Types of BYOD Available
For the kindergarten population, the types of devices that are available include school provided iPad’s, tablets, Chromebooks, iPhones, and LeapFrog or VTech Learning Tablets. I have found these devices to have sufficient functionality for this demographic of students. Since the attention span for these students is low, it is necessary to constantly monitor what they are doing on the devices. It is recommended that each device be inspected before allowing student access to insure only teacher assigned apps and content are available.
Making More Devices Accessible
Increasing accessibility to devices could be achieved through a school-wide sharing program. There are currently not enough iPads for each student in my school building. However, placing iPads on a cart and making them accessible during the times that they are not in use by the assigned students is a viable strategy for increasing accessibility for all students. Informing parents and caregivers of developmentally appropriate apps for their children could lead to students being granted more access to devices at home. Lobbying school administrators for more devices by informing them of the positive academic outcomes they can provide is another way to increase student access to devices. Asking for donations of older devices that people may not be using anymore could increase the number of available devices. Many devices, such as Leapfrog tablets and Chromebooks are outgrown by students as they move up through the grades. These devices can languish inside student homes before eventually being discarded. Asking for these devices then is not intrusive. Holding fundraisers with clearly defined goals could also help in procuring more devices.
The Use of Smartphones in Support of this Assignment
Smartphones would be an excellent digital tool for supporting this assignment. Students could be tasked with using smartphones to take pictures of authentic items of clothing that they see outside of the classroom and then embedding those pictures into their digital stories. For this lesson, students are to use internet searches to find pictures. Having them use authentic pictures would increase the novelty and student engagement. If students took pictures of their own clothes, it would increase ownership of their lesson. Students could also use the phones to share their pictures with each other, thus increasing the collaborative portion of the lesson. Finally, students could share their completed digital stories with each other using their phones.
The Usefulness of Digital Storytelling as an Assessment Strategy
Digital storytelling permits students to expand their understanding of concepts through personal engagement. When students are required to express their thoughts and explore their perspectives, they are better able to critically reflect on their learning and experiences. This leads to deeper comprehension and long-term retention of knowledge. This strategy transfer to a variety of contexts. Digital storytelling enables students with disparate skills to collaborate, communicate and create and express their understandings in diverse ways. As a teacher, this creates multiple and unique assessment opportunities.
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