Cell phone bans in schools have become increasingly common recently, thanks to growing concern among education policy leaders about the devices and the suspected link to negative mental health outcomes in kids.

Bans have been enacted nationwide at the classroom, school, district, and state level. At the start of this school year, The National Education Association reported that 15 states have passed laws or enacted policies that ban or restrict cell phone usage. Several additional states are now considering similar laws to limit cell phone use in school.

However, implementing a cell phone ban is not always a simple process, as school leaders must address concerns from students and their parents, and then decide what a cell phone ban actually looks like in their education settings.

​​Alana Winnick, an author and Educational Technology Director at the Pocantico Hills Central School District in New York, and Mary Jane Warden, Chief Technology Officer at the Community Consolidated School District 15 in Illinois, share lessons they learned from their experience with implementing cell phone bans.

What Does Your Cell Phone Ban Actually Include

The ways in which a school implements a cell phone ban can vary significantly.

“Some districts are buying these [phone] pouches for students to keep their cell phones in,” Winnick says. She adds that some districts are getting special cell phone lockers in each classroom where teachers collect and store phones at the beginning of each class. Other schools are having students simply keep their phones in their traditional lockers or instruct students not to have their phones out during the school day.

Winnick and her colleagues decided a simpler approach would be most effective for their students.

“As with anything else, children find a way to get around these things,” Winnick says. “If you're telling them to put their cell phone in a pouch, or if you're collecting them at the door and putting them in a locker, then guess what, they probably have another cell phone in their desk. They're probably giving you their old phone.”

She adds, "We just have a policy that says, 'Keep your cell phone in your locker,' and our students have been pretty respectful of that. If we catch them with their cell phone, then they know there are protocols in place for that.”

Even so, there have been some unforeseen reactions.

“Students didn't understand that this applies to smartwatches," Winnick says. "They were also all wearing smartwatches and were literally texting and calling their parents."

Because of this, students needed to be reminded that the cell phone ban also extended to smartwatches.

Communication With Students

Warden’s district met with student advisory groups to discuss their ban. She says other school leaders should explore this, as it helps explain school policies to students and lets district leaders learn what students think about all this. In her district, for example, Warden says students understood that using cell phones can be fun and helpful but also can have a negative effect.

“They fully recognize that there’s this push and pull around what cell phones and social media do to their brains,” Warden says. “They also recognize that they are a distraction. We had several groups even say, ‘We understand that it is a distraction. We've been distracted in class. So we see the need, but we don't want you to take them away.’”

As the conversations progressed, the students also agreed that the downsides of social media use were more extensive than just being a distraction. “They also reported that, you know, there have been misuses, that there are risks of cyberbullying, and there's a lot of social media drama to navigate around in this day and age,” Warden says.

Engaging in these conversations with students in an honest and open manner can help explain the impetus behind a cell phone ban and get more buy-in from your school community.

Communicating With Parents

Some of the biggest critics any school instituting a cell phone will encounter are parents.

“Parents have this perceived need to be able to communicate with students throughout the day,” Warden says. “Because the technology is so available and so prevalent now, parents don't want to just call the school to reach their students.”

Still, districts can remind parents that, in fact, calling the school works just fine, and that the school has procedures in place to notify parents in emergencies.

Some schools have also explored giving students access to phones at certain times during the day.

As with other aspects of technology management, the right approach is often dependent on the setting, and each school or district needs to find what works for them. Whatever policy a district chooses, inviting parents to be partners in fostering healthy digital habits in children is important, as discussions around appropriate cell phone usage should not begin and end with the school day.

Winnick’s district has been partnering with its PTO to encourage better cell phone use overall. They’ll begin each session with an expert sharing insights, then they’ll open up to discussion so parents can share what is working and not working with their family’s use of technology.

“They're all sharing things like, ‘This is what we do at my house: we make a tech stack of all the technology when we're eating dinner so we can all be engaged,’ or 'We make sure that laptops are only used in common areas, such as the living room or the dining room.’”

Winnick adds that these conversations help educators and caregivers join forces in trying to make student phone and technology more appropriate. “We're all creating this community where we're sharing what's working and what's not working,” she says.

• Exploring The Use of Phone Pouches in Schools
• Managing Screen Time Without Banning Technology

During the pandemic Jan Plass learned firsthand how nuanced the discussion around kids and screen time has to be. At one point, he became upset with his teenage children about how much time they were spending in front of screens.

“So I go into their rooms ready to tell them to get off their computers. My older one says, ‘Dad, I just composed another song, look,’” says Plass, director of CREATE Consortium for Research and Evaluation of Advanced Technologies in Education at New York University. “My younger one was in his room, and when I got ready to get mad at him, he had just looked up how to play a piano piece by a particular pianist in a certain style.”

Plass, who is also co-director of the Institute for Games for Learning at NYU, wrote a blog post about the experience. “It dawned on me that this whole conversation about screen time is completely misguided because it assumes that they're doing a certain type of activities on the screen that we don't approve of, but it doesn't recognize that children nowadays are getting their information from screens like we used to get them from other sources. They make screens the primary source of education.”

This understanding is key to how Plass believes educators and parents should approach the topic of screen time and screen bans.

Not All Screens Are Created Equal

Much of the conversation around screen time currently is focused on cell phones being banned in schools. A new book by NYU psychologist Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation, makes the argument that social media and cell phones are to blame for the rise in mental health issues among adolescents.

While Plass notes that many people disagree with Haidt’s conclusions, he believes phones in schools can be a real distraction.

“One thing is clear, we're having more problems in schools with phones than those schools who simply said, ‘No more phones,’” Plass says. But that’s because kids are generally using phones for texting and social media, not because the screens themselves are inherently bad.

Not All Screen Activity Is Equal

As Plass learned with his own children, what is being done on the screen matters. He says when used correctly in schools, non-phone devices can be very effective for education by supporting creativity and playfulness through activities such as gamification. The trick for educators and parents is differentiating between productive and distracting screen time.

“The best thing parents can do is steer their children toward media production rather than media consumption,” Plass says. “We are currently running a program here at NYU for high schoolers that's called 'Coding for Game Design.' So the game design is what draws them in, and the coding, the programming, and unity is what they learn.”

Even with school-issued devices, screen-based distractions can occur, but Plass says preventing that is about good classroom management. He believes more tech education training is necessary so educators have the skill sets necessary to manage connected classrooms.

Age Also Matters When It Comes To Screen Time

The screen time discussion also requires different approaches for different age groups and a better understanding about how children use screens early in their development.

“We're running a whole study for birth to eight-year-olds to try and understand what they're doing on their screens. Nobody knows,” Plass says. “We know kids spend a lot of time on their screens. We know they start younger and younger, but we have very little data on what's actually being done.”

When he had younger children, Plass had limits on phone use. As his children have gotten older, he has replaced the limits with honest conversations about how much they are using the phone and how it impacts their relationships and life. He says parents can also model creative uses of screen time by introducing their kids to things such as art programs and music creation tech tools.

“The creative uses of this technology are really endless,” he says.

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How phones are used in education is a divisive topic. Since the pandemic began there has been an effort to ensure every student has a device capable of accessing the internet, and education apps have become more common. Screen use increased by 17 percent among those 8-18 years old between 2019 and 2021, according to a survey by Common Sense Media. 

Meanwhile, some schools have banned the use of phones altogether, often citing the distractions caused and the perceived links to lack of sleep, depression, and other negative mental health outcomes. 

However, the extent to which phones impact the mental health of students and help or hinder their education remains unclear. 

Phones and Mental Health 

For a 2020 study, Candice Odgers, a University of California, Irvine professor of psychological science, and a colleague analyzed previous studies that examined the link between phone and technology use and anxiety, depression, and overall mental health. 

“When you do that, you find that most of the studies find no association,” Odgers says. “The associations that are found are really small and they're a mix of positive and negative associations.” 

Even those small associations that are found are likely due to confounding factors, Odgers says. In a previous study, Odgers and colleagues followed 400 teens intensively over a four-week period, tracking their tech use and emotional state. “Other studies compare a kid who has one hour of screen time a day versus a kid who has seven, and those are different kids with different families,” Odgers says. “We looked at the same kid over time and on days when this particular kid is using more screens, or more time on social media, or more time on digital tech for school, do we see differences in how they usually are in terms of their symptoms? We found virtually no associations. And when we did find associations, it was in the opposite direction.”

On days students used their devices more, they reported better well-being and less depression. 

Odgers says there is a disconnect between the popular perception of phones and the role the devices actually play in the increasing mental health problems we see in young people. “We cautioned against this belief that if we just shut off the phones, it will solve these problems that have been long-standing and are likely rooted in much bigger and systemic issues than in technology,” she says. “That always gets us put in the pro-tech camp, which we're not. We're pro kids and pro evidence.” 

Phones and Learning 

The discussion about device usage and mental health in young people often takes center stage when phones are banned within school districts. However, the mental health impact of phones should be a separate discussion from whether kids should have access to theirs during class, Odgers says. “That’s up to the teacher and the context,” she says.

Another separate issue is how phones and other devices affect education. A 2020 literature review of research examining the impact of phones on learning found frequent cellphone use decreased academic achievement, but the study authors cautioned this association did not equal causation. More research is needed for any sort of definitive answer.

Consequently, absent clear research findings, it’s up to school leaders and parents to develop their own rules and guidelines for phone use. 

Chad A. Rose, director of Mizzou Ed Bully Prevention Lab at the University of Missouri, who studies cyberbullying, understands both sides of the debate around phones in schools, but thinks bans on phone use are unrealistic and unproductive. “I tend to fall on the side of smartphones are a useful tool; social media is a useful tool, and we just have to teach kids how to use them appropriately,” he says. 

Using Phones in Schools Effectively 

Regardless of the impact on mental health or role in educational efficiency, the discussion around phones may need to evolve. “It's a really unrealistic expectation that kids will shut off their phones,” Odgers says. “So the smart and progressive way to look at this is to engage with young people where they live – and spend the majority of their time in some cases – and teach them how to do that responsibly.” 

However, this should not solely be the responsibility of parents and teachers as understanding how data is stored as well as other privacy concerns and risks, is hugely complex and ever-changing. “Social media companies and big platforms need to step into the public and educational square. They cannot offload all of this responsibility,” Odgers says. 

Rose also believes the conversation around these devices needs to evolve from whether phones should be used to how they can best be used. He advocates for earlier and more robust digital citizenship education in schools that teaches about the permanence and potential consequences of what is posted to social media and written in apps.

Rose also believes that distinctions should be made between the types of activities students engage in on their devices. With his daughter, Rose blocks out time away from the phone but also permits and encourages her to incorporate phone use into diverse activities. 

“So there's a time for social media, but there's also a time for reading, and if you want to read on your device, cool,” he says. “There's a time for doing something creative. If you want to do something creative on your device, great. Then we have time blocked out for physical activity.” 

Ultimately, for Rose and many others who study technology and its impact on education and children, it comes down to realizing how important these devices are in children’s social lives currently and how important they’ll be in their future careers. “Access to technology, and knowing how to use technology appropriately, is a benefit to everyone,” he says. 

• 4 Ways To Prevent Cyberbullying
• 5 Tips for Talking to Social Media-Addicted Teens

“For years, the use of technology for many schools and districts was an add-on, not a fully integrated experience,” says Dr. Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow, a national education nonprofit organization. “Because of that, teacher preparation programs did not understand the importance of teaching mobile technology integration to preservice teachers.” 

A partnership between Project Tomorrow and the University of Kentucky is now focusing on developing a training model for new teachers to learn how to integrate technology within instruction before they reach their own classrooms. In the Mobile Learning Project, preservice teachers are partnered with inservice teachers so they can learn about the practical use of technology in teaching. In exchange, the inservice teachers are exposed to the innovation and creativity that is innate to digital natives. 

The backstory for this project emerged over several years of Speak Up data from Project Tomorrow. In the research on the efficacy of mobile devices, they found that principals were concerned about the amount of retraining new teachers required on the integration of technology and that many inservice teachers did not think of mobile devices as a way to impact the quality of student work or change the learning environment.  

Challenges of Mobile Technology Integration 

The development of the new teacher training model was based on Speak Up data on the challenges of effective mobile learning: 

• Only 21% of teachers say they are very comfortable integrating mobile devices into instruction. 
• 47% of principals in high poverty communities say teacher integration of technology is their No. 1 challenge. 
• 37% of principals say that training preservice teachers to effectively use mobile devices in the classroom should be a top priority. 

“The question we grappled with was how to ensure that the next great generation of teachers is well-prepared to leverage the investments that K-12 districts are making around mobile learning,” says Evans. 

The big questions they addressed in the partnership with the University of Kentucky teacher preparation program were:

• What are the challenges with helping inservice and preservice teachers develop capacity to use mobile devices and wireless technologies effectively within instruction?
•  What are the best methodologies or approaches to helping inservice teachers and preservice teachers develop competency with using mobile devices?
• What are the lessons learned from this project that other schools and districts can apply in their classrooms?  

Developing the Mobile Learning Project 

The University of Kentucky teacher prep program was always known for innovative thinking, creativity in problem solving, and a willingness to try something different. Project Tomorrow worked with Dr. Lu Young, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership Studies. 

Evans and Young determined that peer-to-peer learning would blend the assets and skills preservice teachers could bring to inservice teachers with the assets, skills, and knowledge that inservice teachers could share with preservice teachers to benefit both groups. “The real frontier for professional learning is not having teachers just integrate technology during the school day, but help them leverage or capitalize on the seamless use of technology as the student moves from school to home,” says Young.

