Edgaged

Kindergarten in a 1:1 environment is an interesting thing. Especially at the beginning of the year when students don't know all their letters yet. For the last several days, I've been working with Mrs. Kuehnert's kindergarten class. We've been focusing on just the basics when using the iPad. These basics will provide the scaffolding the students need in order to better utilize the iPad as a learning tool in the future. The more exposure they have to troubleshooting and basic use of the iPad, the more the device can be used throughout the rest of the year.     Last year, I created a list of skills to get Kindergarten rolling for the beginning of the year. I will more than likely add to this list, but this gives an idea of where to start with them so that Kindergarten students can feel confident in their use of the iPad. The key is to break it down and go slow. It will pay off in the long run when you have a bigger project later in the year. Feel free to view t...

Last week I had the opportunity to meet with a group of fifth graders to discuss the use of their new Lenovo Windows 8.1 PC. They are very excited about the possibilities as well as the touch enabled screen that other grades do not get to experience quite yet. We discussed the need for updates as well as the dangers of downloading. When discussing these issues with fifth and sixth graders, I love comparing downloading as the same idea as accepting "snacks" from someone. (I can't take credit for the idea as it came from Google .) Students understand that it is important that they know where their "snacks" are coming from because it may contain something undesirable. We even discuss that sometimes "snacks" coming from safe sources (Java and Adobe) often times have extras in them that you do not want to download. So they need to be watchful with all downloads to make sure nothing else is being downloaded onto their machine. Lastly, we discuss that the...