Metaliteracies, opportunities and challenges for BYOD

Even if the school year hasn´t started yet, we are in fact in the middle of Summer holidays right now, the beginning of the school calender ahead, with all its new projects linger in the air, posing a few question marks that accompany the implementation of a BYOD model.

An issue which I still need to come to terms with is the question of whether this new model will really bring benefits academically speaking or just distraction in the classroom. 

For middle and senior school teachers who need to train students to communicate and do research better, how are they going to incorporate digital technologies and devices on a 1 to 1 basis to improve these skills? 

Teachers usually characterize the overall impact of digital technologies being highly positive for students. But they also show mixed feelings about it, for they also think that the use of search engines have conditioned students to expect to find information quickly and easily with a negative impact in research. A very interesting and detailed survey conducted by the PEW Research Center (pewinternet.org) to AP and the National Writing Project teachers shows that most teachers agree that the amount of information available online today is overwhelming for most students. But at the same time they strongly agree that internet enables students to find and use resources that would otherwise not be available to them.

"Today´s students are not skilled enough at thinking critically about or synthesizing the information they find online". Have you ever heard this comment? Well I have, but what worries me is this other question: who has got to address the needs our students have about competences and abilities they need to succeed today and in the near future, including information and media literacy skills?

"Conducting research online can present too many distractions for students  preventing them from fully focusing on the task at hand", referring to online multi-tasking behavior that teachers describe as interference and lack of concentration on a given task. 

My question is, as Marc Prensky puts it beautifully in his paper "Engage Me or Enrage Me”, is it a question of relevance or engagement? Can we capture most of our students attention with old ways? I have a serious doubt here: why is it students don’t have short attention spans for their games, movies, music, or Internet surfing? More and more, they just don’t tolerate the old ways— are we doing better by them? 

So, I think we have to start discussing how to present our curricula in ways that engage our students—not just to create new “lesson plans,” not even just to put the curriculum online. We need to model students and teach them to become information and media literate so that they learn the skills they need to succeed: judging the quality of information,  writing effectively, being responsible online, understanding privacy issues, communicating ideas creatively with a variety of media, finding information quickly,  working in a networked way, understanding the symbols each media gives to the message...

Of course, time is always the issue: time to prepare new lessons, time to implement them and yet meet content restrictions. Let´s not make of it an eternal alibi.

Whether or not we think "digital natives" are different to prior generations, the truth is we need to teach students to be active participants in their surrounding culture so that they (and us!) can contribute with our time.

So I think it´s compelling that we address including meta-literacies accross the curriculum as a great opportunity, empowering students and teachers with plenty of devices at hand. 

I´d love to hear people´s views about this.

  

BYOD – Bring yours!

Pic from http://www.theruckusroom.net/2012/07/byod-the-y2k-for-networking.html

After several years of designing, running and developing its Technological Programme, Belgrano Day School has made a new big step and embraced a BYOD (i.e. Bring Your Own Device) approach to technology at school for 2013. This means learners being able to bring any -yes, any- mobile computing device in to school and connecting it to the internet via the school WiFi connection. May the firewall protect us all!

Now, definitions first. Bring your own device (BYOD) is an educational development and a supplementary school technology resourcing model, where the home and the school collaborate in arranging for students’ use of their own digital technology/ies to be extended into the classroom, and where relevant, the complementary education outside the classroom.

Although we have had a soft launch to this policy at school with some piloting done during 2012 when working on specific projects in different year groups, this year marks the beginning of a progressive implementation. Readiness for this move is essential, and this can be described as meeting the following aspects:

· Being mentally ready, that is, having the vision that its adoption will enhance the quality of the education provided because it is a model of teaching that positions the pupil more centrally and personalises his learning.

· An important number of teachers have normalised the use of the digital in their everyday teaching.

· The school has done its part upgrading its infrastructure and technical support so as to offer all the resources required for the community to work in a networked way.

We have seen a growth of mobile devices connected to our WiFi, on an everyday basis. When students choose to connect to your WiFi that means it meets their standards which is really something in terms of speed and bandwidth.   So many of the devices we expect to summon in this project - hopefully together with tablets and netbooks- were probably already here, but our policy is now to bring those devices out, in public, where they can be successfully used by students and teachers.  As student devices become more mainstream at school, devices will have gone from “under the desk” to “onto the desk”.  

In-service training courses were focused in the use of web based applications to cater for the effective use of personal devices complementing our LMS. I´ve conducted many during 2012, but so far these experiences have taken place with the school´s mobile netbook labs. This trend will naturally grow as teachers and students continue to be empowered to use technology to enrich learning with more devices at hand. There´s a lot of work to do in terms of flipping classrooms and focusing in abilities for the 21st century.

A BYOD approach tries to resemble what goes on outside the classroom, at home, at work, in further university studies. This complex landscape will be a challenge for the school community as a whole . However, it´s what the academic world is showing as the strategy to move forward in this ever rising spiral of technological advancements in education and uncertainty. Diversity of platforms and devices will continue to rule, we are not even close to having a standard, not yet.

We have experienced  that teachers no longer have the sole responsibility of delivering content to students, it just won´t be enough to help them succeed. It´s about meta-literacies, and life-long learning, and being networked and responsible of your digital id.  

I´m facing this with great excitement and commitment, with a couple of aces up my sleeve: flexibility and teamwork. 

A fresh start

“La propia vida si no se cuenta, es apenas algo que transcurre pero nada más” 

(Enrique Vila-Matas)

I had the need to start this first post with the quote above which I learnt from a great friend and colleague, @SaveLear. This statement struck me when I read it in her post, and has become so meaningful to me since then. There´s more to it, as it usually happens with cause-incidence in life: another dear friend and colleague asking me to share about our ICT Integration experience at BDS and our first steps with BYOD. If he had not tweeted it, I might not have taken it as seriously @nickdennis. Wow, so much for our global convergence culture!

So, after giving endless training sessions on why blogging is paramount in teaching, the clock has struck and it is time to live by my own preaching: I´m starting my own Blog on Learning Technologies for K-12. As broad as that, as particular as that can be, my own professional and life experience being out in the open to share. Do I really have something to say? Well, indeed I do... Is it going to be worthwhile reading? God knows...

I´m still wondering about a proper title for my blog; for now, it´s going to be just My reflections... with all its possible meanings. Reflecting inside out, as deep as that can be, but also as a mirror witnesses what goes on around it and becomes proof of the story being told.

So long for now,
Andy