BYOD
Bring Your Own Device
Forsyth County Schools BYOT
FCS is working with several schools in the district and nearly forty teachers to explore the possibility of allowing students to bring their own technology to use in the classroom. These trailblazers are working through issues of how to manage the classroom if some students do have a computing device while others don’t as well as ways to make effective use of the technologies.
CHILLICOTHE -- Chillicothe City School officials are considering a new policy that would not just allow, but encourage, students to bring their cell phones, iPads and other devices to class.
Cell phones and other Devices in the Classroom
Cell phones could become the next big learning tool in the classroom. So why have schools been so slow to embrace them?Without a doubt, cell phones can cause serious disruption in the classroom. From urgent text messages flying across the room to lessons interrupted by rap-song ringtones, these gadgets are responsible for nationwide frustration among educators. And, in extreme cases, students have used their cell phones to cheat on tests and harass other students, even during class time. While such disturbances are certainly a nuisance in school, not all teachers see cell phones as the enemy. In fact, for some, they’ve become a teaching solution.
Cell Phone Solution
between the alarms, calls, and text-messaging, it’s easy to see why some classrooms have implemented a no-cell phone policy. But educators know that with students, cell phone use in inevitable, so why not use the devices for good? Many schools in Asia and the United Kingdom—where they’ve been using high-speed 3G, or third-generation, cellular networks years longer than the United States—have already turned cell phones into teaching tools. Recently, several school districts in North America have done the same. At the Craik School in Saskatchewan, Canada, such an experiment turned into an integral part of the curriculum.
Craik’s program started with a discussion in the staff room between the school’s principal, Gord Taylor, and teacher Carla Dolman. Many of the children had received cell phones for Christmas, and the phones had become a distraction. “So we tossed out the idea of rather than looking at them as an evil thing,” says Taylor, “that we look at them as a tool for learning.” They realized that the text message and alarm functions would be useful for reminding students of homework assignments and tests, for example. They decided to run a pilot project with eighth and ninth graders.
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Testing the Waters
initially, only about 40 percent of the class had cell phones, but kids who had them were willing to share. The text message function was mainly used at first, but as Dolman became more familiar with the myriad functions, it became clear that these gadgets had a lot more classroom potential. Video and sound recording came into play, and the phones’ Bluetooth networking capabilities allowed for easy information sharing. Dolman found they worked perfectly for her classes’ “lit circles,” in which the students divide into smaller groups to discuss different aspects of a particular book. Previously, she found it difficult to monitor each of the different groups simultaneously. But kids who had video functions on their phones could record their discussions then Bluetooth it to Dolman’s phone, and she could watch each individual discussion, without missing a moment.
Dolman says such problems like class disruption were minimal. “It’s a stereotype of teenagers—that you can’t trust them with a cell phone. Our experience was that if you give them the opportunity to use them, and you give them guidelines to go with that use, you won’t have problems.”
Principal Taylor agrees. “The one thing we really stressed with the kids was the whole idea of appropriate use,” he says. “They make darn sure that the volume is turned off. A lot of adults need to learn that.”
As for the kids, they loved using the phones for class work, but parents in the district have had mixed reactions, says Taylor. “Some thought we were crazy, and were very strongly opposed to it, and some embraced the idea initially. As time went on, about 90 percent came to say it was a good idea. They didn’t see it as a gadget, or as a replacement for learning, they saw it as a tool for learning.”
Taylor’s colleagues have been more enthusiastic. “In our school division there are about 90 principals and about 600 teachers, and I would say that out of the principals, there were about 15 to 20 that really were gung-ho and wanted to know what we were doing.” The rest, Taylor says, thought the program was innovative and at least worth a try. “There were no negative thoughts on it whatsoever.”
Learning Curves
Taylor sees the cell phone as a necessary tool to teach to kids. “We would be burying our heads in the sand if we said that cell phones were not a part of everyday life,” he says. “I don’t know a businessman out there who doesn’t carry a cell phone. I don’t know a lawyer or accountant out there who doesn’t carry a cell phone. Why wouldn’t we have them in schools?”
Given the example of the Craik School, why haven’t more American teachers embraced cell phone use in the classroom? In fact, few U.S. schools are even considering their use. Liz Kolb, author of the recently released book Toys to Tools: Connecting Student Cell Phones to Education (ISTE, 2008), says that Americans have traditionally seen cell phones as nothing more than a social toy. “We hear stories about students using cell phones in negative ways, like posting videos of teachers to YouTube, or cheating via text messaging,” she says.
