How to Teach Students to Care for Their Devices: Strategies for encouraging respect and responsibility for your school’s technology

As more public schools than ever now provide devices like laptops or tablets for their students to use during the school year, which increases digital equity and prepares students for higher education and the workforce. As a result, educators increasingly find themselves responsible for teaching their students how to care for their devices. Here are some ways teachers and administrators can encourage students to properly care for their school-owned devices.   

Clear Communication 

When it comes to your school’s policies for repairing and replacing damaged devices, communication is key. Start the year off by letting both students and their caregivers know about the expectations and policies around their devices. Be clear about the financial responsibility for repairing or replacing common items– for instance, how much families can expect to pay if a device suffers damage from spilled liquid or to replace a lost charger? Offer frequent reminders about device care and expectations to students and parents as you approach interruptions like school breaks– revisit rules like whether students are allowed to bring their devices home over break. 

Device Care as Curriculum 

Including transition time for students to put away their devices is a key part of showing them how to care for their technology. Build in time in your classroom’s schedule for students to place their devices in a charging cart or case. Depending on the age of your students, the amount of time needed will vary– young elementary students will probably need more time than tech-seasoned high schoolers.  

Consider Assigning Long-Term Devices 

One solution that may increase students’ ownership in caring for their devices is to assign them the same device for several years– for instance, from 6-8th grade or 9-12th grade. Knowing they’ll need to rely on the device for multiple years may prompt them to take better care of it than if they were only borrowing them for a single school year.  

Understand Device Protection 

Even with the best of care, it’s inevitable that devices will need to be repaired or replaced. Educators should familiarize themselves with their school’s program for repairing and replacing devices. For instance, if a Chromebook needs to be repaired, how long is that repair expected to take? Does the school have loaner devices for students (or teachers) whose devices are being repaired? Being familiar with the procedure and timeframe for repairs and replacements can help teachers know what to expect when a device is damaged or lost.  

Model Standards for Device Care 

By keeping a tidy workspace, storing your device in its proper case when you’re not using it and keeping drinks and snacks away from your devices, you’re modeling high standards of care for your students.  

Despite the best efforts of teachers, students and their caregivers, it’s inevitable that some of your school’s devices will sustain damage, be lost or simply reach the end of their lifecycle during the school year. JonesCare offers several options for schools to protect their devices, and provides a transparent repair process to ensure minimal interruption to learning. Reach out to learn more about your choices for protecting your school’s technology investment.  

EdTech and the Metaverse: What Could it Look Like?

EdTech and the Metaverse: What Could it Look Like?

Technological innovation is constantly evolving. The newest frontier in the digital landscape is the metaverse: a collection of universes in which the digital and the physical overlap. With technology and education being well immersed, it’s safe to assume that the metaverse will have an impact on schooling; the question is, how?

What is the metaverse?

Simply put, the metaverse is a digital space in which users can interact in a variety of ways. These can include communicating, gaming, and experiencing virtual reality. 

How will the metaverse change instruction?

1. DIFFERENT LEARNING SPACES

   With the immersion of the metaverse, the classroom itself is no longer limited in location. The redesigned structure, allowed by technological feats, will have students traveling outside the walls of their schools and into new worlds. Students will be able to use Virtual Reality headsets to explore other countries, historical eras, or even outer space. Augmented Reality glasses could revolutionize the field trip experience. Mixed Reality technology will work to make learning come alive.
   

2. CHANGES IN GAMING

   Educators understand that gamifying lessons adds fun and increases engagement. The combination of gaming and the metaverse only works to make the activities more life-like. Students can be challenged to rack up points by answering questions and completing assignments, and can “cash in” their points with some metaverse prize or opportunity. The creative incentives are limitless.  
   

3. ACCESS TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

   One of the most thrilling possibilities of metaverse for educational use is the opportunity to interact with artificial intelligence. This futuristic feature will undoubtedly excite students. Learners will be able to receive answers to commonly asked questions via digital avatar. Over time, the avatars could become more developed in their expertise, and possibly able to act as tour guides in the digital world.
   
   The educational metverse is full of potential to engage and excite students. With limitless creative potential, the metaverse could transform our understanding of traditional classroom learning. 

