Bring Your Own Device

BYOD ("Bring Your Own Device" or sometimes called BYOT - "Bring Your Own Technology") is the one of the fastest growing concepts in education today. It refers to having students bring their own smart phones, tablets, or laptops into the classroom to enhance the learning experience.

For teachers, this is a great opportunity to utilize digital resources without having the expense of a computer lab. Teachers can have students watch videos, access e-textbooks, use educational apps, etc. - all to reinforce lessons being taught in the classroom. The bottom line... students will be more engaged, the devices facilitate interactive classroom projects, and students develop more 21st century skills.

Project Ideas

• Create a bulletin board at www.linoit.com and allow the students to post ideas, provide feedback, make inferences on a reading assignment, etc. Or allow them to upload photos from their phone. In my classroom, I created a canvas about Internet Safety and the students posted "advice that they would give" concerning online safety. Hint: After creating the canvas, be sure to shorten the URL so that the students can easily find it.

• Create a student poll using www.polleverywhere.com to assess learning. Another great website for quick polls is www.mentimeter.com.

• Use the camera feature to capture photos of plant life cycles, weather conditions, or geometric shapes found around us.

• Create a message board using http://wiffiti.locamoda.com and allow students to post ideas, feedback, or suggestions. My example board for BYOD suggestions - http://wiffiti.locamoda.com/boards/4121

"Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself."

~Chinese Proverb

Please add your ideas for BYOD projects in the classroom below: