I have been teaching chemistry for 25 years and I realized the times are changing fast! So I decided to take the plunge into the foreign world of technology. I say foreign because I am not a "digital native." But really it is not so foreign. In my life outside of teaching chemistry at a 2-year college in Southern California I like to build my own furniture. In woodworking I use lots of tools. That is the way I look at technology in the class room. It is a tool to help construct something just like I use a table saw to help construct a chair. In the chemistry classroom I am helping to construct minds.
iPads seem to me to be an outstanding tool to help my students learn chemistry. This blog will be a chronicle of my experiences using iPads in the classroom. I plan to talk about the failures and the victories. I hope to share new insights for those that choose to try this tool in the future and hopefully I will be able to encourage those that are a little afraid to take the chance.
I am going to include some of the "boring details" since that might help someone else who wants to do something similar to what I am doing.
How I got started with iPads in the classroom.
I got my first iPad in 2010 and immediately saw the value of it for the classroom. I started using screencast technology to put out "mini lectures" that my chemistry students could use to review short concepts or learn the material better. For years I have heard my students say, "Can you please repeat what you just said?" Screencasting helps put out quick review lessons. Using an app on the iPad, I can write on a small "whiteboard" while I record my words. This can be done so easily it is quite fun. If a student emails me a question I can answer it with a screencast and post it for all my students to see. I like to use ShowMe, but their are many other good screencasting apps. Here is my ShowMe page.
I remember a student about 15 years ago asked me in an email to explain some particular chemistry concept. I needed to write out a chemical equation with subscripts and chemistry symbolism but was unable to in a short time to send over an email. At the time I wished there was a way to write directly onto the screen rather than typing. I went to the "tech guy" on my campus and he told me about tablet technology and Camtasia. So into the sound booth I went for several hours at a time writing on a tablet, hoping I did not go over the time limit. Then the little videos had to be rendered into a codec that was postible on my website. Here is the result of what I called my "Mini web lectures". I did those from about 2002 to 2006. It took a loooong time. And then the codec is outdated so it is not always compatible. But THE STUDENTS LOVED IT! I even had students from other professors rave about the web lectures. But then my tech guy found another job and I was unable to create any more. Then in 2010 I get this iPad that I can do my web lectures in just a matter of minutes!
In the Spring of 2011 I got an iPad 2. As a member of the California Teacher Advisory Council a branch group of the California Council on Science an Technology, I was given an iPad along with the rest of the council. We were charged with the task of exploring its use in the classroom.
Yikes! What did I get myself into!
One day in April 2013 I was walking down a hallway and ran into one of our Science Engineering and Math Division secretaries. She asked me, "If you could buy anything for your classroom what would it be?" I very flippantly replied, "I would want 30 iPads!" She then told me to write up a proposal. Yikes! what did I get myself into!
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