Please Bring Your Own Device...Sometimes

I think many schools struggle with mobile devices in school. They could be used inappropriately, they could crowd the school’s network, or maybe they could be broken/used by another student and possibly become the school’s responsibility. There are so many variables that many schools just say no to personal devices. While these concerns are valid, I believe that the devices should be permitted in school. There should be rules and regulations as needed, but we should allow students the opportunity to use their own devices in the classroom because these are what they are using outside of the classroom. Occasionally in class I will have students use Twitter as part of an assignment. Students find it easier to use the app on their phone. They are not permitted on the school wi-fi with their phones so if they choose to use their own data while working on a school project I think they should be allowed. Students also need to submit to time and place regulations with their phones. For example, walking and using phones is not a good idea. I think this would be a good place to bring students into the conversation. If they are helping to set the guidelines for personal device use they may be more inclined to follow the rules. While I do support students using their personal devices in school I do not support BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). I think there are more negatives than positives. What one student can afford compared to another is a huge factor. Also, if some purchases their own device they can do whatever they want on it. This means that students will have access to things on their device that they may not on a school issued device. At my school, all students have an iPad with no access to the App Store—they cannot put any apps on the device. A personal device could become overloaded with whatever the student (or their family) want to put on it. This could limit space for school projects. Apps and their availability can vary between types of devices. This could interfere with a teacher’s plans. In my opinion BYOD is the same as if a teacher said bring your own book. All the books may be about World War II but there is no guarantee about what will be covered, how accurate the book will be, and if the book will be at grade level. This is not an effective way to teach a class.

Technology Policies in School

Looking at the Bellingham Public Schools website I was able to view their technology policies. Clearly, the best part of their policy was found under “unacceptable use”—participating in chain letters. Joking aside, the technology policy at Bellingham Public Schools covers EVERYTHING. I especially liked that they included staff in the rules. Most people are held to special standards when issued a device for work. But each school can be different. Teachers in my (small) school seem to enjoy a little more freedom with their devices. But the next time I get a chain letter in my school email I will suggest some more strict changes to our policy. ☺ Rutland does have an acceptable use policy in place. It does a good job being descriptive about what may fall in the spectrum of inappropriate or unethical. It does not (smartly) list the effects of a violation past restriction or removal from the network or school issued device. I do think that there could and would be additional repercussions for those violating the usage agreement. But you certainly would not want to speculate about what the punishments could be for every possible scenario. Every situation is different. Rutland also has a Distance Education policy. But it only states that this is available as an option for students. It seems no different that the policy of other districts. Rutland does not have an Internet Publishing Policy. I have noticed that other schools require parental permission before a student’s work can be published. Certainly this is important. And this is the one that, since lacking, Rutland should be the most concerned with updating. Updating technology policies is a project that needs to be an ongoing part of a school’s technology team. Technology is constantly upgrading and the change in it should lead to a change in rules and guidelines for a school. Acceptable Use Policies (AUP) is a good teaching tool to instruct students about how to best use the technology in a safe manner. To update our policies at Rutland, we should incorporate staff into acceptable use policies and develop a policy for publishing student work to the Internet. It seems like there are some classes that we should be able to assume a student’s work will be published. Students working on a newspaper should expect their work to be published. But parental permission is a good idea across the board for all students in all classes. I also think that Internet Publishing Policies should include some notion of schools having the final say in what may or may not be published. It seems like Rutland likes the idea of “less is more” in their technology policies.

Consortium for School Networking

When I first viewed the CoSN (Consortium for School Networking) website I was not certain I would be able to find any use for the information they had. It all seemed very technical. But I was able to find information very easily. The most helpful things I found were the Superintendent Self-Assessment and District Leadership Assessment forms. They both seemed like excellent tools for a school to have access too. If I was forming a technology committee in my district, I have no doubt that I would use this website to offer guidelines about what they should be working toward. The website offers clear goals of leaders and technology in a district. I think that the leadership team would be able to set out a long-term technology plan using the site. I like that they push innovation and risk-taking. I think districts should be doing this—but you need to create the environment that this is what were going to try and it might be the best thing ever or we might give it a try and have it fail. But at the very least we’re going to try it out. Here is where you need buy-in from community members and staff. They need to be supportive of this idea. The CoSN website reminds you to include other community members and teachers. Again the self-assessments are the best. If a superintendent and leadership team are going to be honest in their actions, they looked like wonderful tools to identify areas of improvement.

School Websites

Schools may use websites for a variety of reasons. They could be a good way to introduce the public to teachers. Websites could list popular (and approved) links for students. It could be used as a way to communicate with any school patron about up coming events they may be interested in attending. A website can prove very useful to its school. A website, however, puts a lot of the initiative on the seekers—the information is there, if they’re willing to go look for it. If they are willing to go looking, what should they be able to find. It seems like, after looking over various school websites, what one may find depends on the school’s respective goals. It seems as though larger districts have a more sterile atmosphere. They are “all-business,” lacking classroom pictures and athletic event scores on their home pages. Large districts, like Sioux Falls, jump right to their bus schedules and other important information. In contrast, a smaller school like Chester shows us the scores from the most recent high school games. Flandreau, some where in the middle in size, lists the Homecoming dress-up days along side a student spotlight section on the home page. Does this mean that the smaller schools are more “student driven?” The smaller schools’ websites seem to establish a more relaxed feel to them. Maybe in these small communities most patrons know the students. Parents and grandparents come to the website to see the recording of the spring concert. Or to find pictures of their student working on a science project. I think that the number of people a district like Sioux Falls is trying to help may be the reason for their more “informative” focus on their district website. Also, it seems like it’s better to avoid student photographs altogether than worry about permission for every student—especially when you are dealing with THOUSANDS. I realized that when I was looking at this collection of school websites that I thought of Sioux Falls as a different animal altogether. The workings of a district that size are going to require something different on their website than the smaller school districts in the rest of the state. The schools next in size (Brandon and Flandreau) tried to create a community atmosphere. They wanted a connection to the community—as shown in their personalized notes for administration and staff. Several of these websites had correspondence from the superintendent. I think this is a great way for them to connect with patrons. Often this is an elusive position. And I think it may help people to recognize the superintendent’s connection to the school community. Some of the schools had links to teacher webpages. (Several did not.) I like the idea that a teacher’s lesson plans are available online. It could when students miss school. Or if a parent wants to know what their student is learning about. On the other hand, I think that lesson plans on a website can be restricting to a teacher. As a teacher, you don’t know what lessons your students may need extra time on. Or maybe your students are really interested in a topic so you decide to spend a few more days on that topic to go more in-depth. When you have months worth of lesson plans it can really stop a teacher from allowing the students to control the pace based on interest or just gaining a good grasp on some material. Finally, I think that a district website can and should serve as a place to showcase student work. The College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing requires students to: “Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.” A page on a school districts website can serve as an excellent place for students to publish their work. A school website can be an asset to the district. It can be fashioned to the specific purpose of meeting each school’s goals, no matter how different the goals may be.

Technology in the classroom

Students need frequent and varied exposure to technology. They also need time to figure it out on their own. I think that students learn the most when playing around with a new or unfamiliar device. I am not of the belief that students need to have the same device and I allow students to use their phones in the classroom if that’s their preference. I also believe that students should have unlimited access to information—via the Internet. They have phones with them at all times that allow them to access the information. As educators, it is important that we teach students how to filter information to find credible sources and accurate information.