Cyber Bullying

I can understand that many discussions surrounding a Bring Your Device Policy involve a concern about cyber-bullying.  I am teaching during a time where the term "bully" has reached a new level.  What used to be considered "mean behavior" is not called "bullying" and is of big concern to administrators and educators alike.  I won't use this forum to express my opinion on "bullying" and how schools are handling it today, but I do think it is important to address the fear that students will use an online source to threaten other students.

First and foremost I believe it is important for any school to have a clear definition of "bullying" and a well defined protocol to handle students who use the cyber world at school to "bully" another student.  Secondly, I believe it is important for any educator who wishes to embrace the BYOD concept in their classroom to spend a good amount of time reviewing proper online etiquette and the repercussions for using technology in an improper way. In 7 Myths About BYOD Debunked, Lisa Nielson explains "By banning devices, we close the door to authentic dialogue of how to use technology appropriately and prevent students from developing strategies for internet safety."  As educators, we need to prepare our students for their future.  As I stated before - technology is the inevitable future - and if we do not prepare our students we are holding them back.  Internet safety needs to be stressed in every classroom.

The Fact Sheet: Bring Your Own Device Policy suggests that acceptable use and BYOD policies need to be signed by both parents and students.  Students need to understand that they will lose all BYOD privileges if they are cyber-bullying.  While the loss of BYOD privileges is necessary, it is also necessary to be addressed and monitored by the administrators and educators.

Administrators and educators will need to be cognizant of bullying and mean-behavior alike, no matter what the classroom looks like.  Bullying is a problem that needs to be addressed whether it is in the hallway, the classroom, or online.  The question I think that needs to be answered is should schools only deal with this "mean behavior" when it happens at school?  Or if a school adopts a BYOD policy, are they responsible for any online bullying between students?

Online Learning Modules

During the past 8 weeks I have been taking a course called Distance Learning.  I have learned a variety of ways to create a hybrid classroom, one where there is a mix of the regular classroom setting and online learning modules, and fully functioning online courses.  One of our project assignments was to create an online learning module with sufficient content, assessments, learning objectives, and rubrics.  While we were creating our online modules we had to think about incorporating one of the Seven Things You Should Know About Learning Technology.  For my project I chose two of the "7 things", Challenge Based Learning and Badges.


Challenge Based Learning is a method that allows students to create their own understandings and develop their own opinions on topics in a collaborative way.  The basic premise of Challenge Based Learning is problem solving.  Challenge Based Learning also strives to incorporate a variety of collaborative tools to support interaction among students.

The OLM I created will use Challenge Based Learning in a few ways. My students will be challenged to debate and defend their opinion on whether they think there should be one universal language.  The goal is to allow students to discuss and debate their ideas through the Edmodo site and its discussion board.  In addition, the kids will be allowed to create videos describing their position and/or have a live debate for other students to view.  Edmodo’s collaborative system is a great arena for all 3 of my classes to work together.  This project is student centered and allows students to formulate their own opinions. According to Educase “The ‘big idea’ is introduced by the instructor, but students discuss and evaluate it, trying to determine its component parts”  This statement is exactly what my goal is for the One Universal Language lesson.

The use of Badges is a method that instructors use to give praise to their students for completing an assignment, mastered a skill, gone above and beyond, etc.  These badges are icons that provide feedback to students for achieving something new.  I have found that positive feedback motivates students and makes them have pride in what they are doing.  The use of badges in an online learning module can be seen by all other students.  This public praise is a wonderful motivator. 

The OLM I created uses Badges to praise students and provide feedback. I have created my own badge called “Great Debator”   The other badge that I have created is called the “Fact Finder” badge, for students who do extra research and provide great facts.  Then, as the educator I responded and awarded the “student” a badge.  Other badges already made by Edmodo that I will use will be the “Good Question” badge, and the “Participant” badge.  You will see a screenshot of my new badges below:

The reason I bring up my Online Learning Module and The Seven Things You Should Know About Learning Technology is that it directly relates to BYOD.  If our students are allowed to bring their devices to school there will be an easy tranistion into a hybrid or fully online course.  Many of our students will take online courses in college and we need to prepare them for that transition.  Even if an OLM is not used, many of the "Seven Things.." can, and should be considered by the educators in our school.  

Project Based Learning

Many of you know that I coach cheerleading for the Escanaba Eskymos.  Yes, I know - our rival school (here is where you can say "booo").  I have been bringing my devices, my iphone and ipad, to practices this year because I have found that video helps the girls learn.  I record their skills or stunts and then show them so they can see where they make mistakes instead of only hearing it from me.  I have an awesome app called "Coaches Eye" that allows you to go in slow-mo, make marks on the video, and break skills down.  I have found this app to be a great teaching tool for my athletes.  I also got the iMovie app on my devices and had my cheer team create their own movie trailer for our team.  Here is the video:

I know this is not in the classroom, but my freshman through senior cheerleaders were so excited about using this program.  It is a shame that projects like these are not fostered in our school.  With a BYOD policy the potential for student engagement is much greater because project based learning will likely increase.  My athletes learn better by creating and analyzing videos of their skills and students in any educational setting will as well.

Digital Immigrants teaching Digital Natives

A "bring your own device" policy is a huge leap into the future of education.  Teachers and schools who allow students to bring their own devices to their classrooms allow students to become more comfortable using technology devices to complete their school work, rather than paper and pencil assignments.  In addition, they are preparing their students for distance learning courses.  Most colleges students will take at least one if not many of their courses online.  Students are ready for this.  But are the teachers?  

