6 Thinking Hats for Instructional Design

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Using the i-Pad in Education

Please feel free to share your ideas. Some helpful links to start off include:

• (Education) Why the iPad Absolutely Matters - on the iPad forum (extends i-Pad usage to educational management as well)
• iPad for Teaching & Learning (by Cloudworks) - specially set up for the topic
• 5 Ways the iPad will Improve Teaching - not all of which are 'substantial' ways (see #5) but it's still a good discussion to kick-off
• Teaching with the iPad - some personal sharing by a teacher (another similar one here)
• An iPad in Every Classroom - quite a comprehensive list of suggestions from yet another educator, includes slogans like, "The iPad is NOT a laptop!"

Raised Hands and the Fear of Being Wrong

I gave some assignments on the screen, towards the end of which I went through the answer-options (A, B, C, D) requesting the students to raise the hands when the option they selected was mentioned. So when 'A' was read, a certain number of students raised their hands, when B was read another number and so on.

What's interesting is the reaction of students when they realise that the answer they've selected have also been selected by many others in class as compared to those whose hands are one of very few raised or, even worse, the only one in the air.

That feeling we get when our 'raised hand' is one among many - it's a good feeling, but also a dangerous one if we come to rely on it. It's great to know your perspective is shared by the crowd but if having a popular viewpoint is a pre-condition to doing anything cool or brave or fresh then it's no wonder that very few go out on a limb for something radical. If we wait till our POV is the majority one, we'll never take that first step towards shaping a new 'box', that new point of reference for our communities to both think within and out of.

Hence, I told the students to raise their hands REGARDLESS of how many in the class have the same answers. And raise it high. No need to be ashamed of being wrong; be ashamed of needing to be right all the time.

The Cambridge Int'l Diploma for Teachers & Trainers