“For using devices as instructional tools to create new types of learning experiences, you need teachers who understand their pedagogy, curriculum standards, and their students’ strengths and weaknesses to be effective,” says Evans. “Establishing peer-to-peer learning between preservice and inservice teachers increases the impact and decreases the learning curve once new teachers enter the classroom.”

The team worked with three school districts in Kentucky, each with different issues and challenges. The onset of the pandemic this year accelerated the distribution of devices to students. “Now the challenge is to teach students how to have agency and use the devices in the way they own their own learning and move forward to high levels of efficacy, growth mindset, and intrinsic motivation,” says Young. “Our message at the University of Kentucky Center for Next-Generation Leadership is that we will emerge from the pandemic better than we went in.” 

In order to share the results of the program, Project Tomorrow has developed an online course capturing the experiences of the inservice teachers, with the idea that it can be a learning tool for teacher preparation programs.

Who Benefitted from the Project? 

Pre-service teachers. College students are better understanding technology implementation and learning how to become classroom teachers. 

Practicing teachers. Teachers in classrooms are learning how to use mobile devices beyond student engagement. 

School and district administrators. Leaders are now seeing a higher ROI from the implementation of mobile devices within learning. 

Program funders or developers. They now receive input as to how to leverage devices effectively to have a greater impact.

Students. Students are benefitting from more informed teachers today and tomorrow. 

“From a leadership perspective, we’ve learned that you really have to spend the right amount of time on the front end, talking about the ‘why,’” says Young. “Our faculty is now embedding the lessons we’ve learned during this project into our teacher preparation program so that our students have a good grounding in why mobile technology integration is important in 2020 and beyond so that all students can be successful.”

• Best Digital Tools for Teachers
• Strategies for Remote and Hybrid STEM

The best mobile device management tools, or MDM solutions, can help an education institution better keep track of, and control tablets, laptops, smartphones and desktops. The right MDM can help IT admins stay in firm control.

The key here is that a great mobile device management solution will make the work of the IT team far more efficient, ultimately saving time. But on top of that, it will allow for greater control over the mobile devices to ensure all are always working at their best.

The right tool can allow an IT administrator the power to locate, lock, and even wipe devices all remotely from a central location. But, of course, it can do a whole lot more too.

So which is the best mobile device management tool for your school or college? Read on to find out everything you need to know.

• The Best K-12 Learning Management Systems
• Student Information Systems
• One-to-One Computing and Classroom Management

1. Filewave Endpoint Management Suite: Best Overall MDM

Founded in 1992, FileWave provides its Endpoint Management Suite to education, enterprise, and government institutions to assist IT teams throughout the entire lifecycle process of inventorying, imaging, deployment, management, and maintenance. 

FileWave’s Endpoint Management Suite is an all-in-one, highly scalable MDM solution that solves the many challenges of managing a diverse and growing population of users, devices, and content. It does this by ensuring organizations have a comprehensive solution that supports both client (desktop) and mobile devices across Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android.

This all-inclusive, multi-platform unified endpoint management solution offers many unique and powerful features that streamline the entire IT lifecycle process (inventory, image, deploy, manage and maintain) within a single console. 

Key features:

- Complete multi-platform support (macOS, iOS, Windows & Android).

- Multi-platform imaging (direct, network, and layered models).

- Patented fileset deployment (deploy anything, anytime, at any level).

- Patented booster technology (highly scalable infrastructure that significantly reduces network traffic).

- True self-healing technology (auto-repair broken installations).

- Device discovery, tracking and security; inventory, license and content management.

- End-user self-service kiosk (user specific, on-demand content, and updates).

- Robust patch management (OS and 3rd party updates).

2. Jamf Pro: Best MDM for Apple

Since 2002, Jamf has been helping more than 4,000 school IT teams, instructional technologists, administrators, and teachers manage Macs and iPads in the classroom to ensure their Apple programs are a success. With Jamf Pro, users can automate Mac and iPad deployment and simplify ongoing management.

Jamf Pro offers ongoing device management that evolves with the changing needs and expectations of the classroom. 

Key features: 

- Support for Apple’s Device Enrollment Programs to automatically enroll and configure new devices.

- Integration with Apple School Manager and zero-day support for all new Apple releases.

- Definition of settings using configuration profiles, policies, and custom scripts.

- Management of Apple’s built-in security tools: passcodes, security policies, software restrictions, and Lost Mode.

- Access to Jamf Nation, the Apple IT community of 100,000-plus members.

3. Lightspeed Mobile Manager: Best MDM for Schools

Lightspeed Mobile Manager is a unique MDM solution made just for schools. It saves time and money with multi-OS support, intuitive IUs, integration with Apple and Windows programs, and a school-based hierarchy and policy inheritance.

Mobile Manager is designed with a hierarchy to match a district and inheritance to make policies easy to set across levels. It’s multi-OS, and it has classroom controls for teachers. 

Key features:

- Ability to control all of your devices remotely with the click of a button.

- Integrate your SIS to automatically create users and groups.

- Manage all of your solutions from a centralized dashboard interface; and more.

4. Securly MDM for Schools: Best MDM for Teachers

Securly puts both IT administrators and teachers in control of classroom devices by providing school-specific mobile device management plus classroom management tools. Securly supports iOS, Android, and macOS. Apple VPP and DEP are supported at both district level and school level. 

Teachers can freeze student screens, lock to a specific app or website, and more. Securly is highly scalable, from a single school with just a few carts of devices to large districts with many school locations and thousands of devices in a 1:1 program.

Securly is designed exclusively for schools, so everything from the intuitive interface to the classroom feature set is designed to meet schools needs, rather than corporate enterprise needs, which can be quite different for mobile device management. 

For example, schools often have to refresh an entire fleet of devices between school years, so functions for mass-reset help the IT department accomplish this. Schools also have the unique need of sharing administration responsibilities with teachers, who need to make changes at the classroom level. Securly empowers them to accomplish this.

5. Impero Education Pro: Best MDM for Safety

Schools use Impero Education Pro for a wide array of administrative IT tasks such as controlling passwords, managing printers, or setting computers to power on or off at certain times. This saves time for IT departments because they can schedule school-wide installs, patches, and updates from one screen instead of having to physically go to each device.

Impero Education Pro also provides mobile device monitoring tools to help teachers take full control of their classrooms while allowing students to benefit from the use of technology. Teachers can share their screens, send or share files with students, take over or lock students’ computers, create exams, assign tasks, send direct messages to students, or monitor thumbnails of students’ activity in real time to ensure they are on task.

The software also monitors students’ online activity on a school’s network and alerts educators if students use keywords that could indicate cyberbullying, sexting, radicalization, self-harm, or a range of other issues.

Impero Education Pro is unique in that it provides seamless integration across multiple platforms. It consolidates a range of powerful classroom, network, and device management features enabling schools and colleges to reduce costs and improve both staff and student productivity. 

Its online safety functionality uses keyword detection technology to help schools safeguard students online, and provides deeper monitoring than many other types of monitoring software. 

Impero Software also partners with nonprofit and specialist organizations including Hey Ugly, ikeepsafe, Anad, and the Institute of Digital Citizenship in order to develop its keyword libraries and to connect schools with appropriate resources.

Also Consider: Black Box Wallmount Charging Locker

Whether you’re a teacher, IT tech, or administrator, Black Box Wallmount Charging Lockers are engineered to save your floor space and your budget. Ideal for smaller classrooms that are short on space, the lockers hold 9 or 12 iPad tablets or 15-inch Chromebook laptops. 

These tools also give you the versatility to mount multiple lockers together for more storage options. Adjustable rackmount rails enable you to mount other IT equipment too. Plus, the 100% steel lockers hold up to 150 pounds and are guaranteed for life.

Wallmount Charging Lockers are unique because devices and power bricks are accessible from the front, which allows the lockers to be stacked on all sides to form device charging walls. Other lockers need to have access to the front and the back or top, not allowing them to form locker walls. Also, the Wallmount Charging Locker has optional GDS Wireless Charging technology to eliminate device power cords for most tablets used in the classroom.

• The Best K-12 Learning Management Systems
• Student Information Systems
• One-to-One Computing and Classroom Management

In self-paced learning, students approach lessons and content at their own speed. This approach is useful in supporting different learning styles, and can potentially help students better retain information. 

With the increased implementation of elearning and remote teaching, self-paced learning is becoming more and more prevalent.

To help students and educators, this alphabetical list offers some useful online resources that can be used for self-paced learning.

Top 15 Tools for Self-Paced Learning

Brain Pop and Brain Pop Jr. - Students can watch animated videos in numerous subjects and then follow up with brief assessments and quizzes.

Education Galaxy - A game-based learning platform for grades K-6 that covers a variety of topics. Also focuses on preparing students for state assessments.

Gimkit - A “game show for the classroom” in which students can collaborate and create quizzes that can then be taken from their own devices.

GrammarFlip - Students can improve their grammar and writing by watching educational videos and then completing interactive exercises.

Kialo Edu - A platform for educators to gauge student understanding and differentiate instruction through collaborative discussions. Helps to build critical thinking and reasoning skills.

Knoword - A vocabulary-building tool with a teacher portal through which educators can create their own topic-themed word packs and track student progress.

Makerdemy - Designed to help students boost their programming and coding skills at their own pace and in a variety of languages (i.e. Raspberry Pi, Google Assistant, etc.).

Mathigon - An innovative interactive math textbook that serves as a personal tutor and provides real-time feedback.

Milestone Math - An iOS app that automatically adapts to a student’s knowledge level and uses self-paced learning to help students bolster their math skills.

Outwhiz - Offers self-paced exercises focusing on math and English for grades K-8. Outwhiz also offers analytics tools to track progress.

PBS Learning Media - Videos, interactive activities, lessons and more aligned to state standards and covering a wide range of subjects.

Splash Math - A K-5 personalized learning math curriculum with interactive games and rewards.

UMU - A site and mobile app (iOS/Android) that can be used to create self-paced lessons in any subject.

VocApp - A free mobile app that employs digital flashcards to help students learn at their own pace and differentiate instruction.

Vocab Victor - Students can boost their vocabulary skills at their own pace with this free mobile app, which assesses and adapts to their vocabulary level in real-time.

A version of this article was cross posted at cyber-kap.blogspot.com

David Kapuler is an educational consultant with more than 10 years of experience working in the K-12 environment. For more information about his work, contact him at dkapuler@gmail.com and read his blog at cyber-kap.blogspot.com.

From our friends at techradar:
5G is the fifth generation of mobile internet connectivity, and is just beginning to roll out around the world. It promises speeds up to 20 times faster than 4G connections, more bandwidth and more stable connections. 

This has tremendous potential to transform the way we communicate, with live high-definition video streaming and much faster download speeds, but it also has uses far beyond what we currently do with our phones and tablets – including reaching into the classroom.

Why this matters:  
Classroom technologies such as virtual/augmented reality and remote education are opening up new avenues to learning and engagement for K12 students. These technologies demand transmission of large amounts of data—which 5G can provide. To explore the benefits of 5G mobile internet connectivity in the classroom, visit techradar.com

From our friends at Tom's Guide: With kids headed back to school, it’s time to take a closer look at the apps that should be going to class with them. We’ve looked at a bunch of apps for a wide range of grade levels — from elementary school up to high school — and these are our favorite mobile apps for students.

Why this matters: There are thousands of apps for K12 students, covering subjects from algebra to zoology, and functioning as calculators, recorders, digital flashcards, monitors and much more. Knowing which apps help kids to learn best while still remaining budget-friendly is a must for teachers and school administrators. Find out which mobile apps are tops for K12 students by reading the full report at tomsguide.com.

Jamf today announced new features for Jamf School aimed at helping teachers to utilize their Apple technology to its fullest potential. Jamf School is a purpose-built mobile device management (MDM) solution for education. Its web-based interface aims to make deploying, managing and securing Apple technology simple and accessible. The Jamf School management system also pairs with three apps, Jamf Teacher, Jamf Parent and Jamf Student – with a goal of creating the optimal digital learning experience within the classroom and at home. 

This summer, Jamf School will provide the following features:

• Creating ad-hoc classrooms within Jamf Teacher for flexible teaching allows teachers to initiate and create a classroom and immediately. Usually classrooms are defined in the management system by IT, but sometimes an educator needs to create an instant classroom themselves. Now, when a teacher creates an ad-hoc classroom, the students in close proximity to the teacher will get a notification inviting them to join. 
• Filtering content for maximum focus now allows an admin to manage the iOS built-in web content filter and offers a more user-friendly way of filtering apps. Educators and parents can now use the Jamf Teacher and Jamf Parent apps to block categories of apps, such as “games” or “social media”, helping students stay focused during the school day and when doing schoolwork at home. 

In addition to Jamf School, Jamf Parent, an app that allows parents to guide their children’s use of apps and features on school-issued devices, will soon be available for Jamf Pro customers. 

Teaching students to recognize both sides of an argument, and/or have structured conversations centered around class content, regularly finds its place in our classrooms. We teach argumentative essay writing, debate protocols, conversational cues (in all languages), etc… These lessons can be completed through traditional classroom strategies, through podcasting…. and perhaps through texting.

There are a number of websites that let you create a fake text message but I have found many are loaded with questionable (and clickable) advertisements or are just plain blocked in school. To circumvent these roadblocks, I have created a Google Slides deck using an iPhone X frame for inserting text messages in.

