Well I haven't used any iPad apps in class with my students as of yet. I haven't purchased the cord to make it at least viewable to all students. If I use the SAMR to measure my use of technology in the classroom, I would have to say that I live in the automating zone but aspire to escape to the informating zone. My use of the smartboard for instruction scores as augmentation if the students are doing any interactive lesson but more often as a substitution. The occasional webquests and even the use of the Galaxy Tabs and an interactive virtual lab are not getting my students into a learning experience where they work on their 21st century technology skills. I see other subjects requiring prezis, animotos, powerpoints, etc... but I also see teachers struggling for computer access for all students to create and share as well as assignments taking twice as long to create and present. I believe better subject to subject communication and coordination are definitely a must so that students can take the time to see connections between subject areas, and maybe the importance of their own voice in their own discovery as they take the time to create a product that has depth and meaning for more than one class.
The only program that I personally use at school is Accuity. Now when I say I use Accuity, I must admit that I give the test during the window, and I have when forced gone back to look at the data to see weak areas in instruction by the teacher or understanding by the students. Using the SAMR, this program appears to be another substitution for a paper-pencil test. In fact I often given it as a paper-pencil test and just have the students enter their responses on the computer due again to difficulty in accessing a classroom full of computers. This type of testing seems antiquated when looking to the top tier of the SAMR scale where we want to evaluate student progress through generation of products that show knowledge gained while using the best technology available.
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