BYOD Programs are on the Rise!

BYOD programs allow students to bring their own electronic devices to school and use them in the classroom. I remember struggling over what to do about cell phones when my students first started sneaking them into class. Eight years ago there were no smart phones much less tablets, kindles, tablets or iPads. Cell phones were considered distracting because students could use them to text each other. In 2006 I purchased my first smart phone, a "SideKick." I wowed my students by instant messaging a cousin who lived in Oslo. By the end of that school year smart phones were the rage and our school had to decide what to do with them. At first we continued business as usual. Phones were not allowed at school, and teachers were to confiscate them if found. Seven years later BYOD has become a great way to engage the students in their learning.

In his article Report: District Use of Social Networks up 44 Percent over 2 Years  Joshua Bolkan lists these as the key findings of a study conducted by the Center for Digital Education and National School Boards Association:

• Nearly all respondents, at 94 percent, reported that their district allows teachers to use Web 2.0 tools, up from 82 percent two years ago;
• Logging a six-percent increase since last year's survey, 71 percent of those surveyed reported that their district had a "digital content strategy" featuring tools such as digital textbooks, Web 2.0 tools, educational games or simulations, video, or audio;
• The biggest obstacle in preparing for upcoming Common Core online assessments, according to the survey, is a lack of computers, at 32 percent;
• Twenty percent of respondents said they didn't know what the largest challenge for online assessments was, while 19 percent said they lacked technical support and expertise and 17 percent said their district doesn't have enough Internet access or bandwidth for the assessments;
• Only nine percent of respondents reported having no bring-your-own-device (BYOD) program in their district, with 41 percent reporting a current implementation and 50 percent saying they were either planning or in the process of implementing one; and
• Among deployed BYOD programs reported, 84 percent included grades 9-12, 72 percent included grades 6-8, 58 percent included grades 4-5, and 44 percent included grades preK-3.

Read more at http://thejournal.com/articles/2013/04/17/report-district-use-of-social-networks-up-44-percent-over-two-years.aspx#EDOUabhZIx7EeAS6.99

Using Students' Devices to Teach

My 6th grade students loved being able to bring their own electronic devices into my classroom Normally students were required to keep their electronic devices turned off and kept in their lockers, so it was a treat to be allowed to turn them on and show them off to their friends.

The trick to effectively integrating the devices into the lesson is to get students to learn content through these devices and not just play with them. One writing lesson that proved very effective utilized texting and blogging. Students were paired in teams of 5. One student would start a story and text it to another student who would add a sentence to the story and pass both sentences on to the next student. Students with tablets would use the class blog to write their story one response at a time. Students who did not have cell phones or tablets used the classroom laptops to join in the story writing. The resulting stories were shared with the class. I was able to address several ELA concepts and learning modalities. Best of all, the kids had fun!

This article from the New York Times advocates the use of student owned devices in the classroom.

New York Times Article

iPads and Tablets

I found this article today written by a Vice President at McGraw Hill. http://mashable.com/2011/05/16/tablets-education/ It speaks to the use of tablet devices in the college classroom. The points Madan makes are excellent, but I wonder how we can integrate this technology into middle and high schools located in poverty stricken areas. Title 1 monies are allocated for technology, but what devices are making it into the classroom and then actually being used?

Years ago, I taught in a Title 1 middle school in which 98% of the students were on free or reduced lunch. My very small classroom contained four large desk top computers placed along one wall of the room. The computers were a great idea but were inaccessible due to the large number of student desks that were crammed into the room. I had an average of 35 students in each of four 90-minute class periods. 35 large 8th grade students in the smallest room on the 8th grade hall was not conducive to creating interactive technology rich lessons using four computers.

As a solution to overcrowded classrooms, I really like the idea of using tablets to create fun standards-based interactive lessons.  Students in crowded classrooms are able to use the device in groups on the floor or individually at a desk. The one problem with smaller devices is that they tend to walk out the door instead of being returned to the technology cart. I suggest that schools distribute tablets instead of textbooks at the beginning of the school year. Students would be responsible for paying for damaged or lost tablets just like they are if they damage or lose a textbooks. If the bottom line is cost, I wonder how much more it is to purchase tablets and textbook licenses than to purchase physical textbooks for students?

21st Century Education

Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World, by Heidi Jacobs was given to me in the spring of 2011 when I accepted the position of Technology Integration Specialist at the K- 6 private school where I had been teaching 6th grade. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it the first time and planned to use its many ideas when writing the five-year technology plan for the school. In July of 2011, my life took a sudden turn when my husband was offered a lucrative job opportunity in Seattle. In less than one month, we found ourselves 3000 miles from home in the 108 year old town of Issaquah, Washington. My children were enrolled in the local schools and my husband was getting used to his 45-minute commute to Seattle. Meanwhile, I focused on completing a master's degree in Instructional Design and Technology.  This spring, I started the job search process focused on 21st century learning, so I decided to re-read Curriculum 21.

 

I plan to use the next few posts to share some of the ideas that I find intriguing and hope that my followers will share their thoughts and how these ideas are evident in their work.

Heidi Jacobs begins her book with a profound question, "What year are you preparing your students for? 1973, 1995?" (2010, p. 1). I feel this question is one that educators, curriculum specialists, and school administrators must ask themselves when planning the direction of their school or district. I was very fortunate to have worked in a private school where the administration fully embraced the commitment to place the needs of the learners as the number one priority and gave us the tools, training, and freedom to achieve this goal.

