What you can do NOW to get ready for BYOD

[This blog posting is in support of my presentation at TeachMeetKy, WKU/Bowling Green, Friday, Oct.5, 2012]

       A lot of districts are looking at the possibility of supporting student-owned personal devices in the classroom. There are a lot of good reasons...

1. Students are already familiar with, and can quickly and easily use, their own technology.
2. Schools/Districts can leverage student-owned devices, getting close to 1-1 computing in the classroom, but without the expense and support problems.
3. Just-in-time access to activities and resources online can transform the classroom.

       My district (Fayette) made the decision to support student personal devices near the end of last year, causing everybody to scurry around, thinking about what that would mean. If your classroom/school/district is contemplating this shift, here is a list of things you can do right now to make that happen successfully.

       This is a wish list -- a collection of talking points to get you thinking about what this means. No district will be able to do them all. 

The Technicals

1. Can we support it?
• Be prepared to help all platforms onto your wifi. It's a very good idea to buy examples of each (Android tablet, Kindle, iPad), and try them. Help teachers/adults get their smart phones online!
• Write the limits of your support of, and liability for, student personal devices into their AUP contract.
2. Secure? CIPA-compliant?
   • Needless to say, it's critical that your students know and use their network login accounts and district-supplied email address.
   • Make sure your system can register and associate devices with login accounts. 
   • Design AD groups to scale student access based on training (“Digital Drivers License”)
3. Will it connect and work?
   • Not just wifi capacity, but bandwidth all the way upstream.
   • “Transparent proxy” eliminates proxy dependency of apps and browsers
   • Encourage the selection of resources (tutorials, videos, etc.) which are “device neutral”

Fears

1. Student Monitoring, and Off-Task Behavior
• Begin the discussion now about the impact of more autonomous student work on lesson plan design. Teacher instructional practice is so huge, it gets its own section below, but be aware that a teacher's desire to leave their instructional practice unchanged in the face of omnipresent  information and content creation tools will result in lots of off-task behavior!
• Leverage a Learning Management System to manage links, and monitor student access to materials and activities. "Google" is an instructional resource, but if you want to use and track specific online tools, an LMS can serve as a first-stop portal, and a method of tracking individual student progress.
2. The Scary "Cloud"
   • Make teacher, school, and district online presences interactive. The cloud is about connections. If leadership and classroom presences don't accept and use input from students, it's unlikely teachers will be interested in doing so. 
   • Have teacher participation in crowdsourced knowledge construction and discussion a part of their professional responsibilities. It should be a quid quo pro -- require it, but acknowledge its importance by awarding professional development credit for it!

Instructional Practice

1. The  disappearing lecture 
• Start the move away from the teacher role of information deliverer (“Sage on the Stage”), and towards facilitation (”Guide on the Side”). 
• Find and leverage online materials, media, and experts. The teacher role becomes more than simply selecting the content. S/he now has the ability to select the resources which deliver it. 
• Examine the "Flipped Classroom" concept, which leverages class time for tutorials, mentoring, and answering questions.
2. Differentiation
   • BYOD supports an increased focus on project-based learning and collaborative learning, which  also supports a better reflection of differentiation strategies.
   • Promote a classroom practice which supports a variety of activities at once, including an increase in student autonomy. Start now to get away from the idea that all students have to be doing the same thing at the same time!
3. Assessment and Accountability
   
   • Increase the use of online and electronic assessments, especially for formative purposes. Online assessments can be accomplished at any time, and can be used as instructional platforms. Electronic ("clicker") assessments can be used to drive the classroom.
   • Add changes in teacher’s instructional practice to teacher accountability processes. Student learning accountable measures are important, but don't get at the kinds of changes needed to drive them in the new environment.

Fairness

1. Access to Devices
• Provide small numbers of student-use classroom computers for projects which require them. This can help to support projects that a student's device might not be able to handle, and provides access for students who might not have support for out-of-class work.
• As much as possible, purchase and make available devices to take home for students who do not have anything they can use there. The goal of BYOD is a 1-1 classroom access paradigm on the cheap. True 1-1 requires support for students who cannot afford hardware themselves. (Accessing online resources might imply the use of textbook funds for delivery devices.)
2. The “Digital Divide” (broadband access outside of school)
   
   • Expand alternative access through ESS/extended school library hours, and community partners such as city libraries and businesses. The goal here is to get all students to learn how to use these new capabilities for learning...wherever they are!
   • Connect to parents through the Acceptable Use Policy process. Make sure they support your interests, and provide the ability for them to participate.

This last point is pivotal. Although BYOD can help schools change to a more connected learning experience, it isn't "free lunch." We still have a responsibility to serve ALL students, regardless of what resources and abilities they bring to the classroom. But even if we can't fully-fund such support, changing to the new learning environment is most important to our students without home access. If we do not support these experiences for them, the result is a reinforcement of the divide between the haves and the have-nots!