The process is relatively easy, you just copy and paste the appropriate shape to keep the conversation going. One of my students called me out on the fact that there is a green iMessage arrow but I made my conversation bubbles blue… thanks Brady, I fixed it for class!

Students can check their work by previewing the slideshow and clicking the next arrow. One bubble at a time should appear on each slide if they have done it correctly.

Once completed, students can make the slideshow run itself with the following steps in Google Slides:

1. Click “File”
2. Select “Publish to the web”
3. select “auto play” with 2 second transitions
4. A link will be created that can be shared.

For a bit more of an extension to this activity you can upload the slides to Tall Tweets to create an animated GIF like the one I used.

Our students are texting and communicating via social media on mobile devices quite regularly, perhaps activities like this will provide us with teachable moments in the classroom.

Have fun!

Micah

cross posted at micahshippee.com

Micah Shippee, PhD is an out-of-the-box-doer, a social studies teacher, and a technology trainer. He works to bridge the gap between research and practice in the educational sector. Micah explores ways to improve motivation in the classroom and seeks to leverage emergent technology to achieve educational goals. As an innovative "ideas" person, Micah likes to think, and act, outside the box. Micah is motivated and energetic, taking a creative approach towards achieving goals. As an Educational Consultant, and Keynote Speaker, he focuses on the adoption of emergent technology through the development of an innovative learning culture. Micah believe that innovativeness is the pedagogy of the future.

Capstone, publisher of children’s educational content for schools and home, announces significant upgrades to its PebbleGo™ database coming in Fall 2019.

Among the improvements will include compliance with Section 508 standards (U.S. Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973) and WCAG 2.0 AA (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), ensuring PebbleGo will be accessible to children with vision, cognitive, physical, and hearing disabilities.

Accessibility features will include:

•  Simple, intuitive, and predictable navigation
•  Text-to-Speech on all articles
•  Transcripts for all videos
•  Alternative text and descriptive titles for meaningful images
•  Screen reader support
•  Access keys for keyboard-only navigation
•  Color contrast design to support color-blindness and low vision

PebbleGo will also be mobile-responsive, providing students with at-home or on-the-go access on their smartphones, tablets, and computers. In late Fall 2019, PebbleGo will launch a “Read More” feature in its Animals and Science modules which will allow students to delve deeper into research projects or their own interests with optional, read-aloud e-Books. Two e-Books will be available for each article.

All PebbleGo database modules include levelled text and are narrated by professional voice-over artists to provide essential scaffolds for emerging and struggling readers and English language learners.

Securly  today announced the acquisition of TechPilot Labs, provider of K-12 education technology. TechPilot Labs, a private company based near Atlanta, Georgia, was founded in 2012 by Jarrett Volzer and serves hundreds of school districts spread across four continents with mobile device management and classroom technology management products. 

With the addition of new solutions from TechPilot Labs, Securly’s comprehensive digital student experience suite now provides these key capabilities:

• Mobile device management for all Apple devices, allowing for deployment, inventory, management, app distribution, OS updating and more across hundreds or thousands of devices whether at school or off campus
• Classroom management for Chromebooks and Apple devices that allows teachers to control what’s on each device, keep students focused and on-task, monitor student activity, open websites, restrict web access, and more
• Network management using the cloud-based filtering solution, providing control, visibility, and flexibility for CIPA compliance
• Online safety management through AI-powered search, social media, and email monitoring, anonymous tip line services and 24x7 monitoring by a staff of trained student safety experts
• Parent engagement through the combination of parent portals that provide visibility and control over the use of both school-provided and personal devices

Those interested in learning more about the acquisition and the combined power of these solutions can attend a live informational webinar on March 14th at 10 am PT/1 pm ET. To learn more about each company’s solutions, please visit securly.com and techpilotlabs.com.

Siri has her own sense of humor and personality and certainly the kids enjoy playing with it.

[SAFE YOUTUBE]

Using iFakeSiri, now students can take the role of Siri and create fake conversations that they can write. Simply, go to iFakeSiri website and start writing your dialogue. When you are done, you can take screenshots, get a link or embed a code.

We can give the Siri questions to our students and ask them to generate the answers or we can give a topic to our students to write conversations with Siri. This tool will certainly be a good one to improve writing skills.

cross-posted at ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org

Özge Karaoglu is an English teacher and educational consultant in teaching young learners and teaching with web-based technologies. She is the author of Minigon ELT book series, which aims to teach English to young learners through stories. Read more of her ideas about teaching English through technology and Web-based tools at ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org.

A new tech start-up is allowing parents to communicate constructive feedback to schools in the simple form of a text message.

Possip—so named from a mashup of positive gossip—was created by a former educator and public school parent based in Nashville, Tenn. Shani Dowell, whose own children are in kindergarten and third grade, realized that parents often talk amongst themselves about what’s happening at school, but that the information rarely makes it back to the administration—unless an issue balloons into a major problem.

“I’ve spent my career working in the field of education and my husband is a school administrator, as well,” Dowell said. “One day he told me about a parent who came into his office upset about a prolonged situation that he was hearing about for the first time, and that’s when I got the idea.

[Use Twitter to Build PLN, Communicate With Students]

Possip started last year as a pilot project in a handful of schools and has launched nationwide starting this school year, primarily in elementary and middle schools. A high school version that allows students to provide feedback is in the works.

Possip is also a tool that can be used by schools receiving Title I funds that are mandated to meet certain family engagement standards under the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

Learn more at www.possipit.com.

To ban or not to ban, that is the question. Phones in school continue to be a hot potato topic. They cause distraction! They are a valuable learning instrument! School districts in Wisconsin continue to ban cell phones after school staff say students are more engaged. The entire country of France is now under a law that prohibits mobiles. But I think the experts in this USA Today column get it right: “How many people go to work each day and turn their phone in...getting ready for career and college is learning how to avoid the distraction of your phone.” —Kevin Hogan, Managing Director of Content

[8 Tips for Teachers Using Google Cardboard in School]

WeVideo today announced that SkoleTube, Denmark’s leading online media platform for education, has extended its contract with WeVideo for an additional five years. The commitment by SkoleTube comes just eighteen months after WeVideo first appeared on the SkoleTube education portal, and the early extension by SkoleTube reflects the success of Danish students and teachers who are applying the video creation platform to transformative learning experiences. More than 90% of Denmark’s primary school students and teachers--nearly 600,000 SkoleTube users in all--now have access to WeVideo.

“WeVideo has proven to be an extremely popular addition to the SkoleTube service, with more students and teachers trying video creation every day,” said SkoleTube CEO Marcus Bennick, “This agreement ensures that hundreds of thousands of students and teachers have access to WeVideo’s best-in-class video creation platform for years to come. Educators can confidently continue to plan and build video creation projects into their lessons and develop new project-based learning opportunities. Students benefit from access to a tool that will grow with them throughout their educational careers. Best of all, WeVideo constantly moves forward, adding new features and content that always keeps students engaged and challenged.”

WeVideo and SkoleTube first partnered in January 2017. Since then, WeVideo has been used by tens of thousands of students and teachers across Denmark. WeVideo worked closely with Skoletube to create a unique version of its video editing platform that tightly integrates with the SkoleTube platform on both mobile and desktop devices. The flexible platform provides far-ranging utility for working with video in education settings. WeVideo offers a rich, but easy-to-use video editing application that enables students to explore their creativity with features such as green screen, motion titles, screen recording, voice-over narration and much more. The exclusive WeVideo Essentials™, a new feature added after the original partnership, gives students and educators unlimited, in-app access to over 650,000 high-quality, licensed and royalty-free video clips, images, and music tracks to help kids efficiently enrich their video projects.

WeVideo is entirely cloud-based, supports all current Microsoft, Apple, and Google operating systems, and is always up-to-date and readily accessible from any mobile device, laptop, desktop, tablet, and increasingly popular Chromebooks.

“SkoleTube has earned the trust of Danish education thanks to its proven track record of delivering access to the very best edtech,” said WeVideo CEO Krishna Menon. “WeVideo is thrilled to be recognized by SkoleTube as a vital part of that service. It is very exciting to see how swiftly teachers and students have taken to WeVideo and applied video creation to unique and effective learning opportunities. Skoletube is making a significant commitment to ensure that students and teachers can continue to succeed as they take full advantage of this important addition to the learning environment.”

A Fit for Every School

The SkoleTube portal provides its subscribers with a custom implementation of WeVideo. Outside of Denmark, WeVideo for Schools is widely available with a variety of flexible subscription plans to meet the needs of individual classrooms, schools, districts, as well as regional and national-level deployments. WeVideo for Schools is designed for collaboration, so students can take turns editing or simply share each other's clip libraries, each using their own device to complete tasks and interact with the project. Teachers can oversee group projects, and observe and assess individual contributions as students work together, each from their own device and on their own time, to contribute unique elements and collectively finalize a video project.

WeVideo offers free 30-day classroom trials as well as longer-term pilot programs. WeVideo’s structured pilot evaluation programs provide schools with the complete, unlimited WeVideo for Schools experience and comprehensive support from the WeVideo education team, to enable administrators and teaching staff to fully evaluate WeVideo for Schools at no cost or obligation. WeVideo for Schools is compliant with laws protecting the privacy of minors using online services, including U.S. COPPA and FERPA federal laws and other regulations. To get started, visit www.wevideo.com/education.

About SkoleTube
SkoleTube is a complete media production and consumption environment for education. It is the flagship service of the Danish company Webtjenesten LærIT.dk ApS. SkoleTube provides a range of online tools and apps that students and teachers use to create, publish, and share media productions in a safe setting that is purpose-built for the needs of education. SkoleTube reaches more than 90% of Danish schools to serve approximately 600,000 students in Denmark.

About WeVideo

WeVideo is a powerful, easy-to-use, cloud-based collaborative video creation platform that is the digital storytelling choice of more than 6,500 schools worldwide. With more than 24 million accounts created to date, WeVideo is also the first choice of consumers and businesses, as well as the video backbone for many third-party solutions. WeVideo is a Google for Education partner and is the exclusive digital storytelling solution for Google's Education Creative Bundle for Chromebooks. WeVideo is also a Microsoft Education Partner. Anyone can access WeVideo, from any computer or device at school, home, work, or on the go to capture, edit, view and share videos with secure storage of their content in the Cloud. For more information about WeVideo, please visit www.wevideo.com, follow us on Twitter at @wevideo or visit us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/wevideo/

The Metropolitan School District (MSD) of Decatur Township today announces it has been awarded a $700,000 two-year grant through T-Mobile's EmpowerED program. As a result of this funding, every student enrolled at MSD of Decatur Township in grades 3-8 for the 2018-19 school year will receive a personal MiFi hotspot at no cost to the students.

The awarded 3,500 MiFi hotspots serve as mobile WiFi devices that can connect to a provided cellular network and grant student’s internet access outside of the classroom and campus.

[Microsoft Education Expands Grant Program, Updates Minecraft]

The one-to-one district’s innovative, technologically advanced pathway-driven curriculum and digital approaches secured the grant.

To learn more about MSD of Decatur Township, visit decaturproud.org.

Bretford is introducing additions and upgrades to its family of mobile device charging products at ISTE 2018.

First unveiled at ISTE 2017, Bretford’s latest iteration of its TechGuard Connect® charging lockers offers expanded features including an integrated 5” touchscreen, with an easy-to-use interface, and RFID-powered check-in/check-out functionality. Check-In/Check-Out mode turns TechGuard Connect into a self-service kiosk, allowing users to check out available devices on a loaner-basis with existing RFID cards, use the mobile device for a set period of time, then check it back in.

[What’s New: New Tools for Schools]

Other new Bretford products on display at ISTE include:

• Juice® Mobile Power – This mobile power system, with proprietary FLI Charge technology, turns a single outlet into a power source for the entire classroom or office.
• CUBE Toploader and CUBE Toploader Mini – The CUBE family, Bretford’s line-up of budget-friendly charging stations, carts and trays, now features an expanded toploading option.

To see the line of Bretford products in action, visit the Bretford Booth #1703 on the ISTE show floor or visit www.bretford.com for a virtual demo.

Guest post by Steven Baule, Superintendent at Muncie Community Schools, Indiana: Progress is wonderful as long as nothing changes, right? Recently, there has been some conversation about the disappearance of analog clocks. Slate commentator Rachelle Hampton responded online to a UK Telegraph article about removing analog clocks from UK schools as they cause angst for students who can’t use them to tell time. Some say: teach them how to read analog clocks. Others say, why bother? It sounds like a similar argument I discussed a year ago about cursive writing. I thought back to the days when I used an analog watch to determine direction. Today’s smartphone GPSs remove that need. Trekwarrior writes about other ways you can use an analog clock, such as using the hands from the watch for fishhooks in a survival situation. Not sure most of us will ever need to do that.

[One Week Into a Phone Free Classroom]

A UK Mirror article identified 20 skills that are dying out due to societal changes, including map reading and the use of a compass. How many students are still learning how to read a map in social studies or geography class? The same Mirror article identifies touch typing as another skill on the endangered list as computer interfaces become more naturalistic. Of course, we seem to have survived the general societal inability to understand a sundial and most of us no longer diagram sentences. Have you ever seen an eighth grade exam from the turn of the previous century? I like the 1912 Bullitt County, Kentucky Exam as it is documented and provides the answers.The game show Are you Smarter than a 5Grader reminds us that much of this information is lost after the exam is over. What do you remember from fifth grade? Try taking this online test here to see how much you remembered – and forgot.

