right in. It works pretty much the same way in each of these tools.

CITING SOURCES

Once students find credible and reliable information and Creative Commons-licensed images, and save these to utilize in some way, they have to become experts at citing where they obtained their information.

You can review the many sites for both learning how to cite the new materials as well as the tools that make this easier. One of the best is the Purdue Online Writing Lac (OWL) which includes research paper and citation formatting for the three popular citation systems.

There are also some great online citation creators which both take the students step-by-step through the process as well as port the citations to the student’s desktop. My top favorite tools for this are bibme, EasyBib, WritingHouse and Son of Citation Machine.

DIGITAL LITERACY

Digital literacy skills involve using the digital technologies, the communication tools, and networks to find, evaluate, use, and create information. One of these skills that I feel is the most important for students is the use of the communication and collaboration tools, commonly referred to as “social networking”.

The online collaboration skills are not much different than the in-person collaboration skills we help students develop. There are some great rubrics dealing with collaboration which can be used with students. Here is a portion of one from the University of Wisconsin- Stout collection.

The student who is a good collaborator:

• Stays focused
• Demonstrates and encourages effort
• Follows through
• Is a “good” group member
• Gathers research
• Looks for solutions to problems
• Has a positive attitude

As an educator, gauging mastery of these collaboration skills is a bit more difficult in the online world than in the classroom setting. You will probably want to be a virtual partner in every online group, ask students to save a transcript of their discussions (which they can easily do in Today’s Meet) and share it with you, have students use hashtags to keep their group’s comments together, and monitor the revisions  in a Google document. I have a collection of both collaboration rubrics and posting rubrics on this page, if you are looking for some additional ones.

Students also need to be reminded, when collaborating and contributing to a school-based social network, to “pay it forward” and share good ideas with others, post often and don’t just lurk, be a productive member of the network by adding and building upon the content of others, think of the possible consequences before they post, and provide either positive or neutral feedback to others. I firmly believe that negative feedback does not belong in a group social network. That does not mean a student cannot give another student constructive, negative feedback or strongly disagree. However, my preference is that this is done in a one-to-one manner, such as a face to face conversation, an email, an IM, or a direct message in Twitter.

What tools do you use to teach information literacy? Let us know on Twitter! #kathyschrock

Review: STM Aero and Equil Smartpen 2

I recently acquired two new tech accessories I want to share with you!

STM Aero Small Laptop Backpack

I was able to take a look at this laptop backpack at the FETC15 conference in Orlando last month. After examining it, I realized this laptop backpack was one that would work for me! Here are the features I love, in order of importance to me when traveling:

• SIZE: The STM Aero is intended for a 13" laptop, but I only need room for the 11.6" MacBook Air. Many backpacks sized for 13" laptops are big and bulky. This one is not! The outer dimensions are only 16.14 x 10.24 x 5.51 inches. The laptop device space is 9.05 x 12.8 x 0.98 inches, which will fit up to a 13" MacBook Pro Retina. In addition, is very lightweight at 1.5 pounds when empty! It comes in Berry red, black, and gray. (I opted for black since it does not show the dirt!)

• IPAD: I wanted a dedicated pocket for my iPad Air 2, and this bag includes a nicely lined one of these, too.

• BAGGAGE LOOP: The back of the STM Aero includes a luggage handle pass-through on the back to make it easy for me to carry it on top of my roller bag when I need to.

•  KEY STRAP: One thing I always worry about when traveling is misplacing my car keys. The STM Aero includes a strap and hook for attaching my keys!

• INSIDE SPACE: The STM Aero is not very deep, but I can easily fit my technology accessory bag with the adapters, power supplies, extension cord, and additional items in the space.

•  SIDE POCKETS: I often carry a water bottle, so a side pocket is a necessity for me. This backpack has 2 side pockets, so I am using the other one for easy access to my in-ear headphones.

• STRAPS: The STM Aero has comfortable, padded shoulder straps and back, and also includes a "sternum strap" that connects the straps in the front in case I am carrying a heavier load. There is a grab strap at the top of the backpack which makes it easy to carry down the plane aisles.

• FRONT POCKETS: The STM Aero has a zippered, soft-lined pocket on the front which includes two slip pockets (one that I use for my iPhone 6+ and the other for my Wayfarers) and I store my boarding pass in the larger section for easy access to it.

• INSIDE POCKETS: Inside the STM Aero, there are three more slip pockets, two pen slots, and a deep zippered pocket. 

I marked up some STM Aero images so you can view the components I included in the review.

When fully loaded, the STM Aero Small Laptop Backpack retains it shape and is very comfortable to wear. If you need more space for your items, check out the larger laptop bags and rollers on STM's site!


EQUIL SMARTPEN 2

I know we already have iOS and Android devices with drawing tools and external art/drawing tablets. And there are electronic pens that can collect your notes and send them to your computer when you use special notebooks for taking notes.

I had read some reviews about the Equil Smartpen 2 and thought it hit the sweet spot for both notetaking and drawing in a more traditional way.

The Equil Smartpen 2 includes a reciever that you clip to any piece of paper, pad, or notebook, a regular size pen, and extra pen tip, and a cool case for carrying and charging.

Equil Smartpen 2

As you are drawing or writing, and you are connected via Bluetooth to your Mac or Windows computer or iOS device, what you are drawing is transferred in real-time to the computer or iOS or Android device. You can then turn handwriting into text if you want to on the computer or tablet. It is easy to begin new "virtual" pages by pushing the button on the receiver. The receiver can hold 4 GB of information.

Real-time transfer of drawing to tablet

There are two apps for the Equil Smartpen 2 for the iOS and Android devices - Equil Note and Equil Sketch - one for writing and one for drawing. I think the drawing app is a paper-based sketchnoter's dream come true! (Equil Note is also available for the Mac and Windows platforms.) 

You don't need to be Bluetoothed to a device when you are taking notes or drawing. You can simply use the pen and the small receiver, which will collect the information, and send it to your computer, tablet, or phone later. (This saves some battery life, since the BT connection can be shut off on the receiver while you are writing/drawing.)

The notes are synced across your devices using iCloud, Dropbox, or Evernote and also share with social media.

I can't seem to locate a stylus tip for the pen to use with the iPad as shown in the video. (Perhaps that was scrapped during development.) You can find out more about the Equil Smartpen 2 on their site!

Literacies for the digital age: Data literacy

This is the sixth in a series of blog posts highlighting the digital literacies our students will need to succeed. This post will provide you with some ideas on how to infuse data literacy skills into the curriculum.

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According to Dr. Milo A. Schield, students must be able to read, interpret and evaluate information. They must also be able to analyze, interpret and evaluate statistics. And they must be able to gather, assess, process, manipulate, summarize, and communicate data.
These three skills collectively comprise data literacy.

One way to have students gain the data literacy skills is the student creation of an infographic as a creative assessment. This assessment process includes practice with the information, visual, and computer tool literacies, too.

An infographic is a visual representation of data that allows the viewer to understand a topic, get another view, or persuade them to research further.

In the Newspaper Designer’s Handbook, a McGraw-Hill publication by Tim Harrower and Julie Elman, they provide some thoughts on why one might use an infographic. They are writing about infographics to enhance a news story, but the same ideas are applicable to student-created infographics to support a research project.

• To complete the “story” for those who are interested
• To draw in viewers from those that might skip the information
• To pull out salient numbers, details, and comparisons
• To clarify with statistics, geographical detail, or trends
• To help insure the viewer “gets it”

Infographics fall naturally into categories such as statistical infographics, timeline infographics, process infographics, and research-based infographics.

STATISTICAL INFOGRAPHICS

Statistical infographics contain an overview of a topic and data to support the content. These infographics are used to either inform or persuade.

Statistical infographic

For elementary students, showcasing statistical infographics which use size to indicate the different percentages instead of numbers would be easier for them to replicate.

For elementary students, showcasing statistical infographics which use size to indicate the different percentages instead of numbers would be easier for them to replicate.

TIMELINE INFOGRAPHICS

One way to get students “hooked” is to showcase infographics that engage them, like this timeline infographic that tells a story.

Timeline infographic 2

PROCESS INFOGRAPHICS

A process infographic is a little different from a timeline. The creator adds a branching component to the visualization. A process infographic could be used when students are creating “how-to” essays. The infographic can be created by the student writing the essay, or a partner student can design the infographic from the essay.

RESEARCH-BASED INFOGRAPHICS

One of my favorite types of infographics is the research-based infographic. Students are given a sum of money and have to conduct research to determine how to raise those funds. Snagajob.com published the infographic below and, although they did not include where the data was found, they did include fairly comprehensive overviews of how they determined the statistics.

