Tool to create iPad activities introduced at the Farmington Institute’s 2016 conference

This week, Thinking Kit was introduced at the Farmington Institute’s 2016 conference. The tool, which allows teachers and students to create their own ‘card sorting’ activities for iPads, was discussed by Katharine Hutchinson - the Director of CPD and Head of Humanities at Chesterton Community College.

Katharine has been using Thinking Kit since its first version. After stumbling upon our iPad apps, Digital Mysteries, she gave us a call and we mentioned that we had a ‘create your own activities’ tool coming soon. Katharine loved the idea so much, she has been using it since it was in testing stage, and has helped shape it into what it is today.

Having been very enthusiastic about the tool since the start, Katharine is now telling others about it. On Sunday 26th June, in her presentation with Becky Palmer, she talked about Thinking Kit and how she and her colleagues and students are using it:

Excited to be introducing @Refthinking Thinking Kit to #reteacher #farmington conference pic.twitter.com/qvucS7Iux5

— Katharine Hutchinson (@kjhutchinson) June 26, 2016

The Farmington Institute is “funded to support, encourage and improve Religious Education in schools, colleges and universities” and Katharine is a Farmington Fellow 2015-16.

Katharine will also be talking about Thinking Kit at TeachMeet Cambridge 2016 on Friday 1st July at Chesterton Community College. This is an event to promote ‘high performance in schools’ and is completely free. It is split into two parts: a conference during the day, then a TeachMeet afterwards. For more information on this event, please click here or email khutchinson@chesterton.cambs.sch.uk.

To try a 30 day free trial of Thinking Kit, please visit www.thinking-kit.com.

Assignments: From passive presentations to engaging digital activities

(This article was originally published on ukedchat.com)

More and more teachers are giving students projects to do, whether at school or at home. They often have complete freedom of how to present the final outcome. 

Common examples include a PowerPoint presentation, report, poster or physical model. A few, may go for a more creative option such as a video, or maybe a delicious one such as a cooked meal. However, digital technology, when used, is often limited to presenting passive information without any interactivity. The type that doesn’t encourage any engagement.

So far this year, my 9 year old daughter has done a poster, two models and a card game. Now, she wants to try something new for her Victorians project. She doesn’t want to do a PowerPoint; she thinks that’s what people do when they don’t want to put in a lot of effort.

It must be said that some teachers do encourage students to take advantage of digital technologies. Examples include blogging or other forms of presenting content, e.g. social media, or wikis. Even then though, for those who engage with the content, it‘s still mostly passive (reading/watching). Sometimes it increases a bit to up/down-voting or commenting as the ultimate engagement.

Presenting ‘content’ in a way that allows for some degree of engagement is a challenge for teachers and students without programming skills or advanced ICT knowledge. It’s quite surprising in this day and age, especially with the digital native generation. Tools such as ‘Book Creator’ and ‘Explain Everything™ Interactive Whiteboard’ are a breath of fresh air in this respect. Hopefully more and more such tools get developed that focus on empowering teachers and students to become creative at content creation.

When it comes to pre-prepared educational material, tablets/apps are increasing in popularity; if not for their educational value, then for their increased level of engagement. Lots of new opportunities can be opened up by providing:

• teachers with the ability to present learning material in an app-like manner.
• students with the means to present their project based learning outcome in an app-like manner.

Motivation for teachers is probably around getting students more engaged with their material. For the students presenting their own work, they’ll be a lot more motivated than usual; the final outcome is way ‘cooler’ than what they’re used to. Other students can actively engage with creations by others. Work is not just quickly glanced at, put in a folder or hung on the wall, but actually used, engaged with and learned from.

For developers, the challenge is to strike a balance between providing tools that allow for easy content creation, but also providing opportunity for active engagement with that content too. The problem so far has been that enabling the latter often sacrifices the simplicity of the creation part. This then excludes many from giving it a go.

As an academic researcher on education technology, I have been exploring ways to offer such opportunities for a long time. This led to Thinking Kit, with its two parts: the web-based creator and the iPad app. Through a simple, easy-to-use tool, students (or teachers) add content (e.g. open question/objective then images/text to help people answer/achieve it) then the Thinking Kit transforms it into an engaging iPad activity available to download free around the world. This way, students’ creations are not just passively received (viewed/commented on/read), they are actually used by someone else as a learning tool.

An activity created by students in the UK on migration this week.

As the app is designed to be used by pairs and to encourage discussion during the process, students will have the invaluable opportunity to watch peers engage with their work and ‘verbally’ discuss it. Observing how their content is being interpreted and understood by their peers means a better future appreciation for how to create with the audience in mind. A dedicated Reflection Stage also helps students develop their critical thinking skills.

