Top five tablet tips for teachers!

It has been two and a half months since I started teaching with tablets in my classroom here at Zurich International School. I can now take a moment and reflect on and share some of the things I have learned, in the hope that some of you readers out there will be able to learn from my experience if you happen to be at a school that is using tablets or thinking of adopting them.

Below are my top five tips for teaching with tablets:

1. The right choice: First you need to convince your admin that tablets are the way to go today. I’m at my third international school, having previously taught at one school with a laptop program and another school that has spent three years developing a plan for launching a laptop program, I can say after one quarter of using tablets that NO SCHOOL SHOULD CONSIDER ADOPTING LAPTOPS IN A WORLD WHERE TABLET TECHNOLOGY EXISTS! I cannot think of a single benefit laptops have over tablets for educational use. If you can, please leave a comment explaning why laptops are better than tablets for the classroom.
2. The right hardware: Once you’ve convinced your admin team to adopt laptops, next make sure that whatever model you choose is compact and durable enough for constant use by clumsy teenagers. We use the Lenovo X61 ThinkPad Tablet, a lightweight, compact machine with a 12″ monitor, about the size and weight of a high school level text book. The keyboard has a drainage channel so that when drinks are spilled the fluid drains out the side. I have seen kids drop these things in the hallway, swing them around by the screen, and toss them onto couches… they seem indestructable. While the casings take a beating, the software keeps running.
3. The right software: Make sure you have the essential software so the machine meets as many academic needs as possible. Two programs I would recommend for student computers are: Microsoft OneNote: This is what students spend 90% of their
   time on in class. Students create folders for each of their classes,
   and organize all their notes through one interface. Every student in my
   classes is using OneNote for organization, and I haven’t had a single
   student complain about the program. Windows Journal: This is a
   very basic note taking program. I use it for tests and quizzes. It’s
   just like having a blank sheet of paper in front of you. I want
   students to take quizzes on Journal because they cannot have their
   OneNote notes open in front of them, i.e. no cheating!
4. Get SMART: The SMART Board and the tablets make for an amazing combination. Teachers can project their tablets onto a SMART Board from anywhere in the room through the school’s network using LinQ software. This liberates the teacher from the front of the room, and frees you up to roam among the students while continuing a lecture based on PowerPoint or SMART Notebook slides projected onto the board. Furthermore, with the next program I describe, student tablets can also be projected to the SMART Board, allowing for excellent lessons where student complete tasks on their tablets, then demonstrate their understanding to the class, without depending on thumb drives, network folders, or other ways of getting files from one computer to another.
5. Get EYES: One of the biggest challenges for teachers in any laptop or tablet school is classroom management. How do we know kids are not surfing the web, “Facebooking”, chatting, emailing, etc. during class? How can you give a test on a tablet when all of their notes are on that same computer? All of these issues and more are resolved by a single program: SynchronEYES, the ultimate classroom management tool for the tablet teacher. This software allows each student in my classroom to connect to my tablet. Once they’re connected, a small icon of everyone’s desktop shows up on my screen, and I can see in real time every move the students make on their tablets. Even better, I can block certain programs, or allow access to only one program. I can block access to the internet, or lock out their tablets so only the message “Eyes to the front, please” appears on their screens. Students can NOT disconnect themselves from the program, only the teacher can. Basically, SynchronEYES gives the teacher ultimate control of all the students’ tablets. In fact, the teacher can take control of any individual’s computer and even shut a computer down if necessary. 

If you follow these five tips, your school can get the ball rolling on a successful tablet program. As I said above, laptops were great, three or four years ago. Today, in the era of e-books, digital ink, networked classrooms and digital SMART Boards, laptops offer little more than the computer labs of yesterday for teachers eager to embed technology in their instruction. The tablet is a truly tranformational educational tool.

Which brings up another imporant question: does the tablet change the way we teach or do we simply teach the same way using a new tool? My response to this question is YES, and YES. As with any new technology, the degree to which the tablet changes the way teachers teach and students learn depends on the teacher. Students will continue to take notes in basically the same way they always have, exept the stacks of paper and three-ring binders will be replace with Microsoft OneNote. Teachers will still prepare notes to put on the board for students to take down, except the chalk or white board is replaced with the SMART Board and SMART Notebook software.

But these superficial changes are not all that tablets offer us as teachers. Beyond these obvious changes, the tablets offer teachers new ways to connect students to one another, both in the classroom and beyond its walls. New forms of expression and creativity are made possible when digital ink appears beneath a student’s stylus. Showcasing a student’s work during class is possible through the “observe” and “broadcast” functions on SynchronEYES. Students begin to take a new pride in the presentation of their notes and the quality of their work, whether it is an economics graph, a maths equation, a chemical formula or an artistic sketch. The possibilities for extending teaching and learning into new realms are there, it is only up to the teacher to discover the myriad ways to do so using tablet technology.