Roberts, J., Harris, S., Kline, K., & Baltrushunas, J. (2015, November). iPad superheroes: Teaching in a digital world. Concurrent session at the 2015 Focus on Teaching and Technology Conference, University of Missouri – St. Louis, St. Louis, MO.
Description
During the Fall 2015 semester, Maryville University launched a new iPad initiative called Digital World. Maryville partnered with Apple on a pilot initiative in which all freshmen and selected sophomores were given an iPad Air 2 as an academic resource.
In addition to students receiving iPads, all full-time faculty and faculty and staff teaching students in USEM sections, freshman, and select sophomore education students received iPads. These individuals also received extensive professional development training on how to integrate the iPad into the classroom. These faculty members at Maryville University have taken on a new job title: that of an iPad Superhero!
For this panel presentation, we have invited four faculty participating in the iPad initiative to speak about their experiences. We’ve asked them to identify one assignment in which they incorporated the use of the iPad into their teaching. We will explain how we used these apps, how the initiative promoted digital literacy, and how we used the iPad as a meaningful learning tool.
Kate Kline, Inspiration
Inspiration is a visual mapping app that allows it’s users to brainstorm, clarify thoughts, and plan written or spoken projects and presentations. It was used in an undergraduate Medical Aspects of Disabilities course at Maryville University in a variety of ways. The main use of the app was to have students create visual study guides for each content chapter, which was then presented to peers in supplementation of course discussion and lecture. Secondly, Inspiration was used to visually respond to several case studies throughout the semester. Students stated that they appreciated how they could write out questions in “bubbles” and then really think out their ideas to help formulate their final response. They further stated that for smaller assignments, the app was preferred because they did not have to write full paragraphs, but more just their thoughts, indicating that this, “worked really well for how my brain thinks things out”. Overall, there was a strong positive response regarding using this app in the classroom, with many students indicating that it helped for retention during exams and other assessment methods.
John Baltrushunas, ArtStudio
ArtStudio is a comprehensive sketching, painting and photo editing app. I used this app in Design I, in a unit on color theory. I developed a design consisting of simple shapes, expressed as outlines, and the students were to fill the shapes in with color harmonies. They were to produce 15 harmonies saved as digital images. Using this app allowed them to push values and intensities much easier than the traditional method of using paint for this assignment.
Sam Harris, Explain Everything
Explain Everything is an easy-to-use interactive screencasting whiteboard app. I’ve used this app to replace traditional reflection papers in my freshman seminar course. Students are required to submit five of these interactive reflection videos throughout the term. For each one, students are asked to address a few challenge questions regarding what we’ve been covering in class. They do this by pulling multimedia (photos, audio, video, documents) into the Explain Everything app, where they record a 5 minute reflection narration addressing the challenge questions. When finished, videos are submitted to the LMS (Canvas).
Janet Roberts, Blogger
Blogger is an easy, convenient blogging platform. During my university seminar class, I had students post weekly blogs exploring the topics we covered for that week. The class covered animal welfare, so we encountered many thought-provoking concepts. Blogger was a tool for us to sort through the ethical intricacies of these concepts. Blogger enabled students to use online resources, images, audio, video, and words to come up with a public statement with an obvious message. I encouraged students to share their blog posts on their own social media platforms so they could explore the power of their own voices.