Shocker or Cracker? BYOD and find out

Seeking a way to make costs, revenue and profits interesting for my business students and get them digging deep into the reality of cost control, revenue generation I developed the "Shocker or Cracker?" activity.This requires students to conduct independent research within the classroom using their own electronic devices (laptop, tablet or samrtphone) and helps to generate a healthy sense of competition.There has been increasing debate about the merits of adopting a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy within schools and colleges so I thought I'd give it a go...

This lesson was with business students getting to grips with the economic model of profit maximisation. I had already adapted some of @tutor2u_graham's (AKA @SutchLord) teaching activities (shared at the Business Teacher National Conference in 2011) to help the students consider various aspects of costs and revenue and how this would affect different businesses in different sectors.

However, I still felt I was missing a "killer" hook to grab the students' attention and really get them thinking about how important cost and revenue analysis is for real businesses. I'm fortunate enough to work in a college where BYOD is encouraged and decided to make use of them.

Here's a summary of what the students had to do:

• Take out and power up their smartphone/tablet/laptop
• Go online and find a real example of a business which has been in the news becuase of costs, revenue and/or profits
• Identify what they think the company did right/wrong - this may require further research
• Classify the company as a "Shocker" or a "Cracker" depending upon whether it's in trouble or doing well
• Call out "Shocker" or "Cracker" once ready to share the details with the rest of the class
• Explain the situation and justify the decision to classify as "Shocker" or "Cracker", citing evidence and using analytical skills

Additional steps could be added after this by asking the rest of the class to vote on whether or not the student was convincing enough, getting them to ask further questions or even challenge the decision and reclassify the company, with justification.

This activity certainly got my students thinking, active and debating the issues, which is what I had hoped for.

We're continually asking students to evidence higher order skills such as analysis and evaluation and by allowing the students to conduct independent research in this way - in doing so helping students to become more selective and critical of the sources they use in researching their answers - we might just help them to bridge the gap between theory and practice for businesses.