Patrick N Reid

The goal of my innovation plan is the effective use of iPads in the classroom, and to increase students outcomes with the use of iPads. Karen Hinnett writes the reflective process “helps students to understand what constitutes quality work and to develop evaluative skills.” (2002)  As such, I am creating a course on iTunesU to learn about reflecting and creating products on the iPad to show understanding and learning of course content.  iTunesU has had several improvements recently making it an applicable learning management system (LMS), especially in an iPad learning environment.  

The designed course is for teachers in K-12 environment.  Throughout the course an emphasis on the learner constructing their own experience of the learning content.  The course is designed to be usable by any teachers, and not a specific content or category of teaching.  It is up to the learner to use the course design to develop their own understanding what apps to use, what relevant products would look like, and how this relates to their own course content.  Learners will not just construct, but also reflect on their creations.  As such cognitive development will be encouraged as well.

Cognitivism, is the mental development and the processing of the learning that is occuring (Bates, 2015).  The course is designed for teachers to learn how to have their students reflect by creating products with their iPads. 

“We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience.”  - John Dewey

Reflection is thinking about where the learner was and where the learner is not; that is metacognition.  To think about one’s thinking.  The sequence of the learning is mostly all modeled where learners:

1. determine a learning objective
2. analyze and determine a proper app to show understanding of that objective
3. create a product showing understanding of the objective and submitting the product to their learning group
4. individuals of the group will then critique and give suggestions to the products that are submitted
5. learner then uses the constructive criticism to modify and develop their product into a much richer showing of understanding

This sequence is to encourage learners to reflect both individually and socially.  Thus including the learning theory of connectivism.  Learning as a collective (Bates, 2015)

A buzzword in the education community is a “lifelong learner”, and I claim myself to be one as well.  Although this is a buzzword, I truly believe in the idea.  I am still becoming more comfortable with iPads and all of the ways to use them.  I plan on participating in the course discussion as a learner as well.  I will take the role of a facilitator.  Observing and joining in the discussion posts.  Tony Bates, in his book Teaching in a Digital Age, describes skills like communication, independent learning, ethics and responsibility, teamwork and flexibility, thinking skills, digital skills, knowledge management (2015, p. 31-33) as key skills in a knowledge society.  This course will expect students to improve on all of these skills.  

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