PROJECT 1 - PROGRAM EVALUATION PROPOSAL ON BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE
A PILOT BYOD PROGRAM
A PILOT BYOD PROGRAM
The project described below is a Program Evaluation Project on Bring Your Own Device. I began this project at Nolan Middle School and was the pilot program for the School District of Manatee County. This pilot also created a "paperless" classroom. This classroom used a tech-book and all products were completed using technology output.
EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP DEPARTMENT
D o c t o r a l P r o g r a m
PROGRAM EVALUATION PROPOSAL ACADEMIC AFFECTS OF IMPLEMENTING A BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE TO SCHOOL PROGRAM
Tamara K. Cornwell
National-Louis University
SECTION ONE: INTRODUCTION
The School District of Manatee County has a challenge with trying to keep up with the “latest and greatest” technological devices for educational use. It is not just in the cost of purchasing the equipment but the liability of theft, cost of damage and continuous maintenance and up keep.
In order to move students forward in their technological academic growth, with budget and staff cuts to contend with and the maintenance of computers with a five-year lifespan before the technology has a significant loss of accurate use; instituting a Bring Your Own Device to school program might be the solution.
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) enables students to bring their own technological devices and use them in the classroom. I have begun such as program at Nolan Middle School. Nolan is the first school in our district to institute BYOD.
Purpose
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is a program involving students being able to bring their personal technology devices to use in class as an educational tool. BYOD is new to our district and my school will be the first school approved to use student owned technological devices on campus. The purpose of the BYOD program is to try and alleviate the challenge of school districts keeping up with the latest technology and the maintenance of the technology. Students that cannot afford technology will be able to use school devices. With the inclusion of BYOD we will have enough school devices, to cover students who do not have their own personal devices. Research has indicated that use of technology increases student achievement (as cited in Farrell, p. 1). in a recent article in Scholastic Administrator Spring of 2013 titled: 10 Lessons From the Best District in the County, Farrell (2013) writes:
“Rather than lecturing, teachers act as facilitators, circulating among groups or leading students in interactive lessons. Results of this transformation are off the charts—the graduation rate for African-American students was 95 percent in 2012, up from 67 percent five years earlier. The overall graduation rate is the third highest in the state, and 88 percent of 2012 graduates are attending college, compared with 74 percent in 2007. Mooresville has accomplished this while keeping spending in check—among the state’s 115 school districts, it ranks 100th in spending per student at $7,463.” (para. 2 and 3)
While Mooresville School District used a one-to-one initiative, a program in which each student is issued an individual computer, which is purchased and maintained by the school district, the Bring Your Own Device program will not have these types of expenses. Our students will bring and maintain their own equipment. It is assumed that this program will provide a cost savings to our school and district through no technology loss, up-keep nor up-grade needed. These costs would be passed on to the families who already purchase technology for student use and entertainment.
Rationale
Back in August of 2012, our Administrative team, met with the Assistant Superintendent of Support Services. The Assistant Superintendent asked what we needed for the upcoming school year. We needed a guest network server to begin to grow a Bring Your Own Device program in my school. I wondered why only Title 1 schools were being provided with guest networks? Nolan Middle School (NMS) is the highest performing middle school in the district. We currently have more students taking on-line courses than any other middle school in the district. NMS has the most students taking high school courses during their middle school years and we had a 100% pass rate in our end of course exams in both Algebra and Geometry. We are a district leader in scores on FCAT, benchmark and FAIR assessments. We made AYP in 2012, being the only district middle school to have ever accomplished this goal. Nolan Middle School has consistently maintained an “A” grade and we have never lost student population and have continued growth due to our challenging and engaging academic programs. We are achieving the top scores in comparison to other middle schools within our district. We needed the guest server in order to continue to provide technological advancements to our students through the increased band width the guest network would provide. Our current server was barely able to support the needs of giving the FCAT reading test to just 6th grade. How would we be able to add seventh and eighth grade, if we were experiencing trouble with implementing just the 6th grade FCAT Reading testing?
The need request resulted in the installation of a guest network at Nolan Middle School. In January of 2013 our guest network server was installed.
I had surveyed my staff at the end of the school year in 2011-2012 concerning the staff development they would like for me to offer. The resounding response was to learn more technology, applicable for classroom teacher and student use. I contacted our IT Specialist, and asked her for a few suggestions. During August of 2012-2013, we began training our teachers in several technology programs. The program our faculty liked the most was Edmodo. The best way to describe Edmodo is that it is similar to an educational face-book with an on-line portfolio type of storage. Several teachers opened Edmodo accounts and began developing lessons for their students through Edmodo learning. The science department worked cooperatively and began to grow the student’s Edmodo experience through the development of Edmodo labs and student cooperative group experiences. Students were beginning to develop iMovie trailers, power points, picot-charts (on-line posters), prezi’s, weebly’s ( web sites), and pal toons (make your own comic strips). Our students and teachers were on 21 Century learning fire! Now that we had the guest network to help support our band width needs, the difficulty was in not having enough technological devices. We were slowly writing grants for lap tops and iPads but, were having difficulty providing current equipment at school; although students had better devices at home. A Bring Your Own Device program appeared to be the answer.
The challenges facing our BYOD program.
A. The school's guest network being able to support the devices, and the students staying on the guest network and not using “Hot Spots”.
B. The students staying on task using technological devices for educational use only and the classroom management strategies that will need to be put into place.
C. Student and parent understanding of BYOD use, responsibility and maintenance issues.
D. The need for a BYOD use contract that is approved by the district and supported by the teachers, staff, administrators, parents and students. This contract will include information on student misuse of technology. The discipline matrix will need to be updated to include BYOD misuse.
E. Teachers' training on proper student device use in the classroom.
F. Teachers' and students' opt-out of the BYOD program.
G. School parameters for student BYOD use and misuse.
H. Surveys for teacher, parent and student input, information, assessments, and suggestions. These surveys will be able to assess how the BYOD program is working and what improvements, suggestions, and deletions may need to be made. We will use an on-line survey (right now I am looking at google docs which automatically gathers and post data results as the survey comes in).
I. Use of BYOD during student transportation and school sponsored functions (dances, sporting events, field trips).
J. Funding resources for software and supplemental equipment.
H. Parent training and information sessions.
I. Creating an advisory counsel for the industry certification program - Excellence in Science, Technology, Enginnering, Arts and Math (eSTEAM) which includes students, teachers, parents, and business mentors.
Tying into creating a BYOD program at my school, I have also added a Career Academy called eSTEAM (Excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math). This career academy offers industry certification within the academy program. A career academy organizes studies with recognized certifications around career fields, clusters and themes. It integrates core and elective course curriculum around established career fields. The career academy is an FLDOE, Manatee County Chamber of Commerce and Florida Workforce initiative. It ties the needs of the workforce to the studies of the student. If an academy student passes a career based industry certification test, the student becomes certified in the field of study. Some examples of certifications include; FLASH, Photoshop, DreamWeaver Web Design, Solid-Works to name just a few. The school also receives money for every passed test and school grade points toward our State grade assessment. Academy students usually attend many of the same core courses. An academy program is a school-within a school model. These courses align their core course work with career academy enhancements.
Goals
Nolan Middle eSTEAM academy will offer certifications in; FLASH, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Web design, and Solid-Works. Our 2013-2014 eighth graders will be the first grade in which the career academy will be offered. Students must apply to the academy and will attend the same Science and History courses along with choosing an eSTEAM technology course to support technological projects. These core courses will use technology only within the classroom. The eSTEAM science and math courses will be paperless. I held the first parent information meeting on February 12, 2013. The response was amazing.
Two out of six of the participating teacher’s eighth grade science classes piloted the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program and tied in the BYOD with the eSTEAM career academy studies. I was able to afford to purchase the needed materials to support the eSTEAM courses through dollars saved by not needing to purchase technology and the money generated by the industry certification tests that student’s pass. I monitored the increases in eighth grade student's Earth Space Science benchmark tests in science concepts in the science-technology course in comparison to the same eighth grade Earth Space science course not using pure technology. The great thing about the combination of these two systems, are the funding sources, from the State, to help purchase technological equipment and enhancements. This funding was able to keep us up to pace on the latest and greatest use of technology support material within the classroom, as well as, purchase equipment for students who are unable to afford their own devices.
The goal of BYOD is to be able to move our students into the 21st Century of learning and increase student engagement and understanding. I have observed students choosing to use technology during their free time. I also noticed that many students were choosing project assessments using some form of technology such as imovie or power point types of projects. Many of these projects required more time spent on task as opposed to a poster type of project representation. This increased time on task and therefore increased student engagement enhancing a greater gain of knowledge. These personal observations were gathered during classroom walk-throughs.
In 2011-2012 we begun to test our students on FCAT Reading using tests that are given on-line. In 2012-2013 we will be testing our 6th and 7th graders in FCAT Reading using technology. Students must feel comfortable using technology in order for testing to not be affected by lack of comfort.
Within our district teacher evaluation system three of the components are to monitor teacher’s using technology within their classroom settings. The development of the BYOD program will enable Nolan Middle School to offer classrooms that are paperless and develop a curriculum program using mainly technology enhancements. My assumption, in these technological classrooms, is that student engagement will increase and have a direct impact on increased test score results. I will measure this assumption by monitoring the participating Science teacher’s classes through classroom walk-throughs and her Earth-Space Unit One Science benchmark results.
Curriculum Framework.
I used a Social Behaviorist curriculum framework format. The Social Behaviorist position seems to fit with the approach I am currently purposing. I analyzed what worked for the needs of today’s world student. (as cited in Schubert 1996 pp.171-173). Through this analysis it is my hope that I will see an increase in student engagement and overall performance.
Research Questions
Domain A.
What effect did the institution and use of a BYOD program for the selected 8th grade science students have on their science achievement grades, compared to other students who are not involved in BYOD, and therefore do not use technology in their classrooms to the extent as the BYOD students, as measured by the results of the Earth Space unit one benchmark assessment test?
Sub-Questions for Domain A: (I used an open-ended student survey to gather this information).
1. What do students who are involved in a pilot BYOD program at one middle school report as working well in the program?
2. What do students who are involved in a pilot BYOD program at one middle school report as not working well in the program?
3. What suggestions do students who are involved in a pilot BYOD program at one middle school report as suggestions for improving the pilot BYOD program?
Domain B.
What are the issues involving the start-up of a BYOD program for selected 8th grade students (open ended survey questions) in one middle school at the student level, the instructional level (survey and interview the Science Teacher), the administrative level (Interview Interim Director of Technology and District Technology Specialist), and the school level parents (survey parents of four 8th grade Science classes)?
Sub Questions for Domain B:
1. How will the student computer guest server support BYOD? How will we monitor “hot spots” and other apps that can allow students to go around the server?
2. How will the students be taught the expectations so that they have full, consistent understanding of the responsibility of using BYOD?
3. How will I notify parents of the penalties for students who do not follow the expectations and guidelines for BYOD use?
4. How will I monitor student engagement, of the BYOD student user to the non-user?
5. What implications for district-wide application of a BYOD program are revealed in the study of this BYOD pilot program at one middle school?
6. How will students who cannot afford technology, compete academically with students who can?
7. Is there a cost savings in using BYOD?
Conclusion
It is my aspiration through this program evaluation to gather evidence that might reveal if using technology in the eighth grade science classroom will enhance student engagement and that Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs might give schools the ability to afford to have current technology in every student’s hands.
I researched and gathered data on the number of secondary students who own technological devices. I gathered the number of Nolan Middle School students allowed to use technology by counting the number of technology contracts that are signed and submitted.
The purpose of allowing students to bring and use their technological devices within the classroom is to bring their technological World into the classroom for curriculum use. I am hoping that the benefits would be to enable schools to afford up to date technology and align curriculum standards to real world study. Using technology within the eighth grade science classroom might enhance student engagement, and increase student performance due to the use of technological tools. It is my assumption that Eighth grade Science benchmark test results might significantly improve in students using BYOD.
SECTION TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Introduction
To first begin the process of implementing a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program within a school you must see the need. The need should be a program in which students, parents, teachers, support staff and district staff all have buy-in. A program in which students bring their own device has the benefits of a 1-to-1 school computer program. A 1-to-1 is a program in which schools purchase and maintain a computer for every student to personally use at home and school. BYOD has this same advantage of a 1-to-1 program without having to purchase or maintain the technology. I would suggest, based on the review of the literature and my own experience, committing to at least a two year start-up implementation; one year of planning -- including protective restrictions and regulations, and one year to pilot and make changes as necessary. I am planning on using a Patton like developmental evaluation, allowing for adaptation to “changed circumstances and altering tactics based on emergent, innovative and transformative processes” (Patton, 2008, p.137). I think allowing for adaptations will grow a BYOD program into a transformative process. The second year should include the changes needed to support teachers, students, parents and district needs, to help the program grow into a success.
Superintendent Edwards, on building a foundation for technological use within Mooresville, North Carolina schools states, “It took a good two years to build trust and a sense of shared aspiration” (as cited in Farrell, 2013, para. 10). Mooresville school district is known as a district that is on the forefront of technology use. Mooresville has, “emerged as the de facto national model of the digital school” (Farrell, 2013, para. 6). The digital resources at Mooresville are immense; many articles are written about their 1 to 1 computer program in which every student is issued a laptop. Parents pay a yearly fee for the use of the laptop and a fee for maintenance (Schwartz, 2012). Still these laptops have to be replaced and maintained. In a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program the technology and maintenance is the responsibility of the student and family. A BYOD system gives the autonomy to allow for personal technological choice and does not limit the user to one format.
Technology use in the classroom.
I had noticed during my classroom walkthroughs that more students participated in class activities and had greater engagement while using technology. I then wondered if this observed engagement would correlate to increased student achievement. According to Kulik’s Meta-Analysis Study: “Students using computer-based instruction score at the 64th percentile on tests of achievements compared to students without computers who scored at the 50th percentile” (as cited in Schacter, 1999 p. 4). As I continued to look at technology use within schools and the improvement on student achievement, I looked once again at Mooresville, North Carolina School District and over a four year span of time they saw their core-subject proficiency scores increase by 20 percentage points and their graduation rate rise by fourteen percent (Quillen, 2011). I pondered the question of effective teacher training in presenting technology within the classroom, research by Brown and Warschauer (2006) supports, “A key factor constraining effective use of technology in schools is teachers’ limited expertise in the professional use of computers” (p.600). The teacher participant I will be observing has a thirst for learning new technology techniques and applying these techniques within her classroom. Teacher training and support is essential as you consider the addition of a BYOD program or any technological use. A program could fail without this type of support.
I next pondered about how to affordably increase the use of technology within our classrooms using updated technological mechanisms. As reported in the Sarasota Herald, the School District of Manatee County is currently operating under a 2.4 million dollar deficit (Bergen, 2013). There is a need for cost saving ventures that increase student progression. Teachers at my school at my school often complained about having to share computer carts and two on-campus computer labs. Teachers often found that aging equipment would not support new technology-enhanced educational programs, including educational social media tools such as Edmodo. I needed a plan on how to put up-to-date technology in the hands of every student during financially lean times. The idea for Bring Your Own Device was born, or rather borrowed, for according to Tech Republic BYOD Business Strategy Survey, “62 percent of companies have or plan to have BYOD by the end of 2013” (Hammond, 2013, para.1). The business world first opened the door to Bring Your Own Device. They have moved slowly due to the IT challenges and the prospect of serious security issues. A suggestion for beginning a BYOD program is to move slow and start small, find out which devices are most used in the office and open the use to a small group of people. (Careless, 2013).
The same bring your own technology business application could be mimicked in schools. I have permission to pilot a program in my school. I opened my school BYOD program to the 1000 students attending my school, but I will monitor 44 students who are beginning in the Nolan Middle Industry Technology Academy called eSTEAM, an acronym for excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. I will monitor an Earth Space Science Unit between August and the end of October using a pre and post test. I will explain this process in the Methodology portion of this thesis. This study will help my district to explore the possibility of expanding a Bring Your Own Device program to other schools.
Bandwidth requirements.
From my experience, the first step to beginning to implement a Bring Your Own Device program is to make sure your school has the adequate bandwidth to be able to support this type of use in each class. Bandwidth is associated with how fast your systems will run and the number of users your system will allow.
We also put in switches to be able to use the guest network throughout the school. The switches assist with multiple users being able to operate on the guest network. In order to understand your school’s bandwidth capacity, you can use a simple electronic calculator found on a site such as Numion – Bandwidth calculator; under the section labeled Server Requirement Calculator Kessler lists: “Use this calculator to determine the bandwidth needed for your web server” (Kessels, 2005, para. 1). There are other calculations that can be found on Kessler’s website which may be useful, depending on a school’s need.
Guest network.
I had a guest network installed into our school internet system through our district technology department. The guest network protects my students from leaving our filtered network system. These filters are put into place and maintained by the district. The filtered system prevents students from going onto undesired sites. An on campus guest network is a network for technology internet protection as well. The guest network protects our internet system from worms that students may bring in on their technological devices.
The cost for our guest network was around $25,000, which included switches, radio replacement and all parts and labor. This cost may vary depending on your infrastructure needs and campus square footage. A guest network enables students to attach to our school protected network, but prevents computer viruses from entering our system and limits students from visiting inappropriate sites. According to Mitchell (2009) a guest network may be defined as:
A small section of an organization's computer network designed for use by temporary visitors. This sub-network often provides full Internet connectivity, but it also strictly limits access to any internal (intranet) Web sites or files. Besides helping to keep an organization's internal information private, guest networks help avoid spreading any computer worms that visitors may have on their systems (par.1).
I feel a guest network is extremely important to protect the student from going out on the internet without any protective filters.
Contract for students and parents.
Once I had the protective internet support systems in place to operate student technology devices, I had to think about how to protect my school and district from incidents of theft, damage, or loss of devices on campus. We created a contract that students and parents agreed to and signed before use was allowed. The student technology contract went through our district legal process and was approved by our district legal department. (Sample of contract provided in Appendix).
Next, I held a meeting with students, which I videotaped and placed on the school’s website. This video provided information to students on guidelines of using their privately owned technology while on campus. It also was used for new students to view for guidelines on proper technology use while on campus as well as parents being able to view. The devices were the student’s responsibility to care and maintain. Once a student had been trained, stickers were given out to properly label a contracted student owned electronic devices. Students and parents both had signed the use contract. Any student-held technological device in use on campus during school hours must have a sticker.
Teachers constantly monitor every device being used in their classroom and check that all devices have a sticker. We also suggested that students put password protection on their device and to download a free application called “Find My iphone” which would allow the owner to know where their device was located through Global Positioning System (GPS), as well as let the person who had possession of the device know who the device belong to for easy of return. This App allows the device owner to close down their phone from a computer rendering the phone unusable and a text message can be sent to allow for quick return.
I next held a meeting with my teachers. In the meeting, we explained to teachers that students needed to stay on the guest network because there are filter protections that the guest network offers to help ensure that students are using their devices on appropriate sites for educational purposes. Teachers were instructed to check for the tower icon on the student’s electronic devices and to monitor the tower icon from their computers to check for a device that is off network. An off network device is referred to as a “hot spot”. Hot spots enable students to go out on any site using their device as the radio frequency. Other devices can attach to a hot spot as well and this will bounce the signal from one device to another and reach outside of the network. The “hot spot” becomes the means of reaching an off network site that might be unsuitable for educational purposes or student use. Using a hot spot is not allowed, and Nolan teachers were taught how to monitor for proper use.
Pedagogical considerations.
“A teacher with deep pedagogical knowledge understands how students construct knowledge and acquire skills; and develop habits of mind and positive dispositions towards learning” (Koehler, 2011, para. 1). In my experience, I have observed that a teacher can make or break an educational program. When I began the Bring Your Own Device program at Nolan Middle School, some stakeholders were hesitant. Some of the comments that were shared with me were that the students would use the devices inappropriately no matter the precautions. Some teachers were worried about dealing with multiple devices, many of which they would not have an idea of how to assist the student on a technological issue if the student became stuck (Brown et al., 2006). One of the biggest concerns was about the students who did not have, nor could afford, access to any technological device and how we could help them with the same learning experience as those students who had much technological access and experience. I took some of these concerns and began to try and problem solve. I have found that when teachers’ feel that their concerns are being addressed, they often participate more openly and are willing to assist with the solution to a challenge rather than just giving up.
A phrase that summarizes my views and approach on BYOD for students is:
“It is the difference between teacher centered technology—using a PowerPoint presentation—and student-centered technology—giving students access to the Web to solve problems, create work, and add value to their educational journeys” (Costa, 2013, p.5). As educators we need to look at the potential of moving our students into the 21st century global information age. We must strive toward preparing them for this unknown fast paced future, by providing them with guidelines and opportunities for exploration in the field of technology. We are currently on the frontier of technological learning and we observe daily what a natural tool technology has become for many of our students in both communication and entertainment use. Our student's futures will find greater enhancements in the field of technology. We should continue to prepare our students for technology use within their future work force opportunities in an ever-growing global society.
Definition of terms:
To facilitate the reader on understanding the terms used during the implementation of our Bring Your Own Device program, I have provided definitions of terms for better insight on the meaning and use. I will use these terms throughout this inquiry[TC1] .
The literature review of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) was difficult, due to this subject being a new program within our global school community. As I continue my research, I will look for articles from schools and scholars that have implemented a BYOD program. The business community has operated a Bring Your Own Device program a little ahead of the school system’s beginning this process. Some of my research and ideas for implementation came from a business model. It will be important as I proceed with a BYOD program to include all of the stakeholders in frequent updates and tutorial opportunities. In my experience many programs that have failed have done so through lack of communication and stakeholders’ participation. While I will use both formative and summative evaluation methods within my methodology, I am interested in using the developmental evaluative process as well (Patton, 2008). The transformation that will develop during this program evaluation will be important to monitor, so a sound repeat of the process will be possible.
SECTION THREE: METHODOLOGY
Research Design Overview
My intention in gathering the data for my study is to determine the affect of using technology within the classroom on student learning and engagement. As Patton describes intervention within a program and the causality of the observed outcomes he questions: “Did the program intervention cause the observed outcomes?” (Patton 2008 p. 405). It is my desire to engage the primary stakeholder in a developmental evaluative way (Patton, 2008). To reflect on answering my research questions, my method for gathering the data must be both qualitative and quantitative. This will not only give me the ability to observe through classroom walk-throughs but also to find out how the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program is perceived by the teacher, students and parents all of whom are stakeholders, implementing this program. “It is important for primary stakeholders to know firsthand what imperfections exist-and to be included in deciding which imperfections they are willing to live with” (Patton, p.408). Through surveying my participants, I will strive to create a program that will be able to be repeated at other schools and districts. I assume there will be imperfections found and I will work through these challenges to grow and continually develop the BYOD program.
Domain A.
I will complete classroom walk-throughs on an 8th grade Science teacher’s eighth grade science classes. Two of her Science classes will use total technological immersion (paperless) and the other four will use minimal technology. All of the participatory classes will be taught by the same teacher. The two science technology class will be an eSTEAM class and will support the industry certification software applications within the standard based curriculum courses. These industry certifications will be reinforced through project-based assignments. The eSTEAM students will work on the project based assignments during the eSTEAM science and an eSTEAM technology class. During my walk- throughs, I will be monitoring student engagement through question response data, gathered by counting the number of students in the class and the number of students who respond to teacher directed questions. This data can be gathered through class computer programs called “Poll Everywhere” and Edmodo. These programs measure the number of responses given to a particular question for, the students respond using an electronic device. The teacher’s eSTEAM classes will be using Edmodo and her regular science classes will be using “Poll Everywhere”. I will also monitor the teacher’s class-work and homework assignment grades through an on-line program called FOCUS. I will compare the number of students completing class and homework assignments in the teacher’s eSTEAM science courses to those students taking her regular Science courses. To measure academic growth of the first Science unit, the teacher will give a pre-test in August and a post-test in October. These tests will measure the Earth Space Science unit, which is the first unit taught in eighth grade science. Earth Space Science is tested on FCAT and currently has poor results across the district. This is partially due to the fact that the School District of Manatee County core curriculum does not cover Earth Space Science due to sixth grade focusing on life science, seventh grade on mechanical science and eighth grade on physical science. Earth Space Science must be a supplemental section at the beginning of eighth grade so that in April, just before FCAT, it can be reinforced. Science teachers at each middle school have to assess this data and supplement Earth Space Science material. I will compare the benchmark test results between the eSTEAM science class and the regular science class in this Earth Space Unit.
Domain A sub-questions.
On questions 1-3; I will give an open-ended question survey to students participating in BYOD and eSTEAM and gather the responses to these sub questions.
Domain B.
The issues with beginning the BYOD program involve all of the participants and known and unknown issues that may arise. I was invited to speak, on March 6, 2013 at a district leadership class to describe how we have begun the BYOD process, other district schools are awaiting our results.
Domain B Sub-Questions.
In January I put in a guest server. This server is for student use and filters inappropriate internet use and prohibits students from using improper sites and performing improper non-educational activities. The guest server assists with multiple users and enables the school monitoring programs to run without interruption. Hot spots (the ability for some devices to provide independent wi-fi network) can be monitored through our main server. We can pin point where a student is located if they are off the school network and using a hot spot server.
My eSTEAM team and I wrote a student / parent contract including; responsibilities, liabilities, theft, maintenance, and use-misuse with established consequences which is included in the appendix of this thesis. Two of my eSTEAM teachers presented the expectations to our students through sixth, seventh and eighth grade Science classes. This ensured consistencies in student understanding. I will be able to provide the iMovie trailer used for this training upon request.
The school behavior/discipline plan will need to include consequences for misuse of BYOD. Parent informational sessions will need to be continuously held. Concerns and challenges will need to be addressed and solutions established. I worked with administrative staff to add the technological procedures and consequences process to the Nolan Middle discipline matrix.
The new expectations will be posted on-line on the school website within the discipline matrix information. I informed the parents and students of the new expectations at parent information nights and at school-parent meetings.
Students who wish to use technology, but do not own their own devices, will be assigned devices using school issued technology, State funding sources to purchase technology for students use can be gained through the career academy certification successes and through gifts and grant funds. It is our current plan to issue these devices for students to take home. I will need to work with the district on a student contract for these technology device loans and whether an insurance policy exists on replacing devices that may be lost, damaged or stolen.
Participants
The key student participants were chosen due to their participation in the eSTEAM industry certification for which they had to apply. The comparison groups will be chosen by random placement in 8th grade science with the participating teacher. Parents of the students that are in the eSTEAM class will be surveyed. The teacher participant was chosen due to her interest in increasing technological use within her classroom. Interview participants are chosen based on their knowledge and expertise of the subject of technology. The participating teacher and I are very excited to begin this program, she has shared a renewal of attitude and looks forward to next year as Patton reminds us, “the more modest and attainable goal of pleasing the primary intended users” (Patton, 2008 p. 396).
Data Gathering Techniques
In gathering the data for evaluating the BYOD program, I intend to use surveys, interviews of district and school personnel, observations through classroom walkthroughs, and comparing pre and post test scores in Earth Space Science unit one. I will complete this data gathering between August and October of 2013 and will explain the results of the gathered data information. Patton writes about the importance of data gathering techniques when he describes: “Credibility includes the perceived accuracy, fairness, and believability of the evaluation and the evaluator” (Patton, p. 396).
Surveys.
In my thesis a formative evaluation will be given in the form of a survey to focus on the improvement of the Bring Your Own Device system (examples of the student and parent, teacher surveys are found in the Appendix). Students, parents and the teacher will be surveyed first on the expectations and type of technology devices students will use. I will also ask what are my participants’ worries and expectations at the beginning of the program in August. This qualitative measure will help to determine some of the possible challenges to overcome. I will complete a technology inventory to be able to provide students who may not have the needed devices with appropriate equipment. In October, I will survey my participants on what is working and what is not working within their science technology class. I will also question them on which programs and APPs have provided the greatest influence on learning. I will use both fill in the box and a four answer response to avoid an uncertain middle of the road response. (Patton, 2008)
Interviews.
I interviewed the interim director of technology support within the School District of Manatee County. I will find out the specifics of implementing a guest network and include the district’s plan for the implementation of technology use as currently mandated by the Florida DOE according to a summary from the 2013 Florida Senate Bill CS/CS/SB 1076 from the Committee on Education, quote:
Integration of Technology into the Classroom.
The law establishes new requirements that integrate technology skills and knowledge into K-12 classrooms. The law: Expands software applications for students with disabilities in pre-K through grade 12; Requires the middle grades career and education planning course to be internet-based and to emphasize entrepreneurship skills; and Requires new mechanisms for students to demonstrate digital skills and knowledge:
o A Florida Cyber Security Recognition and a Florida Digital Arts Recognition for
elementary school students; and
o A Florida Digital Tools Certificate for middle school students.
By December 31, 2013, the law requires the Department of Education to contract with one or more technology companies or affiliated non-profit organizations that have industry certifications on the Industry Certification Funding List or the Postsecondary Education Industry Certification Funding List to develop the new recognitions and certificate. The law requires the recognitions and the certificate to be available to all public school students in elementary schools and middle schools, respectively, at no cost to the school district or charter school.
Mandates from the State with no funding allocations, as noted previously, are common and the implementation of technology within schools is becoming ever more important as we continue to strive to keep up with the 21 century needs in both education a business.
I interviewed the participating teacher, and focus on her expectations for operating two classes using strictly technology and her other four classes using intermittent technology and have her describe her experiences. I will complete at least two face-to-face interviews this teacher to gather and record change in implementation as the BYOD program advances.
Observations.
I monitored student engagement during the classroom walk through process by counting the number of responses from students in the technology classroom as can be gathered through the use of poll everywhere (an APP that students can use to respond to teacher directed questions) and compare the number of students who raise their hands or use a white board during response in the non-technology rooms. I will complete one walkthrough per every two weeks to gather these results. I am proposing a summative evaluation through measuring student academic gains on an Earth Space Science unit using a pre-test and post-test and comparing the 8th grade Science class using only technology with the class using intermittent technology. The results of the Earth Space Science Unit desegregated data will be shared in this thesis upon completion. This summative evaluation and results will appear in the Appendix of this thesis.
Data Analysis Techniques
When I have gathered all of my data I have a plan of using several techniques to analyze the data. I will use a frequency distribution to simplistically gather consistencies of my participants such as age, race, gender and other such commonalities. For my pre and post-test data I used a descriptive statistics and report the Mean, Median and Mode resultants of students using technology exclusively to those who are intermittent users. I used a dependent t-test to see if the mean of the two comparison groups is statistically significant. This analysis will help with data accuracy and the avoidance of error, “the analysis should include attention to potential sources of error, and, where possible, calculate and report the degree of error” (Patton, 2008 p. 404). I used a cross tabulation comparing gender responses to survey questions to see if there is a significant difference. These results may offer future study options, dependent on results. I used a text analytical to see if I have consistent responses in the survey for open fill in the blank response (Leedy, P.D., Ormrod, J.E. 2013).
Ethical Considerations
Permission was gained from all surveyed and reported students, participating student’s parents and adult participant. No names will be used when reporting data to protect privacy and confidentiality. Participants were chosen at random except for eSTEAM (industry certification program covering excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) students who applied for the technology enriched science course. All District guidelines will be followed and all guidelines involving minor protection.
Conclusion
Once the data was gathered, the methodology for the reporting of the data is extremely important. Knowing that “all data collection is subject to some measurement error” (Patton, p.403). It is my objective to minimize this error as much as possible.
Understanding that “interpretation depended on understanding factor analysis” (Patton, p. 400). It will be most important to scrutinize my results for greatest comprehension.
The goal of my thesis was to have the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program repeated within other schools in my district and throughout the State. The proper gathering and reporting of the data is extremely important so results can be repeated and found worthy of trial within other schools.
SECTION FOUR: FINDINGS AND INTERPRETATIONS
Findings
In analyzing my results I used both quantitative and qualitative data. My quantitative data included four classroom walk throughs over an eight week trial. I measured classroom engagement by comparing a regular science class and the number the overall responses from a teacher’s question and counted the number of hands raised, to an online teacher posted question and the number of responses recorded by participating students. In both situations the teacher only posed a question one time. I also measured the Earth Space Science Unit scores on a pre and post-test and recorded the results of a regular class as compared to the technology classes. My qualitative data included a pre and post survey of participating teacher, students and parents. I also completed interviews of the participating teacher and a district technology director.
Survey
I mailed out surveys to forty one parents twenty-one parents and students replied. The results of the survey indicated that the parents were very satisfied with their students using their own device within the classroom. The parents often indicated that they felt this type of technology use within the classroom was helping to prepare their student for their future and helped develop their skills as a 21st century learner. The parents also indicated that they were interested in learning more about technology themselves. So in response to this request I developed a parent university which the students facilitated. The largest parental concern for using technology within the classroom was the potential for improper use and the possibility of theft or damage to their student’s computer. The student’s response was very positive. Many of the students wrote about how much more interesting, fun and engaging their science class was with the technological inclusion. They felt they were using and growing in technology use through project based learning. The major concern about using technology within the classroom was a student using it improperly and having the potential of effecting the BYOD program. I can electronically provide the charts of the responses upon request.
Interview
The pre-program interview of the teacher indicated that the teacher was willing to be flexible with the development of her paperless classroom. She was excited to have the opportunity to include technology into her classroom setting and shared that planning for this class gave her a renewal of her teaching craft. One of her largest concerns was being able to cover the science curriculum through technology resources.
During the district technology director interview, he shared his concern with the district’s ability to have the band width necessary to offer a BYOD program to every school. He shared that our district was way behind in being able to support our current technology needs. He noted that this was an area in need of attention and was so critical that the lack of infrastructure could shut our technology needs down. His biggest worry was in trying to keep our district afloat as we worked on catching up with the improvements on technological infrastructure.
Observations
As part of the quantitative data I observed three classrooms four times over an eight week period of time. During my walk through I counted the number of students present and I counted the number of responses to teacher questions. In the comparison group I noted the number of hands raised to a teacher posed question. In the two technology classes I gathered a screen shot of the number of responses to a teacher posed question. I compared the results below in chart A being the data gathered and charts B, C, D and E being the graphs of the data. The overall results of student engagement was 67% higher for the technology classes in comparison to the regular classroom.
I gathered greater quantitative data on student achievement by monitoring the assessment scores of Earth Space Science Unit 1 on a regular science comparison class and the two monitored science technology classes. In Chart F I list the Pre-Test scores for the assessments. In Chart G I list the Post-Test results by listing the raw achievement scores of the comparison class and the two technology classes. In Chart H I posted the gains of the Florida Achieves data and compared the two technology classes with the regular class.
Interpretations
The information from the qualitative research was of great insight on how participants felt about the Bring Your Own Device program. The information gathered assisted me in being able to offer the support needed for the teacher, students, parents and district and assisted the program into successful growth during the first year of implementation. The surveys helped provide me with information on how the parents wanted support in learning more about their student’s technological use. In response to this inquiry, in December, I hosted a Parent University on technology which was facilitated by the participating students. The Parent University was a great success and I have been asked to host another during the spring. I have further had outreach from the school district in requests for assistance from my students to help develop web pages, electronic logos and informational videos. The student survey seemed most concerned with the responsibility of all students using technology for the intended use and not inappropriate use. This concern was stated often as a worry that inappropriate use might cease of the entire BYOD program. We had instilled a value of appropriate technological use and the student survey indicated that the students took the responsibility seriously.
The quantitative data indicated a 67% gain in student engagement as indicated by the number of students who participated in a teacher prompted question. The technology students often conversed about the posed questions late into the evening. Often the teacher would have to tell them to shut down for the evening for it was getting late. The classroom walls extended far beyond the physical building and students would compete against one another on projects to see who could make the best video or glogster (electronic poster) or other technological presented project. The students were observed, during my walk throughs, portraying tremendous growth in leadership qualities and inquiry based learning. The technology classrooms were observed often filled with active inquiry and the teacher became a facilitator as the students grew in confidence and encouraged one another to discover answers to higher order questions and develop inquiry skills and knowledge. In comparison with the regular classroom, where few students participated in a discussion and in an average classroom of twenty two students usually seven hands were raised in response to a teacher question. Students often were observed completing the minimum and very little active inquiry was present.
With the engagement results being so increased within the technology classes in comparison to the regular classes I expected the test scores to have significant increases as well. This was not what occurred. In the Earth Space Science Unit 1 assessment there were greater gains in three out of the four tested standards in gaining scores in the regular classroom as compared to the technology classroom. I had not taken into account the extra time it would take for the technology students and teacher to become comfortable with using the technological in the classroom setting. Both the teacher and students had a four week trial and error type of beginning. The teacher reflected that she wanted the class to be more than just a computer use only type of classroom. She had to work on developing a pedagogy to have technology be a tool for information purposes but continue to retain her presence as the teacher in the room. She had to develop skills and strategies on when her students were to listen to what she was presenting rather than just reading information that was appearing on a computer screen. She had to develop the differences between an on-line computer class and a teacher facilitated classroom, enhanced by computer use. I feel the low gains in the first unit assessments, were due to the extra time given to the development of the technology class pedagogy.
Judgment
Looking at my data results I reflected on answering my primaray and secondary questions. In Domain A I pondered what effect would the institution and use of a BYOD program for the selected 8th grade science students have on their science achievement grades, compared to other students who are not involved in BYOD, and therefore do not use technology in their classrooms to the extent as the BYOD students, as measured by the results of the Earth Space unit one benchmark assessment test? My results showed greater gains in the regular science class as compared to the technology enhanced science class. I tested the first unit and had not taken into account the amount of time it would take the students and teacher to establish a pedagogy of use. I also did not allow time for students to develop their technology skills used in their projects. I will continue to monitor the progress and compare the test results now that the students and teacher have established a classroom routine.
For the analysis of sub-questions for Domain A, I used an open-ended student survey to gather this information. For the first sub-question I asked:
1. What do students who are involved in a pilot BYOD program at one middle school report as working well in the program? I found from the survey that students enjoyed the collaboration both in class and at home, for the teacher would post inquiries and the students would discuss the inquiry late into the evening. The students’ felt they were learning in a 21st Century classroom. The students’ shared that using technology made their studies more interesting. They looked forward to science class each day.
2. What do students who are involved in a pilot BYOD program at one middle school report as not working well in the program?
Students’ reflected on their surveys that they were most concerned about an individual doing something wrong with the technology and not being allowed to use technology in the form of Bring Your Own Device and therefore go back to the former way that class was held.
3. What suggestions do students who are involved in a pilot BYOD program at one middle school report as suggestions for improving the pilot BYOD program? Students’ suggested that more classes should use more technology during class. Students’ felt the use of technology made the class more interesting.
Domain B.
What are the issues involving the start-up of a BYOD program for selected 8th grade students (open ended survey questions) in one middle school at the student level, the instructional level (survey and interview the Science Teacher), the administrative level (Interview Interim Director of Technology and District Technology Specialist), and the school level parents (survey parents of four 8th grade Science classes)?
The student issues for beginning a BYOD program were to establish regulations for proper use. A plan had to be put into place, taught and reinforced. Students had to switch their attitude that BYOD was to be used for academic purposes and not for social media.
The teacher had to help develop a plan for use, train the students in appropriate use and reinforce the proper use in a project based learning setting. The teacher had to figure out how to use technology as a tool and not the only tool. At the beginning the teacher struggled with a way to differentiate between an on-line class and a teacher facilitated class with technological enhancements. She tried several methods and grew the program to the point of developing a student leadership panel to help gain the student voice within the classroom setting. This student team (nick-named the Awesome Bosses) grew the students in skill and developed leadership skills to the point where they presented to parents, the district and community members The teacher reflected that this was such a positive experience that she would never want to go back to the way she used to teach. She felt this group of students would remain in contact even as they left eighth grade and moved on to high school. The “Awesome Bosses” often reflect that they will be back to help grow the BYOD program. They feel strongly about using and developing technological opportunities within the classroom.
The district interim director spoke about the difficulty of establishing the appropriate infrastructure to support a BYOD program. He felt the band-width use might slow or even bring down a school’s technology system. The most important aspect of using technology within a school was to make sure the infrastructure was able to handle the increase of use. This was an issue as we first began the BYOD program. We had to learn to monitor band-width and found that if we downloaded most of our needs during off hours that the use was held to a minimum.
The parents shared that they were most happy about their student’s progress. They found that their students were very engaged and often talked to them about their science class or shared a project they had created for class. The parents thought that embedding technology within the classroom setting was preparing their student for 21st century learning. The parents were interested in receiving training themselves, so in response to this request the “Awesome Bosses” facilitated a parent university in which the parents received training about using and monitoring their own student’s use. Parent’s reflected that they not only learned more about their own device but also learned about how to monitor their student’s device to help them with proper use and avoidance of the possibility of being bullied or approached by an inappropriate communication.
Sub Questions for Domain B:
1. How will the student computer guest server support BYOD? How will we monitor “hot spots” and other apps that can allow students to go around the server?
The guest network at first was impacted by intense use. We began to monitor the use and download needs during off student hours. This significantly helped with the band-width use. The “hot spot” use has to be consistently monitored and reinforced. We are able to view on any device to make sure the student is using the guest network. This is indicated by a signal on the device. We can electronically check for hot spots and isolate inappropriate use through this monitoring. The guest network helps to protect for inappropriate use while on campus due to the guest network implementing the district’s protective filters.
2. How will the students be taught the expectations so that they have full, consistent understanding of the responsibility of using BYOD?
We developed a training video and the science department facilitated the BYOD training sessions. Each student took home a contract of use which had to be signed and reviewed by a parent. The discipline matrix had to revamped to include a system to help monitor appropriate use.
3. How will I notify parents of the penalties for students who do not follow the expectations and guidelines for BYOD use?
Parents were notified through several introduction meetings. Parents then were informed through the contract which provided information concerning use and monitoring use. We further developed a parent university in which parents could choose to come into school during the evening to receive support on using technology and monitoring their student’s use.
4. How will I monitor student engagement, of the BYOD student user to the non-user?
I monitored student engagement by competing classroom walk throughs within the non-user classes and counted the number of responses to a teacher posed question. The teacher was asked to not repeat the question and allow adequate wait time. In the technology classed the teacher would pose a single written question and would not respond further but would print out the number of students who responded to the on-line inquiry. The results were 60% greater response in the technology based inquiry in comparison with the non-user classroom.
5. What implications for district-wide application of a BYOD program are revealed in the study of this BYOD pilot program at one middle school?
District wide use would be highly recommended. I am concerned about the students leaving 8th grade and attending high school where technology use is limited. BYOD gives students’ the ability to grow in technological skill while learning curriculum. It is an affordable way for schools to keep up with being able to provide up to date equipment for the parents supply the technology. The district then can afford to strengthen infrastructure and can assist students with devices who cannot afford devices of their own.
6. How will students who cannot afford technology, compete academically with students who can?
If schools implement a BYOD program it assist the school with the ability of supplementing devices for students who cannot afford devices of their own. It also gives students the opportunity of working on a device of their own due to the availability of more devices on each campus. Dollars can be saved on purchasing equipment and can be spent on purchasing supplemental equipment and on reinforcing the infrastructure to allow for greater use.
7. Is there a cost savings in using BYOD?
The immediate cost savings is in not having to purchase, nor upgrade, technological devices. It assist a school with the ability of providing a student greater opportunity of using technology. Students are currently required to take assessment tests and FCAT tests using technological devices. Although, these devices must be school purchased equipment, due to certain protective requirements, technology still can occur within the classroom while other classes are testing if there is a BYOD implemented. Further cost savings exist in repair and updating to new programs.
Recommendations
I would make the following recommendations:
This was an amazing experience and one in which I will continue to be encouraged to grow beyond my school and into the district. Although I developed a paperless classroom within the eighth grade only for this first year, I have plans to include the 6th and 7th grades next year. The engagement within the classroom is remarkable in comparison to the non- user. Learning that “In the simplest of terms, they (students) are coming of age tethered to the Internet, as well as to a host of instant communication devices that were unimaginable twenty years ago.” (Wagner, p.170). Why are we not using this modality of communication within our classrooms? What are we afraid of? Our students are changing Wagner refers to students as interactive producers or isolated consumers (Wagner, p.187). Wagner further describes this next generation as having” enormous potential either to be lost in an endless web of fantasy and entertainment or to use their skills with these new technologies to make significant contributions” (Wagner, p. 187). I found this to be quite apparent as I interviewed the teacher within my research. She commented that students who wish to be in a paperless classroom see their technological device as more that a social device. Few of her technology students choose to use the device for social media. Many of them are creating web pages or creating interactive posters and imovies. They are inventing new uses. One of her students invented a device to aid the hearing impaired. He linked a microphone to an electronic game board and the deaf person could read what a person was saying without reading lips or watching sign. The mechanism was more accurate than lip reading and the words were typed at an 85% accuracy even people’s names. This is one example of what students are doing at my school within their paperless classroom.
What I plan on focusing on next is to continue with monitoring the students’ use of BYOD and growing the eSTEAM academy into the 6th and 7th grade. I will meet with the high schools to inform them of what BYOD has done for our school and how there is tremendous potential to grow such a program within the high school. This will secure that my 8th graders can continue to grow in their progress. If a high school were to implement this type of program within their academic courses more students’ would be able to test out in Industry Certification tests, bringing funding to the school and assisting the school grade. The certifications are recognized by the business world and further develop the student with tools needed in the 21st century work force.
References
Bergen, K. (2013, April 12). Manatee county plan addresses school budget problems. Sarasota Herald, np. Retrieved from http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20130412/ARTICLE/130419871
Brown, D., Warschauer, M. (2006, July). From the university to the elementary classroom: students’ experiences in learning to integrate technology instruction. Journal of Technolgy and Teacher Education, 14 (3), 599-621, (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ729640).
Careless, J. (2012, December 31). Establishing a realistic BYOD governance policy. KMWorld Volume 22 Issue 1. Retrieved from www.kmworld.com\
Costa, J. P. (2013, April). Digital learning for all, now low-cost opportunities to increase digital learning in schools almost immediately. The Education Digest, 4-9. Retrieved from www.eddigest.com
Farrell, E. F. (2013). 10 lessons from the best district in the country. Administrator Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com/administrator/
Florida Senate Bill cs/cs/1076. Retrieved from http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2013/1076/Amendment/688260/PDF pp.14-52.
Hammond, T. (2013, February 4). Unavoidable: 62 percent of companies to allow BYOD by year’s end. ZDNet. Retrieved from http://www.zdnet.com/unavoidable-62-percent-of-companies-to-allow-byod-by-years-end-7000010703/
Koehler, M. (2011, May 13) Pedagogical knowledge. TPack – Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Got Tpack?. Retrieved from http://mkoehler.educ.msu.edu/tpack/pedagogical-knowledge-pk/
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Patton, M. Q. (2008). Utilization-focused evaluation. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
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Schubert, W. H., (1996) Perspectives on Four Traditions. Educational Horizons.
Schwartz, A. (2012, February 12). Mooresville shining example (it’s not just about the laptops). The New York Times p., 10A. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/education/mooresville-school-district-a-laptop-success-story.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
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Appendix
STUDENT SURVEY
Age: _______
Science Period: ________
Please circle correct demographic
Male or Female
White Black Hispanic Asian Other: __________________
I use BYOD at Nolan: Yes No
Please fill in the blank, you may use the back of this paper if more room for writing is needed.
1. What is your favorite activity to complete in Science class and why? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
2. What is your least favorite activity to complete in Science class and why? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
3. What is your favorite use of BYOD technology within Science class and why? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
4. What is your least favorite use of BYOD technology in Science class and why? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
5. What would you like to learn about while in Science class? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
6. How would you improve this Science class? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
7. I would like to do more of the following in Science class. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
8. I would like to do less of the following in Science class. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
9. My favorite APP to use is? __________________________________________.
10. My least favorite APP to use is? ______________________________________.
Please Circle the Best Choice
11. If given a choice on completing a project in Science I would choose:
An Art Project A Technology Project A Speech or Presentation
(Poster, Game Board,) (iMovie, PPT, weebly) (Book or subject report)
12. I like using technology in class:
Always Usually Sometimes Never
13. I own or have access at home to the following number of technology devices:
5 or more 4 3 2 1 None
14. I pay attention more in Science when I use my BYOD technology:
Always Usually Sometimes Never
PARENT/ TEACHER SURVEY
Age: _______
Please circle correct demographic
Male or Female
White Black Hispanic Asian Other: __________________
I use technology at home or work: Yes No
Please fill in the blank, you may use the back of this paper if more room for writing is needed.
1. What was your favorite activity to complete in School Science class and why? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
2. What was your least favorite activity to complete in School Science class and why? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
3. Does your student(s) talk about Science class and if so, list an example? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
4. Why did you choose to offer your student(s) this opportunity to take this Bring Your Own Device Technology (BYOD) enhanced Science class? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
5. What would you like for your student(s) to learn about while in the BYOD technology enhanced Science class? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
6. What would you suggest to help improve the BYOD technology enhanced Science class? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
7. What would like to see your student(s) do more of in the BYOD technology enhanced Science class? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
8. What would you expect your student(s) to do less of in the BYOD enhanced Science class? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
9. My or my student’s favorite APP to use is? ___________________________.
10. My or my student’s least favorite APP to use is? _______________________.
Please Circle the Best Choice
11. If my student(s) were given a choice to complete a project in Science they would choose:
An Art Project A Technology Project A Speech or Presentation
(Poster, Game Board,) (iMovie, PPT, weebly) (Book or subject report)
12. My student(s) have indicated to me that they like using technology in class:
Always Usually Sometimes Never
13. In my household I have access to the following number of technology devices:
5 or more 4 3 2 1 None
14. I use technology at work or at home almost everyday:
Always Usually Sometimes Never
[TC1]
EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP DEPARTMENT
D o c t o r a l P r o g r a m
PROGRAM EVALUATION PROPOSAL ACADEMIC AFFECTS OF IMPLEMENTING A BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE TO SCHOOL PROGRAM
Tamara K. Cornwell
National-Louis University
SECTION ONE: INTRODUCTION
The School District of Manatee County has a challenge with trying to keep up with the “latest and greatest” technological devices for educational use. It is not just in the cost of purchasing the equipment but the liability of theft, cost of damage and continuous maintenance and up keep.
