Students and their chromebooks ...

I can't believe the difference a year makes in a 1:1 digital class. This time last year I felt like I was a broken record, reminding students that their chrome books were their learning tools and needed to be brought to school everyday and must be charged - I mean you wouldn't bring a pen with no ink to school would you.

I feel like I'm working with a different group of students. I guess some of these students have been using devices for over 3 years now and while they are the new students in the high school, they're leading by example to their peers.

Today as I came into class I watched the continuation of a  wonderful lesson where the students were making a digital card to a senior student that had helped them at camp. They were all at work on their devices, no power cords were to be seen and there was lots of conversation happening about having to fit all their comments on the one page, not deleting other's posts, colour choices and complimenting others on their work. While quite noisy, everyone was on task, the teacher was confidently checking students were in the 'right place at the right time' on Hapara and positively reinforcing their efforts.

When some students began having a loud conversation about the task 'not working', the teacher stopped the class and used a CyberSmart lesson to remind them about being respectful of others when all working on the same page and the class had a discussions on ways they could work together better to get this card completed with every class members comments visible. It was interesting to hear them allocate the task of moving and maybe making the font size smaller, to a class member that they felt would respect their efforts.

These students have certainly have come a long way.