Technology in the Classroom: Tools or

Toys?Debra Addison and Dr. Rebecca Cooper

Brenau UniversityCollege of Education

Georgia Academy of Science Conference

Bring Your Own Technology

The BYOT initiative was piloted in 7 Forsyth County Schools for 2 years, 2010-2012.

During the 2012-2013 school year, it expanded to include all 36 schools in the district.

It encourages students to bring cell phones, iPads, iPods, netbooks, Kindles, as well as other forms of hand-held technology for learning. My Cell Phone May 2

012

Hand-held Technology Before 2013

All personal electronic devices were to be turned off and in student lockers.

Offenders’ phones were confiscated and parents had to come to the school to pick up the devices.

Each year this became more difficult to enforce.

Students & Technology Today

78% of teens have a cell phone

47% have smartphones

Almost 1 in 4 have a tablet computer

93% have a computer or access to one at home

74% of teens ages 12-17 say they access the Internet on cell phones, tablets, and other mobile devices at least occasionally

95% of teens are online

70% of teens report using the Internet daily or many times a day

Potential Disadvantages

Learning distraction

Cost, damage, loss or theft of device

Student safety online

Use of technology for trivial activities

Equity- all students do not own devices

http://www.wordle.net/

Potential Advantage: Availability Students utilize

their own devices for instruction thereby increasing the number of school owned devices available for other students.

This increases students’ opportunities to use technology.

Personalized instruction

Students working on self-paced, math assignment

Girls are using two devices: laptop for instruction and personally owned tablet instead of paper

www.pendalearning.com

Potential Advantage: Differentiation

Potential Advantage: Paperless

Sharing Digital Notebook

www.evernote.com

Oceanography Interactive Study Guide 2013

My students said, “Where’s the paper?”

Potential Advantage:Immediate Feedback

WWW.STUDYSTACK.COM

Students create and share online games, puzzles, practice quizzes, or tests.

Useful for science vocabulary practice.

Example

WWW.SOCRATIVE.COM

Students complete a formative assessment as a Space Race

Potential Advantage: Active Learning

Students choose from a variety of projects

Fits different learning styles

Inquiry based learning

Students take more responsibility for their learning

Student engagement increases

Explore FossilsHow do fossils show the Earth has

changed over time? S6E5g Describe how

fossils show evidence of the changing surface and climate of Earth.

Assignment: Using the resources listed on Edmodo, describe the formation of 3 different types of fossils and how each fossil shows evidence of the changing surface and climate of Earth.

Create a product of your choice to show what your have learned.

Windows Live Movie Maker

Potential Advantage:Real World Connections

Students develop an awareness of how science connects to real life.

Students use real-time data to solve problems.

Students explore solutions for real-world problems.

Students support their ideas using facts from real scientists.

Students are investigating what causes seasons.

Is the length of daylight the same all over the world?

Research Question

How will the use of “hand-held technology” affect student engagement and achievement in a sixth grade Earth science classroom?  

Why BYOT?

Digital Citizenship

Development of 21st century skills:

Communication

CollaborationCritical

ThinkingCreativity

Digital Citizenship

“Digital citizenship is the norms of appropriate, responsible technology use.“(Ribble & Ribble, 2013)

NETSNSTANCTMGeorgia GPSCCGPS

21st Century SkillsCommunication and Collaboration

"It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed."

Charles Darwin Working together to solve problems.

21st Century Skills Creativity and Critical Thinking

“I can feel my brain working!” Student comment

The student who wrote the this note changed her feelings about technology after completing this project with her friend.

Site and Population

Middle School in Forsyth County, GA Rural area north of Atlanta Title One school 41% free or reduced lunches 73% White 12% Hispanic 9% African

American Mixed ability classes- gifted, advanced,

on-level, special education, and ELL are represented in all general education classes

Some ELL students also receive classroom support

Some special education students receive supported instruction with a teacher and parapro during science

Methodology 74 students in 6th grade and four units of Earth

science instruction 42 students in group A and 32 students in

group B Each group includes 1 inclusion science class

and one general science class. Group A Group BBoys 19 15Girls 23 17Special Education

8 2

ELL 9 5Gifted 1Title I

Methodology

Group A used hand-held technology for units 1 & 2 and group B did not.

All students used hand-held technology for units 3 & 4.

Activities for both groups were comparable.

Science Vocabulary Without Technology

WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY

A student chose to complete the typical vocabulary assignment without technology. She copied the definition, created colorful pictures and wrote a sentence for each word.

Science Vocabulary With Technology

A student used the camera on his cell phone to take pictures to represent each term.

Next, he used an app called PicCollage to create a visual for each vocabulary term related to weathering.

