Secondary School signed up for BYOD, and what about Primary?

First graders reading an interactive story at BDS Library

Being part of a K-12 institution that takes pride in having a very high profile towards ICT integration in the classroom poses different challenges for everybody around school. Teachers, wondering "what´s next?", students who feel skeptical about the true meaning of BYOD at least for now, parents trying to fall in the line, administrators trying to figure out the budget.

This of course includes me, the Headmistress in Primary, former ICT Coordinator and Systems Manager - mind you I´m still not sure whether this last statement is actually making things any easier for me or not. Our Secondary School (Middle and Senior) is finding its way in the initial phases of a BYOD programme launched this term, back in February 25th, and that is BIG news for us all.

Of course, I feel part of that development. Even if I´m not able to be hands on right now from my present position, I would like to think I´m still its god-mother or something like it (so typical, motherly comment, you´re right). In that sense, I can still see the effects of my actions -good and bad-  a few months back in terms of setting the grounds technologically  speaking (infrastructure) and also thinking about my strong vision to devote all necessary resources for teachers to the lead the change. I´m grateful I can still participate in different ways in the project, as I was recently invited to write out a draft for the mobile device policy for students and hold weekly meetings with key actors in the staff.

Back in Primary, the point is how to adapt BYOD to the early years all throughout Year 6 and yet not think of Secondary school as the crossing line, but looking beyond it. We are moving together, not in batch processing. 

For now, the plan is to use the school´s mobile labs with 10 inch Android Tablets as early as first form, while inviting the eldest students in Primary, i.e. Year 6 for now, to bring their own devices certain days of the week. Both English and Spanish teachers are getting involved, especially our Librarians who have proved to be invaluable players in the team providing the most fabulous contents for students to experiment, learn and have fun. This is probably a keypoint: digital resources. Ebooks, apps, websites, even Britannica Online, they are all essential to offer teachers alternatives while they come up with their own production. We are lucky to have an LMS already well established in all Primary, with teachers being able to design their courses, add content, mentor groups in forums and ignite class blogs in a safe environment, this last something particularly important considering the ages of Primary students, ranging from 6 to 12. So teachers are given the tablets first, to try them out, to play with them, to discuss content with @BDSLibrary, to understand how they can be integrated with the IWB in the classrooms. In a month´s time teacher training will come dealing with specific issues of key content areas like maths and  English, tablet in hand. 

I hope I can slowly see the number of tablets in students´ hands grow, safely and meaningfully, but I´d also love to see staff hugging theirs around school, at a parents´meeting, in the playground and labs, and in the classroom.

Happy Easter for all Christians in the world.

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.