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Feature | Winter 2012
The Cloud in the Classroom
To have your head in the clouds isn’t ideal when driving a car or playing contact sports, but when it comes to the classroom, a “head in the cloud” may be more desirable. In techno-speak, the cloud refers to accessing software and data using the Internet rather than relying on what is installed or stored on a local hard drive or local network. Many boards of education in Ontario have already begun shifting their computer network support systems to cloud-computing networks. Some teachers are also shifting some of their planning and classroom practice to the cloud, which enables students to use their own mobile devices in the classroom.
The Changing Face of Teaching Practice
Ryan Ewaskiw, learning coordinator
The New Media Consortium’s 2011 Horizon Report, which examines emerging technologies for their potential impact on and use in teaching, focuses on four key trends forecast for the next five years in education.1
- The abundance of resources and relationships made easily accessible by the Internet will increasingly challenge us to revisit our roles as educators in sense-making, coaching, and credentialing.
- People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want.
- Because the world of work is increasingly collaborative, we have to rethink the way we structure student projects.
- The technologies we use are increasingly cloud-based and our notion of IT support is decentralized.
I expect most ETFO members can relate to these trends on some level. For example, Web-based report card software allows teachers to complete assessment and evaluation practices at school or at home, using multiple platforms.
Critical friends
In my role as a learning technologies coordinator, I regularly reflect on how best to assist classroom teachers. I collaborate regularly with David Carruthers, a grade 6 teacher at Mitchell Hepburn Public School in St. Thomas. He constantly works to develop teaching practices using technology to enable and support student learning, to differentiate instruction, and to support collaborative inquiry models.
During the past four years, David and I have become “critical friends.” I enjoy stopping in to work with David’s class. “What do you have for us this time, Mr. E?” is how his students usually greet me. They expect me to demonstrate something new on each classroom visit.
In most cases, David and I are surfing the same wave; however, once in a while I take a certain pride and pleasure in bringing him something new. We challenge each other with what if questions. Generally, I focus on some of the big ideas and theory, while David keeps the conversation grounded in the practicality of the classroom. Ours is a reflective, iterative process.
David provides rich learning opportunities in his classroom, and I have witnessed a great deal of student success. When I interviewed a small group of his students, I asked them to reflect on the activities that stood out most in their minds.
A student excitedly exclaimed, “I think the highlight of my year was the Khan Academy because you learn more math skills. And, it was more fun than just sitting in a classroom and listening to a teacher talking about any old thing.”
Another explained: “The Kahn Academy is a Web-based program. You can sign in, and you can do all kinds of stuff. It’s not just math. They have other subjects too … and you can move on to become more proficient and stuff like that.”
A final anecdote came from a keen young woman who stated passionately, “I was thinking about the Chris Hadfield interview through Skype. He is a famous Canadian astronaut. He was in Russia when we connected with him on the computer and big screen in our gym.”
Observations
My experience so far has led me to believe that there are three levels of technology integration present in a well-balanced classroom.
- A large screen display connected to a powerful desktop or laptop computer is a great tool for activities such as whole-class shared reading and mathematics lessons.
- Workspaces with a few SOLE centres (a large-screen monitor connected to a computer, laptop, or netbook) are well suited for small collaborative inquiry investigations.2
- Wi-fi connectivity for students’ personal mobile devices is the final way to engage students by giving them access to personal learning tools at any time and in any place.
webpage: www.tvdsb.ca/webpages/rewaskiw
twitter: @ryanewaskiw
email: r.ewaskiw@tvdsb.on.ca
Endnotes
1 Johnson, L., Levine, W., & Haywood, K. (2011). NMC Horizon Report, 3.
2 Mitra, S. (2010). (Presenter). The child-driven education.
Resources
Brady, J. (Host). (2010, July 20). A pilot project at the Thames Valley District School Board puts iPod Touches into students’ hands to help amp up their learning. Decoder-Episode Five (18:15–23:10). Podcast retrieved from http://www.rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/decoder/2010/04/decoder-episode-5.
Borsheim, C., Merritt, K. & Reed, D. (2008). Beyond technology for technology’s sake: Advancing multiliteracies in the twenty-first century. Clearing House, 82(2), 87–90.
