Our first run at BYOD

We are five full days into a new BYOD project in the Shepard third grade classrooms. It's something we've wanted to do since the start, but wanted to wait until the day to day projects were well underway. After just a few days, we've seen that students will bring in a device; they've had several each day and we think that number will only increase with time. Since we are doing a bit of trailblazing, it's good to step back and reflect on the process. So here's a look at the process we used to get started:

Teacher Buy-in
I think this is the most important part. When I first brought up the idea of BYOD way back in the summer, I could tell that Leanna and Susan weren't sold. That didn't surprise me because they didn't have the vision of what their classrooms would look like with the infusion of technology. However, it wasn't long after they got their ten iPads that they wanted more. It was easier for them to see the value of having devices in the room for easy access to information and project creation.

School Buy-in
Our district has a BYOD policy in place: School Board Policy. However, it's not readily used because it relies on having buildings and teachers invested. So after several weeks of the school year passed, we went to Shepard's administration to bring up the idea of BYOD. Because they had seen all the great things that were going on in the classroom, it wasn't hard to get the go-ahead. However, we wanted to institute some limitations to the devices and some safeguards with the process because we're talking about third graders. So we worked together to come up with a concrete guide to the process. Here's the Shepard BYOD Plan. 

Parent Buy-in
None of this would work if the parents didn't think it was worth it. That's another great reason to push back your BYOD until they've seen what's happening in the classroom. Really, why would you buy or send in a device if you had no idea what they would use it for? I wouldn't. So we sent home information about the process and set up a parent lunch for more information and questions. The Monday after the note went home, both teachers had 4-5 permission slips in hand and both had students with devices on the first day! I think that says a lot about the parent buy-in. About ten parents from both classes came to the meeting. They had great questions about what devices would be appropriate, management procedures, trust in their children, and more. It was clear from the meeting that we needed to put together a guide for what devices would be preferred. Here's a look at our BYOD Device Recommendations. That was tough to put together because there are so many variables and price points. However, I would also maintain that I would rather spend more money on a device that everyone knows will work in the class and be able to withstand heavy usage. It's the old adage, you get what you pay for. 

Student Buy-in
Easiest part. All students (at least the ones that I've known all my life) would want to have access to their own device. One concern that popped up during the parent meeting was that of student perception. How do students feel if they don't have something when others do? A perfectly valid question. But how do we tell another student that they can't bring in their device unless everyone has one? We all wish everyone had equal access to technology at home, but that's outside our circle of influence. All we can do is offer every student the opportunity to use what they have. 

Who knows what the future holds? BYOD is completely optional and nobody is going to be left behind if they don't have a device. That's the benefit of having the ten-pack of iPads in each class. The one thing that I've heard several times already is having just one or two additional devices in the room makes a huge difference in accessibility. My vision is that as the year progresses, we'll see more students bring in a device. 

Looking forward, we also need to guarantee parents that their students will be able to use the device in years to come. I would happily spend a few hundred dollars on a quality device if I know that my child would be able to use it for several years. But if next year's teachers won't allow it, that might affect my decision to purchase. Running a small pilot is important to iron out details and to offer insight on how to push the project out on a large scale. 

I've enjoyed the last few weeks. We moved slowly and have seen promising results. Please let me know if you'd like to chat about how to make BYOD work in your schools. 

How-to list for iPad Success

So we brought together all of our iPad pilot teachers last week to see how everything was going. I will say that it was the most productive and enjoyable meeting I've been a part of in a long time. It was great to see what everyone is doing in their own spaces. We wanted to give the opportunity to share successes and troubleshoot issues. Here's a rundown of the topics that each teacher shared:

Susan

• Big success with Genius Hour research. Learning how to be more efficient with note taking and project creation
• Educreations was fun to use to create some learning projects about roller coasters

Leanna

• 30Hands has been great for student created videos
• iMovie was used for classroom tutorials, learning from field trips, and author studies