Many teachers simply don’t know the teaching potential cell phones have, Kolb says. “There are some teachers who have never sent a text message, so the fear of their students knowing more than them about a tool in the classroom is often very inhibiting.” Professional development, Kolb says, is a necessity for normalizing the idea of classroom cell phones.
Corporate Help
Matt Cook, a math and science teacher in the Keller Independent School District, near Fort Worth, Texas, knows his cell phone inside and out. He’s used it to document results in his classroom. In fact, his familiarity with cell phone tech sparked his imagination, and led him to get in touch with Verizon and AT&T, as well as software company GoKnow, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. All three companies have agreed to donate technology to the district for a pilot program to use cell phones in fifth-grade classrooms. (Other cell phone companies are certainly interested in classroom possibilities. Qualcomm has a similar program in the works called K-Nect.)
“I firmly believe that to prepare kids for their future, we need to start speaking the language of kids,” says Cook. “They’re using this stuff anyway—let’s teach them how to use it productively.”
The GoKnow software turns the students’ smartphones into computers, allowing students to use word processors, spreadsheets, and art programs, among others, on their cell phones. For example, every child learns the concept of the water cycle: how water moves on, above, and below Earth’s surface through the processes of evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and so on. With GoKnow’s cell-based applications, a student could draw a concept map showing the relationship between the processes, create an animation illustrating how it all looks, and write up a text report on what they’ve learned—all centralized on a desktop-like interface on the smartphone’s screen.
At the end of the day, the students can upload all their work online. “The kids sync their phone up to the server. The parents can look at the work they’ve done, and the teachers can make annotations and grade the work, all online,” says Cook.
Elliot Soloway, founder of GoKnow, sees the key to popularizing cell phone use in classrooms is to make it easy to integrate into a school’s existing curriculum. GoKnow’s software has been engineered to make the process as easy as possible, he says. “We can do this in eight minutes with a teacher. Sit down with your paper-and-pencil lesson, and we’re going to show you how to transform that lesson into a cell phone–based lesson you can integrate with your existing curriculum.”
Soloway says that if the Keller program is successful, smartphones could become a part of the curriculum in neighboring districts. “We’ve talked to other districts in Texas that are watching,” he says. If cell phones in classrooms do catch on, the schools would, in effect, be getting low-cost computers into their students’ hands.
Dolman thinks that the possibilities for cell phones will only increase as kids become more familiar with the technology. “The more we discover what we can do with them, the more valuable they are. If you can harness what students are interested in, you have massive amounts of potential. And if you can get that into the classroom, you’re set.”
by George Engel, Rob Griffith, Scott Newcomb, Lisa Nielsen, Jason Suter, and Willyn Webb
Innovative educators George Engel, Rob Griffith, Scott Newcomb, Lisa Nielsen, Jason Suter, and Willyn Webb know that when it comes to preparing students for success in the 21st century, you not only have to think outside the ban, but also may have to dive in head first and break it. The following is a collection of ideas each teacher implemented to successfully break and/or work within the ban where they teach in an effort to empower students with the freedom to use their cell phones as personal learning devices.
The Ten Building Blocks for Learning with Cell Phones
1) Build Relationships
Breaking the ban starts with the building of relationships with key constituents. Here is advice on how to get started.
- with self:
- Realize that leadership begins with example. There are those who are threatened by transitions and change. To break the ban, you will need to present yourself in ways that do not make your colleagues uncomfortable about their instructional methodology.
- with students:
- Let students know you care about making learning fun and relevant and ask them if they’d like the option to be able to do work using their cell phones. Most likely, the answer will be YES! If they are interested provide them with homework options that enable them to use cell phones.
- with parents and guardians:
- Start with the parents by using the cell phone as a tool to bridge the home-school connection. You can have a “Text-of-the-Day” to update parents on what’s happening in the class. You can text parents individually to share information about their child. You can poll parents with Poll Everywhere to get their input and show their opinions matter. You can read this article for more ideas 6 Ways to Use Cell Phones to Strengthen the Home-School Connection . Once parents are on your side and see the value personally, your job convincing other stakeholders becomes much easier.
- with colleagues:
- Try to establish yourself as an innovative leader when it comes to empowering students and teachers with technology. A focus on student centered learning is key. At grade or subject meetings, offer to support teachers in harnessing the power of cell phones for themselves, and if they’re ready, with their students. Get them started and model for them. Perhaps have a polling question in a meeting or gather input with a Wiffiti board.
- with administration:
- Start by working within the system to bring about technological change. Become known as someone that works with what your school has on hand and is flexible to administrative needs. When the opportunity presents itself, respectfully present the need for change and recommendations to update your school’s technological teaching processes.
