Our district began by leasing laptop computers for each secondary student in the district, and iPads for the elementary students. Teachers were also issued laptop computers. We had previously used desktop PC's, with computer labs available for student use. The district switched to a new curriculum provider that seemed to meet the needs of a digital platform. Teachers received 3 days of professional development to introduce them to the new curriculum and how to use it in the week before school started, with the workshops conducted by the curriculum publisher.
Then, off to the races, with our heads spinning!
For many of us, it was too much too soon (or too little too late, depending on how you looked at it).
But we marched on.
Yes, we had technical problems. And to be honest, almost three years into this process, we still have technical problems. Expect it. Just this past week the site where the online interactive curriculum is accessed was inaccessible for several days. This is also the website where we do assessment, and I needed to prepare and give a quiz and a test using that website! I ended up using another website, but it wasn't the best solution. Here is the thing to remember: be prepared with a backup plan or a work-around. Always try your best to have a paper copy of a test or quiz so you can print them if you need it! That will save many headaches.
All that being said, the purpose of this post is to discuss what can be done to avoid some of the growing pains we experienced from our sink-or-swim introduction to going digital. I don't want it to sound overly negative, but I am going to focus on some of what went wrong that could be prevented or at least minimized with prior knowledge and planning.
Rule #1: do not assume your students know how to do basic computer tasks.
Even though today's students are sometimes called "digital natives", most of them do not have the academic digital skills they need for classroom success. By this I mean file management. This is especially true for my middle school students. You will have to teach your students how to download and save files so they know what they are and where they are. You will have to teach most of them how to fill in those files (assignments), save, and turn them in to be graded. Decide in advance how you want them to do this, then teach it the first few days of school. I use a document I call the "Edmodo turn-in" assignment which is basically a word document with instructions on how to save and turn in assignments, with a few questions to answer for editing practice. For my middle school students, I find it helps to give them a highlighted blank to fill in, to make it easy to find.
Our district requires us to use the website Edmodo for communicating with students. I like Edmodo pretty well. Again, you will have to teach your students your routine of using it. The wonderful thing about it: no more "but I turned it in, you must have lost it!". I will post later on how I use Edmodo, as well as bringing newcomers up to speed at mid-year.
Stumbling blocks.....
In retrospect, I think everyone - teachers and students alike - would have benefitted from having some basic digital management procedures agreed on as a school, that would be a common way of doing things. I think it would simplify the process by bringing everyone onto a level where we could function with less down time in the classroom. I would recommend trying to do this at least as a department or grade level if your school is "going digital".
Another aspect of digital instruction that was not addressed fully was digital citizenship. Wow. The first year.... well, at times it really wasn't pretty. The last two years have been a bit better with the introduction of a monitoring & blocking software, but there have been technical problems with it, and we received almost no training in using it. We do have a "computer use agreement" that each student and their parent or guardian has to sign to receive the computer at the beginning of the year, but many times I have reminded a student of what they agreed to, only to hear the reply "well I didn't sign it!".
Whatever. It needs to be taught explicitly, repeatedly, by everyone.
Our school has had to adopt the policy of "no flash drives" because students were bringing flash drives with (often illegally downloaded) game software and passing them around to their friends, thereby bypassing the requirement that they not download games or other software onto their computers. Despite students being told this was not allowed, and in some cases legal action taken, the practice persisted until flash drives were banned completely.
Internet access - or lack of it.
The first year was somewhat problematic because the computers did not have offline digital versions of the textbooks loaded on them. As a work-around, the district arranged for very low-cost internet to be made available to our students. Unfortunately, it seemed even that was more than some could afford. I do not know if free internet plans were made available that year for low income families, but I do know that some of my more dedicated students actually would have their parents drive them to a hotspot location where they could sit in the car long enough for them to download or upload files if they didn't get their work finished at school. This became less of a problem the second year, when offline versions of the textbooks were loaded on the student computers.
I have my students download and save new assignments in class as part of the lesson, so that I know they have them and can get their assignment done even if they don't have internet at home. I usually post assignments on Edmodo, and students turn them in there when complete. Once they learn the routine, it is easy.
Miscellaneous common problems
- Students arrive at school with no computer, having forgotten it at Dad's / Mom's / Grandparent's / a friend's house. Do the work on paper. If it happens again it's a discipline issue.
- Students have their computer, but it isn't charged and they don't have a charger. Either borrow one of my class chargers (very obviously identified with loud patterned duck tape), borrow one from a friend (leaving some sort of "collateral" so the friend will get their charger back), or do the work on paper. Long term solution: they must replace lost chargers, at a cost to them.
- Student computer will not go to the website (usually due to what they've been doing with it at home) - 1. check that the wifi button is turned on. 2. clear the browser history, restart. Be SURE to teach your students how to do this at the beginning of the year! It will save a lot of stress on your part! 3. use a "blue cord" to connect directly to an internet jack in the room. I have 2-3 in different spots in the room. 4. send student with computer to IT support. 5. do the work on paper.
I think I've hit the high (low) spots of our first year of "going digital." There are great things about it - I hardly ever take papers home to grade! Students cannot claim I've lost their papers, because once they are turned in online, they are right there until I archive their class group. I can give reviews and comments on work, they receive them right away, and can revise and resubmit their work. I can pull up their "progress" on Edmodo during parent conferences and easily discuss work samples submitted there.
Has your school or district made the shift to digital? What has your experience been? What has worked best for you? Please share!
