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One of the most interesting things to follow during the pandemic has been the relationship between the media, education, and politics. When states suddenly closed in March, schools, both in higher ed and k-12, scrambled to move online. While most colleges and universities had at least some online teaching and learning presence prior to the pandemic, for most k-12 schools it was a brand new experience that they never considered. In addition to the teaching and learning considerations most schools, both in higher ed and k-12, bumped up against a problem that they had long ignored: the lack of equal access to technology. Some schools provided their students with tablets or laptops to take home and internet service providers promised free access for those who couldn’t afford it. However, not all schools could afford to provide their students with the technology or if they did, still had no access to the internet.

For those who were fortunate enough to gain access to a computer and internet, they quickly found out that the level of education was hit or miss. Many faculty members in higher education and teachers in k-12 had no idea how to teach online leaving parents and students frustrated. Some students stopped trying or couldn’t access remote learning and Zoom bombing disrupted courses. Higher education institutions had to refund dorms and meal plans.  Higher education students who realized they were not getting the experience they were promised started asking for tuition refunds from schools.

All in all, the remote teaching and learning experience was painful for most teachers and learners whether in higher ed or k-12. Unfortunately, the battle was just starting. While schools had no option in the Spring but to go online, the fall is another case. This is where the media, the politics, and the social are now entangled in an ugly war of words and plans, protests and threats, trying to figure out what education will look like in the fall. One thing that we’re fairly certain of, is that the pandemic will be with us in the fall as well. The Trump administration has threatened to withhold funding from schools that do not open in the fall. Some universities plan to open with limited capacity, others like the California State University System have long ago announced they would continue remote teaching. The administration first announced that they would refuse visas to international students who don’t have courses on campus and then backtracked on that decision. To make things even more difficult, the CDC has been withholding documents that may help in the reopening decision process.

Meanwhile k-12 teachers in some states where Covid infections are out of control are protesting against fall reopening and filing lawsuits. While some parents want their children to head back to school, others are protesting reopening plans. To compound everything, teachers in k-12 have limited days of professional development while in higher education faculty, who are not employed during the summer, are working on their own time to learn as much as they can about remote teaching so that they provide a better experience in the fall. Schools that are planning on reopening are cognizant of the fact that they may, at any point, return to online learning but are nevertheless investing in technologies designed to teach both on the ground and online. Students who had 60 days of free internet from ISPs will still have to figure out how to gain access to the internet again and schools that could not afford to provide technology to their students will have to try yet again to find the resources necessary. Colleges and universities are worried about funding and lost income, starting to turn to layoffs. College students want a discount for remote fall courses while faculty are worried about their health and some don’t want to teach in person.

Throughout all this, the media has generated a veritable virtual dump of articles around education issues with thousands and thousands of pages filled with opinions, announcements of doom and gloom, and taking of one side or another. They are a mirror of our society and leadership which provided more of the same. Now, more than ever, we need to be cognizant of the dangers and work towards constructive solutions to issues that either only arose because of the pandemic or were unearthed by it. We need to acknowledge the problems but try to find solutions. As a society, we need to curb our desire for schadenfreude and realize that the success of our society and our future, lie in the education of the generations that will follow us. Our students of today cannot become the “forgotten generation” because it will have an impact on all of us as well as our future.

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Digital technology has long held the promise to “revolutionize” education. A quick search in Google Scholar shows articles going as far back as the 1960s. However, as much as the topic has been discussed, results have been spotty. The current pandemic has thrown both k-12 and higher education in a remote environment, trying to use digital technology to teach their students. Again, the results have been spotty. Students and faculty access to technology has been an impediment, as has knowledge of how to use digital technology to teach and learn.

So what can the future hold?

VR – virtual reality, AR – augmented reality, MR – mixed reality are terms that have been bandied about recently. While the many applications revolve around games, this virtual interaction with our reality can have powerful applications in education. Imagine that while sitting in your living room, you put on a pair of goggles and you’re instantly transported into your classroom. Every bone in your body is telling you that this is your classroom. You see your students, you see the desks, you can interact with materials on your desk, you pick up a piece of paper and you show it to the class. Teaching geography? Push a button and all of a sudden the entire class is transported to Antarctica. Teaching history? Push a button and your instantaneously transported in the middle of the battle of Waterloo, examining the unit placements of the British French and Prussian armies. Teaching biology? Be instantly transported through the human body.

With mobile technology available today, with the addition of Google Cardboard, most students can transform their smartphone into virtual or augmented reality viewers. For example, the Google Arts & Culture allows students to virtually tour museums across the world, Google Expeditions allows students to explore a wide variety of historic and geographic locations, and the New York Times VR can allow students to visit Mecca during the religious pilgrimage. How else could this technology enhance our classrooms? What potential might it have for our students’ future? What does that mean for learning and engagement?

