We're very proud to share the new initiative of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) at Jameson School! BYOD, a pilot program, will take place in the kindergarten classroom of myself and Mrs. Fletcher. We wanted to take some time to explain the methods behind the idea of BYOD, the process of getting this initiative off the ground, and the direction we hope this leads Jameson in the future. Most important, there are three things you need to keep in mind as this pilot kicks off:
First, we believe, very strongly, that technology does not replace good teaching. This is a paramount belief that both Mrs. Fletcher (Educational Leadership) and myself (Instructional Technology) practice in our classrooms and is reinforced in our current graduate studies. We know, and current research supports, that when you combine good teaching with technology; student engagement, motivation to learn, and the results are off the charts! With this being said, building loving relationships of trust and knowing "mistakes are part of learning" will only propel our kiddos to take greater risks and become comfortable using technology to best demonstrate their learning. When we build these relationships, and know what our students need, we can use technology most effectively. Both Mrs. Fletcher and myself understand this concept and we know you can't have one without the other. We also understand that combining the two can lead our kiddos to places teaching without technology could never dream of!
Second, technology enables our kiddos to learn in ways that were never possible! For example, publishing work via classroom websites and social media, connecting with students and communities around the world, improved communication and collaboration with parents and students, extended classroom communities with sites such as Edmodo, the ability to differentiate, individualize, and meet the needs of all learners; valuable data collection to inform instruction (less time correction papers and compiling data and more time using the instant data feedback to build plans for students!), and more. This list could go on and on and on! All this can be overwhelming for some parents, and that's a natural feeling. You may be even be thinking that "this isn't how you learned." But this is a much different world filled with modern digital literacies. A new world that expects students to "develop proficiencies with tools of technology, build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally, design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes; manage, analyze and synthesize multiple stream of simultaneous information; and lastly, create critique, analyze and evaluate multimedia texts." Keep in mind our world has rapidly changed and will continue to do so, and education must change with it. In the words of Will Richardson, you may not be swimming in the huge and ever quickly expanding sea of digital content and connections, but your kids are or soon will be!
Lastly, we want all those invested in the Jameson and Old Orchard Beach communities to know this was a very methodical process. We're not just bringing devices in the classroom and hoping it works! We've evaluated and put deep thought into the question - what schools are really for? Schools are here to prepare our kids for life and to be contributing members of a society, both local and global, and work force. Technology guru, Tom Whitbey, reminds us to think about the skills needed for today's work force and what schools should be teaching: curating information, analyzing information, understanding information, communicating information in various forms, collaborating on information both locally and globally; and ultimately, creating information for the purpose of publishing and sharing. Technology has clearly become the best means of executing these skills. In many instances, its becoming the only way. Now, think about today's global workforce - industries, businesses, banking, writers, artists, and musicians - What is the tool they all use to effectively do their jobs? You guessed it right - Technology!
To kick off BYOD, Mrs. Fletcher and I created a BYOD proposal and brought it to our principal, Mike Flaherty, to receive his blessings. Soon after, the three of us were collaborating to build a BYOD plan using Common Sense Media and K-12 Blueprint as a framework to ensuring we'd launch this pilot with success. We found this planning and implementation guide to be really helpful. Our BYOD portal serves as the home for all information and resources surrounding our project. We've found communicating our steps to parents has been crucial! We use Class Messenger as our parent communication tool and its been a huge hit, allowing us to keep parents up to date with processes, the portal links, and important meeting dates. We just had our first meeting last night and we walked our parents through a Day in the Life of BYOD. We look forward to sharing the process with updates of the results, the pro's and con's, videos and pictures of the kids in action, and, of course, the published products and presentations from the kiddos! We're all set to kick off the pilot on January 21st. More to come later... Thanks for reading!
Yours in education,
Mr. C
First, we believe, very strongly, that technology does not replace good teaching. This is a paramount belief that both Mrs. Fletcher (Educational Leadership) and myself (Instructional Technology) practice in our classrooms and is reinforced in our current graduate studies. We know, and current research supports, that when you combine good teaching with technology; student engagement, motivation to learn, and the results are off the charts! With this being said, building loving relationships of trust and knowing "mistakes are part of learning" will only propel our kiddos to take greater risks and become comfortable using technology to best demonstrate their learning. When we build these relationships, and know what our students need, we can use technology most effectively. Both Mrs. Fletcher and myself understand this concept and we know you can't have one without the other. We also understand that combining the two can lead our kiddos to places teaching without technology could never dream of!
Second, technology enables our kiddos to learn in ways that were never possible! For example, publishing work via classroom websites and social media, connecting with students and communities around the world, improved communication and collaboration with parents and students, extended classroom communities with sites such as Edmodo, the ability to differentiate, individualize, and meet the needs of all learners; valuable data collection to inform instruction (less time correction papers and compiling data and more time using the instant data feedback to build plans for students!), and more. This list could go on and on and on! All this can be overwhelming for some parents, and that's a natural feeling. You may be even be thinking that "this isn't how you learned." But this is a much different world filled with modern digital literacies. A new world that expects students to "develop proficiencies with tools of technology, build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally, design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes; manage, analyze and synthesize multiple stream of simultaneous information; and lastly, create critique, analyze and evaluate multimedia texts." Keep in mind our world has rapidly changed and will continue to do so, and education must change with it. In the words of Will Richardson, you may not be swimming in the huge and ever quickly expanding sea of digital content and connections, but your kids are or soon will be!
Lastly, we want all those invested in the Jameson and Old Orchard Beach communities to know this was a very methodical process. We're not just bringing devices in the classroom and hoping it works! We've evaluated and put deep thought into the question - what schools are really for? Schools are here to prepare our kids for life and to be contributing members of a society, both local and global, and work force. Technology guru, Tom Whitbey, reminds us to think about the skills needed for today's work force and what schools should be teaching: curating information, analyzing information, understanding information, communicating information in various forms, collaborating on information both locally and globally; and ultimately, creating information for the purpose of publishing and sharing. Technology has clearly become the best means of executing these skills. In many instances, its becoming the only way. Now, think about today's global workforce - industries, businesses, banking, writers, artists, and musicians - What is the tool they all use to effectively do their jobs? You guessed it right - Technology!
To kick off BYOD, Mrs. Fletcher and I created a BYOD proposal and brought it to our principal, Mike Flaherty, to receive his blessings. Soon after, the three of us were collaborating to build a BYOD plan using Common Sense Media and K-12 Blueprint as a framework to ensuring we'd launch this pilot with success. We found this planning and implementation guide to be really helpful. Our BYOD portal serves as the home for all information and resources surrounding our project. We've found communicating our steps to parents has been crucial! We use Class Messenger as our parent communication tool and its been a huge hit, allowing us to keep parents up to date with processes, the portal links, and important meeting dates. We just had our first meeting last night and we walked our parents through a Day in the Life of BYOD. We look forward to sharing the process with updates of the results, the pro's and con's, videos and pictures of the kids in action, and, of course, the published products and presentations from the kiddos! We're all set to kick off the pilot on January 21st. More to come later... Thanks for reading!
Yours in education,
Mr. C