The paperless classroom just became easier to achieve by adding new copiers to our technology team! The Xerox WorkCentre copy machines have a feature called Scan to E-mail that takes a document, scans it in, creates a PDF of the document, and sends to to you or anyone on the staff as an e-mail attachment! This feature is fantastic and allows teachers to convert mountains of paper quickly and easily to PDF files.
In our Google Apps for Education district, once paper is a PDF, the document can easily be uploaded to Google Drive and shared in the clouds with students to access anywhere, anytime.
For our #ipadacademy, the copier makes getting material into iTunes U so simple. Just a couple clicks and the PDF's are uploaded to the materials section of iTunes U, added as a post, and pushed out to students.
The Scan to E-mail feature makes a daunting task of either re-typing a document, locating a scanner, or taking a picture of the paper a distant memory now.
Check out this video to learn how to Scan to E-Mail and go green by creating a paperless classroom today.
Written by Ann Feldmann
@techiefeldie
Showing posts with label A paperless Classroom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A paperless Classroom. Show all posts
Friday, March 15, 2013
Friday, November 9, 2012
An Interview with @Gtwitsims on a Paperless Paper
Well, it's over. The project has come to an end. If you'd like to read my previous posts on a paperless paper, just search those words. There are 7 previous blogs on the project. How I wish we could have just left the iPads with Mr. Sims, from Fairview Elementary, and his awesome 4th grade students.
I do however, want to give our readers a different perspective on how the project turned out so I asked @Gtwitsims to provide us with some feedback on what he thought about using iPads to create written works with 4th graders.
Jenny: What were your initial concerns with the beginning of the writing project?
Mr. Sims: The time it would take to initially teach with the technology was a concern. Most of my students have never used Dropbox or sent an eMail and I think it is safe to say that none of them had used Notability before.
Jenny: What technical skills have your students learned during this project that they wouldn’t have otherwise learned?
Mr. Sims: My students have learned the general use of a touch device -
Jenny: In thinking about your students’ attitudes towards writing, how would you describe their attitude about writing on an iPad vs. paper and pencil?
Mr. Sims: They were extremely enthusiastic! I had *MANY* parents comment to me all their children had told them about using the iPads in the classroom - I am positive that doesn’t happen for ordinary writing assignments.
Jenny: Is there anything that your students miss when writing and using an ipad vs. paper and pencil?
Mr. Sims: Not really - I get comments from parents all the time wondering why we still teach handwriting and how “in the district we came from, they didn’t. So my child doesn’t know how to write.” Pencils are messy, they break, and students get hand fatigue often (so do I!!).
Jenny: Can you foresee in the future, using ipads indefinitely for the writing curriculum?
Mr. Sims: Yes - If my students had 1 to 1 iPads in the classroom, I would utilize them every single day. It would completely transform my teaching - they would use the iPads to create, edit, revise, and publish their writing to a larger audience than they do now. Students get *VERY* excited when they realize more people than just their teacher(s) or classmates will be seeing their writing samples. That enthusiasm transfers into their writing.
Jenny: What for you was the best way to provide feedback to your students during the writing process?
Mr. Sims: I wanted to keep this project entirely paperless so due to time constraints, we ended up having students copy/paste their Notability writing into an eMail they composed and then they each sent the eMail to me. I am in the process of writing notes in each eMail sample to mail back to them. They will then be using the Lab computers to open the eMail, make the changes, and resend it to me for final evaluation. After that, we will most likely publish them online using a blog site - possibly Yaptime, which I used many times before.
Jenny: What was your biggest frustration during this project?
Mr. Sims: The initial learning curve was tough - especially using an immersive app like Notabilty, that I am not completely comfortable with. The time constraints, coupled with everything else we have to teach, also was a challenge. However, we adapted to the situations and I believe the students are turning out great samples and I am going to be able to provide much better feedback than I might using a red pen as I am so much faster and more comfortable typing than I am writing.
Jenny: What was your favorite part of the project?
Mr. Sims: I am *always* looking to try new things in the classroom. Especially things that energize and excite the students. I recently told my student teacher (in regards to classroom management) that, when a student doesn’t like your class, sending them out to the hall or to the office, etc. for misbehaving is not a punishment for them - it is a reward. Teachers *need* to make their classroom a place *each* student wants to be. It provides a lot of leverage with the student. I’ve often tried to do this with Science and Technology, and Educational Games - tried to have fun, different, educational experiences that they enjoy so that they will *WANT* to be in my class. The iPads have definitely helped with that through this project. Most kids don’t like to write or struggle with it at some level. This added technology element provided that excitement for the student.
