Join the discussion of BYOT from the perspectives of high school students in #BYOTchat in Twitter at 9 PM EST on Thursday, March 21, 2013!   We are excited to have high school students attend the #BYOTchat to share their experiences with Bring Your Own Technology.  Read the posts from the students from Lambert High School in Georgia and Roanoke-Benson High School in Illinois below and come prepared with your questions.  We also welcome additional HS students and teachers to drop in to the chat to share and learn together!

As a Lambert High School student I am constantly surrounded by the hum of laptops, the clicking of keyboards, and the vibration of cell phones.  Any other student in any other county would be amazed by the amount of technology that surrounds me every day.  So many people have tried to build a wall between education and technology, but Forsyth County has taken giant leaps forward in embracing technology.  First, look at ANGEL Learning System.  Every teacher in the county uses this amazing system to its fullest extent.  Secondly, how many schools allow a student keep a cell phone on their person at all times?  Now, I know the moment you read that, you had a little freak-out.  It’s understandable. Teenagers always having their phones?  What are they thinking?  What they’re thinking is that we are going to college where professors don’t care if you have your cell phone out or even if you show up for class.  I felt very well prepared for the responsibilities that I was given, and teachers are always willing to share ideas about how to improve upon your habits.  So far in my education, teachers have been really supportive of technology use.  Any time that I wanted to use a new thing they had never seen before, they not only allowed me to, but also were also involved in the project so that they could see if they wanted to use it later.  I absolutely love the support I get from my teachers and the new things that BYOT allow me to do.  I truly cannot imagine school without my laptop and phone.

I use BYOT at school on my laptop and phone for most schoolwork.  I have even seen many activities in the class setting that utilize common BYOT type applications, such as Evernote.  Evernote is a great program for group projects because everyone posts their own information to one account.  They can then send the portfolio they have built to the teacher.  I also believe that a program called WebAssign is a great way to use technology and teach students.  It usually is used in science courses, but I think it would be helpful if implemented into the other courses, such as Calculus.  WebAssign gives the student problems or questions based on the Unit they are currently on and the student is given a grade based on their accuracy.  It’s basically a less stressful quiz, which also allows the student to think out the problems better.  Another method of BYOT I have seen that has been successful is QR code scavenger hunts.  Teachers make the scannable codes have questions in them.  The students then answer the questions and have to search for the next code.  The teacher can make one of these easily.  All they need to do is search QR code hunt maker and then type in the information.  Another popular program is Prezi.  Prezi is basically a powerpoint that the student  can be way more creative with.  A Prezi is always more exciting to watch than a powerpoint.

I think that teachers and instructors could use more BYOT easily.  I have noticed that I do much better in the classes that have a teacher that informs us about the review websites that we can use for extra help.  Websites include studyspanish.com for spanish and khanacademy.com for chemistry, calculus, and much more.  Giving the links to these websites is actually a huge help for most students.

I use my laptop or Smartphone usually to browse for information about what the teacher is talking about in class, or some complicated word that I have no idea what it means. BYOT policy in our school lets me study and answer my own question so that both my time and class’s time is saved. Also, I use them to work on certain assignments during or for a class. Since there are so many ways I can present my ideas or thoughts to my classmates, I feel so powerful designing or polishing my presentation that might spark interest in my fellow students’ minds. Having the opportunity and the responsibility to use my technologies during school gives me so many options to bring new knowledge into myself and also share it with the whole school.

BYOT is supported in my school, but not excessively pushed. Some students, like myself, carry their devices on them at all times and use them all the time for homework and notes, but the majority of students don’t use these devices for more than writing what homework we have for today. The only teacher I have that pushes the use of BYOT is Mr. Steve Hayes. He is my band teacher and used a Study Bluefor us to use in preparation for our final exam.

Every day at school, I have my MacBook, iPad, and iPhone. Some people may think this is excessive, but I use them each for their own purpose. I take hand written notes on my iPad using Penultimate. I usually have some paper I should be writing, and I do that on my MacBook with Pages. I like using iWork (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) because I store all my documents on iCloud and they sync between my devices. So if I want to make a correction to my paper from another device, I can easily do so.

Some classes implement technology very well, but it is not BYOT. Calculus is half taught via Khan Academy, and we use Accelerated Math worksheets/tests to have variable paced learning. The way Accelerated Math works is that the teacher inputs the types of problems he wants us to learn for the next test. Depending on how well we do on the worksheets, the computer will decide what to give us for the next day. We enter the answers to our worksheets into a remote and then our grade is immediately printed out. We know what we need to work on immediately, rather than having to wait a week for it to be graded. My astronomy class uses computer based labs most the time, allowing us to see interactive drawings rather than black and white printouts.

Overall, my school uses technology really well, but the teachers don’t know how to embrace it.

At Roanoke-Benson High School, I am allowed to use my technology devices during school. I use Evernote on my Ipad to record classes so I can review the lectures later on. Note-taking has been easier because I can simply type my notes. Often, I will use the camera on my iPad to take pictures of teacher’s notes.

Social networking is not blocked at our school and can be accessed at anytime. This is important for us to be able to work with other students.  Teachers need to learn to relax and trust us.

With the opportunity of being BYOT, it will make it less of a shock in college and allow me to manage time better. I am always surprised to hear how restricted some schools are. There are have so many opportunities to use electronics in education and they get wasted away. Schools have to move with the times or else they will get left behind and become outdated.