Set some tech-
nology ground
rules. Your
equipment,
school, and
students are
ready to start
using social media
technology. However, this is a brave
new world for many classrooms. How
much freedom should students have
in educational social media experi-
ences? The realistic answer is that it is
up to school administrators and
teachers.
In our study, teachers had different comfort levels when it came to
sending students into cyberspace. At
one end of the spectrum, one teacher
allowed students to drive the experience. The sixth graders came up with
a strategy for going online and setting up their own email accounts and
were responsible for testing Hotseat in
school and at home. On the day of the
Don’t wait until
the last minute
to test the technol-
ogy. Work with your
tech support to en-
sure that the devices,
projectors, electronic
whiteboards, firewalls,
bandwidth, and email are ready to use
at least one week before the event.
Most social media tools provide a test
page or space for you to try it out
ahead of time. Go through tutorials to
prepare students and have them go
into the space a few days before the
event. Web streaming programs also
typically offer a test loop to check video and audio quality.
“We didn’t try out the audio ahead
of time in testing the stream and
didn’t have the audio for the first three
minutes of the program,” admitted
one teacher. Technical difficulties are
always possible, but you can prevent
most of them by testing ahead of time.
Embrace BYOT.
Have students
bring their own
technology when
resources are
scarce. Even
though more
schools are pur-
chasing mobile tech-
nologies, not every district has the re-
sources to make such a big investment.
One of the participating schools
was in a rural area with a limited
budget and no computer lab or
enough devices for each student.
The teacher sent letters home asking parents to loan their devices to
their children. The teacher noted that
some of the students “brought extra
iPads because their parents let them.
Those are quite expensive. They don’t
bring those in every day, but on special occasions their parents let them.”
This is also a great way to get parents
involved.
just for ISTE members!
Join us each week now through June for a series of
free webinars presented by members for members.
Participate live or download to watch on demand.
Learn about the latest ed tech issues, including:
•;Augmented reality in teaching and learning
•;Digital;age;and;flexible;classroom;learning;design
•;Maker movement in education
•;1: 1 strategies and implementation
•;BYOD implementation and models
Register today!
iste.org/resources
Learn something neweach week!
on the hottest ed tech topics
Free weekly webinars
