Language Sensei

A Language Teacher's Journey

Coping in a Tech-Challenged School ( & Dealing with 1:1, BYOD Envy!)

| 2 Comments

Concept of Hand with Electronic FingerprintsThere are lots of schools that are rich with technological resources. My school – due to priorities and budgets – is not rich in that area. Add onto that strict Canadian privacy laws and the difficulty of using online resources is compounded. I wonder how many others in this ‘tech rich’ era that we are in are in a similar plight? So how do I cope and use what I can to offer challenges and choice to my students?

The situation in my school: 6 ‘labs’ full of desktop computers – not always available for regular class use; reliable WiFi but not the capacity to have everyone online at once; issues with streaming anything; no 1:1 or iPad initiative. The only BYOD occurs when a student chooses to bring it from home.

The situation in my classroom:  A personal Macbook Pro as my main instructional technology (with an LCD and an add-on graphics tablet). A desktop computer (Windows) issued by the school but only allowed to run Firefox or Internet Explorer (not Chrome). Three iMacs – older but capable of running WiFi (can’t hook into the network as I bought them independently from district tech sources) and any phones or devices students may have on them that day

The wrinkle: I live in Canada and it has stringent privacy rules. Therefore, parent permission must be sought for any student to use any online program/app that requires giving any personal data in registering, or has any personal info that may be held outside of Canada. That means the required use of any Google Docs, Edmodo etc must be signed off on. It also means that apps such as ‘Remind’ are not authorized as data is held in the States.

Using an online video clip?  Download it off of the internet via Keepvid or other convertors – so you don’t rely on a dicey connection that may or may not be as fast as you need on the day. Not sure how to download what you have – google a ‘how to download a (name type) video”  – it’s how I learned.

Contacting Students via Texts? There are a couple of solutions for me – one surprising one was our school attendance software. It can be programmed by class to do a call-out. It’s a clumsy workaround for me but just may work if I need it. The other option for me is Edmodo (with parent permission) – as I start to transition all my classes to it, I have learned that students may choose to be contacted via email or text with updates I send out on Edmodo. It isn’t a great solution but it will work for me. At any time there is also my traditional class website – with links to clips, reviews and the homework uploaded each day!

Few Devices/Machines – Many students?  Groups, Stations and Headphone splitters. When we play an online game such a Kahoot, I’m conscious of students who don’t have a phone, or are not wanting to use a lot of data minutes. So we’ve always played as teams – at least 2 students (and sometimes 3). Generally this means I give a little longer to answer questions (consultation is requried) but its a sneaky way for them to review too. Stations are a great way to ‘spread the tech around’ and with my new resources I will try to balance the paper with the tech for each. Making it a lot easier for many students to use 1 machine is the ‘headphone splitter’. Kristy Placido alerted me to these and I now have 4 Belkin Rockstar Splitters (5 sets of headphones at a time) for my room – that’s 15 kids on 3 machines/devices.

Recording Conversations? The Phone/Hand-held Digital Recorder – I know there are lots of online resources and apps but I continue to make use of the phone. Not all students have phones so what it is used for is never required. Dictionaries online are okay – but I also have the paper ones and it is a good ‘tool’ to learn to use. Any recording is most often done in pairs. Additionally I purchased a hand-held digital recorder for students who don’t have a phone. I love to use phone recorded conversations to demonstrate proficiency!

Handing in Work? Choice! I don’t require students to hand things in on-line. Some prefer to do that – and it is marked and returned on-line as well. Others like to handwrite and some don’t have a computer at home. So I give options. Those that enjoy using a keyboard (or their phone) are welcome to do so – and those that are more traditional in their supply use don’t suffer. The issue for me is consistency in how it is marked. At least once or twice I offer Japanese keyboard orientation for students to learn some tips and tricks!

Video Reviews?  I do a series of video reviews for each unit. They are not fancy – I use Snagit (an upgraded version of Jing) to ‘talk’ and write my way through concepts. There are lots of apps/programs out there to use. All of the videos are uploaded directly from the program to my YouTube channel – and grouped by grade as a playlist. Remember to make sure the videos are made public (and I disable comments – really – I don’t need those!). Students can access the videos via the school computers in open labs or the library if they don’t have a computer at home.

Being in a tech-challenged school means that you have to think a little more about what you are using and how you will use it. What are your favourite workarounds in a low-tech environment?

Colleen

 

 

 

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

2 Comments

Leave a Reply

Required fields are marked *.


Skip to toolbar