Pre-K–12 schools and districts are shifting toward personalized learning throughblended learning, project-based learning, design thinking, STEM/STEAM, and otherinquiry-based learning models, whether or not they are 1:1. In fact, instructionalstrategies are shifting away from those that are teacher directed to more collaborativelearning environments where students take responsibility for their own learning. Thisshift—from “one-size-fits-all” to differentiated instruction based on student strengthsand to personalized learning where students take responsibility for directing their ownlearning—is driving many leading districts to a new “mobile-first” technology strategy.

Click here to download the full white paper.

As they go “all-in” on digital learning, schools are demanding more from their networks. The shift to personalized and inquiry-based learning not only engages students more effectively, it depends on efficient technology. First as consumers and then as educators, schools are committing to mobile technology as their preferred method of digital interaction.

More complex systems are now required to support two to three devices per student or staff member. Security cameras, HVAC systems, and other IoT devices also need to reside on the network. A single network may need to support hundreds or thousands of devices. Every device is a potential entry point to the network, so robust security is critical. Streaming content and simultaneous testing put heavy demands on a network that needs to supply high-density connectivity so that the technology is seamless, dependable, and invisible.

Many schools and districts need to do massive upgrades to support today’s classroom demands and build capacity to handle the future. Each district has unique sets of goals and aspirations for their students, so networks must be flexible enough to provide the technology needs for seamless, 24/7, comprehensive connectivity that fosters student collaboration, engagement, and other 21 Century skills.

Watch the webinar: Inventing the Future: Mobile-First Learning

To design and implement the kinds of wireless/wired infrastructures needed today, districts need a strategic partner who can help them achieve their vision of preparing their students for college or career. It’s not just a question of more technology, emerging learning environments require technology that supports mobile, student-driven collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication.

Because the needs of schools and districts are different from those of businesses, the best kind of strategic partner is one that has experience in helping K-12 schools and districts achieve their goals. Security and efficiency are important, of course, but supporting instruction and learning goals for individual classrooms, schools, or districts has unique challenges. Redesigning schools to facilitate collaboration means that instead of traditional classrooms, schools are focused on creating flexible learning spaces that can accommodate small or large groups of students working together on learning projects.

Aruba provides a range of network solutions for K-12 schools and districts. Experienced with working with educators and administrators, Aruba understands the unique challenges of building secure and reliable networks that handle the demands of streaming digital curriculum and thousands of mobile devices, whether they are school owned or BYOD.

Learn more about Aruba’s K-12 experience working with districts through these resources:

Case Study: Enable a half-million simultaneous Wi-Fi connections for school & community

Providing mobility connectivity throughout 15 million square feet of facilities makes enterprise Wi-Fi a top priority for Frankie Jackson, CTO of Houston’s Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District.

Solution Brief: Reliable classroom Wi-Fi that won’t interrupt learning

It’s evident that today’s #GenMobile students are showing up in classrooms knowing more about technology than previous generations. They’ve grown up tech-savvy and prefer to do everything on mobile devices. For them, untethered digital learning is fundamental for future success.

Leveraging E-rate to help students stay ahead of the curve

Today’s students learn about the world and their social life on mobile devices. Bringing that experience to school by allowing them to easily access content and learning tools on a similar mobile device just makes sense.

Choosing the mobile device management (MDM) software that best meets the needs of a school or district can pay big dividends, because the right system can help make mobile learning initiatives more successful while easing the burden on IT departments. This white paper covers eight critical factors to consider. Click here to download.

MyScript, provider of handwriting interpretation and digital ink management technology, announces its notetaking app, Nebo, is now available for Samsung’s Galaxy Note8 and also includes support for the entire family of Galaxy Note devices starting with the Note3. This release will also now include support for Google Drive. MyScript Nebo allows users to write, solve complex mathematical equations, draw diagrams, format and convert to digital form.

Utilizing MyScript’s Interactive Ink technology, Nebo combines the flexibility of natural pen input with the speed and efficiency of digital computing. With the use of the S Pen, Nebo users on Note devices now have access to digital writing, editing and formatting via simple gestures.

Today, Microsoft Education announced new research that shows what today’s kindergartners – the Class of 2030– will need to succeed in the digital future and announced new products heading into Bett UK:

• Four new Windows 10 devices for schools, starting at $189 USD
• New partnerships with LEGO Education, Pearson, PBS and BBC Worldwide Learning to help bring STEM education to life in video and mixed reality
• A new partnership with PowerSchool to help save teachers time on administrative tasks
• A Chemistry Update in Minecraft: Education Edition and updates to Office365 for Education to inspire more personalized learning

Full details on all the Microsoft news announced today is here.

K-12 schools are moving away from the traditional desks-in-rows classroom model to a learning environment better suited to collaboration. At the same time, a digital transformation is taking hold, increasing the amount of time that students engage in digital learning activities both at school and home.

In addition to the changing physical environment, the roles of teachers and students are changing as teachers becoming facilitators and students take ownership of their own learning as digital tools connect the curriculum to real life applications. Learning is expanding beyond the classroom to an open 24/7 model of access that supports student learning on multiple devices from multiple locations.

Increasing network capacity is just one of many challenges that IT teams now face in schools and districts to support anywhere/anytime learning. Some of the other challenges include:

• Supporting all user devices and often multiple devices per user.
• Delivering robust, data-intensive applications, and collaborative activities.
• Enhancing security of the network particularly student information.
• Simplifying network design, provisioning, deployment, and scalability.

To meet these challenges, IT teams in schools and districts should look for the following features and capabilities from their network solutions provider:

• An end-to-end model that features a robust wired network as the backbone. This is critical to delivering coverage and capacity.
• A robust wireless network that can support users in any location while giving IT the flexibility to prioritize certain types of traffic to support the most bandwidth-intensive learning tools.
• A simplified architecture that lets you grow and adapt the network without having to rip and replace infrastructure or add a new access point each time your needs change.
• The highest level of network access security, enabling IT to easily onboard devices, authenticate users, extend visibility, and manage security policies for both BYOD and school-issued devices.

This digital transformation is evolving as schools learn how to best support the acquisition of 21st century skills—preparing students for college and career. Embracing mobile, cloud, and related technologies are the most cost-effective ways for districts to provide both network coverage and a comprehensive digital learning environment that effectively and efficiently supports learning outcomes.

Focusing on the Mobile Network

Aruba, a Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) company, delivers an integrated wired and wireless portfolio in network management and security designed for digital transformation. Here is their recommendation for building a robust mobile network to meet present and future needs:

1. Increase wireless to optimize for mobile: Gigabit Wi-Fi is the foundation of digital transformation for delivering enterprise-grade wireless so mobile users can roam and collaborate while accessing applications and data.
2. Future-proof your wired infrastructure: The surge of wired devices and the increasing use of bandwidth mean that the wired infrastructure is as important as ever in delivering data up to 10 gigabits per second (GBps).
3. Predict network issues before they happen: IT needs granular visibility into the access layer of the user, device, and application level to insure protection and availability.
4. Secure the network with smart policy management: The Aruba ClearPass Policy Management Platforms leverage real-time, trusted, contextual data to allow IT to enforce trust on every user and device on the wireless, wired, and VPN networks.

Choose from the resources highlighted below to help your district scale their network coverage and security to support new digital learning demands for students and teachers.

The first U.S. Education Benchmark Report from Adobe Digital Insights (ADI) analyzes year-round Web site traffic, mobile versus desktop traffic patterns, back-to-school retail trends, and social conversations. Key report findings include:

Computers and printers drive back-to-school retail sales: Computers and printers are expected to be the top-selling items in electronics, up 11 percent in August from July.

Traffic to education Web sites isn’t growing: K–12 site visits are down eight percent year-over-year in Q2, and post-secondary site visits are down one percent YOY in Q2.

Education lags behind other industries in the shift to mobile: Desktop visits account for 68 percent of Web site traffic among post-secondary schools in Q2 2016 (this share has decreased only three percent YOY).

Education is a year-round topic of social conversation, with spikes in August and January.

To link to the full report go to http://www.techlearning.com/blogentry/11147

If you have an iOS device or work with students who have iPads in their hands, you’ll want to check out this list of totally free classic books! There’s no catch – classic books are part of the public domain and you can download them for free on your iPad or iPhone. The iBookstore is full of classics including plenty of my favorites. I’ve compiled a list of 19 classic books that are totally free and ready to download.

Free Classic eBooks!

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

White Fang by Jack London

The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

Anna Karenina by��Leo Tolstoy

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

Don Quijote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

Do you like reading on iPads?

Reading on an iPad is a very different experience than turning the page or scribbling in a margin. It took me awhile to get comfortable reading on a digital device, and I still switch back and forth from paperback to tablet. One reason I love reading iBooks on an iPad is how easy it is to highlight, color code and take notes as you move through a chapter. All of your notes are organized and can easily be shared with another person or saved for your own review. This is especially helpful if students are preparing for a book club meeting or literature circle.

Do you have a favorite and free classic book I left off the list? Share the title and/or the link to the iBookstore in the comments section below!

cross posted at classtechtips.com

Monica Burns is a fifth grade teacher in a 1:1 iPad classroom. Visit her website at classtechtips.com for creative education technology tips and technology lesson plans aligned to the Common Core Standards.

“The whole art of teaching is the only art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.” – Anatole France

QR codes, Quick Response barcodes, inspire curiosity in our learners. QR codes get learners out of their seat scanning to discover what the knowledge they will uncover with their mobile devices. QR codes are mostly attached to websites or text, but we can also attach QR codes to audio, video, games, polls, or multimedia presentations. Below are a few ideas on how to make your QR codes more interactive. Once you are comfortable implementing a QR code activity, try getting your learners to create their own QR codes. Below are a few tips and resources to get your students started with learning with QR codes. Feel free to download the slides as a pdf and find the bookmarks here.

Learn with QR Codes

• Create QR codes on your mobile device with the Quickmark app, which allows students to scan and create QR codes with an iOS, Android, or Windows phone.
• Scan QR codes on your mobile device with the I-nigma app, which allows students to scan QR codes with an iOS, Android, or Windows phone. Create QR codes on the web with at the I-nigma site.
• Make colorful QR codes with images with Visualead, Unitag, and QRstuff.
• The QR Code Treasure Hunt generator by Classtools will help you easily create a series of QR codes for assessments, scavenger hunts, and treasure hunts.
• Install the QR Code Bookmarklet to easily and quickly create a QR code attached to the url you are visiting.

Moving from Dioramas to Dynamic Projects
What is Flipgrid and How Does it Work for Teachers and Students?

The following web tools allow you to create QR codes that go beyond text and get learners to do more with the learning:

• With QR Voice type in up to 100 characters in several languages and a QR code is generated that will create an audio of the text.
• Use Vocaroo to create a QR code attached to a listening or recorded audio. First, record the audio of any length then click QR code on the bottom. Print the generated QR code for your learners to scan and listen.
• Padlet allows teachers to create a QR code attached to a web wall where students add links, thoughts, images, and videos about any topic.
• Edubuncee lets you create QR codes embedded into a digital poster with videos, images, stickers, and audio.
• PollsToGo is a site for creating a polls attached to a QR code.
• Create your own scavenger hunt with QRWild.
• A good way to introduce students to QR codes is to get them to notice the QR codes around them.Students collect QR codes they see outside of class on cereal boxes, coupons, the mail, or pamphlets.In small groups, students share these examples with their peers to scan and discuss the following: What did the QR code link to? Where was the QR code found? How would you make the QR code more engaging or interesting?
• Student can jigsaw with QR codes. One student’s QR code has the information matched to another student’s QR code. In Learning to Go, I provide a lesson plan and template where one student has a joke and the other has the answer to the joke.One student can have a question and another peer have the answer.One student can have a vocabulary word and search for the peer with the definition.One student can have a character description and search for the peer with the character’s name.
• Put QR codes on objects to get students out of their desks moving and engaging with the objects.The PE Geek has a wonderful video with his learners scanning a skeleton with QR codes.Students can scan the QR Code Periodic Table of Elements and find videos for each element.
• Students can create QR codes for the library.QR codes can be to their own book trailers of various books.QR codes can be next to a book to offer recommendations of other books their peers might enjoy. For example, a recommendation for someone who enjoyed the Twilight series might be books by Anne Rice.
• Students can create QR codes for science fair or poster projects.The QR codes can direct the audience to a Works Cited or Reference list.The QR codes can be attached to interactives or multimedia that supports the research topic.
• Work with a national or state park or other landmarks or museums to create QR codes of exhibits which do not currently have QR codes.

Challenge: Try one of these ideas to get your students curious about your topic with QR codes.

If you enjoyed these ideas, you may want to get your copy of The 30 Goals for Teachers or my $5.99 ebook, Learning to Go, which has digital/mobile activities for any device and editable/printable handouts and rubrics.

Bookmarks

Click to access that resource!

QR Codes, by team Mobile Learning Implementation Resources

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is an education consultant, technology trainer, and author. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

Where are all your devices, what’s on them, how are they performing, and who’s using them to do what? As mobile devices in schools continue to proliferate, districts need to be able to answer these questions, control access, manage updates, and more. Multiple Device Management, or MDM, saves teacher and tech staff time, helps to facilitate learning, and is also a matter of fiduciary responsibility. Whether it’s thousands of Chromebooks or iPads or even textbooks hiding and breeding in closets, thoughtful and context-sensitive management systems are crucial. As MDM solutions continue to mature, districts here in the U.S. and in Canada share their successes and challenges—as well as some first impressions of Apple’s new iOS 9.3.

