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Do you have access to iPads or tablets, do your students come to school with mobile tech? Are you looking to explore how to incorporate this digital tech on the upcoming practicum? Are you wondering how you can increase student engagement AND student learning?

Bring your own device is an ongoing issue in education, with opinions on different approaches. You will hear educators advocate for everything from free, open use to banning (or lock boxing). Regardless of your initial perception about potential for distraction, it is important to think a bit more critically as a teacher when it comes to the potential value of allowing access to mobile devices in the classroom (just as it is important to consider the potential drawbacks and possible proactive remedies).

There are many considerations teachers will keep in mind when integrating student owned devices in the classroom. K12 Blueprint (an Intel initiative) has a BYOD Toolkit  sharing some benefits, approaches and potential issues.

(some) Considerations:

Purpose:

• what are the lesson objectives and how might students’ devices support meeting them?
• might students benefit from ‘just-in time’ access to technologies and the familiarity of the digi-tech they are carrying with them (for research? sharing? creation? translation? assistive apps?
• how can the teacher incorporate critical digital literacy development? (authentic experiences in the classroom using students’ own devices affords a more authentic experience than simply learning ‘about’ digital literacies and citizenship.)

Access:

• is there public wifi or guest wifi at the school?
• what are the school rules around byod?
• equity – do your students have access to devices?
  • Tip: Gather information from students – have them let you know privately about their access to technology (vs. hands up/public sharing about access)
  • Have students engage in partner and group work – with one device per group (Be considerate and conscious of equity, diversity – don’t begin with ‘if you don’t have a device, then…’
  • Provide options for how to complete the work – some students with access may still choose to use paper and pencil for some tasks

Management

– what are the school rules? what are the class expectations?

• Be open, transparent and have a class discuss.
• Consider collectively creating a set of guidelines/class constitution.
• Ensure students know when it isn’t appropriate or necessary to use their devices and for what purpose.
• As teacher, be an active participant in the classroom; facilitate instruction, circulate and avoid leading from the front.

(some of the) Benefits to students

• organization (many students effectively use their mobile devices for the notes, calendar and project management applications – disallowing access will impact these students, and possibly their progress, in a negative way)
• learning needs (students with particular learning needs will benefit from various assistive technologies that are available in their pockets… IF they are allowed access. Consider the need for translator apps, speech to text, text to speech, grammar check and other assistive technologies. As teachers we have a duty to accommodate our students’ learning needs… their own devices may be able to play a valuable part.
• study assistance (students can use the camera app to take snaps of slides or notes to support homework)
• critical digital literacy development (Read “Mapping Digital Literacy Policy and Practice” by MediaSmarts, a Canadian non-profit)

Here are only a few possibilities:

• Student Response, All-class response and Polling: there are so many options. what you choose depends on your objectives! Our blog post “All-class response, engage and assess”  (Scarfe Sandbox) shares some options and information about selection and implementation.
• Brainstorming/Digital whiteboard: Padlet (share text, video, links, audio, images) View this Sandbox Blog resource post for more info on padlet.
• Multimodal creation (draw, audio/video record, type, write). Great for formative assessment:
  • ShowMe or other online or app based interactive white boards. Visit our blog post “Interactive Whiteboards” for additional options and considerations for implementation and selection.
• Mind Maps or Concept maps have long been used to help connect concepts and support critical thinking!
• Sensors and data collection (mobile devices harness many different sensors!):
  • Phyphox – free mobile app with a wide range of sensors for data collection and experimentation (Science Tech Engineering Arts and Math – or STEAM!)
  • Science Journal – an app by arduino with sensors and experiments students/classes can participate in

Here is a link to a Prezi summarizing some ways to leverage personal devices in the classroom for technology integration.

photo: (cc) Malte Sorenson flikr

Join the conversation on twitter #byod and see what others are saying! I follow Chris Kennedy who has made some illuminating blog posts about this and other topics relevant to education today! His Blog: http://cultureofyes.ca/