Jenny: Anything else you want to add for others considering running their writing this way?
Mr. Sims: I’d be interested to see if there were any noticeable differences in a class that used iPads to write every day and a class that didn’t (in their overall writing ability). I wonder in 4th grade state writing test scores would be any different.
Wow! It sounds like these kids could give us some lessons on using an iPad!. As our district moves towards a 1:1 environment with tablets and or laptops, I feel it is critical to share out our results and processes that we have used. A HUGE thank you to Mr. Sims for allowing me to invade his classroom and work with his wonderful students!
Written by: Jennifer Krzystowczyk
@jennykbps
I do however, want to give our readers a different perspective on how the project turned out so I asked @Gtwitsims to provide us with some feedback on what he thought about using iPads to create written works with 4th graders.
Mr. Sims: The time it would take to initially teach with the technology was a concern. Most of my students have never used Dropbox or sent an eMail and I think it is safe to say that none of them had used Notability before.
Jenny: What technical skills have your students learned during this project that they wouldn’t have otherwise learned?
Mr. Sims: My students have learned the general use of a touch device -
- How to manage, run, and utilize multiple apps in the same session - How to log into and utilize DropBox for file sharing -
- Cut/Copy/and Pasting (both on an iPad and a PC - Battery/Power Management on an iPad as well as how to shut off programs not in use -
- How to send an eMail using Safari and their gMail accounts -
- How to find and insert a picture on an iPad (via Google and Noteability) -
- General use of Notability-
- iPad tech skills like screen orientation and locking, keyboard spliting, charging the iPads, use of Photobooth and the Camera/Camera Roll feature - changing the home and lock screen pictures and more.
Jenny: In thinking about your students’ attitudes towards writing, how would you describe their attitude about writing on an iPad vs. paper and pencil?
Mr. Sims: They were extremely enthusiastic! I had *MANY* parents comment to me all their children had told them about using the iPads in the classroom - I am positive that doesn’t happen for ordinary writing assignments.
Jenny: Is there anything that your students miss when writing and using an ipad vs. paper and pencil?
Mr. Sims: Not really - I get comments from parents all the time wondering why we still teach handwriting and how “in the district we came from, they didn’t. So my child doesn’t know how to write.” Pencils are messy, they break, and students get hand fatigue often (so do I!!).
Jenny: Can you foresee in the future, using ipads indefinitely for the writing curriculum?
Mr. Sims: Yes - If my students had 1 to 1 iPads in the classroom, I would utilize them every single day. It would completely transform my teaching - they would use the iPads to create, edit, revise, and publish their writing to a larger audience than they do now. Students get *VERY* excited when they realize more people than just their teacher(s) or classmates will be seeing their writing samples. That enthusiasm transfers into their writing.
Jenny: What for you was the best way to provide feedback to your students during the writing process?
Mr. Sims: I wanted to keep this project entirely paperless so due to time constraints, we ended up having students copy/paste their Notability writing into an eMail they composed and then they each sent the eMail to me. I am in the process of writing notes in each eMail sample to mail back to them. They will then be using the Lab computers to open the eMail, make the changes, and resend it to me for final evaluation. After that, we will most likely publish them online using a blog site - possibly Yaptime, which I used many times before.
Jenny: What was your biggest frustration during this project?
Mr. Sims: The initial learning curve was tough - especially using an immersive app like Notabilty, that I am not completely comfortable with. The time constraints, coupled with everything else we have to teach, also was a challenge. However, we adapted to the situations and I believe the students are turning out great samples and I am going to be able to provide much better feedback than I might using a red pen as I am so much faster and more comfortable typing than I am writing.
Jenny: What was your favorite part of the project?
Mr. Sims: I am *always* looking to try new things in the classroom. Especially things that energize and excite the students. I recently told my student teacher (in regards to classroom management) that, when a student doesn’t like your class, sending them out to the hall or to the office, etc. for misbehaving is not a punishment for them - it is a reward. Teachers *need* to make their classroom a place *each* student wants to be. It provides a lot of leverage with the student. I’ve often tried to do this with Science and Technology, and Educational Games - tried to have fun, different, educational experiences that they enjoy so that they will *WANT* to be in my class. The iPads have definitely helped with that through this project. Most kids don’t like to write or struggle with it at some level. This added technology element provided that excitement for the student.
Jenny: Anything else you want to add for others considering running their writing this way?
Mr. Sims: I’d be interested to see if there were any noticeable differences in a class that used iPads to write every day and a class that didn’t (in their overall writing ability). I wonder in 4th grade state writing test scores would be any different.