According to Marc Prensky, Digital Immigrants are those "who were not born in the digital world", Digital Natives are those who were born in the digital world (a.k.a. our students)  I actually consider myself a digital immigrant as the digital world is something I was not exposed to until college.  Through college courses, professional development opportunities  help and suggestions from other teachers, and my own research I can say that I feel comfortable allowing my students to bring their own devices to my classroom.  I also feel I would be able to set up a distance learning classroom.  

So, how do digital immigrants become comfortable creating a hybrid or distance learning classroom for digital natives?  Professional Development!  Schools need to devote a large amount of professional development to technology so educators feel more comfortable.  Educators also need support.  A technology coach that is there just to support the teachers with their transition to a hybrid or completely online classroom would be an excellent idea. 

Not all of our students will be completely tech savvy.  In fact, a large portion of our students do not have computers or internet access at home.  Educators will need to adjust and modify their time and resources to guide those individuals who need assistance.  One suggestion I would make to an educator would be to provide tutorials for students.  YouTube video tutorials have helped me understand programs I knew nothing about. The video tutorials can be links to already existing "how to" videos or can be made by the educator themselves. Other ideas would include a pre-class overview of programs and skills that will be required, and offering as many examples of good work as you can find.  Students can benefit tremendously by seeing what good work looks like. 

Example Policies

In order to implement BYOD (or BYOT) schools adminstrators and their staff need to come up with a good policy that fits what they are trying to accomplish.  I figured it would be a good idea to provide links to example policies from other schools to help interested parties develop their own.

Policy Examples

11 Sample Education BYOT Policies To Help You Create Your Own

Booker T. Washington High School

Challenges of BYOD

Although there are many benefits for a school who has a "bring your own device" policy, there can be some challenges for implementing such a policy.  Here, I will explore some of the challenges and offer suggestions that I believe can help ease schools into a BYOD policy smoothly.

• School BYOD policy:  School rules and guidelines need to be clear for students use of their own devices on campus. Doug Johnson says in Power Up to "make sure the appropriate and inappropriate use of technologies described in your Acceptable Use Policy covers personal devices as well as school-owned devices."  He also suggests that rules regarding lost or stolen devices need to be addressed "articulate rules in your handbook regarding lost, stolen, or damaged personal devices." It is also important to keep parents informed about the use of devices in school.  I also think it is a great idea for each classroom teacher to develop their own policy on the use of devices in their rooms. If parents are on board with what we are doing, the transition will happen more smoothly. A parent meeting for incoming freshman may be a good time to discuss the new policy and the reasons for implementation. 

• Security Issues:  I would assume that a big concern for schools and their Technology Departments would be security issues.  I would suggest that schools have separate Wi-Fi networks for staff and for students.  Technology support is something the school will need discuss.  Since students will be bringing their own outside devices not provided by the school, is the school responsible for helping with troubleshooting and support?  

• Connectivity:  Most schools, including our own, already have Wi-Fi provided for students and teachers.  This tells me that our school is already in the preparation stage for BYOD.  Most classrooms have a good Wi-Fi signal but there can be some issues regarding the bandwidth for our students. One school describes what they did when they implemented what they called BYOT (Bring your Own Technology) in BYOT Improves Learning Without Breaking the Bank  "To accommodate the spikes in network traffic that BYOT would trigger, Forsyth County Schools boosted bandwidth WA?N speeds from 1 gigabit per second to 2 Gbps in each building and from 500 megabits per second to 1.3 Gbps for Internet access.  District IT staff also spent much of 2008 installing Wi-Fi networks with filtered access on every campus." As stated in an earlier post, the BYOD concept is especially attractive to help save money for districts.  There will, however, be additional costs to up the connectivity for students by providing more bandwidth and access to the internet for multiple devices. 

• Educating Teachers:  What I see as the biggest obstacle at our school is the acceptance of BYOD by the digital immigrants, also known as the teachers in our district.  The majority of our Professional Development this school years is devoted to technology and its importance for our students while learning.  Most of the staff are starting to embrace the use of technology in their classroom but are concerned about learning how to do so.  As long as our district continues to emphasize the importance of technology and its benefits to our students, and continues to provide professional development opportunities for teachers to learn, we will see an increase of its use in the classroom.  In the article "7 Questions for Bringing Your Own Device to School", Barbara Bray suggests to "use a one day or one hour session to introduce an idea, method, or strategy, or to empower teachers to move into a specific direction."  Another idea would be for schools to employ a "teacher coach", a person on staff that is just there to support the teachers in their quest to implement devices and other technology into the classroom.  Later, I will describe the impact of "digital immigrants" teaching "digital natives"

The possibilities of BYOD

At our Junior High School the students are not allowed to have their phones at school or in the classrooms. The rule of thumb is that as long as we don't see it or hear it everything is fine.  However, through the classes I have taken in CMU's Educational Technology program I have learned how beneficial phones and other devices can be.  One program I have grown to love is PollEverywhere.  What I love about this program is that I can do a quick poll to check for understanding without having to call my students out.  When I ask questions for understanding I always get the same people raising their hands.  I really don't know if everyone "gets it".  So, I started to allow my students to bring their phones to class at the end of the year last year so we could do some "polls".  I first had to ask how many of my students had phones and surprisingly about 3/4 or more of my class of 6th grade students did.  At the beginning of the hour I asked questions regarding the material we had discussed the day before.  If I saw that there were a large amount of students with the wrong answer I knew there was a problem that needed some revisiting.  I also asked my students if they felt that they should be allowed to have their phones in school.  Needless to say the response was an overwhelming "YES!".  Students can use this program, as well as hundreds of others, using their phone and other devices.  I think it was a great addition to my classroom.  I also incorporated this program into the iPad training PD session that I ran before school started.  My students even began creating their own PollEverywhere questions to be printed in the school newspaper for other students to respond via text.  It was great to see them get so into something I had introduced (even if I went against the rules...)
Here are some screenshots of our polls.