- with district:
- Become known as a tech leader. Offer to participate in school and district-wide technology decisions. Offer to collaborate with the district technology coordinator and others to help establish a new acceptable use policy (AUP) that will allow the use of cell phones as a learning tool. (The AUP is a critical step toward technological change, many districts are still working with AUP’s developed in the late nineties.) Keep in mind that in most cases, what is acceptable in the physical world applies to the online world as well.
2) Embrace Research
In today’s educational climate providing evidence that the work you are doing is aligned to research and standards is crucial! Here are some ways to do this.
- In addition to content area alignment, ensure your cell infused lessons indicate alignment to the National Education Technology Standards.
- Incorporate the use of cell phones aligned to Robert Marzano’s nine research-based strategies.
- Demonstrate careful research of the use mobile technology to building principal and district administration. Provide specific data and examples that are up-to-date, not out-of-date.
- Frohberg, D. (2006). Mobile learning is coming of age: What we have and what we still miss. Paper presented at the DELFI 2006, Darmstadt, Germany.(http://www.ifi.uzh.ch/pax/uploads/pdf/publication/71/2006_DELFI_Darmstadt_MLearn_Framework.pdf)
- Pursell, D.P. (2009). Adapting to student learning styles: engaging students with cell phone technology in organic chemistry instruction. Journal of Chemical Education, 86(10), 1219
- Shuler, Carly Ed.M. (January 2009) Industry Brief: Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children's Learning
- Speak Up, . (2010, March). Creating our future: students speak up about their vision for 21st century learning
- Trotter, A. (2009). Students turn their cellphones on for classroom lessons. Education Week, 28(16), 10-11
- Vavoula, G., Scanlon, E., Lonsdale, P., Sharples, M., & Jones, A. (2005). Report on literature on mobile learning, science and collaborative activity
- Wood, C., Jackson, E., & Wilde, L. (2009, July 24). Children’s use of mobile phone text messaging and its impact on literacy development in primary school.
- Compilation of Mobile technology Journal Articles and Research
3) Plan Activities
- Planning is key. Create and develop a plan, lessons, and activities that you can share with those who care and want to know what you have in store for the use of cell phones in the classroom.
- Develop a well thought-out plan for embedding cell phones into instruction. Invite your students to partner with you in developing ideas to meet learning goals using cell phones. This plan can be shared on your class and/or school website as well as distributed to parents, guardians, and school community members.
- Develop a well crafted outline and description of lessons and activities that could be used for learning with a cell phone.
- For lesson and activity ideas visit
- Invite administrators and policy makers to observe the lessons. If possible, involve them as students in the class so they can actually participate and experience first-hand an activity that promotes student engagement and achievement.
4) Pilot Program
Be willing to start small, demonstrate success and work from there.
- Meet with those key in your school and district decision making to map out an acceptable pilot program i.e. district technology coordinator, building principal and assistant principals.
- Ensure that the pilot program includes all teachers interested in participating.
- Make sure to invite administrators to observe and participate when you are incorporating cell phones into the curriculum. This can be one of the fastest ways to build relationships and get key stakeholders on board.
- Film videos of what you and your students are doing. Publish on online spaces to celebrate the work your students are doing.
5) Access for All
Anyone interested in embedding cell phones into the curriculum has heard the argument, but what about the students who don’t have a phone??? Well, you do the same thing as you do when your class doesn’t have enough textbooks. You don’t say, I guess we can’t do our work. We find workarounds. Partner or group students. Have some extras on hand for those who don’t have. Reach out to the community for support, but don’t use that as an excuse to not innovate instruction.
6) Partnering with Students to Use Cells for Learning
When using technology for learning, Marc Prensky’s concept of partnering with students fits in well. Bring students into the conversation and ask them about ways they can meet learning goals in life, at school, and at home.
A template might look like this:
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Use Cell Phones for Real Life |
Use Cell Phones for Learning Outside of School |
Use Cell Phones In For Learning In Class |
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- Sample from class whose student’s partnered with their teacher to develop ways they could use their phones for learning.
Invite your students to partner with you around a conversation of cell phones and learning. Capture their answers, then share these answers to see if there are any other ideas students may want to add. The ideas can be posted on the classroom website, blog, or wiki, with credit given to the students who are able to take more ownership of how they learn both at school and independently on their own.
7) Parent/Guardian Permission
Before we use cells with students, we must have parent approval. By the time you ask for it, you’ve hopefully already begun some home school connection strategies with cell phones so you are on your way.
- Here are sample parental permission to use cell phones.
