Skip to main content

A Letter From A "21st Century, BYOD Student"

Recently, one of my colleagues forwarded an e-mail that his daughter wrote to her teachers at the start of the school year. She is a 9th grader, who has participated in our "Go Wireless" Bring Your Own Device Initiative the last two years. 
Dear Teachers ,
My name is Cristiana H, and I'll be in your class this coming year. As a certified bring your own device student, I'm interested in ways to further digitize my learning environment. Currently I use my iPad as a note taking and organizational tool (Notability), as an E agenda and calendar (myHomework), and as an internet research tool. I also use it as a collaborative communication device in between teacher and student and student and student (Email). I'm hoping with your support to continue this practice, and further realize the potential of E learning. I'd be interested in exploring ways to turn in paperless assignments, presentations, and assessments. I'm confident, with your assistances, that I'll be able to realize this goal. Thank you so much,
Cristiana H
Our initiative has had the following goals:
  • Personalize the learning experience for students
  • Extend learning beyond the classroom walls
  • Enhance students 21st Century skills
  • Engage and Inspire student learning
  • Maximize the district's resources of time and talent
Cristiana definitely is personalizing her learning and working towards developing 21st Century skills. She also appears to be engaged and inspired when using her own device, and is looking to maximize the district's resources. Not only that, but she is a pretty good advocate for herself and her learning! I hope along with digitizing her learning environment, that she will explore ways to create products that demonstrate her learning. Here are a few tools that might accomplish this:


As we move into our third year of BYOD at the Middle Level, we are exploring ways to provide ALL students the opportunity to have a learning experience similar to Cristiana's AND prepare our teachers for students like Cristiana! Stay tuned!!

Comments

Anonymous said…
This is so cool!
Anonymous said…
Cristiana, I'm glad you liked it. I didn't have that graphic created when you went through the BYOD training, but you can access it and other resources now, here. I would love feedback on it, and suggestions from you on how we can make the BYOD experience a better one for you and your classmates!

Popular posts from this blog

Nos Chemins vers la paix: Award Winning Video!

Valley View Middle School French Imersion teacher, Heather Palmer created this award winning video, Nos Chemins vers la paix , for the Tel.A.Vision " Vision For America " Contest. Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com Powered by One True Media , Tel.A.Vision.tv allows students to create videos that share their vision for the future. Heather wanted to use this video to promote the Wiki she and her students created for "6 Billion Paths to Peace." On the wiki, Palmer states: Our project was inspired by the program " Six Billion Paths to Peace ", an initiative of the Shinnyo-en foundation. We like the challenge the program offers us: commit to making a difference in this moment, in this day, in this lifetime! Palmer received her award last week at the National Service Learning Conference, in Nashville, TN. Way to go, Heather! NOTE: A few weeks ago while looking at the copyright free music available on the site, I notice a cover of the "Spinal ...

Redefining Awesome...Connected Learning

Last September, Will Richardson challenged our faculty to " Redefine Awesome " in what learning looked like in our district. The last few weeks, have seen some great connected learning opportunities happening at Valley View Middle School that get at what Will was talking about.  Project Lead the Way Tim Berendt, a teacher in our Project Lead the Way program, began using Twitter this year as a way for his students to share the work they are doing with the outside world, and also as a tool for formative assessment.  Students tweet out what they hope to accomplish at the beginning of the class period, and then tweet what they completed at the end. In many cases, students have received feedback and encouragement from people outside the district, such as this exchange from Autodesk, the company that makes the software the students use!  Berndt did a great job at the start reminding students to follow our Web 2.0 Code of Ethics , and how they could use hashtags to label ...