Top Pinterest Finds to Help Your Students Avoid the Summer Slide

Once the last bell of the year rings, many students simply look forward to kicking back, having fun, and completely forgetting about school. But experts say it’s a bad idea to stop all learning because students could potentially lose some of what they’ve learned during school. The term “Summer Slide” has been coined to describe how students lose significant amounts of knowledge in math and reading over the summer. In fact, one study suggests third to fifth graders lose 20% of reading gains and 27% of math gains on average during summer break. Parents don’t have to sit back and allow this to happen. We’ve compiled some ideas from Pinterest on how to help kids read, write, discover and practice academics throughout the summer break.

Download a Review Packet

Set your students up to complete a review sheet every day. Pinterest shows a variety of review packet options, in all grades, that provide parents with fun ideas to reinforce fundamentals. Many of the packets contain pages upon pages of printable lessons, allowing parents to spread a little bit of learning throughout the summer break.

Stock Up on Learning Games

Is it still learning if it’s also fun? Yes! Games that integrate reading and math are a great way to keep students learning all summer. A quick Pinterest search brings up tons of options that parents can buy or make themselves. Create your own homemade games like word hunt scavenger-type games, matching games, and addition games. Or purchase an existing game, like Bingo, Zoom, or Spelligator.

Cook with Your Kids

Getting kids in the kitchen is an easy and satisfying way to teach and reinforce skills. Following a recipe teaches kids: reading, fractions and comprehension. Plus parents get to interact with kids one-on-one, providing a fun way to take a digital break. There are many Pinterest finds for kid-friendly recipes to try out this summer. As a bonus, your kids might just eat an extra vegetable or two.

Take a Virtual Field Trip

The world may be opening up, but organizations still recognize the value of virtual tours. Many museums still offer virtual tours so your kids can take a tour and discover new things, while you’re finishing up work or dinner. Google Arts & Culture lists world-renown museums from A to Z.

Let Kids Read Whatever They Want

Reading doesn’t have to be limited to the same books and texts kids read in school. It’s summer. Let kids read their favorite comic, magazine or schedule weekly visits to the library. Pinterest is full of ideas on how to get kids reading more this summer. For example, make reading a challenge, complete with a reward for winning.  No matter which method you choose, shoot for at least 20 minutes a day.

Preventing the summer slide isn’t just a repeat of remote learning. It only takes minutes a day to make sure your students won’t fall behind come fall.

How to Keep Kids Excited About Reading During a Pandemic

It’s been nearly a year since COVID turned our world upside down, changing the structure of school and our social lives. Since then, parents and teachers everywhere have been worn thin by the new expectations and ever evolving forums. What’s remained unchanged is our mutual commitment to both students’ safety and success.

In the educational landscape, reading is fundamental. It connects all disciplines, growing a child’s fluency and comprehension. That’s why it’s more important than ever to nurture children’s love of learning, even during unpredictable times.

Take a look at these four tips for keeping reading an educational priority.

Check in with your local library.

Depending on your location and city’s current status, your library may be open. Seasonally, most libraries offer reading challenges- complete with fun rewards and book recommendations. Sometimes, a little extra incentive is what kids need to keep them encouraged. Many libraries across the country are offering curbside pickup for easy exposure-less experiences. Check out your library’s website to see how they’re handling the current challenges.

Take turns reading aloud.

Reading fluency is an important skill that requires practice. With your child, take turns reading aloud. This can take many forms: a page in a book, a list from a recipe, or even directions from a new board game. Parents can begin a bedtime tradition of reading to their children from an engaging chapter book. For teachers, using read aloud excerpts is an effective way to expose students to nonfiction and more complex passages. 

Let students make recommendations.

Like everyone, kids love to share their perspectives. Allow them to assume the role of Book Reviewer for their peers. If you’re still teaching in your classroom, designate a visible place where students can display their book reviews, or carve out a spot on Google Classroom specifically for this purpose. Students will feel like their opinions are heard, and their reviews can help other kids choose a book that is well rated and loved by friends.

Change the format. 

Sometimes, a change in medium can pique kids’ interest enough to keep reading. There are countless tech toys that are both fun and educational: The Touch and Teach Word Book and LeapStart 3D Learning System are two great choices or younger children. Kindles ebooks work well to provide efficiency, choices, and fun for older children. For kids of all ages, audiobooks provide a different way to enjoy texts.

