You may have seen on Twitter yesterday that the DLC team completed an iPad challenge. What is an iPad Challenge, and why did we do it? Great question! We challenged ourselves to spend a day in the life of a 1:1 learner here in CISD. That's right, we ditched our MacBooks, keyboards, and even our Apple Pencils in order to experience a day just like our learners do. Back at TCEA, I had challenged myself to leave my MacBook in my hotel room each day. I had a fabulous time, although, I'll admit, I did use my Apple Pencil and keyboard during that week to take notes. I was admittedly nervous about this challenge, not because I'd miss my MacBook, but because I knew I would miss the Pencil! However, I successfully completed the challenge, and had some major "Aha!" moments along the way. How did the challenge work? My teammate Alli Pryor led the charge for this challenge, and she worked with DLCs Brad Cook and Brian Timm to create a Bingo board of tasks for us to complete during our day. These purposeful tasks made the experience much more authentic and aligned with how learners spend their day. The Bingo board was created in Pages, and on the day of the challenge, I made my own copy of the board in order to track my completed tasks. I'm competitive and an avid Bingo player, so I went for a blackout! You'll also notice the reflections linked below each task. DLC Brooke Sims and I worked together to create reflection spaces on Schoology discussion boards in order to give everyone the opportunity to jot down their successes and struggles for each task. Do you know what the coolest thing was about the discussion boards? There were struggles, sure, but overall, the comments reflected more successes than frustrations, everyone learned something, and everyone shared cool tricks they discovered - or even simply remembered - throughout the day. What were the results? I feel that, personally, the challenge was successful because I developed empathy for the experiences - successes and struggles - of our learners. When things didn't work exactly as I wanted them to, I had the opportunity to problem-solve and seek alternate solutions to complete the tasks I was doing. It reminded me of some of the most basic trouble-shooting skills I used to teach my learners (restarting the iPad, toggling the wifi on and off, restarting apps), and reinvigorated me to use some of my favorite apps that I've been ditching in favor of my MacBook (like the Apple native apps Pages, Keynote, and Numbers; Chatterpix Kids; and Google Drive apps, especially Google Keep). Above all, what I valued most about the experience was the refreshing opportunity to consider the tasks I complete each day and the tools at my disposal. I realized that even though often times my MacBook is the most efficient device to use to complete many tasks, it isn't always the most effective. Moving forward, I will be more intentional about considering my goals and then selecting the tool that best fits the task - just as I want our learners to do. Check out the Twitter moment below that features my teammates' reflections on The Great iPad Challenge! Are you inspired to take on the challenge? I'd love to hear from you - and I can share the task card template if you want to play Bingo, too!
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