The Great iPad Challenge

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I once read that in order to grow, we must learn something new everyday by getting out of our "comfort zones".

I think we sometimes make this too hard - like we have to make a big jump like changing a job or a grade level or a school placement.  But the truth is that little steps out of our comfort zones have the potential to provide just as big shifts in thinking.  

 We just have to be open and take the step.

 Last week, I challenged myself and my team to ditch our MacBooks for a couple of days.  It doesn't seem that big of a challenge...after all, educators in our district have been issued both Macs AND iPads in order to support learning design for our 1:1 iPad district.  But what I found was that much too often, I default to using just my MacBook.  My team felt the same.  

 Now, we all tend to have a preferred device and there is nothing wrong with that.  However, I wondered what kept us going back to our MacBooks and how our perspective would change if we truly stepped into our learners' 1:1 environment.  That was how the Great iPad Challenge was born.

Day 1 of the challenge we would use only iPads.  On day 2, we would be allowed to use supplemental tools like Apple Pencils and keyboards.  We would go about our business as usual, but also try several challenges along the way.  For both days, we used the following bingo board to guide our challenges.  My teammates, Brian Timm and Brad Cook helped me brainstorm some ideas that helped with the design (Our document was created using Pages).  Sam Neal and Brooke Sims assisted by setting up reflection discussion boards in Schoology for our team.

My day 1 and day 2 experiences were very different, but I think it was less about the device/tools and more about my mindset.  Check out this video I made in Clips to share my big takeaways!

My team had some great reflections too.  We decided to share out via Twitter in an activity designed by Kelly Skillingberg and Monica Champagne. We then arranged our thoughts in a Twitter Moment, which is a great way to archive and tell a story with your tweets!






Click here to go to the Twitter Moment






Overall, it was such a valuable experience.  I can't wait to work with Trisha Goins to lead our team on some group discussion and a SURPRISE additional reflection that I will share with you in the upcoming weeks!

What do you think would happen if YOU ditched your laptop and took the iPad Challenge?  Let me know in the comments!

Comments

  1. Dierdre ShetlerMay 4, 2018 at 12:56 PM

    This is SO cool! I love that you took on such a great challenge! I bet you learned all kinds of great things to share with your teachers. The menu is a great intro tool to encourage teachers to try new things.

    ReplyDelete

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