Pandemic life has altered the way we live, and education is no exception. Educators and parents know that reading is absolutely fundamental to young people’s development. Luckily, with the help of creative ideas and technology, we can keep kids excited about reading through these uncertain times.

Digital Resources for Learning At Home

The novel coronavirus is forcing people all over the world to change the norms of their every day lives. One of those norms is traditional in-school learning. Extended spring breaks that turned into indefinite closure periods have transformed most of the country’s schools into online forums. 

Parents and teachers are going to be tasked with the continuation of education in the home. Even for tech-savvy educators who are well versed in digitized tools are going to face challenges in the coming weeks. During this unpredictable time, many organizations and websites are offering free educational resources. These online opportunities allow learners the ability to continue to explore the world (and expand their minds) from the comfort of home. 

• Scholastic’s Learn at Home is providing 20 days worth of active educational material. It includes cross-curricular journeys to keep students engaged.  

• Students can embark on free, virtual field trips though Freedom Homeschooling. From Buckingham Palace to the San Diego Zoo to Mars, there is a relevant and interesting location for almost any unit. 

• Explore the Louvre, Sistine Chapel, and Guggenheim museum while remaining cozy on the couch. The Washington Post thoughtfully curated a list of historic sites that are offering virtual tours.  

• Tours of other iconic museums are available through with Travel + Leisure’s online offering. Peruse Van Gogh’s work up close at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam or “stroll” through the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. 

• For as long as schools are closed, Audible is providing free story listening. The collection of audiobooks is available to stream on desktops, laptops, phones, or tablets. 

• Over 3,000 e-book titles are available to borrow through the New York Public Library. From Winnie the Pooh to Atlas Shrugged, there’s something for every age.  

School closures are difficult for all. These resources will help combat loneliness by providing a lens into the wonders of the world.

Introducing … The Lenovo Virtual Reality Classroom

Imagine being able to take your students on a field trip to the African jungle, the solar system and even back in time to the creation of planet Earth. It’s possible with the Lenovo Virtual Reality Classroom. 

The Lenovo VR Classroom is now shipping out to schools across the country. The kit includes everything administrators need to introduce this type of immersion learning to students. The entire VR system is easy-to-use, easy-to-clean, highly-durable and offered in 3-, 10- and 24-student kits, but adaptable for up to 30 students.

The Specs

At the heart of the Lenovo VR Bundle is the Daydream VR headset. No cables, no PCs and no smartphones are needed to use it. Everything your teachers need is right in the headset. The Daydream VR also offers WorldSense™ motion tracking with a 110-degree field of view. And, bonus, the face and head cushions can be sanitized.

The Lenovo VR kit also includes:

• The Tab 4 10 Plus which connects to the student’s headsets, without disrupting the experience, and guides instruction to monitor student focus.

• The Bretford Mobile Cart offers secure storage for the headsets and includes integrated device charging. It’s made of sturdy steel, constructed in the United States and is certified for safety. Note - it is only included with the 10- and 24-student kits.

• The Ruckus R510 Access Point gives stunning, enterprise-grade Wi-Fi performance. It makes sure there’s a strong connection between teacher and student devices and is included with all kits.

Optional accessories are also available, like the Mirage camera with Daydream. This accessory allows teachers and students to create their own content that can be seamlessly uploaded to YouTube and Google Photos.

The Software

Virtual field trips go anywhere at any time, without the need of permission slips and bus rides, with experiences from Google Expeditions and The Wild Immersion with Jane Goodall.

The free Google Expeditions app has more than 700 virtual field trips. These can be integrated into included Scholastic STEM lesson plans that meet next gen Common Core standards. The environments support nearly every other subject as well.

The Exclusive Wild Immersion videos give students breathtaking views of Africa, Asia, the Amazon and more. Additional content is available from the Daydream OS store.

The Support

Rest assured, Lenovo has your back. Value-added services are included with every kit. Including:

• A one-year school-year warranty that can be upgraded to two years.

• Advanced Exchange for quick, no-hassle equipment swaps.

• Premier Support with one direct number to call.

• Device connection, testing, and access point provisioning all built in.