MAKING WAVES

Scott Smith, chief technology officer at Mooresville (NC) Graded School District (MGSD), describes his district of 6,200 students as “average.” But what sets them apart is that they’re eight years into a “digital conversion,” a curricular and instructional initiative that’s changing how teachers teach and students learn—that and the fact that, while eight years ago MGSD consistently ranked in the upper sixties among the 115 public school districts in the state, for the past five years they’ve been among the top four or five. At the moment they’re tied for third in North Carolina for academic achievement. Their drop-out rate is down, and their graduation rate, attendance, and test scores are all up. Smith is quick to point out that it’s not about the devices, but from an instructional standpoint it’s clear that the technology is supporting student learning in new and exciting ways.

Left: MGSD students learning with their Apple devices. Right: MGSD students collaborate using their Apple devices. When the district went 1:1 with iPads and MacBook Airs, in 2008, the term “MDM” didn’t exist, but Smith quickly realized he needed a technological solution to manage between 6,500 and 7,000 devices. “I needed the ability to reach out and touch every device in our district and push a change through with the click of a button,” Smith says. FileWave gave him the power to do just that. Smith was, and is, impressed that FileWave is a cross-platform solution that’s scalable, affordable, and easy to use.

YOUR DEVICE YOUR WAY

Another key FileWave feature that enables MGSD students and teachers to get the most from their devices is a self-serve portal called Kiosk. Smith likens it to the drink and condiments station at a fast-food restaurant, where customers choose what they want. Approved software and apps are put into Kiosk, and students download what they need to their devices. So much manageability also helps with licensing, Smith says. He can make a software program available to an individual user who needs it or push it through to their device—and he can equally see and remove illegal copies.

START SLOW TO GO FAST

Smith encourages districts looking at device management to “start slow to go fast”—to do their homework, learn from the successes and mistakes of others, carefully plan what they want to do and why, and start with some pilot projects. “There are so many different aspects—technology, but also PD, infrastructure, school culture, management, community outreach and messaging—they’re all important,” he says.

The district has partnered with FileWave for seven years now. “They’re truly in vested in what we do and in our kids,” Smith says. “If we have a technical issue, they get it, and what it means in our environment, and they listen to our suggestions and incorporate changes.” The digital conversion at MGSD might have started slow, but they’re going fast now.

TOOLS THEY USE
MGSD

► FileWave
► iPads
► MacBook Airs

EMPOWERING AND EFFICIENT
JUST CHOOSE ONE

Teachers in the Public Schools of Northborough Southborough benefit from Lightspeed’s multi-platform control for one-stop management. Having handled thousands of different devices—from Apple laptops to Androids—with four different MDM tools, and having suffered the headaches caused by lack of live updating and by having to double back down various paths to track missing devices, Leo Brehm, newly appointed Director of Technology and Digital Learning at the Public Schools of Northborough Southborough (MA), speaks from experience when he urges districts to find a single MDM tool that can manage all of their devices.

Clearly, ease of updates and inventory management and control are key advantages to using one MDM solution. In addition to improved efficiency and communication, Brehm says, it’s part of a district’s fiduciary responsibility to track and maintain what represents, for many districts, millions of dollars’ worth of equipment. The one tool that enables Brehm and his team to do all this and more is Lightspeed.

EMPOWERING TEACHERS

One of the strengths of Lightspeed, Brehm says, is its intuitive, user-friendly interface. And one of the advantages of the thought that Lightspeed has put into its design is that teachers can be easily trained to manage their own classroom devices and distribute apps to students. While this is helpful for tech staff, even more importantly, Brehm says, it’s empowering for teachers and respects their time and expertise. “There’s lots to be said for a distributed management model,” Brehm says. “Teachers can evaluate content for their students and make those decisions, often just-in-time decisions, rather than filling out a ticket and waiting for support staff to load the program.”

GOING FORWARD WITH THE SPEED OF LIGHT

Brehm urges districts to examine management tools based on the features that are important on a daily basis (as opposed to those that might be used periodically or not at all) in their context. The fact that Lightspeed is 100% cloud-based is an advantage, Brehm says, and particularly when 1:1 devices are going home. Cost-effectiveness was another factor in the decision to partner with Lightspeed. Brehm is confident that “Lightspeed is a product that will take us into the future as the focus moves more and more from hardware to user experience.”

TOOLS THEY USE
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF NORTHBOROUGH SOUTHBOROUGH

► Apple laptops and desktops
► Chromebooks
► iPads
► Lightspeed
► Windows desktops

HAS ANYONE SEEN MY TEXTBOOK?
A DISASTER

Community Unit School District 300 uses Follett’s textbook inventory to track resources. Imagine thousands of textbooks, rows and rows of them, piled on the floor, stacked in cabinets, classrooms, storage rooms—an inventory for a district of 21,000 students in 27 different schools stretching across 118 square miles. Imagine purchasing hundreds of new textbooks and later discovering hundreds of copies of the same textbook, brand new, in another classroom. Imagine waking up in a cold sweat only to realize that it’s real. This was the situation in which Community (IL) Unit School District 300 (D300) found itself in 2013 when Susan Harkin, district CFO, sent a courageous SOS to Follett’s Managed Services.

Even though the district had previously purchased and implemented Follett’s Destiny Resource Manager, a lack of consistent practice and policies meant the product was not as effective as it could have been. So the overwhelming task ahead involved not only finding the books, but also putting systems in place to ensure they wound up in the right hands at the right time. Harkin’s chief concern was that the textbook chaos would infringe on critical educational time for students. “At the heart of all this was that our students weren’t starting the school year with the proper materials,” she says.

A JUST-IN-TIME SOLUTION

“We sat down with Follett, explained our situation, and asked them to help us out,” Harkin says. After meeting with stakeholders and fully assessing the situation, the Follett team recommended a single solution that combined the benefits of their Destiny Resource Manager with their new “Managed Services.”

This solution involved working with the district to create new policies and procedures and to develop and support a revolutionized management process—managed from a central office. And it required a huge investment of many hours to barcode and scan each individual textbook into the system. Follett also took over warehousing and distribution of the books, delivering them on-demand as needed.

The solution improved district-wide efficiency and saved many thousands of dollars. Most important of all, however, is the fact that this mammoth project was completed over the summer so that, on the first day of school, every student had all the right resources to hit the ground running.

Today, D300’s textbook inventory is accurate and up-to-date and textbooks are easily moved within the district as needed—and the district is looking at duplicating a similar sustainable system to inventory other key assets, such as band and athletic equipment.

MDM ACROSS THE MILES

Doug Klassen, Technology Coach for the Sun West School Division (SWSD) in Saskatchewan, Canada, travels many miles to serve the district’s 5,000 students in this rural area covering many thousands of square miles (180 miles from one side of the district to the other). Many of the district’s 40 schools have a K–12 population of fewer than 200 students.

SWSD students from the Davidson School engaged in the school-wide Up to Code project. While some of these locations are remote, SWSD stays on the cutting edge of edtech. “Our division is really a big supporter of creating new learning environments where the students have more control over the pace, path, and place, allowing greater engagement and greater success rates,” Klassen says.

Throughout these schools, SWSD maintains approximately 500 laptops, 1,000 iPads, and 350 Android tablets. They run Windows on their 2,000 desktops, as well as on the laptops, and they use Microsoft’s SCCM to manage them and help with the deployment of technology. “The teachers and students have access to our application catalog,” Klassen says, “where they can install software themselves, saving the IT department a significant amount of time.”

The district uses the Apple DEP program to set up iPads, combined with AirWatch to keep track of them once they’re deployed. In addition, Klassen and his team set up the Apple Volume Purchase Program at each school so teachers can easily purchase and download apps.

THE BENEFITS OF BETTER CONTROL

“In the Android world,” Klassen says, “we run TabPilot as our MDM. In this environment we are allowed much more control of the actual devices. Teachers can control what the students see on their screens and content can be sent to the devices very quickly and easily.”

This greater level of control, monitoring, and classroom management benefits both teachers and students, Klassen notes. Teachers who want students to go to a specific Web site, for example, place that Web site on the screen as an icon so the students can click and go straight to the site. Another useful feature of TabPilot is that teachers can lock student screens with a message telling them to look up for further instructions.

As the district continues to promote blended and personalized learning, Klassen says, these tech tools help them accomplish their goal of success for all students.

TOOLS THEY USE
SWSD

► AirWatch
► Android tablets
► Blackboard
► iPads
► Moodle
► OneNote
► SCCM
► TabPilot

NO INTERRUPTIONS, PLEASE
A BIG LEAP

A seventh grader at a Pleasant Valley (CA) School District middle school creates a scary story using her iPad and a green screen. When Jay Greenlinger became Director of Instructional Technology at Pleasant Valley (CA) School District (PVSD) three years ago, the district had no mobile devices. “We were primed to take a big leap,” he says, “and we did.” The district of 6,600 students has deployed 4,400 Chromebooks, 1,300 iPads, and 1,000 Windows devices. The goal for managing these, Greenlinger says, is to “balance management that doesn’t interrupt teaching and learning.” And the district finds it easiest to accomplish this with Chromebooks because of the superior visibility and control that GoGuardian affords teachers and administrators.

This visibility has alleviated a lot of concerns for experienced teachers who have changed the way they teach with the new devices. They have a live view of every student’s Chromebook screen and can close and open tabs, interact with messaging if a student needs to be redirected, and show a student’s screen to the entire class with a single click.

Greenlinger also notes a key shift from beginning with device control to starting with teaching and learning and adjusting management around what’s happening in the classroom. “We’ve become less restrictive and more permissive,” he says, which also benefits students as they’re guided in learning how to make good decisions.

SUPERVISION ON THE PLAYGROUND AND ONLINE

Students at this same Monte Vista Middle School collaborate using Chromebooks. Greenlinger emphasizes that digital citizenship is simply one aspect of “good old-fashioned school citizenship.” Students know that an attentive playground supervisor will intervene when they break the rules on the tetherball court, and students at PVSD know that doing an inappropriate search or trying to access blocked content will result in a visit from the principal, who will have received a notification about the activity.

Greenlinger speaks from experience when he urges districts to have a solution and processes in place before deploying devices. When the district gave in to the temptation to deploy their iPads too quickly, they had to recall and set them all up again. Greenlinger says they brought their questions about MDM to GoGuardian and the company answered them all. Now PVSD teachers can focus on instruction instead of management—without interruptions.

TOOLS THEY USE
PVSD

► Chromebooks
► GoGuardian
► iPads
► Lightspeed (to manage iPads)

TECHNOLOGY RICH

TUSD students experience virtual reality on their iPads. Tustin (CA) Unified School District (TUSD) is about to enter year four of its 1:1 program. Most schools in the district are 2:1 or 1:1 with iPads up to fourth grade, while fifth through eighth graders have iPads, and high-school students receive Toshiba Portege Z30 laptops. Students learn using these devices in classrooms equipped with projectors, interactive boards, voice amplification, document cameras, Apple TV, and more. In addition, Haiku LMS, GAFE, Microsoft 365, Aeries, and numerous online texts and resources support the curriculum as students and teachers explore learning in all areas—from STEM and robotics to storytelling through film.

With 24,000 students and more than 28,000 devices, Robert Craven, Senior Director of Information Technology, says that device management is very different than it was a few years ago. His department manages laptops and desktops through SSCM and the 1:1 iPads through AirWatch. Craven also notes that their use of iboss filtering to aid in device management and filtering is “a key component to any large technology deployment.”

NEW DEVELOPMENTS SAVE TIME

TUSD students experience virtual reality on their iPads. Below: TUSD students engage in a Socratic seminar. “MDM solutions,” Craven says, “are exceptional at enabling teachers and the technology staff to save enormous amounts of time.” Both a Windows 10 upgrade, which TUSD will begin this summer, as well as the new Apple iOS 9.3, promise greater instructional capability and time savings. With Microsoft, apps will be available to students and teachers on a self-service model. And with iPads, “the ability to push apps to students without requiring an Apple ID now is huge; that feature alone is going to make an enormous difference in saving the technology department and entire district time,” Craven says. He also emphasizes the benefits of Apple Classroom as well as the increased functionality during testing to push the secure browser and determine which devices are properly set for testing.

3 TOP TIPS FOR MDM ADOPTION

“With many MDMs offering similar features due to the integration available from Apple, I think it’s important for districts to look at three key features when determining which MDM to use,” Craven says.

1. Customer service. Which companies are going to be there when a problem arises? And how long does it typically take them to close support tickets?

2. Timeline for supporting new Apple features. How long did it take them to support 9.3 features after their release?

3. Ease of use. How would the solution fit within your existing infrastructure? And how much management can be easily turned over to teachers?

TOOLS THEY USE
TUSD

► Aeries SIS
► AirWatch
► Airwolf 3D printers
► Apple TV
► Document cameras
► Epson projectors
► GAFE
► Haiku LMS
► iboss
► Interactive boards
► iPads
► MacBook Airs
► Miracast
► Numerous online resources
► Project Lead The Way
► Toshiba Portege Z30 laptops
► Vex Robotics

MANAGING MORE THAN DEVICES

Schools know management comes in many education flavors. Here’s a snapshot of a few ways schools are using tools to manage other kinds of tech:

The Southern Kern Unified School District in Rosamond (CA) uses Absolute (absolute.com) to prevent the theft of about laptops in circulation at their five schools. The solution accesses near real-time information on the location and status of laptops and provide audit-quality inventory reports on hardware and software.

