OLTD 508: Assignment 1B

Area of teaching, age of students, resources required for the activity/lesson

including transportation, the number of mobile devices etc.
I teach a multi-age class with a very complex composition. I have five grade 3 students,
seven grade 4 students, and 12 grade 5 students. Eight students are ministry coded, three
are waiting for school based testing and one is in psycho-educational testing presently.
Planning just right learning that is stimulating, engaging and achievable for all my
learners is an ongoing challenge, but I try. For this activity, Ive imagined using 22 Ipod
touch devices.

A brief synopsis of the traditional activity/lesson and how it was carried

out previously including how long it took, the learning outcomes, was paper
used?, etc.
Our class has been doing a novel study with The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine
Applegate (4 exceptions due to ability and language challenges). One group reads the
book in twenty page a week chunks independently. The second group I do guided reading
with. The independent group has deeper thinking questions and the guided group
discusses questions I pose as we read.
The story is about a silverback gorilla captured and transported from Africa to the U.S.A.
He spent some of his childhood living domestically with his owner before he became too
big to handle. Thereafter he is a main attraction in a shopping malls daily circus shows.
Told from Ivans perspective, the story explores the tension between good aspects of
humanity and the cruel ways humans often treat animals. The storys characters help

compare and contrast these tensions and eventually humanity redeems itself as Ivan and
his friends move to more appropriate but still contained homes.

Using Quinns 4Cs, outline/explain what you plan to undertake using the
affordances of a mobile device. Each C must be delineated and linked to
the process that is being completed. Be clear in your description of specific
apps that you plan to use or the function being used for the mobile device.
Clark Quinns first C is content. Mobile devices would enable my students to engage in
the story content more deeply. They could look up pictures of silverback gorillas and
other animal characters in the story. They could also find articles about the real Ivan the
story is loosely based on.
The second C is compute. I am imagining a group texting discussion process. There are
several applications I looked at for computing options. One was cel.ly, another was
TodaysMeet, but I decided on good old fashioned google docs. I like the file management
features with Google. TodaysMeet can retain the document for up to a month (free
version). Ive never used cel.ly. It may have features that would make it a better tool.
However, because of FOIPPA, I prefer to maintain as much control as possible for
privacy protection. I can download the Google doc. as a word doc. and delete the cloud
version. I can create a google.doc, create a shareable link (and make it tiny), and students
can start computing and communicating at the same time. I also like any speech-to-typing
features for my struggling writers.
Using a shared document, my students could process and share their thinking. Learning
together would hopefully lead to deeper and expanded understandings. It also means that

students could get their ideas out without having to put up their hand and wait for others
to finish.
Communicate is Quinns third C. A shared document allows students to communicate
while they are computing, but students would also use the mobile devices to
communicate their individual learning. Presently we are using easyblog as a blogging
platform. Students could record their learning using the video, audio or typing functions
within their blog. They could answer the questions using media formats they are most
comfortable with and add pictures to illustrate research into the animal characters.
The fourth C is capture. I believe this is present with the other Cs as content is processed
and computed and learning is communicated, captured and documented. As a teacher I
might use polling tools to capture an assessment of general perceptions and
understandings. For example, I could use a polling tool to ask, Does Ivan like his
domain? Throughout the course of the book, answers on this question should change. I
looked at polleverywhere as a tool for this. It has some neat real time graphing features,
but it requires me to use my phone. Im not prepared to do that. I would prefer to use
Google drive and the forms feature for formative assessment captures.

Provide a brief comparison outlining the differences/advantages of using the

mobile device in place of past methods. This could be a table or a simple
paragraph.
Advantages
UdL and assistive technology
Ease of use / familiarity
Increased opportunities and methods of

Disadvantages
Inappropriate use (silly off task, bullying,
mean comments)
Viewing of inappropriate content while
researching
Monitoring usage and content

engagement
Convenient & Efficient
Collaborative

Mobile device management