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Microsoft has lately stepped up it’s software game. Even when using MacOS, programs like OneNote are among my favorite. My favorite app for iOS is Seeing AI by Microsoft. So, I was excited to play around with a Microsoft Surface for the first time in a long time. Unfortunately, that’s when I realized why I am so invested into the Apple ecosystem and why I think Apple makes the best software.  Out of the box, the Surface Pro ran through a nice setup process and I was able to sign in with my school Microsoft account.  And then, problems galore. Typical for Windows, I had about 200 updates (yes, I am slightly exaggerating) waiting for me. After sitting around for a couple of hours waiting for updates to install it finally popped up with an error during the last update. It was a feature update and it threw up a typically meaningless error. After researching around on the internet and spending a couple of other frustrating hours trying all kinds of recommendations, I was ready to throw the Surface out a window. I realized that I couldn’t come up with anything else to try to get the annoying update to install so I stumbled upon How to Reset Your Windows 10 PC. So, I proceeded to reset the brand new Surface that after half a day of mucking around I still hadn’t used for anything rather than to run try to run Windows updates. Of course, resetting took another couple of hours after which I was yet again at ground 0: waiting for my 200 updates to install. This time, the feature update worked (why it didn’t the first time is still a mystery), and after a couple of days of really doing nothing productive with the Surface I was ready to use it.

I installed a few apps and used the stylus.  I liked the handwriting recognition training even though I had to write 50 sentences, which again seemed like it took forever, but which improved my handwriting recognition significantly. The Surface itself was fine. It flaked out a few times deciding between tablet mode and computer mode, I couldn’t figure out how to access the desktop in tablet mode, but overall it was an ok experience. The handwriting recognition in OneNote was my favorite aspect.

The jarring realization came when I went back to use my iPad. The experience is so much more polished, the device so much more intuitive and responsive that I’m not sure I can find a reason to use a Surface over the iPad.

What has been your experience? If you’re a Surface person, what do you like about it? Have you tried an iPad? What don’t you like about the iPad?

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Even though I am a Mac user, and heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem, my favorite app is one designed by Microsoft: OneNote. I have been using it for a few years now, and it’s the one app that I recommend to everyone: students, faculty, and staff in academia, as well as those in the business world. It has shaped the way that I study, organize and keep track of my professional life.

As a student, I’ve used OneNote to organize and take notes for all my classes. Every time I sign up for a class, I create a notebook with the name of the class. In that notebook, I then create multiple sections. I have a section called “Class Notes” where, because I prefer to type, I type all my notes. Within that section, I have pages titled with the date of each class (e.g., February 1, 2018). If you prefer to handwrite your notes, you have two options. One, you can use an iPad or a Surface Pro and write with the Apple Pencil or the Microsoft Stylus. Two, even if you write notes in a notebook, it’s a good idea to review those notes within 48 hours; otherwise, it becomes re-learning rather than review. What better way to review notes than to type them up in OneNote and fill in what you need to fill in? When in class, if the professor writes something on the board that I want to capture (say a diagram), I take a picture with my phone and with a couple of clicks that picture is inserted into my notes.

Partial screenshot of a OneNote notebook

My second section in the class notebook is for notes that I take from the book. Within that section, I have pages for each of the chapters. In those pages I take the notes I want to take for the book. If it’s a digital book, I can also take screenshots of tables and other diagrams and, with a couple of clicks, insert them into my notes.

screenshot of OneNote notebook

Some professors also provide me with their own notes in PDF. For those classes, I have created a section called “Professor Notes” where I have pages titled for each of the notes I was provided (e.g., Bivariate Regression).

screenshot of OneNote notebook

If it happens to be a class that has quizzes or tests, like my statistics class, I also create a section called “Quiz Study Guides.” There, I take all my notes as I study for the quiz or test.

Lastly, depending on the class, I might have articles or other assignments that I need to work on, so I have sections for those as well. If it’s an article that I have the PDF for, I can easily insert it as a “printout” and then take my accompanying notes.

I also use OneNote as a professional to keep track of meetings and committees. If they are one-off meetings, I have a notebook for meetings, and each section is dedicated to a meeting. For standing committees, I create a notebook just for that committee. Within that notebook, I have three sections: Meetings, Documents, and Minutes.

screenshot of partial of OneNote Notebook

In the Meetings section, just like for the class notebook, I have pages titled with the date of the meeting (e.g., February 1, 2018). There, I take my notes during meetings. In the Documents section, I have pages for whatever documents I collected for that committee. If they are in Word, I just copy and paste the text. If they are PDFs, I insert them as printouts.

In the last section, Minutes, I again have pages titled with the date of the meeting, but there I copy and paste whatever minutes were taken for that meeting.