Tuscarawas Valley Local Schools in Zoarville (OH) wanted to prevent students from being able to go to Web sites that are not a part of student instruction, and also stop them trying to delete the web history. They turned to NetSupport School (www.netsupportsoftware.com) to help. “It is nice to be able to glance to the screen and instantly see everything that is on their screen, “says Heidi Varansky, Assistant Technology Coordinator. “We have also used it to completely block web access when a student isn’t doing what he/she is supposed to be doing.”

Print management is another area where schools can realize thousands in savings. Hutto Independent School District is one example. As the district’s fleet of devices and print capabilities grew, so did its need for greater security, output monitoring and chargebacks. Ricoh, who had been providing multifunctional printer devices to Hutto ISD for eight years, collaborated with the district to add centralized Active Directory-based authentication software to the MFPs, where users can either input their name and password or swipe their ID badge to release documents or scan and email from the device. Ricoh also implemented centralized faxing added new scanning software that allowed users to scan-to-email, scan-to-PC or scan-to-file. “By right-sizing , we saved $72,000 plus in fleet maintenance and leases over the 5-year contract working with Ricoh,” said Travis Brown, Director of Technology at Hutto ISD.

if you don't pay attention, I'll steal this tablet right out of your pocket!

Many critics of contemporary schooling practices have noted that, if a teacher from the 19th century was magically transported into a typical classroom today, she would feel very comfortable with how things look. The room itself would be very familiar.

(Whether that teacher would be comfortable with today's students is another matter entirely, given that they probably look a little different than they did 'back in the day' -- to say nothing of how they might act and some of the opinions they might have!)

Contrast this, such critics note, with the situation of a surgeon from the 19th century teleported into an operating room today -- he would be bewildered, and perhaps disoriented, by all of the technology on display.

Few would deny that, in many fundamental and obvious ways, technology has revolutionalized medicine and healthcare.

Why hasn't it done so (yet) for learning and education?

One way that critics illustrate and reinforce this question is to share pictures of 'typical' operating rooms in the 19th and 21st centuries, alongside pictures of 'typical' classrooms from both centuries. The classrooms in such examples usually do look quite the same, with a teacher standing at the front of the room and neatly lined up rows of students intently (if metaphorically) drinking from the fountain of the teacher's knowledge. The chief noticeable difference (again, apart from the students themselves -- and the teachers as well) is that there are now computing devices of some sort on display in the 'modern' classroom, sometimes (depending on the country) lots of them, although the room essentially looks and functions the same way. The arrangement and nature of these ICT devices don't fundamentally alter the architecture of the room, nor what occurs inside it. In others words, the changes are additive, not transformative. (It is of course possible to provide pictures of some of today's 'innovative' classrooms that complicate this simple and popular narrative, as well as to ask some fundamental and important questions about what such pictures may obscure and what they illuminate, but I'll ignore such inconvenient complications here.)

Side note: Over a dozen years ago I visited the launch of a computer lab at a school in Cambodia. The headmaster had proudly transformed a room formerly used for sewing instruction into a 'technology lab', with a new PC atop each desk in place of the 'old-fashioned' technology of the sewing machine, with neat rows of students facing forward toward a teacher who was energetically shouting instructions.

Let's also put aside for a moment whether all of this technology 'makes a difference' (as well as perhaps more relevant questions about how and under what circumstances ICTs have an 'impact'). Let's ignore discussions about whether or not today's classrooms are a legacy of a 'factory model of education' that once existed but is no longer useful, or about the potential need to re-think school architecture in the age of ICT. Let's also ignore related 'big picture' issues around policymaking and planning.

Let's focus instead just on the technology itself.

Many regular readers of the EduTech blog are no doubt familiar with scenes of ICT equipment sitting unused in schools, locked away in computer labs or even still resting peacefully (and undamaged!) in unopenedboxes. Often times, getting teachers and students to use such equipment, let alone to use it 'productively', can be a rather tall order, for all sorts of reasons. Nevertheless, education ministries, local educational authorities, and schools around the world are buying lots of technology: PCs, laptops, tablets, projectors, and lots of other devices and peripherals.

What are they doing to make sure that this stuff doesn't get stolen?

No matter how strategic an investment or policy on technology use in education might be, and whatever side of the fence you find yourself on related to whether or not ICTs in education are 'worth it', there is little disagreement that such purchases are indeed *never* worth it if the equipment itself is stolen. You can't use this stuff if it isn't there. (Nor, it should be noted, can you use this stuff if it is there but not usable or accessible, but that's another issue.) Increasingly, the most valuable parts of a education system's IT infrastructure will not be found in the physical equipment itself, but rather in the data transmitted across and stored in the system at various levels and places. That said, as numerous recent news reports from countries around the world demonstrate (here's one from South Africa, for example), securing the equipment itself remains a rather important and acute challenge for many schools and education systems.

For what it's worth, and based on conversations with government officials, IT personnel, vendors, teachers and headmasters and visits to hundreds of schools rolling out ICTs over the past decade in scores of countries, rich and poor, and in urban, rural and suburban environments, here are:

Ten common (and a few uncommon) approaches to preventing the theft of computers, laptops and tablets in schools around the world

1. Lock it down and/or chain it up (physically)

For all of the (important) talk, policymaking and planning related to computer security within education systems, of preventing things like data theft, identity theft, and unauthorized access to networks, systems and data (all areas where almost all education systems could do *much* better, in my experience), in lots of places there is still also a lot that needs to be done to combat the old fashioned kind of computer theft: when people just pick up something that doesn't belong to them and walk away with it.

One obvious way to help prevent this sort of thing is pretty straightforward, and so most schools do it to varying degrees -- they buy and install lots of locks, of various types, in various places. For example, it is quite common to see schools do the following things in order to protect ICT equipment from theft:

• Lock the door to the room where ICT equipment is kept.
• Lock the windows and/or put bars on them.
• Designate a special storage room for ICT equipment. Store equipment there when it is not in use -- and lock the room!
• Install (and use) specialized physical locks for desktops and laptops and other equipment (e.g. locking desktop PCs to the desks on which they sit).

One argument often made *against* the purchase and use of devices like laptops and tablets in schools has been that the small and portable nature of such devices make them especially vulnerable to theft. This holds true for smaller devices as well: phones; interactive voting devices, or 'clickers'; probeware and sensors that can be connected to such devices, etc. Fair enough! But such things are presumably not going to go away nor become less useful any time soon (nor presumably will the increase in size). Within classrooms, charging stations for laptops or tablets can also serve as secure storage for a variety of devices.

It is worth noting that chargers themselves may be attractive targets for theft -- as well as non-ICT equipment that is vital for the use of computers in many places (the fans and air conditioners that help keep computer labs cool, for example).

Less attention is sometimes paid to the security of devices while they are in transit within the school. Some schools transport laptops or tablets between rooms using a dedicated mobile carts (sometimes referred to as COWs, or 'computers on wheels') which can be locked -- and lock up the carts in a separate room when they are not in use. (One side note about COWs: Because these things can be used by thieves as a convenient means by which to take lots of your laptops out of your school quickly, you may not want to store them near the entrances to the school -- and you may want to consider ones where the wheels can be locked.)

2. Lock it down and/or chain it up (electronically)

In addition to physical measures to prevent theft, a variety of electronic measures are possible.

At a basic level, requiring the people log into machines before they can be used is almost always a good idea. There are many ways this can be done, which provide different levels of security (at the level of the operating system, the BIOS, etc.).

It is possible to create electronic 'ring fences' around schools (or parts of schools), so that if computer equipment leaves this area, it no longer functions (in whole or in part).

It is also possible to remotely disable computers, should they be reported stolen (provided they connect to the Internet somehow, of course). Alternatively, it is possible to require that the computer connect to the Internet or a network at certain intervals in order to keep functioning fully.

Such measures don't always really prevent the physical theft of equipment, of course, but they make the equipment itself much less valuable, in that it can't be used once it is stolen. Of course, there are potentially ways around such electronic 'locks', depending on how good they are and the sophistication of the thieves. And: Thieves who are unfamiliar with such measures may not be deterred from stealing equipment in the first place (even if there are later unable to use or re-sell it).

3. Hide it -- or at least obscure it

No matter how many (or how few) physical or electronic/digital 'locks' you have on equipment, there are a number of simple and low cost ways to make theft less likely. Storing equipment in inaccessible (or less accessible) places (like a locked computer room) is of course one example of this, but there are many others as well. Simply closing the shades (and not placing equipment near windows) can help. Places tablets in desks or laptops on computer carts when they are not in use can help. Leaving empty computer boxes stacked outside the school after new equipment is delivered essentially advertises to potential thieves that there is something in the school that might interest them -- don't do this!

There are many other potential signals to thieves that computers are in the school -- and where they might be. In many hot climates, the presence of air conditioners attached to windows for some rooms, but not others, may suggest where the computer room might be. Bars on the windows and locks on doors can send similar signals.

If you have a choice, not locating school technology labs or computer storage rooms on the ground floor or near the front entrance of the school can be a wise choice.

(Side note: In some schools and district education offices, the rooms which were previously used to 'safely store' textbooks -- which may as a result have gone unused in some cases -- have been converted to 'safely store' computers -- which, as with the textbooks previously, then also remain unused.)

4. Take special care after hours, on weekends and during school holidays

It should be obvious that it might be useful to consider different approaches to security when school is in session, and when it is not.

During long holidays, many education systems physically repossess many devices in schools so that they can be stored safely in a central, secure location. At this time they can also do a number of other things, including take a general inventory, update software and load new content, as well as make any needed repairs.

It is perhaps worth noting that the transportation of equipment between schools and district/ministry offices for safekeeping can represent a particularly opportune time for thieves to strike, so plan accordingly.

5. Keep an accurate and up-to-date inventory

It can be easy for equipment to disappear if you don't have a record that you have it. Keeping accurate and up-to-date lists of your inventory can help you quickly identify when things may have gone missing. Also, the fact that you take such inventories regularly can signal to potential thieves within your schools or education system that you are paying attention!

Keeping track of serial numbers is standard practice in most places these days (and something that should always be done). Affixing bar codes to individual items and then using scanners to assist with the inventory process is increasingly common as well. (A side note about scanners: You might consider using a mobile phone app instead of buying separate scanners, which break down, go missing, or even get stolen themselves. One clever way for insiders to facilitate regular small-scale theft is to 'lose' the scanners, which makes it difficult to keep up-to-date inventories; by the time new scanners are procured and delivered, some of the equipment may be long gone.) RFID tags are increasingly in use in some education systems as well.

Note that this issue of inventorying can be complicated in practice in many instances by the phenomenon of schools keeping multiple sets of 'ICT ledgers'. I have visited more than one school that keeps an inventory list that it shows to the central ministry which only includes the equipment that was centrally provided, omitting equipment that was e.g. donated locally, purchased by parents, bought by the school itself and/or provided by local educational authorities. Schools may be disinclined to include equipment obtained via other means on the 'official' list, as they might worry that this would signal to the central authorities that they may not need additional equipment. I once spoke to a school IT administrator who kept separate lists that he showed to the parent-teacher association, the district education office, a local philanthropic donor, and the national education authorities. The actual master list was a closely guarded secret, only shared with the school principal.

In addition to taking physical inventories, you can take 'virtual inventories' at a distance as well. If, for example, a device hasn't logged onto the network for a long time, you might want to investigate.

Make sure that you keep your inventory lists in a safe place -- and have back-ups. If someone steals your list, you might be in trouble! (And: Do you really need to publish your inventory list on your school web site in a place accessible to the public?)

6. Watch over it closely

hey check this out, I think someone is stealing our pico projector!

People are an important part of any an approach to preventing the theft of ICT equipment of schools. Posting guards outside computer facilities is an expensive or drastic approach, but, where there are guards in schools already (for better or for worse), instructing them to pay particular attention to places where computer equipment is found is a rather good idea.

Installing security cameras can help (although even considering this sort of thing should bring up larger questions about 'surveillance' in schools), whether the resulting video feed is viewed within the school itself or at some remote location. Cameras that aren't actually connected to anything can even provide some level of deterrence. (I have been in schools where they took old web cams and pointed them at the technology room. "These don't actually work", an IT guy at a school once told me, "but the kids and teachers don't know this!")

As mentioned, conducting regular inventories can be an important way to help monitor equipment.

While it may not prevent the theft of equipment (especially if thieves don't know it has been installed on devices), tracking software ('find my phone' is one well known example of this general type of thing) can potentially help you figure out where the equipment it after it has been stolen.

Alarms (on doors, on equipment) can help alert people to where a potential theft may be in progress or has recently occurred.

Designating teachers (or even students) with special responsibility to make sure equipment is not stolen can be another useful, low cost way to help prevent theft. (If no one feels responsible for ensuring that equipment doesn't disappear, no one *is* responsible as a practical matter.)

7. Know who has the key(s)

Your security plan should include attention not only to where the equipment is, what it is, and who is looking after it, but also who has the keys (and master passwords) that can provide access to it. Change keys and/or passwords at regular intervals, as might be possible/appropriate/affordable. Have a policy about key possession, use and duplication and the access to master passwords -- and the storage of 'extra' keys.

Side note: A clever thief may use a key and then break a door only once he is leaving, as a way to throw suspicion away from people who have access to the keys. While a heist is in progress, a broken door would certainly suggest to passersby that something might be wrong.

