As my peers
sought trips to tropical paradises, I spent Spring Break in one of my favorite
places, home. The place in which I call home is the suburbs of the Twin
Cities known as St. Michael, Minnesota. During my break, I consumed my time
pondering my blog topic and visiting my alma mater, Saint Michael-Albertville
High School (STMA). In doing so, I heard a rumor that STMA had implemented a
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program, commonly known as Project Phoenix within
the community. This quickly caught my interest as I had recently acknowledged
that BYOD programs existed, so I took initiative of conducting an interview with
the principal. The principal of STMA High School is Bob Driver. Upon his fifth
completed year as principal, he comes equipped with a background of over a
decade in English teaching and being voted the 2014-15 Central Minnesota
Principal of the Year. In short, Mr. Driver possesses the qualities necessary
to determine what is beneficial for the students of this decade. My concise
interview with Mr. Driver may be reviewed by the following summary.
I opened up
Mr. Driver to the conversation of how BYOD (Project Phoenix) had begun in STMA
and if there have been any beneficial results. I also entertained the bold
statement that BYOD may be more beneficial than going 1-1:
He
explained that the Bring Your Own Device program had started with about 10
middle school teachers supplied with around 5 respective Chromebooks. After the apparent
success, the move to the high school found 20 teachers with personal technology
in the classroom and promising results. Finally, the high school stands today
with around 40 teachers implementing the BYOD program and with no intentions of
turning back. He mentioned that not all 40 teachers necessarily have access to
5 Chromebooks each, which leads to organization among subject area teachers to
share a set of laptops. I may note that when speaking to a teacher who uses
BYOD and shares laptops, he felt as if BYOD was essential with the two
computer labs almost always in reserve for a school of 1700 students. As noted,
the school assigns Chromebooks for those who cannot provide a source of mobile
technology. For those of you unfamiliar with BYOD, the students are expected to
bring a personal mobile device (to be used on the school’s wifi network),
and those who are unable to do so will be issued the school’s Chromebooks for
the class period. It was no secret that with the students being issued
Chromebooks, the school was entertaining the effective emphasis of Google in
the classroom. Mr. Driver didn’t appear to state many cons other than the fact
that occasionally operating systems (Apple, Android, etc) may become an issue depending
on the program being used. Also, if a cell phone is used it is nearly
impossible to expand on anything more than a formative assessment, such as
Kahoot, on the small screen of a smartphone. When discussing the results of
BYOD and the future of technology in the school, Driver appeared to be pleased
with his results. BYOD gives the teachers an option to use technology when they
want it, not when they feel forced to use it. He commented that technology
isn’t the clear-cut answer, but enables teachers to enhance the learning
experience when used effectively. When asked to comment on the comparison with
1-1, he seemed to have a positive response. We agreed along the lines that the
idea of 1-1 is expensive in not only providing every student with a laptop, but
keeping up to date with technology and the repairs that come with it. As
previously mentioned, BYOD is beneficial in the manner that teachers can use
technology when they please; 1-1 works for a fraction of teachers, but forces
great teachers who don’t use technology to do so. Overall, when asked about the
future of technology in STMA, Mr. Driver was content with stating that his goal
would be to provide the school with more Chromebooks that are currently being
supplied.
The results?
Other than recently being recognized as one of the nations “Best High Schools” (U.S. News & World Report) and
repeatedly placing in the top five percentile in the state regarding
standardized tests, the school conducted a survey on Project Phoenix
specifically. One notable result was that 91% of students responded either
strongly agree or agree to: When we use our mobile devices, I am more
interested in class. The very stem of student success in the classroom
originates from a student’s interest or curiosity of a subject. Also, the
following are two (unedited) open-ended responses of middle school students
regarding Project Phoenix:
I think that it is
super cool that we get to use our mobile divices because its pretty easy
because we use them almost every day out side of school and know how to use
them effeciently so i think it is really cool that we get to use our phones and
ipods ect
I don't have my own
mobile device that i would choose to used in class so I like the fact that we
have iPads and Chromebooks to use. :)
Does Mr. Driver have a case on BYOD being the
goal for schools in the future? The provided links will lead you to the student
survey results and an article comparing 1-1 and BYOD programs.
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