Teach anything with just three apps?

I am a minimalist. I love finding ways to do more with a lot less. I hope someone speaks at my funeral about how I touched the world in a significant way using only what fits with me in the casket. It could make a great visual.  If nothing else, I’ll be clutching my iPad.

I was recently musing about what’s the least a teacher would need to teach anything. I tweeted this and it got a little bit of attention:

I think I could teach anything-CCSS, 4 C's, etc-using only an iPad with browser, 30 Hands and iMovie. Kids supply the ideas and style.
— Mike Petty (@mpetty39) August 21, 2013

I was exaggerating somewhat, mostly because I didn’t really go through all the CCSS and I had to fit it in 140 characters. I would certainly need a few other apps, even if just for recording notes while working. I’ll give a slightly longer list of the bare necessities below, but first here was my main thought behind this.

As I’ve written elsewhere, I think all learning should be posed as a creative problem solving activity involving three steps: find information, process it and present the solution.

Elaborating a little more, students need to

• research the problem at hand and gather resources or information that they already know. 
• process all that, getting their brains around it, synthesizing seemingly unrelated ideas, adding in their own thoughts. 
• present it in a way that suits the people who need to hear the solution.

So my tweet assumed that the iPad has a browser and the learner can access the Internet. That can help a lot with the “find it” stage.

30 Hands and iMovie are my favorite apps for narrated slideshows or videos, respectively. They’d be used for the presentation piece.

Being a little more realistic, I’d need some apps that would let them store the things they find. They also would need to process it all. I gave it more thought and made this list of suggested apps. I’m including the two I already mentioned, just to give more detail.

30 Hands - This is a great free tool for slideshows and I have a demo and review about it here. You can use your pictures as backgrounds, add text and draw on the slides. It is very simple to record narration for each slide, then it exports as a movie to the Camera Roll. I love it!

iMovie - I don’t usually by apps that cost $4.99, but this app feels like it’s worth so much more. You can easily add pan and zoom effects to pictures you’ve taken and edit videos you recorded (or even those slideshows you made with 30 Hands). It is also simple to add narration, transitions and titles. It’s a portable video studio.

Google Drive - Information gathered in research and your own thoughts could easily be taken in the Notes app that comes with the iPad. But Google Drive is free, so why not add this to the list? Sure, it’s limited compared to the version you’d have on your desktop computer, but I’m still amazed with how useful it is for productivity.

Doodle Buddy or SketchBook Express - Both of these drawing apps are free. These would be mostly for the presentation part of the process. We use them in school for titles and other graphics. Doodle Buddy is extremely simple. SketchBook has layers and some very good drawing tools making it promising, but possibly more complex than you’d need for most projects.

Inkflow - I haven’t paid for the Plus version of this yet, so for me this is like a stack of paper and a black marker. I love it for flow charts and visual thinking, so it’s definitely a tool for the processing stage of the learning process. You can also export the drawings and notes as jpg or PDF to use them in presentations too. (Side note: When talking at the coffee shop, this app becomes the proverbial napkin on which I illustrate my ramblings.)

Voice Record Pro - This audio recording app is incredibly versatile because of all the apps you can export it to. Files also can be opened in iMovie as the background track. So presentations can be recorded as a speech or conversation, then in iMovie you can add pictures or images you drew using any of the above apps. It also converts to mp3 so you can send it to others in a flexible format. (Bonus: I’m not including Video Star as a “must have”, but if you record yourself playing live music with Voice Record Pro it exports to Video Star so you can lip sync. Fun!) I wish Voice Record Pro had better tools for editing, but for free it is great.

GarageBand - I debated about including this app because original music is usually not necessary in a presentation. Still, there will be some topics where such a projects will be greatly enhanced because of the possibilities of this app. (And for some students it can make all the difference.) Like iMovie, it is $4.99, but whenever I use it I find myself sticking it in people’s faces, raving about how much it does for that small price. All the virtual and Smart instruments are outstanding.  For the basics, it is very intuitive to record and edit tracks.  As with Voice Record Pro, you could use this for any audio recordings. It certainly has more editing capabilities than that app, though sometimes I need iTunes on my computer to get the files where I need them.