The people who know best how to steal your equipment are probably those who work with it most often. Here's an exercise to try: Ask them where there are holes in the security procedures and systems. IT people are often especially good at 'hacks', both physical and digital. Ask some of them how to hack your security and then plan some related defensive measures. (Education systems in rich countries may hire an outside security firm to do 'penetration testing', i.e. engage a group that tries to steal equipment so that education officials can learn what isn't working and make any needed changes to their policies, practices and procedures. This remains relatively rare in most places, of course -- although, where related insurance is available, this might be a function that could be performed by the insurance company).

8. Make it look distinctive

Where countries procure very large numbers of educational laptops or tablets at a national or regional scale, ministries of education may wish to consider requiring the manufacturer, assembler or distributor to ensure that the devices looks distinctive in some way. (Maybe they have a red cover, for example, or a picture of national flag on them.)

Even where the equipment itself doesn't look distinctive, it is quite common for logos to be burned, embossed or etched into equipment marking it as e.g. property of an education system or school and/or for stickers (less permanent, obviously, but better than nothing) with the same message to be affixed to the equipment.

Side note: When the OLPC XO (the famous "$100 laptop") was first being marketed, some of the leaders of the sponsoring organization liked to note that the design of the little green and white devices was so distinctive that, if they were stolen and made available for re-sale in local markets, people would immediately know that these had been stolen from schools, as there was no other way to get them, which would help with theft prevention. (Based on anecdotal evidence, I believe that this was often actually been the case.) I have heard proponents of the use of iPads in schools in very poor countries where the devices were not sold in local markets make similar claims. (What making such arguments, OLPC folks sometimes referenced the appearance of postal trucks in the U.S. "No one steals postal trucks in the U.S.," went the argument, "because they are so unique and easily recognizable by everyone". I always thought that this was a clever comment ... even if the metaphor was often not immediately understood by policymakers in other countries who were not at all familiar with the distinctive jeeps used by the U.S. Postal Service with the steering wheel on the 'wrong side'!)

9. If you don't own it, they can't steal it from you

One way for schools not to have computer equipment stolen is not to own any of it in the first place -- or to own as little of it as possible.

In some more 'advanced' economies, leasing (not purchasing) equipment may be an option, and, as part of leasing arrangements, responsibility for security can potentially be transferred (at least in part) to the company that actually owns the equipment.

The growing trend in many education systems towards 'bring your own device' (or 'BYOD', sometimes this is referred to as 'BYOT', with 'technology' substituting for 'device) policies and approaches, where students and/or teachers bring their own ICT equipment to schools and use it, instead of using equipment provided by the school itself, can dramatically change the security dynamic when it comes to preventing the theft of such devices. If you own the device yourself, you may be much more incentivized to make sure that it is not stolen than if it belong to the school or education system! (BYOD policies don't necessarily lead to less theft in all circumstances, of course. In some circumstances, someone may be more willing to steal a tablet from another student than from the school itself.)

The difference between stealing a computing device that is being used in a school setting, as opposed to a computer that belongs to a school, may seem a semantic and legalistic distinction of little practical relevance, but it can be a compelling one to certain groups within educational bureaucracies. (The most important thing for teachers and students is that the equipment is there, not who owns it!) That said, it can be useful to note that who owns a particular device can impact whether or not it is stolen -- and who cares.

10. Educate your users and personnel

There are many additional measures that can be utilized to help prevent the theft of ICT equipment from schools that can be boiled down to one word: education. Training of IT personnel, school administrators and teachers -- and students too! -- about theft prevention and general related 'good practices' can help a lot. Posting signs supporting such messages can be useful. Including items related to security as part of standard 'acceptable use policies' is a good idea. (Standard in many education systems, AUPs serve as informal contracts of sorts, laying out rules for students, parents and teachers that must be agreed to in order to utilize ICT equipment).

Many other things can be done to help to prevent the theft of ICT equipment in schools, of course. All such measures carry with them various costs -- of money, accessibility, and usability. Schools and education systems have to consider important related trade-offs between prevention, policing, and accessibility. Given enough time and energy and smarts, dedicated thieves can probably find their way around all of these (and other) anti-theft measures. As with approaches to security in general, a multi-layered approach is typically best. A combination of measures, big and small, involving a variety of different people, incentivized in different ways to be part of the process, can help where any one single approach is insufficient.

Note: The image at the top of this blog post ("if you don't pay attention, I'll steal this tablet right out of your pocket!) comes from the Project Gutenberg archives via Wikimedia Commons. The image used at the end of this post of the locked gates at Harvard Yard is courtesy of Occupy harvard also via Wikimedia Commons. Both are in the public domain. The second image (of a locked door at the Tajjar Building in Pakistan provided by the Wikipedian Soban) also comes via Wikimedia Commons and are used according to the terms of its Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. The image of two children outside a closed door ("hey check this out, I think someone is stealing our pico projector!") was provided by Deutsche Fotothek of Germany's Saxon State Library / State and University Library Dresden (SLUB) to Wikimedia Commons as part of a cooperation project. It is used according to the terms of its Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license.

cross posted at blogs.worldbank.org/edutech

Michael Trucano is the World Bank's Senior Education & Technology Policy Specialist and Global Lead for Innovation in Education, serving as the organization's focal point on issues at the intersection of technology use and education in middle- and low-income countries and emerging markets around the world. Read more at blogs.worldbank.org/edutech.

Belkin announced today it will launch the newest version of its video production platform Stage Pro – Stage Pro version 3.0 – for iPhone at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) beginning January 6 in Las Vegas.

Belkin’s Stage and Stage Pro Apps allow anyone to produce collaborative and annotated videos.

Previously, Stage Pro was only available for use in Tablet devices. Stage Pro v.3.0 is now optimized for iPhone or iPad. The app is available for free during CES through January 9th 2016 in the App Store.

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An overwhelming majority of middle and high school students have cell phones, but teachers and administrators continue to raise questions about how to minimize student distraction and how to use the devices for instruction. Lisa Nielsen recommends taking the following nine steps towards resolving these issues.

1 Update outdated policies that criminalize student use of their own devices.

2 Remove network obstacles that keep students from connecting.

3 Talk to students—celebrate ways they learn with their devices and ask them for input on policies.

4 Prepare teachers to manage a device-rich classroom.

5 Provide opportunities for teachers to learn to use technology as a tool to engage students.

6 Tie effective use of technology to student achievement.

7 Ensure those who evaluate teacher performance understand how technology increases effectiveness.

8 Implement digital citizenship instruction into your school.

9 Connect with others who have had success. You can do this by following hashtags #mlearning #byod and #byotchat on social media.

www.tabpilot.com ■ Retail Price: $5-$10 one-time license per device (based on quantity) plus $5-$10 per device per year for Control Tower subscription. Device quantity includes all student and teacher devices registered in the system.

TabPilot Tablet Manager is a combination mobile device management (MDM) and classroom management system for iOS and Android.

Quality and Effectiveness: TabPilot Tablet Manager offers user-friendly features to maximize the effectiveness of tablet deployment, use, and management in a classroom, school, or district. TabPilot jumps well ahead of other packages in its category because of its design and functionality. FocalPoint, a browser-like app, can be bundled with the Manager license and deployed to restrict external links, which can be very useful in K-12 settings.

Ease of Use: TabPilot Tablet Manager is sophisticated enough to support any approach to tablet management a school can imagine. (Having implemented device deployment in three different schools I can attest that each approach is unique.) Tech experts and teachers alike can operate TabPilot Tablet Manager through a visually well designed Control Tower dashboard. The software is very responsive, loads quickly, and has clearly labeled functions for ease of navigation. Support materials include thorough video tutorials to get started and a helpful staff to respond if questions or problems arise. The owner and lead software developer works closely with customers to ensure continuous quality improvement.

Creative Use of Technology: TabPilot’s colorful interface distinguishes it from the competition. The dashboard displays an organized list on the left that includes Profiles, Apps, and Users, and associated tabs on the top of the screen allow for easy navigation. Unlike other device management packages, TabPilot permission options can be selected for teachers. These preferences include the option to create active profiles for different classes, to fetch and push apps, to lock screens, to monitor screens, and to upload and display unique background images to visually differentiate her/his class on device screens.

Suitability for Use in a School Environment: If your school or district is contemplating rolling out a BYOD or 1:1 device program, or if you are considering switching from a current, cumbersome, or expensive management system, TabPilot Tablet Manager can help improve your process and budget. The system is also good for shared-use (i.e., carts or classroom sets) implementations as well. The cost is approximately half of the device management system our school currently uses, for example. Your tech administrator can create a profile for each classroom, batch upload student information, and easily deploy apps. Once student information is uploaded and apps are listed in the system, teachers can choose which apps to use for her/his class and can also easily freeze students’ devices onto one app, print individual screens as evidence of exemplary work or inappropriate location, and install and uninstall apps.

OVERALL RATING:

TabPilot Tablet Manager earned my highest rating. Its unique functions put it in a superior position among its competitors. Teachers will especially appreciate having more control over their classroom devices without having to contact IT, including being able to install and uninstall apps spontaneously.

TOP FEATURES

● TabPilot Tablet Manager’s superior features, functionality, and easy navigation are sophisticated and flexible/versatile enough for one school or the whole district.

● Teachers can use TabPilot Tablet Manager to view apps on each device, install and uninstall apps, print individual screens, and lock device screens on one app.

● FocalPoint, a browser app, can be set to restrict access or allow exploration of external Web sites.

Although those of us with declining eyesight might be holding out for larger-than-life-sized monitors, our students have embraced smaller-is-better as they pop their devices into their back pockets and backpacks. And so, in our effort to prepare our students for the increasingly mobile world they already inhabit, tablets may be the best choice of hardware purchase. But which tablets? Is there a magic formula to finding the one that your students and teachers will use? Let’s see what some of your colleagues have to say.

MIAMI-DADE (FL) PUBLIC SCHOOLS

What tablets are you using?
HP Elite 900 for secondary students; HP 210 laptops for elementary students.

How many do you have?
Approximately 31,000: 5,000 for 7th-grade civics and 26,000 for 9th-grade U.S. history.

How long have the students had them?
Since August 2014.

What do teachers have?
The HP Elite 1000, which comes with Mericast capability.

Three best things

❉ Ease of use
❉ Extremely rugged
❉ Easy to use when reading

Three worst things

❉ Charging
❉ Cases
❉ Managing images

Any tips for finding the best tablet for your students?
Best price and best fit for existing infrastructure (applications and operating systems). Take advantage of cases and gorilla glass, as well as local battery swapping.

CINCINNATI (OH) COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL

What tablets are you using?
Microsoft Surface Pro 3

How many do you have?
225; 1:1 for grades 5-12.

How long have the students had them?
Since August 2014, but the school has been 1:1 since 1996.

What do teachers have?
Teachers who were due for a new tablet received Surface Pro 3 tablets.

Three best things
Flexibility: It’s a full-powered laptop running a full OS that can be used as a laptop or tablet. It removes all constraints and allows us to fit the tool to the task—not the other way around. We have access to the desktop version of OneNote, which has been a game changer in terms of collaboration, engagement, and organization.

Three worst things
They need a bumper case to prevent damage.

Any tips for finding the best tablet for your students?
Choose devices that allow for creativity and creation of content. You need to have pen, touch, and a keyboard. Decide on objectives and then choose devices that allow you to achieve them. Too many schools pick the devices first and then try to figure out how to use them.

EANES (TX) INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

What tablets are you using?
iPad2: 16GB; Wifi only.

How many do you have?
8,000 (1:1 K-12).

How long have the students had them?
Between 3 and 4 years.

What do teachers have?
Teachers have the same models, although we are starting to replace some with upgraded models to replenish our student swaps.

Three best things

❉ Ease of use (not much technical training needed)
❉ Unanticipated creativity (students creating amazing films and designing their own apps)
❉ Mobility/versatility

Three worst things

❉ Transitioning from traditional teacher-led instruction to a more student-centered approach
❉ The battle with IT over the thought that everything has to be standardized and that education is an enterprise system
❉ Waiting for textbook companies to play catch-up and then being disappointed in their “digital” solutions

Any tips for finding the best tablet for your students?
Do not make it about the device. It should be about the learning. Too often, districts start with a device in mind and then try to make pedagogy and curriculum fit—based on what they choose. Think about what you want to do and a device that aligns with those ideals will naturally rise to the top.

HOLY REDEEMER SCHOOL IN MARSHALL (MN)

What tablets are you using?
LearnPad XD (the 1st model).

How many do you have?
Approx. 540, one for every student.

How long have the students had them?
Since the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year.

What do teachers have?
Every teacher has a LearnPad Quarto.

Three best things

❉ Having the ability to control what the students see and do and not worrying about them misusing the devices
❉ Being able to assign differentiated work on the device and receive completed work through the “hand-in” feature
❉ Having the ability to see exactly what all of the students are doing, at the same time, so I can work in small groups while monitoring the entire class

Three worst things
We occasionally come across Web sites or apps that we wish we could put on the LearnPad, but we know in time they could become available.

Any tips for finding the best tablet for your students?
Find a device that will help you manage your classroom and design lessons that are specific to what the students are learning.

BROCKTON (MA) PUBLIC SCHOOLS

What tablets are you using?
Acer Iconia W510 and Acer Aspire Switch 11.6- inch tablets.

How many do you have?
Approximately 2,000 tablets (for the five schools participating in PARCC testing).