Hazari, S., North, A., & Moreland, D. (2009). Investigating the pedagogical value of Wiki technology. Journal of Information Systems Education, 20(2), 187–198.
Johnson, L., Levine, W., & Haywood, K. (2011). NMC Horizon Report: 2011 K-12 Edition. New Media Consortium. Retrieved from
http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2011-Horizon-Report-K12.pdf.
Kolb, L. (2008). Toys to tools: Connecting student mobile phones to education. Washington, DC: International Society for Technology in Education.
Lingard, B., & Rizvi, F. (2010). Globalizing Education Policy, 116–184. New York: T & F Books.
Mitra, S. (2010). (Presenter). The child-driven education. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html.
The Plugged-In Portable
David Carruthers, classroom teacher
In addition to traditional computers, students in my classroom use mobile devices as learning tools to collaborate, investigate, innovate, and express themselves creatively. While students use these devices almost instinctively, teachers may struggle to understand their relevance to teaching and learning. School boards face infrastructure and budgetary hurdles. Here is how our “Plugged-In Portable” has attempted to overcome these two major obstacles.
Lack of computers
I have more than a dozen computers in my portable. My situation doesn’t represent the typical classroom, but lack of computers doesn’t have to be an obstacle if we begin to harness the computing power of student-owned mobile devices such as the iPod Touch and smartphones. The cost of allowing these devices in the classroom is exceptionally low. By surveying our students, my learning coordinator and I found that a large portion of students already own an iPod and regularly bring it to school.
Although many teachers may still be unsure about the use of mobile devices in the learning environment, I have been explicitly teaching and modeling for my students how to use them in a socially responsible, safe, and ethical manner. Therefore, students in my classroom don’t use cellphones to text each other or make calls during lessons.
In making use of mobile devices in the classroom, I am not simply pandering to students’ interests. Technology facilitates learning. Using mobile devices represents a feasible solution to the lack of computers.
If you are unfamiliar with mobile devices, using them to teach might seem a daunting task with a steep learning curve. When we flip the tables and ask our students to teach us, we begin to cultivate an environment that exemplifies positive interdependence. I believe the potential is there if you choose to tap into this learning paradigm.
Managing multiple operating systems in the cloud
Opening the door to student-owned devices, means facing the challenge of dealing with a number of computing platforms in our classrooms.
Using cloud computing and Web 2.0 applications, we can meet this challenge and provide students with rich opportunities for collaboration on nearly any Web-enabled device. At any given time, my students can be working simultaneously on a document using iPods and computers running multiple operating systems.
The Google suite of applications makes it possible. The only must-have is access to a Web browser. All students have free Google accounts and can access all of Google’s cloud-based applications (e.g., word processing and spreadsheets). They can “check in” with the class while on vacation and submit assignments, or can collaborate on documents in real time with the rest of the class while home ill. My students also use a variety of other Web-based applications, such as Prezi, Bitstrips, and Glogster.
Cloud computing and Web 2.0 are transforming the way students learn and challenging educators to rethink outdated pedagogy. By removing the barriers of having to access software applications stored on our school network running one operating system, the option of learning anytime, anywhere is truly at our students’ fingertips.
Observations
My experience in the “Plugged-In Portable” has profoundly changed my role as a classroom teacher. The most striking example of this change occurred early in the school year. Shortly after I introduced students to a new software application, they started to approach each other, rather than me. I witnessed this gradual release of responsibility frequently, as it didn’t usually take long for students’ knowledge to surpass mine. They became the experts and the teachers, and I became a coach as I roamed the classroom providing suggestions and encouragement, and pushing their thinking. This doesn’t diminish my role – it simply recasts what it means to be a teacher in the twenty-first century. By the end of the year, my students were learning as much from me as from each other and the amount of face-to-face and online collaboration, investigation, and innovation was profound.
Blog: http://thepluggedinportable.edublogs.org/
Twitter: @pluggedportable
Email: d.carruthers@tvdsb.on.ca
Ryan Ewaskiw and David Carruthers are members of the Thames Valley Teacher Local.
