Seneca Valley - Bring Your Own Technology

Bring Your Own Technology

Seneca Valley Middle School (SVMS) implemented a Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) program during the first semester of the 2013 school year with rousing successes. BYOT is a new trend in education that encourages students to bring their own personal mobile technology, such as Smartphones, tablet devices, and laptops, into the classroom to use for educational purposes. When considering such a program, the district initiated a parent survey to determine the availability of personal devices as well as potential parental support. The district discovered that 70 percent of parents with students in grades 7-12 were supportive of such a progressive program and more than 90 percent of students in grades 7-12 had access to a cell phone while 57 percent had access to a laptop, netbook, iPod or similar device. These numbers convinced the district that a pilot program would allow teachers and administrators to gauge how effective these tools would be when brought from home and used in the educational process. Five SVMS teachers, in classrooms ranging from English to math, participated in the district pilot program to test the effectiveness and feasibility of using these devices.  In the months since the inception of the BYOT program, personal devices have been used in a myriad of ways throughout the SVMS pilot classrooms. In a seventh grade English classroom, students work with their devices in small groups to find definitions for extended metaphors along with appropriate examples. Students engage in appropriate levels of conversation related to the topic and their determination to verify the information is impressive. In eighth grade, English students routinely use their devices to submit journal entries within the Moodle platform in addition to accessing QR codes for homework assignments and class messages from the teacher. Seventh grade history pilot teacher reported having great results with implementing BYOT. Students regularly use an on-line program, Socrative, for opening questions, surveys, games, and ticket out-the-door activities and questions.  Socrative is a very teacher-friendly tool to create quizzes and responses for monitoring student learning. The eighth grade math pilot class uses their personal devices to review materials from the previous day’s lessons, warm up for the lesson that is up coming, and submit answers to homework for the entire class to review. Students participate in various tasks daily and really enjoy the adventure while taking comfort in having their device with them. SVMS pilot program teachers are not the only ones excited by the opportunities of working with BYOT technology. Students have also enjoyed the convenience of using their own devices to participate in silent class discussions, openers to classes, or test preparation activities. "BYOT is a refreshing twist to the normal classroom and helps students a lot," states seventh grade BYOT student. An eighth grade student reports that, "BYOT is so cool, it allows us to use the technology we have in our hands constantly out of school, at school, and really helps us to learn using stuff we already know how to use." BYOT classes have also made accommodations for students who do not own devices so that they can also participate in this new wave of learning. Students are able to use school owned laptops, iPods and iPad’s whenever possible and sometimes work in groups to share devices.   You can obtain more information about the BYOT program by accessing our district website at  http://www.svsd.net/Page/8242.