Teaching in a BYOD. What? Like it's hard?

I love movie quotes, so the "Legally Blonde" quote came to mind. I wanted to write this post for those teachers out there who are afraid of a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) program. The first thing many teachers say is "But how can I assign something if I don't know if they all have Word or iMovie or (fill in the blank here with the app du jour)?" My answer is simple. To paraphrase another famous quote, "There's a site for that!"

Your job as the teacher is to help your students gain the skills and master the content in your subject area, right? Now, take a look at the top of the Bloom's Taxonomy pyramid.

Create. That's where we're aiming. The recognized best use of technology in your classes is to have your students develop and demonstrate mastery by creating a product. So set the parameters of the assignment - what you want them to demonstrate - but let them get there in different ways. And no matter what wireless device they are using if they have Internet access, they can get there.There's a site for it.

For a recent summative assignment in my blended French class I wanted my students to show mastery of several structures such as comparisons, advanced negations and interrogatives and demonstratives. To tie it all together, I set the theme for the assignment as 'cars', ensuring the use of that vocabulary. I gave them some ideas for showcasing their knowledge such as an Xtranormal video, a comic strip, an animation, a Voice Thread and others. I pointed them to some iPad apps they could use if they chose, but everything they needed to do could be done with a web site. The students love having the autonomy of being able to choose the type of product they create. And studies show that that positive affect positively impacts the learning process.

That is not to say that you need to limit yourself to web sites. You don't. If there's a specific iPad app that you really want your students to use, there is always more than one way to skin a cat. Check out your school's iPad cart if you have one for that lesson. Or put the students in groups for that particular activity and group them by device so that they all have exposure to the app.

For the rest of the work, Google Drive or Open Office will handle the heavy lifting. And don't forget the power of creating a new audience for your students' work by having them blog.

Once you start thinking of ideas you can use in your BYOD classroom, the creative juices will start to flow and you'll have more than you can assign. Your students will have good ideas too, and they'll appreciate it when you validate those ideas by making a lesson which incorporates them.

For more ideas about teaching in a BYOD, checkout this article from Edutopia.