{"id":818,"date":"2017-01-06T11:15:33","date_gmt":"2017-01-06T18:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/?p=818"},"modified":"2017-01-06T11:15:33","modified_gmt":"2017-01-06T18:15:33","slug":"from-macplus-to-byod-in-the-grade-67-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/2017\/01\/06\/from-macplus-to-byod-in-the-grade-67-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"From MacPlus to BYOD in the grade 6\/7 classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of my first experiences with computers was in grade 6 and 7 when my teacher would take us to the school computer lab outfitted with brand new Macintosh Plus computers. \u00a0I was under the impression that computers were primarily used as fancy typewriters because all we did was practice our typing with cotton placemats over our hands. \u00a0At the time, students who were &#8220;good&#8221; at computers were those who could type more than 35 words per minute. \u00a0Fast forward 20 years and I am now the teacher of a grade 6\/7 split classroom after starting my career teaching senior math and science. \u00a0It was great to see that the computer lab has morphed into laptop carts and that my district has fully adopted Bring Your Own\u00a0Device programs throughout its schools. \u00a0I was amazed that in a class of 27, all but one brought in a personal device to school each day. \u00a0These 11 and 12-year-olds were already familiar with Google Apps for Education (something I had just learned a few years prior) and they could acquire, interpret and present information to an astonishingly high level. \u00a0There were still the usual frustrations- student\u2019s forgetting passwords, wifi deciding to stop working&#8230;- but these students were using technology beyond my wildest dreams of 20 years ago. \u00a0I wondered, beyond not being taught cursive writing anymore, what other skills are this demographic of learners not being taught in place of developing their skills in technology? \u00a0What are the consequences of such an early adoption of devices in the classroom? \u00a0I will admit, I am a huge advocate of technology in the classroom and strongly believe we need to keep working towards greater accessibility to computers but I am also wary of any unintended consequences that will undoubtedly arise.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of my first experiences with computers was in grade 6 and 7 when my teacher would take us to the school computer lab outfitted with brand new Macintosh Plus computers. \u00a0I was under the impression that computers were primarily used as fancy typewriters because all we did was practice our typing with cotton placemats [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47611,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1669384],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-auto-e-graphy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47611"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":819,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818\/revisions\/819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/stem2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}