How long have the students had them?
Between 3 and 18 months.

What do teachers have?
The teachers were provided with the same tablets.

Three best things

❉ Space saver: When managing more than 9,000 devices, this is a big bonus.
❉ Battery life expectancy: It seems to be more in line with listed specs and battery longevity is better than laptops of old.
❉ Versatility: Our tablets came with detachable keyboards, which gives us the freedom to use them like a laptop when needed or to enjoy the true portability of a tablet.

Three worst things
Life expectancy: With regular maintenance, we are accustomed to getting 5-7 years from our devices. It is more difficult to keep track of devices in this form factor. Deploying tablets requires much more planning and staff participation than desktops.

Any tips for finding the best tablet for your students?
All of our tech decisions have been a joint effort between the curriculum team, which identifies the need, and our technical team, which comes up with product suggestions. Typically, vendors are eager to lend or give discounted prices for a pilot, so take advantage of that opportunity and bring in several devices to kick the tires. We look for technical merit and whether the device fits our immediate and long-term needs.

PINELLAS COUNTY (FL) SCHOOLS

What tablets are you using?
Dell Venue 11 Pro tablets (with Dell Slim Tablet Keyboards & Active Stylus pens).

How many do you have?
400 for grades 9-12.

How long have the students had them?
Since the start of the 2014-2015 school year.

What do teachers have?
Some use the Dell Venue 11 tablets but most use the Dell XPS 13, which can be used as a laptop or a tablet.

Three best things
❉ Form factor: It allows them to be truly mobile and—thanks to Office 365—enjoy 24/7 learning opportunities and collaboration.
❉ Exceptional battery life: A full charge allows the student to use it the entire school day without issues.
❉ Versatility/manageability: Tech staff can preload an image on it, complete with the necessary applications, and manage it through Active Directory Group Policies and push down and install additional applications if needed. With the corresponding dock, we can take full advantage of a two-screen experience. With a bit of imagination from the teacher or student, the tablets are adaptable for every single course.

Three worst things
❉ The glass touchscreen has a tendency to crack when it is stuffed into a backpack with a load of textbooks. We think uneven pressure from the textbooks against the glass screen is causing this. A raised or reinforced bevel or a protective case would fix this.
❉ None of the adaptive styluses seem to work, which makes digital inking an adventure in frustration. (Dell is working with us on replacements for all the first-generation styluses.)
❉ It is imperative to keep the firmware current, and since firmware can’t be pushed down via management tools this means we have to eventually touch every single tablet.

Any tips for finding the best tablet for your students?
Choose the device that makes the most sense for the age group and circumstances of your situation. You must take into account: infrastructure, manageability and its cost, pedagogy, and peripherals. Put the devices under consideration into the hands of the people to whom it matters most: the students. My student assistants reviewed every single Windows 8 tablet for strengths, weaknesses, and relative costs of each.

LEXINGTON COUNTY (SC) SCHOOL DISTRICT TWO

What tablets are you using?
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Education tablets and 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 tablets with a kid’s mode interface.

How many do you have?

More than 5,000 tablets for students and staff in grades PK through 12.

How long have the students had them?
We began the first phase in November 2014.

What do teachers have?
The Samsung Galaxy Note 2014 edition, which has the Samsung S-Pen.

Three best things

❉ Ease of provisioning and set-up with Google management console
❉ The ability to use Samsung School for classroom monitoring and collaboration (a truly transformative software)
❉ The ability to manage tablet content with the Google Play for Education store and Samsung School

Three worst things
Unpacking the mountains of boxes preparing the tablets for use by students, and—as with any technology—dealing with help desk issues.

Any tips for finding the best tablet for your students?
First look at your level of staffing and support. Certain devices/tablets require a greater level of support to manage and provision. But the driving force should always be transforming the learning environment. Create a vision for the learning environment you want for your students and let that be the measure in the search for the right device.

SOME OF ÖZGE KARAOGLU’S FAVORITE APPS

■ Adobe Voice is free and it gives the chance to children to use their pictures or their text and record their voices with music at the background.
■ Biscuit lets users create their own vocabulary list and includes definitions.
■ FriendStrip lets kids pick a story and personalize it with pictures and texts.
■ PicCollage lets students write and add props in a picture.
■ QR Code Scanner and Creator—Kids love it!
■ Tellagami helps you to create your own avatar, choose a background and record your voice for your animated avatar.
■ Videolicious is a great tool to create videos from your pictures, by adding music and your voice.

Evernote just got even more useful for me with its new iOS app Scannable. In many of my past posts regarding Evernote, I have made it clear that the Evernote note taking application is my everyday "go-to" app in both my professional and personal life. With all the smartphone apps, desktops apps, and browser extensions, Evernote makes note taking and web curation simple and easy.

Now, they've added an iOS app called Scannable. With this app, you can scan any document with your iPad or iPhone. You can then send it to someone by email, upload it to an Evernote notebook, place it in your photos, send it through the messaging app, or export it any number of your iCloud apps. It's rather simple interface is an added benefit.

Evernote's Scannable is definitely another one of those apps you'll want to download and use with your iOS devices.

Scannable Document in Evernote Desktop App

Scannable Interface in iOS

Scannable is excellent choice for quickly capturing any document, whether it be a handwritten note, receipt, memo, or sticky note.

cross posted at the21stcenturyprincipal.blogspot.com

J. Robinson has decades of experience as a K12 Principal, Teacher, and Technology Advocate. Read more at The 21st Century Principal.

Willyn Webb and I contributed to the International Society of Technology Educators (ISTE) Literacy Journal. The journal features innovative ways to enhance learning with technology. Our chapter is called, "The future is in their hands: Using cell phones for literacy learning. Unlike other journals, there is no pay wall to access the journal. It is available free!

Here is what you'll find in the journal:

Table of Contents

• Forward
  Editor, Mark Gura Page 4
• Text Meets Video in the Blogosphere: Complex Informational Content for Today’s Students
  by Dr. Rose Reissman Page 6
• Using Creative Technology to Engage Struggling Readers and Writers as Producers of Literature
  by Melinda Kolk Page 12
• The Future Is In Their Hands: Using Cell Phones for Literacy Learning
  by Lisa Nielsen and Willyn Webb Page 21
• Boosting Oral Language Fluency through Technology Intensive Literature Exploration (TILE), a Learning Centers Approach
  by Kevin Amboe Page 32
• Learning to Teach with Edmodo: Social Networking-based Activities
  by Kathy D. Shields Page 44
• Using Online Discussions to Develop Literacy Skills and Integrate the NETs
  by Sandra Wozniak Page 54
• Student Led Podcast Projects Make Common Core Literacy skills Come Alive
  by Dr. Rose Reissman Page 64
  
  
• Using Technology To Enhance Reading Skills For English Language Learners
  by Kimberly M. Thomas Page 74

Interested? You can check out the journal below.

Scribd.com Version:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/227311233/Literacy-Special-Interest-V1-Number2
Read or Download as PDF (requires free registration)

Lisa Nielsen writes for and speaks to audiences across the globe about learning innovatively and is frequently covered by local and national media for her views on “Passion (not data) Driven Learning,” "Thinking Outside the Ban" to harness the power of technology for learning, and using the power of social media to provide a voice to educators and students. Ms. Nielsen has worked for more than a decade in various capacities to support learning in real and innovative ways that will prepare students for success. In addition to her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator, Ms. Nielsen’s writing is featured in places such as Huffington Post, Tech & Learning, ISTE Connects, ASCD Wholechild, MindShift, Leading & Learning, The Unplugged Mom, and is the author the book Teaching Generation Text.

Disclaimer: The information shared here is strictly that of the author and does not reflect the opinions or endorsement of her employer.

ZipGrade is a fantastic product for teachers who are tired of grading multiple choice tests by hand or waiting their turn to feed each student’s answer sheet through a Scantron machine. This app gives you an answer sheet template (20, 50, or 100 questions) that you can print out and distribute to students with their next exam. After they finish their test simply input the correct answers into the app and scan each sheet using the camera on your iPhone or iPad – You don’t need an Internet connection to scan the tests. Not only will you see how each individual student performed but you’ll have the ability to view an item analysis report with class data.

ZipGrade lets teachers export CSV and PDF versions of each report to their email, Dropbox, and Google Drive. It’s completely free to try, with a 100 scan limit to their demo. After that ZipGrade is $1.99 for 2 months or $6.99 a year. Download the app or visit the website to learn more.

The Android version of ZipGrade is coming soon!

cross posted at classtechtips.com

Monica Burns is a fifth grade teacher in a 1:1 iPad classroom. Visit her website at classtechtips.com for creative education technology tips and technology lesson plans aligned to the Common Core Standards.

The Macally iKeyLT is a full-size keyboard for your iPhone, iPad or iPad mini. Instead of being a Bluetooth device, it connects through your iOS device's Thunderbolt connection. It's full-size keys means fewer errors while typing, especially for individuals like myself who have naturally large fingers any way. Some additional feature of this device include:

• Has multimedia keys and other shortcut keys.
• No batteries or charging, It operates using the power of your iPad or iPhone.
• LED indicators tell you when caps lock is on and when the device is properly connected and getting p.bizower.
• Simply plug into your iOS device and it works.
• Comes with an iPad stand.

Most Bluetooth keyboards for iPads cost around $79 to $99. The Macally iKeyLT costs $59.99 plus shipping. It really is worth it for the user looking for a full-size keyboard with Thunderbolt connectivity. The device advertises being compatible with the iPhone 5, iPad (4th Generation), iPad Mini, and iPod Touch (5th Generation.) The cost of this keyboard might make it a bit more palatable for the classroom teacher or administrator looking for keyboards for student-used iOS devices too.

Macally iKeyLT Full-Size Keyboard for iOS Devices

For more information, check out the Macally iKeyLT Web Site Here.

cross posted at the21stcenturyprincipal.blogspot.com

J. Robinson has decades of experience as a K12 Principal, Teacher, and Technology Advocate. Read more at The 21st Century Principal.

Last week, Tammy Pirmann and our STEM 1 Class hosted, what we think, may be the first ever Cell Phone Carnival.

Tammy, K12 Coordinator for Computer Science, is also our high school STEM teacher.

The curriculum for her two mixed-grade classes called for a Rube Goldberg-type of machine as the students’ first project.

But Tammy’s visit to Cedar Point (OH) Amusement Park with her grandson this summer changed that plan.

In the kiddie park of what Tammy calls the best amusement park in America, she thought,”we could do this.”

So Tammy challenged her two classes to build a single, well-rounded carnival, with teams of two or three students collaborating on fun and safe rides for cell phones. And to invite the whole school to visit.

I spoke with 10th grader Ethan Steinberg about his experience as one of the young engineers involved in creating the carnival.

Ethan shared,

The goal was to raise awareness of the field of STEM in a way that all participants could enjoy.

We wanted to dispel the inaccurate idea that STEM is grim. It is really full of creativity, but not everyone finds it as thrilling as I do.

So our plan was to put out the facts, let it be known, and let students and teachers decide for themselves.

Tammy Pirmann

Mrs. Pirmann set us loose to look at rides and the engineering behind them. The task was to come up with rides that could be created using the class’s VEX Robotics Kit and one motor. And so the rides couldn’t be outlandish. For instance, a roller coaster, wouldn’t work given the motor issue and the time constraint.

I asked Ethan what he learned and he shared that he had no previous shop experience. So activities like cutting metal wearing safety glasses and screwing things in were new to him.

Ethan took knowledge and experience of how robots work from his 9th grade Quest gifted robotics and futures study class into this 10th grade challenge.

Last year we were tasked with creating a robot to run an autonomous program to pick up balls or rocks. Then we moved on to a joy stick control. We programmed in a language called Robot C (a variation of C), controlling the motors and power supplied to the motors, and coding them to respond to a button.

We used pseudocode. We got our ideas on the table–which rides to create, whether or not we could run the ride, thinking about what we would need to do to run the ride–getting more detailed as we moved from idea to working program.

Ethan explained that it was important to implement the engineering process–brainstorming, planning, sketching/drawing, modeling, building, and testing.

There is no such thing as a failed piece of engineering; your mistakes often teach you more than your successes ever could. In this sense, the term “failure” has zero weight. Honestly, if things like mistakes and failures really mattered, they’d put erasers on drafting pencils.

Ethan went on to share a little about the carnival itself:

Ethan and Sydni at work

People seemed to be having fun, although at first, they were tentative about putting their cell phones on the rides.

We suggested that students turn their cameras on so the rides could be recorded. We used an accelerometer app to measure the “fun” of the ride–how fast it went, the G forces acting on the phone. The higher the graph read, the more fun the phone had.

Tammy shared the learning goals behind the carnival:

The real goal of the project was to introduce engineering cycle. We used engineering notebooks and engineering drawings. We engaged in reverse engineering–looking at past experiences as well as videos of traditional rides and how they work–while considering the materials we had in the classroom and how to recreate ride experiences with one motor.

The students were motivated to make rides work, to be persistent, and especially to make sure the rides were safe. The fact that they had to test with their own cellphones, enforced the urgency. Nobody tested unless they were confident about “rider security.”

For more information, see Tammy’s website: http://tammypirmann.com/

Here are Ethan’s engineering drawings for the Scrambler and a taste of what the carnival looked like in both planning and presentation stages.

Joyce Valenza is the Teacher-Librarian at Springfield Township High School, author, and technology advocate. Read her SLJ NeverEndingSearch blog here.