In order to move students forward in their technological academic growth, with budget and staff cuts to contend with and the maintenance of computers with a five-year lifespan before the technology has a significant loss of accurate use; instituting a Bring Your Own Device to school program might be the solution.
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) enables students to bring their own technological devices and use them in the classroom. I have begun such as program at Nolan Middle School. Nolan is the first school in our district to institute BYOD.
Purpose
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is a program involving students being able to bring their personal technology devices to use in class as an educational tool. BYOD is new to our district and my school will be the first school approved to use student owned technological devices on campus. The purpose of the BYOD program is to try and alleviate the challenge of school districts keeping up with the latest technology and the maintenance of the technology. Students that cannot afford technology will be able to use school devices. With the inclusion of BYOD we will have enough school devices, to cover students who do not have their own personal devices. Research has indicated that use of technology increases student achievement (as cited in Farrell, p. 1). in a recent article in Scholastic Administrator Spring of 2013 titled: 10 Lessons From the Best District in the County, Farrell (2013) writes:
“Rather than lecturing, teachers act as facilitators, circulating among groups or leading students in interactive lessons. Results of this transformation are off the charts—the graduation rate for African-American students was 95 percent in 2012, up from 67 percent five years earlier. The overall graduation rate is the third highest in the state, and 88 percent of 2012 graduates are attending college, compared with 74 percent in 2007. Mooresville has accomplished this while keeping spending in check—among the state’s 115 school districts, it ranks 100th in spending per student at $7,463.” (para. 2 and 3)
While Mooresville School District used a one-to-one initiative, a program in which each student is issued an individual computer, which is purchased and maintained by the school district, the Bring Your Own Device program will not have these types of expenses. Our students will bring and maintain their own equipment. It is assumed that this program will provide a cost savings to our school and district through no technology loss, up-keep nor up-grade needed. These costs would be passed on to the families who already purchase technology for student use and entertainment.
Rationale
Back in August of 2012, our Administrative team, met with the Assistant Superintendent of Support Services. The Assistant Superintendent asked what we needed for the upcoming school year. We needed a guest network server to begin to grow a Bring Your Own Device program in my school. I wondered why only Title 1 schools were being provided with guest networks? Nolan Middle School (NMS) is the highest performing middle school in the district. We currently have more students taking on-line courses than any other middle school in the district. NMS has the most students taking high school courses during their middle school years and we had a 100% pass rate in our end of course exams in both Algebra and Geometry. We are a district leader in scores on FCAT, benchmark and FAIR assessments. We made AYP in 2012, being the only district middle school to have ever accomplished this goal. Nolan Middle School has consistently maintained an “A” grade and we have never lost student population and have continued growth due to our challenging and engaging academic programs. We are achieving the top scores in comparison to other middle schools within our district. We needed the guest server in order to continue to provide technological advancements to our students through the increased band width the guest network would provide. Our current server was barely able to support the needs of giving the FCAT reading test to just 6th grade. How would we be able to add seventh and eighth grade, if we were experiencing trouble with implementing just the 6th grade FCAT Reading testing?
The need request resulted in the installation of a guest network at Nolan Middle School. In January of 2013 our guest network server was installed.
I had surveyed my staff at the end of the school year in 2011-2012 concerning the staff development they would like for me to offer. The resounding response was to learn more technology, applicable for classroom teacher and student use. I contacted our IT Specialist, and asked her for a few suggestions. During August of 2012-2013, we began training our teachers in several technology programs. The program our faculty liked the most was Edmodo. The best way to describe Edmodo is that it is similar to an educational face-book with an on-line portfolio type of storage. Several teachers opened Edmodo accounts and began developing lessons for their students through Edmodo learning. The science department worked cooperatively and began to grow the student’s Edmodo experience through the development of Edmodo labs and student cooperative group experiences. Students were beginning to develop iMovie trailers, power points, picot-charts (on-line posters), prezi’s, weebly’s ( web sites), and pal toons (make your own comic strips). Our students and teachers were on 21 Century learning fire! Now that we had the guest network to help support our band width needs, the difficulty was in not having enough technological devices. We were slowly writing grants for lap tops and iPads but, were having difficulty providing current equipment at school; although students had better devices at home. A Bring Your Own Device program appeared to be the answer.
The challenges facing our BYOD program.
A. The school's guest network being able to support the devices, and the students staying on the guest network and not using “Hot Spots”.
B. The students staying on task using technological devices for educational use only and the classroom management strategies that will need to be put into place.
C. Student and parent understanding of BYOD use, responsibility and maintenance issues.
D. The need for a BYOD use contract that is approved by the district and supported by the teachers, staff, administrators, parents and students. This contract will include information on student misuse of technology. The discipline matrix will need to be updated to include BYOD misuse.
E. Teachers' training on proper student device use in the classroom.
F. Teachers' and students' opt-out of the BYOD program.
G. School parameters for student BYOD use and misuse.
H. Surveys for teacher, parent and student input, information, assessments, and suggestions. These surveys will be able to assess how the BYOD program is working and what improvements, suggestions, and deletions may need to be made. We will use an on-line survey (right now I am looking at google docs which automatically gathers and post data results as the survey comes in).
I. Use of BYOD during student transportation and school sponsored functions (dances, sporting events, field trips).
J. Funding resources for software and supplemental equipment.
H. Parent training and information sessions.
I. Creating an advisory counsel for the industry certification program - Excellence in Science, Technology, Enginnering, Arts and Math (eSTEAM) which includes students, teachers, parents, and business mentors.
Tying into creating a BYOD program at my school, I have also added a Career Academy called eSTEAM (Excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math). This career academy offers industry certification within the academy program. A career academy organizes studies with recognized certifications around career fields, clusters and themes. It integrates core and elective course curriculum around established career fields. The career academy is an FLDOE, Manatee County Chamber of Commerce and Florida Workforce initiative. It ties the needs of the workforce to the studies of the student. If an academy student passes a career based industry certification test, the student becomes certified in the field of study. Some examples of certifications include; FLASH, Photoshop, DreamWeaver Web Design, Solid-Works to name just a few. The school also receives money for every passed test and school grade points toward our State grade assessment. Academy students usually attend many of the same core courses. An academy program is a school-within a school model. These courses align their core course work with career academy enhancements.
Goals
Nolan Middle eSTEAM academy will offer certifications in; FLASH, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Web design, and Solid-Works. Our 2013-2014 eighth graders will be the first grade in which the career academy will be offered. Students must apply to the academy and will attend the same Science and History courses along with choosing an eSTEAM technology course to support technological projects. These core courses will use technology only within the classroom. The eSTEAM science and math courses will be paperless. I held the first parent information meeting on February 12, 2013. The response was amazing.
Two out of six of the participating teacher’s eighth grade science classes piloted the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program and tied in the BYOD with the eSTEAM career academy studies. I was able to afford to purchase the needed materials to support the eSTEAM courses through dollars saved by not needing to purchase technology and the money generated by the industry certification tests that student’s pass. I monitored the increases in eighth grade student's Earth Space Science benchmark tests in science concepts in the science-technology course in comparison to the same eighth grade Earth Space science course not using pure technology. The great thing about the combination of these two systems, are the funding sources, from the State, to help purchase technological equipment and enhancements. This funding was able to keep us up to pace on the latest and greatest use of technology support material within the classroom, as well as, purchase equipment for students who are unable to afford their own devices.
The goal of BYOD is to be able to move our students into the 21st Century of learning and increase student engagement and understanding. I have observed students choosing to use technology during their free time. I also noticed that many students were choosing project assessments using some form of technology such as imovie or power point types of projects. Many of these projects required more time spent on task as opposed to a poster type of project representation. This increased time on task and therefore increased student engagement enhancing a greater gain of knowledge. These personal observations were gathered during classroom walk-throughs.
In 2011-2012 we begun to test our students on FCAT Reading using tests that are given on-line. In 2012-2013 we will be testing our 6th and 7th graders in FCAT Reading using technology. Students must feel comfortable using technology in order for testing to not be affected by lack of comfort.
Within our district teacher evaluation system three of the components are to monitor teacher’s using technology within their classroom settings. The development of the BYOD program will enable Nolan Middle School to offer classrooms that are paperless and develop a curriculum program using mainly technology enhancements. My assumption, in these technological classrooms, is that student engagement will increase and have a direct impact on increased test score results. I will measure this assumption by monitoring the participating Science teacher’s classes through classroom walk-throughs and her Earth-Space Unit One Science benchmark results.
Curriculum Framework.
I used a Social Behaviorist curriculum framework format. The Social Behaviorist position seems to fit with the approach I am currently purposing. I analyzed what worked for the needs of today’s world student. (as cited in Schubert 1996 pp.171-173). Through this analysis it is my hope that I will see an increase in student engagement and overall performance.
Research Questions
Domain A.
What effect did the institution and use of a BYOD program for the selected 8th grade science students have on their science achievement grades, compared to other students who are not involved in BYOD, and therefore do not use technology in their classrooms to the extent as the BYOD students, as measured by the results of the Earth Space unit one benchmark assessment test?
Sub-Questions for Domain A: (I used an open-ended student survey to gather this information).
1. What do students who are involved in a pilot BYOD program at one middle school report as working well in the program?
2. What do students who are involved in a pilot BYOD program at one middle school report as not working well in the program?
3. What suggestions do students who are involved in a pilot BYOD program at one middle school report as suggestions for improving the pilot BYOD program?
Domain B.
What are the issues involving the start-up of a BYOD program for selected 8th grade students (open ended survey questions) in one middle school at the student level, the instructional level (survey and interview the Science Teacher), the administrative level (Interview Interim Director of Technology and District Technology Specialist), and the school level parents (survey parents of four 8th grade Science classes)?
Sub Questions for Domain B:
1. How will the student computer guest server support BYOD? How will we monitor “hot spots” and other apps that can allow students to go around the server?
2. How will the students be taught the expectations so that they have full, consistent understanding of the responsibility of using BYOD?
3. How will I notify parents of the penalties for students who do not follow the expectations and guidelines for BYOD use?
4. How will I monitor student engagement, of the BYOD student user to the non-user?
5. What implications for district-wide application of a BYOD program are revealed in the study of this BYOD pilot program at one middle school?
6. How will students who cannot afford technology, compete academically with students who can?
7. Is there a cost savings in using BYOD?
Conclusion
It is my aspiration through this program evaluation to gather evidence that might reveal if using technology in the eighth grade science classroom will enhance student engagement and that Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs might give schools the ability to afford to have current technology in every student’s hands.
I researched and gathered data on the number of secondary students who own technological devices. I gathered the number of Nolan Middle School students allowed to use technology by counting the number of technology contracts that are signed and submitted.
The purpose of allowing students to bring and use their technological devices within the classroom is to bring their technological World into the classroom for curriculum use. I am hoping that the benefits would be to enable schools to afford up to date technology and align curriculum standards to real world study. Using technology within the eighth grade science classroom might enhance student engagement, and increase student performance due to the use of technological tools. It is my assumption that Eighth grade Science benchmark test results might significantly improve in students using BYOD.
SECTION TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Introduction
To first begin the process of implementing a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program within a school you must see the need. The need should be a program in which students, parents, teachers, support staff and district staff all have buy-in. A program in which students bring their own device has the benefits of a 1-to-1 school computer program. A 1-to-1 is a program in which schools purchase and maintain a computer for every student to personally use at home and school. BYOD has this same advantage of a 1-to-1 program without having to purchase or maintain the technology. I would suggest, based on the review of the literature and my own experience, committing to at least a two year start-up implementation; one year of planning -- including protective restrictions and regulations, and one year to pilot and make changes as necessary. I am planning on using a Patton like developmental evaluation, allowing for adaptation to “changed circumstances and altering tactics based on emergent, innovative and transformative processes” (Patton, 2008, p.137). I think allowing for adaptations will grow a BYOD program into a transformative process. The second year should include the changes needed to support teachers, students, parents and district needs, to help the program grow into a success.
