An Innovative Solution to Using Cell Phones in Schools

I read about innovation every day on Twitter, educational blogs, and in my news feeds. I have seen other districts coming up with solutions for cell phones in their schools but thought that Addison would be a little behind on this. I sat in a board meeting a couple of years ago and listened to a board member propose guidelines that would restrict cell phones because of the potential hazards that come with cell phone use in the classroom. The board member made arguments that I disagreed with internally but did not speak out against because I didn’t have an alternative solution.

Last week I received this email from Chad VanSickle, Dean of Students for our Jr/Sr High Schools:

Realizing that we will never please everyone with a single policy- I am going to ask for opinions on which direction to go with the personal electronic devices (phones, ipods, ipads, Nooks, laptops, etc).

We will be updating our handbook soon and this policy is obviously one that needs to be addressed. Currently, we are NOT enforcing the policy the way it is written in the handbook and I don’t want that to happen again next year.
 I have looked at other school policies and see pros/cons with all of them.
The one that I would feel best about adopting would basically give teachers/administrators some flexibility and also give students options/freedoms that come with responsibilities/consequences. Basically, the idea would be that different areas of the school would be open or closed to device usage based on signage that is placed on the walls for all to see.
Green Signs- Go ahead and use your devices. (cafeteria/hallways/classroom)
Yellow- Devices may be out with teacher/staff approval (classrooms/media center)
Red- Absolutely no devices used or visible (bathrooms//classrooms)
As the Assistant Principal in charge of discipline, I feel it is important that our policy can be effectively enforced, while at the same time allowing for teacher discretion depending on activities/curriculum/etc…

As simple as that the discussion has begun. Many responses came in and most were very supportive of this policy. I have written on many occasions that we need to find a way to harness the dual core technology that the students have in their pockets. I started playing with Socrative last week and it is very cool. I can only imagine what our teachers will do with the technologies available once they start allowing students to use their cell phones.

Posted in Android, BYOD, Cell Phone, edtech, education, iphone, mobile | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Teacher Bashing at a Tech Conference

I had the pleasure of speaking to a great group of people at last week’s MACUL Mobile Learning Conference. My session went fairly smooth and the two sessions that I was able to attend were very well done. Patrick Diemer (@diemerpatrick) gave an excellent session on using texting as a tool in the classroom. He presented not only great ideas but what tools to use and had us try them in the session. Dave Pugh from Apple gave another good session on using Apple iBooks Author that had the audience oohing and ahing.

As with most conferences there were some duds (this is perceptions, what my teachers felt was a dud may have been great for others) but one session in particular stuck in the mind of my teachers. I’m not interested in bashing individuals in this post so I’ll keep the name private but this presenter went beyond dud status into the realm of inappropriate. The presenter was a superintendent for a school district and the presentation was on using iPads for 1:1. A good subject and I’m sure it was attended very well but the presenter decided to go off script and ramble about tracking a child at prom with the Find My iPhone app, using curse words in the presentation, and worst of all, calling teachers lazy. I think someone forgot to tell this person who was in the audience. I did a survey in my session and 70% of the attendees were teachers. Even if this was an admin-only audience, why in the world would this person bash the people that they are leading. This was a conference that had a lot of energy. Everyone there was excited about mobile technology and looking for new ideas to improve their district. Telling 70% of your audience that they are lazy is a real mood killer.

Amazingly, the two teachers from our district that attended this session did not get up and leave. I would have. My time is precious and I have about a dozen other things I can be doing to help my teachers have the tools and support they need to better serve our students. In the end, that is what this conference is all about. We have a huge responsibility to our students and yet a fool like this is allowed to poison it with crude language and ill-chosen ideas.

I hope the presenter reads this post and chooses their students over their ego. I’m guilty of it. I bragged about presenting at a conference and my ego was front and center, but I always knew what my purpose was and what was expected of me. At a minimum I should respect my audience, provide them with meaningful information, and encourage them in their endeavors. If I do this, their students will be better for it and that is exactly why they attended this conference.

Posted in Apple, edtech, education, ipad, mobile | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Funny Help Desk Request

Just something to make you smile today. This was sent to me by one of my teachers. She ALWAYS sends funny requests which is ingenius because it gets me into her room immediately!

Hey Y’all! (please read with the deepest southern accent you can conjure up) I was wunderin wut you were plannin on doin with this here thinkin box that is sittin on my desk next year. The one that darn chillun of mine dun dropped and broke. I was thinkin (I no, amazin rite) that maybe if you there, was gun jest pitch it, maybe I could take the gosh darn thing home. Could even muster up a little compensation for it, such as a chicken or so or maybe some of Ellie May’s homemade grits and hocks. If y’all have other plans, no skin off my back (which itches like the dickens by the way, dad blame bed bugs) but didn’t want to see it end up in the dump (could probably dig through it though, that’s how I decorate my lawn anyway.) Love me some lawn gnomes!!!! I’m sure I can dig up a monitor and one of those things i put my fingers on and letters just magically appear, on my own.

Now that is some funny stuff right there!

Posted in edtech, education, Funny | Leave a comment

Engagement: Deciding What Technology Is Worthwhile In The 21st Century Classroom

Engagement is the key to deciding whether technology is worthwhile in the classroom. Technology is a tool in the arsenal of the educator and the educator is always striving to engage their students. Engagement is the ultimate student response system.

What engages students? Here are some recent successes in our classrooms in Addison and what compelled us to put them in the classroom.

Smart brand Smartboards

In the Addison district we have had “smart” boards for some time. The first boards used were Promethean boards and they were purchased before my time in the district and from what I understand, quite hastily. We had only a few teachers that even understood the Promethean software and that is a major issue when bringing a technology into the classroom.

Here is a link to the rest of my article on Evolllution.

Posted in BYOD, edtech, education, ipad, mobile, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment