BYOD

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  Bring your own device is a plan where schools or classrooms have learners bring their own devices to utilize while at school for learning vs. the school providing devices for all learners.The pros are you can take a distraction and turn it into a learning tool. They can be used in various ways within the learning environment. Learners are able to easily collaborate together, keep notes and share things with their teacher. The cons are that these devices can be a huge distraction. There are many schools that worry about not all learners having a device to bring.
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  My school has issued devices based on grade level. Our preschool- 2nd-grade learners have 10 devices per classroom. The 3rd-grade learners are 1:1 with iPads and fourth-ninth grade are 1:1 with MacBooks. I like that we have devices that belong to the school vs having learners bring their own. We have filters in place and could filter the personal devices on the network, however, it is much easier to manage the devices through JAMF and be able to take a device when someone is doing something inappropriate. It is harder to take a device when it doesn't belong to you even having a policy in place for it. We have to face it there are children who will look for ways around things and it is easier if it is theirs and only filtered not managed.
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  Smartphones are definitely here to stay but would be something that I would try and steer away from in a BYOD classroom. It is so hard to be productive having such a small screen as well as trying to type things on them. They would be fine for videos but then hard to do any kind of editing. If I had to use them in a BYOD classroom they would have to be placed on the school wifi to filter the content they access to ensure they are only accessing things that they should while at school. There would have to be a policy for use that the learners would have help in creating to ensure that they are using them in a beneficial way.
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  This emerging trend makes digital equity a little more attainable as most children in this day and age have a smartphone regardless of their socioeconomic status. I don't understand this but it is a reality. It is also likely that "old phones" could be donated for those that do not have a device. It could be a plus for lower performing schools and the teachers who teach there being able to incorporate technology into their lessons making them more collaborative and engaging which could boost student interest and performance.
  Science fourth grade: they can be supported by providing them with quality professional development to help them have a better understanding of how they can incorporate various tech tools into their curriculum. There are various free apps that can be accessed to read current events on grade level, create videos to demonstrate an understanding of science concepts or math concepts. 
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  Professional development has to start looking differently and focus on technology integration to make sure that we are giving learners every opportunity they can to use tech tools to help them complete assignments. If we do not teach teachers how to use these tools that the learners have access to they are useless to us and we are just saying we have BYOD or devices and they are not being used to their fullest potential. We as teachers also have to have an interest in wanting to learn the new and emerging technologies so we aren't afraid to step out and use them in our classrooms. Be a lifelong learner! Technology is ever changing and advancing.
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   I think we are doing a disservice to our learners if we don't teach them to use mobile devices beyond entertainment. The world we live in today is very technology rich and many jobs require the use of technology. If we do not expose them to technology-rich learning environments we are putting them at a huge disadvantage.

3D Printing

My school actually has two 3D printers for our learners. It allows our learners access to an amazing opportunity to design, create and make! Our school motto is to think, innovate, create. The learners utilize the 3D printer for various things. My third-grade son and some friends designed and printed a Christmas ornament for their classroom Christmas tree in December. We have had things "break" before and learners designed and printed items to fix the issues. An example was a set of unifix cubes was missing a couple pieces. Learners recreated those pieces and printed them to complete the set. The older learners at our school are who primarily utilize the printers 6th-9th grade but younger learners have partnered with those older learners to print things like the Christmas ornament. 3D models are great visuals for the learners. At my previous school we did a robotics competition and had everything designed in 3D software and everything to have a test/ model but we did not have access to a 3D printer at the school. It takes some time to print prototypes.

Rapid prototyping seems to sound grand by the name but seems to not be as out of the box user-friendly as 3D printers are. Rapid prototyping machines allow you to be able to use various mediums that are not an option when 3D printing. The price difference between a 3D printer and a rapid prototyping machine as well as all needed services and materials is significantly different. It is much cheaper to buy and use a 3D printer. Though it takes a while to 3D print anything 3D printers are more for printing smaller things than what someone would be doing using a rapid prototyping machine. 

Top Mobile Apps

1. Google Translate: iPhone and Android FREE. Google Translate can take typed phrases, spoken words and even real-world text (like street signs) and transform them into other languages. Google translate is used in my classroom daily. I have four ELL learners, two of which have a very hard time with English. We use Google Translate to help them understand what I am saying and so I know what they are saying back to me.

2. Quik: iPhone and Android FREE. Quik is an automatic video editing app. It was rebranded just this year by the company GoPro. Quik takes a bunch of your video footage, identifies the best moments automatically, and sets the whole thing to mood-appropriate music. It’s a great way to add a professional-looking touch to your recordings before putting them on Facebook, YouTube or Instagram. This can be used in education when learners are making videos documenting their learning edit and bring content together quickly and easily.  We use YouTube a lot to put student work on display and content can easily be uploaded to YouTube from Quik.

