Virtual Learning Network

Hi all, as a school we are now looking at wireless. I was hoping some schools who are currently using BYOD or even straight wireless networks could comment on the post below. Thanks

/blog/view/694307/looking-at-wireless

While at Learning at School CORE Education generously gave me a Kindle Fire to play with for a bit and see what I thought of it for school use. I managed to convince them that I needed to take it home with me to give it a decent run.

After a bit of a play and some discovering I wrote a review of it on my blog if you are interested on my thoughts on this device.

http://allanahk.edublogs.org/2012/02/05/lighting-the-kindle-fire/

I prefer @stephenheppell 's term BaB - bring a browser to #BYOD. Emphasis on the action rather than the gear. January 31, 2012 at 08:35AM on Twitter http://twitter.com/Jedd/status/164069360707702786

breedsfamily Breeds Family 

The next First-time Principals Programme residential course is 11th-13th April 2012. One day of the three day course is devoted to leading teaching & learning in a digital environment (or as we prefer to write it teaching & learning). Is anybody interested in talking with me about the types of ideas or activities that would encourage new principals to engage enthusiasticlly with this issue?

melindamay via groups: Re:Managing ipads

Our yr 7-8 students ( a group of 6) have had 1:1 iPads this year. The rest
of the school is 1:2 iPods. There're are also a reasonably large group of
students that have parent provided devices.
I think it essential that the teacher has control of what apps to purchase.
Staff have become more and more discerning in purchasing apps. We look
forward to volume purchasing but In the meantime the teacher syncs device
to their laptop. Students now are starting to take control of managing the
apps that they need, we encourage the chn to delete apps that are not
appropriate to them, and each device differs depending on the individual
students needs.
The school controls the parent provided devices as well - if it comes to
school as a learning tool, we expect to control it, just like writing books
and other stationery.
Next year the seniors, yrs6-8 will be 1:1 leased iPads (25 students) school
will pay half and the cost to parents will be $150 per year.
There is huge power when each child has their own device. For schools not
fortunate enough to be in our position I agree that having a set that is
enough for every child in a group to work on one is a good option. Our
senior readers have had great success using ebooks on the iPad as part of
their English novel study programme.

Ahuroa School, north Auckland, near Warkworth/Puhoi. We are a full primary
with 60 students.

There is a lot of talk these days about BYOD in schools. How to go about it, what do we need to have in place, what devices should we allow?

Low cost tablets PCs for Rotorua Pupils  

The MLE (Managed Learning Environment) listserve has an increasing amount of discussion based on this article. If you are interested in joining this discussion let me know. 

Here is one entry with some well thought out ideas on implementation. 

We are looking to establish a separate wifi network with a simple password that is largely unfiltered (except for the obvious stuff for a primary school) that kids can connect to with anything they want to bring - cell ph, ipad, laptop, ipod, psp, whatever. We would look to have it operational for school hours only as well to control bandwidth usage. We are in the first UFB rollout in 2012 so this is a good way to make full use of this too. Our obligation would be to have the wifi network running and available - theirs is to connect, backup, repair, insure and so-on their personally owned devices.
We will still have desktops/laptops in classrooms for kids to use - so it is not BYOD or nothing ...
 
Anyway ... I am keen for any usage agreements, planning or other documentation people are willing to share relating to a BYOD programme you may have in place or planned. 
The BoT is pretty nervous about the school obligations around theft, breakages, equity, etc and I am keen to tap into the collective wisdom/solutions on those issues rather than beginning with a metaphorical blank piece of paper.
Many thanks
Greg
 
 
Greg Carroll
Principal
Outram School