So when you next set students an assignment or project, think about what the end result could be. Rather than a passive poster or presentation, they can actually create something that is useful and usable. It doesn’t have to be complicated.

www.thinking-kit.com

 

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More about Thinking Kit

Thinking Kit is a two part tool: the creator and the app. Through the web-based creator, users fill in a template. The template outlines what a collaborative, engaging activity needs and they add their content: a question/objective, images (e.g. drawings/photos) and snippets of text that will help people answer the question/achieve the objective. Upon saving, Thinking Kit transforms this information into an app-like activity, saves it to the cloud and generates a number.

Students and teachers around the world can then go to the FREE Thinking Kit App (iPad) and enter the number to get the activity (if it’s marked as public). That’s it.

Now what you have, is an iPad activity that can be worked on alone or in pairs. There are tools to help users make sense of the information, e.g. groups, sticky tapes and notes. The interactive playback Reflection stage and the PDF reports allow for reflecting upon and evidencing the process. This encourages metacognition, formative assessment and keeping a record of learning.

You can also use Thinking Kit to create your own tasks for students – see ‘16 ways to use Thinking Kit’ for some ideas.

International Women's Day/Women's History Month

Tuesday 8th March marks International Women’s Day, while the month of March is Women’s History Month, so we have created a dedicated, FREE iPad activity for your students to use.

This year’s IWD theme is ‘Pledge for Parity’, and anyone can join in to support the event. One way is to pledge your support to one of the following:

• help women and girls achieve their ambitions
• challenge conscious and unconscious bias
• call for gender-balanced leadership
• value women and men's contributions equally
• create inclusive, flexible cultures

There are many ways to put this pledge in action, such as spreading the word (social media details below), organising an event, or helping to get young people discussing such topics and the history behind them.

In light of this, we've created a FREE ‘Women’s Suffrage - UK’ iPad activity for those around 14-16 (or younger/older depending). Working with English teacher Elizabeth Doyle, and an illustrator to bring the information to life, we have a 24 piece, problem-solving iPad activity for students to work on alone, in pairs or small groups. The main task question is 'Who should get the credit for the success of the campaign to give British women the vote on equal terms with men?'

All you/students have to do is:

1. Download the FREE Thinking Kit App onto iPads - click here or search ‘Thinking Kit App’ on the App Store.
2. Go to Educator or Learner then ‘New session’
3. Tap ‘Download task’
4. Enter the number 4 - it will immediately start downloading
5. Tap on the task then begin!

A screenshot of students completing the task in the Thinking Kit App

If you/students want to customise it, you can use the FREE trial of the Thinking Kit Creator (no card details required) to do so quickly and easily. The tool, which can be used on any device on any browser, allows you to open up any public activity and make a new copy to edit as you please.

Ideas:

• Add new bits of information/images or delete some of ours so that you can focus on a particular strand
• Get students to research/discuss the topic then add their own slips of thoughts/information/images. Class members can then use each other's tasks.
  
  E.g they could add more facts, thoughts on how the events impacts modern life/what life might be like now if it hadn’t taken place - anything! It’s a great way to get the students’ creativity flowing at the same time as developing digital literacy skills, writing and speaking/listening.
• Follow Elizabeth’s recommended difficulty levels (included in the description of the task when you download it). These can easily be recreated in the Thinking Kit Creator. The task is by default, the 'hard' level - just delete the slips that Elizabeth hasn't included for easy/medium, and also see the different sub-questions which she has included too.
• Create a brand new Thinking Kit activity on International Women's Day or Women's History Month.

Edit the activity in the Thinking Kit Creator - change text, add/remove images, add more slips, change background.

We’d love to know how you use the activity with your students this month, so please comment below, tweet us at @refthinking or email info@reflectivethinking.com. We’ll feature your feedback on our social media pages and e-news! Remember, download the task with the Thinking Kit App (iPad) and/or edit it with the Thinking Kit Creator (any browser).

For more details on the occasions you can click on any of the links below. There are some brilliant events going on, free resources, discussions and more.

International Women’s Day

• Official website
• Twitter @womensday - When you tweet about it, include #IWD2016 or #PledgeforParity
• Facebook page
• LinkedIn group
• YouTube - see videos and interviews on the topics being considered

Women’s History Month

• Official website
• Twitter @womenshistory

(20) 16 ways to use the Thinking Kit

(20)16 ways to use the Thinking Kit

The new year is in full swing. Teachers across the world are back to work, sharing thoughts, ideas and resources...ready for what 2016 may bring.