8) Acceptable use
Just like any other classroom tool, teachers need to work with students to establish acceptable use policies. In some classrooms the teacher just explains how the general policies apply to the use of cell phones, in others they create a new policy, in some schools the students help create the policies, and in some classrooms they invite parental input as well. Collecting everyone’s thoughts on acceptable use is easy when you use cell phone tools like Poll Everywhere and Wiffiti to do so.
- Here are some sample policies
- Further reading
9) Cell Phone Etiquette
Adults often complain that cell phones are a distraction in class, but how much time have they really devoted to discussing proper etiquette? This can be woven into a general discussion around behavior and etiquette in different situations. Inviting students into the conversation about appropriate etiquette and what to say to those not exhibiting polite behavior usually works better than telling students how to best behave.
10) Classroom Management
As with the use of any technology in the classroom, when using cell phones in the classroom you must have classroom management procedures in place. The nice thing, however, about cell phones is that you don’t have to worry about distribution, collection, storage, imaging , and charging of devices. Consider working with your students to develop this plan, you may find that they build a strong, comprehensive policy of which they will take ownership and be more likely to follow. Once developed, the plan should be posted in advance of using cell phones in the classroom.
Cross posted at
The Innovative Educator, This article was collaboratively written by George Engel, Rob Griffith, Scott Newcomb, Lisa Nielsen, Jason Suter, and Willyn Webb using Google docs. For information about each of the authors visit texting teacher biographies.
Managing the Cell Phone Classroom by Lisa Nielson
Panel: Cell phones have much potential in classrooms
From the Learning Connection
Fair Cell Phone Use in Schools Pros and Cons of Cell Phones in School
http://www.suite101.com/content/fair-cell-phone-use-in-schools-a15906#ixzz1Ajm0Nr4O
Here are a couple of great resources if you're interested in learning more.
Toys to Tools: Connecting Student Cell Phones to Education, by Liz Kolb. This is really one of the only books out there that deals with the topic of cell phones in the classroom. While I must admit that I've only glanced over this book, most of the ideas I've gotten have been attributed to Ms. Kolb's work, which is all over the web. She has a blog,From Toys to Tools, that has a lot of interesting ideas, including using Twitter. Also, check outher presentation(iPhone ready, of course) on cell phones in the classroom. Finally, she has a “support” wiki –cellphonesinlearning– that has ideas, resources, and even a link toher Delicious bookmarks.
A short article from Teaching Todaythat includes a couple of management tips.
Wesley Fryer over atMoving at the Speed of Creativityshares notesfrom a seminar he attended, taught by Ryan Collins. He links toMr. Collins' seminar page, which has several helpful links, including the slides and audio from his presentation.
The Clever Sheep posted last yearabout this topic. Several ideas and links that are worth checking out, particularly the links under “Documenting Learning.”
There's a nice presentation on Slideshare –Cellphones in the Classroom– that is worth flipping through for some ideas.
Mobile Device Policy
Students may have silenced mobile devices on their person. The use of communication features on cellular devices during instructional time, or in a disruptive manner in the school atmosphere, is prohibited.
Each teacher has the right to allow the use of mobile devices (e.g. cell phones, smart phones, laptops, iPods, iPads and other tablet devices, personal data assistants) during instructional time.
The use of cell phones in the hallway is prohibited, as it is considered a disruption to classes taking place. Nondisruptive cell phone use is allowed before and after school hours.
5136 - WIRELESS COMMUNICATION AND OTHER ELECTRONIC DEVICES
Possession of a wireless communication or other electronic device by a student is a privilege which may be forfeited by any student who fails to abide by the terms of this policy or otherwise engages in misuse of this privilege.
A student may possess a wireless communication or other electronic device (e.g., paging device/beeper, personal digital assistant (PDA), and other devices designed to receive and send an electronic signal) in school, on school property, at after school activities and at school-related functions, provided that during school hours and on school vehicles the wireless communication or other electronic device remains powered down, silenced, and stored out of sight.
During after school activities when directed by the administrator or sponsor, wireless communication and other electronic devices shall be powered down and silenced - not just placed into vibrate or silent mode.
Exceptions to this policy may be approved by the principal on a case-by-case basis.
Violations of this policy may result in disciplinary action and/or confiscation of the wireless communication or electronic device.
The student who possesses a wireless communication or electronic device is responsible for its care. The School Board is not responsible for preventing theft, loss, damage, or vandalism to cellular telephones or electronic devices brought onto its property.
A Better Approach to AUPs for Mobile Devices: 5 Questions with Anthony Luscre -- THE Journal
