Observation 360

First up, an iPad app called Observation 360.  The world of apps has grown exponentially with the wide distribution of tablet computers.  Steve Jobs, we thank you for your vision and commitment to seeing integrated platforms become widely available to the consumer.  Rest in peace.

Observation 360 (created, maintained, and published by School Improvement Network, www.schoolimprovement.com), is kind of like a direct-to-destination flight through a huge sky of information. It's mainly an administrative tool, used by management and academic observers to create a profile for a specific instructor based on a classroom visit.  It can link directly to videos available on School Improvement Network's PD 360 site and tailor an observation report by including those videos as part of the report made available to the instructor. These are, of course, linked to videos taken of the instructor in action by the iPad user, which makes for a highly-detailed and useful professional development package (at least to the instructor willing to accept constructive criticism).

Adapting this app to a digital classroom should not be too significant a leap of the imagination.  Picture, for a moment, a class of business professionals responsible for completing a presentation to classmates and colleagues.  The instructor, manned (or womanned) with Observation 360, makes notes on a student's performance in the presentation, and includes some helpful hints for improvement from PD 360.  The student is able to instantaneously access the feedback the instructor generated by logging on to the website and viewing content. This is, of course, even more helpful if the student in question has his or her own iPad running the app.  The problem, of course, is that not everyone can yet afford an iPad, nor can just anyone use the app.  The content will only be available to students or instructors with an account in PD 360, and may not be easily accessible to students.

I have not had the opportunity to use either PD 360 or Observation 360, but the concept itself intrigues me, and since I like Macs, I'll be investigating the iPad uses in more detail.

School Improvement Network. Observation 360. Retrieved Oct. 13, 2011 from http://www.schoolimprovement.com/products/observation360/