With this in mind, we thought when better than to share 16 ways to use the Thinking Kit. Using the Thinking Kit Creator (currently free), educational activities can be created on any browser. The user saves the activity, gets a code, then uses that code in the Thinking Kit App (free) to download the activity onto iPads (or get students to). This teams two really strong themes together - learning using iPads AND digital content creation, whether by teachers or the learners themselves.

Activities involve one main goal/objective/question and snippets of information or images to help learners complete/answer it.

The Thinking Kit App can be used individually, but works brilliantly as a group activity too. It seamlessly allows for multi-touch and engages learners in face to face collaboration as they learn. There is a dedicated Reflection Stage and lots of tools to help them become better problem solvers, critical thinkers and team players.

So, without further ado, let’s get started…

1. Simple grouping tasks - add lots of images, pieces of text or both then get learners to sort them accordingly. Get students to use the ‘group tool’ to give groups a name and sort the snippets into them.
   
   E.g. Lots of images of animals and facts on vertebrate and invertebrate - students must then create mini groups, e.g. ‘mammals’ and drag and drop the relevant snippets into them.
   
   
   
2. Reading - break up a large topic into lots of digestible snippets which students can read together to answer an intriguing question about the topic.
   
   E.g. Introduce your class to a piece of literature by giving them key points of the book before they read the full text. Or do this afterwards as a reflection activity.
   
   
3. Ordering task - Get learners to sort the snippets/images into some kind of order, whether that’s chronological, size or even relevance.
   
   E.g. For history, add key moments in time and get students to arrange them correctly.
   
   
4. Custom background - Add a map or image and get students to move the slips into the correct space
   
   E.g. Use a map as the background and have students put countries in the correct place on it, or have a human body as the background and get learners to place the names of bones in the correct place.
   
   
5. Problem solving - Have an engaging story based problem accompanied by an open question to answer.
   
   E.g. A maths murder mystery - learners must piece together elements of the story and clues, do the maths involved and put forward an argument as to who could have been the killer.
   
   
   
6. Questions and answers - Add 10 question slips and 10 answer slips then get students to match them up. To make it a bit harder, don’t answer some of the questions - they can add them with the Note Tool.
   
   E.g. A more ‘fact-based’ subject would go well with this, perhaps scientific reactions or checking understanding of storylines in a book.
   
   
7. Quickly create an activity on breaking news - The Thinking Kit Creator is ideal for getting something together for the following day (or same day) if a sudden or unexpected event occurs which you want to address with students.
   
   E.g. There may have been a natural disaster or a world crisis. Educators could use the current high awareness of it to create an activity and get students to understand it better/share their views.
   
   
8. Learners on a school trip - With access to a camera, smartphone or tablet, students could take these devices on a trip and record their own evidence. They can then create a Thinking Kit activity and use their own images and notes to work on it themselves or as an activity for other groups.
   
   E.g. An example is ‘Does Warkworth need a bypass?’ Students would go there, take pictures of the place, record some local statistics and possibly ask some locals’ opinions.

9. SOLE session review - If you haven’t heard, SOLEs are “created when educators and/or parents encourage kids to work in groups that they form, and are free to change, to answer big, open questions by using the internet” (SOLE toolkit). The origins lie in Professor Sugata Mitra’s Ted-Prize winning talk here. For more information go to School in the Cloud. Give students a big question and carry on a SOLE session as usual. Following their research, the groups could make a Thinking Kit activity with what they have discovered. They could then ‘do’ the activity at a later date or get their fellow students to!
   
   E.g. In the Greenfield Arts’ session, they used the question ‘What makes us human?’ Before/after the class discussion they had, to answer this question, groups could use their gathered information/views to create activities for each other.
   
   
10. 
    Encourage discussion on difficult issues - An activity can be created on a more sensitive issue in a ‘different’ way to the norm. The snippets could include different points of view, facts and engaging images. Working through these in small groups will be less intimidating than as a whole class, it will be easier/less daunting for students to speak up and those at the end who feel more confident, can then engage in a whole class discussion.
    
    E.g. Topics such as bullying or sex education can be broken down and discussed as small groups as an introduction. A ‘scenario’ can be given through a Thinking Kit activity and students can begin to understand ‘taboo’ subjects through relatable stories and even ‘give advice’ to the characters in them.
    
    
11. Work on different strands of the same topic - Split the class into groups of three, then give each group a different strand of topic to research. They then create an activity themselves to share this with other groups, so they learn through each other.
    
    E.g. The topic may be key figures in history - each group focuses on one, creates a Thinking Kit activity, and gives the code to another group for them to learn about a different strand to what they created theirs on.
    