Wow! It sounds like these kids could give us some lessons on using an iPad!. As our district moves towards a 1:1 environment with tablets and or laptops, I feel it is critical to share out our results and processes that we have used. A HUGE thank you to Mr. Sims for allowing me to invade his classroom and work with his wonderful students!
Written by: Jennifer Krzystowczyk
@jennykbps
Thursday, October 25, 2012
A Paperless Paper Entry 6 Feedback and Revisions
Entry 6 Giving Feedback and Doing Revisions
If you haven’t read my previous posts on a paperless paper feel free to take a few moments to get caught up here. Now we are ready for feedback! Mr. Sims is using preview with the annotation tools to guide his students to a better piece of writing and contacting them using student gmail accounts.
Students need to be able to view their annotated piece of writing and then edit what they have created. My brainiac idea was to seek out some amazing, and by the way, nonexistent app that would allow students to look at feedback on one side of the screen and revise at the same time on their saved note on the other side of the screen. Essentially cutting the screen in half like two iPads. If it does exist, it really isn’t that great of an idea because the screen size will be cut in half and that minimizes the experience of using an iPad to create a good piece of writing.
What I discovered is that sometimes the low tech solution is the way to go. This low tech solution was evident in a training I did with an Apple trainer. He was asked during an iPad training, “Can we highlight sections in an ibook for our students?” He replied, “Of course! Just walk over and highlight the text in their iPad.” The solution was literally hands and feed. I had to chuckle, because in our high tech world we expect our solutions to be so much more complicated.
So the solution on viewing feedback and reworking student writing is going to be a simple four finger hand gesture on the iPad- no app necessary.
Here is how it looks for work flow:
1.) Student logs into their dropbox account
2.) Student opens up their note that Mr. Sims has annotated over
3.) Student opens up Notabiity and opens the note that is also saved in their Notability app
4.) Now the student can take four fingers and gently swipe left and right to move back and forth between the two documents
In some ways, it might work better than paper in that the student is required to concentrate and understand the feedback. Instead of having the paper right under their nose and looking back and forth, this method of swiping between apps demands a bit more concentration on the part of the student.
I am anxious to see how the students feel about reworking their papers this way. Check back in next week to see how our students are feeling about the workflow and experience!
If you haven’t read my previous posts on a paperless paper feel free to take a few moments to get caught up here. Now we are ready for feedback! Mr. Sims is using preview with the annotation tools to guide his students to a better piece of writing and contacting them using student gmail accounts.
Students need to be able to view their annotated piece of writing and then edit what they have created. My brainiac idea was to seek out some amazing, and by the way, nonexistent app that would allow students to look at feedback on one side of the screen and revise at the same time on their saved note on the other side of the screen. Essentially cutting the screen in half like two iPads. If it does exist, it really isn’t that great of an idea because the screen size will be cut in half and that minimizes the experience of using an iPad to create a good piece of writing.
What I discovered is that sometimes the low tech solution is the way to go. This low tech solution was evident in a training I did with an Apple trainer. He was asked during an iPad training, “Can we highlight sections in an ibook for our students?” He replied, “Of course! Just walk over and highlight the text in their iPad.” The solution was literally hands and feed. I had to chuckle, because in our high tech world we expect our solutions to be so much more complicated.
So the solution on viewing feedback and reworking student writing is going to be a simple four finger hand gesture on the iPad- no app necessary.
Here is how it looks for work flow:
1.) Student logs into their dropbox account
2.) Student opens up their note that Mr. Sims has annotated over
3.) Student opens up Notabiity and opens the note that is also saved in their Notability app
4.) Now the student can take four fingers and gently swipe left and right to move back and forth between the two documents
In some ways, it might work better than paper in that the student is required to concentrate and understand the feedback. Instead of having the paper right under their nose and looking back and forth, this method of swiping between apps demands a bit more concentration on the part of the student.
I am anxious to see how the students feel about reworking their papers this way. Check back in next week to see how our students are feeling about the workflow and experience!
Writing by: Jennifer Krzystowczyk
@jennykbps
Monday, October 15, 2012
A Paperless Paper Entry 4
Creativity in Notability and Exporting Files!
If you haven't read my previous posts about a paperless paper, take a few minutes to get caught up! Today's lesson allowed 4th graders to create new notes in the app Notability, do some writing and illustrating and export it to their shared dropbox folders. The students only had one folder created so this was basically just walking them through the steps. After clicking on the “happy share arrow” they choose the email button> dropbox> folder> and export to dropbox. Students were thrilled to go into their dropbox app and see their note sitting in their newly created folders.
