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I haven’t used Edmodo yet (although I do know it). In our school we use Smartschool as a learning platform (http://www.smartschool.be/). It offers more or less the same possibilities. I do like the “social media feel” of Edmodo, though. I think it may appeal more to pupils than the more classic look of Smartschool. Maybe they would share ideas, thoughts, etc. more often and more easily than they do now.

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https://twitter.com/arperrier/status/590425202057678848

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Module 1, Question 3: What classroom challenges do I already face or do I anticipate facing when using tablets?

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Module 1, Question 3: What classroom challenges do I already face or do I anticipate facing when using tablets?

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The biggest challenge in our school (of the ones addressed by Diana Barrister) will be the classroom layout. A lot of classrooms are just too small to be able to easily reorganize. Moreover, teachers are expected to leave their classroom the way the find it, which means that in every 50-minute lesson, they would have to spend at least ten minutes to change the layout and then change it back.

However, we do have two larger rooms, which don’t have the “row layout” or which can easily be reorganized. One of them will be our “future classroom” next year (equipped with “flexible” furniture and some state-of-the-art educational technology), so it wil be ideal to use with tablets.
I like the ideas of student trainers and designing classroom rules together with the pupils.

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"School should first of all ensure that teachers themselves have access to a tablet 24/7, so that they can use it as a personal device and begin to identify with some of the issues the students will face." (Diana Barrister)

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Module 1, Question 2: What whole-school challenges do I already face or do I anticipate facing when using tablets?

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Module 1, Question 2: What whole-school challenges do I already face or do I anticipate facing when using tablets?

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Next year, all our fifth formers will have their own notebooks (not tablets). But we are also building a future classroom in our school right now, and it will be equipped with tablets for one group. The challenges are the same, I think. We will need good planning and technical support, but the most important challenge will be professional development: how can we get every teacher on board?

The future classroom should be a place where my colleagues and I will be able to experiment, to try out new teaching ideas and tools, but also a place where we can learn from each other. We hope the classroom will create the right atmosphere for this, and that it encourages, for example, teachers observing each other’s lessons (something which almost never happens now).
Diana Barrister gives a few very nice suggestions for professional development activities. One of the things we are doing right now, is devoting a (small or bigger) part of every “big” staff meeting to teaching tools and apps.

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Module 1, Question 1: What is your main reason for using or wanting to use tablets in your classroom?

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Module 1, Question 1: What is your main reason for using or wanting to use tablets in your classroom?

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Making lessons more interactive is one of the biggest challenges in our school. Tablets could help teachers with this. You can find a lot of free-to-use student response tools on the Internet (e.g. Socrative), which can engage all the pupils in your classroom at the same time.

However, you almost never use/need technology from the very beginning until the end of your lesson (technology should be a tool, not a learning goal!). In that respect, it is very easy to tell pupils to get their tablets from their bags (as opposed to booking a computer room three weeks beforehand for the ten minutes of your lesson that you really need it). Tablets are also quicker than other devices (e.g. laptops), and they are more mobile – pupils can take them from one side of the classroom to the other, or even outside. All of this also makes it easier for teachers to set up project activities (as an alternative for regular, ‘old-school’ lessons).
Some other (well-known) advantages of tablets in education: they bring the pupils’ world (real life!) into the classroom, they stimulate their creativity and give them more responsibility for their own learning, and they provide continuous access to the outside world (real life!).

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RHIZO Lyceum OLV Vlaanderen is a secondary school with around 650 pupils between 12 and 18 years old. We have two computer rooms, three interactive boards and some 24 laptops that can be booked by teachers and taken to their classes.

Right now, we are building a 'future classroom', inspired by European Schoolnet's Future Classroom Lab in Brussels. It is scheduled to open in September. The classroom will be equipped with "flexible" furniture and some state-of-the-art educational technology. However, we are still rookies as far as educational innovation (and, in particular, the use of tablets in the classroom, is concerned, so we want to learn as much as possible.

Next year, all our fifth formers will have their own notebooks (not tablets), so that's another reason why we are very eager to learn.

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Hello, my name is Tim Vuylsteke. I'm a Dutch and English teacher at RHIZO Lyceum OLV Vlaanderen, a secondary school in Kortrijk, Belgium (http://www.olvvlaanderen.be/). My pupils are between 15 and 18 years old. I'm also the coordinator of School 21.0, our educational innovation project (http://school21.be/).