At school we are currently working on a BYOD (Bring your own devices) policy for our Secondary School and I am managing a team of extremely dedicated professionals in bringing this about.
Our IT director and I have drafted the outline of a policy, which has been distributed to our Heads of Departments and Housemasters and mistresses. It seems people view it as a step in the right direction but want to see how much support they will get in implementing the BYOD and if we, the school, will take the necessary steps to make it happen. Our Teaching and Learning Coordinator is also a leader on the use of technology to enhance learning.
Future Learn (www.futurelearn.com) is my favourite website for a quick hit of Continuing Professional Development from respected sources. I greatly enjoy being able to dip in and out of University level study for free with the option to gain a certificate if I would like to evidence my progress as a teacher. Earlier today, I suggested one of their courses from the Chartered College of Teaching (https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/technology-teaching-learning) to our IT Director and he immediately recommend another course from the University of Exeter (https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/reimagining-education). It is wonderful to work with people who have the energy and drive to snap right back with another piece of CPD and our IT Director is the type of person who can get things done the right way and I am proud to work with him.
The Chartered College of Teaching course has already commenced, and it was recommended to me directly by one of the featured teachers on the course, who is a teaching and learning coordinator at an outstanding UK day school. I was touring that school last week and was greatly impressed, however, they were an iPad school and were skeptical about BYOD. It was with pleasure then that I found several case studies of bring your own devices included in the extra reading for the course.
Much of the extra reading in the Future Learn course comes from Impact, the Journal of the Chartered College of Teaching, (https://impact.chartered.college/). The case study that I came across first, from Sandringham School (https://www.sandringham.herts.sch.uk/) is summarized on Future Learn, but then the detailed article is published in full on Impact (https://impact.chartered.college/article/interweaving-traditional-digital-approaches-development-blended-learning-sandringham-school/). The study describes how having clear goals and a moral compass of access for all enabled the bring your own devices policy to be successful.
The goals focused the project on outcomes, which were set within the SAMR model, which they credit to Puentedura (2013), of substitution and augmentation (Enhancement of existing practices) and modification and redefinition (Transformation of existing practices into new practices). They brought this in together with a teaching framework called iPAC, crediting Kearney et al. (2012). The school then had a conceptual basis within which they could detail extra support for teachers and staff.
Support included a list of apps and technologies that pupils and teachers were expected to engage with, and parents were expected to be aware of based on the SAMR model. The school invested in devices which could be kept at school and loaned to those who did not have a device for whatever reason. They then developed a toolkit which could be used by teachers to enhance their teaching practice. With that level of support available it is unsurprising that the school can lay claim to good results from their first BYOD cohort.
For our school, what this means is that the policy, as the reaction from staff members suggested is not enough without guided support for staff, pupils and parents. We must be clear that we are thinking about solving issues that technology creates and that we have a clear framework for doing so. It is now up to me to ensure that our IT Director, our Teaching and Learning Coordinator and I deliver a wide-ranging support package to accompany the policy. I will let you know how it goes.
Bibliography:
Moane, F. (2019) Interweaving traditional and digital approaches: The development of blended learning at Sandringham School. Impact, the Journal of the Chartered College of Teaching, Special Issue 2019 Edtech [online]. Available at: https://impact.chartered.college/article/interweaving-traditional-digital-approaches-development-blended-learning-sandringham-school/ Accessed April 2nd 2019.