I am going to use this space right now to talk about some
strategies that has worked for me in the classroom. I used to run my own website, but the up keep
become too much. Most of the times the
students had trouble navigating it as well.
I always tried to make it simpler and simpler. I found out over the years that more and more
of my students have cell phones. My
first year teaching, none of my students had them, now almost all of my
students use them.
Instead of using my own website to store and share information
with my students, I switched over to Edmodo.
I found that the students like the application and it works on their
phones. It formats everything for me to
make it mobile friendly. It also creates
and stores usernames and passwords for the students as well. I have found that using existing technology
is always easier than trying to create something on your own. While you may not be in the same position as
well (students with cell phones) it’s not a bad idea to survey your room and
see how many you have. You can always
create groupings for the students.
Embracing technology is always a good thing in my mind.
I completely agree about there being no point in creating your own content when similar content already exists. Students may enjoy the content being conveyed by their own teacher, but then again, maybe they would benefit from a different "voice". People keep asking me if I make my own content when I mention sort of flipping my classroom, but I just use videos from the online textbook, or from Khan Academy (http://www.khanacadmy.com), rather than duplicate something that's already been made.
ReplyDeleteHi Ken,
ReplyDeleteMy kid’s school district just began a BYOD program and it seems to be working out well. My kids do not have fancy phones at all, no data plans. They can text and that’s it. But they say that the other kids share with then it is fine. If they need to, they bring their old ipods. There is an issue in their school with devices being stolen, so they try to keep things low-tech—things that people don’t want to steal! They go to a pretty large public high school.
Overall their teachers are thrilled that the students can get online and they are happy that they are no longer enforcing artificial “no device” policies any more. The students seem respectful with their technology and this is a relief to hear.