'Bring your own device' program a big hit in Evergreen classes

“Students, get out your cell phones!” aren’t words we typically condone, let alone encourage, in the school setting.

Yet, schools are changing, and educators must keep up.

In an effort to promote student engagement and the use of technology, the Evergreen School District recently revised policy to allow for a pilot “Bring Your Own Device” initiative with five classes in our school district.

Evergreen School District’s revised policy allows students to access the school district’s wireless network using their own technology tools during the school day.

With principal and teacher approval and guidance, students may use their own devices in classrooms to enhance the learning environment.

The Evergreen School District Board of Trustees enthusiastically supported the Bring Your Own Device initiative because, according to Board Chair Tamara Williams, research shows that Bring Your Own Device initiatives “improve student engagement, attendance, discipline, and achievement while broadening learning beyond the classroom, promoting increased student collaboration and preparing students for tomorrow’s workplace.”

And while the Bring Your Own Device initiative has only been in place for two months, responses from both students and teachers are overwhelmingly positive.

In Ethan Bailey and Linda Bowman’s fifth-grade class, students are using their own devices in class to explore websites, study historical events, and increase student engagement.

“I don’t even need to remind students to bring in their devices anymore; they just do it automatically on Wednesdays,” Bailey said. “Their faces light up, and it is hard to stop them from working because they are so engaged.”

Bailey and his students have “lost track of time on more than one occasion due to being so engrossed in learning using electronic devices.”

Walking into Jean Croft’s sixth-grade science class, it is difficult not to be amazed, not only at the high level of student engagement, but also at students’ vast knowledge of using electronic devices.

Spread out across Evergreen Junior High School’s iPad lab, students were working with an array of devices, including smartphones and tablets of all makes and models, along with district-owned devices for students who did not have a personal device with them.

On this particular day, students applied their knowledge of the scientific method as they used apps to test their hypotheses of which chemical elements produce compounds. Watching students’ excitement as they created chemical reactions (such as thallium-mercury alloys that are used in low temperature thermometers), reinforces the positive results of Bring Your Own Device.

With a huge smile across her face, Crofts could not help but be excited as well, as students were learning information that was personally relevant to them, all while being 100-percent engaged in the learning process.

While visiting eighth-grade science teachers Vic Dalla Betta and Melissa Hardman’s class the next day, it was exciting to see students studying physical science at a more in-depth level. They were making use not only of apps to combine elements but also furthering their knowledge of Lewis Dot Structures to determine the number and kinds of bonds and how atoms or ions are connected.

Students then worked in groups and used their electronic devices to research alkali earth metals, halogens, or Nobel gasses and performed a skit that shared the general, physical and chemical properties and specific examples of elements within that group.

“Students truly do feel like we are making strides to meet their needs,” Dalla Betta said. “One of them remarked that these lessons involving Bring Your Own Device are as close to how they envision their future as they have ever experienced in a school setting.”

Students at East Evergreen Elementary School are getting connected as well.

Proving that age is not an impediment to using electronic devices, second- and fourth-grade students are helping lead the way in the Bring Your Own Device initiative for our school district.

In the youngest pilot class in the district, students in Levi Nickel’s second-grade class are using electronic devices to work in groups and solve math problems.

“Students focus better on their work” and often see “learning as playing” when they are able to use electronic devices to complete work,” according to Nickel.

What student doesn’t want to have fun while learning?

Fourth-grade teacher Lisa Clark cannot praise her students’ experiences with Bring Your Own Device enough.

On a visit to Clark’s class recently, students were clearly engaged in learning as they worked with devices to research different topics of importance to them such as Internet safety, U.S. symbols, bullying, classifying animals, nouns and the difference between tally charts and bar graphs.

Students researched their chosen topics, made posters and presented their findings to their classmates.

While students reported enjoying working with their friends while using their own device, Clark was thrilled with the level of student engagement and learning.

Perhaps the “coolest” part of the lesson, according to Clark, was having a student choose to use the same app at home on her own time to make another poster of the human body and brain, a topic the class had not studied but that the student wanted to study on her own and now could as a result of what she had learned in class that day.

In an effort to assist students who may not have a personal digital device to bring to school, the Evergreen School District is encouraging community members to donate Wi-Fi enabled devices (smart phones, tablets, etc.) that are in good working condition to the Evergreen School District’s Bring Your Own Device program.

The devices will be wiped and made available for students who may not have access to a personal wireless device. Those making donations will receive a tax record form for tax deduction purposes.

While our Bring Your Own Device initiative is in its earliest phase, Williams emphasized that “We will be vigilant in continuing to monitor the program and the impact it is having on student growth and achievement. We are thrilled with the community support that we have received to date and look forward to the opportunities it provides our students.”

Barron is superintendent of the Evergreen School District.