Digital Learning at Grant Wood AEA
  • Home
  • Learn
    • Summer Summit
    • ITEC 2019
    • Iowa 1 to 1
    • Green Screen
    • Stop Motion
    • Physical Computing
    • Free Media
    • AR/VR in Schools
  • Think
    • Blog
    • BrightBytes
    • Tech Coaches
    • Blended Learning
    • Think Make Innovate
    • Edtech Take Out
  • Grow
    • Pear Deck Resources
    • Makerspaces
    • Google Expeditions
    • GWAEA Online Resources
    • OER
    • Computer Science
  • COVID19
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Learn
    • Summer Summit
    • ITEC 2019
    • Iowa 1 to 1
    • Green Screen
    • Stop Motion
    • Physical Computing
    • Free Media
    • AR/VR in Schools
  • Think
    • Blog
    • BrightBytes
    • Tech Coaches
    • Blended Learning
    • Think Make Innovate
    • Edtech Take Out
  • Grow
    • Pear Deck Resources
    • Makerspaces
    • Google Expeditions
    • GWAEA Online Resources
    • OER
    • Computer Science
  • COVID19
  • Contact

Researching with Elementary Students: Tips and Tricks

9/30/2019

0 Comments

 
Small boy with computer and notepad
Image by klimkin on Pixabay
Even our youngest students can be engaged in researching topics of interest on the internet. The stigma of ‘digital natives’ rears its ugly head (once again!) as a massive disservice to our kids. Although our students might reign supreme on YouTube and Minecraft, it doesn’t mean they have the innate research skills that will have them breaking earth-shattering headlines by lunchtime. 

As with any new skill, students need to observe teachers modeling how to research. This might include:
  • brainstorming questions around a topic
  • listing key terms or search phrases that would filter to the correct information
  • evaluating and vetting websites
  • how to curate resources and collect notes
 With so many skills involved in researching, make sure to take your time and help students build skills. Unleashing a class onto 'the Googles' to scour for information could be ineffective, frustrating, and possibly even disastrous.

Over the years, I’ve collected a few little tips and tricks that might be helpful in this process.
  • Use a curation tool for your students. The internet is full of information. And although we should teach our students how to evaluate and curate their own resources, it is highly beneficial for students to have a list of resources the teacher has vetted for them. A great tool for this is Wakelet. It creates a visual board of resources that is easy to navigate. Even a list of resources on a Google Doc will help your students get started. For an even better experience, model for your students how and why you chose a few of those resources.
  • So, you want them to use a search engine. There are some ‘kid-safe’ search engines out there, but don’t trust them with your life. Always have a plan in place for students if they come across content that makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe. ALWAYS. Be proactive, not reactive. Make sure parents are aware of this plan too. It will prove to be worth its weight in gold. Just trust me on this one.
  • Consider the reading level of your students. There might be a huge amount of information out there on the topic, but does the material match your students’ reading levels? Using a free tool like Rewordify can help simplify the complexity of the text, but it’s not perfect and shouldn’t be used to completely solve the problem of unsuitable reading materials. Other tools such as Tween Tribune, Newsela, ReadWorks, and GWAEA’s Online Resources, such as BritannicaOnline, allow students and teachers to choose from a range of reading levels. 
  • Listening comprehension is usually higher than reading comprehension. Mobile devices usually have a text-to-speech accessibility feature built-in (iPad or Android), but other devices might need a little boost. Chrome extensions like Announcify and Select and Speak let students listen to the text. Both these extensions have a less robot-like voice and have proven to work pretty well for me. Yet again, see GWAEA’s Online Resources, Unite for Literacy, or Wonderopolis for built-in text-to-speech features.
  • Take away the clutter. Websites can be distracting and busy. Help students remove some of the visual noise by using Safari’s Reader View on the iPad or by installing the Chrome Extension Reader View or Mercury Reader. Both of these do a great job of cleaning up and isolating the text to help all readers focus on the task at hand.
  • Ask your teacher librarian for help. The end. ​
Researching is a skill that students will circle back to time and time again throughout their life. It’s much like riding a bike. It brings a certain amount of freedom, but can also end in a skinned knee. It is not an innate skill. It needs to be modeled, taught, supported, and revisited many times during the year. But by building solid foundational skills, researching is one of the greatest skills you will ever give your students.


~Mindy Cairney
0 Comments

New Features in iPadOS for Schools

9/24/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Apple’s latest software release saw a small divergence for iPhone and iPad. Although they both run a version of iOS, the iPad variation is now called iPadOS. This is because of the increasing number of iOS features that only work on an iPad. Here are some of my favorite additions to the new iPadOS as well as a quick guide on how to enable them.