Superintendent Edwards, on building a foundation for technological use within Mooresville, North Carolina schools states, “It took a good two years to build trust and a sense of shared aspiration” (as cited in Farrell, 2013, para. 10). Mooresville school district is known as a district that is on the forefront of technology use. Mooresville has, “emerged as the de facto national model of the digital school” (Farrell, 2013, para. 6). The digital resources at Mooresville are immense; many articles are written about their 1 to 1 computer program in which every student is issued a laptop. Parents pay a yearly fee for the use of the laptop and a fee for maintenance (Schwartz, 2012). Still these laptops have to be replaced and maintained. In a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program the technology and maintenance is the responsibility of the student and family. A BYOD system gives the autonomy to allow for personal technological choice and does not limit the user to one format.
Technology use in the classroom.
I had noticed during my classroom walkthroughs that more students participated in class activities and had greater engagement while using technology. I then wondered if this observed engagement would correlate to increased student achievement. According to Kulik’s Meta-Analysis Study: “Students using computer-based instruction score at the 64th percentile on tests of achievements compared to students without computers who scored at the 50th percentile” (as cited in Schacter, 1999 p. 4). As I continued to look at technology use within schools and the improvement on student achievement, I looked once again at Mooresville, North Carolina School District and over a four year span of time they saw their core-subject proficiency scores increase by 20 percentage points and their graduation rate rise by fourteen percent (Quillen, 2011). I pondered the question of effective teacher training in presenting technology within the classroom, research by Brown and Warschauer (2006) supports, “A key factor constraining effective use of technology in schools is teachers’ limited expertise in the professional use of computers” (p.600). The teacher participant I will be observing has a thirst for learning new technology techniques and applying these techniques within her classroom. Teacher training and support is essential as you consider the addition of a BYOD program or any technological use. A program could fail without this type of support.
I next pondered about how to affordably increase the use of technology within our classrooms using updated technological mechanisms. As reported in the Sarasota Herald, the School District of Manatee County is currently operating under a 2.4 million dollar deficit (Bergen, 2013). There is a need for cost saving ventures that increase student progression. Teachers at my school at my school often complained about having to share computer carts and two on-campus computer labs. Teachers often found that aging equipment would not support new technology-enhanced educational programs, including educational social media tools such as Edmodo. I needed a plan on how to put up-to-date technology in the hands of every student during financially lean times. The idea for Bring Your Own Device was born, or rather borrowed, for according to Tech Republic BYOD Business Strategy Survey, “62 percent of companies have or plan to have BYOD by the end of 2013” (Hammond, 2013, para.1). The business world first opened the door to Bring Your Own Device. They have moved slowly due to the IT challenges and the prospect of serious security issues. A suggestion for beginning a BYOD program is to move slow and start small, find out which devices are most used in the office and open the use to a small group of people. (Careless, 2013).
The same bring your own technology business application could be mimicked in schools. I have permission to pilot a program in my school. I opened my school BYOD program to the 1000 students attending my school, but I will monitor 44 students who are beginning in the Nolan Middle Industry Technology Academy called eSTEAM, an acronym for excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. I will monitor an Earth Space Science Unit between August and the end of October using a pre and post test. I will explain this process in the Methodology portion of this thesis. This study will help my district to explore the possibility of expanding a Bring Your Own Device program to other schools.
Bandwidth requirements.
From my experience, the first step to beginning to implement a Bring Your Own Device program is to make sure your school has the adequate bandwidth to be able to support this type of use in each class. Bandwidth is associated with how fast your systems will run and the number of users your system will allow.
We also put in switches to be able to use the guest network throughout the school. The switches assist with multiple users being able to operate on the guest network. In order to understand your school’s bandwidth capacity, you can use a simple electronic calculator found on a site such as Numion – Bandwidth calculator; under the section labeled Server Requirement Calculator Kessler lists: “Use this calculator to determine the bandwidth needed for your web server” (Kessels, 2005, para. 1). There are other calculations that can be found on Kessler’s website which may be useful, depending on a school’s need.
Guest network.
I had a guest network installed into our school internet system through our district technology department. The guest network protects my students from leaving our filtered network system. These filters are put into place and maintained by the district. The filtered system prevents students from going onto undesired sites. An on campus guest network is a network for technology internet protection as well. The guest network protects our internet system from worms that students may bring in on their technological devices.
The cost for our guest network was around $25,000, which included switches, radio replacement and all parts and labor. This cost may vary depending on your infrastructure needs and campus square footage. A guest network enables students to attach to our school protected network, but prevents computer viruses from entering our system and limits students from visiting inappropriate sites. According to Mitchell (2009) a guest network may be defined as:
A small section of an organization's computer network designed for use by temporary visitors. This sub-network often provides full Internet connectivity, but it also strictly limits access to any internal (intranet) Web sites or files. Besides helping to keep an organization's internal information private, guest networks help avoid spreading any computer worms that visitors may have on their systems (par.1).
I feel a guest network is extremely important to protect the student from going out on the internet without any protective filters.
Contract for students and parents.
Once I had the protective internet support systems in place to operate student technology devices, I had to think about how to protect my school and district from incidents of theft, damage, or loss of devices on campus. We created a contract that students and parents agreed to and signed before use was allowed. The student technology contract went through our district legal process and was approved by our district legal department. (Sample of contract provided in Appendix).
Next, I held a meeting with students, which I videotaped and placed on the school’s website. This video provided information to students on guidelines of using their privately owned technology while on campus. It also was used for new students to view for guidelines on proper technology use while on campus as well as parents being able to view. The devices were the student’s responsibility to care and maintain. Once a student had been trained, stickers were given out to properly label a contracted student owned electronic devices. Students and parents both had signed the use contract. Any student-held technological device in use on campus during school hours must have a sticker.
Teachers constantly monitor every device being used in their classroom and check that all devices have a sticker. We also suggested that students put password protection on their device and to download a free application called “Find My iphone” which would allow the owner to know where their device was located through Global Positioning System (GPS), as well as let the person who had possession of the device know who the device belong to for easy of return. This App allows the device owner to close down their phone from a computer rendering the phone unusable and a text message can be sent to allow for quick return.
I next held a meeting with my teachers. In the meeting, we explained to teachers that students needed to stay on the guest network because there are filter protections that the guest network offers to help ensure that students are using their devices on appropriate sites for educational purposes. Teachers were instructed to check for the tower icon on the student’s electronic devices and to monitor the tower icon from their computers to check for a device that is off network. An off network device is referred to as a “hot spot”. Hot spots enable students to go out on any site using their device as the radio frequency. Other devices can attach to a hot spot as well and this will bounce the signal from one device to another and reach outside of the network. The “hot spot” becomes the means of reaching an off network site that might be unsuitable for educational purposes or student use. Using a hot spot is not allowed, and Nolan teachers were taught how to monitor for proper use.
Pedagogical considerations.
“A teacher with deep pedagogical knowledge understands how students construct knowledge and acquire skills; and develop habits of mind and positive dispositions towards learning” (Koehler, 2011, para. 1). In my experience, I have observed that a teacher can make or break an educational program. When I began the Bring Your Own Device program at Nolan Middle School, some stakeholders were hesitant. Some of the comments that were shared with me were that the students would use the devices inappropriately no matter the precautions. Some teachers were worried about dealing with multiple devices, many of which they would not have an idea of how to assist the student on a technological issue if the student became stuck (Brown et al., 2006). One of the biggest concerns was about the students who did not have, nor could afford, access to any technological device and how we could help them with the same learning experience as those students who had much technological access and experience. I took some of these concerns and began to try and problem solve. I have found that when teachers’ feel that their concerns are being addressed, they often participate more openly and are willing to assist with the solution to a challenge rather than just giving up.
A phrase that summarizes my views and approach on BYOD for students is:
“It is the difference between teacher centered technology—using a PowerPoint presentation—and student-centered technology—giving students access to the Web to solve problems, create work, and add value to their educational journeys” (Costa, 2013, p.5). As educators we need to look at the potential of moving our students into the 21st century global information age. We must strive toward preparing them for this unknown fast paced future, by providing them with guidelines and opportunities for exploration in the field of technology. We are currently on the frontier of technological learning and we observe daily what a natural tool technology has become for many of our students in both communication and entertainment use. Our student's futures will find greater enhancements in the field of technology. We should continue to prepare our students for technology use within their future work force opportunities in an ever-growing global society.
Definition of terms:
To facilitate the reader on understanding the terms used during the implementation of our Bring Your Own Device program, I have provided definitions of terms for better insight on the meaning and use. I will use these terms throughout this inquiry[TC1] .
- Bring Your Own Device- a program in which participants bring their own technology to a work place or school for use.
- Bandwidth- in computer networks, bandwidth is often used as a synonym for data transfer rate – the amount of data that can be carried from one point to another is a given time period (usually a second). This kind of bandwidth is usually expressed in bits (of data) per second - bps. Occasionally, it’s expressed as bytes per second - Bps (Rouse, 2010).
- Edmodo – a free social network that is similar to an educational face book. Teachers, students and parents can safely communicate and collaborate on line. For a demonstration please visit You Tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHtwgZEHzNs
- Guest Network- a small section of an organization’s computer network designed for use by temporary visitors.
- Hot Spots - Wireless (or wi-fi) hotspots are essentially wireless access points providing network and/or Internet access to mobile devices like your laptop or smartphone, typically in public locations. To put it more simply, there are places where you can take your laptop or other mobile device and wirelessly connect to the Internet; some devices and smartphones also act as mobile wi-fi hotspots (Pinola, 2013).
- Peak Allowance- the greatest amount of bits per second (Bps) allowed in a given network system.
- Pedagogical Knowledge- deep knowledge about the processes and practices of teaching and learning and how it encompasses overall educational purpose, values and aims (Koehler, 2011).
- Switch / Network Switch- a small hardware device that joins multiple computers together within one local area network -LAN (Mitchell, 2013).
- Webserver- a program that using the client/server model and the World Wide Web’s Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) serves the files that form Web pages to Web users whose computers contain HTTP clients that forward their requests. Every computer on the Internet that contains a Web site must have a Web server program (Rouse, 2007).
The literature review of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) was difficult, due to this subject being a new program within our global school community. As I continue my research, I will look for articles from schools and scholars that have implemented a BYOD program. The business community has operated a Bring Your Own Device program a little ahead of the school system’s beginning this process. Some of my research and ideas for implementation came from a business model. It will be important as I proceed with a BYOD program to include all of the stakeholders in frequent updates and tutorial opportunities. In my experience many programs that have failed have done so through lack of communication and stakeholders’ participation. While I will use both formative and summative evaluation methods within my methodology, I am interested in using the developmental evaluative process as well (Patton, 2008). The transformation that will develop during this program evaluation will be important to monitor, so a sound repeat of the process will be possible.
SECTION THREE: METHODOLOGY
Research Design Overview
My intention in gathering the data for my study is to determine the affect of using technology within the classroom on student learning and engagement. As Patton describes intervention within a program and the causality of the observed outcomes he questions: “Did the program intervention cause the observed outcomes?” (Patton 2008 p. 405). It is my desire to engage the primary stakeholder in a developmental evaluative way (Patton, 2008). To reflect on answering my research questions, my method for gathering the data must be both qualitative and quantitative. This will not only give me the ability to observe through classroom walk-throughs but also to find out how the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program is perceived by the teacher, students and parents all of whom are stakeholders, implementing this program. “It is important for primary stakeholders to know firsthand what imperfections exist-and to be included in deciding which imperfections they are willing to live with” (Patton, p.408). Through surveying my participants, I will strive to create a program that will be able to be repeated at other schools and districts. I assume there will be imperfections found and I will work through these challenges to grow and continually develop the BYOD program.
Domain A.
I will complete classroom walk-throughs on an 8th grade Science teacher’s eighth grade science classes. Two of her Science classes will use total technological immersion (paperless) and the other four will use minimal technology. All of the participatory classes will be taught by the same teacher. The two science technology class will be an eSTEAM class and will support the industry certification software applications within the standard based curriculum courses. These industry certifications will be reinforced through project-based assignments. The eSTEAM students will work on the project based assignments during the eSTEAM science and an eSTEAM technology class. During my walk- throughs, I will be monitoring student engagement through question response data, gathered by counting the number of students in the class and the number of students who respond to teacher directed questions. This data can be gathered through class computer programs called “Poll Everywhere” and Edmodo. These programs measure the number of responses given to a particular question for, the students respond using an electronic device. The teacher’s eSTEAM classes will be using Edmodo and her regular science classes will be using “Poll Everywhere”. I will also monitor the teacher’s class-work and homework assignment grades through an on-line program called FOCUS. I will compare the number of students completing class and homework assignments in the teacher’s eSTEAM science courses to those students taking her regular Science courses. To measure academic growth of the first Science unit, the teacher will give a pre-test in August and a post-test in October. These tests will measure the Earth Space Science unit, which is the first unit taught in eighth grade science. Earth Space Science is tested on FCAT and currently has poor results across the district. This is partially due to the fact that the School District of Manatee County core curriculum does not cover Earth Space Science due to sixth grade focusing on life science, seventh grade on mechanical science and eighth grade on physical science. Earth Space Science must be a supplemental section at the beginning of eighth grade so that in April, just before FCAT, it can be reinforced. Science teachers at each middle school have to assess this data and supplement Earth Space Science material. I will compare the benchmark test results between the eSTEAM science class and the regular science class in this Earth Space Unit.
