I have just returned to teaching in term two after maternity leave. Changes in our timetabling has meant that students are not in all the same core classes with each other. As a result students in my Health and PE classes know one or two others but that is about it. We are beginning a unit on Sexuality Education, and it was really difficult to get any meaningful discussions going. So I decided to do Pechakucha’s again. One of my previous posts explains Pechakucha’s in far more detail.
This particular class was a BYOD class (bring your own device), so they had access to technology. This meant that I could get students to do the task for homework, rather than spending a couple of lessons in an overbooked computer lab! So I introduced the concept to them and away we went. Now its not until you do something new like this and are about to execute it that you realise the flaw in your thinking. As students had a range devices, I thought it best that they choose the app or program that best suited them. When it came time to present them, we had a problem, connecting their device to the projector! Now if we were an ipad school, I guess you would connect to an apple tv, but unfortunately were not. We managed to have one student present that lesson, it was the only other student in the class who had an ipad4 and so could connect via my ipad adapter (ipad4 adapters are differnt to any previous ipads! ) So I asked students to email me their presentations. Today we managed to show two more presentations successfully. We will continue to do this with a few students each week.
What continues to amaze me is that students put photos of themselves at young ages and of their family, which I thought maybe they would be too embarressed to do. I am loving the fact that they are enjoying sharing with their class who they are, their families, what they are in to and what they want to do in the future.
I’m sure we will probably have issues showing some presentations again before we complete the whole class, however I believe its worth the effort. And for those who are venturing down the path of byod, you quickly realise it is more about problem solving and back up plans than anything else. If you have had similar experiences with byod please share your suggestions/solutions by commenting. 🙂
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