BYOD in the Classroom

Time magazine recently published an article titled "Texting 1, 2, 3: Schools Test 'Bring Your Own Technology' Programs."  Here's an excerpt:

[A] larger national trend in schools known as “Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT),” in which students are allowed to bring their mobile devices to class. Advocates argue that if young people are already glued to them, then teachers and principals should come up with educational uses for them. And at a time when state budget cuts are increasing––at least 30 states are providing less funding to schools now than they did four years ago––it makes sense that educators would experiment with BYOT as they try to figure out how to do more with less. But some experts say schools may use BYOT as an excuse to avoid providing essential services to students.

ITSC 2012: Today's Meet

www.TodaysMeet.com
A conversation site - everyone logs in and everyone can comment.  It is like a closed chat room. Super cool tool. Everyone logs into a "chat" with their name, no need to create an account just go to your chat site and enter your name to join a chat.

Make sure you kids know the rules. Students need to learn the etiquette for the internet. How to ask questions, how to direct questions/comments to one person. Close the laptop if they can’t handle it. The skills they learn here (etiquette) they can transfer to twitter and other social networking sites.


IDEAS FOR USE
-Chat with another classroom in the district
-When watching a movie have the class type the facts they learn, then you have a collection of notes by your whole class
-Notes from lectures, as you lecture have the kids type in notes, then you have a collection of notes by your whole class. You can save the notes for up to a year.
-Spelling words --- have kids type words and then all hit “say” together, great way to practice spelling words

Contributed by Julie Thompson

Youtube Video of the Week!

The Talent Show! This is a powerful PSA on the destructiveness of Cyberbullying!