As a Year 13 student, I have seen how the use of technology in a classroom has changed over the last 7 years of my schooling at Geraldine High School. I remember in Year 8 getting to use the schools IPads for the first time which opened up many new opportunities for both the teacher and students in a classroom environment. However there was only one set of IPads for all the Year 7 and 8 classes this meant that it was difficult for the teacher to give us projects to be done solely on the IPads due to the scarce nature of when we would be using the IPads.

Over the last few years the both the High School and Primary School have begun to integrate more and more e-learning into the curriculum with this year being the first year of compulsory BYOD. 

BYOD enables the students to use their device through most of their classes and take part in extra learning opportunities presented to the teacher by every student having access to their own device. One of these opportunities in particular has been used in almost every class for the last few years - Google Classroom. Google Classroom enables teachers to upload any and all resources that students may need for their classes as well as create online assignments with a due date and time. This enables the teachers to see exactly when their students are doing work on their assignments and allows for immediate follow up on any late or unsubmitted work. 

Another online tool for learning which is used throughout the school is Education Perfect. Education Perfect was originally designed as a tool for students learning a language and was called Language Perfect. Language Perfect has been used in the school for more the 7 years now. Over these last 7 years, Language Perfect has expanded into the Education Perfect that students know and love today. Education Perfect has over 150 subjects that a teacher can set homework on for their student to complete. This setting of online homework like Google Classroom shows the teacher exactly who did not complete their homework and allows them to see what the students may be struggling with. 

Overall the introduction of BYOD has enabled a great deal of control over assessments from the teacher's side and makes it easier to teach all the class fairly due to everyone having a device. With a new system such as this there are always some students and teachers who are having trouble using their device in the manor they want to. In Term 1 a new initiative was started with the goal of students helping students. This initiative is known as ‘Tech Angels’.

‘Tech Angels’ is a group that was founded in the first term of this year to help reinforce the BYOD infrastructure at school by providing assistance to any students or staff who may be having problems with their device. The groups main objective is to enable an easier transition to e-learning for everyone in the school community. The group consists of friendly and talented students with an interest in computers and helping others. The ‘Tech Angels’ have a help desk in the student Library most days of the week with a different set of students rostered on and ready to help. So if you are having problems with your BYOD device then you are more then welcome to seek help from this group at any lunchtime you want.