New Home Screen Layout

The new iPad home screen includes a sidebar of widgets and an increased number of app icons. The scrollable list of widgets can be customized to include updates from all your favorite apps, and the day and date is displayed above them for a nice, clean look. If 30 apps on one screen is too many for you, head over to Settings > Display & Brightness where you can revert to the previous configuration of 20 apps, but more apps on one screen should mean less swiping, and maybe less hunting around for the one you need.
Picture

Desktop Safari Browser

In iPadOS, Apple upgraded the Safari browser so that it performs much more like the browser on your laptop. This means you will no longer see the mobile version of webpages like YouTube or Google Docs. It’s not perfect, but if you or your students are feeling hamstrung by the lack of features in some of Google’s iPad apps, you can get the full web experience when you use Safari, and you won’t have to request the desktop version because you get that by default. Live collaboration, Add-ons, and just about everything else works just as it should. There is also a download manager that makes downloading video and audio from the web quick and easy!
Picture

Use a Mouse With Your iPad

If you’ve ever longed for mouse support on the iPad, then the time has finally come. Apple included it as an accessibility feature for those who have difficulty interacting with a touch screen.  It allows you to connect a Bluetooth or USB mouse to control a cursor and navigate your iPad hands-free. It is also great for making instructional videos when students can’t see where you are tapping on the screen.

To get started, go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > and turn on Assistive Touch. Then go to Devices and configure your mouse to work the way you want. You can assign different actions to each button on your mouse. The cursor size, speed and color can also be adjusted to your liking.
Picture

New Screenshot Tool

There is a new screenshot tool in iPadOS that includes some new markup tools, as well as the ability to take a scrolling screenshot of a webpage. Simply invoke the screenshot tool by pressing and holding the home button and the power button, then tap the thumbnail in the corner to get started. You can save a screenshot as an image, or as a PDF by tapping Done in the top left-hand corner.
Picture

New Multitasking Options

You can now add multiple apps to Slide Over by dragging and dropping an app from the dock onto an existing Slide Over app. You can switch between these apps the same way you do on your iPhone by swiping up from the home indicator at the bottom of the stack. For even more flexibility, power users will be glad to hear that you can also open more than one instance of the same app. This means you can have Notes and Safari open in Split View in one window, and have Notes and YouTube open in another window. With practice, this can make you more productive than ever on an iPad.

Dark Mode

Are you ready to take a trip to the dark side? Turn on dark mode in Settings > Display and Brightness to make the switch, or do what I do and have it turn on and off automatically at sunset and sunrise. Not apps support dark mode yet, but an increasing number do and this can make it easier on your eyes when you are catching up on school emails on your iPad at night.
Picture

QuickType Keyboard

Remember when you used to be able to split your iPad keyboard in two for thumb-typing mastery? That feature is no longer there, but if you pinch the iPadOS keyboard with two fingers you can shrinking it down to an iPhone-sized keyboard and use swipe-to-type to enter your text. You can drag the smaller keyboard anywhere on the screen. This is perfect for quick text adjustments or for times when you don’t want the iPad keyboard to cover important areas of the screen. Bonus tip: You can use QuickType on your iPhone with iOS 13.

That’s NOT all folks!

These are a few of the features that I have been enjoying from iPadOS when I was using the public beta this summer. If you are interested in finding out about the rest of the iPadOS features, make sure you check out Apple’s website for the full coverage. iPadOS can be installed on an iPad Air 2 or newer.
Jonathan Wylie
Digital Learning Consultant
Grant Wood AEA
0 Comments

    Connect



    Blog Feed

    RSS Feed


    Like Us on Facebook

    Digital Learning at Grant Wood Area Education Agency

    Promote Your Page Too

    Our YouTube Show

    Picture

    Our Podcast

    Picture

    Our Tweets!

    Tweets by @DLGWAEA

    Authors

    Stacy Behmer
    Jonathan Wylie
    Gina Rogers
    Amber Bridge
    Beth Swantz

    Mindy Cairney
    Lynn Kleinmeyer
    Corey Rogers


    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014


    Categories

    All
    3d Printing
    4Cs
    Assessment
    Augmented Reality
    Best Of The Web
    Blogging
    Board Games
    Coding
    Collaboration
    Communication
    Computer Science
    Connected Classrooms
    Creativity
    Device Deployment
    Digital Citizenship
    Digital Classrooms
    Elementary
    Flipped Classroom
    Formative Assessment
    GAFE
    Google
    Google Apps EDU
    Google Expeditions
    Green Screen
    Hattie
    Innovate
    Ipad
    ISTE
    Literacy
    Make
    Makerspace
    Office 365
    Pear Deck
    Personalized Learning
    PLN
    Podcast
    Professional Learning
    Research
    Service Learning
    Student Choice
    Think
    ThinkMakeInnovate
    Update
    Video
    Virual Reality
    Wakelet
    Web 2.0
    Youtube

Grant Wood Area Education Agency extends equal opportunities in its employment practices, educational programs and services, and does not discriminate on the basis of color, gender, race, national origin, religion, creed, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability, veteran status or as otherwise prohibited by law. If you believe you or your child has been discriminated against or treated unjustly, please contact the Agency’s Equity Coordinator, Maria Cashman, at 319-399-6847 or 800-332-8488. Grant Wood AEA, 4401 Sixth St SW, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404.

It is the goal of Grant Wood Area Education Agency that the information on our website be accessible to individuals with visual, hearing or cognitive disabilities. Good faith efforts have been made to ensure that our site complies with the world wide web consortium’s web content accessibility guidelines. Learn more here.