Problem or Opportunity?

I find that it's important for me to occasionally take a step back. I need to remember the nature of this program - we are an alternative program. To be considered for enrollment these young people need to be what our school board calls "early leavers" - when I went to school they would have been called "dropouts". Regardless of the name, the fact remains that my students are my students precisely because they have  not had success at school before.

Now granted, most Turning Point students have known success at school in the past, in that they were able to complete at least two-thirds of their diploma before coming to us. In generalities, a Turning Point student is not the most in need - most have moderately stable homes, most are not hungry or worried about where they're going to sleep tonight. But almost all of them have had problems coming to school for periods in their lives. Whether the cause was employment, family responsibilities, mental or physical health - a lot of my students have had and may still have difficulty attending school with regularity.

 Of course, our programming reflects this. Turning Point curriculum is delivered in chunks, and our learning environment is 'self-paced'. As long as students are progressing (attending regularly, or at least submitting work for assessment and meeting with teachers regularly) then how and where they do their work is not important to us.

And here's where I will finally make my point. One problem I've noticed with the tablet project is the inability for students to do any work on these assignments from home. Now, we're not a correspondence program, but we like to give the opportunity for some of our students to start an assignment with a teacher in class, and to have the option of finishing up at home (or wherever they choose). I didn't consider this until I asked a student why he never did any of the newer (iPad based) assignments. "Because I can't take it home to finish it" he said. Simple. He wanted portability in his assignment. Too bad? 21st century gone too far? Maybe. But our goal is to help this young man graduate, and these assignments likely won't be part of that effort.

Now, as the post's title accurately points out - this 'problem' could also be an opportunity. We are also a college preparation program, and the idea that sometimes school has to be a priority is an important lesson for these students to learn. Sometimes you have to go to school - if you want to be successful with it - and so, an assignment that not only demands, but perhaps even entices a reluctant attender to come to school, well that's something - isn't it?

I'm currently working on some HIGH INTEREST assignments using the pad, hoping to woo these would be truants to come to class. And if there are still too many barriers for some to make it in regularly, then we will tackle that problem another day.

Anyone else have stories about technology (or any other 'lure') successfully drawing non-attenders to school? I've had good results with food in the past as well.

Making Progress...Slowly

So we have finally made the last step - we've been cleared by our board to go ahead, purchase apps, books, and films, and get these iPads into the hands of our students. We have been waiting to get cases, but since the roll out will begin with a very few number of selected students, we don't want to wait any longer to wait for cases to arrive. 

In hopes of minimizing purchase duplication we've decided to distribute our purchases. We've divided our 20 student iPads into two groups. All of our apps (paid and free) will be available on all pads, and any free iBooks will be available on all pads as well. However, we've decided to denote half of our pads (#s 1-10) as iBook pads (where we've placed our purchased iBooks) and the other half of the pads (#s11-20) as film pads. We set up two Turning Point iTunes accounts for this purpose, and will make purchases from those accounts accordingly.  

The iBooks has been wonderful. We have a desktop at the back of the classroom that we use for purchasing (signing in and out of itunes accounts as need be) and as soon as I purchase a book from the iBooks store it is automatically pushed to each of the iBooks pads (#s1-10). Some of the graphic novels took a little time to transfer - but not more than a minute. 

I wish the films were as simple. We are starting slowly with the films (because they cost more), and have only purchased two (Paul Haggis' Crash (2004) and Gary Ross' The Hunger Games (2012)). Everything worked very well during the purchasing - clicked "buy", downloaded them both to the iCloud, and they both showed up on the videos "purchased" file on the pads. But when it came to actually downloading the films onto the pads - we've hit a roadblock. Or, rather, a huge puddle of molasses. Now we are choosing to download these wirelessly (we have a rather robust wireless network here at the college) - so that may be slowing things down a little, but this is taking forever!

Currently I am monitoring 3 different pads as they download those two films - and it's coming up on an hour with moderate progress so far. The saving grace is that this, like many other 'teacher tasks' is likely   only onerous on the front end (we don't imagine we'll be purchasing films everyday) - but it is something to keep in mind. The thought that we'd be able to identify a students' interests, locate an appropriate film that also fit said interests (proper DI), download the film and hand the pad to the student. That clearly won't happen. 

It's not the end of the world at all - and once we get the 10 film iPads loaded we should be fine, but there must be a faster way. Any ideas? Is this the best way to accomplish this task? I feel I'm aging as I sit here. 