Domain A sub-questions.
On questions 1-3; I will give an open-ended question survey to students participating in BYOD and eSTEAM and gather the responses to these sub questions.
Domain B.
The issues with beginning the BYOD program involve all of the participants and known and unknown issues that may arise. I was invited to speak, on March 6, 2013 at a district leadership class to describe how we have begun the BYOD process, other district schools are awaiting our results.
Domain B Sub-Questions.
In January I put in a guest server. This server is for student use and filters inappropriate internet use and prohibits students from using improper sites and performing improper non-educational activities. The guest server assists with multiple users and enables the school monitoring programs to run without interruption. Hot spots (the ability for some devices to provide independent wi-fi network) can be monitored through our main server. We can pin point where a student is located if they are off the school network and using a hot spot server.
My eSTEAM team and I wrote a student / parent contract including; responsibilities, liabilities, theft, maintenance, and use-misuse with established consequences which is included in the appendix of this thesis. Two of my eSTEAM teachers presented the expectations to our students through sixth, seventh and eighth grade Science classes. This ensured consistencies in student understanding. I will be able to provide the iMovie trailer used for this training upon request.
The school behavior/discipline plan will need to include consequences for misuse of BYOD. Parent informational sessions will need to be continuously held. Concerns and challenges will need to be addressed and solutions established. I worked with administrative staff to add the technological procedures and consequences process to the Nolan Middle discipline matrix.
The new expectations will be posted on-line on the school website within the discipline matrix information. I informed the parents and students of the new expectations at parent information nights and at school-parent meetings.
Students who wish to use technology, but do not own their own devices, will be assigned devices using school issued technology, State funding sources to purchase technology for students use can be gained through the career academy certification successes and through gifts and grant funds. It is our current plan to issue these devices for students to take home. I will need to work with the district on a student contract for these technology device loans and whether an insurance policy exists on replacing devices that may be lost, damaged or stolen.
Participants
The key student participants were chosen due to their participation in the eSTEAM industry certification for which they had to apply. The comparison groups will be chosen by random placement in 8th grade science with the participating teacher. Parents of the students that are in the eSTEAM class will be surveyed. The teacher participant was chosen due to her interest in increasing technological use within her classroom. Interview participants are chosen based on their knowledge and expertise of the subject of technology. The participating teacher and I are very excited to begin this program, she has shared a renewal of attitude and looks forward to next year as Patton reminds us, “the more modest and attainable goal of pleasing the primary intended users” (Patton, 2008 p. 396).
Data Gathering Techniques
In gathering the data for evaluating the BYOD program, I intend to use surveys, interviews of district and school personnel, observations through classroom walkthroughs, and comparing pre and post test scores in Earth Space Science unit one. I will complete this data gathering between August and October of 2013 and will explain the results of the gathered data information. Patton writes about the importance of data gathering techniques when he describes: “Credibility includes the perceived accuracy, fairness, and believability of the evaluation and the evaluator” (Patton, p. 396).
Surveys.
In my thesis a formative evaluation will be given in the form of a survey to focus on the improvement of the Bring Your Own Device system (examples of the student and parent, teacher surveys are found in the Appendix). Students, parents and the teacher will be surveyed first on the expectations and type of technology devices students will use. I will also ask what are my participants’ worries and expectations at the beginning of the program in August. This qualitative measure will help to determine some of the possible challenges to overcome. I will complete a technology inventory to be able to provide students who may not have the needed devices with appropriate equipment. In October, I will survey my participants on what is working and what is not working within their science technology class. I will also question them on which programs and APPs have provided the greatest influence on learning. I will use both fill in the box and a four answer response to avoid an uncertain middle of the road response. (Patton, 2008)
Interviews.
I interviewed the interim director of technology support within the School District of Manatee County. I will find out the specifics of implementing a guest network and include the district’s plan for the implementation of technology use as currently mandated by the Florida DOE according to a summary from the 2013 Florida Senate Bill CS/CS/SB 1076 from the Committee on Education, quote:
Integration of Technology into the Classroom.
The law establishes new requirements that integrate technology skills and knowledge into K-12 classrooms. The law: Expands software applications for students with disabilities in pre-K through grade 12; Requires the middle grades career and education planning course to be internet-based and to emphasize entrepreneurship skills; and Requires new mechanisms for students to demonstrate digital skills and knowledge:
o A Florida Cyber Security Recognition and a Florida Digital Arts Recognition for
elementary school students; and
o A Florida Digital Tools Certificate for middle school students.
By December 31, 2013, the law requires the Department of Education to contract with one or more technology companies or affiliated non-profit organizations that have industry certifications on the Industry Certification Funding List or the Postsecondary Education Industry Certification Funding List to develop the new recognitions and certificate. The law requires the recognitions and the certificate to be available to all public school students in elementary schools and middle schools, respectively, at no cost to the school district or charter school.
Mandates from the State with no funding allocations, as noted previously, are common and the implementation of technology within schools is becoming ever more important as we continue to strive to keep up with the 21 century needs in both education a business.
I interviewed the participating teacher, and focus on her expectations for operating two classes using strictly technology and her other four classes using intermittent technology and have her describe her experiences. I will complete at least two face-to-face interviews this teacher to gather and record change in implementation as the BYOD program advances.
Observations.
I monitored student engagement during the classroom walk through process by counting the number of responses from students in the technology classroom as can be gathered through the use of poll everywhere (an APP that students can use to respond to teacher directed questions) and compare the number of students who raise their hands or use a white board during response in the non-technology rooms. I will complete one walkthrough per every two weeks to gather these results. I am proposing a summative evaluation through measuring student academic gains on an Earth Space Science unit using a pre-test and post-test and comparing the 8th grade Science class using only technology with the class using intermittent technology. The results of the Earth Space Science Unit desegregated data will be shared in this thesis upon completion. This summative evaluation and results will appear in the Appendix of this thesis.
Data Analysis Techniques
When I have gathered all of my data I have a plan of using several techniques to analyze the data. I will use a frequency distribution to simplistically gather consistencies of my participants such as age, race, gender and other such commonalities. For my pre and post-test data I used a descriptive statistics and report the Mean, Median and Mode resultants of students using technology exclusively to those who are intermittent users. I used a dependent t-test to see if the mean of the two comparison groups is statistically significant. This analysis will help with data accuracy and the avoidance of error, “the analysis should include attention to potential sources of error, and, where possible, calculate and report the degree of error” (Patton, 2008 p. 404). I used a cross tabulation comparing gender responses to survey questions to see if there is a significant difference. These results may offer future study options, dependent on results. I used a text analytical to see if I have consistent responses in the survey for open fill in the blank response (Leedy, P.D., Ormrod, J.E. 2013).
Ethical Considerations
Permission was gained from all surveyed and reported students, participating student’s parents and adult participant. No names will be used when reporting data to protect privacy and confidentiality. Participants were chosen at random except for eSTEAM (industry certification program covering excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) students who applied for the technology enriched science course. All District guidelines will be followed and all guidelines involving minor protection.
Conclusion
Once the data was gathered, the methodology for the reporting of the data is extremely important. Knowing that “all data collection is subject to some measurement error” (Patton, p.403). It is my objective to minimize this error as much as possible.
Understanding that “interpretation depended on understanding factor analysis” (Patton, p. 400). It will be most important to scrutinize my results for greatest comprehension.
The goal of my thesis was to have the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program repeated within other schools in my district and throughout the State. The proper gathering and reporting of the data is extremely important so results can be repeated and found worthy of trial within other schools.
SECTION FOUR: FINDINGS AND INTERPRETATIONS
Findings
In analyzing my results I used both quantitative and qualitative data. My quantitative data included four classroom walk throughs over an eight week trial. I measured classroom engagement by comparing a regular science class and the number the overall responses from a teacher’s question and counted the number of hands raised, to an online teacher posted question and the number of responses recorded by participating students. In both situations the teacher only posed a question one time. I also measured the Earth Space Science Unit scores on a pre and post-test and recorded the results of a regular class as compared to the technology classes. My qualitative data included a pre and post survey of participating teacher, students and parents. I also completed interviews of the participating teacher and a district technology director.
Survey
I mailed out surveys to forty one parents twenty-one parents and students replied. The results of the survey indicated that the parents were very satisfied with their students using their own device within the classroom. The parents often indicated that they felt this type of technology use within the classroom was helping to prepare their student for their future and helped develop their skills as a 21st century learner. The parents also indicated that they were interested in learning more about technology themselves. So in response to this request I developed a parent university which the students facilitated. The largest parental concern for using technology within the classroom was the potential for improper use and the possibility of theft or damage to their student’s computer. The student’s response was very positive. Many of the students wrote about how much more interesting, fun and engaging their science class was with the technological inclusion. They felt they were using and growing in technology use through project based learning. The major concern about using technology within the classroom was a student using it improperly and having the potential of effecting the BYOD program. I can electronically provide the charts of the responses upon request.
Interview
The pre-program interview of the teacher indicated that the teacher was willing to be flexible with the development of her paperless classroom. She was excited to have the opportunity to include technology into her classroom setting and shared that planning for this class gave her a renewal of her teaching craft. One of her largest concerns was being able to cover the science curriculum through technology resources.
During the district technology director interview, he shared his concern with the district’s ability to have the band width necessary to offer a BYOD program to every school. He shared that our district was way behind in being able to support our current technology needs. He noted that this was an area in need of attention and was so critical that the lack of infrastructure could shut our technology needs down. His biggest worry was in trying to keep our district afloat as we worked on catching up with the improvements on technological infrastructure.
Observations
As part of the quantitative data I observed three classrooms four times over an eight week period of time. During my walk through I counted the number of students present and I counted the number of responses to teacher questions. In the comparison group I noted the number of hands raised to a teacher posed question. In the two technology classes I gathered a screen shot of the number of responses to a teacher posed question. I compared the results below in chart A being the data gathered and charts B, C, D and E being the graphs of the data. The overall results of student engagement was 67% higher for the technology classes in comparison to the regular classroom.
I gathered greater quantitative data on student achievement by monitoring the assessment scores of Earth Space Science Unit 1 on a regular science comparison class and the two monitored science technology classes. In Chart F I list the Pre-Test scores for the assessments. In Chart G I list the Post-Test results by listing the raw achievement scores of the comparison class and the two technology classes. In Chart H I posted the gains of the Florida Achieves data and compared the two technology classes with the regular class.
Interpretations
The information from the qualitative research was of great insight on how participants felt about the Bring Your Own Device program. The information gathered assisted me in being able to offer the support needed for the teacher, students, parents and district and assisted the program into successful growth during the first year of implementation. The surveys helped provide me with information on how the parents wanted support in learning more about their student’s technological use. In response to this inquiry, in December, I hosted a Parent University on technology which was facilitated by the participating students. The Parent University was a great success and I have been asked to host another during the spring. I have further had outreach from the school district in requests for assistance from my students to help develop web pages, electronic logos and informational videos. The student survey seemed most concerned with the responsibility of all students using technology for the intended use and not inappropriate use. This concern was stated often as a worry that inappropriate use might cease of the entire BYOD program. We had instilled a value of appropriate technological use and the student survey indicated that the students took the responsibility seriously.
The quantitative data indicated a 67% gain in student engagement as indicated by the number of students who participated in a teacher prompted question. The technology students often conversed about the posed questions late into the evening. Often the teacher would have to tell them to shut down for the evening for it was getting late. The classroom walls extended far beyond the physical building and students would compete against one another on projects to see who could make the best video or glogster (electronic poster) or other technological presented project. The students were observed, during my walk throughs, portraying tremendous growth in leadership qualities and inquiry based learning. The technology classrooms were observed often filled with active inquiry and the teacher became a facilitator as the students grew in confidence and encouraged one another to discover answers to higher order questions and develop inquiry skills and knowledge. In comparison with the regular classroom, where few students participated in a discussion and in an average classroom of twenty two students usually seven hands were raised in response to a teacher question. Students often were observed completing the minimum and very little active inquiry was present.
