A school district that i may or may not work for may or may not have decided to have a major policy shift this year.

The district in question has decided to let students bring their own laptops, iphones, ipod touches to the class room and use them for instructional purposes on the wireless network (the entire district has wireless network thoughout.) they will be filtered as well as sectioned off from the entire districts network... meaning they can't get to shared folders, internal resources, etc. They can get to the schools website and do anything necessary from there. This will be at the HS and JH level

What are your concerns or thoughts as teachers? If I were the head network guy at that school, I'd be a bit nervous as I just added about 3-4 thousand (saying it was Belton, Temple, or a Killeen HS) users that are not quite as trackable, but i would understand the doors that opens as far as instruction.


And 3GA, if you didn't know, DB will be moving up to the Deputy superintendent position this fall. Great move for him and good for the district. Also my wife and i have become friends with a teacher that just left Rodgers to my district. Great gal.

You will be able to filter their access? Interesting. At another school that may or may not be where I work, they told me my personal laptop could not go to the internet from school because of the version of Windows 7 I have plus legal issues if I went to a "bad" site.

Just wondering how you are doing it.

I honestly don't know. Teachers would have to still have control over WHEN they are used I would hope.

Otherwise, it is standard at college so I have no issues with it in high school.

Except I feel sorry for the kids who don't have smart phones or computers.

And congrats to DB. He will do well for the district.

I need to add I am also impressed you have the infrastructure to handle this. I know of places that barely have enough for the labs and the teachers.

I have mixed feelings about this.

We are doing much the same thing with mobile computer labs, and even allowing each teacher to decide if they allow cell phones in their room, or not.

I guess it depends who is in your classroom.

I think it is inevitable to have this happen. We are right there with you in terms of moving in this direction, as we have already started the process.

We will see, I suppose....

3GA and Jan,

the district in question is very fortunate to have the funding and personnel to put systems in place that allow this. i'm not a networking genius, and had to have some help in getting that to work, but did have some hand in the planning process. from an IT geek's security perspective it's hard to wrap my head around it all. i'm not paid to think like an instructional technologist or to tell people no when they dream, just to support it.

I see it very similar to a college environment, but obviously we have less mature people in the situation. I've had the joy of a couple of instances where I got pulled in when a kids screwed up.... and even one parent conference. We're going to have to be very careful with legal issues. I'm hoping teachers will take the initiative and use some classroom management for a change (an issue for me.) More than a couple of times i've gotten a call where a teacher said that 4th grader or whatever was googling "boobs" (small glitch in the filter when i was testing something, easily fixed) i responded with, "it's fixed, have you taken action with the kid?" and the answer is never "yes, he's been punished/referred/whatever." no desire to take care of their classroom and watch what they're doing. i fear that kids will do something bad and that the teachers' answer will be that the technology was there and that's the problem, not to actually monitor the classroom keep track what the student are doing in the labs or on their laptops/iPads/phones.

i agree that it stinks for kids that don't have their own laptops or smart phones. we are working towards mixing a 1-1 student to computer initiative and open network where kids can bring their own devices if desired.

[This message has been edited by c-jags (edited 8/14/2010 7:19p).]

I am not a teacher and I am not computer savvy but this would be/is a nightmare in the making to me!

My concern is this is SOMETHING ELSE the classroom teacher has to police instead of being able to teach(even though in the right setting, with the right students this will make teaching easier).

How does the student and school prevent theft? That was my first thought when I was told. Lockers are easily broken into. I say this especially for atheletes who are at shool before and after reg hours. Otherwise I think it's fine.

I teach at a community college and am starting a new policy this semester of NOT allowing lap-tops or other devices. Although I have allowed it before, I find students are not listening to the lecture when they are busy typing in their notes. It may be old fashioned but I want them to WRITE their notes and then at night transcribe them into a typewritten notebook that will be turned in each week. I feel this will force them to reinforce what they HEARD during the lecture.

[This message has been edited by airplane driver (edited 8/22/2010 8:40p).]

While it will be tough to police & adjust to, kids will love it and kids often need that for engagement.

Plane,
I guess you could just have them chisel their notes into stone tablets.....

Cru, engagement is the right word. Millenials won't engage just because I tell them to. At least not at a secondary level.

Technology to them is akin to breathing--it is just automatically what they do. While we might dream of a world where they fall at our feet in awe over our wisdom, it just isn't going to happen. A large part of remaining effective through decades of teaching--going back to the 70's, is adapting to the mode of instruction that will work for each wave of kiddos.

I watched a news special this morning 3rd and it said the exact same thing...called cell phones the new nicotine.

Three girls had their phones taken up and their attention span dropped, their hearts raced and they became less than well feeling. While they were texting, their brains gave off dopamine, allowing them to calm and immediately feel wanted and needed.

