Sometimes technology underwhelms.

Sometimes you wonder what is the point.

I'm annoyed that a set of tools that I love using on my laptop and chromebook are useless on my device of preference, an iPad.

Google today released Slides for iOS and an updated Docs for iOS. They are both pretty much unusable for anything serious on an iDevice. I've waited for ages for Google to deliver some useful editing of Docs on iPad. Because I have a big investment in Docs, Forms and Sheets. On my laptop they have been my goto apps because of the ease of sharing and collaboration; and the functionality (except a table of contents that makes sense) was sufficient for my needs.

But my device of preference is an iPad. And now I'm tired of waiting for the functionality I want. I'm going to ditch Google's mobile apps. They just don't deliver any value.

The way I see it now I have 2 options for creation of documents - Apple's iLife or Microsoft's Office for iPad. Both are far more functional. Neither are what I would like. In reality I'll probably end up using Pages from Apple and Excel from Microsoft. I don't use slide shows much, so I'll probably use Apple's KeyNote if I have to.

You know what would be really cool?
A desktop version of Notability.

SAMR in 120 seconds

The SAMR model is a framework used to evaluate the technology being employed in your classroom. It has been developed by Dr Ruben Puentedura and has become a standard tool for many schools and individuals for reflecting on the use of technology in their classrooms - obviously with the aim of making changes to the tasks that students are working on.

The model is deceptively simple, and the following video shows you the model in 2 minutes, along with an example all the way through.

There are many references to the use of SAMR in schools, both in NZ and internationally. IMHO, SAMR is a really useful framework to help you reflect on what you are doing in your classrooms with technology. 

Here are a couple of images that try and explain aspects of SAMR - 

Hover over the green dots for more info.

This version has Bloom's for comparison sitting around the centre circle, and has a bunch of apps added around the wheel as some way of indicating what might work for various aspects of the model. [Do note that many apps can be used at many levels of any of these models, so the appearance (say) of Google Docs at the bottom right doesn't preclude using Google Docs in conjunction with activities in the upper left section of the screen.]

Click on image to see larger version

I've included the following links as places that you should find some value from if you want to explore further.

Using the SAMR model in an NZ school.

Kathy Shrocks guide to SAMR

Using SAMR to teach above the line