Once we got through these steps we let them have some free journal time. The objective was to have them create a document and practice exporting it out to dropbox.
These 4th graders were working for almost an hour on writing. You could have heard a pin drop in the classroom. These kids were so engaged! Some students were writing full paragraphs and inserting in web clips off of Google and Wikipedia. Other students were using the drawing tool and illustrating their stories. I love the creativity that is available in Notability!
Our next challenge is to allow Mr. Sims to provide paperless feedback. We have two choices. One is to use preview on the laptop and save the notes back to the dropbox folder. The other is to scrounge up one more iPad and use Notability to annotate over student notes as Notability allows users to import a PDF and add to a note. Check back to see where we go with this decision and how it affects the work flow of our paperless environment!
Written By: Jenny Krzystowczyk
@jennykbps
If you haven't read my previous posts about a paperless paper, take a few minutes to get caught up! Today's lesson allowed 4th graders to create new notes in the app Notability, do some writing and illustrating and export it to their shared dropbox folders. The students only had one folder created so this was basically just walking them through the steps. After clicking on the “happy share arrow” they choose the email button> dropbox> folder> and export to dropbox. Students were thrilled to go into their dropbox app and see their note sitting in their newly created folders.
Once we got through these steps we let them have some free journal time. The objective was to have them create a document and practice exporting it out to dropbox.
These 4th graders were working for almost an hour on writing. You could have heard a pin drop in the classroom. These kids were so engaged! Some students were writing full paragraphs and inserting in web clips off of Google and Wikipedia. Other students were using the drawing tool and illustrating their stories. I love the creativity that is available in Notability!
Our next challenge is to allow Mr. Sims to provide paperless feedback. We have two choices. One is to use preview on the laptop and save the notes back to the dropbox folder. The other is to scrounge up one more iPad and use Notability to annotate over student notes as Notability allows users to import a PDF and add to a note. Check back to see where we go with this decision and how it affects the work flow of our paperless environment!
@jennykbps
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
A Paperless Paper Entry 2
Today I introduced the students to their iPads! Their little faces were literally aglow with excitement. First I had them “name” their iPads using photo booth and photos. They simply took their own picture and then saved it to their home and lock screen. That way, each student will be able to use the same iPad day after day.
We made sure we allowed them to spend time playing with photo booth. Giving kids time to play with new stuff is essential to avoid distraction later when we want them to really dig in and work. Demystifying apps and tools is key in making room for the real learning.
We had 2 ipad1's without cameras. In that case we took some screen shots of things that the students identified with. You can take a screen shot by holding down the home button and the power button at the same time. For example, one student enjoyed a certain reading series, so she took a shot of a book cover and made that her home screen.
Next, I showed them some very basic features of the app, Notability. After about 15 minutes of doodling time with the app I paused and showed them some more tools in Notability like the filing system, web clips, and drawing tools. It will probably take a few more sessions with the app before we begin any serious writing.
Classroom management is key in a successful project. So for this project we assigned 2 trustworthy little 4th graders to be the ones to pass out the iPads and check for charging needs after each session.
We also used Apple TV to model some iPad basics. Apple TV requires users to be on the same network and have the same apple ID entered on their device. So here is a little tip for those of you interested in using Apple TV in your class. Create a class Apple ID so that you can have your classroom devices using the same ID and then they can jump on the Apple TV without having to touch the devices that want to share.
We made sure we allowed them to spend time playing with photo booth. Giving kids time to play with new stuff is essential to avoid distraction later when we want them to really dig in and work. Demystifying apps and tools is key in making room for the real learning.
We had 2 ipad1's without cameras. In that case we took some screen shots of things that the students identified with. You can take a screen shot by holding down the home button and the power button at the same time. For example, one student enjoyed a certain reading series, so she took a shot of a book cover and made that her home screen.
Next, I showed them some very basic features of the app, Notability. After about 15 minutes of doodling time with the app I paused and showed them some more tools in Notability like the filing system, web clips, and drawing tools. It will probably take a few more sessions with the app before we begin any serious writing.
Classroom management is key in a successful project. So for this project we assigned 2 trustworthy little 4th graders to be the ones to pass out the iPads and check for charging needs after each session.
We also used Apple TV to model some iPad basics. Apple TV requires users to be on the same network and have the same apple ID entered on their device. So here is a little tip for those of you interested in using Apple TV in your class. Create a class Apple ID so that you can have your classroom devices using the same ID and then they can jump on the Apple TV without having to touch the devices that want to share.
Written By: Jennifer Krzystowczyk
@jennykbps
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