What is the benefit of all that? First, It keeps me organized. I don’t like having papers because they end up all over the place and I have a hard time keeping track of them. The worst, are the documents handed out in class or during meetings. I generally lose them somewhere in my bag, at home or in my office. Now, I take a picture of whatever it is with my phone and, with a couple of clicks, I insert it into my notebook. The second benefit is that I can find things easily. OneNote allows me to search within a page, a section, a notebook or all my notebooks. I can’t remember what bivariate is I need to know it for a class? A quick search of my notebook brings up all the locations where the word “bivariate” appears. I can also quickly locate all the documents I need to locate during a meeting, look at any of the past notes or meetings without having to dig around my bag/home/office to find what I’m looking for.

Another advantage of OneNote is that it can be accessed anywhere on any device. I can log in online in any web browser and have instant access to all my notebooks. I can use an iPad, a Surface Pro, a laptop (Mac/PC), a desktop or even my phone. If you’ve never used OneNote, take a look at it. It may, as it did for me, change your life for the better.

What do you use to keep your notes organized? Any other programs out there that you recommend? Any strategies that you recommend?

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I teach a couple of assistive technology classes, and lately, I’ve been contemplating the idea of transferring them to online. However, I’ve never been a big fan of asynchronous online classes.  I understand the benefits and the allure: distance education, access at a time that is convenient for the student, no commuting and fighting for parking, possibly lower cost, access to a variety of courses.  However, the need for self-discipline is a huge drawback for a lot of students. I, like many others, have signed up for numerous MOOCs when feeling ambitious only to leave them incomplete in the face of multiple demands on my time. Because we don’t have to go to class and face a professor and classmates, it’s a lot easier to put an online class out of mind. Now that’s not to say that everyone lacks the self-discipline to take an online class. It also doesn’t mean that there aren’t other factors that have to be considered when judging the success of an online class.  How engaging is the class? How present is the professor? How is the relationship with the other students in the class established and nurtured?

Quite a while ago, I signed up for an online class that sounded interesting on paper. However, upon logging on, I realized that this is a class that I would never be able to finish successfully.  The way this professor envisioned the class would never work for me because of my lack of self-discipline. He expected that we read the book and answer the questions at the end of the chapter. If we didn’t hear back from him, it meant that everything was great and we could move on. Mind you; I doubt that anyone ever heard from this professor. To me, this is not an online class.

So, while I knew what I didn’t want in an online class, I wasn’t quite sure what an online class should look like, so I started doing some research into best practices.  It turns out that there are quite a lot of recommendations out there that would make the online class much more engaging and accessible than what my old professor was suggesting.  It also turns out that if you want to create and run a successful online class, you probably have to put in more work than when running the class on the ground.

You shouldn’t just take the on the ground class and try to transfer it online. While on the ground lectures may take up an hour or more, in online, best practices advise to keep lectures in 15-20 minute chunks.  You have to make sure you’re available and present in the classroom. If a student has a question make sure you establish a reasonable amount of time that you’ll get back to them, best within 24 hours. If you have online discussions, make sure you let your students know that you are present. Encourage them and ask probing questions but do not take over the lecture.  Encourage group work whether it’s an assignment or discussion groups. Make sure that you detail your guidelines and your expectations. Hold virtual office hours. Consider whether you want to incorporate synchronous activities. Make sure your class is accessible to all learners, including those with disabilities.

Preparing and teaching an online class is a huge responsibility. It’s not a way of reducing your workload.  It does offer the same flexibility to professors as it does to students: the ability to work from where you want and when you want, as long as you are engaged and present.

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Technology adoption is tricky. What technology should we use and for what purpose? Should we use something just because everyone else is using it? Should there be another reason? What is that reason? What is the technology that fits best in my classroom, with my students, and for what I want to do?

In the field of assistive technology, where IDEA talks about individualized educational programs, we use a great framework developed by Joy Zabala (http://joyzabala.com). It’s called SETT, and it stands for Student, Environment, Tasks, and Tools. It says that rather than starting with the tool (a way too frequent approach), we should first consider the student’s strengths, weaknesses, and needs; we should consider the environment that the student is operating in; and we should consider the tasks we want the student to accomplish. Once we’ve considered that, identifying the tool becomes much easier and more appropriate.

While it’s hard to consider the strengths, weaknesses, and abilities of every student in a school, there’s nothing stopping us from at least examining the environment (the WiFi, the classrooms, whether the device is going home with the student or not, etc.) and the tasks (what are the educational goals? What are we trying to accomplish in the classroom? What do we want the students to learn?). Once we do that, maybe we can do a better job of selecting the appropriate tools rather than having closets full of technology that once was hot and now it’s not.