So there you have it. I’m going to give my minimalist approach a try this school year as much as possible. I’ll edit this as necessary.

What am I overlooking? Are there any other apps you consider to be the bare necessities?

A Time for Teachers to Just Sit Back and Be Quiet

Someone told me in my first year of teaching that the person working the hardest in the classroom is probably learning the most.  I keep forgetting that.

I finished up a problem solving unit last week with Amy Martin.  She's the intervention specialist in our district and we worked together at the middle school.  I was helping her by providing some virtual models to aid the students as they worked through problems.  I think I ended up learning more than Amy did though.

I learned when to stop "teaching".  We presented the problems and the students started working on them.  Sometimes they needed encouragement, but my tendency was to direct them too much.  Amy had inhuman restraint, though, and she kept telling me to be quiet.  It was amazing watching the small group of students work together, get off track, then back on and eventually come to a solution.

I learned that I probably never gave my students enough time to really work through a problem.  I remember times over the years when I tried, but I always rescued them too soon.  Or maybe I'd set up the whole activity in a way that it was too easy for another student to rescue them.

I learned so much working with Amy and I was so encouraged by our students' effort that we will be doing more of this in the upcoming semester.  I hope to compile our resource and post some models here.  For now, here are some pictures illustrating the teacher and students' roles in problem solving.  The students should be working the hardest!

And here's the poster she wanted me to make for her room.  I used the meme generator in the Aviary app:

Example for Problem Solving in Math Class

I am doing a problem solving activity in a middle school classroom and I came across this video that I made in 2007.  I had completely forgotten about it!  

In this case, I had two ambitious students who did all the recording for me. I compiled the clips and then wrote a script. They did the narration and I put it together.

 I think this would make an excellent classroom project, but the editing was more time consuming than most teachers will be able to accommodate.  One solution would be to divide the work between a math class and a video production or ELA class.

My only other advice is to plan ahead of time how much you'll include (how many people, how much of their solutions or attempts).  Otherwise editing can take a long time as you figure out the direction based on all the video you've recorded.



I used to use this in class by stopping as soon as the problem is displayed.  After students had time to think about a solution I would play the rest.  A lot of the fun comes from the fact that they knew the students and teachers, but some have told me this will still be useful in their classes.

Creative Problem Solving - A Map for Learning

I've been exploring the idea of creative problem solving as the big picture for all of education.  It can be considered the why behind everything we have to teach in schools.

To approach learning this way, step one would be to develop a language that consistently refers to the need for creative problem solving.  As individuals, members of society or inhabitants of planet Earth, we will always be faced with problems.  Personal success will depend on our ability to contribute to the process of problem solving.  It is as relevant to us in the large and small scale of our existence as much as anything.

Step two would be to identify where, in this problem solving process, any current learning falls.

Whether it's a topic in a content area or a skill for communication or technology, it can fit somewhere in the map.  Most likely a specific topic or skill could fit in many places.  The map provides a consistent picture that we can return to between subjects or grade levels and extend into the world beyond the school.

So besides just pointing out where the skill learned in today's Algebra class might be useful, we can also indicate where occupations lie.  If we are talking about how to creatively solve problems, we are always talking about "real life".  

I made the picture below as a draft for a visual display, but the essential flow is as follows:

Finding Resources

1. Better define the Problem
2. Gather tools or resources for continuing the process

Develop Solutions

1. Incorporate existing knowledge, skills and tools
2. Form new ideas - This is the heart of the process, where connections are formed.
3. Evaluate options

Present Solutions

1. Who needs to know?
2. How can we best tell them?

I plan to elaborate on this a lot in the weeks ahead, but here are three things worth noting now:

• There is a circular flow in the map between the main areas.  Notice that most solutions are going to end up as tools available to us for further problem solving.
• There are countless problems to solve throughout the problem solving process.  In one degree or another, every step of a significant problem will likely contain smaller versions of finding, developing and presenting solutions.
• It could be argued that creativity and problem solving are the same thing.  Then creative problem solving is nearly redundant.  I prefer to use the term to emphasize the importance of creativity throughout every stage of this process.  It's the oil of the machine and we can see the whole system grind to a halt in formal learning structures when it is absent.