• Full setup so you can open the box and go right away.

Virtual reality not only helps students keep up, but stay ahead in a world that’s learning faster every day. Lenovo is leading the way with solutions to fit your school’s needs. Contact us to see how we can help put this new technology into your teachers’ hands.

Seek Mentors Out On Twitter

Twitter is more than tidbits of daily news and tweets about trending television. It is a great source to find like-minded people in your field and even a mentor.

Twitter influencers, experts, thought leaders and kindred spirits can help improve your teaching by supplying information and ideas that you can put into practical applications. Once you find someone to follow, you can build on that virtual relationship and use them as a mentor, either virtually or face-to-face.

Figure out who you’d like to follow.

The first step is to actually figure out who’d you like to follow. Sounds easy. But, the Internet is a BIG place and Twitter is no exception.

Use Twitter’s search to seek out influencers and people you want to follow. Type your keywords in the top search. You can also use Twitter’s filters and Advanced Search to search locally, which gives you a better opportunity for an in-person meeting.

You can try these five hashtags to get you started.

1. #GoogleET, #GoogleCE, #GoogleEI

2. #MIEExpert

3. #SkypeMT or #MinecraftMentor

4. #GoogleTeacherTribe

5. #STEAM

A search for these hashtags brings up the top results, but also people tied to them. This is a really easy way to start following an influencer and possible mentor. 

If you’re still having an issue finding who to follow, search through your other social media platforms. How many people do you know that use just ONE form of social media? You can increase your chances of connecting with a mentor if you can overlap social networks. 

Prepare to take the next step.

Once you find someone to follow that is mentor-material, do some research and learn as much as you can about them. Start a virtual conversation or check out any podcasts or blogs they have to find common areas of interest. Do they seem comfortable sharing their knowledge? If so, continue on.

The approach.

Build a rapport with your potential mentor. Promote their tweets, ask for their advice, comment on their blogs and so on. Treat the virtual world as you would the real one and get to know them slowly. The key is to build a dialog and show you have something of value to contribute. 

When you’re ready, email the influencer and simply ask if they would be willing to act as a mentor to you. Email works great because it is - literally - the electronic equivalent of a letter. It is more formal than a DM but not so formal as a mailed piece of paper.

Once you create and facilitate that online relationship, you can decide both decide if, when and how you want to meet in person. Even if you never get to that stage, there’s so much powerful information out there that just following posted advice provides a great opportunity for personal and professional growth. Reach out to Arey Jones for more advice on your professional development.

Tech Cleaning Tips From Your Grandmother

My grandmother fit every grandmother mold possible. Impeccable hair. Crisp aprons. Mouthwatering homemade bread on the counter. She ran a tight ship with even tighter hair. For Grandma, spring cleaning was as much a celebration as it was a chore (but then she always smiled most when she was working).

I have more than a little of her blood coursing though my veins, and now that the weather is shaking off winter’s chill, I have the urge to clean as she used to do. And I can apply her methods to my phones, laptop, and tablet just effectively as I do everything else in my home.

Get sorted. While my grandmother had an eye and a hand for organization, my grandfather had a different method. Every weekend, she would group the mail, his receipts, and his tools and put everything back where they should have gone in the first place. Take the time to organize your documents and files in a system that makes the most sense to you, and delete files that are no longer relevant. For every minute spent here, you’ll save twice. 

Put the right things into the right storage. It’s okay to hold onto things (I myself am pretty sentimental). The trick is figuring out where to put them so that they can be reached where you need them and out of the way when you don’t. Consider organizing your files in bulk by year, and clearly label each file and folder with its exact contents. This saves you stress and energy, whether you are looking for Aunt Lucy’s china or last year’s lesson on volcanoes. And no, “Science stuff” doesn’t count.

Clear your desktop. If Grandma could see my laptop screen, she would sigh, “Clutter, clutter, clutter, dear. How can you see what you mean?” It was an odd expression, but I understood it. If you save everything to the desktop, you’ll never find what you really need. This works just as well for your desk as well as your desktop. Save it only for items you need to find quickly or things you use every single day. Rely on your filing system for the others. Delete the rest.