With the engagement results being so increased within the technology classes in comparison to the regular classes I expected the test scores to have significant increases as well. This was not what occurred. In the Earth Space Science Unit 1 assessment there were greater gains in three out of the four tested standards in gaining scores in the regular classroom as compared to the technology classroom. I had not taken into account the extra time it would take for the technology students and teacher to become comfortable with using the technological in the classroom setting. Both the teacher and students had a four week trial and error type of beginning. The teacher reflected that she wanted the class to be more than just a computer use only type of classroom. She had to work on developing a pedagogy to have technology be a tool for information purposes but continue to retain her presence as the teacher in the room. She had to develop skills and strategies on when her students were to listen to what she was presenting rather than just reading information that was appearing on a computer screen. She had to develop the differences between an on-line computer class and a teacher facilitated classroom, enhanced by computer use. I feel the low gains in the first unit assessments, were due to the extra time given to the development of the technology class pedagogy.
Judgment
Looking at my data results I reflected on answering my primaray and secondary questions. In Domain A I pondered what effect would the institution and use of a BYOD program for the selected 8th grade science students have on their science achievement grades, compared to other students who are not involved in BYOD, and therefore do not use technology in their classrooms to the extent as the BYOD students, as measured by the results of the Earth Space unit one benchmark assessment test? My results showed greater gains in the regular science class as compared to the technology enhanced science class. I tested the first unit and had not taken into account the amount of time it would take the students and teacher to establish a pedagogy of use. I also did not allow time for students to develop their technology skills used in their projects. I will continue to monitor the progress and compare the test results now that the students and teacher have established a classroom routine.
For the analysis of sub-questions for Domain A, I used an open-ended student survey to gather this information. For the first sub-question I asked:
1. What do students who are involved in a pilot BYOD program at one middle school report as working well in the program? I found from the survey that students enjoyed the collaboration both in class and at home, for the teacher would post inquiries and the students would discuss the inquiry late into the evening. The students’ felt they were learning in a 21st Century classroom. The students’ shared that using technology made their studies more interesting. They looked forward to science class each day.
2. What do students who are involved in a pilot BYOD program at one middle school report as not working well in the program?
Students’ reflected on their surveys that they were most concerned about an individual doing something wrong with the technology and not being allowed to use technology in the form of Bring Your Own Device and therefore go back to the former way that class was held.
3. What suggestions do students who are involved in a pilot BYOD program at one middle school report as suggestions for improving the pilot BYOD program? Students’ suggested that more classes should use more technology during class. Students’ felt the use of technology made the class more interesting.
Domain B.
What are the issues involving the start-up of a BYOD program for selected 8th grade students (open ended survey questions) in one middle school at the student level, the instructional level (survey and interview the Science Teacher), the administrative level (Interview Interim Director of Technology and District Technology Specialist), and the school level parents (survey parents of four 8th grade Science classes)?
The student issues for beginning a BYOD program were to establish regulations for proper use. A plan had to be put into place, taught and reinforced. Students had to switch their attitude that BYOD was to be used for academic purposes and not for social media.
The teacher had to help develop a plan for use, train the students in appropriate use and reinforce the proper use in a project based learning setting. The teacher had to figure out how to use technology as a tool and not the only tool. At the beginning the teacher struggled with a way to differentiate between an on-line class and a teacher facilitated class with technological enhancements. She tried several methods and grew the program to the point of developing a student leadership panel to help gain the student voice within the classroom setting. This student team (nick-named the Awesome Bosses) grew the students in skill and developed leadership skills to the point where they presented to parents, the district and community members The teacher reflected that this was such a positive experience that she would never want to go back to the way she used to teach. She felt this group of students would remain in contact even as they left eighth grade and moved on to high school. The “Awesome Bosses” often reflect that they will be back to help grow the BYOD program. They feel strongly about using and developing technological opportunities within the classroom.
The district interim director spoke about the difficulty of establishing the appropriate infrastructure to support a BYOD program. He felt the band-width use might slow or even bring down a school’s technology system. The most important aspect of using technology within a school was to make sure the infrastructure was able to handle the increase of use. This was an issue as we first began the BYOD program. We had to learn to monitor band-width and found that if we downloaded most of our needs during off hours that the use was held to a minimum.
The parents shared that they were most happy about their student’s progress. They found that their students were very engaged and often talked to them about their science class or shared a project they had created for class. The parents thought that embedding technology within the classroom setting was preparing their student for 21st century learning. The parents were interested in receiving training themselves, so in response to this request the “Awesome Bosses” facilitated a parent university in which the parents received training about using and monitoring their own student’s use. Parent’s reflected that they not only learned more about their own device but also learned about how to monitor their student’s device to help them with proper use and avoidance of the possibility of being bullied or approached by an inappropriate communication.
Sub Questions for Domain B:
1. How will the student computer guest server support BYOD? How will we monitor “hot spots” and other apps that can allow students to go around the server?
The guest network at first was impacted by intense use. We began to monitor the use and download needs during off student hours. This significantly helped with the band-width use. The “hot spot” use has to be consistently monitored and reinforced. We are able to view on any device to make sure the student is using the guest network. This is indicated by a signal on the device. We can electronically check for hot spots and isolate inappropriate use through this monitoring. The guest network helps to protect for inappropriate use while on campus due to the guest network implementing the district’s protective filters.
2. How will the students be taught the expectations so that they have full, consistent understanding of the responsibility of using BYOD?
We developed a training video and the science department facilitated the BYOD training sessions. Each student took home a contract of use which had to be signed and reviewed by a parent. The discipline matrix had to revamped to include a system to help monitor appropriate use.
3. How will I notify parents of the penalties for students who do not follow the expectations and guidelines for BYOD use?
Parents were notified through several introduction meetings. Parents then were informed through the contract which provided information concerning use and monitoring use. We further developed a parent university in which parents could choose to come into school during the evening to receive support on using technology and monitoring their student’s use.
4. How will I monitor student engagement, of the BYOD student user to the non-user?
I monitored student engagement by competing classroom walk throughs within the non-user classes and counted the number of responses to a teacher posed question. The teacher was asked to not repeat the question and allow adequate wait time. In the technology classed the teacher would pose a single written question and would not respond further but would print out the number of students who responded to the on-line inquiry. The results were 60% greater response in the technology based inquiry in comparison with the non-user classroom.
5. What implications for district-wide application of a BYOD program are revealed in the study of this BYOD pilot program at one middle school?
District wide use would be highly recommended. I am concerned about the students leaving 8th grade and attending high school where technology use is limited. BYOD gives students’ the ability to grow in technological skill while learning curriculum. It is an affordable way for schools to keep up with being able to provide up to date equipment for the parents supply the technology. The district then can afford to strengthen infrastructure and can assist students with devices who cannot afford devices of their own.
6. How will students who cannot afford technology, compete academically with students who can?
If schools implement a BYOD program it assist the school with the ability of supplementing devices for students who cannot afford devices of their own. It also gives students the opportunity of working on a device of their own due to the availability of more devices on each campus. Dollars can be saved on purchasing equipment and can be spent on purchasing supplemental equipment and on reinforcing the infrastructure to allow for greater use.
7. Is there a cost savings in using BYOD?
The immediate cost savings is in not having to purchase, nor upgrade, technological devices. It assist a school with the ability of providing a student greater opportunity of using technology. Students are currently required to take assessment tests and FCAT tests using technological devices. Although, these devices must be school purchased equipment, due to certain protective requirements, technology still can occur within the classroom while other classes are testing if there is a BYOD implemented. Further cost savings exist in repair and updating to new programs.
Recommendations
I would make the following recommendations:
- If a school is interested in implementing a BYOD program that they look at the infrastructure first. A strong infrastructure is important to support the technological needs.
- I would highly recommend putting in a guest network. There are a number of ways to do this including companies who will maintain the school’s security and protect the students from going on inappropriate sites or speaking with inappropriate people.
- Establish a contract which has been approved by the district, teachers, parents and students. All of the participants must have by-in and have understanding about appropriate use.
- Create a training video and make sure all new students see the video so that they have an understanding of the use expectations.
- Include the use within your discipline matrix to further support appropriate use. At my school a small infraction of use (texting) would have the device go into a time-out and the student would not get the device back for a given period of time (dependent on infraction). If the student were to make a severe infraction the student may lose the right to use a device while on campus.
- Upgrade and make changes in the process. Have it occasionally be a subject on the leadership team agenda so teachers’ have accountability and provide support.
This was an amazing experience and one in which I will continue to be encouraged to grow beyond my school and into the district. Although I developed a paperless classroom within the eighth grade only for this first year, I have plans to include the 6th and 7th grades next year. The engagement within the classroom is remarkable in comparison to the non- user. Learning that “In the simplest of terms, they (students) are coming of age tethered to the Internet, as well as to a host of instant communication devices that were unimaginable twenty years ago.” (Wagner, p.170). Why are we not using this modality of communication within our classrooms? What are we afraid of? Our students are changing Wagner refers to students as interactive producers or isolated consumers (Wagner, p.187). Wagner further describes this next generation as having” enormous potential either to be lost in an endless web of fantasy and entertainment or to use their skills with these new technologies to make significant contributions” (Wagner, p. 187). I found this to be quite apparent as I interviewed the teacher within my research. She commented that students who wish to be in a paperless classroom see their technological device as more that a social device. Few of her technology students choose to use the device for social media. Many of them are creating web pages or creating interactive posters and imovies. They are inventing new uses. One of her students invented a device to aid the hearing impaired. He linked a microphone to an electronic game board and the deaf person could read what a person was saying without reading lips or watching sign. The mechanism was more accurate than lip reading and the words were typed at an 85% accuracy even people’s names. This is one example of what students are doing at my school within their paperless classroom.
What I plan on focusing on next is to continue with monitoring the students’ use of BYOD and growing the eSTEAM academy into the 6th and 7th grade. I will meet with the high schools to inform them of what BYOD has done for our school and how there is tremendous potential to grow such a program within the high school. This will secure that my 8th graders can continue to grow in their progress. If a high school were to implement this type of program within their academic courses more students’ would be able to test out in Industry Certification tests, bringing funding to the school and assisting the school grade. The certifications are recognized by the business world and further develop the student with tools needed in the 21st century work force.
References
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Appendix
STUDENT SURVEY
Age: _______
Science Period: ________
Please circle correct demographic
Male or Female
White Black Hispanic Asian Other: __________________
I use BYOD at Nolan: Yes No
Please fill in the blank, you may use the back of this paper if more room for writing is needed.
1. What is your favorite activity to complete in Science class and why? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
2. What is your least favorite activity to complete in Science class and why? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
3. What is your favorite use of BYOD technology within Science class and why? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
4. What is your least favorite use of BYOD technology in Science class and why? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
5. What would you like to learn about while in Science class? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
6. How would you improve this Science class? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
7. I would like to do more of the following in Science class. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
8. I would like to do less of the following in Science class. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
9. My favorite APP to use is? __________________________________________.
10. My least favorite APP to use is? ______________________________________.
Please Circle the Best Choice
11. If given a choice on completing a project in Science I would choose:
An Art Project A Technology Project A Speech or Presentation
(Poster, Game Board,) (iMovie, PPT, weebly) (Book or subject report)
12. I like using technology in class:
Always Usually Sometimes Never
13. I own or have access at home to the following number of technology devices:
5 or more 4 3 2 1 None
14. I pay attention more in Science when I use my BYOD technology:
Always Usually Sometimes Never
PARENT/ TEACHER SURVEY
Age: _______
Please circle correct demographic
Male or Female
White Black Hispanic Asian Other: __________________
I use technology at home or work: Yes No
Please fill in the blank, you may use the back of this paper if more room for writing is needed.
1. What was your favorite activity to complete in School Science class and why? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
2. What was your least favorite activity to complete in School Science class and why? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
3. Does your student(s) talk about Science class and if so, list an example? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
4. Why did you choose to offer your student(s) this opportunity to take this Bring Your Own Device Technology (BYOD) enhanced Science class? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
5. What would you like for your student(s) to learn about while in the BYOD technology enhanced Science class? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
6. What would you suggest to help improve the BYOD technology enhanced Science class? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
7. What would like to see your student(s) do more of in the BYOD technology enhanced Science class? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
8. What would you expect your student(s) to do less of in the BYOD enhanced Science class? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
9. My or my student’s favorite APP to use is? ___________________________.
10. My or my student’s least favorite APP to use is? _______________________.
Please Circle the Best Choice
11. If my student(s) were given a choice to complete a project in Science they would choose:
An Art Project A Technology Project A Speech or Presentation
(Poster, Game Board,) (iMovie, PPT, weebly) (Book or subject report)
12. My student(s) have indicated to me that they like using technology in class:
Always Usually Sometimes Never
13. In my household I have access to the following number of technology devices:
5 or more 4 3 2 1 None
14. I use technology at work or at home almost everyday:
Always Usually Sometimes Never
[TC1]