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How do we know what we know? How do we know what we should know? I’ve been in the field of educational technology for almost 20 years. Despite my hesitations, I think that makes me a relative expert in the field, and I always have a hard time gauging whether what I know is general knowledge or not.  However, lately, I’ve been getting the sneaking suspicion that those of us in the field are making too many assumptions about the general technology knowledge of teachers and other educational practitioners whose job does not constantly revolve around thinking about technology. I think we get so wrapped up in the possibilities that we see for technology in education that we jump to conclusions about the steps required to integrate whatever solution we’re talking about. We have the tendency to think that the teachers who will be responsible for the integration of technology understand it as well as we do. We may provide some kind of technical PD, where we tell them to click here and click there but, ultimately, I think we sometimes leave them more confused than they were before we started.

I think that we need to take a step back and re-evaluate the technological knowledge of the teachers we’re asking to implement the solution and provide professional development that is appropriate for the level of knowledge they have. We are never going to be successful if the ed tech people are being much more high level than the audience we’re trying to reach. We need to do what we always talk about doing with our students: we need to meet them where they are rather than force them to be where we are.

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The 10.5″ iPad Pro is my favorite technology device. I know that it’s expensive, especially if you add the excellent keyboard and pencil, and that is why Apple revised their iPad to have the ability to take advantage of the pencil, however the iPad Pro is what technology should be. It’s light and portable, it has a fairly large screen, it has a flexible operating system (one that could stand some more Jobsian attention to detail but a good one nonetheless), and it has accessories that fully complement it. It is, should be, the future of technology in education.

Side note: I think the greatest educational technology commercial ever created is the one with the young girl and the iPad Pro, “What’s a Computer?” There is so much good stuff packed in a one minute commercial that it should be considered a work of art. But that’s a subject for another post (although if you haven’t seen it, take that one minute and watch it).

One of the greatest things about iOS is the app ecosystem. Not only do we have access to over 2 million apps (although I would debate whether that’s a good thing or not) but those apps are curated by Apple and therefore, at least on some level, we can trust that they only do what they say they do and not some other nefarious function(s). Due to the nature of my job, I have a lot of apps on my iPhone and iPad. As of right now, I have 436 apps on my iPhone and 214 on my iPad. Clearly I don’t use all those apps every day and some I haven’t opened in years months. But, I wanted to take some time and think about my favorite educational apps and share that list with you.

Organization
Fantastical ($9.99) – My favorite, natural language calendar app.  Works with Apple, Exchange, and Google calendars. It is fairly expensive though and it’s only for the iPad.  If you want it on your iPhone as well you have to spring for another $4.99.

Pocket Schedule Planner (free/$.199 pro) – Good academic planner. Includes the ability to add your classes and for each class you can add assignments, tasks, projects, and exams. This is a universal app so it works on the iPad and/or on the iPhone.  You can create an account and sync the information between devices.

Note Taking
Microsoft OneNote (free) – I can put this app both in organization and note taking.  It’s a great app that is available for free as a web app, a computer app or an iOS or Android app.  On the iPad you can type your notes or you can write them with the Apple Pencil or a stylus.  I use it to organize my notes for the classes I take as well as any committee work that I have to do.  I use it to take notes in class and I use it to take notes from my readings. I can take pictures of PowerPoints or things written on the board and it will automatically crop them and insert them. I use it to take notes during meetings and I use it to import documents and minutes for each committee. It’s an app that I wholeheartedly recommend to everyone regardless of operating system or student status.

GoodNotes ($7.99) – Good note taking app that also converts handwriting into text.  Good handwriting recognition but not the best (see below).  It provides a large gamut of paper templates and the handwritten notes are indexed and searchable.  Also allows for handwritten PDF annotations.  You can also type your notes. It only works on iOS.

MyScript Nebo ($5.99) – In my opinion, the best handwriting recognition app on the store.  In addition to English it offers a variety of other languages as well.  It also recognizes math. In addition to handwriting, you can also type your notes. As it stands right now you only have one paper type template which is a drawback compared to some of the other apps out there. It’s also the only one in this list that only works on the iPad and not the iPhone but it also has a Windows 10 version and an Android version.

Notability ($9.99) – The only one on my list of note taking apps that records the audio at the same time you’re taking notes.  It correlates the notes with the audio so if you need to hear what was being said when you took a specific note, you tap on it and it plays back the audio.  You can type or handwrite your notes.  They also have a MacOS version but no Windows and no Android.

Reading/Annotation
LiquidText (free/$4.99 – $24.99 for pro versions) – My favorite annotation app. You can import PDFs and other documents as well as webpages. You can handwrite/type notes, you can highlight and extract passages, you can link notes to each other and places in the text, you can tap on an excerpt and be brought to the original source.  You can save notes/annotations as text files or save a PDF with your entire “workspace.” You can pinch a document and only view the passages you highlighted. It only works on the iPad and has no other OS versions.

Voice Dream Reader ($14.99) –

Writing

Research

Well, that’s my list as it stands right now. What about you? What are your favorite educational apps? What do you think about the iPad/iPad Pro?