Just How do HS Students Use Thier MacBook

It has now been one quarter that we have had MacBooks in the hands of all the HS students.  Not surprisingly, there are a number of ways in which the students use their computers both for their education and for personal use.

At the start of the year, it was made very clear that the MacBook was to be ready at all times for the student's education.  Keeping the battery charged and not wandering to other windows was stressed as something that students needed to keep a close eye on.  Recently there was a great article in the school newspaper The Break on some things students can do to preserve their battery life on a daily basis.  I seem to remember there were six ideas given and all would allow the battery to be used longer throughout the day.  I feel that this has been met with a great deal of success.  It is not 100% but then again, that is a goal that may not be reachable.

In classes I have either been in or viewed, the variation on MacBook use is astounding.  We have a larger group of students using StudyWiz and its various components and this is thanks to the teachers taking the time to learn all the facets of this program.  While I am aware it is not everything to all teachers, many assignments, groups, problems of the week and now even drop boxes are being used frequently through StudyWiz.  As far as I know, students still have full access to this at home.  One problem that was discovered by a couple of students is that StudyWiz does not work well with the Chrome browser.  Switching to Firefox seems to fix the problem immediately.

I have often heard that students blog.  This year we set up blogs for all the 10th grade students and the new students in grade 9 and 10.  9th Grade students did not need new blogs as they had the ones they used in Grade 8.   At this moment, I do not think there is an abundance of blogging happening the high school.  I am aware that blogging was discouraged in one department as it was determined that the content could be too damaging so they opted for a Discussion on StudyWiz instead.  Other than that, I was hoping that grade 9 would keep the grade 8 students going with their blogs and asses it more informally with reply comments.  I am hoping that with continued work, I can convert some teachers to use more blogs.

There are a couple of special projects happening in the HS - robotics and IB Language and Literature.  The IBLL class has worked diligently on producing both a poster and brochure for a womens HIV group in Henan Province.  There is an abundance of MacBook use with this project as the contact is through either Skype or FaceTime and the Layout and Design group are using Adobe inDeisgn to complete the project.   The research into the group is done both through the Internet and by digital reading of documentation sent to them from the group.

The robotics club meets after school and has been busy preparing for what they need to make this a reality.  Budgets have been accepted, orders placed, PC computers reformatted and installed in the classroom and student have been busy planning and preparing for the construction and programming of their robots.  I admit that I am hoping to see this bloom throughout the MS and HS to possibly be offered as a course here at ISB through the HS years.

I was asked why the MacBooks cannot be  formatted for the PC operating system in cases like robotics where there is no work around for a MacBook.  At this time the school has made a decision to not allow this at all.  Instead, if needed, we will find PC computers for students to use with the Robotics they are working with.  I am also in the throws of looking for anything that will work well with the MacBook computers and Robotics.

Of course, the students use their computers for personal use as well as educational.  What I am pleased to see is that all the work we did last year coupled with announcements and reminders has set the correct tone for this.  We do not limit the use of computers at lunch but there are not very many open and being used at this time.  It is one of the very few social times so the students revel in the time given to them.  Gaming, Facebook and YouTube remain open for the students and at this time I see no need to close them off.  The students have risen to the level of responsibility that shows they can be trusted with this.  To date, I have had no incidence of any of these during classes other than when it was given with pemission.

One area I would like to see more respect taken is in the closing of computers when someone is talking.  This is still something that is troublesome during times when computers are not even needed - assembly, morning mentor and mentor meeting time.  I used the word respect because that is all it is.  Most of the time a student cannot be listening properly if they are busy on a MacBook doing something else. They will probably miss some important word of wisdom or insight.

Quarter 2 is upon us and more interesting tidbits coming up.

Learning 2.012 Conference - Beijing

This weekend was a wonderful mixture of conference, collaboration, networking and discussion.  There was so much that transpired, it is hard to condense it all.  I know that a couple of more posts are going to be needed to reflect on this in its entirety.

The cohort was a wonderful place where like minded people could carry on discussions and network with similar problems and successes.  There were about 15 in our cohort and the discussions ranged from Design Technology to application of a coaching style PD.  The latter took a lot of time and it would appear that while most of the International Schools in attendance are attempting this model for PD, there are varying degrees of success.  The HS level seems to be one of the hardest to break into since there is the content vs process discussion always at the forefront.  I wonder if it is possible to have both and still have a successful PD model in a HS setting. I believe it is possible as it is what I am trying to establish here at ISB.

Professional networks are an important part of these conferences.  It was great to catch up with people I have worked with before and also to meet some new people to stay in touch with both as professional educators and also as mentors for programs and ideas.  There were a lot of blogs, online discussions, Facebook pages and personal websites that were shared over the three days of the conference.

If you are interested in looking through the website of the conference it can be found here;

http://www.learning2.asia/

Through out these pages are plenty of people connecting and connected into Learning 21 goals and ideas for schools.  They can be a great resource.  You can also find all the materials from the sessions, unconferences and cohorts throughout these pages.  These might prove helpful for people working in this direction.  As I move forward here, you will find a lot more on this conference and my work in establishing connectivity among teachers at ISB.