Clean your Windows. Grandma loved a clean window (even if the birds didn’t). If you are running the digital version on your laptop, Windows 10 has a handy Disk Cleanup tool to clean up temporary and unnecessary system files that could be obstructing your computer performance. Use this handy guide for additional information.

Empty the trash. Now that you’ve gotten everything where you want it, it’s time to remove what you don’t need once and for all. My grandma always emptied the trash as the last part of her cleaning routine, grabbing a bag and hitting every bathroom and bin on her way out the door.

Grandma made the most of everything (I can still taste her creative leftovers), and I hope these above tips help you make the most of your time and managing your technology this spring. If you found any of these valuable, we’d love your feedback--follow us on Facebook for more!

How To Put Play Tech to Work

As an educational technology company, we love to talk about how technology helps kids learn more efficiently, engage in heightened collaboration, and access real-time data and resources that would otherwise be unavailable in traditional classrooms. Technology can and often does make us better at almost everything.

And it can make us really good at being distracted. 

One could argue that the minds of students have always been easily lured away from classroom activity. The only difference now is that instead of staring out of windows, they are staring into Microsoft’s equivalent; instead of daydreaming, they are building virtual realities in Minecraft.

As adults can attest, switching from “play mode” to “work mode” isn’t easy, especially when using the same device for both. Children have a particularly hard time making this transition; not only are they more easily influenced by technology, but they also don’t get as many chances to learn and practice their focusing skills--and the distractions are only a click away.

And I don’t think we’re alone when we say us adults could use a refresher course, too. Here are a few tips to help you and the students in your life focus on what’s important and still make time for play, be it in their Minecraft world or on social media.

Give yourself a clear lead.
You may never be able to remove every distraction from your classroom, office, or home, but you can learn to clear and calm your mind. If it helps (and it likely will), remove visible and audible distractions from your desktop, log out of your email and social media, silence notifications, and put your phone in a drawer. If all else fails, fight tech with tech. These distraction-diverter apps can help.

Classroom focus: Guide the kids through a quick mindfulness exercise that includes some deep belly breathing before starting a new task.

Intentionally place your focus on the task at hand.

It’s been proven that multitasking physically shrinks your brain, so stop doing it. Work on your task or watch television or text your best friend, don’t try to do all at the same time. Your attention will suffer on all, and you’ll only accomplish a fraction of what you want and need to get done.

Classroom focus: Clearly state the one task you want your students to accomplish and what you expect to be completed at the end of the alloted time. Have them write it down or repeat it (out loud or to themselves) to make sure it sticks.

Take short breaks.

“Downtime is to the brain what sleep is to the body,” said Dr. Rich of Harvard Medical School in a New York Times article. “But kids are in a constant mode of stimulation.” 

There’s a reason why productivity systems like Pomodoro are popular--because they work in realistic ways. The Pomodoro Technique, which is a time management method that interlaces timed bursts of productivity with short breaks, helps keep people focused because it keeps work and play in perspective, all while allowing access to both. Make sure some tasks or breaks are of the unplugged variety to give the brain time to process and adapt to something new.

Classroom focus: Incorporate tech-free breaks throughout your day and encourage students to take breaks from a task on a regular basis to do something physical or an activity that allows their brain to rest.

What else are you doing in your classrooms to maximize their focus and learning potential? If you ever need ideas, we've got a few.

Experiential Learning: To Learn By Doing

How and what we learn is determined in large part by how and what we experience—at least if Psychologist David Kolb has anything to say about it. His experiential learning theory combines traditional cognitive and behavior theories to create a more holistic approach.

Kolb believes that experiential learning incorporates emotions, environment, cognitive function, and experience as part of the transformative process of knowledge acquisition. We don’t learn in a vacuum; our feelings, the classroom, the concepts, and our past experiences influence how we absorb, retain, and recall information.

In other words, we don’t just have to learn the meaning of something to retain it fully; it has to be meaningful to us.

One-to-one technology can be a vital tool for the experiential learners as it’s often been shown that we as humans learn better by actively participating in our own learning and exploring. To fully harness the power of this type of learning with technology, a thoughtful approach is in order.

How to use technology for experiential learning.

• Use technology to relate curriculum to real life and personal experience, rather than rote recitation of facts and trends.