3. Day One: iPhone $4.99. Day One is a journaling app that allows you to write quick thoughts as well as a photo every day. The amazing part is that it is backed up through the cloud so you can forever have your reflections, thoughts, and photos. I can see this being utilized for morning work in the education world with learners or as a reflection tool for me as a lead learner (teacher). 

4. Boomerang: iPhone and Android FREE. Boomerang takes a series of still photos and transforms it into a short looping video. The end result is somewhere between a GIF and a stop-motion movie. I can see this app being used in a literacy class to create and tell a story or in science class to sequence events in an experiment.

5. Swift Playgrounds: iPhone FREE. Swift Playgrounds challenges participants to input strings of characters written in Apple's Swift language to complete puzzles. Aspiring developers can also write their own code in a blank document and export it into Xcode, Apple's software for creating apps. Learners at my school love code.org and learning how to code. My son who is in third grade loves Tynker and I am certain he would enjoy Swift Playgrounds as well.

Socrative

Socrative allows you to instantly connect to your learners as they are learning. It is great for instant on the spot assessment or even planned assessments with activities to complete. You can also have it show you the results so you know how to plan the most effective learning environment/experience. It makes for a fun and engaging classroom.

Example 1: My learners are learning about plants and the parts of the plant. I am able to go into the shared quizzes and find a quiz that fits the information that we studied to check for understanding. I am able to take that information to know what we need to go back over before our assessment or to know what we need to revisit before reassessment.


Example 2: I can create my own quiz on plants in advance or as an exit ticket have the learners answer a question that I pose to them based on what we learned/studied as they are preparing to leave so I know how to go about beginning class the next day.

I personally do not use this as the type of learning environment at my school is so very different. We solely use assessment and reassessment there are no "test". We are checking for mastery of a skill and my science is so hands on that I wouldn't have "quizzes" so to speak but I could see me using it to pose a question to check for understanding.

Intel's $150.00 Compute Stick

The Intel Compute Stick offers the features of an inexpensive tablet or laptop. It offers the consumer media playback and very light productivity capability. The cost of the small four-inch device retails for $150.00 or there is a base model that is offered for the low price of $89.00. It is very compact and works with any screen (TV/monitor) that has an HDMI port to plug into. It comes with an Atom Processor, 2 GB Ram, 32 GB storage, Micro SD slot and a USB port. As I read the article and watched the video I thought of the Roku stick as well as the Fire Stick with a few added "bonuses". 

I personally do not see a potential use for these in education. Yes, they are cheap which is always a plus in the education world. However, they are very limited in what can be done without purchasing additional accessories to use with it. I don't see them being so cheap when you factor the price of the Compute Stick, mouse, keyboard and a TV/ monitor. You can get a cheap tablet or laptop for this price or less when you combine the price of all the necessary items. I would also consider a Rasberry Pi for use in education since they start at around $35.00 then add the accessories. It ends up being cheaper and essentially does the same thing as the Compute Stick.

Nearpod App

Nearpod is a way for you as a teacher to synchronize your lessons across all student devices in your classroom, get real time feedback and post session reports on student comprehension. You create an account. There are several options including signing in with your Google account. This is great if you are a google apps for education school like I am. The learners are able to sign in using their google accounts as well! You have a library that is for your lessons that you create or you can search for lessons that have already been created. There are free and paid already created lessons though I did not find the offerings to be extensive but there are some quality lessons available. I love that if you create your own you can import Google Slides, Power Point and PDF into your interactive Nearpod lesson. You can share the lesson via email, a link or embed it.

Example 1: The Three Types of Rocks! is a lesson that is available on Nearpod. A science standard that I cover involves learning about the three different kinds of rock. This link is an entire interactive lesson built to help teach the three types of rock https://share.nearpod.com/vsph/Wkn3yqL6Oz

Example 2: What is Hydroponics? is a lesson that would have been perfect for our third grade teaches who with the help of their learners built some hydroponic ecosystems and grew kale hydroponically. This lesson would be perfect for helping the learners understand the task before researching on their own to find out more about how to grow things hydroponically. https://share.nearpod.com/vsph/GUDblRurPz

Video Game Secrets

The implications of the various pieces to designing and playing games in a learning environment can be positive or negative. I am going to focus on the positive implications because as I was reading the article I could see things that were comparable to how the learning environment I teach in is set up. The self determination theory stood out to me in that "gamer's need to own their worlds in order to be happy". The school that I teach at is solely project based learning. Our learners are leaders of their own learning. They take ownership of their learning and really enjoy having voice and choice vs. a traditional learning environment. The self determination theory goes hand in hand with autonomy. In the gaming world autonomy is when games tap into our need to have control. Our learning environment allows the learners to have control with guidance along the way to help direct their learning path. The major thought that I got out of this article in comparison to my school learning environment and I agree wholeheartedly is that people need to feel free to try thing and to learn without being judged or penalized. We have a lot of choice in how we work through standards via projects and being standards based if a learner doesn't get it the first time they can reassess and keep trying until they get it right without being penalized.