Our school fed into the best public and private college preparatory middle schools in the city. As 6th grade teachers and our student's last teachers at the school, our team felt it that it was our responsibility to make sure students were fully prepared for the rigors of middle and high school classes. Our students ranged from average to gifted abilities and included those with learning differences. Our team created differentiated classroom environments and strove to use tools that would meet each of our student's needs.  As with all goals there were triumphs and setbacks. I always wanted to find that magic activity that would succeed with all my students, where those who were struggling with a concept would suddenly "get it." Fortunately, most of the time we were successful in finding the best approach for each student, but the times that I felt I wasn't able to stick with me to this day. These are the times that I find myself searching for the magic activity to help the student "get it."

So, how does this relate to 21st century education? Giving students the ability to find the tool they need when they need it is 21st century teaching. What do students need to be successful in their future? What tools do they need to move to the next level of education or to successfully join the workforce? Do I think it is all about technology? No. But I do believe that as technology changes our students need to know how to adapt. How are we to teach them this skill when we don't use technology as a part of our daily lessons? On the other hand, if we are to make sure students are able to use technology as a tool, how do we make sure students also master course content? Curriculum 21 focuses on ways to integrate technology into daily lessons in a way that course content is mastered and students learn to navigate the technology tools that are currently available and how to discover on their own how to use tools that have yet to be invented.

Egypt Immersion...a year later

The Egypt Immersion (a year later)

This event seems so long ago. Since the publishing of the Postmortem of the Egypt Immersion post, I have completed my masters program and moved 3000 miles to the great state of Washington. I was not able to oversee the implementation of this project this year and wonder what the teacher who replaced me did to improve it. I have sent an email and hope to update this post with those results. 

Looking back now on my experience as a teacher at this wonderful school, I realize I was given many opportunities to be creative with my lesson plans.  Projects such as the Egypt immersion allowed me to think beyond my classroom and include all team members in lesson planning. I think the ideas we decided on to improve the immersion were good and hopefully were useful for the new 6th grade team. I still believe conducting a post-mortem as soon as a project is completed is very important. It is easy to forget what has worked and what hasn't if too much time goes by. I thank my team members for being such good sports and supportive of this work intensive unit.

Scope Creep

Scope Creep is defined by Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, & Sutton (2008) as “The natural tendency of the client, as well as project team members, to try to improve the project's output as project progresses” (p. 350).

When I think of scope creep, I can't help but think of my school's calendar. During the spring, a calendar of events is created for the next school year. These events include school wide functions as well as field trips and grade level events. Every year our Head of School promises to keep the scheduled events to a minimum so that we can focus on teaching. Once the new school year begins additional events creep onto the calendar even though the schedule is supposed to be “set in stone”. This results in teachers grumbling about time taken away from the classroom. Most of the time the additional events come from the parents who, in our case, are our clients. These events range from additional class parties and unscheduled assemblies to school wide fundraising events. Ultimately, it is the school's administration that needs to put a stop to the unplanned additional events.

Portny et al suggest using scope control to minimize the impact of unforeseen additions. “Scope control involves trying to contain changes to project scope when that is possible and managing changes when they must occur. When scope changes are unavoidable, the project manager should identify their impact on the project plan and obtain approval from the customer and sponsor” (p.96). In our case, refusing the majority of requests and then consulting with the effected grade levels when it seems impossible to avoid a request would help reduce the impact of these unscheduled events. Sometimes the added events come from well meaning resource teachers who want to expand their lessons with field trips to museums or scheduling additional concerts at the school. These requests go straight to the office and suddenly we have an email stating the scheduled date and time of an unexpected event. No thought is given to consulting the grade level teachers to ensure it fits in with the curriculum.

Because a teacher's schedule is filled to capacity at the beginning of the school year, I believe more emphasis needs to be placed on making sure the classroom teachers have the time to cover the material expected in the state standards. Enrichment is very important to a child's education, but it has to be balanced with the core curriculum. Ultimately, it is the job of the school administration to make sure that each teacher has the time to cover the material.

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Communicating Effectively Week 3

This week were asked to receive a request for information through email, voicemail and then face to face to determine which form of communication most clearly stated the intent of the message. The message was an informal reminder to submit needed back ground information on a project. The recipient was involved in a long meeting that day which had nothing to do with the communicated request. I found that in this case, communicating the message through voice mail was the best. It allowed me to hear the inflection of the request as well as to replay the message if needed. The email was poorly written and difficult to follow without the inflection that a voice can give to a message. The face to face message was too informal and if given during the break from the long meeting could easily be forgotten. A voicemail message can be checked when the receiver is ready for the message as opposed to over the cube wall in between meetings as was the case in this scenario.

According to Portny et al. (2008) formal requests should always be completed in writing or if in a face to face meeting a follow up email or document should be sent. This scenario was an informal request so a voice message or clearly written email would be best. Stopping someone in the hall or peeking over the cube to deliver the reminder just asks for it to be forgotten. Ultimately, we should always attempt to use the right form of communication for the subject matter and the recipient. Portny et al. (2008) succinctly states “The key to successful project management is effective communication – sharing the right messages with the right people in a timely manner “ (p. 357).

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.