• Encourage online collaboration and positive relationship-building

• Record lectures and teaching plans so they can be accessed by students in a more familiar or comfortable environment.

• Empower students to use given technological tools to uncover their own research, resources, and opportunities.

• Adapt social networks as part of the interactive learning experience.

• Use technology that employs sensory input, like being able to take pictures, record sounds, and take notes.

• Virtual and game-based environments can increase the ‘fun-factor’ for many lesson plans, increasing the rate of retention.

While you can’t always make every lesson mean something for your students, you can give them tools to be active learners in their own lives. By stimulating them emotionally, developing a positive classroom environment, and providing them with self-guided resources, you can help them use technology to transform their experience in real and impactful ways.

To give your students the tools to be active learners, click below.

Learning On The Move: How To Get Kids Out Of Their Desks

It’s been well-established that everyone benefits immensely from regular physical activity. Kids benefit from the way exercise promotes growth and development, and both adults and kids alike see drastic benefits in their physical, mental, and cognitive health when they make exercise and movement a priority in their day.

This study from the National Academy of Sciences reports that active children “show greater attention, have faster cognitive processing speed and perform better on standardized academic tests” than children who are more sedentary. Regular exercise has also been shown to improve mental health by preventing and reducing conditions like depression and anxiety, which can also interfere with a student’s ability to learn. 

Of course, students don’t come to school to move and exercise (at least not primarily); they come to learn. While incorporating technology in the classroom can help with learning, so can a physically active classroom. Here are a few methods that can engage both the mind and their bodies, to the benefit of both. 

Stop sitting still.

Children (and adults!) start to fade if they are told to remain quiet and motionless for an extended period of time. While self-control is an important skill, so is the ability to check in with your class to see where you can invite a stretch or some activity into the curriculum. Sometimes simply standing up and leading a stretching exercise is all you need to refocus your classroom and awaken their minds.

Be flexible.

Introduce a little yoga into your classroom by drawing a random yoga pose from a deck of yoga cards or assigning a new pose every day of the week. When the class gets a little listless, you can all learn the poses together. Amp up the learning by talking about the physical processes that benefit from each pose.

Introduce adventure.

One teacher we know wrote questions related to her lesson on index cards and taped them underneath her kids’ chairs before school started, so they’d have to get up and move around to complete that day’s assignment. Exercises like these are especially useful across the variety of subjects in the common core.

Stand for something.

More and more adults are using standing desks at work, and it “stands” to reason that kids could benefit from a shift in blood flow from time to time. Dedicate a time during the day for “standing room only” and have kids complete an assignment or project to see how well they think on their feet.

Make a classroom playlist.

Another teacher assigned each student in her class with the task of bringing in his or her favorite song to share with the room. She then used this song to allow the kids the chance to express themselves through movement during a set part of her day.

These are just a few ideas, and we’re sure you have a few more. Share them in the comments below or on our Facebook page!

Technology Closes Gaps In Different Learning Styles

As every educator knows, students process and digest information in a variety of ways. Visual learners remember best what they read or see. Auditory learners understand best by listening and speaking. Kinetic learners feel most comfortable jumping in and physically learning as they go. So many different learning styles can cause quite a challenge for teachers trying to make sure every student is on the same page.

Enter educational technology.

Integrating technology into the classroom is a beneficial practice for students and teachers alike. Teachers can incorporate students’ learning styles into the lesson and execute them over a variety of devices to ensure students learn in the way they are most comfortable.

For instance, the same lesson can be visually demonstrated while also accompanied by narration and tactile touchscreen assignments help round out the educational appeal. Educational devices allow students to actively participate in the learning, even before they are aware of their own specific learning preference.

These positive practices can extend beyond the classroom and into the home for nightly homework sessions at the kitchen table. Students can peruse the entire day’s lesson plans with access to its presentations, recorded lectures and interactive worksheets, allowing them to proceed at their own pace and in their own way.

Whatever the student’s learning style, tablets and computers have a place on their desk. Educational technology aims to ensure no child is left behind both in the details of the day’s assignment and the scope of the bigger picture.

We believe technology should always enhance a classroom, not distract from it. When you need an integrated technology architecture that works seamlessly with your classroom, school, and district goals, we at Arey Jones can help you design a solution that works.