The BYOD activity that I have chosen to review is an AP Chemistry class that I read about by looking in the google + plus community BYOD in the classroom that was listed on the BYOD Activity 3 page from our OLTD 509 BYOD seminar. You can find the description of the classroom procedures here. http://spotlight.macfound.org/featured-stories/entry/how-teachers-make-cell-phones-work-in-the-classroom
The class starts with the teacher sending out a text to all students asking a question related to the topic of the day. The lesson appears to be a bit more conventional, and students do their work on whiteboards and text in their responses. Any questions or difficult concepts can be recorded on the teacher’s iPad and uploaded to the class website right away for students to access. Students can use their phones to access online tutorials as required. Students also text answers to multiple choice quizzes in so class answers can be seen in real time, which provides another form of anonymous feedback. Students mainly require cellphones for this class. I found it interesting and when it goes smoothly the learning of the students would be meaningful because the learning is planned to take advantage of the features of the technology, not having the technology drive the learning. I think it reminds students that cellphones have more uses than just social texting, and it takes a tool that students are usually quite comfortable with and incorporates it into the learning in a way that makes sense and seems natural. As always, I wonder about equipment inequity. I know that not all students have cellphones or even if they do, are the plans they carry adequate for this use. Cellphones do appear to be more reliable than some other forms of technology, especially in our school this year. There is no mention of distraction or time on task, but by having the students accountable by requiring them to text in answers as the class progresses should alleviate some of those concerns. I think this shows that if a BYOD classroom is well planned and managed, it has great educational potential