Wednesday, January 7, 2015

BYOD

In today’s classroom, technology is used to engage learners, inspire students to think independently and critically. Students of today, have grown-up alongside technology and social media. It has become a natural part of their everyday life. Technology is ever evolving and changing and will not ever go away. To properly prepare students for the real life skills they will need to have when entering the world outside of the classroom walls, technology has to be a part of their educational journey. The 21st century student is defined using the word “technology”.

Due to budget constraints, many schools are looking into other possible solutions to meet the needs of the 21st century student. One of these solutions is BYOD or bring your own device. This would allow students to bring their personal devices, such as, laptops, tablets, and smartphones to school.   At first glance, BYOD seems like the perfect solution to a problem that many schools are facing, but the challenges may outweigh the benefits.

Benefits of BYOD:
  • Budget: Cost effective for schools to have a BYOD policy in place. Parents fund the devices that students bring to school, schools can save money by not having to fund an entire school worth of technological devices.
  • Preparing for the future: to prepare students for their future education and jobs, BYOD replicates an environment that is technologically rich. (Intel Education)
  • Comfort: Students can work on a device that they are comfortable on and familiar with.
  • Increased Staff Productivity: Less time wasted on teaching students how to use different devices in the classroom. Students are already familiar with their devices so they can focus more on getting work done on a device they know how to operate. (Bring your own device to the classroom: challenges and opportunities, 2013).
  • Engagement: Technology creates a more active, engaging environment for the students to learn in. (Bring your own device to the classroom: challenges and opportunities, 2013).
  • Modern: School’s technology tends to be out of date, when students bring their own devices they tend to be more up to date with the latest software. Students can use the latest programs to create projects.
  • Why BYOD? Watch this short 4 minute video on some other reasons why BYOD is beneficial in schools in the 21st century. http://youtu.be/A7zHdGfN530 (Pontes, 2013).


Challenges of BYOD:
  • Compatibility: Not all devices are compatible with required programs.
  • Devices: Certain software features and file types are not supported on all devices (BYOD, 2014).
  • Security: Security concerns about how student’s devices will be protected, viruses and malware, how will teachers monitor internet usage in the classroom? (BYOD, 2014).
  • Logistics: Concerns of where BYOD will be stored. Will students bring them back and forth? Leave them at school?
  • Network Connectivity: Worry about connectivity issues. Connecting to the schools wireless network. Will the network be large enough to handle a large number of devices?
  • Professional Development: Teachers and administrators would need on-going professional development to gain knowledge on all devices. (BYOD, 2014).
  • Communication: With students bringing their own devices from home, the lines of communication need to be open at all times between administrators, teachers and parents.
  • Tech support: There would be minimal tech support for BYOD. The school district would not be responsible for supporting issues with all the students’ devices since they are their personal devices.
  • Equality: Not all students are able to afford their own device.


BYOD can be incorporated with any age group of students as long as teachers are trained on the proper techniques and strategies on how to properly implement BYOD in the classroom. The sooner students are exposed to BYOD in the classroom the more prepared they will be for the future. In order for this to happen, the entire community needs to be on board; Parents, staff, administrators and students. Parents need to be willing to attend informational meetings explaining the schools/districts BYOD policy. The lines of communication would need to remain open at all times to keep parents on board with what is going on in the classroom. Students would need to be aware of their boundaries using their device in the classroom. Strict consequences need to be put in place and enforced by staff and administrators if students violate and abuse technology. At first it could be a huge undertaken to create a BYOD school, but in the long run it would save the school a lot of money and better prepare students for the future.

References:
K-12 Blueprint. BYOD. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.k12blueprint.com/byod.

Bring your own device to the classroom: challenges and opportunities. (2013). Retrieved from http://technical.ly/2013/12/23/bring-device-classroom-challenges-opportunities/


Pontes, T. [PeelSchools]. (2013, January 23). Why BYOD? [Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/A7zHdGfN530.

2 comments:

  1. I agree that any students can use technology and should be from an early age so that they can learn digital citizenship as young students and grow with technology. But, I disagree that students at any age can be responsible for bringing their own technology to school. I think being responsible for technology at a young age would be difficult. For 6 or 7 year old's to travel on a bus to school each day with an iPad would be a big responsibility. I also don't think many parents would support this idea.

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  2. Nice job! I like how you brought up one of the "positives" to be saving money in the district/school-wide budget. Before reading your post, I didn't think too much about that aspect. If money is being saved for technology, there is a chance some positions might be saved, or other cuts might be reconsidered. One of your challenges, professional development, also made me think deeper about what BYOD might actually look like at a school. I know many teachers who would be overwhelmed if they were expected to be fluent in many different devices that their students might bring in. It might be a good idea to have different teachers become "experts" on different devices in order to alleviate some of that stress.

    Good work!

    Jess

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