Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) refers to the trend in which students/employees bring their own mobile technologies (usually smartphones) into their place of work or study.  BYOD has become increasingly common in recent years owing to the fact that mobile technologies with access to the Internet are now both more affordable and more ubiquitous than ever.  Given the immense potential for learning opportunities made possible by smartphones and other Internet-connected devices, it is only logical to harness and leverage this technology in order to enrich students’ learning.  Improvements in WiFi access has therefore led many educational institutions to implement a clear roadmap for a BYOD initiative.  In my own workplace, this is exactly what we have done. Along with suggestions put forward by Eric Sheninger (2016) in his book, Uncommon Learning, I want to share some of my own thoughts and experiences about what makes a BYOD initiative successful:

1.  Clear Vision & Plan – As Sheninger points out, a consistent focus on student learning and sound pedagogy should be central to any BYOD initiative.  This means that all stakeholders must be on the same page when it comes to having a shared rationale, goals and expectations surrounding BYOD.  Assemblies, PTA meetings and discussions with the Board of Governors, all provide excellent opportunities to communicate what a BYOD initiative means for the school.  In particular, teachers also need support and guidance through professional development workshops, which help them to make the most of BYOD to develop pedagogically sound lessons.  In my own experience, this sort of professional development should be ongoing even after the BYOD initiative has begun.

2.  Sound Policy – According to Sheninger, a sound policy addresses Wi-Fi login procedures, a focus on learning, acceptable use, and absolving the school of any liability for lost, stolen, or broken devices.  It’s also worthwhile getting students involved with this.  On one of our sites for example, the Digital Senate (made up of senior students) put together  this PowerPoint below to guide their peers on how to install CA certificates onto their devices, which keeps their smartphones safe when browsing the web:

[embeddoc url=”https://technologyforlearners.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/CA_cert_senate_Urca.pptx”]

On my site, I enlisted the help of our Digital Leaders to put together this quick video to show all their peers about how to install the school’s CA security certificate:

3.  Infrastructure – The IT service team needs to be up to speed on the BYOD initiative and the school’s network should be ready to withstand all of the mobile technologies connecting to it.  This is pivotal to ensuring the smooth running of the BYOD initiative.

4.  Relevant Applications – I have already referenced several quality applications for Flipped Learning, which can also effectively be utilised as part of a BYOD initiative:

– Poll Everywhere

– Plickers

– Kahoot

– TodaysMeet

– Adobe Spark 

– VideoScribe

– Explain Everything

– Quizlet 

– Google Slides 

(As I’m continually coming across new apps that can enhance student learning, this list above is actually an addition to the previous list I wrote for the top 10 web 2.0 apps for the school curriculum).

Where they can be usefully integrated into lessons, getting students to install augmented reality apps like Aurasma onto their own devices, can also help to create engaging and memorable lessons.

With the emergence of Google Cardboard and accompanying apps like Discovery VR, we’ve been able to go further still, by making perfect use of students’ devices for the creation of virtual reality experiences for students.  If used well, these can really enhance lessons by bringing to life the subject of study.

This video below, made by one of our students on her smartphone, shows a typical example of how the app, Adobe Spark can be used to create an educational video:

This second video is an example of how students are using the app, Explain Everything, which is also a great app for students to have on their smartphones:

5.  Technology Events – Lastly, raising awareness of what we actually have available to us in terms of Internet-connected mobile device technology, how it should be used and how it can be used to facilitate learning, is very important.  In addition to running assemblies and events related to Digital Citizenship and E-Safety, an annual Technology Week is a great way to get both teachers and students involved in maximising the use of their mobile devices to enhance teaching & learning.

Flipped learning is a pedagogical model in which the teacher delivery during in-class time is flipped with the homework elements of a course.  As a type of blended learning technique, students can watch relevant videos at home, which have been prepared by the teacher, while using their in-class time to focus on exercises, projects or discussions.

My own transition to a flipped learning classroom has been a gradual, organic process.  Although I still believe there is a place for the traditional (“sage-on-the- stage”) teaching approach, I’ve come to recognise the many advantages of a flipped learning model.   Sharing relevant tutorial videos with students and colleagues, both from my own YouTube channel and links elsewhere on the Web, enables me to spend more time as a facilitator of learning.  This simply means that learners spend less time passively listening at the beginning of the lesson and more time engaged in activities to develop their skills.  By doing away with the traditional classroom, which is very teacher centred, it also means that I have extra time to provide valuable one-on-one assistance to students who need it the most.

According to Eric Sheninger (2016), author of Uncommon Learning, there are two main components associated with the flipped learning approach:

1.  Students watch lectures and consume other forms of content outside of school at their own pace whilst communicating with peers and teachers using online learning tools.  In my opinion, this point about students working at their own pace cannot be understated.  The ability for students to pause, rewind and fast-forward a tutorial video means that they are in a much better situation to assimilate new learning.