Where to Begin?

These iPads sure are great...there are so many features, so many APPS, so many nifty things you can do with them to enhance both your work and play. But that's actually my problem. There are almost too many options! Actually, take out the almost...there are too many options. I do use it for administrative tasks, and have found it to be very user friendly and helpful, but in trying to figure out how to incorporate these iPads into my teaching I have come to feel overwhelmed and even lost, at times. I don't know where to begin, mostly because I feel like I need a year or so to get a handle on everything this spectacular little machine can do. And we all know that in a year, these will be obselete anyway, so I'd better get a move on.

I guess the best way to begin is just to begin. But then I get caught up again at 'where'? Searching, reviewing and rating APPS that are useful to my subject is an easy one, but that doesn't feel like I am taking full advantage. Another initial idea is to use Educreations to have the students teach me what they know on the topic...but I'll have to master that myself first. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about using the iPads. I just feel a little 'behind the 8 ball' so to speak, and I want to be able to maximize their use in my class. So it seems like the only thing to do is just to dive in. By the end of the month, I vow to have used an iPad with my students, to enhance my teaching. There, I said it. There's got to be an APP for that...

Gauging Progress

How do you know if you're getting enough done?

This is a question that is floating around the front of my head today. I suppose it's proof that the TLLP project is truly a rich learning experience; I am learning about a new technology (the iPads), I'm learning more about my students (how, specifically, they learn best), and I'm also learning about the specific tasks of completing a project like the TLLP.

We had a good meeting today. We stuck to an agenda (sort of), we divided up duties, we made action items, we attached completion dates to tasks, and we came up with a comprehensive list of future meeting dates (weekly updates and monthly/bi-weekly task specific meetings). But is this enough? For some reason we all generally feel somewhat frustrated that we are not further along.

Part of the problem may be the fact that our project is somewhat dependant on purchasing technology (iPads and the gizmos and gadgets that will maximize their utility as well as keeping them safe and secure). We've had the pads for a few weeks now, but until we get cases and keyboards we are reluctant to begin using them with our students yet. In the interim we have been getting to know the hardware and software, but there is still some disappointment that our students have not yet been able to weigh in on the usefulness of this new technology.

So here is our question: how do we know if we're maximizing this great learning opportunity? We've set a deadline of November 1st to get the pads in he students' hands, and between now and then we will work to develop iPad based experiences/lessons.

If nothing else, we are receiving a great lesson in empathy - our program is self-paced, which means that students are responsible for determining due dates for their work. Many struggle with this new task and struggle at the beginning until they learn how to be the masters of their own time. The fact that we are now struggling with the openness of the TLLP process is it's own valuable learning experience that will only help us better know our unique learner.

Just curious - is anyone else going through this?

Alter Ed Tablets? Huh?

A traditional classroom - perhaps a dream version. 

So this is where we will begin; it's not the beginning, but it's close enough. Turning Point is an "alternative" setting - which doesn't mean that our students are dangerous, or lazy or any of the other labels they receive - it simply means that they have not had success in a traditional school. (To learn more about Turning Point be sure to click the About Turning Point tab.) Not having success in a traditional day school can mean many different things to many people. The one common theme, however, is that due to some issues a student will not complete their OSSD in the expected time frame.

Since many alternative education students are not mainstreamed, they need to be put somewhere. This can look like many things - depending on the degree of separation required and the resources available at the school. In any event, the act of pulling students out of traditional schools gives them many things: a greater chance to focus, more access to teaching support, more flexible scheduling, etc. But of course, with these gains there are also some deficits.

Typically, alternative education sites do not have the standard additional learning environments, namely: libraries, art classrooms, computer labs and science labs. The classes may be located in the basement of a church, the empty wing of a large high school or an 'off-site' school board building that hasn't traditionally housed learners - so it is not an oversight, it's simply a reality.

Which is where this project started. We have an atypically great alternative site - we're located in a local college, and our students have more access to learning environments than what is 'typical' of an alternative site -  but we do NOT have a reading library, a computer lab, an art classroom, or a science lab. This is a burden felt by the students, but also felt by the staff - coming up with 'other options' is an ongoing project at every alternative site.

It is with these shortcomings in mind that we decided to investigate the efficacy of tablet technology in the alternative classroom. Throughout the project we will work to determine whether or not tablets (and all of the wonderful possibilities they promise) are more effective at delivering curriculum to students in an alternative setting.