    
12. Ice breaker activity - Thinking Kit could be used to help students get to know each other better, whether that’s because they have just met (new class) or they have had a long break. Students could create an activity about themselves for others to use or get into pairs, then their partner creates one about what they have discussed.
    

    

    
    

13. Revision - Educators could create an activity for students to ‘do’ when early on in the teaching of a topic. They could do it upon completion of teaching of that topic, then again a few weeks later to see how much they have remembered. Alternatively, students could create one on their own. Understanding, interpreting and then reiterating points in their own words can be great for retention of information. When they do this a few weeks later then again nearer an exam, the information will be more likely to soak in.
    
    
14. Record of learning - Use the ‘reports’ feature of the Thinking Kit App to review how students have done in a particular task. Students can print or email these reports too, which include the list of content of an activity, screenshots of the process of doing an activity and anything they have added, e.g. named groups or notes.
    
    
15. Whole class discussion - When students have completed a session on the Thinking Kit App, one (or more) group’s session can be played to the whole class as a point of discussion. Using this dedicated Reflection Stage on a projector for example, can open up the class to share their views and get into a debate.

16. Differentiation - If learners are at different levels of their understanding of a topic, or you would rather lightly ease some groups in, you can create different versions of the same activity. Just get the core of information in, save it, add more things (whether they are images/information to make the task easier… or more complex things being added to broaden the activity) then click ‘Save As’.

We hope these have been interesting to read through and that you enjoy creating your own activities or getting students to themselves.

Thinking Kit is out now. The Thinking Kit App is always free, and the Thinking Kit Creator has a completely free 30 day trial. All you need is your email address and your name! Register at www.thinking-kit.com/signin. No other details are required to sign up.

It's fascinating for us to hear about all the ways Thinking Kit is being used. Let us know how you've used Thinking Kit by emailing info@reflectivethinking.com.

Are toddlers too young for technology?

This post was on our original blog which we replaced. I came across an article lately which discussed this topic again and thought it was worth re-sharing...it has been slightly re-worded as the TV programme discussed was aired that week, and it was around two years ago!

It has been a debate for some time now but ITV’s Tonight’s focus was on the question, “Are toddlers too young for technology?” It was a very interesting watch, both from a personal perspective (I have a nephew of primary school age) and a professional perspective (working for Reflective Thinking – thought leaders on technology in education). The programme was definitely worth a watch but unfortunately it's no longer available on ITV Player (it may be available on YouTube but I can't guarantee quality). As a summary though, throughout the documentary, many questions were asked and explored by the presenter and they incorporated views both for and against. The perspectives included teachers, headteachers, parents, psychologists, learning experts, technology experts and very importantly, the children themselves.

A screenshot of the show

A key section of the show was a small experiment: seven children went into a room and were observed by a psychologist, and their parents. This group went into one of the rooms at a time, as different content was included in each:

1. More ‘traditional’ toys
2. Technology like smartphones and tablets
3. Both traditional toys and technology

Interestingly, in all three situations, the children found something to occupy them (except one child asked for her iPad after a while in session one). It was quite striking seeing the difference between collaboration and playing together from 1, to 2 and 3. The more traditional toys were primarily shared and used together, they talked amongst themselves and worked a high level of interaction was present. In both 2 and 3, for almost the full duration, all children sat individually, 1 on 1 with their seperate screens.

What came to mind for me here was that essentially, it is very important to consider what the children are doing on the tablet, rather than seeing a tablet or smartphone as ‘one thing’ with ‘one sole purpose’. The choice of applications and games available now is vast – some for individual play and some for group play. This could play a part in how they are used and whether they are interacting with other children while using, or are completely one-on-one with their tablet. In these experiments, although not specifically confirmed, the apps being used were most likely educational: they may be in the form of a game, but they are offering educational benefits at the same time.

One point to think about is; was the reason the traditional toys were used in groups of 2-3 because they were designed that way? In light of the learning expert on the show saying that “face to face contact is vital for communication” and tablets may  “actually be preventing children from interacting with other children and learning how to behave through practise”, do we need to focus on creating more apps and games that are designed specifically for use of 2-3, if we want children to interact more, and build those collaboration skills? Another point is how the technology is used too – is it a replacement for interaction, or actually an addition, to help interaction and learning?

Working together, collaborating

Our area of expertise is slightly older children (from 7+), but some elements of Reflective Thinking’s research could be applied to younger children too. Digital Mysteries are specifically designed for working in pairs or small groups. The whole concept is based around it being an additional tool for learning and developing useful skills (like higher level thinking, problem-solving), one that complements the teacher, rather than replacing the teacher (or parent/guardian/leader).