Real Life Problem Solving in School

When it comes to creative problem solving in school, nothing beats a project that goes beyond the school walls and actually helps other people.  Here's an inspiring story of a couple high school seniors who did just that.  Their senior project helped a teacher and students on the other side of the world to achieve their dream of getting connected to the internet.

Check out the introduction video below and these links:

• More videos on their YouTube channel
• The official website

This is a great example of how much learning can come out of a project rooted in a passion with a purpose to meet a genuine need.  One other takeaway:  In a world filled with need, the learning never stops.  See how they are continuing a second phase of their project long after the two students graduated.

What similar projects could we inspire student to pursue in the upcoming school year?  Beyond that, please consider supporting this project and spreading the word about the work as it continues.

Teach Creative Problem Solving or Nothing

It took me a year and a half to get this straight.  Everything in school from kindergarten to a doctorate degree should be phrased in terms of creative problem solving.

No matter what the content is, it fits somewhere in the process of problem solving:

• Finding new information to identify the problem
• Processing that information to create and test possible solutions
• Presenting the best solution in meaningful ways to the people who need to it

We know problem based learning is an engaging and effective teaching model when done correctly.  Yet somehow administrators and teachers get so focused on tests that they overlook its importance.  Or maybe they're afraid to let go and trust that successful problem solvers can also figure out standardized tests.

Regardless, this is my mission from here out.  If I'm talking to teachers or students, it will all be phrased in the context of creative problem solving.  If we ignore creativity and problem solving at the expense of right answers in content areas we miss the point.  

When I realized this, a few other things became clear:

• True problem solving and creativity are hard to measure on standardized tests, but that's exactly why they need our focus.  Computers would have a hard time scoring such tests.  Tip:  Being able to do what computers can't is a good thing.
• Any technology standards, attempts at technology integration or what are referred to as call 21st century learning skills are addressed perfectly in the context of creative problem solving.  Technology simply becomes the best tool to aid in the problem solving process.  
• We know students feel that what they're learning in high school is irrelevant.  If teachers would frame their lessons in light of real world problems that can be addressed across curriculum areas this would be less of an issue.  Remind them:  Every class is providing tools for solving problems.  It's an unpleasant fact of life that problems always show up.  Good skills to address problems at all levels will always be relevant.

Fraction Estimator - Visualizing Conversion

When I was in the math classroom I was continually aware that students' problem solving skills were hindered by their inability to visualize concepts.  Proportions and multiple representations of values were simply steps the students tried to remember for a quiz rather than a concept that would come in handy (and often was absolutely necessary) for solving a variety of real world problems.

Approaching problem solving with steps instead of a conceptual understanding is like trying to get from my home in Michigan to my in-laws' house in Florida by memorizing every turn.  Even if I can remember the list, let's hope there's no unexpected construction along the way.  A conceptual understanding would be like having a map.  It's the big picture and it comes in handy even when the unexpected comes along.

When our district purchased Promethean Boards and I started experimenting with ActivInspire I realized I finally had a tool that would let me show students some of the ways I visualized concepts.  One such tool I created is a fraction estimator.

With all the multiplying and dividing going on in a typical conversion problem, most students never stop to consider we are always talking about the same value.  One-fourth is exactly the same amount as 0.25 or 25%.  This fraction estimator provides a good visual for explaining this.  When I used it with students they picked up on the concept quickly.  While it does not provide exact answers in conversions, it gives students the conceptual tool that will help them make connections when solving problems that require such understanding.

The flipchart version for ActivInspire is here.  I also have a single slide in Google Docs that can be used if you don't want to download ActivInspire*.

This video shows how to use it:



*The Google Docs version is limited in a few ways.

• You can't write the numbers on the slide without using other software.
• You won't be able to fill the sections of the bars with another color.
• It's not as easy to line up the bar with the scale because the bar is not displayed as you move it.
• If it's too small, go to the View menu and pick Full Screen.