TO ME THAT IS FREAKING RIDICULOUS!

Students in JH/HS nowadays are digital natives, most of the teachers in the classroom are digital immigrants....

Kudos to a district for being progressive, but good luck in keeping it all safe and secure!

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Students in JH/HS nowadays are digital natives, most of the teachers in the classroom are digital immigrants....

Kudos to a district for being progressive, but good luck in keeping it all safe and secure!

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you didn't happen to read "born digital" did you? and thanks for the well wishes in trying. we'll see how it goes.

good luck to all other teachers that fired up yesterday!!

Cru - I am going to try no electronic devices for the first two tests and evaluate. I feel that by using old fashioned note-taking techniques and then requiring them to transcribe their notes into type-written notebooks the information will be re-inforced to a greater degree. I have notice in the past students more intent on the computer screen than the lecture.

I'll have to ask my mom about this and see what her district is doing.

From a technology perspective, this would be easy to setup and relatively easy to secure and police at the macro level (overall school capability). However at the micro level (in each classroom) it would be very difficult.

We get into the arguments that you probably already have in the school library anyway. Do I allow students to Google Breasts for a research paper on Breast Cancer, or do I block the word completely. And when I do searches on Breast, how do I prevent Heidi Montag from showing up in the search results?

Then at the micro level, how do I keep the kids in Math class from Googling Heidi Montag photos?

Now take it from another angle. Uploads. I know what I'd be doing if I were my HS self. I'd have a digital camera device of some sort and be uploading pix of my favorite HS chicks to a web site somewhere - for "personal use". I'd love some pix of my favorite blonde cheerleader who was one class behind me but there's lots of other suitable stuff that is way easier to obtain and would work just as well. Keep in mind, we had a Band Director who had been quietly moved on from several schools in his career. So, you might even have a sponsor to enable your in-class "sexting".

I see that someone mentioned physical security. What is the school/district going to do the first time that Johnny or Susie get their $700 smart phone stolen. How about the 2nd time?

I have enough trouble in the professional world when I give presentations on complex technical material and I've got 1/3 - 1/2 of the audience Blackberrying. In my line of work, that's OK. They can just pay my company $2500/day for me to come on-site and fix their problem later.

If students can be using their mobile devices while they're in the classroom, are you as a teacher going to be allowed to Fail them? As long as the district is going to support you when you hand out 75% Fs for the students who are iPhoning during class. But, they're not. Because all anybody apparently gives a damn about is State Level Test Scores.

So, I realize it's too late but who is it who thought this policy would boost test scores?

If the district wanted to be viewed as a leader in technology, then create an "Internet Cafe" area where students can sit in a fixed location and use their own devices.

Also, keep in mind that if you let the smart kids have this stuff, you're going to have to let the druggies have them too. I can already see kids making drug deals between classes electronically.

[This message has been edited by HollywoodBQ (edited 8/26/2010 4:36p).]

Hollywood, how old are you? You think like an old person!

Some folks think I am paranoid, nope I just try to think ahead.

Mom, I turned 40 in June. I'm not that old per se but I'm relatively jaded by now.

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Also, keep in mind that if you let the smart kids have this stuff, you're going to have to let the druggies have them too. I can already see kids making drug deals between classes electronically.

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they already have a system set up in the halls.

sorry that stood out the most.

Hollywood,

all valid points.

the students have all signed waivers saying that they acknowledge that any loss, theft, or damage to equipment is at their own risk.

the thought is that you may only have the phone/laptop out during approved times in the classroom. have it out during non-approved time and you lose your phone in that class for the day. but i'm not

my network is good to go for this. i trust it. i agree, the problem is going to be classroom management.

If they're only allowed to use the devices during approved times, then I wonder if it wouldn't make sense to have them only use them in a designated location.

I travel a lot and some airports are setup for wireless Internet access throughout the airport however many airports only have wireless Internet access in certain areas (or at least that's where the signal works best anyway).

I could see if the school had setup certain classrooms like laboratories (think foreign language listening lab as an example) where they had some number of school computers and then some desks with power for the kids who brought their own device.

What I don't see working is during a 55 minute class period (that's what we had when I was in HS, I realise they have doubles, block schedules and all that now) for example:
minutes 0-10: Last night's homework
minutes 10-40: Today's instruction
minutes 40-55: Start on Homework + Internet Free for All

we have 49 minute periods. No time for free time things.

I spoke with my mom this afternoon. She hadn't heard about this bring your own device to access the Internet at school policy. But I was absolutely shocked at what she did tell me.

She just got an iPad (from school). Seriously, if you're a teacher at a school with low test scores, how is an iPad going to help?