Maybe this idea could be applied to apps aimed at younger children too, with an aim to make apps or games something to be shared with each other, or with their parent/teacher rather than an individual experience. This way, one of the key problems brought up in the documentary – that devices can prohibit children interacting and developing social skills for life - could be combatted, yet the children will still benefit from the advantages the devices bring; like preparing them for their future where technology will be a major part of their lives. One of the major arguments to come from the programme – which takes into account case studies at nurseries like Cogan Nursery in Penarth – is that the use of such devices must be in balance with non-screen time.

Especially with young toddlers, it seems that a “bit of both” is seen as the best situation – what do you think? If you have any opinions on this, please write a comment - I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Natalie

Storytelling through mathematics

Today, I came across Maths Storytelling Day (25th September, celebrated annually). Although the day isn't for a while yet, it got me thinking.

When pondering my own education, I remember maths being one of the subjects which incorporated stories fairly regularly. A favourite being that of making a robot move around and follow your instructions, which in today's education, could probably slide under computing. I always thought that it was perhaps my teacher's style, but upon reflection, and with a particular day dedicated to it, it has become apparent that the reason we do maths through storytelling is because it works!

There's various pieces online about this (found with a quick search), but I'll be looking more into this in future. The Guardian and NRICH are two particularly good ones. To quote the latter, "Children are born with an ability to make sense of the world through play and storytelling. By creating narratives, they act out concepts and ideas that confuse them or that they find fascinating. Examining the world in this way they are able to explore and relate to the variety of topics and subjects that the world throws at them."

Many of our iPad apps follow a story, but our maths ones are particularly engaging. They really do make you want to solve something, e.g. work out who really did kill King Ted. You want to find out what has or has not happened, and the way to do this is to do the maths! We have made all three of our apps FREE for a limited time, except King Ted, which is always free.

Students work in pairs or threes around one iPad. The app gives students lots of digital slips of illustrated information then one open question - they must work together to make sense of this information in order to answer it.They can create and name groups, stick things together and lay the slips out. As well as developing various mathematics skills, the apps also help with collaboration, problem-solving and higher level thinking.

All three apps target a slightly different age range but depending on ability level, what methods the children know/will be learning soon, they may suit younger or older students:

King Ted - FREE - Search 'Digital Mysteries King' on the App Store or click here
Main question: Who killed King Ted?
Age range: 8-9 year olds
Topics covered: Mental methods addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, comparing, calculations

Screenshot from Trev the Triff

Trev the Triff - FREE for limited time, usually £1.49 - Search 'Digital Mysteries Trev' on the App Store or click here
Main question: Should Trev hire the new machine or stick with the old one?
Age range: 9-10 year olds
Topics covered: Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, multi-step problem, averages

Captain Quint - FREE until 16th June 2015, usually £1.49 - Search 'Digital Mysteries Captain' on the App Store or click here
Main question: Did Captain Quint and his crew make it around the world in 30 days?
Age range: 10-11 year olds
Topics covered: Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, percentages, statistics, measurement

Many thanks,

Natalie

Collaboration vs. Cooperation

The benefits of collaborative learning are well established. More schools and teachers are encouraging collaborative learning sessions than ever before. However, the question is: are all the tasks that teachers assign to groups of students with the goal of encouraging collaboration, really collaborative?

The benefits of collaborative learning are mainly in the discussions arising among the students. During collaboration, students engage in activities such as explanation, disagreements and mutual regulation. These activities trigger learning mechanisms such as knowledge elicitation and internalization. Such learning mechanisms do not normally occur when learning individually.

While in many cases the terms collaboration and cooperation are used interchangeably, in computing science there is a distinction between collaboration and cooperation. Cooperation is used to refer to horizontal division of labour; people divide the task into smaller subtasks that they can do individually, then assemble the outcome of these subtasks together to produce a common outcome.

Collaboration, on the other hand, refers to the vertical division of labour. A task is divided into stages with all the people involved working together at each stage, completing it then moving to the next. The true benefits of collaborative learning can only be achieved through the latter approach and not through cooperation.

From personal observations and in talking to others about collaborative learning, it seems that there are cases where students are given a ‘cooperative’ task with the goal of gaining the benefits of collaborative learning. While the students are divided into groups, each student is taking a specific role, doing a specific task individually, then the work is combined without going through the rich discussions expected from a collaborative learning session.

It is not enough to talk about the benefits of collaborative learning and to promote it as an essential 21st century learning skill. We also need to be clear as to what  collaborative learning exactly is, and to make sure that when classroom time is assigned to a collaborative learning session, students are given actual collaborative activities.