Thoughts on iPad Fluency and Workflows

June 4, 2013 - Featured Carousel, iPad

For me, iPad workflow has to do with fluency. It is:

  • the fluid movement between apps
  • the unconscious decision what app  to use in order to accomplish any given task

The workflow is almost like Grammar in a language. Grammar helps you put components of a language in the proper order, grammar rules help you use the right tense, remix word to create new meaning, the correct vocabulary words attached in combination with pronouns and conjugation help you communicate exactly what you had intended.

Workflow= Fluency of iPad Grammar

iPadworkflow

Using iPads in the classroom with your students is more than choosing and letting them use Apps. 

I have written several posts about how I envisioned and then observed our students develop iPad Fluency (Fluency of iPad workflow takes time to develop!).

We are starting to see more and more examples of students developing iPad fluency, as they

  • take a photo of a mindmap that was written on a dry-erase board and ,without being asked, email them to all their classmates…
  • ask for a mindmap that I started of a discussion held in class and created on the iPad to be emailed to them. Not having the app (in which I had originally created the mindmap) on their own iPad, without missing a beat, substituting the app with Skitch to continue to add to the notes…
    iPad-workflow-jamie
  • create a collage of images, saving the file to upload to their blogfolios without painfully getting hung up technical issues of how to import, rotate, crop, save, open in new app, edit, save and publish…
  • quickly looking up a quote or reference of a person in the middle of a conversation/discussion to validate someone’s point of view/perspective. The conversation continues without interruption and research is embedded smoothly…
  • collaboratively take notes, peer edit drafts of writing samples and not even think twice about the transformative nature of this new writing process…

I created the following iPad Workflow chart below for receiving and handing in sharing work. Breaking the process apart should help students visualize each step, remind them of “what comes next?” and support them on their way to develop their own fluency.

[ The chart was created in ComicLife app, icons saved and imported from the web to the Photo Gallery as I was browsing Safari. The final chart was then saved in Comic Life, exported as a jpg image and as a pdf file to be then uploaded to this blog post to be shared. ]

ipad-workflow-receiving-sharing

Download iPad Workflow: Receiving and Sharing (pdf)