iPad Resources and More iPad Summit Blog Posts

At the conclusion of the iPad Summit, Co-Founder Justin Reich made A Plea to Teachers with iPads: Make Your Practice Visible.

If you are teaching and creating learning experiences with iPads, we really need you to share your practice online.

Educators from across the country took heed his advice and started posting their reflections. Here are some of the great articles from the past week.

iPad Adventures at Lower School– this group of elementary teachers from Sidwell Friends School has blogged daily since the Summit. They began with On Becoming Innovators – Failure is Mandatory and ended the week with Documentation! … We’re thinking about replacing the word “assessment” with the word“documentation.” We hope that they will continue to share their adventure!

Live from the First iPad Summit – Jen Carey, who live-blogged the entire iPad Summit, distilled her experience into 3 take-aways:

First and foremost, the iPad is simply a tool – it is not the magical, shiny object that will innovate education.
The other key message of the iPad Summit is that any integration of iPads in the classroom must come with professional development.
My final take-away from the conference is that for iPad integration to be effective in any classroom, it must be more than a replacement program.

Are iPads Ready? Four Conclusions from the EdTech Teacher iPad Summit – Ben Stern, technology integrationist in New York City, concluded that:

The iPad is ready
Quality instruction matters more than ever.
The physical space of our classrooms must change.
Tech for tech’s sake is dead.

Rarely is a conference a resounding success, but this one was. I am thrilled to be leaving with a confidence in the future of my school’s program as well as those of the many schools in attendance. Thank you to the EdTech Teacher fellows for all their hard work.

Technology Classes at Burley School Digital Showcase – the team of teachers from the National Teachers Academy in Chicago blew participants away with their dynamic presentation. They shared their colleagues portfolio of digital projects with us through Twitter. Some amazing work coming from these students.

Conference Reflection: iPad Summit USA 2012 – science teacher, Derrick Willard, provides a great overview of his learning experience.

Ed Tech Teacher – iPad Summit USA Boston – Keith Rispin traveled to Boston from Vancouver and then posted these “Stuck in an airport, missed my connection, sleeping in Dallas, conference take aways.” Despite his sleep deprivation, he concluded his post with a fantastic point:

With all this said however, there seemed to be one thing missing. One little but significant piece of the puzzle, without which all is for not. There was surprisingly little if any discussion on the role of student in this little learning revolution. We talked about how teachers have to change, education systems have to change, teaching practice has to change, the physical aspects of school have to change but NOTHING about how the student will have to change. Sure we talked about what kids should be able to do when they walk out the door but we did not discuss how the learner has to change their practice but there is no need to worry…

I think I stumbled upon a little hint as to how learners will have to change as we move ahead. It lies in the single most important thing I took away from this conference. People need to become “free agent learners” It does not matter if you are student or teacher. Those who will excel in the Twenty First Century Learning environment, will take on the responsibility for their own learning. The days of being a passive recipient of the information that comes your way is over. Those who don’t, will be left in the dust.