2.  Students apply what they have learnt during in class time with assistance from the teacher.  As there is more time freed up during the lesson itself, there are more opportunities for small-group work and one-to-one contact with lower-performing students.

In order to make the lesson time itself more engaging while integrating formative assessment, there are many web-based tools that can complement the students’ main in class activities:

– Poll Everywhere

– Plickers

– Kahoot

– TodaysMeet

In addition, there are also some fantastic tools out there for students themselves to become authors, teachers and collaborators, working together to teach content to each other.  Some of the best of these tools include:

– Adobe Voice 

– VideoScribe

– Explain Everything

– Quizlet 

– Google Slides 

As well as giving my students opportunities to use these tools, I have used each one of these applications myself as a medium in which to share information with students for them to learn at their own pace.  As Sheninher himself states though, ‘pedagogy always trumps technology’.  For digital learning to be implemented effectively, we should focus on pedagogy first and technology second.  When integrating technology, we need to remember that it is less about the tool and more about what students can do with the tools handed to them.

That being said, with all these web-based tools and other digital applications available, it makes sense that a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or 1:1 technology initiative can radically enhance the flipped learning model.  By providing students with access to their own device, it can bring out the best of what flipped learning has to offer.  According to Sheninger (2016, pp. 117),

The flipped classroom is an excellent first step in making students’ in-class experiences more active, more student centred, and more meaningful. Combining the best aspects of the flipped classroom with the power of 1:1 technology would allow for an even more radical reshaping of the classroom. School should become a place where students can learn at their own individual paces, become active creators instead of solely passive content recipients, and learn in an environment that they “own”, which adjusts rapidly to meet their learning needs and interests.      

Web 2.0 technology just refers to online tools that enable students and teachers to share and collaborate user-generated content with others. Using Web 2.0 technologies effectively in the classroom promotes learning through a social constructivist model.

I provide here a list of my top 10 Web 2.0 applications, which can facilitate teaching and learning across the curriculum:

Add Subtitles – Ssemble is an easy-to-use online video editor. And it has a AI-powered Subtitle Generating feature, giving users the advantage of auto-generating subtitles and customizing their style to best fit their content.

Animoto – this tool helps you to create professional looking slide shows.  All you need to do is attach some photos and add background music.

Bubbl.us – enables the user to create mind-maps that can then be embedded online.

Classtools – specifically one for teachers, this website provides you with templates, countdown timers and other tools that can be used in class.  The random name generator enables you to enter the names of your class, click the fruit machine and it will randomly scroll through and select a name from the list.

FlexClip – a simple but powerful web-based video maker that helps you create videos for any purpose.  There is no download, or registration required.  You can choose from a wide range of pre-made video templates, photos, and music.  I especially appreciate the clean storyboard that allows you to easily trim video, insert text  add music and record the screen with just a few clicks.

Motionbox – this is a free online video creation tool that allows people to easily create beautiful videos with a single click, Add Subtitles, Trim Audio, Crop Video, YouTube to MP3 and Resize Gifs.

News on Atlas – this has been one of my ongoing projects.  By providing multiple news feeds, which are embedded into an atlas template, the purpose of News on Atlas is to help build students’ news literacy skills and international awareness.

Padlet – this is like a giant noticeboard and allows learners to write a short message on the ‘wall’ for others to see.  These messages can then be moved around just like Post-it notes, and just like Google Docs, learners can collaborate on the same project together.

Prezi – this tool creates animated presentations and can help both the teacher and learner to focus on the key points.

Screencast-o-matic – I use this regularly to create online tutorials.  This tool lets you record anything on your screen.  It also lets you upload PowerPoints, so that you can provide audio narration.

TedEd – there are thousands of lessons that you can customise with your own questions and resources on TedEd.  You can use videos from YouTube and then use TedEd to add your own written material.  This is one way of doing a flipped classroom.

Wordle – allows users to enter huge chunks of text, which is then summarised by the most popular word.

Voki – this tool enables you to create talking avatars (characters).  Everything about the avatar that you create can then be edited.  You can attach spoken text for your avatar or record your own voice.  Either way, this is a great tool for helping with language development.

The list here is not exhaustive, as there are literally hundreds of fantastic Web 2.0 apps out there.  In order to meet statutory requirements though, and to allow students to develop their ICT skills more extensively, the Computing curriculum should be integrated throughout the school, not just discretely (in the ICT lab).  Making use of Web 2.0 apps can be an effective way of doing this because it means that we are teaching children more aspects of ICT, and this puts them in good stead to function well in our increasingly connected and digitalised world.