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10 BYOD Classroom Experiments (and What We’ve Learned From Them So Far)

What can Holy Trinity teach us? That when it comes to BYOD, it pays not to be overly strict with how the devices can be used in the class, as greater freedom allows teachers to work with students to develop the best uses for technology for their subject matter and teaching style.

BYOD requires much more than just changing tech policies and can sometimes mean overhauling the curriculum and spending money training teachers, though it does help students create a more personal and memorable learning experience.

As needs change over time, addressing them might mean switching devices (remaking the choice). As schools progress in their technology implementation, they may find that their needs have changed, and should not hesitate to change devices as their understanding of their students’ needs develops. This seasonal view of devices (rather than “device as school identity”) is essential to helping schools move forward, meet their current students’ needs, and keep the curriculum relevant and timely for the future. A focus on pedagogy and key technology skills will transfer from one device to another, making the shift easier; a focus on being a device expert, or mastering device specific mechanics, will not. Students will graduate into a world that will demand technological fluency, the ability to move and process information across various platforms and devices.

The 2013 results represent more than 400,000 surveys from 9,000 schools and 2,700 districts across the country. Respondents included 325,279 students, 32,151 teachers and librarians, 39,986 parents, 4,530 district administrators and, new to this year’s survey, 1,346 community members.

89 percent of high schools students have access to Internet-connected smart phones, while 50 percent of students in grades 3 through 5 have access to the same type of devices

students are designing “best-fit” solutions for their very specific needs.

"Frequent technology users place considerably more emphasis on developing students' 21st century skills--specifically, skills in accountability, collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking, ethics, global awareness, innovation, leadership, problem solving, productivity and self-direction.

e difference between quick skimming and scanning on the Web, which lodges in the brain's short-term memory and is quickly lost, and the long-term memories that a more thoughtful kind of slow reading provides. "I share Nicholas Carr's feeling that my brain has been rewired," he says.

"It's indisputable that the Internet has made us smarter.... The range of things you can explore in a day is just fantastic compared to 20 years ago," says David Weinberger, senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. "There's no question that we feel the Internet has made us better researchers, better thinkers, better writers."

Books "are not the shape of knowledge," he says. "They're a limitation on knowledge." The idea of a single author presenting her ideas "was born of the limitations of paper publishing. It's not necessarily the only way or the best way to think and to write."

Interactive resources for specific core content areas.

when one of the biggest textbook publishers in the world invests in a pilot program specifically for the Apple tablet, it’s a good indication that, at the very least, it’s on the short list.

students are going ahead more often, and going back more often, and they’re able to do it themselves.

iPad is the Holy Grail in education has yet to be determined. But

David Nagel: You've described the cell phone as a "game changer" for education and as the "quintessential 21st century tool." Why the cell phone specifically?

or 90 percent of what a student has to do, the smart phone can do i

Samsung's Galaxy already has a version that can shoot out a 60-inch image!

65,000 iPad-specific apps available in the App Store; there are fewer than 100 tablet apps available for Android. If you're shopping for a tablet this year, that's an important difference.

Students working in cooperative groups can create a Scoop.it! about a topic of interest or study. Teachers can create Scoop.Its! about topics they are studying for professional development. Teachers can create Scoop.Its! about topics their students will be studying. Students and Teachers can look at existing Scoop.Its! to connect with others who share their interests and learn about interesting things. Here are some interesting Scoop.its! that I found about learning innovatively:

20 Top Tweeters for Maths Teachers

This list of top tweeters is specifically designed with maths teachers in mind

 ‘Long Life Skills’ (creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, problem solving and social intelligence) and an ability for individuals and even groups to learn and unlearn the skills required for specific tasks