Elementary Integration of Educational Technology

Two years ago, I was solely dependent on Twitter, Facebook, and any other ed tech for connecting with educators who wanted to move forward. Last year, I was hardly on my VPN in order to connect with my students, coworkers, and community. Toward the end of this past spring semester, I found myself with a desire to log in because I needed (and still need) help.

Some of you may remember what happened before and Why Our BYOD Club Didn't Work And It's OK.

It all started during our initial workdays before students came last fall. I approached our elementary principal to inquire if our students could use electronic dictionaries since the school year before our leaders didn't want tech such as iPads or even Wi-Fi in the building. Her reply this time, "Why not let the students bring iPads?" Umm, hmm. Didn't expect that. Let me think about it. Yes.

From there, our principal, the three 6th grade homeroom teachers, and I collaborated on how to incorporate a BYOD program for our sixty-eight 6th grade students. The tricky part would be for our school to catch up with the students' resources. You see...61 out of the 68 students already had devices of their own (almost all were iPads) while some of the remaining students already planned to purchase a device of some kind. These devices would be used primarily in my Science and Critical Thinking classes along with my Foreign English classes. Why? I was the only teacher with any experience in this realm, the other teachers didn't know how to utilize tech within education (especially Chinese education), and well, to be honest, I think because I am American (or a foreigner in their eyes).

A little over a month later, the school allowed students to BYOD. Slight problem: we didn't have any Wi-Fi. Therefore, I had to create hotspots every class, and the speed was less than acceptable for my standards. In the spring semester, our school acquired building-wide Wi-Fi, and we were able to upgrade the bandwidth. Hardware was cooking though it took lots of patience on my part. I was relieved when the students came off more patient than I was internally.

The apps I used with the students included Evernote, Safari, ClassDojo, QQ, and (2nd semester) iMovie. I didn't want to introduce too much that was new since I knew we would have kinks to work through. This was, after all, the first year for numerous dreams of mine taking off. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

There are many areas that I need to grow, ask wisdom about, and apply to our school in this upcoming year. A big reason for that is also that the leaders have had me lead our elementary in integrating more technology into our daily methods since last spring, and they have asked me to continue that this upcoming year. Some steps are taking longer than I expected, but I am learning so much about what the bigger picture entails.

Why Our BYOD Club Didn't Work And It's OK

Earlier this school year, I was eager to be in the process of preparing a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Club for our upper elementary. I was reading article after article and processing what to do during it. What I failed to consider were the steps to set it all up beforehand. I was extremely focused on the school acquiring Wifi, since it still doesn't have that, and simply moving on from there. (Sadly enough, our elementary office has more hot spots than the 3 buildings of our private K-12 school has routers combined.)

For some reason, in the meetings I held with administrators at the school, the solutions never came for how the school operates on ethernet providing kilobytes per second, the internet itself turned off in every classroom, and our school of 700+ students and 80+ teachers having one IT guy (who doesn't know Apple products while Google would be useless too since it's blocked by the Great Firewall.)

A couple of the previous issues were mentioned by the elementary principal to me, but we never took time to work out how these and other problems were going to be handled. This was all late last winter toward the end of the first semester. The break in between semesters, Chinese New Year, was when I took serious time to reflect on a culture where digital learning prospers by Eric Sheninger. It was at this time that there wasn't any communication from the admin to me about what was being worked out or what was going to happen when the next semester came. Therefore, I decided not to follow through with the idea before chaos or any constant, unconsidered situations would arise.

Upon our first workday of this spring semester back, I went to the elementary principal and informed her of my decision. She was surprised, and her surprise surprised me. To me, it was obvious how this club was not near the possibility of succeeding. How could it? It moved all too fast for it to do more good than harm. I rushed it.

http://www.iheartliteracy.com/2014/06/technology-in-classroom.html

One of the many lessons I have learned is this: Have a team of professionals dedicated to working out solutions (along with plans B & C) take the necessary time to prepare an action plan, follow it through, and reach a point where outcomes and positive collaboration can happen between students, teachers, administration, and the school's stakeholders.

Through it all, I felt the worst for the result I gave my students. They had been a part of this, so much so that they helped me make a video asking earnestly for wifi and resources other than books on their desks. I really wanted this to happen, obviously since I had rushed it. I went to each of the students I originally had planned to be part of the club, apologized, and reminded them how we can still work together via Minecraft and other media. Thankfully, every single one of them understood, while a couple asked questions about why. I explained the technicalities of it and how it couldn't work for now and not even for some time here. For the students and me though, moving forward isn't going to stop.

It's OK. I've been doing what I can this year with my 5th graders outside of the box. I now look forward to where I will move on to next, and I'm preparing for that adventure.

Proposing a BYOD Club for a Chinese Elementary

The Thursday before Christmas, I handed a proposal to the principal of our private Chinese school. I walked into her office after hours of discussion with her, the Foreign Teacher Head, other colleagues, and (of course!) students. The proposal was for a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Club at our elementary.

While hashing out kinks at different levels in the school, I was satisfied at the progress and openness that staff from the top down as well as the students gave me throughout the process. A couple administrators informed me of questions and statements that top leaders would have. My colleagues suggested ideas along with "excuses" our leaders would have for this not to work. Students always give me what I enjoy hearing--a piece of their mind, and I mean that in a good way. The students are the ones who suggested the devices we should use and the grades that should be allowed to apply for the club. They will continue to lead the way. That is...if the top leaders approve the proposal. The elementary principal will present it at an administration meeting sometime this week or next. She sounds very confident and optimistic about it.

http://ow.ly/3vHGTK

The team of staff who know of the plan have all asked me: What do you plan to teach the students?

Technology tools (aka websites and apps, aka #edtech) that teachers and students could utilize to collaborate, learn, and create with in subjects such as Chinese, Math, English, and any others the co-teacher and I consider worthwhile. Administrators would also be guided in methods they could use to brand the school and give it a public presence while telling its own story all at the same time. But before any of that, digital citizenship would be the prime goal for teachers and students alike. The TED talk I watched today (see below) emphasizes the importance of everyone knowing what they are getting into.

What do you think?

For those of you who have a BYOD program or are contemplating creating one, what ideas do you have from personal experience? What is something you would pass on that you didn't know beforehand or are currently learning?