What’s ‘Appening in Ag Ed

On Wednesday, I was at the beautiful Beaver Hollow Conference Center in Java, NY to present two sessions of a workshop on iPad apps to use in the agricultural education classroom. I was thrilled to be invited to share with NYAAE members some of the apps that have worked for me with my students.  Many of the teachers were new to iPads having just received them at the start of the conference. To present, I used Nearpod so I could share some of the features the app offered. I am very grateful that Nearpod offered three Gold subscriptions that I could use as door prizes. This give-away had a special sign up for teachers who truly thought they would be able to use the app to its fullest potential in their classes.

My work began in advance of the conference with seeking out some app creators to share redeem codes so I could have door prizes for many of the workshop participants. In addition to  Nearpod, I got support from Tiled, ExplainEverything, Focus on Plant and Landscaper’s Companion.  An unplanned lesson from this was chance to explain how to enter redeem codes for apps.

I could have easily titled the workshop “So many apps and so little time” because as I began preparing the workshop itself, I realized there would be no way to share all I have used and how I have used them.  As a result, inspiration struck and I created a Pinterest Board to provide an easy reference tool to access apps discussed as well as ones there just wasn’t time to address but could benefit the Ag Ed Classroom.  I am grateful for the Profession Learning Network I have on NAAE Communities of Practice, as I explored resources there and reached out to colleagues who had presented similar concepts, as well as my twitter connections where I shared resources with an Ag Ed Teacher/ Tech Nerd friend of mine, Michael Coley.

What apps do you find useful in your agricultural education classroom?

The presentation itself is available on SlideShare.

Note: If you want to access the presentation at your own pace and try out Nearpod, here’s the directions I cut and pasted from the “homework” option Nearpod gave me. “You can review this presentation at your own pace by opening this link in your iOS device: just tap here; or launch the Nearpod App and enter PIN: KLMBX in the student box.”