Maggie

• Keynote has been used for showing learning during the disease unit
• They used Google Earth to find their grandparents' houses on Grandparent's Day
• Use an App of the Day structure to learn about new apps

Allison

• Notability has been great for guided reading groups - Here's How
• Uses Today's Meet for students to write about the class read aloud

Jenifer

• Uses Explain Everything to explain everything
• Student Google accounts to house documents and for sharing
• Has students thinking about the difference between the mode of delivery (app) and the content they are sharing

Cindy

• Loves using Pic Collage for student projects; works for any content
• Story Creator

What a great list of applications for the first few months. When we talk about using devices to transform the learning in the classroom, this is what I envision. Students have been able to access information more efficiently than ever. And they can quickly create products to show what they have learned. I think we're off to a good start. I can't wait to see what they come up with around the corner. 

Getting some ink

Carlin Wagner of the Columbia Missourian just published an article about some of our work. Check out the article here: Columbia Elementary School Teachers Integrate iPads in their Classroom

It was fun reading the great quotes from our teachers. The worst part of the article was having to see my picture published. I prefer the anonymity of the podcast. 

Getting students on Google Drive

It's been an exciting few days for Mrs. Heath and Mrs. Guillory's third grade classrooms. Over two class periods, we successfully got 52 students signed in to their Google accounts, created shared folders, and wrote their first documents. It was so smooth. Really. I do this all the time with adults, and I can say the experience was easier and more fun with the students. Here's how we set it up. Feel free to use anything you find helpful.

Google Apps for Education
I started by creating every student an account in our Google Apps domain. This step is key because third graders can't create their own accounts. But what makes the Apps domain so awesome is our control. I created generic school accounts, grouped them, and then shut down everything except Drive, Blogger, and Sites. The students have no access to email, Google+, Hangouts, or any other social site. Parents will get their student's account information in order to support learning at home as well. 

Tutorial Videos
I wanted to try out something different, so I flipped the instruction. Kind of. I created three short videos to explain the three steps of the process. Next, I uploaded them to my YouTube channel and gave the links to the teachers. Before I arrived, the students watched the videos to get a feel for their task. Here are the links if you'd like to use them:

• Accessing Google Drive
• Creating and Sharing a Folder
• Creating a Document

Step by Step Handout
I wanted the students to be supported to work through the process independently. So I created a simple handout to guide them through the process. Here's the link: Google Account Handout

Account Information
This was a bit tricky. I made a slip of paper for each student that included their Google email address and password. We passed these out to the students when they were at their computers. Then we recorded the name with the account for future reference.

Success with Mrs. Heath's class!

Lab Time
Now it's time to brag on those students. By the time I started walking around the lab, most students had accessed Chrome and were starting to enter their account information. Literally, it took less than a minute. Ten minutes passed, and most had their work folder created and shared with their teacher. By the twenty minute mark, everyone was busy typing their "All about me" document from the shared folder. It was ridiculous how efficient the process turned out to be. It was so impressive to see the student partnerships supporting each other. The biggest issues, just like with adults, was entering the email and password correctly. Minor bump. And some didn't know how to type an "@". That's it. 

Seriously, that was the most productive time I've ever spent in a computer lab. With students or teachers. The students were so excited because they had confidence and were doing a complicated task with relative ease.  The next step will be to show them how to access their new accounts on their class iPads. It's going to open up a world of possibilities. 

Teacher Improv

Improvisation was the skill I was most interested in when this whole project started. I knew they would use the tools and strategies when I was scheduled to be there and with the planned projects. What I wasn't sure about was how often the teachers would use the iPads during "spur of the moment" activities or without talking with me first. Not that they need my permission or guidance. But I do like to feel needed. 

This past week, all three teachers have done some pretty cool things without me. Here's a quick rundown of their improv:

Mrs. Guillory - iMovie
Her class got started right away with making their own iMovies. I showed them a trailer highlighting some things about me. And right away they were making their own trailers. Groups created videos about the Seven Habits and how to incorporate them into their days. 