Here is the explanation for one of the items included in the infographic above: “Peyton Manning makes $14 million per year. Super Bowl notwithstanding, in the 2009 regular season he completed 4,500 passing yards (totaling 162,000 inches). If you divide his salary by the number of passing inches, he would need to pass the ball a little more than 8.4 inches to make $729. And just in case you’re wondering, a football is 11” long.”

There is a new series of research-based infographics called “If the world were a village of 100 people” created by Toby Ng. These data-based infographics are simple and informational, but are very compelling.

DATA VISUALIZATION

To learn how to process data, students should view already-created visualizations and discuss how and why the data is presented the way it is and its relevance.

This great infographic provides an overview of some visualization options.

One good place for teachers and students to learn how to pick the most effective visualization for the data is Hans Rosling’s Gapminder site. The Gapminder site has a teacher area with samples, ideas, and curriculum to support the teaching of these skills. There are instructional videos and PDF downloads for both teachers and students.

Another site to support students learning how best to visualize data is Google’s Public Data Explorer.

CREATING THE INFOGRAPHICS

There are many apps and tools that can help students create their infographic. Something as simple as a Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, or Google Drawings single slide or page can be used. Once the infographic is created on a single slide, the slide can simply be saved out as an image and easily shared.

There are many online sites that provide templates for infographic creation. Some are paid sites that provide a few free templates. However, according to Eric K. Meyer, the author of what I consider the best book about infographic creation, a good infographic should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. He likens the visual elements in an infographic to those in a new story’s headlines and lead.

In addition, he goes on to state most readers skim both text and images rather than reading them, so a well-crafted visual image at the top of the infographic may just be the hook the viewer needs to stop and take the time to read and look at the information in the infographic. He talks about the way people read an infographic as an inverted pyramid style with the main point at the top followed by secondary points and supporting details. He also states any text in the title of the graphic should communicate facts rather than just label the information.

The templates offered by the online infographic creators do not often follow this tenet. Infographics need “weight” so the viewer knows what is most important. Many infographics I see are simply posters, with all the information equal in weight. Since an infographics is intended to inform or persuade, there does need to be a “hook” so the viewer will examine it in depth.

What is useful about the online infographic-creation sites is that a student is able to start the infographic from scratch and many, many graphical assets are included. Some of these tools even have the ability to input data directly into the tool and pick an appropriate data visualization for the project.

Online infographic creation sites

• Visme
• Piktochart
• Easel.ly
• Infogr.am
• Visual.ly
• Canva

Tablet apps for infographic creation

• iVisual Info Touch Lite (iOS) (Android)
• GlogsterEDU for iPad
• Canva for iPad

You can find much more information, samples, ideas, and tips on my Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Everything: Infographics page. Here is a quick video overview!

Infographics as a Creative Assessment from Kathy Schrock on Vimeo.

What do your students use for creating infographics? What type do they create most often? Let us know on Twitter! #kathyschrock

Using first gen iPads in the classroom

I received a note today from a teacher who wound up with a classroom set of iPad 1's for her classroom, and she was looking for lesson ideas that would work with that "older" device. Of course, many of the lesson ideas, tips, and tricks that are on the Web for any generation of the iPad will provide a good starting point for planning, like those I have on this site, but there are some specific things to consider when using the older iPad.

There were some limitations on the first gen iPad-- it had no camera and only projected certain things through the VGA connection. Back in 2010, I asked people to add apps that would project with an iPad to a Google form. I have no idea if this is of any use now, but here is the link. 

The iPad first generation can run up to iOS 5.1.1, so, when looking at current lessons that use iPad apps that require a newer operating system, and doing a search for comparable apps in the iTunes App Store, look for the operating system requirements listed on the app page. It will probably take a bit of searching to find those that will work, but it will be worth it! For instance, one of my favorite iPad apps, Sock Puppets, only requires iOS 4.3. And I am sure there are plenty of good creation apps that still work with the older operating systems.

Sock Puppets only needs iOS 4.3

I also figured out if you do a Google search on "iPads in the Classroom" or "iPad in the Classroom", and limit the date span of the search from the day the iPad 1 was announced to the day when the iPad 2 was launched, the resulting series of hits will provide lots of great ideas on the use of the original iPad to support teaching and learning.

