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Students should sign a release for BYOD that includes what will happen in cases of theft and damaged technology Schools should have half-sets or quarter-sets of devices so that they can go one-to-one. A few school-wide behavior guidelines make sense: Devices away when the teacher is talking (unless instructed to do so) During individual assignments, students can use devices and have their headphones on Students need to use the devices for the purpose of learning and a teacher can require a student to put it away if it becomes a distraction Teachers can attend optional training on apps, classroom management and how to integrate the tools into the curriculum. One group had the idea of letting teachers watch a BYOD class in action, or even having a “test class” that tries it out for a quarter before going school-wide.

Read a book, magazine or blog post of personal (and school appropriate) interest. Work on an assignment for another class. Play a pre-approved game that builds skills related to the class. (If you find a game that you feel contributes to your learning, tell me about it and why you think it should go on the approved list.) Have a serious discussion with a classmate about a topic in the course using an approved discussion tool. Listen to an educational podcast or view an educational video. TED talks and Khan Academy videos are always OK. (Remember to use your headphones.) Organize your life by reviewing/updating your calendar, to-do list, or address book. Write in your personal journal.

SizeObjects that are bigger demand more attention. Using size as a hierarchal tool is an effective way of guiding a viewer’s eye to a particular portion of the page. Because size is one of the most powerful forms of organization, it’s important to correlate size with importance in a design. The biggest elements should be the most important in most cases; the smallest elements should be the least important.

. When used as a personality tool, color can extend beyond into more sophisticated types of hierarchy; Using lush, comforting colors can bring an emotional appeal to a page.

Within a page there might be widgets that are separated from each other by space; within those widgets there is a new hierarchy of title, subtitle, and content.

And it's not you who has to change. It's me, the writer: One idea per paragraphHalf the word count of "conventional writing"! (Ouch!) Other stuff along these lines

If you want to beat the Internet, you're not going to do it by blogging (since even OK thinkers occasionally write a great blog post) but by offering a comprehensive take on a subject (thus saving the reader time from searching many sites) and supplying original thinking (offering trusted insight that cannot be easily duplicated by the nonexpert).

When we're really engaged in a text, it's like being in an effortless trance.

The truth is that students who engage in risky behaviors offline are more likely to engage in risky behaviors online.

Help students build positive digital footprints. Whether they're working to raise awareness of the genocide in Darfur—a project that George Mayo's students tackled (http://stopgenocide.wikispaces.com)—or doing a good deed every day for a month and sharing about it online—an initiative that 10-year-old Laura Stockman started to honor her grandfather's life (http://twentyfivedays.wordpress.com)—today's teens and tweens can come together electronically to learn about and act on issues that matter.

Scare tactics like those my 7th grade informants described are not only ineffective at changing student behaviors (Online Safety and Technology Working Group, 2010), but they also prevent students from seeing digital footprints as potential tools for learning, finding like-minded peers, and building reputations as thoughtful contributors to meaningful digital conversations.