Wellington College BYOD Initiative Update October 2014 Wellington College has been running a BYOD trial during

2013. We are planning to get feedback from students and teachers in Term 4. Below is an evaluation of the success of the initiative from an ICT management perspective (input from Dave Thorp, Helen Jones, Darrell Harvey and Nikki Corbishley). Recommendations to the BOT The ICT sub-committee recommends that the BOT agrees with the concept of the school making strong recommendations of device type to all incoming Y9 students and their parents. We can hand out a document to all Y8 students when they come in for induction testing in November, and we can email the same material to all the parents a week or two later. allocates funding for the purchase of 30 iPads ($17,000 approx) to be used to alleviate equity issues. continues with the teacher shared purchase iPad scheme for 2014 Focus Student engagement Success After some initial reluctance from students, student usage rates on the wireless increased dramatically. By Term 3 we had up to 860 devices logged onto our wireless system on any given day - roughly 40% of our students, due to some students having multiple devices. We have noticed a reluctance by the Y13 students to fully engage with BYOD. Perhaps, they have been too long in the non-digital education environment. Teacher Engagement All teachers have engaged on some level with our BYOD initiative. Every teacher has had to plan for the BOT PDAC goal: To use the "Teaching as Inquiry" Framework (NZC, p35) to investigate ways in which students can use the personal devices they bring to class to make connections, facilitate shared learning or enhance their opportunities to learn. Many teachers have been content to allow the use of student devices in the classroom for basic research sourcing information on the internet. A minority have been branching out and getting students to use mobile devices for recording lessons, collaborating on documents and presentations, using photos and web sourced images to create new meaning, creating presentations for the class, etc. Teacher PD This has gone well. Staff are generally very positive about BYOD and see how it can enhance teaching and learning. 3 Friday PD sessions have been given over to BYOD and Google learning since the iPad shared purchase scheme was instituted. Nikki Corbishley along with Alex Perry from the Loop have also been running well-attended fortnightly lunchtime iPad sessions. We also have a BYOD professional learning group which meets a couple of times a term. Many teachers are starting to increase the use of Google docs, especially through the new Google Dashboard programme that the Loop is providing. Our decision to forge ahead with teacher iPads (60% take up) seems a good one at this stage. Teachers now need specific PD to help them move to the next steps of mobile learning. Next Steps We need to ensure that all students have the opportunity to engage with mobile on-line learning.

Focus on juniors

Suitability of student devices

We have posted recommendations for device types and functionality on our website, but have accepted any device that will connect to our wireless. However, teachers feel that the range of devices students bring to their classes causes problems. Some devices dont have the functionality for advanced work and some students are unable to even download apps, take usable photos or access sites that their teachers want them to use. It is difficult to create learning activities that would work over a number of device types with differing capabilities. Group activities can be set up but the sprinkling of suitable devices may not fit the make-up of the groups. Opinions of researchers on this matter are mixed. It appears that it depends on a schools socio-economic zone with questions of equity causing real concern. Also, the more free-thinking educationalists feel that stipulating devices can actually limit possibilities. However, schools stipulate a uniform approach for many things. Generally, the reason for this is that we are still many years and many dollars away from a true personalised curriculum. Orewa College, a leader and early adopter of BYOD, recommend iPads to their incoming Y8s:
We continue to recommend the iPad at this stage as students enter Year 8, mindful of becoming iPad proprietary with the use of Apps in our teaching. Some apps we consider compulsory .Compulsory apps fall into two categories, firstly to transform the iPad into a device capable of producing content, for example Pages, secondly to take advantage of apps that while proprietary, offer excellent educational opportunities. We will continue to advise students and parents as they move into the senior school and perhaps are looking to replace the technology after 3 or 4 years, that they should be considering a device that will be suitable for their future needs That may be a strong media or graphics capable device, if that is the direction in which they are heading. The school will continue to own a supply of student netbooks for use when a device is out of commission or unavailable to the student. However, this will be monitored by the Library and the DP in charge of BYOD. Orewa BYOD Strategic Vision 2013 https://ultranet.oc.school.nz/WebSpace/6188/

Stipulate a minimum level of device functionality or type (tablet or laptop), and recommend a device (iPad). Start with the 2014 Y9 intake. We may have to purchase 30 iPads for the 10% (est) of Y9 students to issue from the library on a daily basis.

Other issues

Teacher management of students with devices has not proven to be a problem. Device security has not proven to be a problem. Cyber bullying does not appear to have increased. Management and costs of computer labs are problems. If the functionality of student devices improves, expenditure on computer rooms can be decreased.