A BYOT Story

I'd like to tell you a story. And its not a bedtime story so no going to sleep! Once upon a time there was a school. And in that school ( as there are in most schools), there were classrooms, children and teachers.
The classrooms were open, bright and colourful, the children were beautiful ( as all children are) and the teachers were dedicated. Overseeing the school was a good, kind and wise Principal.
The teachers at the school loved using technology in their lessons. But these weren't just any old teachers, these were cluey teachers. They didn't just use technology as a gimmick or as a fill- in or as a reward. They used technology to hook reluctant learners, to make learning fun, to engage students and to encourage critical thinking, creativity, communication and collaboration.
There were never quite enough computers in the school but the resourceful teachers worked around this, creating groups.. and making charts for taking turns.
Luckily for the teachers and students, the good, kind and wise Principal was also a bit of a computer geek who recognised the importance of technology for learners in the 21st Century so he directed lots of his budget to resourcing classrooms with netbooks and iPads. Ratios improved but there was still wait time on computers when they were needed.
One day.... a little bit of magic happened:
A student, frustrated by having to wait to access a NetBook to finish his glogster about
Catholic Social Justice Organisations complained loudly "I wish I had my iPod touch here. Then I could finish my research!"
The teachers stopped the class and asked "Who does have their own device at home? " 95% did! More than 50% already had them in their school bags!
The teachers who read widely on educational matters already knew about a movement called BYOT or Bring Your Own Technology.
The teachers thought. The teachers talked. The teachers got excited.
The teachers asked the good, kind and wise Principal if they could trial children bringing their own devices to school. And the good and kind principal who trusted his teachers said yes.
I feel like saying the end now but I can't because it wasn't the end. It was actually the beginning.
The trial went ahead and this is what the teachers saw:
-Students brought a wide variety of devices to the classroom.
- The devices became part of the furniture : grab your pencil, paper and your device
- Devices were used as novels, dictionaries, thesauruses, diaries, timers,compasses, calculators,cameras and notepads ( and that's before they were even connected to the Internet!)
- With an Internet connection, devices became a bridge to the world and gave teachers the opportunity to teach effective research skills to their students and in many cases, for students to teach effective research skills to their teachers!
- Best of all, there were suddenly authentic, on the job, real life opportunities to teach and learn about digital citizenship and cyber safety- perhaps the most important skills of all.
It's time to finish this story about the history of BYOT at our school. But again, I won't say THE END, I'll say TO BE CONTINUED. 

The Class That Tweets 

We introduced a class twitter account to our Year 5 students in 2012 TrustedLearners  and have just set up our year 3 twitter account for 2013  year3dom 

Once you begin using twitter in the classroom, you will wonder what you were thinking when you weren't accessing this great tool!

What can I say? If you don't have a class twitter account- SET ONE UP NOW !

Here's why:


1.  THE GLOBAL CLASSROOM: Just as we teachers now have access to the global staffroom, our students are members of the global classroom.Our students follow classes in Australia, the UK, Ireland, America, Canada and Yugoslavia.And they follow us! It is quite amazing to read the tweets of other kids in the world because guess what! They aren't  that much different to us!  
We follow NYCity5thGraders
Has been great to follow their tweets and send them a message of support during Hurricane Sandy. 
Great too to follow the tweets of our Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition!
 We've also found that every children's author of note has a twitter account and are well worth following.
 
2. CYBERSAFETY ON THE GO: I have used  some great cybersafety courses and resources  through ACMA but truly believe the best cybersafety lessons happen on the go as children are using social media, apps and on line "games". Our class twitter account is a locked account and each day when we bring up our class account on the IWB, we accept  or deny follower requests based on class discussion. "Do we know this person? Yes, its Amy's mum. She wants to know about our learning. She can be our follower." 

3. LEARNING INTENTIONS: Twitter is a great tool for clarifying exactly WHAT is going to be happening in a particular lesson. (aka learning intentions) Having your students tweet "We are learning to..." to your followers (which include parents, the Principal and other teachers!) really helps you to clarify learning intentions and ensure they actually become reality! Accountability plus!

4. SUMMARISING LEARNING: At the end of a lesson, its great (and eye-opening!) to tweet what's been learnt. Great for checking for understanding and stating learnings in a succinct manner. (140 characters only!)

5. AUDIENCE: Ive found that when children tweet, they are very aware of the 40/50/60  people who will read their message. Our classroom rule is "Show a teacher before you press the tweet button". Attention to correct spelling, grammar conventions and a high interest message with great vocab  have significantly improved.

I could go on,,, and probably will in my next post!  
Set up that classroom twitter account now! 
 

A new school year? Must be time for a new blog!
I tend to begin many of my emails with the phrase 'Just a few things...'.
Usually my few things expand into a lengthy list and take me and the reader off on a tangent or two!
Sounds just right for my blog. Here's to tangents. Happy 2013!