I am very excited to co-host #BYOTchat with Molly James tonight! I am the library department chair at New Canaan High School in Connecticut, and we are a Choose Your Tool School – our students use their own mobile technology and social media as part of their learning program. Molly is a New Canaan High School senior who has a clear vision of how this helps her build the positive digital profile she will need as she moves beyond her K-12 experience.

“When I think of a digital footprint, I think of what’s going to remain years into the future, like the fossilized dinosaur tracks that have been found. How does one become prepared to plan and act responsibly when online? In my experience, I’ve had great mentors to demonstrate the appropriate way to act. A digital footprint carries through someone’s entire life, from adolescence to adulthood. On my school’s library page (nchslibrary.info) there’s a fabulous infographic about the effect Facebook profiles has on college applications. 


I see some of my peers post photos that, in about 10 years, they’ll regret putting up. On the internet, everything is forever. When a tweet or post is put out there, you never know who may screencapture it into eternity. Even the app “Snapchat” isn’t fleeting (?), the screenshot feature can capture a picture meant for only a few seconds. It’s daunting, but not something that should be agonized over. 


It’s really easy to make a positive digital footprint. Using websites like Twitter and Facebook to your advantage isn’t difficult. Students can use social media for projects, homework, productivity, and of course socializing. I’ve learned at school from teachers the importance of responsible usage; something that comes with my school’s culture. Repetitively showing students how to use technological tools to their advantage makes it a habit for them. 


This is now making me think of the an episode of the new Arrested Development season, where George Michael Bluth Googles himself and only bad things come up. Do you really want to have that actually happen to you? Google yourself, and see what happens. That, I would say, is the ultimate test if you’ve made a successful digital footprint.”


Please join us on Twitter at 9PM, Eastern tonight 5/30/2013 to discuss how trust and freedom can transform learning. Just follow and use the hashtag #BYOTchat to participate!

To each learner his own.

Different tools can be better or worse for different people. That fact can be amplified when you take into account various learning styles, learning disabilities, physical differences, and physical disabilities.

This week, Meg Wilson @iPodsibilities and Karen Janowski @KarenJan will be joining BYOTchat to help us explore the pros and cons of BYOT for students with special needs.

This discussion will be perfect for both teachers of students with special needs, along with teachers in traditional classrooms — a classroom of 10 to 30 students can have as many as 10 to 30 different learning styles!

Some questions we may consider:
Why is BYOT an important concern when it comes to accessibility? How do we make sure that BYOT devices are accessible for the varying needs of our students? How important is it that we let our students choose their own tools? How teachers can empower their students to choose their own tools for the purpose of accessibility?

Join us this Thursday, April 11th at 9PM EST on Twitter using the hashtag #BYOTchat

BYOT has at its core the BYO—the T is unimportant. We talk about BYOT not because we think the technology is key to learning, but because engagement and self direction are. Students—and teachers—should be empowered to choose what tools work for them as learners; use of the contents of the entire tool box should be modeled for them, and they should practice using each tool. They should take risks without fear of failure.

The next logical step to me is to take this BYO philosophy to the learning itself. What if students could choose their own areas of study? What if they were given the chance—the time—to explore their interests? And the next step: What if TEACHERS could take time to explore their own interests?

Sound far fetched? I don’t think it is. I wrote about it in a blog post last year, large, innovative companies like 3M, HP, and of course Google have made the news on more than one occasion with their concept of 20% time, and we do it successfully in my own start-up, OunceIT. In fact, I find that staff satisfaction and productivity is higher in my staff who take advantage of perusing their own interests on company time—interests that may benefit the company.

Until your school’s administration supports this concept of providing self-directed learning and discovery time to teachers and students, how can we—teachers, administrators, and even students—take advantage of free time at work and at home for perusing our own interests in a way that might make us better teachers, learners, and leaders?

What can we do for ourselves? What can we do for our students? Would you make a pledge to provide BYOL (bring your own learning?) time in your school or classroom?

This week we are approaching the adoption of BYOD/BYOT programs from a different angle: change management. We have asked a guest, Brad Ovenell-Carter (@braddo), to moderate the discussion, as his BLC12 presentation of the same name inspired this week’s topic (see his own slides as well as notes by an attendee of his talk via the link above).

Innovation Adoption Curve, illustrated by Brad Ovenell-Carter

The fact is, people handle change in different ways and at different speeds. Moving to a BYOD/BYOT program does not happen all at once, even in the best circumstances. In fact, as Brad illustrates very clearly, people’s adoption of new innovations seem to fit nicely into a normal bell curve: The Innovation Adoption Curve (Brad’s illustration shown right). Relatively few people innovate or adopt those innovations early on—most people fit into the larger populations of “pragmatists” and “conservatives”—and about as many people are “skeptics” or “laggards” as are innovators and early adopters combined.

Each constituency (Innovators, Early Adopters, Conservatives, Pragmatists, and Skeptics) requires a different type of attention, and the success of the adoption within a group wrests on all parties within your community or group.

Please bring your own stories, questions, and struggles with innovation adoptions within your community. We will see what we can cover in 140 characters or less! Our feeling is that this is a big topic, so we plan to take advantage of two weeks’ BYOTChats to tackle it.

Please join us this Thursday, November 2nd, at 9PM Eastern Time (US) at #BYOTchat to discuss the Grassroots of Change.

#BYOTchat and BYOTchat.com have very quickly become well used resources for sharing tips about how to take advantage of BYOT in education. Now, in order to help us curate this copious amount of information, we have created a new wiki: http://wiki.byotchat.com.

You can find a link to the wiki along with the rest of our links at the top of this page, or bookmark http://wiki.byotchat.com.

Please feel free to use information from the wiki in your own classroom, add your own favorite apps, sites, links, and lesson plans, and work WITH us to keep the wiki up to date.

BYOTchat.com and wiki.byotchat.com will compliment each other, so please bookmark both sites as educational resources, and of course continue to join #BYOTchat Twitter: Thursday nights at 9PM ET—that’s where it all begins!

Jeremy (@MyTakeOnIt)