A Staff's Self-Measurement of ISTE Standards Revisited

In 2013 we developed a likert scale survey for our teachers at Mercy several of the the ISTE Standards and published the results to iMercy.  We are now nearing the completion of an iMercy second edition.  In order to update the book's section on the "Compelling Evidence of Success" of our iPad program we revisited the staff with the same survey.

We were pleased to discover that a greater number of teachers agreed when applying ISTE standards to themselves than they did in 2013. 

I conclude that this across-standards improvement is due to the faculties' greater experience with Apple technology and our decision to adopt a more user friendly LMS.

For a look at the survey results from our ninth graders, see Strong Evidence of iPad Success with Mercy Students

Strong Evidence of iPad Success with Mercy Students

This spring we completed a survey of nearly all of our ninth graders using a likert scale to measure their perceptions of how intrinsic their iPads were to their learning in school.  We used the the ISTE Standards for Students as the criteria for measuring this.

We has used the identical survey in 2013 when we applied to become an Apple Distinguished School.  In every instance the 2015 students were in greater agreement that they had made the fifteen standards that we had selected.

The above chart is an excellent example. Asked to what extent they agreed that they had fun learning with their iPads, about 57% agreed or strongly agreed in 2013.  In 2015, 60% strongly agreed and the great majority of the rest agreed.

Impressive results were measured with other very important standards, such as "My iPad aids me in exploring solutions":

Why did the 2015 ninth graders a higher percentage of agreement with the survey statements shaped from the ISTE Standards. My own classroom observations lead me to believed that their teachers integrated the iPad more fundamentally into instruction. I also believe that the Mercy's adoption of Schoology as and LMS was a factor. The iPad app for Schoology is closely approximates browser functionality.

Click through the following slide show if you are interested in seeing the other survey results* as well.

Student survey results freshmen v freshmen comparison 2015 from Laurence Baker

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*Thank you Christopher Blitz for creating this great slide show for our updated version of iMercy.

Ed Tech Musings

I am on vacation looking out at a gorgeous Lake Michigan sunset, and thought it would be fun to do a stream of consciousness blog of unrelated topics.

*I find it hard to "unplug" on vacation for two reasons. I enjoy checking for sports scores, texts from family, Facebook, etc. And when I do it is pretty hard to avoid peeking into a filling email box or voice mails  2) I don't like the idea of being crushed or hit with bad news when I get back. How about you? Can you, must you unplug?

* I am genuinely surprised and happy that iPads hold value over time. We are collecting iPads from students on Monday for a buy-back. We are also also selling several of our three year old models. Apple put us in touch with a third party buyer who leads us to expect the following prices:

iPad 3 (Class of 2016)- $145.00

iPad 4 (Class of 2017) - $ 175.00

iPad Air (Class of 2018) - $ 185.00

* I have tried for the last five years to proselytize Mercy teachers and my graduate students about Twitter as a powerful source of professional development. Finally, I have achieved a convert in my Madonna EDU 6270 course. She followed  @cwhinsch,  @markbarnes19,  @sjunkins,  @kylepace  and @rmbyrne and she concluded, “Through this experience, I have found "Twitter to be a great social media site to further my knowledge on technology and education.”

*I am anxious to see the results of our recent iPad survey of staff and students (described in Thursday's post). I think we did a great job developing a survey instrument and administering it comprehensively. It is based on the ISTE standards which are rock solid.

*I love being able to place digital signatures and text on the many pdf documents I receive that require a sign-off. Saves me the hassle of download-print-scan. I can open the document sign, send and store to Evernote.

*This past school year, I took many visitors into our classrooms to see our technology in action. Generally I simply asked a big group of teachers if the kids would be doing an activity with their iPads that day other than taking notes or testing. I never asked anyone to "put on a show" and always felt proud and uplifted after visiting the classes.

It turns out that I am so full of musings that I will publish the rest in my next post.

Taken by moi at the Little Traverse Bay, MI  (June 18, '15)