Making BYOD Work in Schools.
The BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) movement is growing in schools nationwide. With increasingly tight budgets, many schools are unable to provide standardized devices for their student body, but still want to use technology in their curriculum. Thankfully, technology use in homes continues to grow and children are more wired than ever. Students have access to more devices in all shapes and sizes and in many cases their knowledge is far more advanced than the teachers teaching them. The problem this presents in education is: how do teachers effectively harness these disparate devices and actually use them to teach a daily lesson, much less a cohesive curriculum?
A common challenge for teachers involves wanting to share links and videos from their iPad with students, but not knowing how to get student’s Android devices or laptops to access this material; Something as simple as sharing a TED Talk video, followed by a quiz, quickly becomes a wild-goose chase for compatible applications, consistent versions of the video, and misplaced papers. Isn’t technology meant to simplify and enhance our lives? Yet product diversity, compounded by inexperience with technology, too often prevents teachers from employing technology to it’s full potential in the classroom. Technology should assist the learning experience—not impede it.
We recognized this pain point in education and decided to fix it. The KnowItAll application is the first cross-platform learning management system designed specifically for tablet-based learning and the one-to-one and one-to-many classroom. KnowItAll is an interface that allows teachers to compile information from mainstream publisher’s digital repositories and the creative commons in order to customize lesson creation and improve student learning. With KnowItAll, teachers can create digital lessons, send assignments, and review student work. Students can work together, have group discussions, receive individualized instruction, and get ahead. Teachers and students interact with each other using digital resources in real time, creating the most efficient, individualized, and interactive learning environment possible.
KnowItAll overcomes BYOD challenges with its cross-platform compatibility; The interface is customized for each device, but the core app features are the same, regardless. Imagine how much time we could dedicate to creating content, when unoccupied by the burden of logistics.
KnowItAll is currently available for free in the Apple App Store. The web version will be released in late April 2013. Be sure to follow us here, Facebook, and Twitter for product updates.