Mrs. Heath - Educreations
Third grade was working on force and motion. I saw some tweets about roller coasters, and even saw one made from styrofoam tubing. But then I get a tweet sending me to an Educreations video that a student made about how roller coasters work. Check out the video here. 

Ms. Eastman - 30Hands and Quickvoice
The app of the day has been 30Hands. Students were making videos showing the expectations for their morning Daily Five activities. You can see some examples at their classroom blog. They also were working on using expression and feeling during their reading. Enter Quickvoice. Students recorded their reading using Quickvoice so they could hear how they sound.  

Pretty cool, right? That's one of the reasons I like to load a lot of different apps on the iPad image. If you only have a few, you get limited by accessibility and time. But if there's plenty to choose from, the integration is more seamless. 

Setting them loose!

Yesterday was an exciting day at Grant Elementary Room 201. Team Eastman has their iPad Minis! I worked last week to get all 21 iPads imaged and cased. We were lucky to have an assortment of colors to use, so I tried to mix and match to make as many different combinations as possible. That way, because this classroom will be 1:1, the students will have an easier time identifying their iPad. 

In order to prepare for their arrival, the class came up with a set of expectations for how they should use the iPads. They wrote their list on a piece of chart paper and had everyone sign it. The students had some great examples of proper usage like always using two hands and to ask questions if they get stuck. Good examples that we all, including teachers, should practice.

So at last it was time for passing out the iPads. I decided to give the intro to the scavenger hunt first. Basically, if they had the iPads in their little hands, there would be no way they would be able to focus on me. So I gave them a few pointers about turning it on, using Smart Search, and using the Home button to get back to the main screen. Ms. Eastman then called them up in partnerships to pick out their new iPad and start the hunt. 

It was so fun to watch them work. Several groups, who obviously listened to my great advice, immediately searched for the right apps using the Smart Search and were off to a great start. It wasn't long until Ms. Eastman started to receive emails with goofy pictures made by PhotoBooth. Lots of goofy pictures (we'll have to work on our email self-control). Google Earth was showing them the street view outside the school. Actually, the most difficult part for the students was the task to take a serious selfie. Go figure. But by the end of the time, everyone had their picture on the lock screen. I think that's going to come in handy. 

It was a fast but fun hour of work. I think the students got a nice taste of the different things the iPad could do for them. It definitely sparked their enthusiasm. We heard several "I love iPads" and even a "you're my favorite teacher because you have iPads". Not sure if Ms. Eastman liked the qualifier on that last one, but I'd take it. 

Triskaidekaphobia? I don't think so.

Happy Friday the 13th! It's been a busy week in and out of the classrooms. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it into the classrooms this week. But I was amazed by everything that went on without me. I guess I'm not as important as I thought. 

Here's our week in review:

• Mrs. Guillory and Mrs. Heath have pushed on with Genius Hour, riding the wave of excitement from the students. The students have been coming up with questions all week long. 
• The tweeting has been awesome! I have the classroom accounts pulled up on Tweetdeck so I can follow what's happening. I've seen student work, learning objectives, questions from students, parent events, videos, and more. As a parent, I would love to have this kind of access to my child's classroom. 
• Kid tweeting! Several students have been given the opportunity to post their thoughts from the classroom. Mrs. Guillory gave the duties over to Katherine yesterday.
• Ms. Eastman's blog has been hopping. She's had several posts about classroom happenings. We installed the "follow by email" widget to her blog and I signed up. So I know exactly when an update has been made. Very easy.
• I've spent a chuck of time getting Ms. Eastman's iPads ready go. They are loaded, cased, and sitting right next to me ready to go out Monday. 

Next week, I get to start Ms. Eastman's class with their iPads. I've modified the scavenger hunt a bit to fit their 1:1 model. So they are going to have a lot of fun on Monday. I plan to get out to Shepard to continue our Genius Hour projects. Really, it's me getting caught up with their progress. Which is exactly what we want to happen. Can't wait to see what happens next week!