Eliot is Assistant Head of Science at Marlborough Boys’ College, he’s a Doctor, a writer and contributor to text books (as well as our blog) with an interest in ICT in education. Eliot’s been a shining star in Pond, grasping it throughout all stages of the rollout and being instrumental in the development direction it has taken.
The past year has been an exciting one at my school. We have more classes that are bring your own device (BYOD) and this is a new challenge for many staff. Eventually BYOD will be the norm, much as you would have a set of textbooks in your class. It’s therefore nice to see software companies gradually bringing out applications that can maximise the benefits of BYOD.
Pond was easily one of the bigger releases for me in 2014 to help with my classroom practice. It provides a brilliant way to easily find resources that will enrich teaching and learning in all classrooms. As more teachers contribute, it is becoming even more useful and integral to teaching and learning in New Zealand.
I have become a regular user of Lynda.com. This is a site full of training videos for various IT applications. However, it now has a weekly teacher video section, which is free even for non-subscribers. This has introduced me to many applications and shown me ideas on how to use them. Many have been ideal for a BYOD environment.
I’m also very impressed with an application called Classflow (developed by Promethean). This is the first cloud-based software that has been made by people who know what BYOD classes really are like. It’s relatively easy to use and can allow for differentiated content to be sent to most devices (laptops, tablets and phones). It’s a genuinely original application and I can’t wait to try out some lessons with it.
It’s a big ask getting parents to purchase IT for their children to use in school. I believe that the very least schools could do in return is to provide the software that would otherwise be unobtainable. We shouldn’t be expecting parents to shell out for the computers the school would have bought if the parents had not.
Rather than spending funds on hardware we should be purchasing and providing the software that offers the very best learning opportunities for students. We should be looking at running software certification courses that are run in parallel with the NCEA courses we offer as this will equip students with the skills employers need.
So, with the new school year now underway, I hope I will see software companies responding to BYOD more effectively and intelligently. Applications that are cheap and easy to install on a variety of devices, like Classflow. Licensing needs to take account of BYOD, with schools being allowed to install copies onto students, widely differing machines. If that happens, 2015 should be an even more exciting year.