All of our faculty received iPad 4’s before the winter break. Today we have a middle school faculty meeting, and I plan on giving a bit of a tutorial on usage, good educational resources, as well as getting a sense of how people are doing with them.

As a longtime PC guy, I’m making my own adjustments. I have never taken sides in the religious war between Apple and PC. It’s just that every school I have worked in has been a PC (specifically a Thinkpad) school. I’m very comfortable with PC’s and have gotten so used to its quirks and shortcomings that they seem normal to me. But you can’t argue with the interface genius of Apple. And they have really taken it to a whole new level with the iPad and iPhone. The computer finally has gone mainstream.

So how bout this iPad? I’m a text-heavy user - - emails, blog posts, lesson plans, etc. The iPad is never going to replace a laptop for me. The keyboard just doesn’t work, partly because I’ve learned to type almost as fast as I think, and the iPad keyboard is OK for short bursts of writing — tweets, short emails,etc. Any industrial-strength text entry though (the thought of coding on an iPad fills me with a Nameless Dread), just isn’t practical at this point. So I am investigating keyboards. Typing this on an Apple wireless keyboard, actually. It’s quite nice, but I can see that portability would be a bit of a pain.

But the sheer appiness of the device, the swipiness…. that’s all a joy. Graphics quality — awesome. Battery life — outstanding. Cuteness — over the top.

We’ll see how my colleagues feel about it!

Having been in the ed tech field for 15 years or so, I have heard the death of the lecture proclaimed as a matter of fact, not faith. “Nobody wants to hear lectures, no one wants to listen to someone else talk. There are better ways to teach and learn.”

I would not say that lecturing is the only way to convey information, and I am a big believer in hands-on, constructivist learning, as in my LEGO robotics classes. However, I’m not willing to give up the lecture entirely. As a history teacher, I’ve found it sometimes the most helpful way to deliver content and also to engage students. This may get my ed tech card revoked, but there is a place and time for the sage on the stage. For instance, helping students to see the “big picture” can be more effective by lecture. I do that, and then give them some hands-on, PBL work once they know what’s happening in the country before the Civil War, for instance.

Even in robotics, I’ve found it necessary to at least explain the basics of gears, for instance, though supplemented with visuals and practice. It’s a lecture of sorts, though not very long.

The truth is there are experts on subjects, and if they can speak in an engaging and thoughtful and humorous fashion, I would listen. As would most of my students.

Thoughts?

Our faculty blues band (three other teachers and I) played last night at the local Barnes and Noble in support of our school’s Barnes and Noble day there. 15-20% of proceeds from sales designated for LCDS went to our libraries. That in itself is very cool.

And we had major fun! We followed the excellent student jazz band and delivered a set of straight ahead blues: Every Day I Have the Blues, Crossroads, Teeny Weeny Bit, High Heel Sneakers, and The Thrill Is Gone. Several people commented that they wished we had played longer. That’s always better than having people say they wished you had played less!

See y’all next year!

Conclusive proof.

Two days off school as we hunker down and prepare for Hurricane Sandy. I’m a major weather geek; I have 4 weather apps on my iPad! But that’s only if the weather is non-life-threatening. We’ve got batteries, water, etc. It’s big. See the photo below.

I just made the switch from Drupal to WordPress. If you’re interested, you can see my Drupal blog here. I haven’t figured out a way to move the content over, and there may not be an easy way to do it.

Why did I switch? Not an easy decision. I’ve been a Drupal fan since 4.x and love the flexibility it offers. However, after several years of tinkering, I realize I’m just not as techy as I’d like to be! WordPress seems to offer the level of tech stuff that I’m comfortable with and make it easy for me to blog. So here we are! If you know of a (fairly) simple way to move content, please let me know.