Data Gathering Methods:

Group A unit 1 & 2 posttest results will be compared to group B unit 1 & 2 posttest results to determine if the use of hand-held technology had an effect on student achievement.

Data Gathering Methods:

Engagement will be measured by the number of discipline slips given over the course of the four units.

The engagement of group B for units 1 & 2 will be compared to their engagement for units 3 & 4 to determine if the use of handheld technology had an effect on student engagement.

Student Achievement Results

Student Achievement is not yet available because the study is still in progress.

Teacher observations point to increased student achievement.

A survey of student perceptions of achievement indicate that students believe they learn more with technology.

Student Engagement Results

The number of discipline slips issued suggests students are more engaged using technology.

Teacher observations suggest that students are more engaged in learning, have fewer discipline problems, display a more positive attitude toward learning, and produce higher quality work when they are able to use hand-held technology.

A B0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Units 1 & 2Units 3 & 4

Conclusions on Engagement

Students accessed a variety of apps using their devices

Students seemed more willing to revise and edit their work

Student products were more varied and creative

Students summarized material from online sources

Students collaborated in groups and delegated responsibilities

Students reported being more excited about their work

Students seem to be more engaged in lesson

Students seemed enthusiastic about choosing a product to demonstrate their learning.

Student-created book on fossils.

Student Survey Results

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Agree or Strongly AgreeNot SureDisagree or Strongly Disagree

Limitations of Study Small, nonrandom sample of 74 students Mrs. Addison was the only teacher, and she does

not have a lot of experience using this technology.

Mrs. Addison is the teacher in the classroom and the researcher for this project, so she may have a bias for or against the use of technology for instruction.

Student absences resulted in missed classes, substituted assignments, and sometimes required a make-up test.

Technology glitches with Internet connection Difficulty creating comparable activities with

and without hand-held technology. Given the opportunity to use hand-held

technology for instruction, some students declined due to lack of a desire or lack of a device.

Future Areas of Study Getting started training for teachers

using BYOT. Best practices for using hand-held

technology in the classroom. Trouble shooting toolkit for teachers and

students. Organize dependable apps that work for a

variety of devices according to Bloom’s taxonomy and types of student created products.

Guidelines for determining how long a student project should take using different types of technology.

Streamline student assessment for a variety of products.

Technology: Tools or Toys?

Technology may be both depending on how and why it is used.

BYOT devices are here to stay.

You can teach an old dog new tricks!

Thank-youAny questions?

Contact Information Debra Addison Daddison@forsyth.k12.ga.us BYOT & Me blog

References Lenhart, A., Ling, R., Campbell, S., & Purcell, K. (2010).

Teens and mobile phones. Washington, DC: Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Madden, M., Lenhart, A., Maeve, D., Cortesi, S., & Urs, G. (2013). Teens and technology 2013. Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Teens-and-Tech.aspx

Stanley, C. (Writer), & Ellis R. (Reporter). (2012, May 6). At one school district, the motto is BYOT- bring your own technology. NBC Nightly News. Retrieved from http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/06/11567170-at-one-school-district-the-motto-is-byot-bring-your-own-technology?lite

Synan, S. (2012). Science-nets-s-sixth grade. Retrieved from https://www.georgiastandards.org/Standards/Pages/BrowseNETS-S/science-nets-grade-6.aspx

References Barnwell, P. (2012, May 30). Education week teacher:

Why twitter and facebook are not good instructional tools. Education Week American Education News Site of Record. Retrieved August 3, 2012, from http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2012/05/30/fp_barnwell.html

Hedberg, J. G. (2011). Towards a disruptive pedagogy: Changing classroom practice with technologies and digital content. Educational Media International, 48(1), 1–16. doi:10.1080/09523987.2011.549673

National Science Teachers Association. (2011). Quality science education and 21st-century skills introduction. Arlington, VA: National Science Teachers Association. Retrieved from http://www.nsta.org/about/positions/21stcentury.aspx

References

Ribble, M., & Ribble, M. (2013). Digital citizenship: Using technology appropriately. Retrieved from http://digitalcitizenship.net/

Forsyth County Schools. (2012, 17 12). Forsyth county schools byot initiative. Retrieved from http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/page/824

Keller, H. (2011, may 25). Collaboration quotes. Retrieved from http://www.brighthub.com/office/collaboration/articles/71425.aspx

NETS-S performance standards. (2012, June 2). Retrieved from Georgia Department of Education website: https://www.georgiastandards.org/standards/Pages/NETS-S-Performance-Tasks.aspx

Bolton, R. (Artist). (2013). No phone zone. [Print Drawing].