Here is how to conduct that search. Do a search in Google, pick the SEARCH TOOLS drop-down menu, pick the date area and pick a "custom date". I searched Web pages that were put up from January 27, 2010-March 2, 2011. (Of course, this does not mean there were no useful Web pages put up after that time.) I did the limited date search to find pages that could only have included ideas and successful practices for the iPad first generation.

Of course, even though the iPad first gen cannot take pictures, students can still download images and edit them using certain photo-editing apps. And there are collage apps, like CollageIt Free, that only require iOS 5.0. It takes a bit of work to find apps that will run on the older iPad, but it is not impossible. And don't forget to search for iPhone apps, which will run nicely on the iPad, too.

I came across this PC World article from 2013 that states you might be presented with the ability to download an older version of an app that will work on your older iPad device. (I don't usually have an "older" device, so do not know if this is still happening.) If it is, it would allow installation of older versions of popular education iPad apps to be installed on the first generation iPad. 

Anyone have any additional ideas for those with the first generation iPads? Are you using one or more of this generation of iPad in your classroom and would like to share the list of creation and editing apps you have on the devices? It would be appreciated and save others a lot of App Store searching time!

Literacies for the digital age: Numeracy

This is the fifth in a series of blog posts highlighting the digital literacies our students will need to succeed. This post will provide you with some ideas on how to infuse numeracy, one of the traditional literacies along with reading and writing, into the curriculum.

Numeracy is the ability to reason and to apply simple numerical concepts. This includes, among other things, mastering of basic math, number sense, computation, measurement, and statistics. (In my grouping of literacies, I separate data literacy into its own category.)

The document entitled “Standards for Mathematical Practice” provide an extensive overview of the “varieties of expertise that mathematics educators at all levels should seek to develop in their students”. These standards “describe ways in which developing student practitioners of the discipline of mathematics increasingly ought to engage with the subject matter as they grow in mathematical maturity and expertise throughout the elementary, middle and high school years”. It is about being able to take their mathematical skill set and use higher order thinking skills to evaluate, experiment, and reason. The Standards for Mathematical Process are:

• Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them: students analyze, conjecture, monitor and evaluate, transform, and conceptualize
• Reason abstractly and quantitatively: students decontextualize and contextualize as well as creating a representation of the problem
• Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others: students can justify, reason inductively, and compare and defend
• Model with mathematics: students use their math skills to solve problems in everyday life
• Use appropriate tools strategically: students can pick the appropriate tool to help them
• Attend to precision: students label and present their mathematics in a way that make it understandable to others
• Look for and make use of structure: students can recognize mathematical patterns
• Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning: students notice when calculations are repeated and use that information

In order to develop these levels of expertise in students, educators need to be able to connect the mathematical practices to the mathematical content in mathematics instructions. There are various ways to help this happen. There are the commercial textbooks and online products that can support student mathematical understanding. There are online mathematics informational sites to provide students with another “voice” to help them understand the basics a bit better and there are stand-alone software programs and apps to provide additional practice.

I am not a mathematics educator, so do not feel comfortable recommending software and apps to support mathematics instruction. I would not know if the app was reinforcing the skills in an appropriate way. However, I have created a PDF form entitled “Critical Evaluation of a Content-Based iPad/iPod App” (which could easily be used for Android apps, too). This form provides some guidance for teachers of any subject as they examine apps and tools to support instruction.

ONLINE MATHEMATICS INFORMATIONAL SITES

As with any online material, educators should preview the elements of the site to validate the information  presented and methodologies being used.

• MathPortal is a site, created and written by a mathematician, which includes tutorials, formulas, sample assessments, and much more for upper middle school and high school students
• PBS LearningMedia includes material from PBS and also videos imported and streamed from Khan Academy. These videos can be searched by grade level and subject. No log-in is needed to view the videos and, since Khan Academy now requires a log-in, this site is an easy way for students of any age to access the Khan Academy videos without providing personal information.
• The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics provides support for teachers and vets online sites and lessons for use in the classroom. They also host the Illuminations site, one of the partner content collections that were a component of the now-closed Thinkfinity portal.
• It takes a while to comb through the plethora of links on Pinterest, but you can usually find a few gems!
  • Math lessons
  • Mathematical practices
  • Mathematic support
  • Teaching: Mathematics

What type of online math sites do you find useful? Share on Twitter! #kathhyschrock