It is amazing how once you have an idea in your head, you just start bringing things into your program without consciously realizing it. I have seen this happen with class themes such as ‘Camping’ or ‘Making a Difference’. Once you have a topic, lessons and ideas seem to glom on to that theme. Just recently Justin Mark hosted a Google+ seminar as part of our OLTD 509 course with Avi Luxenburg. One of the things that I came to realize during that course was that I was already a strong proponent, and even practitioner, of BYOD without even realizing it. After finishing the course, I did not jump up and down and say, “I am now going to lead the BYOD charge!” What has happened however, is that almost each and every lesson seems to provide for some opportunity where I either allow, or propose, that students use their device to complete. It may be as simple as using their calculator or finding the spelling of a word but it is nevertheless getting them gradually used to using their devices in class.
What I realize in retrospect, is that this bit-by-bit methodology is probably far better for both them and me versus me saying, “OK, everybody go home tonight and download the latest version of Splashy Fish and tomorrow we will start our assignment.”
During last week’s OLTD collaborate session in which Greg Lewis was introducing the topic of BYOD I had two main realizations. The first was that my colleagues in the chat as well as on the mic. sounded exactly like the many pages of research that we had filtered through as part of our recent seminar. I am not saying that they were complaining. I am saying that it helped me put a face on the research instead of it just being some whiners in a study in Oklahoma, these were real life problems that we are facing here at home.
The second realization that I had that night was that after about three or four rebuttals, by me to peoples challenges, I realized that I was not the Master of BYOD, I am not able to solve someone’s server problems in Parksville and that these are issues that people are going to have to cross when they come to that particular bridge. After that I decided to keep my thoughts to myself. Why would I stand up for something so vehemently when I am not even sure if it is a truly viable option.
I think the biggest thing for me in all of this, as I mentioned briefly the other night, is that after we solve the bandwidth issues, the disparity issues, the theft issues etc, we come down to a very large shift in teacher thinking. In the past we have said, “Hey class, let’s all log on to our school owned ‘Photostory’ and all do a project in there.” That project could be saved in a shared drive and easily retrieved and assessed by the teacher. What I see as the only successful way to run a true BYOD platform is to say, “Hey class, go use a ‘photo-editing’, ‘presentation’, ‘music infused’ program on your device, then make sure you can save it in some form of easily accessible movie/audio format and put it in my class drop box. The difference between these two systems may seem small to the casual observer, however, anyone who has actually proposed this type of project to students, knows the huge problem-solving, decision making, and actual technical skills to make such an assignment come to fruition.
I enjoyed seeing that Greg chose to show the video, BYOD in the Twentieth Century . This was one that I brought to the table in our recent seminar and at first I thought it was just a silly take and didn’t give it much credit. It wasn't until Justin made a few comments on it did I realize that I should go back and have a second look at it.
Finally, the final assignment that Justin had us do was to pretend you were going in front of your school or your School Board and present a short presentation on the pluses and minuses of BYOD and how you would solve them. I thought I would add my assignment here entitled, BYOD: The Good, The Bad, and the Strategies, as it was something I was quite proud of. It is rather short and sweet, but it took quite a bit of time for me to sum up what I felt the main points were, and how I would best tackle the challenges that are involved. In retrospect, I would not be quite so cheeky, and I hope Justin did not use this verbatim, in terms of my summary and how teachers need to change their ways.
What I realize in retrospect, is that this bit-by-bit methodology is probably far better for both them and me versus me saying, “OK, everybody go home tonight and download the latest version of Splashy Fish and tomorrow we will start our assignment.”
During last week’s OLTD collaborate session in which Greg Lewis was introducing the topic of BYOD I had two main realizations. The first was that my colleagues in the chat as well as on the mic. sounded exactly like the many pages of research that we had filtered through as part of our recent seminar. I am not saying that they were complaining. I am saying that it helped me put a face on the research instead of it just being some whiners in a study in Oklahoma, these were real life problems that we are facing here at home.
The second realization that I had that night was that after about three or four rebuttals, by me to peoples challenges, I realized that I was not the Master of BYOD, I am not able to solve someone’s server problems in Parksville and that these are issues that people are going to have to cross when they come to that particular bridge. After that I decided to keep my thoughts to myself. Why would I stand up for something so vehemently when I am not even sure if it is a truly viable option.
I think the biggest thing for me in all of this, as I mentioned briefly the other night, is that after we solve the bandwidth issues, the disparity issues, the theft issues etc, we come down to a very large shift in teacher thinking. In the past we have said, “Hey class, let’s all log on to our school owned ‘Photostory’ and all do a project in there.” That project could be saved in a shared drive and easily retrieved and assessed by the teacher. What I see as the only successful way to run a true BYOD platform is to say, “Hey class, go use a ‘photo-editing’, ‘presentation’, ‘music infused’ program on your device, then make sure you can save it in some form of easily accessible movie/audio format and put it in my class drop box. The difference between these two systems may seem small to the casual observer, however, anyone who has actually proposed this type of project to students, knows the huge problem-solving, decision making, and actual technical skills to make such an assignment come to fruition.
I enjoyed seeing that Greg chose to show the video, BYOD in the Twentieth Century . This was one that I brought to the table in our recent seminar and at first I thought it was just a silly take and didn’t give it much credit. It wasn't until Justin made a few comments on it did I realize that I should go back and have a second look at it.
Finally, the final assignment that Justin had us do was to pretend you were going in front of your school or your School Board and present a short presentation on the pluses and minuses of BYOD and how you would solve them. I thought I would add my assignment here entitled, BYOD: The Good, The Bad, and the Strategies, as it was something I was quite proud of. It is rather short and sweet, but it took quite a bit of time for me to sum up what I felt the main points were, and how I would best tackle the challenges that are involved. In retrospect, I would not be quite so cheeky, and I hope Justin did not use this verbatim, in terms of my summary and how teachers need to change their ways.